Chapter 348 - 348: Collar of Subordination

Nor only forcing obedience to orders.

It looked like a magic tool for biting into a deeper place and binding the soul itself.

"The recent matter was immediately useful. —With this you become my property."

"Proper…ty…?"

"Relax. I won't abandon you."

Yesterday those words alone might have made Miena feel saved.

But now it was different.

Rigel's voice was the same yet the meaning sounded completely different.

She had to run.

Her sister's words finally reached her chest.

However her feet would not move.

From fear and confusion her body was frozen.

Rigel's hand was kind, yet accurate as if blocking escape routes.

"If you hate it say so, I said yesterday."

"…"

"But today even if you say it it's useless."

The collar touched Miena's neck.

A chilly cold feel.

The next instant a small sound kachiri rang.

The curse marks shone faintly.

At the same time the magic circle drawn on the room floor shone strongly.

The patterns carved on the inside of the collar and the formula on the floor resonated.

Pale light rose as thin threads and was sucked into Miena's collar.

"Ah…"

Force left Miena's knees.

If Rigel had not supported her shoulders she would have collapsed on the spot.

From the cloth bag at her chest the blue glass bird slipped and rolled on the floor.

Her fingers tried to chase it.

But force would not enter.

The glass bird crossed the edge of the carpet and rolled onto the hard floor.

It did not break.

It only stopped making a hollow sound koron.

That sound rang strangely clearly.

A bird that had blue wings yet could not fly.

What Miena had held precious.

What she had believed was proof she was saved.

That now lay in a place no one's hands could reach.

"Miena!"

Siena tried to run over.

Her footing faltered and she almost fell yet she stretched a hand toward her little sister.

But Dolly stood in front of that.

"Please step back."

"Move! Please, move!!"

"It is Lord Rigel's order."

Dolly's voice was calm.

Exactly because it was calm it was cruel.

Neither sympathy nor anger nor pity could be seen.

Siena trembled her lips and looked at the glass bird that had fallen to the floor.

The small blue bird her little sister had held as if precious.

That which had the shape that should fly freely in the sky now on the cold floor distorted and reflected the candlestick fire.

"Horrible…"

Siena's voice was almost breath.

It did not become anger.

It did not become a scream.

It was a voice like a crushed fragment pushed out from the bottom of her heart.

"Why… why something like this…"

"Is a reason needed?"

Rigel put a finger on Miena's chin and forcibly raised her face.

The collar's curse marks had already vanished.

But that was not because power had been lost.

They had finished carving.

On her neck, on her soul.

A mark of ownership deeper, stronger, harder to escape than a normal slave contract.

"Because I wanted you."

Rigel said quietly.

There was no appearance of feeling guilty.

Neither justification nor excuse.

Rather it was a tone as if saying such things were unnecessary.

"I say what's in the way is in the way, and I want what I want. That's all."

From Miena's pupils one tear spilled.

Even so she could not understand completely.

She did not want to understand.

The towns they visited on the journey.

The glasswork stall.

Fruit water.

The voice that said if you raise your face you can see the sky too.

What was that.

Was it all a lie.

Or was it more cruel exactly because it was not a lie.

"Mas…ter…"

"Aa. You don't need to change that way of calling."

Siena went to her knees as if collapsing.

She could not protect her little sister.

Again.

Same as that day she stretched her hand yet it did not reach.

Rigel looked down at Siena like that and narrowed his eyes looking amused.

"Rejoice, Siena."

He said.

"With this you sisters will never be separated again."

Silence fell on the room.

On Miena's neck a black collar.

In Siena's eyes despair.

On the floor a blue glass bird.

Only the candlestick flame swayed as if nothing had happened.

Siena stretched a hand toward Miena.

She only wanted to touch her little sister.

Touch her, embrace her, take her out of here.

Miena too while crying tried to stretch a hand toward her sister.

Pupils wet with tears looked only at Siena as if clinging.

Help me.

She felt as if she heard such a voice.

A little more.

Fingertips approached enough to feel each other's temperature.

The instant before those fingertips touched Rigel said quietly.

"Miena. Don't touch your sister."

The arm she had begun to stretch froze at an unnatural angle.

Her shoulders trembled.

Her elbows and fingers also convulsed faintly.

Even so it did not move any further.

"…Eh?"

Miena herself was the most surprised.

She wanted to stretch her hand.

She wanted to cling to her sister.

But her fingertips would not move.

"Onee-san… I…"

Tears fell poroporo.

"I want to go… I want to go to onee-san's place…!"

"Miena!"

Blood drained from Siena's face.

Rigel looking satisfied placed a hand on Miena's shoulder.

That handwork was kind.

Exactly because of that it was cruel enough to make one nauseous.

"Convenient, right? She understands the order, refuses, and even while crying obeys. That's what's good."

There are several kinds of "collars" that show one is a slave.

Ones that only show status.

Ones that give pain by pouring mana.

Ones that carve the master's orders and give punishment if one goes against them.

If they become even more powerful there are even ones that steal free will itself and make one like a doll.

But Rigel was not satisfied with such things.

If one only made them obey with pain the heart could still flee.

If one only stole consciousness neither fear nor humiliation remained.

What he desired was more insidious, more precise, more irreversible domination.

Rigel had analyzed the "collar of subordination" in the matter of adventurer Irina.

He read the flow of mana, decomposed the carved formula, and reassembled it.

Further he carved a magic circle in this room and by overlaying his own vast mana and precise operation he finally realized it.

Not making them obey with pain.

Nor stealing consciousness.

Understanding everything of what was being done to one, what one was being made to say, yet unable to go against it.

That itself was the domination Rigel intended.

"Miena. Reassure your sister."

"Onee-san… I'm all right…"

"Lie! Miena, you're only being made to say it by force! Keep your wits!"

Siena screamed.

Her voice cracked.

Even so she could not help screaming.

"Th-that's not it… I want to be with Master…"

Those words gouged Siena's chest deeper than anything.

If she had cried and sought help it would still have been endurable.

If she had said it was painful there would still have been hope.

But Miena's mouth spun words rejecting her sister as if they were her true feelings.

"Master…"

That way of calling was the same as always.

But now everything was different.