That woman...!

She's that person I first saw back then!!!

Was she... the one that has been behind the barrier all this time?!

Should I be worried about her calling me... Master...?

Wait...

In the first place, how can I hear her through the barrier?!

Looking to my left, I noticed that the elves dispatched to control this situation near the barrier heard her as well.

This was because they had turned to look at the other side of the party she was talking to.

They looked towards my direction, and quickly noticed me hiding behind a tree.

!!!

Syviel spotted me as well.

"?! You! How are you still here?!"

...You...?

Expecting a warm reception from Syviel, I was shocked at her sudden change in behavior.

Wasn't I... your spouse...?

"Leave the woman outside first, take care of this thing."

T-Thing...?

I felt something crack inside of me.

There was a force of pressure trying to pry open my mind forcefully.

It was something that had seemingly no emotion at all.

It was tainting my personal space red, slowly but surely.

"Eh? But that's... "

"He's been officially marked as a Grade D now."

Syviel flicked her hand, and I began to feel something heating up around my neck.

BZZZT

?!

I couldn't see what was on my neck but when I tried to touch it, there was some kind of static that repulsed my hand away.

At the mention of my 'grade', the women who had hesitated changed their expressions completely for the worse when they confirmed what they saw on my neck.

Their faces became ugly incredibly fast-

...as if they had two faces the whole time.

They were faces I had met during my meet-and-greet down the village a few days ago.

To have such a strange expression looking down on me, I felt weird inside.

The sinister feeling inside of me grew even stronger.

"Well?! What are you waiting for, take it back down."

Ignoring the woman whom the elves thought could not breach the barrier, they began to approach me threateningly.

"How dare you trick us?!"

"You're just a filthy Grade D?!"

"I'll have your head as compensation for even have me interact with you disgusting piece of trash...!!!"

One of the elf girl I recognized when I went with Tasha outside, aimed her blade at me.

Her name was... Yuna...

She liked to pick flowers and make them into a-

"FUCKING DIE!!!"

Yuna seemed to have every intent of disobeying the order of bringing me back down underground, as she lunged forward with her sword filled with murderous intent.

Yuna...

...

...!!! This can't... this can't be... happening...

I crouched behind the tree motionlessly as Yuna approached me.

N-no... No!!! How could this happen?! What is...

Why are they...

Wh-...wha... H-Help...

Help me...!

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!

Bracing myself as I felt the glimmers of being saved extinguish themselves slowly, I shut my eyes tight.

At least, I don't want to see myself die.

I don't want to feel pain and suffering.

But it never reached me.

A head fell off.

It was the head of Yuna who had rushed towards me.

It fell down and rolled to the side of my legs, her face still distorted with rage.

Y-Yuna is dea-...

"Aahhh....aaahhhhhhh...."

It was touching my legs which were in a crouching position, but I just continued facing ahead behind the tree with closed eyes.

The murky feeling within me became more and more unbridled.

A voice rang out from a relative distance.

"Did you just... put a Slave Collar on... My masterrr...?!!! You lot are sure looking for an early death sentence~!!!"

Realizing it came from that woman behind the barrier again, I had pieced together what had happened even without looking.

But my eyes were not obeying my command.

It was forcefully opening themselves.

I was forced to look at the person who had killed Yuna.

It was that other psychopath woman.

She had thrown her sword towards Yuna, creating a massive hole in the barrier and killing Yuna instantly.

The sword detached itself from Yuna after beheading her, and the body soon liquidified itself into blood and absorbed into the guard of the sword.

This woman.

I don't want to interact with her.

I don't want to stay here anymore.

Get me out.

Get me out of this place.

It was but a brief loss of control over my eyes and body, as I quickly tried to turn and escape from the conflict near the barrier.

I heard someone shouting to give chase.

But I didn't care.

I will die here if I don't move.

Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move.

That woman who called me Master is trying to protect me for some reason.

I can make use of this.

"Haha... hahahaha!!!"

Covering my ears while running to block the sounds of slaughter behind me, I was laughing maniacally at my unexpected ally.

She doesn't need help, she doesn't need thanks either...!!!

I'll just leave all the work to her!!!

I was thoroughly convinced, that it was all for my sake.

I am loved.

Nothing is ever wrong in my life.

Only the people around me.

They are in the wrong.

I tripped over a fallen tree branch as I did not pay attention to where I was stepping on.

I did not show any signs of pain, even though I was feeling it.

But my mental state was interrupted.

The sharp pain cleared my thoughts momentarily.

...

...Syviel.

Syviel.

...That's right... Syviel. Syviel is still there stuck with that psychopath... I need to...

I need to save her!!!

I turned around quickly and looked before me.

The stench of blood slowly got into my nostrils, but I couldn't be deterred from that...!!!

I need to sav-

At a close distance, I saw the woman who was clutching a sword on her right and the hair of Syviel on the other, who was on the ground and screaming.

She was very beat-up; Her left leg had been cleanly sliced off. Seeing this gruesome scene before me, I was genuinely terrified. All semblance of heroism within me was instantly gone.

The woman who was behind all this, had left a destructive trail behind her with all the dead bodies of the elves slowly vanishing into the sword.

Not even a trace of blood remained on the floor.

