212. So What Now?
212. So What Now?
-Jjak!!
"Hik?!"
With one more smack on the rear, Gemma, who had collapsed, came back to her senses.
She claimed she was dying, but I didn't stop slapping her ass.
It wasn't because it felt satisfyingly snug in my hand or anything.
"You... said you would listen, so why are you doing it again..."
"I can still feel the sincerity in your voice—just trying to get past this."
She still hadn't been properly enlightened.
She was simply trying to get past this situation by pretending to unconditionally accept my words because getting hit right now hurt.
That couldn't be considered a true apology.
"Ah... No..! I really am!!"
-Jjak!!
Since she tried to make an excuse, I smacked her ass once more.
Another handprint was left on her buttocks, which had turned bright red as if about to burst at any moment.
"Huaaaang!!"
"That was a lie, I see."
When I educated Shahra Phrygia, I completely destroyed her and then reassembled her.
She had known from the start how rude her actions were to the other party, but she acted even more arrogantly, knowing the other party would acquiesce when she weighed her own background.
So, I shattered Shahra with enough pain and fear to shake her brain, then reassembled her values anew.
"It's okay. I never thought a problem 100 years in the making would be resolved in an instant."
Gemma was a bit different.
She believed in her background and acted arrogantly, just like Shahra, but she didn't really understand her own sins yet.
Since she didn't know what manners were, I had to instill them in her.
"Because I won't stop until I see your sincere apology."
Perhaps moved by my sincere words, Gemma struggled once again to escape.
——————————-
Several hours had passed since Atlas took Gemma and disappeared.
The people who had lit a bonfire near the crashed airship and were waiting began to worry in earnest after the sun set.
They had expected it to take a while, but they had been waiting far too long.
"Shouldn't we go look for them after all?"
The elf Sindi Reu Ga stood up and suggested searching the surroundings, but Shahra answered curtly.
"... It'll be useless."
"What??"
"...That person will absolutely do what he thinks he must do. He's that kind of... person."
Everyone felt something was strange, seeing her use honorifics for Atlas with a pale complexion.
"Phrygia, why are you trembling like that?"
"I don't know what you mean by trembling."
She didn't stutter, but her body was trembling, and her voice shook as well.
It was an odd sight for Shahra, who was always making cool-headed judgments.
They were about to press her further when someone suddenly appeared from beyond the wreckage of the broken airship.
"Atlas?!"
It was Atlas and Gemma.
At a glance, both looked no different from just before they disappeared from this spot.
If there was something a little different... it was that Gemma was anxiously clinging to Atlas's arm, and Atlas, who had seemed ready to kill someone at any moment, had returned in a greatly softened state.
"Wow... what a relief...."
Perda looked at Gemma and sighed in relief.
Thankfully—really, really thankfully—she had no visible injuries.
But no one knew that Phrygia, seeing this, was trembling even more violently.
"Now. Gemma has something to say, so everyone listen carefully."
Atlas spoke kindly, gently patting Gemma who was clinging to his arm.
At a glance, it looked like they had resolved everything through good conversation.
When Atlas tapped her lower back, Gemma stepped forward, hung her head deeply, and hesitated for a while before finally opening her mouth.
"...I... I was completely in the wrong...."
As she simply said she was wrong, Atlas's palm, which had been patting her back, lightly brushed against her bottom.
-Tuk
"??!!!"
Then Gemma's hunched back straightened stiffly, and her gaze shifted from the floor to face the people.
Those with sharp eyes noticed something was up, but it was impossible to even guess what it was.
"You have to say what you did wrong as well."
"Yes... ordering my subordinates to attack... my disrespectful behavior... even causing the airship to crash... I am sorry for... for all of it...."
With Atlas pressing her, Gemma smoothly rattled off why and what she had done wrong.
"Good. Well done."
After she finished speaking, Atlas patted her on the back, and the little Empress, like a docile lamb, quietly bowed her head.
"There have been some problems up to now, but since she's reflecting like this, let's forgive her for now."
Though it seemed Atlas was the only one who had taken things this far and finally forgiven her.
—————————-
The people who heard Gemma's sincere apology all wore dumbfounded expressions.
