Chapter 127
Karl’s hand was faster than the sound of the chain falling onto the deck.
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on the Master.”
The low, threatening voice sent shivers down Fernand’s spine.
“Ugh! How dare you touch a noble’s body? You slave brat, no better than livestock—”
But Fernand couldn’t continue his sentence.
Because Karl twisted his arm further, pushing it to the brink of snapping right then and there.
‘This crazy bastard. Since when does a mere slave have such brute strength?’
“Karl, that’s my brother. Be respectful.”
Only after Odette’s voice, laced with a cold warning, did Karl release Fernand’s arm.
“If you lay that damned hand on the Master’s wrist again—”
“Karl, I said be respectful.”
“—I will snap your most honorable Lord Fernand’s wrist in a very amusing direction. This lowly slave will make sure of it.”
Fernand was furious at being bested by a slave, but he had just experienced the disparity in their strength firsthand.
He was a D-rank Transcendent himself, yet the difference in power against someone who hadn’t even awakened was this vast.
Moreover, contrary to the insolent honorifics, the slave’s eyes were filled with murderous intent.
So, while fuming, Fernand closed his mouth for now.
‘The one who wants to break that bastard’s arm is me, damn it….’
Odette, who had been watching this, didn’t really want to stop Karl either.
But this was just the beginning of the rift between that bastard Fernand and the Count. There was no need to give him an excuse to go whining to the Count.
As she prepared to disembark, Odette looked toward the land.
Thanks to the open view, she could clearly see the Count’s carriage procession racing in the distance. Even the baggage cart bringing up the rear.
‘That cart must be carrying the cages with Dolly and Rudolph locked inside.’
Just as Odette had expected, the release of either of them never happened.
When she visited their cages again at dawn, they were not even close to an agreement; they were grabbing each other by the collars, fighting and swearing to kill one another.
‘Farewell, Dolly. Farewell, Rudolph.’
The Count never tolerates insults against him.
So their fate was sealed. One of them would die, and the remaining one would live a life worse than death.
Just like Odette in her past life, who lost all honor and became a mere plaything, Dolly would meet the same end.
The Count’s carriage procession headed towards his villa on the outskirts of the capital.
A villa for the Count’s personal use, located in a quiet area.
It featured a massive maze garden. A maze garden made of Gadderland trees, which from the villa’s windows appeared as a beautiful geometric circle.
In the very center of that maze, a cage covered with a canvas was placed.
Soon, the Count slowly walked into the maze garden and removed the canvas covering the cage, revealing a haggard-looking Dolly and Rudolph.
True to Odette’s words, the two had fought all night without even a moment of sleep.
“You trash! You only took the easiest tasks and now you blame me?”
“You’re the trash for not even being able to keep time!”
Unable to wash or even drink a sip of water, fighting day and night had left Dolly’s voice completely gone.
The Count twisted his lips into a smirk upon seeing their state.
“How amusing. To think that vermin like you could make a fool out of me like this.”
Dolly and Rudolph inside the cage trembled violently. The anger suppressed in the Count’s voice felt like it could erupt at any moment. They had never seen the Count like this before.
“M-Master….”
Dolly tried to plead, but only a rasping, metallic sound weakly escaped her throat.
“I never expected to obtain that collar, and I certainly never imagined I’d use it on the likes of you. Your little antics have thrown a massive wrench in my plans.”
The Count chuckled. It was a laugh that felt grotesque because it was so out of place.
“Then again, who cares who wears the gladiator’s collar? The human world is essentially one giant Colosseum, and everyone is a gladiator. Don’t you agree?”
“……”
“Whether it’s a head maid I trusted for years, or the president of a magazine I sponsored. The moment I turn my back, they try to bite my throat. You two are certainly qualified to wear this expensive gladiator’s collar.”
As he spoke, the Count’s chuckle grew thicker, more sinister.
Dolly anxiously opened her mouth.
“O- Oh—”
She wanted to say, ‘I have something to report about Miss Odette.’ It was a desperate attempt to survive, clinging to the hope that if she reported on the salon incident and other matters the Count might want to know about, he might spare her.
“M-Master—”
She wanted to say, ‘I didn’t betray you, Master, Miss Odette was the one who switched the trap.’
But still, only that unpleasant, rasping sound burst forth from her throat.
“No, perhaps you two are the most fitting for this collar. You used the red brooch I bestowed upon you to scheme against me, didn’t you? You’re the first ‘gladiators’ to have screwed me over this much.”
He gradually stopped his sinister laughter.
“It’s fine. I think I’ll use you two to restore a bit of my honor.”
Dolly desperately swallowed saliva, trying to moisten her throat.
“…The truuth iiis—”
The truth is, the young lady has a secret!
Just as she was trying to continue, even with her ruined voice.
“Shut your mouth!”
BANG! The Count kicked the cage bars with his hunting-booted foot. The kick was filled with murderous intent.
Startled, Dolly flinched back from the bars.
The Count clicked the key into the cage’s lock.
