The Seirei Gensouki Spirit Chronicles
Chapter 2's

It was like watching the animal movements .. Rio found himself amazed at the girl's combat senses, but he overcame them calmly. Grabbing his arm as he leaped towards him, he threw it over his shoulder and onto the ground with force.

“Guh ..!” He received the heaviest blow on his back this time, making him groan in pain. The strength in his limbs was exhausted, making him release his knife. Rio kicked his knife and straddled the girl's body, holding her back.

(Tln: straddle = takes)

“It's over. You can understand what I said, right?” she said, putting her weight on the woman. He did not miss the brief flickering of fear in the emotionless eyes of the girl.

“Uuh .. Uwah! N-No! Nah! Nooooo! I don't know ... I don't want to die …! ” He struggled, shaking his head in an uneasy feeling.

“H-Hey, relax!” Said Rio, trying to calm the desperate girl.

“E-Eek! S-Save me! Ma! Mom...!”

It was unbelievable this was the same girl who had just fought so calmly before. She was not in a state to have a conversation – once she decided that, Rio put his hand on the girl's head and used sleep magic to make her sleep forcefully. The girl's body fell limp.

Rio removed a piece of rope from his luggage sack; to make sure he did not argue when he woke up, he would take off his robe and inspect his body before tying it up safely. But halfway through the process, he saw a metal collar around his neck, and frowned.

“... Submission Collar (Collar of Submission), yes?” Rio muttered with furrowed brows.

Collar of Submission is a type of magical artifact used on slaves and villains – an artifact that controls the free will of the wearer. When the wearer receives an order from a registered owner, they will feel very inclined to follow that order. In addition, if they refused the order too strongly, the registered owner could chant a certain spell to inflict tremendous pain on the wearer.

Slaves are seen as property (goods) that can be owned. They have no human rights, and can be treated like objects without resistance, no matter what they actually think in their hearts. That is the slave, and the Collar of Submission is there to complete it.

This crazy girl, who had just tried to kill Rio, wearing such a collar, was unmistakably making him a slave of someone else. He was probably raised as an assassin and ordered to kill Rio by his registered owner. As long as he had the Collar of Submission, he would continue his efforts to kill Rio.

Otherwise, he would have to suffer from erratic shocks of pain all over his body. It was almost like a curse .. For the girl, and for Rio There were not many options to avoid the curse:

the quickest choice was to kill him, but Rio had never killed anyone before. The Amakawa Haruto inside her still strongly rejected the idea of crossing that line. But at the same time, he knew that choosing to resolve this in another way would only give him more trouble. Unable to hide his annoyance, Rio sighed heavily.

After a moment of hesitation, he placed his hand on the girl's neck. Then, a dim light came out from his hand – Clack ! The collar that held the girl down. Rio had repelled the magic players in the artifact by mimicking high-grade magic, Dispello .

“Hei. Build.” Rio picked up the Collar of Submission and shook the girl.

“Ngh ... uhh ..”

After a moment of shaking, the girl's body moved. Not long after, he blinked his eyes open. Then, seeing Rio's figure in his field of vision, he tried to wake up in panic, but soon realized that he was in control. After a bit of struggle, he began to accept the fact that his movements had been completely restricted, and he curled up in resignation. He looked at Rio with wary eyes.

“It seems you understand the situation now. If you don't want to die, don't fight like before. Okay?” Rio decided to slightly intimidate her with threats, but fear filled the girl's eyes.

“... If I don't .. thrashing ... you won't ... kill?”

“It depends whether you answer my question or not. You were ordered to come kill me, weren't you? Is your master one of Beltrum's nobles, or one of the nobles? ”

The girl fell silent at Rio's question. He might be under strict orders to never act in such a dangerous manner towards his master. Breaking the order would result in a tremendous pain gnawing at his body, making him instinctively want to avoid speaking, even though Rio had already removed his collar.

“Hei. Do you know what this is? ” Rio raised the Collar of Submission for him to see the same collar he wore a moment ago.