It was a look of curiosity about what on earth he had done after dragging her off for several hours.
"... Just where did you disappear to?"
"We were nearby, I was teaching her about basic human decency."
"Y-Yes! I learned the most fundamental etiquette from Lord Atlas...."
Seeing Gemma answering like an automaton, Perda approached my side and whispered in my ear.
"... It won't become a problem or anything, right?"
"I'm telling you, I just educated her. What could be the problem?"
"Okay, if you say so, then I guess that's how it is...."
Having heard that, it seemed she had no intention of probing any further.
Anyway, with Gemma's matter settled, we had to face reality.
We, who had crashed in the middle of nowhere, had to worry about getting through the night first.
"To crash in a place like this... where the hell are we?"
Since there was no captain or anything, no one knew exactly where we were.
We weren't traveling along a land route but had taken the shortest path via sky route, so there wasn't even a road visible nearby.
"I don't see any cities or villages around. We're not going to end up wandering around here until the vacation ends, are we?"
"With Cindy here, that won't happen."
"... I told you, I don't know much unless it's a forest."
We were at a location that would take about one more day by airship speed to reach the capital, so on foot, it could take a week.
There could be impassable forests or mountains along the way, and who knew what variables might arise.
"Still, it's fortunate we have the airship wreckage, so there's no problem finding firewood or bedding. And no rescue is coming here, right?"
"If only we had that kind of technology.... First, we decided to move after daybreak."
Anyway, the sun was already setting when we crashed, so everyone had been preparing to camp early on.
Even though the airship was wrecked, there were still some intact parts, and someone apparently suggested staying there, but they gave up because it was too tilted.
Instead, the idea was to bring the bedding and all spend the night together around one central bonfire.
"My magic really comes in handy at times like this."
After setting up the bedding, Perda scattered seeds in all directions, and trees grew up around us, gathering into a shape like a circular tent.
It was an incredibly luxurious dwelling for just spending a single night.
"...."
Like a docile lamb, Gemma climbed onto the bedding and still watched for my reaction.
In front of others, she tried to return to her original attitude, but in front of me, she was still more cautious.
That was actually perfect.
"So then... are we just abandoning this?"
"It's a waste, but what can we do? We can't strip everything out of here. We have to give it up and head to the capital first."
"What a waste~ We worked hard building this airship."
Perda had pushed all the women's beds together, turning them into one large bed.
Then they all lay down together and chatted.
"Atlas, aren't you going to use that?"
"That?"
"Yes, that thing where you move and the surroundings change instantly."
"Right. The airship has crashed now anyway, so it doesn't matter."
Amy and Liber drew close and whispered.
Since my original vacation plan was to quickly handle things I needed to do using Shukuchi, it seemed they were suggesting we just go back to the original plan since the airship had crashed.
But suggesting that now was a bit funny.
"I think it's okay to travel on foot together like this."
"Travel?"
"Yeah, if we just somehow make it to the next town, buy some essentials, it might be brief, but traveling is nice, right?"
It wouldn't be for long, but it seemed fun to wander around here and there on foot.
Since we could just move instantly if things went south.
Casey, who had been listening to that story, fidgeted and then spoke to me.
"If we camp like you usually do, Mister, everyone will run away, you know?"
"I know how to camp normally too, you know??"
We were camping normally right now.
The Imperial Knights-style covert camping, becoming one with nature, wasn't the only kind of camping I knew.
"Knights-order-style camping isn't normal."
"You only know that kind too, pretending not to...."
"I...."
Casey stopped mid-sentence and got up.
"Ah, what now."
Right after, I sensed a presence too.
"What's the matter?"
"Someone's coming this way."
It wasn't just one or two people.
Casey and I glared in the direction the presence was coming from.
Just from the dust cloud visible in the distance, it was easy to tell it was a procession of at least ten people on horseback.
They also noticed that we were here.
"Oh my, there were guests here first!"
The shaggy-haired man at the very front spotted Casey and me staring blankly and laughed.
A huge group of merchants had appeared.
"Camping out in a place like this... did you run into some kind of trouble?"