I am relieved that I was able to rescue you swiftly. The thought of you being discovered by ill-intentioned individuals makes me shudder.
Oracle, from this day forward, I will protect you. You needn’t worry about a thing. Leave your daily life and the rituals of blessing entirely to me.”
The snake-like man spoke with an unnervingly fervent and sticky tone, dripping with deceit.
No matter how I looked at him, the man before me resembled not a kind soul but the very “ill-intentioned individual” he was so adamant about protecting me from.
Yet, I couldn’t reject him.
I may not be perfect, but at least I can distinguish between reality and delusion.
Even if this is the kind of fantastical development you’d only see in a novel or manga.
Yes, fantastical. The faded pink hair and eyes of the man before me, his absurdly ornate costume that looked like something from an elaborate cosplay, his foreign appearance paired with his fluent, seemingly Japanese speech, and, to top it all off, the way he casually conjured fire from his hand to light a candlestick.
Moreover, I had noticed that my own hair and eye colors had changed, just as the snake-like man claimed. The holy stone and sacred mark were also present—a shimmering jewel embedded between my collarbones, spreading in elegant silver tattoos across my shoulders. It was something that a middle schooler obsessed with fantasy would find thrilling.
Once again, it’s an overwhelming fantasy.
My brain tells me this is reality. If that’s the case, then none of my common sense or prior knowledge applies here.
In such a situation, resisting, defying, or playing dumb would gain me nothing and might even bring harm.
After being thoroughly overwhelmed and taking time to calm down, I made my decision: I would allow the snake-like man to protect me.
I love peace. I wouldn’t intentionally stir up trouble or worsen the situation.
This current state is already quite awful, but I couldn’t handle any further complications. So, I opted for the status quo. That was my judgment.
The snake-like man provided me with a stable life.
This room with a private bath, the enclosed courtyard resembling a pocket garden—within this space, I was treated like a princess.
Setting aside the fact that I was effectively confined “for my own safety,” the maids were expressionless and unresponsive to the point of stifling any conversation, and the supposedly noble recipients of my blessings all seemed shifty and cunning. Add to that the fact that I was deliberately kept ignorant about politics, history, and current affairs, and that the snake-like man steadfastly refused to reveal his name—there were plenty of issues.
Still, for now, I had peace.
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