– Smack!!
“Hmm?!”
After giving her rear another smack, Gemma, who had been down, regained her senses.
She said she was going to die, but I didn’t stop hitting her backside.
It wasn’t because it felt good to slap her.
“Didn’t you say you’d listen well? Why are you still acting up?”
“I can still feel your genuine intent to somehow get through this situation from your voice.”
She still hadn’t fully grasped what was happening.
She was just pretending to comply with my words to escape the immediate pain of being hit.
That can’t be considered a true apology.
“Ah… No..! I really!!”
– Smack!!
She started to make excuses, so I smacked her butt one more time.
Her rear, turning a bright red that looked like it could burst at any moment, now bore my handprint once more.
“Whaaaaaaa!!”
“That’s a lie.”
When I was educating Shaara Prigia, I pretty much broke her apart and reassembled her.
She knew everything from the start.
She knew how rude she was being to others, but when weighing her background, she acted more arrogantly, thinking others would accept it.
That’s why I broke her with pain and fear strong enough to shake her brain and restructured her values.
“It’s okay. I’ve lived like this for a hundred years, so I never thought it would resolve in an instant.”
Gemma was a bit different.
While she too acted arrogantly based on her background, she still didn’t fully understand her own wrongdoing.
She didn’t know what etiquette was, so it needed to be drilled into her.
“I won’t stop until I see your sincere apology.”
Moved by my heartfelt words, Gemma struggled once more to escape.
———————————
Several hours passed since Atlas took Gemma away.
The people who had gathered around the crash site of the airship started to genuinely worry as the sun began to set.
I expected it to take a while, but we had been waiting too long.
“Shouldn’t we go look for them?”
Cindy Lue, an elf, proposed that we scout the area, but Shaara replied curtly.
“…It will be useless.”
“What??”
“…If he thinks he must do something, he will definitely do it. He’s that kind of person.”
Seeing her pale face while addressing Atlas respectfully made everyone feel something was off.
“Prigia, why are you trembling so much?”
“I don’t know what you mean by trembling.”
She didn’t stutter her words, but her body was shaking, causing her speech to slur.
This was a strange sight for Shaara, who usually remained calm in judgment.
As I was about to press her further, someone suddenly appeared through the wreckage of the airship.
“Atlas?!”
It was Atlas and Gemma.
At first glance, they looked almost the same as when they had disappeared, except for a few differences… Gemma was anxiously clutching Atlas’s arm, and the once imposing Atlas had returned looking noticeably calmer.
“Wow… Thank goodness….”
Perda sighed in relief upon seeing Gemma.
Fortunately, she appeared to have no injuries.
However, no one knew that seeing her like that made Prigia tremble even more.
“Okay. Gemma says she has something to say, so everyone listen up.”
Atlas gently spoke, comforting Gemma, who was clinging to his arm.
From that scene alone, it looked like they had resolved everything through conversation.
When Atlas patted her waist, Gemma stepped forward, lowered her head, and fumbled a bit before finally speaking up.
“…I… I was entirely wrong….”
Simply saying she was wrong made Atlas’s hand, which had been patting her waist, lightly brush her rear.
– Thud
“??!!!”
Her hunched back straightened instantly, and her gaze shifted from the ground to the people.
Those with keen eyes sensed something was up, but what it actually was didn’t even cross their minds.
“You need to explain what you did wrong too.”
“Y-Yes… I had my subordinates ambush you… I acted rudely… I even caused the airship to crash… I’m so, so sorry….”
With Atlas pressing her, Gemma quickly enumerated all the things she had done wrong.
“Good job.”
After she finished speaking, Atlas patted her back, and she obediently bowed her head, like a gentle sheep instead of a little emperor.
“While there have been some issues so far, let’s forgive her for now since she’s reflecting on her actions.”
By this point, it seemed Atlas was the only one who truly forgave her.
—————————
The people who heard Gemma’s heartfelt apology all had dazed looks on their faces.
