Develop 25

Chapter 25 Respective Punishments


Edited by: Kanaa-senpai


 The day after the escape, as expected, I had a hellish feeling in my ass again, but after I finished healing my ass muscles with healing magic, Diana gave me a calm comment “In that case, why didn’t you cast a healing magic before you became aware of the symptoms?” Thus, I would like to learn a lesson from this time and make the best of it for the next time.

 I don’t want to have to deal with that next time, but let’s put my ass aside for a moment.

 As a matter of course, the runaway deserved to be punished for breaking the rules, entering into the mansion, and running away from the settlement.

 I can’t defend him in this case, and I think he should be punished… but I’m still puzzling over what to do.

 ”Master Neil, escapees must be punished accordingly, or there will be no end to the number of people who break the rules.”

 That’s why I’m worried.

 I thought it would be enough to increase the workload, or to assign them other tasks in addition to their usual ones, but Diana disagrees with me, saying that this is not enough punishment.

 In fact, Diana’s opinion is quite right, and it is very likely that some people will try to escape if they can get away with such a small punishment.

 In order to prevent such a situation, I understand that it is better to punish him severely, but… What should I do?

 To tell the truth, I am not so willing to impose heavy punishment.

 I know that the escape of slaves is a serious punishment, but one of the reasons is that I don’t want to treat them as slaves in the first place, and another is that I am involved in the cause of this trouble.

 When I asked the escaped man why he ran away, it turned out that it was because of the steak he had for dinner.

 Just as in my former world where the executed prisoners are allowed to have any meal they want before their execution, the man apparently read too much into the sumptuous meal.

 Indeed, it may be natural for a slave to make such a judgment if he is served such a dinner without any warning.

 Now, some people may think that if the steak served for dinner was the cause, Diana, who proposed the idea of improving the meal, might have been the cause. However, Diana’s plan was not to make such a luxurious meal, but a simple one with grilled meat and lightly seasoned with salt, but I was the one who suggested to make a narsht sauce for the steak.

 Diana was opposed to serving slaves with spices, but I felt that only some of them should be served with sauce, while the workers were served only salt and tasteless meat, and so, I decided to forcefully serve everyone steaks with Narsht sauce, over Diana’s objections.

 I did this because I believed that it would lead to an improvement in morale, but as it turned out, it completely backfired.

 If it had been a novel or a manga that I used to read often, this would have brought us closer together, but apparently it doesn’t work that way.

 Back to the topic, I can’t say that men are entirely to blame since I have a part to play, and I understand what Diana says, but I was wondering about the punishment of men, because I think it’s not the same as giving them a heavy sentence.

 ”Ah, first of all, what kind of punishment do you think of as a serious crime, Diana?”

 ”Well, I think it would be to tie him up in the basement of this mansion for three days, the first day with a little food and water, the second day with only water, and the third day without water. Normally, I would like to set up a one-week period, with three days of fasting, but since we are short on manpower, that would be too much work, so I think three days would be the limit.”

 ”…I see.”

 Well, I expected it, but it still seems heavy even to me.

 I guess Diana is generous enough to make some reduction for the progress of the work, but I think she should have made more reduction.

 ”Isn’t it a bad idea to cut off water as well? It might cause dehydration.”

 ”The temperature in the basement is always kept at a constant level, and since he’s tied down, he can’t move, so there’s no need to worry about him sweating for a day or so.”

 ”Then how about shortening it to one day instead of three? If we shorten it to one day, there will be less delay than if we shorten it to three days, won’t there?”

 ”That is too light a punishment for escaping. Is that all right? First of all, the crime and the punishment must be balanced in order to discourage the slaves from escaping. Only when the punishment is heavier than the crime, can the punishment be a discouraging force. In fact, it would be enough to skip water and food for those three days, you know? But that would affect their return to work, so it is not done.”

 If he were to go without food and water for three days, he would definitely get sick for a few days and would not be able to work for several days.

 Considering such a situation, Diana’s maximum concession was probably the punishment for those three days.

