Antagonist Protection Service

At the Librarian's words, I momentarily paused, my eyebrows rising in surprise.

"I forgot about that too..."

Absent-mindedly, I opened the Status menu.

Enki Valentine | Operations Manager

General Physical Ability - Mediocre

General Magical Ability - Nonexistent

Spiritual Synergism - Nonexistent

Protagonists Dispatched : 6

Skills : [Sneak (Level 2)]

Traits : [Professionalism], [Charismatic],

Blessings : [Authority of the Library of Illusory Worlds (Tier Three)], [Grace of the Mother of the Winter Moon]

"Operations Manager..."

From a Coordinator to a Manager, I wasn't sure how big the jump was, but it was certainly progress.

Last time, wasn't it just before I took on Drakon-Rasa? That was when I cleared three Contracts total, so with this being my sixth, did that mean I received a promotion for every three I cleared?

Likely reading my mind, the Librarian shook her head with a bright smile.

"Nope! But I can tell you! The next promotion is available at 10 Protagonists Dispatched!"

"So four more, then."

'Not too bad, all things considered.'

Well, that wasn't something I had to think about for a while, anyway.

I did notice that the fourth option on the Assistance Menu was still locked behind a '???', meaning I'd have to wait until a future promotion to find out what it was, but if that wasn't it, then what was the benefit this time...?

'Oh, wait, the Spirit, that's right...!'

I forgot about it due to the extensive last couple of Contracts, but the Librarian did say that, didn't she?

Once I reached Tier Three Authority, I would finally be able to meet the Library's Spirit.

"I can do it whenever I want, right Librarian?"

"Certainly! The Spirit is still in hibernation currently, but we now possess enough World Stability to awaken them! Feel free to pay a visit whenever you like, Enki! I'm sure the Spirit is excited to finally meet you too, but there's no rush!"

"Thanks, that's good to know. I'll do it... no, actually, I'll just do it now. There are a couple things I need to check on Earth, but it can wait a little bit."

This was something I had been waiting many months for at this point, after all.

Now that I had the opportunity, at long last, I didn't think there was anything to gain from postponing or delaying it unnecessarily.

"It's this door, right?"

Glancing over to the mysterious white door which I had been curious about since the very beginning, I asked. The Librarian, standing atop her stool like usual, smiled enthusiastically.

"Yep! Just walk through and you'll be in the Chamber of the Illusory Spirit!"

Nodding once in acknowledgement, I walked over to the door, grabbing the handle with a hint of nervousness beginning to bubble up within me.

'Don't be tense... It's just your boss... Hah...'

Opening the door slowly, what revealed itself on the other side was, surprisingly, not a pure white space but rather a circular, material room.

The dull, grey stone brick that made up the walls, floor and ceiling appeared incomparably ancient, weathered with countless webs of cracks permeating the surface and undoubtedly deeper, even affecting the ridged pillars on the sides of the room, stretching floor to ceiling.

Appearing like a shell of what it once was, this dilapidated place was the Chamber of the Illusory Spirit.

Certainly, it didn't fit that grand-sounding title in the slightest, but that wasn't all.

What caught my eye the most, and what was assuredly the key feature of the Chamber, was that.

A tremendous crystal floating just above a raised platform in the centre of the room, shimmering with pearlescent light and emanating palpable waves of light pressure, its presence alone causing bumps to rise across the surface of my skin.

Appearing just like a colossal version of that Flawless Mana Crystal I had acquired, and somehow even more pristine, giving off a sense of pure magic more than anything else I had ever encountered.

What surprised me even more was what lay within that crystal, however.

"..."

A woman.

What's more, her features, and the clothes that she wore, struck me as extremely familiar.

"Librarian...?"

Even though her proportions were obviously different, I thought it couldn't be anyone else. If anything, the more I looked at her, her hair and everything else, the more I was convinced.

Frozen inside that crystal, a grown-up version of the Librarian, or perhaps just a parent, was sleeping.

After a while, I managed to break free of my wondrous reverie, and I approached the crystal. Or rather, the Heart of the Illusory Library.

The closer I got, the stronger the pressure became, until I stopped right in front of it, my body feeling heavier than lead. Raising my hand to touch it, it grew almost impossibly hard to resist, and I could have sworn I even heard creaking from the bones in my arm, but I eventually managed to do it.

The instant my hand touched the surface of the crystal, all pressure immediately vanished.

Then, the atmosphere in the room shifted.

Feeling a sensation similar to the air swirling around me, despite the fact there was no wind inside the Illusory Library, I was struck with an acute sense of dissonance, as if something wasn't quite right.

Through all of that, the room remained visibly the same despite what my body was telling me.

"...!"

And then, the crystal began to shrink, continuing even after my hand dropped back to my side.

The massive crystal, the Heart of the Illusory Library itself, rapidly condensed smaller and smaller, until before long, the body of the woman inside started to become exposed to the open air.

As it continued, more and more of her body was let go, and by the time all of her was free, the crystal had been compressed down to about the size of a baseball and buried deep within her chest.

Ultimately, her body, which wore a white robe I couldn't help but compare to the Librarian's, and who even shared the little one's black blindfold, floated gently down to the floor, her bare feet beneath the dress landing softly on the cracked stone below her.

Only then, she raised her face to meet me.

"..."

"..."

Awkwardly staring at the mystical woman, now standing before me at what seemed to be the same height, I inevitably stuttered my words.

"...Uh... H-hello...?"

A moment of silence passed as I began to only feel greater embarrassment.

"Ahem..."

But as I watched her clear her throat, as if preparing to talk for the first time in a long while, such self-judgemental thoughts were immediately cut short.

In the following moments, the woman gave a breathtaking smile, and with a silvery voice so soft I had never heard anything like it, she opened her mouth.

"Hello, Enki... You've heard of me as the Spirit of the Illusory Library, but my real name is Leinth Eupraxia. Naturally, feel free to address me as you find comfortable."

"..."

"Hihi, you seem so surprised... Is my appearance so surprising?"

Her words flowed smoothly as she spoke, her attitude as if we were familiar.

"Fret not, I understand. This is your first time meeting the real me, but I've been waiting to talk to you like this for a terribly long time..."

That was the day I first met Leinth Eupraxia, Spirit of the Illusory Library.

The creator of the Illusory Library, founder of the Protection Service I now worked for, an undisputed genius mage, and...

"Then, would you like to sit down and talk?"

...The first to witness the death of an Antagonist.

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Vol 1 End - [Hitman]