Chapter 347 - 347: A Good Person

"Rigel…-sama…"

Siena finally raised her face and looked at him.

Tears floated in those pupils.

However what was in their depths was not only gratitude.

"…It is all right to take it that you kept the promise, yes?"

"Is there anything else?"

"…No."

Siena's voice was trembling.

Rigel smiled calmly.

That smile, if it were someone seeing it for the first time, they would even think it beautiful.

"I let the sisters meet. A joyful thing, right?"

"…"

Siena's throat clogged.

It was exactly so.

She had met her little sister.

She was alive.

She could embrace her.

If that alone, even thanking would not be enough.

But the boy in front of her was not a human who moved only on such goodwill.

Siena knew.

Since being bought by the Gousel marquis house she had tasted this mansion's air many times.

Raped by Rigel she yielded and went to her knees.

She learned to obey orders.

Even so only her little sister was separate.

Only Miena she had to protect.

She desperately roused herself.

"Miena."

Gripping her little sister's shoulders Siena desperately met her eyes.

On those cheeks reunion tears still remained.

Innocent eyes swayed looking uneasy.

"What were you done? Why are you together with this person?"

"Eh…?"

"Answer. From the slave firm, how did you come here?"

Miena blinked looking confused.

Her gaze almost turned toward Rigel.

Then she opened her lips looking troubled.

"Master… saved me."

"Saved?"

"Un. He took me out of the slave firm and protected me the whole way on the road… In town he bought me this."

Miena opened the cloth bag at her chest and took out the blue glass bird.

Receiving the candlestick fire the glass wings shone faintly.

The blue color sucked in the room's red light and dropped a slightly purplish shadow.

"Beautiful, right? Master said it was for me…"

Siena's face warped.

The small bird in her little sister's hand looked far too dazzling.

She truly thought of it as a treasure.

"Miena… that's not it."

"Onee-san?"

"You mustn't believe that person."

"…Eh?"

That one sound was almost breath.

Mustn't believe.

That word did not pierce straight into Miena's chest.

"Please. Listen well. You still don't know anything. That person—"

"Siena."

Rigel quietly called her name.

With that alone Siena's shoulders jumped bikuri.

Reflexive fear was carved into her body.

Even so she bit her lip and did not move from before her little sister.

"Quite a way of speaking."

"…Lord Rigel."

"Quite an attitude toward the one who prepared a moving reunion."

"I am… grateful."

"Then just cry and rejoice honestly. No need to say extra things."

Rigel took one step around behind Miena.

In a position Miena could not see the corner of his mouth warped.

It was different from the smile he showed in yesterday's town.

Not a kind master's smile.

Nor the face of one who granted a girl's wish.

A sadistic smile enjoying the instant prey caught in a trap.

Siena's blood drained.

Her heart made an unpleasant sound.

The edge of her vision darkened.

She knew that face.

The face he floated only immediately before breaking someone's will.

"Run, Miena."

It was a hoarse voice.

A voice that could become neither prayer nor scream.

Miena looked at her sister not understanding the meaning.

"Onee-san…?"

"Run! Right now, run from this room!!"

Miena trembled her shoulders bikuri.

Memory of being yelled at by her sister almost did not exist.

Little Siena always pulled her hand, combed her hair, and sang kindly at night.

That sister was now telling her to run in a voice as if pushing her away.

But she did not know what to run from.

In this room there was Rigel.

There was the Master who saved her.

There should be no opponent she ought to fear anywhere.

"W-what are you saying? Why? Master is—"

"That person is no good! Please, listen to what I say!"

Siena tried to pull her little sister's arm.

But before that Rigel's hand stretched.

He gently placed a hand on Miena's shoulder.

"Miena."

Called by name Miena turned.

On that face there was still only confusion.

The idea of doubting itself did not exist.

She thought her sister was misunderstanding something.

"Master is a good person—"

The voice of Miena who started to say it stopped there.

Rigel had drawn his face close.

Right nearby there were his pupils.

And Miena for the first time saw what was in their depths.

Cold light.

Bottomless pleasure.

Another face hidden on the reverse side of the kindness she had believed in.

"A good person?"

Rigel whispered.

The whisper was close enough to stroke her ear, yet had no temperature.

"You say interesting things."

"M-Master…?"

Miena called in a hoarse voice.

The familiar word caught in her throat for the first time.

Master.

That ring until yesterday was close to salvation.

Now it sounded like the sound of a chain.

"Your sister is properly doubting me. Even after yielding she roused her heart trying to protect her little sister. Truly admirable."

"What…"

"But a little late."

Rigel took a metal ring from his breast.

It was a black collar.

Made of lusterless metal, on the inside fine curse marks were carved.

—-

"Stop!"

Siena screamed.

It was a voice that had already forgotten both manners and fear.

The instant she saw the black ring stretching toward her little sister's neck her body moved on its own.

"Lord Rigel, please! For Miena, only Miena…!"

"Good sisterly relations are a virtue. …That's exactly why they're easy to use."

"Stop! Please, I'll do anything! So—"

"Would that become negotiation material. Siena, you're already mine."

At those words Siena swallowed her breath.

She could not talk back.

Miena's pupils swayed.

"Onee-san…?"

The asking voice was young.

Rigel's hand stretched toward Miena's nape.

The shadow falling on white skin overlapped with the shape of the black ring.

Miena finally understood that what was there was directed at her.

"M-Master… this is…"

"[Collar of Subordination: Revised]."

If it were an ordinary slave collar Siena knew it too.

Miena knew it too.

As long as one was a slave it was not a rare thing.

Though frightening it was not something one would scream at just from seeing it at this point.

But the one in Rigel's hand was different.

On the inside of the black metal fine curse marks were carved in many layers.

Not a cheap magic tool that only showed the owner.