A God Who Answers

As rational economic agents, Solomon and Jean Baudri’s reason arrived at exactly the same conclusion.
Retreat.

─ Oh my, where are you two hurrying off to like that?

But the door they needed to flee through had vanished. As though such a door had never existed from the beginning. Even the window by the bed that should’ve looked out onto the street was gone.

“This is not good. To think my decisive exit strategy would be sealed off.”
“……We’re screwed.”

As black frost cold enough to freeze one solid drifted through the room, the exit had literally disappeared. Solomon cursed and turned back around. That evil spirit was still perched on the bed just as before, without losing an ounce of composure.

A sealed room with no exit.

‘If she can manipulate the door like that, then even if we break the wall, there’s no way it’ll just lead into the mansion corridor.’

In other words, this was already no longer a place one could leave simply because one wanted to. That alone made it obvious that she had no intention of letting them go quietly.

‘So that’s a VIP from the hotel’s thirteenth floor.’

The Maiden of June, Blanc of Black Snow.

[In case you didn’t know, the June spoken of in the proverb actually refers to summer between July and August. It’s based on the lunar calendar, not the solar one.]

It was truly a completely useless bit of trivia. Ignoring the nonsense echoing on its own, Solomon steadied himself.

───
[Negotiation] “Do we really have to spill blood? We’re colleagues in the same line of work, after all.”
───

As he did, Solomon spoke.

“Let’s not act like amateurs.”

At those words, Blanc of Black Snow, the evil spirit dwelling in the girl’s body, let out an amused little laugh.

─ Hehe. I like that look on you.

Scattering frost that looked capable of freezing even the blazing midsummer sun.

─ It’s been a while since I’ve seen a rookie with this much spirit. It’s stirring up a passion I didn’t even know I still had.
“……Well, what a joyous occasion.”
─ I may look like this now, but back in the day, I was quite famous.
“Oh, even now there’s no one who doesn’t know Miss Blanc’s infamy.”

Jean Baudri recited that calmly.

“The massacre at Saint Elizabeth Boarding School, the tragedy of Saint George Cathedral, the incident at Saint Bartholomew Sanatorium—”

Every one of them was a place bearing the character for saintliness. Judging by the titles that followed, it was clear none of them had met a happy end.

“What, did you have some kind of grudge against saints or something?”
─ It’s a little embarrassing. Back then, I don’t know what I hated so much, or what felt so unfair. Cursing God, hating the world…

As Solomon muttered in shock, Blanc smiled shyly, in the tone of someone reminiscing about the embarrassing dark history of their edgy teenage years. All while borrowing the body of a sixteen-year-old girl and smiling bashfully.

─ Sometimes, I think about revisiting those original feelings.

Then her smile vanished.
The smile disappeared from the girl’s face, and at the same time her black, unfocused eyes fixed on Solomon and Jean. A chill ran down Solomon’s spine. By the time he realized it, his body had already moved before thought could catch up.

Kwachik!
The frost already filling the room, the rime frozen solid along the floor beneath his feet, shot upward like sharpened spearpoints. It carried within it the black, dark current swirling through the ice crystals.

The moment he barely kicked off the ground and avoided the spike beneath his feet, black ice spears surged out again from the frost coating the nearby wall. As though she had known from the start he would dodge in that direction.

‘Fuck!’

Dodging the first attack was one thing. But after avoiding it and kicking off the ground, that was another matter entirely. Even if he wanted to dodge, he couldn’t. His body was suspended in midair. No matter how much of a master of physical techniques he was, he couldn’t move his body against gravity in empty air.

─ How disappointing.

Kwachik!
There was no mercy in that strike. As if it had been waiting, another frozen spearhead shot upward, aimed directly at Solomon’s skull as he hung in midair.

‘, .’

The one saving grace was that Solomon was not purely a master of physical combat. As a shadow mage, he chained together two Level 1 spells in succession and switched positions.

The ice spear, belatedly targeting the defenseless Solomon in midair, instead pierced the head of the Shadow Mimic that had swapped places with him. It entered through the right ear, passed through the brain, and emerged from the other ear.

And having switched places with the shadow, Solomon tightened his grip on the Ghost Whale Bone Blade.
Right behind Marie Molesworth, the girl possessed by the evil spirit.

‘Damn it, at this rate…!’

Even so, the assassin’s blade, now positioned at her back, didn’t strike. More precisely, it couldn’t. His commission was to exorcise the evil spirit and save the girl, not sacrifice an innocent girl in the process.

“!”

Crack, crunch.
At the same time, the girl’s neck twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees and grotesquely turned to look behind her.

─ Even in a situation like this, you’re still worrying about the commission? You must be pretty relaxed.
“Because I’m not an amateur.”
─ Hmm, you do know how to score points.

Solomon answered as though it were someone else’s business. No matter how urgent the situation, his blood was not cold enough to punch a knife-hole through the body of an innocent girl, much less the very target he had been hired to save. At least, that was true of him.
Not so much for the troll standing at the front of the girl whose neck had turned one hundred and eighty degrees.

Kooong!
His clerical frock coat fluttering, Jean Baudri kicked off the ground at a speed entirely unsuited for the troll’s massive weight.
A charge that combined both mass and speed, closing the distance in an instant. In the midst of it, something drawn from within the sweeping folds of his coat was in his hand. And when Solomon saw what it was, he had to doubt his own eyes.

‘……!’

