Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 13 Episode 1 (section)

===Part 1===
The cold and scraggy sensation of stone floor.

Both his hands that were shackled and hung up with wooden handcuffs were feeling slight pain.

Lux faintly opened his eyes after feeling the faint light of tallow lamps.

「This place…… where, is it?」

The atmosphere was different from the fortress in the abandoned capital Guernica. It felt somewhat nostalgic with the smell of mold.

Right after the revolution, Lux along with Airi were locked in prison as the survivors of the imperial family.

After that, the last time was when he was also once put inside the prison of the Academy if he remembered correctly.

But, at that time, even though he was captured as a peeper in the large public bath, the atmosphere felt vaguely gentle.

In contrast, right now a cold hostility was stinging his skin.

While Lux was thinking of such thing, there was the presence of something moving in front of his eyes.

「Aren’t you composed there, sleeping soundly even as a prisoner.」

「-……!?」

Lux groaned when cold water was poured on his head.

Since when──or perhaps she was already there from the beginning?

A silver haired girl wearing a pilot suit and a robe above it.

He remembered seeing those mismatched eyes of grey and blue color before.

「Hayes…… so you’re alive.」

The third imperial princess of the Holy Arcadia Empire, and the arms dealer who carried out secret maneuvers in many countries and scattered the sparks of war.

She was a longtime enemy who in the past led Heiburg and the remnants of the Old Empire in her scheme to destroy the New Kingdom.

Lux thought she died in the decisive battle at the Royal Capital Lordgalia but──

「That tattoo on your face, a Baptism huh……」

Most likely, she was revived by using the surgery to familiarize her body with the secret medicine, Elixir, that strengthened the human body.

She was emitting even more villainous temperament than before. She brought her smile closer to Lux who was chained in front of her.

「I have come back from hell, Prince-sama. My life won’t last long after getting forcefully revived using Baptism. During that time I’ll make you taste a living hell where you are going to beg for death!」

「…………」

「I’m not gonna feel satisfied with just making you son of a bitch and the New Kingdom into scrapped trash. I’m gonna trample the comrades who are pining for you into dust. I’ll leave you half-alive for that.」

「You who was revived, negotiated with Dragon Marauder and made them betray Soffice, was that it?」

「Looks like you don’t understand your position here eeeh!」

With a snap, Hayes took out a whip and struck Lux’s skin.

「Gu……!」

Because he wasn’t wearing a Drag-Ride, his pilot suit that wasn’t strengthened by anything was torn and blood oozed out.

Lux was unable to prevent himself from leaking out a pained groan from the intense pain.

「Don’t make a noise yet. We’ve got a lot of time y’know, first I’ve got to practice. Gotta start for real after making you learn what pain is.」

「What, are you planning……?」

Hayes was bringing a strange collar in front of Lux who was breathing roughly from pain.

The collar was about the same size as the criminal collar Lux was wearing, but it looked excessively ominous.

A metallic collar with dark red color like blood rust.

Right after it was fixed on his neck with a stabbing discomfort, Lux’s shackles were taken off.

「……!?」

Lux felt suspicion that he was released from the binding so suddenly.

Even though his body’s motion was dull from getting restrained for too long, he would be able to subdue Hayes now.

「I took it off so don’t move at all Prince-sama. I’m going to whip you now. Just be quiet there, you rebel!」

Hayes raised the corners of her lips and moved her whip once more.

Lux reflexively twisted his body. At that instant. electric heat and impact ran through his body.

「Guh, AAAaAH……!?」

An intense pain that felt like his nerves were getting burned ran through him. His consciousness was getting farther.

Hayes’s whip was swung down right after that, but Lux didn’t feel pain.

After rolling around on the stone floor for a full ten-odd seconds, he was finally able to resume breathing.

「Ku-ku-ku. How’s that, the taste of this special collar──the 『Wedge』 huuh? But, don’t think that you can enjoy it no matter how many times okay? If you go against our orders while wearing that collar, it will increase its power until you die after disobeying just three times, yeah.」

『U, a. Haa, haa……』

Lux kept lying down on the prison’s stone floor while being unable to even raise his voice properly.

But, he understood her words.

Most likely this collar was designed to sense the will of Hayes and the other Lords and poured electric shock into the wearer.

「I’ll be troubled if you die as you please so I’ll say it one more time. Electricity will flow if you go against our orders. Even if you try to get other people to take off that collar for you, electricity is going to flow. Even if you are harboring rebellious thoughts against us, electricity is going to flow. Even if you get away from this old castle, the electricity is going to flow. That’s all. If you get it, then stand up right away, though it will be a different story if you want to get shocked once more.」

「-……!?」

Seeing Hayes’s wicked look, the complexion of Lux who was numb from the intense pain changed.

