While he was lost in thought, Eris puffed out her cheeks, withdrew her sword, and glared at him as he stopped mid-sentence and drifted off into his own head. She snapped, "What! I hate people who stop halfway through talking! Keep going! What's the problem?"
"The gap in strength, obviously. What else could it be? I said 'in most situations,' didn't I? Right now, this isn't 'most situations.'"
"You said yourself that gaps in strength can be overcome with strategy and conviction!", Eris kept glaring at him, "Are you lying to me again?"
"That only applies up to a point. Otherwise, if strong enough conviction could do anything, no one would study swordsmanship or magic."
"Ughh~", Eris stomped her little foot in frustration.
But after pouting for a while, she suddenly had an idea. Her eyes sparkled as she stared intently at Ash and said excitedly, "I get it! I'm younger than you! So when I'm older and you're old, I'll have a chance, right?"
"Is it really okay for a noble young lady to say something like that about wanting to bully an old person?", Ash, who had thought she'd come up with some brilliant plan, was caught between laughter and tears.
"What's wrong with that! You bullied me when I was little! Let me bully you when you're old! Isn't that fair?"
"To talk so proudly about bullying... but I suppose you have a point."
"Right!"
Feeling praised, Eris puffed out her chest proudly, and even stuck out her, probably B-cup, chest. She looked as smug as if she'd won a great victory.
Though Ash didn't quite understand why she thought there was anything to be proud of in that kind of behavior.
Still, right after she'd had her moment of joy, he reached out and pulled her over. As he sat down in his chair, he made the girl lie across his lap and gave her a casual smack on the rear, "So if you want to bully me when I'm old, I'll bully you a little more while you're young~"
"Wh-whatever!"
"Whatever... huh?"
"It's not like it's the first time I've been spanked! But I'm counting every time you hit me! When you're old, I'll pay it all back!"
If before it had been 70% rage and 30% humiliation, now it had become 30% rage, 30% humiliation, 20% shame, and 20% resignation... how did he know so precisely? He made it up, obviously.
But now, pinned across Ash's lap with an unhappy pout, Eris really seemed to be getting used to it.
Compared to the old days of pure impotent fury, she was now more like a stubborn, sulky child with a long memory.
Still, spanking her hadn't produced any positive results, which made Ash feel he might need to be gentler in this area.
So after thinking it over for a bit, he just patted her rear and then reached out to ruffle her hair, deciding to try a different approach to discipline. He said softly:
"Really, you're a cute kid. Let's be a bit more normal, okay? Think about it, if you were a little more obedient, I wouldn't have to get rough with you, right?"
"Then what about all those times you hit me before?"
"I don't think those were my fault."
"So they were my fault?"
"Obviously."
He had planned to have a proper talk with the kid, but after only a few exchanges, he accidentally said something that made Eris bite his hand, using her teeth to voice her protest.
'And in the end, it turned out like this again? But wait until I'm old, huh...', glancing at the girl lying across his knee, gnawing on his hand like a fierce dog and shaking her head vigorously, he unconsciously rested his other elbow on her back.
With his arm propped on the girl and his chin in his hand, Ash looked up at the sky and mused to himself, "Since you're so set on revenge, I'll look forward to your future. Yeah, when you grow up, it'll definitely be interesting."
Though by then, he'd probably be the only one who found it interesting.
———
The next day, the sky had been overcast since morning, with a strange oppressive feeling, and before long, a fine drizzle began to fall.
Ash and Ghislaine stood quietly on the castle's high tower, side by side, gazing at the mysterious sphere in the distance.
Everything around was still, with only the rustling sound of the rain. Neither spoke, as if lost in their own thoughts.
Going back ten minutes earlier...
"Forget the sphere for a moment, it just occurred to me, Ghislaine," Ash looked up at the rain falling from the sky, not even turning his head, and casually asked, "You wrote to me last time saying you had a birthday in two years and hoped I'd come, right?"
"Something like that, I think?"
"How long have I been here now?", Ash slowly turned to look at the female warrior beside him, whose expression had gone oddly stiff.
"Actually... ahem, I got it wrong before. It was only last year that I remembered I'm actually thirty-one, and I completely missed my own birthday," Ghislaine rubbed her chin thoughtfully, but her tail went stiff with embarrassment.
He glanced at her tail and let out a long sigh, "It's a wonder you've made it this far being so careless."
"Uh, I, oh, right! We've known each other for over five years now, haven't we? What about your twentieth birthday?"
"Who remembers."
"So how are you any different from me?"
"It's different. After a certain age, people stop bothering to count."
As they chatted, Ghislaine couldn't help but wonder how Ash could be so lazy, he couldn't even be bothered to calculate such simple numbers, while she herself, already over thirty, still remembered hers.
Though she used to get simple numbers wrong all the time... it was only recently that she'd gotten a better handle on things.
But while they were idly chatting, strange sounds of struggling and lecherous laughter drifted up from below, "Oh, Master! Don't!", "What's the matter, just stick your ass up!", the kind of suggestive exchange that made one wonder.
There was no need to guess who it was or what they were doing.
Still, out of curiosity, Ash leaned over to peek down, and happened to lock eyes with the long-eared rabbit-eared maid down below.
She seemed to get even more excited at being watched, in the midst of her pretend resistance.
He silently pulled his head back, rubbing his forehead in thought... This sort of thing, all too common in a noble household, would definitely have a bad influence on children. He'd have to make sure Ariel and Eris didn't grow up to be traditional nobles.
Of course, their current states weren't a concern, but when he and Ghislaine encountered others doing indecent things, it was actually him who got embarrassed to the point of his scalp tingling.
Ghislaine, however, casually swished her tail, showing no reaction at all, clearly much more composed than him. She even suddenly said, "You know, I wouldn't mind, with you."
"H-Huh? I take you as a brother, and you think of me as what?", Ash, who had been deep in thought, felt the terror of being dominated by that steel rear flash back into his mind, and he took two quick steps back.
"I was just saying. I feel like you'd be good at making babies."
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