Pshhhhh─!
A mechanical steel stake with the smooth sheen and cold aura of forged metal. As its hydraulic piston compressed, hot steam hissed out through the exhaust port. The propellant charge preheated, spreading the smell of oil and gunpowder.

A pile bunker.
A device that launched a steel stake like a jackhammer through gunpowder and hydraulic force. It was not for shattering stone at a construction site. It was for pulverizing the flesh, blood, and bone of living beings.

[Oh, this weapon is far too vicious to look like something a clergyman would use. But what about a troll clergyman?]

“Physical exorcism.”

Clack.
With the roar and explosive force of the propellant charge going off, the excessively holy steel stake shot toward the girl’s body.

‘No way, that troll bastard…!’

Kwaaaang!
Regardless of Solomon’s shock, the troll clergyman’s ‘physical exorcism’ showed no sign of stopping. It carried the oppressive force of a cannon being fired point-blank. At this rate, Solomon’s own wickedness was liable to be purified along with everything else.

Kwachik, crack!
And the aftershock produced by that holy weapon did not spare even its user. Even the troll’s own body had its wrist bent and snapped back hard enough to expose bone, while his massive frame was shoved backward.

Even so—.

“!”

There was something that stopped the steel-and-gunpowder stake that could tear not only human flesh and rock, but even composite armor like paper. It was neither a grand spell nor a shield.

─ To act so rude in a lady’s bedroom.

It was a single pale, slender little finger. No, not even the finger itself. The slightly raised fingernail was lightly pressing against the tip of the steel stake that should have still been glowing from the heat of the propellant.

With nothing more than a single fingernail.

Chiiiiiik.
White steam rose from the pile bunker’s steel stake where it touched the girl’s fingernail. It was not friction heat.

Black Snow—a frost black as pitch.

“…….”

She had stopped, with the nail of a single little finger, a stake carrying an impact too great for even a troll’s body to fully handle.

Seeing that sight, Solomon could not even laugh in disbelief. He had already known that this was not a fight that could ever be made fair. He had also felt, to some extent, that she was not truly threatening them with the intent to kill. To the Maiden of June, this was nothing more than a small amusement.

Even knowing that, actually witnessing the overwhelming gap firsthand felt different. Her small amusement was something that, not only for Solomon but even before a ninth-floor guest, rose to a scale one could not even dare to look up at.

“Fuck me.”

Once more, the most troll-like words in the world slipped from the troll’s mouth. A short silence followed. Solomon felt exactly the same.

‘Monstrous bastard.’

He could think of no other way to describe the thing before him. Of course, she was an evil spirit, not a monster. But when it came down to it, that felt like the same thing.

─ Is that everything you’ve got to show me?

Blanc of Black Snow answered leisurely. And with her neck still turned one hundred and eighty degrees, without even bothering to look at Jean Baudri.

“To be honest, the situation is not especially good.”

The troll clergyman said that. At those words, Solomon let out a hollow laugh. Not especially good was putting it mildly. Even disastrous would not have been enough.

Crash!
Before they knew it, the troll clergyman’s holy pile bunker had turned into a lump of pitch-black ice and shattered to pieces. Just from being blocked by the tip of her fingernail.

Thunk.
Without hesitation, Jean Baudri threw the pile bunker to the floor. Thunk—the mangled thing, now missing its steel stake, rolled heavily across the floor. In that state, he muttered as though resigned.

“It seems now… there is no choice but to pray to God.”
“……”

There was no choice but to pray to God. At those words, Solomon remained silent. There was nothing they could do but pray. The situation was that overwhelming, that despairing.

─ Ah, God.

Blanc of Black Snow giggled in amusement. Crack. She turned her neck another one hundred and eighty degrees to face front again. She was not returning it to its original place. She was twisting it another one hundred and eighty degrees, completing a full three hundred and sixty degrees to face forward. As though she meant to watch their struggle through to the very end for her own entertainment.

“As a troll who has received the baptism of civilization and pursues intellect and refinement, it is not exactly something I relish.”
“What isn’t?”
“Praying to the god I serve.”
“……!”

Only then did Solomon realize it. The troll overflowing with intellect and refinement before him was not just a troll. He was a troll clergyman. And in the world of TRPG, when a clergyman prayed to his god, it was never an empty prayer left unanswered.

“O god of trolls, Trollo—. Your loyal servant prays.”

The troll clergyman prayed to the troll god he served.

“Grant me the strength to overcome this crisis, and the overflowing violence and savagery to tear apart the foe before me.”

Not as mere words recited aloud, but in the form of a spell imbued with a certain divinity.

“<Sola Fide (By Faith Alone)>.”

─.

A brief silence followed. It didn’t last long.

“!”

By the time he realized it, a radiance was descending. As though illuminating the body of the troll clergyman standing there. And it was not some easy, familiar golden light. It was a deep crimson, red like blood.

[Trollo tears and smashes…….]

Along with it, a voice rang out. A divine voice resounding from the heavens above. Without question, the troll’s god was answering.

[Trollo is mighty and strong……!! Trollo was super strong, the strongest among trolls!! When Trollo roared, even gods ran away!! Trollo became the troll god!!]
“……”

In a manner more troll-like than anything else, or rather, perfectly fitting of something called the god of trolls.

[And you, you smart!! You’re the only troll who knows how to pray to Trollo!! Trollo likes that!! Trollo gives you power!! Lots and lots of power!!]

The god had answered.