The Slave's Collar

“Die ❤【Thunder of Judgment】 ❤❤❤”

A crackling, heavily charged, super-thick band of light was unleashed.

It was so dazzling that staring at it would burn your eyes.

I thrust my mana-infused right arm forward and took Lilium’s all-out magic.

――――BOOOOM!!

A powerful shockwave ran through the dungeon corridor.

Shrouded in smoke, the sickening stench of burning flesh drifted around.

Eventually the smoke cleared.

――I imagined Lilium wearing a triumphant look, picturing me charred to a cinder.

“What? Is that all?”

“Eh!? Wh-Why!??”

The right arm that took the blow had vanished from the elbow down, the severed surface charred black from the heat.

But the vanished right arm sprouted back out, fully restored with five fingers complete with fingernails.

“I was prepared for power that would punch a huge hole through my chest, but to boast that much and end up like this…”

But it’s not surprising.

No matter how much Lilium was hailed as a genius, her Level was 30.

I, on the other hand, am Level 85.

Even if she unleashed a powerful spell that used up all her MP at once or amplified it with an expensive-looking staff, a 55-level gap couldn’t be overturned.

“Th-this can’t be… it shouldn’t be like this…!”

“Well then, is it my turn now?”

“W-wait!”

“I won’t wait. You never waited for me even once, did you?”

Lilium’s knees gave out and she backed away, but there was only a wall immediately behind her.

“A-are you really going to kill me? You’ll become a murderer! If you kill me, the Holy Church won’t stay silent! I-I’m of one of the strongest Holy Knight units, the Knights of the Stigmata!”

“That threat’s too late.”

I pulled Garen’s prosthetic arm from Vanargand’s extradimensional space and threw it at Lilium.

“Th-this… Garen’s prosthetic… that means you, already…!”

“I’ve long been a murderer. Whether I kill one or two doesn’t change anything—besides, you who used me as bait for the Minotaur are already a murderer too. The despair when you sealed my escape route with barrier magic and left me there was overwhelming. I wondered why only I had to suffer like that and came to hate everything in the world.”

In fact, I was once killed by a Minotaur.

Indirectly, I was killed by the Hero party.

It’s absurd for the people who killed me to have the nerve to say murder is wrong.

“No, no, no, no! I don’t want to die! Help me! Help me, Sylvan!!”

Lilium sobbed and dripped snot as she made a last-ditch resistance, wildly swinging her staff.

Urine flowed from between her legs, forming a puddle at her feet.

“Do you really not want to die?”

“…Huh?”

“I’m not a devil either; if you show me sincerity, I might spare you.”

“R-really!? S-sincerity!? What do I have to do!?”

A faint hope lit in Lilium’s face.

I reached into the extradimensional space again and tossed a metal collar at Lilium’s feet.

The impact of the fall made a splash as her urine splattered.

“Is this… a slave collar?”

“Become a slave of a former slave. If you can accept that humiliation, I might spare your life.”

“…A-slave, I… falling to be a slave…”

Lilium grimaced as she looked at the collar, but after a moment seemed to make up her mind; she picked up the urine-wet collar and fastened it around her own neck.

“O-okay. I’ll become your slave. So don’t kill me… see, I put it on.”

I made a contract with Lilium after she put on the collar.

Now Lilium could no longer remove the collar by her own will, and if I infused the paired ring with mana, it would tighten around her neck.

(“Being a slave to the Shikai Tribe is the worst! But my life was spared. I’ll escape at the first chance. The Holy Church’s disenchanters are competent. Even a slave collar can be removed without the master’s permission!)”

“Alright. Then the first order――Die.”

“Wh-what!??”

When I infused the ring with mana, Lilium’s neck constricted, stealing her breath.

“Gah!? Wh-why!? You said if I became a slave… you’d save me…!”

“Sorry. From my time as a slave, I learned that slaves get killed by their masters. My bad, I lack refinement.”

When I was a slave, Lilium had my collar tightened over and over.

That’s why I was determined to strangle her to death with a slave collar.

Lilium had completely bought into my words and signed the slave contract.

“Guh…! It hurts…! I’m…I’m going to die…!”

Lilium’s cute face contorted in agony; blood stopped flowing and her face became swollen, her complexion turning from blue to a yellowish ochre.

“I won’t d-die… ah!? Aah!!”

The blood in her face, having no way to go, spurted from her eyes, nose, and ears.

Lilium whispered “I don’t want to die” until the end, then breathed her last.

“That makes two—”

“Yeah. All that’s left are Sylvan and Ruru.”

That said, to be honest I don’t hold that much hatred for Ruru.

She was apathetic, for better or worse.

Still, to avoid trouble if it turned out I’d killed the others from the Hero party, I instructed Dullahan to be sent to kill her.

In other words, the only remaining revenge target is Sylvan.

I took off the long coat whose sleeves had been vaporized by Lilium’s lightning magic, stored it in Vanargand, took out a new long coat, and put it on.

“You’re last—Sylvan.”