If Hayes’s words just now was the truth, including the information that they were in the old castle at the abandoned capital Guernica, he would be electrified if he went against her orders even if it was an order that was impossible to be carried out.

If he was electrified now, he might die from the shock.

He had to manage somehow to prevent that.

「The order 『right away』 is vague, but at the latest it has to be within five seconds I guess? Although you are just a former Prince-sama, you at least know that much don’t you?」

「……Ku, AAAAAAH!」

Lux wrung out all his strength towards Hayes’s mocking question.

He punched his numb leg and recovered his senses from that pain.

When he stood up barely within five seconds, Hayes who saw that clapped.

「Ku-ku-ku. Good good, so you can do it huh, Prince-sama. But, the main event will be from here, yeah. Several more trials are necessary for you to become fully qualified as our slave.」

「Trials, you say……?」

「Damn straight, you’ve got to punish with your own hands, that insensitive person over there who turned a blind eye since some time ago.」

「Oi Lord-sama, don’t tell me that by insensitive person, you mean me?」

A casual and sulky voice resounded inside the prison.

Lux didn’t notice because Hayes was right in front of him right after he woke up, but right beside him, the Seven Dragon Paladin of the Vanheim Principality was chained.

Lux looked around in panic, but he didn’t find the figures of the remaining members in this prison.

Were they imprisoned separately in another place, or else──

「I’ll say this just in case, it’s not like I was turning a blind eye yeah. I just cannot get myself to go along with your bad taste.」

Even though he should have seen the disastrous scene of Lux just now, his attitude was insolent as usual.

But, Hayes who saw that wasn’t angry. Rather she gazed at Greifer’s face with an expression that seemed to be having fun.

「Bad taste eh. Don’t tell me that you think I’m going to whip you bastard just like this?」

「How about trying it. I’m tough so it will be worth doing it, yeah.」

「Ku, kukukuku……. You hear that Lux, you whip him.」

「……-!?」

Hayes suddenly reversed her hold on her whip and presented the handle to Lux.

Lux who saw that was bewildered while guessing Hayes’s malicious intention.

「What is your, intention?」

When Lux asked back with a bitter expression, Hayes’s mouth warped into a wide grin.

「Oi oi, aren’t you listening Prince-samaaa? I’m telling you to whip that guy. Even if you are just a dimwitted fake prince, there ain’t no way you cannot do something that simple right?」

「…………」

「Hah, are you trying to break unity by making fellow comrades fight each other? It’s unfortunate, but we Seven Dragon Paladins are just a mish-mashed gathering yeah? Aren’t you mistaking your method huh?」

Lux fell silent at Hayes’s command, but Greifer didn’t show any agitation at all and muttered with an exasperated tone.

His attitude seemed to say come at me anytime, but Lux didn’t move.

「Oi, what the hell are you doing? Just hit me already. A whip that is swung by that thin arm of yours will be just like a mosquito’s bite.」

Greifer prompted with a tone that sounded mocking.

However, Lux noticed.

That was Greifer acting considerate in his own way.

He was deliberately provoking Lux to lighten Lux’s guilt.

Being whipped and the electricity from the collar──the Wedge, it was obvious that the electricity was stronger.

Furthermore, the electricity that Lux would receive for the second time would be stronger than the previous one.

Thinking carefully, whipping Greifer just as he was told would be better for the condition of the Seven Dragon Paladins on the whole. Lux understood that.

But──

「Do it quickly! Hit that guy who hasn’t done anything bad by your own will! Do it shitty prince! Torture that guy for the sake of your own shitty self!」

「────」

Lux inhaled and lifted up the whip.

Greifer didn’t show any sign of fear, even so he couldn’t strike.

「──U, GUaAAaAaAH……!」

Instantly, sparks scattered in front of Lux’s eyes. Flashes illuminated the inside of the prison.

「This, fucking idiot-!」

Greifer smacked his lips seeing Lux who collapsed from the intense electricity that was generated from the Wedge.

In the end he couldn’t do it.

Even though he understood that the pain of whipping would be lighter than his own, Lux was unable to lay his hands on his comrade.

(So, it’s the second electric shock with this, I’ll die with the third time……)

Inside his receding consciousness, Lux saw the smile of the demon who was looking down on him.

「Kukukukuku. You ain’t thinking, that you are going to get excused or anything riight? It will be troubling if the bait died from training. I’ll still make you torture the others later. So it will be easier to bait the hangers-on of you bastard!」

(So that’s it, Hayes’s objective is……!)

Using Lux to annihilate Lisha and the others of Syvalles.

Lux was kept alive in order to trap the girls.

Until then this kind of torture would surely continue.

His nerves were paralyzed by the second electric shock and his limbs lost all feeling.

Like that, his consciousness slipped down into the dark abyss.