The heavy lock fell to the ground with a thud. As the cage door opened, the Count pulled on both their collars, inserted the key, and with a beep, beep, set the timers.
“Since I went through the trouble of having you wear them, I should put them to good use.”
“Huh?”
“M-Master? What does that—”
“You have one hour. Kill each other within that time. The winner’s collar will deactivate automatically, and I will spare that person’s life.”
Exactly what Odette had foretold was happening. Dolly’s face turned pale.
“Don’t even think about attacking me. The collar will detonate in that case as well.”
The Count grinned, took two daggers and two pistols from a bag he was holding, threw them into the cage, and then leisurely walked out of the maze garden.
All night, while squawking and fighting, she had wanted to kill Rudolph right then and there.
But now that she actually had to do it, Dolly’s hands trembled violently.
Dolly and Rudolph stared blankly at each other for a moment. At the faces they had once loved enough to promise marriage.
But a cold glint had already settled in Rudolph’s eyes. He quickly snatched both pistols.
‘D-damn it.’
Dolly barely managed to grab one of the remaining daggers and started running into the maze.
From the beginning, the Count had no intention of letting either of them go free.
Even if one of them succeeded in killing the other, he planned to let them keep their life only to live a miserable existence forever.
The Count called over one of the footmen waiting at the mansion’s main gate.
“Gather the reporters. Focus on the ones I sponsor.”
To be revered as a man of character after three years required more than just managing his own image. He had been sponsoring not only Rudolph but several newspaper reporters.
‘The street where the press companies are clustered isn’t far from this villa. They should arrive quickly.’
They would arrive just before the best highlight moment.
Fortunately, as if to make calling the reporters worthwhile, Rudolph and Dolly began to fight in a rather despicable manner.
Huff, huff—
After being chased by Rudolph for forty minutes, Dolly was finally cornered in a dead end.
“I have no choice, Dolly. If we’re being fair, it’s right for me to live, isn’t it?”
Rudolph smiled viciously.
“…You said you loved me…!”
Faced with imminent death, Dolly managed to scream in a voice like nails on a chalkboard.
“Love? Love my ass. I only promised to marry you because you were a useful source of information.”
Rudolph spat in Dolly’s face and without hesitation, pulled the trigger.
‘Rudolph Caspar! How could you!’
A BANG! echoed, but Dolly was still alive. Because it had been a blank, not a live round.
A flustered Rudolph aimed the second pistol and pulled the trigger. But this gun, too, contained only blanks.
It was the Count’s little joke, wanting to see a proper gladiator fight.
Rudolph’s face turned pale as a sheet; he had been so focused on grabbing both guns that he hadn’t taken a single knife.
Realizing the situation, Dolly gripped her knife in her right hand.
“Dolly…! W-wait a second.”
‘Shut up, you son of a bitch. Go to hell!’
The tables had turned. Dolly didn’t hesitate and swung her arm.
Stab! Rudolph’s chest was pierced.
“Argh!”
Rudolph fell to his knees in agony.
Dolly looked at Rudolph, his chest stained bright red as he grew paler, and let out an excited laugh.
‘I won! Uahahahaha!’
It was a laugh filled with the disappointment of learning her lover’s true feelings, and the regret of having loved such scum.
Finally, Rudolph drew his last breath. With a click, the collar around Dolly’s neck unlocked and fell to the ground.
Even though the collar had already fallen, Dolly, enraged by the betrayal, stabbed Rudolph a couple more times.
‘How could you pull the trigger without a moment’s hesitation? What? You never loved me?’
Then, as a final touch, she spat on Rudolph’s face.
But despite all her actions, she felt no sense of victory.
Rudolph’s dead face reminded her of the face of the lover who had slept soundly beside her just days ago. The face of the man she had loved so much she wouldn’t have regretted giving her life for him.
‘You bastard… I loved you….’
Belated sorrow and emptiness overwhelmed Dolly. It felt like she, not Rudolph, was the one who had fallen into hell.
Slumping to the maze floor, she let out a hollow laugh.
Oblivious to the fact that reporters were watching from the villa’s 5th-floor reception room—the room with the best view—recording the entire scene with horrified expressions.
The reporters, bribed by the Count, obediently followed his order not to mention the collars in their articles.
They only captured moments of the murder when the collars weren’t visible, and intentionally omitted them from their illustrations.
Frankly, this was better for the reporters too. For the murder scene before their eyes to be described as more shocking, the murderer needed to be a clear-cut villain.
Shortly after, Dolly’s murder case was sensationalized in all sorts of newspapers. Dolly became the woman who, blinded by money, had stabbed her fiancé to death in a horrific manner.
Some raised questions about a possible connection to the “Gladiator’s Collar,” but since the Brenatano Ducal family, known as its sole possessors, denied ever having sold the item, the theory ended weakly as just a conspiracy theory.
Dolly became famous. As the protagonist of a crime of passion, her name was sold in all the tabloids under the moniker “The Mad Witch Dolly.”
The woman who had always created rumors had, for the first time, become the subject of one.