“K-collar ..?!”

The girl gave a puzzling answer, immediately followed by a breath. Eyes widened. He desperately wriggled his body under his restraint to check for the collar sensation. Eventually, he realized that the sensation of something that should have been there was gone.

“It ... missing ... The collar ... missing? But why?” The girl blinked her eyes in wonder.

After a while, he jerked back to himself with a gasp, then struggled to check the whereabouts of the collar once more …

“Eh .. a-weh .. hic .. hic ... waaaaah!” … Then cry out.

“Hei ..” Rio found himself confused before the girl's tears shed. All he knew was that the Collar of Submission must have weighed heavily on the woman.

Sighing, Rio decided to let the girl cry as she pleased for now. He took that time to go and collect all the weapons they used in their battle.

“The collar is gone now, so you can answer my question, right? Who told you to come and kill me? ”

“Ah uh...” The girl did not directly respond to Rio's question. He looked around, and inhaled air.

“I don't know what you're so wary of, but it's just you and me here. You can calm down,” Rio said, making the girl's body tremble once again. Finally, he opened his mouth.

“A-I .. t-don't know the name ... from my lord ... She never ... said it .... to me ..”

More or less the response that Rio expected. Having a slave for the risky role of an assassin means the master may not let further information be passed on than is necessary.

“... Do we know his home name?” She did not have very high expectations, but she kept asking.

“Name R-Home? I don't .. know. ” The girl tilted her head in confusion as Rio sighed in disappointment.

“T-But! I know ... I know Brother's name! Stewart .. i-It's Stewart!” The girl arranged her sentence in a hurry. Rio narrowed his eyes because of his answer.

That's a very familiar name. The same name as the boy who tried to blame for pushing Flora from the cliff to Rio. If his family found out about Rio, it would make sense for them to send their pet killer for him.

“Stewart ... Does he werefox like you?”

“... Brother ... not .. werewolf. He's human. The one who trained me.” The girl shook her head strongly from side to side.

“Trained? If he's human, then that means you're not blood related? ”

Rio frowned slightly when he heard about a brother. It's hard to believe he could have it. While he knew it was possible that he could be the son of another slave, he did not want to jump to the conclusion in a hurry, so he asked just to be sure.

“I do not ... know ..” The girl nodded without confidence.

“... Let me change my question. Where'd you follow me from? ”

“Place ... same .. as you.”

“So Beltrant's capital, yes.”

“Maybe .. I-There are many ... Beautiful houses.”

“So so. Then, is there anyone other than you trying to kill me? ”

“... A-I don't know. But ... maybe not .. I guess. ” replied the girl was weak.

“Good. Here's my last question. ” Instantly, Rio's aura is getting darker. He stared deeply into the girl's eyes. She could not look away, and swallowed nervously while waiting for Rio's question.

“... Do you still intend to kill me?”

“A-I won't kill.” The girl shook, shaking her head stiffly.

Eyes are a window to the soul; no matter what expression is affixed to the face, a form of emotion will always reach the eye. Rio could no longer observe the killing intent he had carried in his eyes before. Although he was quite frightened at the moment, he did not seem to have any other hidden plans.

“... Alright, you're free. I left all your weapons with your robes there,” Rio said with a sigh as he began to untie the girl.

“Hah..?” The girl made a confused expression.

“I said: you can get out of here. Without a collar to control you, you no longer need to return to your master. Although ... I guess that makes you a runaway slave now,”

rio said with a slightly sullen look. He understood that even if he let go of this girl here, he did not have many options available to him. There are no human settlements in the Strahl region where half-humans can coexist with humans in peace.

This meant that it was impossible for a person like him to live with humans. However, even if he had to live away from humans, he has been born a slave – it is hard to believe that he was taught any form of independence. He had been controlled by the Collar of Submission, but that was not the only thing that limited him. If he wanted to continue living in the Strahl region, he would have to become someone's slave.

Seriate.....