Syviel was at the mercy of this woman, who had no look of regret nor remorse on her face.

She was still smiling at me creepily.

"Master...? Why are you running away? I have come to save you."

"H-Hiiiiii!!! G-get away... get away from her!!! Get away from me!!!"

"..."

The woman flashed a look of astonishment on her face-

...before losing her smile completely.

She looked at me with a murderous gaze, as she spoke.

"Who... are you?"

...!!!

Everyone around me were changing sides so quickly, I didn't know who was my ally anymore.

I was once again petrified by intimidation.

Still grabbing the head of Syviel who was painfully screaming for the woman to let go of her hair, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

A few hair strands have already torn off from Syviel's head, as she continued to feel immeasurable pain from her tearing scalp.

I wanted to look away and run, but my bodily functions didn't work as I wanted them to anymore.

My body is shaking in fear.

My eyes are stuck front, trained on the horrible scene in front of me, twitching uncomfortably.

The woman was now right in front of me.

She started to sniff my body, as if hyperventilating through her nose.

I was contracting my body a lot when she did so for a brief moment.

Her expression quickly turned sour.

"Another woman... Many, in fact...

... ...And another one that doesn't smell like an elf or a human..."

?!

I didn't understand what she was talking about, but I didn't have time to space out here.

"L-let... let her... go... Let Syviel gooo!!!!!!!!"

I managed to squeeze out a few words helplessly.

I thought that since her mood was so random, it might be for the best to ask for something now.

It might... work.

"? ... ..."

She noticed who I was referring to.

Looking at Syviel again, she suddenly twisted her emotionless face into one filled with tremendous rage.

"Gyahhhh!!! It hurtsss!!! IT HURTSSS!!!!"

Syviel was still screaming.

Ignoring Syviel's pleas for help, the woman finally opened her mouth again.

"This one... ...One of the women you've slept with... ...I see... I see what this is..."

Syviel heard this amidst her pain, and tried to squeeze in an opportunity to save herself. Thinking that it was just because the woman had been mad because of a potential affair, she began to shriek out a lie.

"?! N-no, I haven't!!! Who'd... Who would sleep with this defective thing?!!!"

?!!!

"S-S-Syviel...? W-what are you saying..."

I began to be able to move, as I stumbled slowly towards Syviel.

"..."

Hearing this, the woman let go of her grip on Syviel's head and fell silent.

Syviel fell down on the floor.

"?! Ha...haha..."

Thinking that she was saved, she began to feel relieved in her heart.

When she saw me approaching me, she grimaced and yelled out angrily.

"...I knew it!!! Your presence alone... is curseddd!!! If not for your appearance in our glorious paradise..., I'd not have to endure this sh-"

"Take it off."

"E-eh? Take wh-"

"The fucking collar. Take off his slave collar."

The woman interrupted Syviel's words threateningly with the red sword pointed at her.

?! Wasn't the blade white before?!

"!!! I...I can't do it... I'm not the one who registered as the master... D-don't... Wait!!! W-wait!!! I-I can... I can take you to her!!! I can bring you to where the master is!!! Don't kill me please!!!"

Syviel began to beg for her life, as she leaked from her bottom uncontrollably.

"...Well, killing you right away would be a shame anyway. Bedding my master without my permission, deserves the sweetest... of tortures. I will keep you for punishment, take me there later."

It didn't work. The negotiation didn't work at all.

Horrified at the words that implied the various atrocities she would commit in the near future, I stopped moving towards Syviel.

Syviel's face turned into one full of anguish. Hearing about torture, she laid on the floor shaking in fear. Her left leg was still bleeding out from being sliced off at the ankle, and she was trying desperately to block the wound from further blood loss.

In any case, it was safe to say that she was out of commission against this woman standing in front of me.

Wait... later?

What is she planning to do now?

The woman then took out a scroll and placed it on the ground.

Syviel's bloody figure was suddenly covered inside of a moderately-sized mud ball that emerged from the ground.

It was as if the woman didn't want to continue looking at the gruesome scene herself.

The woman then turned her head towards me, without a smile to grace my presence this time.

"Well then, there's only one thing left to do."

"O-one thing left... to do...?"

I shouldn't have asked.

I had a terrible foreboding of what's to come.

"Yes. The last thing I have to do, to remove the scent from your body."

She picked up and raised her sword at chest-length, and sliced off my left leg down from the ankle without warning.

"?! GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Before I even realized what had happened, she sliced off my right leg as well.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"

My blood-curdling scream resounded in the forest.

"If... I can't have you around faithful to me anymore, I'll just... have to preserve your body parts where I can see them~ How could I have not thought of that idea sooner~"

I was still looking at my missing limbs, so I did not notice that she had her eyes closed while amputating my legs the entire time and still managed to cut them cleanly and accurately.

Finally, I felt the cold sensation near by neck where the slave collar was.

"In any case, it's also a nice opportunity to see if death severs the body from the slave status~"

I didn't understand a thing.

I didn't understand a single thing she had said.

I didn't think I deserved any of this.

Without knowing anything and suffering from pain down to my very last moments, the woman severed my head from my body.

But it felt as if, a locked door inside of me had begun to slowly latch open because of that.

Though, it might have been a little too late.

Either way, it wasn't as if something convenient as resurrection would happen.

...