They were clearly curious about where she had been taken and what they had done for hours.
“… Where exactly did you disappear to?”
“I was teaching her good manners among people.”
“Y-Yes! I learned the most basic etiquette from Lord Atlas….”
Seeing Gemma respond like an automaton, Perda leaned in closer to me and whispered in my ear.
“… Is this going to cause any problems?”
“I just gave her some education. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Well, if you say so, I guess that’s what it is…”
Having heard that, Perda seemed to have no intention of digging deeper.
Gemma’s business was finally over, and reality was reality.
In this wide, open field where we had crashed, we now had to worry about spending the night.
“Falling in a place like this… Where on earth are we?”
With no captain around, no one knew where we were.
Not following a road but taking a direct route through the sky, there were no roads visible around us.
“I don’t see any cities or villages nearby. Are we going to wander around here until the break ends?”
“With Cindy around, I doubt that’ll happen.”
“… I also don’t know much beyond the forest.”
Since it would take about a day to reach the capital by airship, walking could take a week.
There could be insurmountable forests or mountains along the way, and we couldn’t predict what kind of variables might occur.
“Still, at least there were remnants of the airship, so finding firewood and bedding shouldn’t be an issue. No rescue is coming, right?”
“How nice would it be if we had that kind of technology…. Let’s wait until morning to move.”
Since it was already getting dark when we crashed, everyone had started setting up camp early.
Although the airship was wrecked, it wasn’t entirely useless, and some people had considered sleeping in it but gave up because it was too tilted.
Instead, the plan was to bring bedding and gather around a campfire for the night.
“My magic really comes in handy at times like this.”
After setting up the bedding, Perda sprinkled seeds around, and trees began growing from the ground all around, forming a circular tent-like shape.
It was quite a luxurious place to spend a night.
“….”
Gemma climbed onto the bedding like a docile sheep and glanced over at me.
She still tried to revert to her original attitude in front of others, but seemed more cautious in front of me.
Actually, it worked out well.
“So, are we leaving this behind?”
“It’s a shame, but what else can we do? We can’t strip everything from here. We need to give up and head for the capital first.”
“It’s such a pity~ They put so much effort into making that airship.”
Perda pushed all her bedding together with her women to create one large bed.
Then, they all lay together and chatted.
“Atlas, aren’t you going to use that?”
“That?”
“Yeah, the thing that changes the surroundings when you move.”
“Right. Now that the airship has crashed, it doesn’t matter anyway.”
Amy and River whispered together.
Originally, my vacation plan was to quickly get things done by using spatial manipulation, so it seemed like they suggested going back to that now that the airship had crashed.
But doing that now seemed a bit ridiculous.
“I think traveling on foot with everyone would be fine too.”
“Traveling?!”
“Yeah, let’s somehow get to the next village and buy what we need. It’ll be brief, but a little adventure sounds nice, right?”
Although it wouldn’t be a long trip, wandering around on foot could be fun.
If something went wrong, we could move immediately.
As I was thinking about this, Casey, who had been listening, stirred and spoke to me.
“Uncle, if we camp as we usually do, everyone will run away.”
“I can camp just fine, you know??”
I was currently camping quite nicely.
The way of camping that the Royal Knight Order does, merging with nature, isn’t the only camping I know.
“Camping in the knight’s style isn’t normal.”
“You’re pretending not to know, even though that’s all you know….”
“I….”
Just as she began to speak, Casey stood up.
“Oh, what now.”
I then felt a presence too.
“What’s going on?”
“Someone is coming this way.”
It wasn’t just one or two people.
Casey and I focused our gaze toward the direction of the presence.
We could tell by the dust rising from afar that there was a procession of at least ten riders.
They had noticed us being there.
“Oh, looks like there are guests ahead!”
The furry man leading the group laughed when he saw Casey and me staring at him.
A huge band of merchants had appeared.
“Camping out in a place like this… Are you in some sort of trouble?”