 However, no matter how many times Diana explains it to me, I can only come to the conclusion that it is still too serious a crime according to my standards, and telling it to Diana will only make her repeat the same thing.

 I would like to have a third person’s opinion here, but unfortunately, Lewya-san was sitting quietly in the corner of the room listening to what we were talking about.

 I’m in a bind, unless I can come up with a punishment that Diana can accept, I’m going to have no choice but to give in.

 Maybe that’s the best way, but I don’t want to give up the idea that it’s okay if I’m the one responsible for the punishment, so I try my best to think of a way to punish the man.

 ”Ah, yes, Diana! How about this?”

 ”Then let’s hear it.”

 ”Well, here’s the punishment I’ve thought of―”

 Diana looked a little surprised, but thought about it for a while, and then she accepted my idea, taking into account the progress of the current work.

 After deciding on the punishment, we called two people into the office.

 One is the escaped man, Bellick-san, and the other is his wife, Helene-san.

 ”Now, you know why I called you here without being told, don’t you?”

 Diana stares at Bellick-san with cold eyes. He replies with a tremor in his shoulders and voice.

 ”Y-yes…but why is my wife here?”

 ”For that matter, Master Neil will take care of it.”

 As we had discussed beforehand, when Diana asks me to speak, I speak the words that I have prepared, with a resolute, aristocratic attitude.

 ”Bellick-san, you broke into the mansion last night and tried to escape from this settlement. This is a clear violation of discipline and a breach of contract.”

 ”…yes.”

 ”The offender must be punished accordingly or there will be no end to the number of people who will do the same thing again.”

 Every time I speak, I can feel the two people standing in front of me trembling more and more.

 Please don’t react like that, my conscience hurts and I can’t talk like that anymore.

 ”So, as for the punishment I’m going to inflict, I’d like to have Helene-san take it instead of you, Bellick-san.”

 ”Huh?”

 ”That’s why, Bellick-san, you can go back to your work now.”

 ”Wait, wait a minute! Why should my wife be punished!?”

 ”Ah, no, that’s―”

 ”―because she’s related to the offender.”

 Diana interrupts me as if to follow up on the easy breakdown of my resolute attitude under the pressure of the aggressive Bellick-san.

 ”It’s natural to punish the offenders. But I know that you value your families above all else. I know that some of you would sacrifice yourselves to free your families. That’s why I’ve decided that the punishment should be borne not by the offenders but by their relatives.”

 ”It can’t be…!”

 Hearing Diana’s words, Bellick-san’s face turns paler than ever.

 Yes, my idea of punishment was, as Diana said, to make the family members of the offender bear the punishment, not the offender.

 The people who were brought to this settlement were all people who did not want to be separated from their families and wanted to be sold as a family unit.

 Because they are such family-oriented people, they would not like to have their families punished more than they would like to be punished themselves, and I thought that this would be a much stronger deterrent than a heavy punishment.

 ”That’s all I have to say. Now go back to your work.”

 ”No! I’ll take the punishment myself! Please don’t hurt my wife!”

 ”Didn’t you hear me? I didn’t ask you to speak your mind, I asked you to go back to your work. Or do you want to make your wife’s punishment worse by committing more violations?”

 These words were the final blow to Bellick-san.

 Bellick-san, realizing that any further rebuttal would only make the punishment for Helene-san worse, leaves the office with tears in his eyes.

 …Well, this is more effective than I expected, and I’m feeling heavy.

 Why am I playing like a corrupt lord after being reborn in another world? Won’t I go down the rebellion route? Is this really okay?

 ”Now, the punishment for her, Master Neil…”

 ”Huh? Ah, I haven’t thought about the punishment yet.”

 ”Huh…? What do you mean?”

 Helene asks me anxiously.

 Well, I guess it makes no sense to say that I haven’t thought about what the punishment would be when I’ve said that I would punish her instead.

 So, as I expected her reaction, I replied with the words I had prepared in advance.

 ”As you know, this settlement is just starting and we are short of manpower. It would be easy to punish you, but I don’t want that to hinder the operation of the settlement. Therefore, at this time, the punishment for you will be withheld. You are also forbidden to say anything else about this matter. If you break the rule, you will be severely punished.”

 Diana leaves Helene-san alone, leaving no room for questioning.

 It can’t be helped because an unscheduled reply makes things worse.

 As soon as it was just me, Diana, and Lewya in the office, I leaned back in my chair as if I had lost my tension.

 ”Ah… It’s like I’m going to die…”

 ”Master Neil, we are in front of Lewya-sama, don’t relax a little later…”

 ”Why? I don’t think it’s important to make things right now in front of her.”

 ”Yes, don’t worry about me, I’m not going to tell anyone and nobody I know is going to tell anyone.”

 ”You see?”

 ”That’s not the point.”

 Diana holds her head with one hand as if she has a headache.

 ”Well, let’s not get too formal about this later, I’m just taking a break from having to punish people.”

 ”No, Master Neil, we haven’t solved the problem yet.”

 ”I know, you’re saying we’re not cleaning up the problem, we’re just delaying it. So, I’ll deal with that one in due time―”

 ”No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that you haven’t punished me yet.”

 Huh? Punishment for Diana? What is that?

 ”Last night I failed to capture Bellick and I’ve been at Master Neil’s mercy. I’m ashamed to be your servant.”

 ”No, I didn’t order you to go after him, and I didn’t leave it to Diana, but rather I went into it on my own, and with the help of Lewya-san, there’s no need for Diana to feel ashamed, much less be punished for it.”

 ”No, as long as Master Neil entrusted me with the management of the slaves, I will be responsible for any escapee who escapes.”

 Oh, no, this is the usual trend that she won’t back down unless I give in or offer a compromise that Diana can agree to.

 I look to Lewya-san for help, but as expected, she is not going to give me any advice this time either.

 What’s the difference between this and last night, when she volunteered to help me?

 Please give me a break, why do I have to deal with the problem of punishing someone one after another?

 ”No, that’s, let’s put Diana on hold for the time being.”

 ”So you’re just going to let it go away like that?”

 Oh, she knows…

 ”No! That’s not true! Because, as Diana said, we’re short on manpower, especially Diana, who has the role of my servant that no one else can take care of, and I need you to be in perfect condition at all times.”

 ”Neil.”

 As I’m blabbering on about how we can avoid this problem, Lewya-san, who had been keeping silent, interrupts me.

 Just as I was hoping that she would give me a helping hand, Lewya-san calmly tells me of a possibility.

 ”If you insist on not punishing her, I think you will probably just punish Diana in a way you are satisfied with, won’t you?”

 …Well, there is certainly a possibility, or rather, Diana who is willing to be punished in this way would definitely do it.

 And Diana is not the type of person who would lighten the punishment just because she imposes it on herself.

 In fact, she is the type of person who is strict with herself. And donsidering the heavy punishment she was going to impose on Bellick-san, it would be better for my mental health if I were the one to think of the punishment here.

 If that’s the case, then I have no choice but to try to think of a punishment that Diana would agree with, and that would be within the limits of my mental health.

 (Oh, is this a punishment? I think it is just a shame play.)

 But it is an unbelievable thing in this world, and I may be able to push it through as a punishment.

 The question is what to choose among them… Okay, I’ll go with this one, even if it’s a bit abnormal.

 ”Diana, give me your ear.”

 ”Yes, can I help you?”

 ”You know―”

 ”―What!?”

 When I tell her what the punishment is, Diana looks unusually upset and backs away.

 I can’t help but notice a slight hint of disdain in her eyes, but I don’t want to think about it for a moment.

 ”I see, so that’s the way you want to go… I understand, I’ll accept your punishment.”

 Good, it’s a relief that she accepted it… or is it?

 I can’t help but feel a bit delicate about this, even though I thought it myself.




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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.

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