Sorry Goes a Long Way

Beulus' POV:

Gulp!

"Ahhhh, I just love the taste of beer after guard duty all day. How about you Hasrem? Your first day of teaching work out well?"

I turned to Hasrem as she looked up in thought, formulating an answer to my question while carefully choosing her words. She's always been like this, very smart in how she talks to people. Hasrem is definitely a smart woman, with both intellect and emotions.

"I had a good day, though I did have to put a brat in his place. That mini edge-lord just couldn't be quiet so I put him down with my pressure as a member of the Stone Class."

"What!? Hasrem, you do know how illegal that is, right? If anyone reports you, you could lose your job right there."

She laughed off my comment while moving her hands to show that she was fine, "I'll be fine. I made sure to blanket my aura over everyone there. They were probably all too busy coming to terms with their mortality to focus on me. Plus, even if I was reported, they would have to let me teach for the rest of the year, and that's all I want. After all, Quis is a very interesting student. I wonder how he'll turn out."

I stared at her with flabbergasted eyes before saying with a sigh, "So you gave everyone in that room trauma to not get reported? I wonder if you are mentally ill sometimes. But you are right that Quis is interesting. I'm sure you heard about what he did earlier today right?"

She all of a sudden got serious, "Yeah, I heard. I'm sure you know what we have to do."

I nodded at her. I really liked that kid, so I had to make sure he was raised correctly. If we let him run wild after losing his memories, who knows how he would end up? I had a feeling that Quis would become someone strong, so I had to make sure he used that strength correctly, and this was the start.

Ding!

Suddenly, a sharp ding pierced through the jumbled medley of noises reverberating throughout the bustling bar. It was a sound that soared above the rest, impossible to ignore. Every patron in the room, including me, turned their head toward the entrance, and that's when he walked in. It was Quis.

He looked around the silent bar, confusion sprouting out of his facial expression. If I were in his shoes, I'd also be confused. Why would an entire bar stop to view your entrance? He was smart though, so he should be able to understand what this was about quickly. I don't like lecturing my friends, so I would make this short.

"Cough, cough! Quis over here." I coughed a couple of times to get his attention, then told him to sit with us. He, although suspicious of the entire situation, still went along with my words and sat to the right of me. About ten seconds passed and the atmosphere was getting awkward, so I took it upon myself to be the bad person in Quis' eyes-

"Hey, why is everyone being so silent? I'm not that popular am I?"

He interrupted me just as I worked up the courage to be the bad guy? And he doesn't understand why this is happening? Maybe he is also stupid, just like Hasrem. It's alright, I'll just say it now. It'll be better if I say it sooner rather than later, so let's go ahead and do this-

"Hey Quis, how does it feel to be a sexual offender?"

Ugh. I felt some mental pain this time. Hasrem really is stupid, why would she start that strong? And why was everyone interrupting me? Never mind it. I am a patient individual. I can wait for my turn. Now it was more important to observe how Quis reacted to this.

"Hm? What do you mean by me being a sexual offender? I don't remember doing anything like that. Hey, don't hide behind your cup to protect yourself from me. If aren't careful you'll end up like a certain degenerate woman I know-"

Oh, so he wouldn't admit it? I guess I needed to give him an extra push. I'm sure that after this he'll reflect and come to understand what he did wrong.

"Quis, just admit it. I would go as far as to call you that, but you need to understand where we are coming from. You can't just do something like that to an innocent girl-"

BAM!!!

I saw Quis' fist hit the table with lightning speed, just when did he get that fast? Wait, that isn't what matters, why was he reacting like this? The Quis I know would think before acting like this, just what got him so angry as to ignore consequences?

"I did nothing of the sort! I am not a sexual harasser, nor am I some pervert! I did all of those things because Pulchra was willing. Don't make me seem like some sexual deviant. Hey Ms. Attu! Stop cowering lower than before!"

He got permission from Pulchra to do that? It seems unlikely, but I trust Quis enough to believe him, but still... I couldn't help but cover my face with my palm and shake my head. Either way, a man who liked a girl wouldn't show her skin to onlookers. That wasn't manly at all. I needed to teach him a lesson. It seemed like Hasrem shared my sentiment, but everyone else...

"Did Pulchra really let him do that?"

"There is no way. He must be just saying that to save his skin."

"Yeah, there is no way the pure and innocent Pulchra would allow such a thing."

It seemed like they didn't believe him one bit. They just didn't know Quis well enough to know that he was telling the truth. I don't like that they are judging him so harshly, but maybe Quis needs this. If he doesn't understand that such actions result in consequences like that, then he'll never stop.

Quis looked around the room, his vigorous aura turning into a depressed one. He got up and walked to the middle of the bar where everyone could see him. He sat down with his heels touching his butt, and slowly breathed in and out. After calming himself down, he bowed his upper body until his head touched the hard floor of the bar.

"I'm sorry."

I smiled when he said this. He wasn't so far gone after all. That makes me happy. I'll make sure to buy him a beer to enjoy after this, he deserves it. Being able to overcome the pride of wanting to be right is hard, especially at his age.

I'll have to say sorry once he gets older, maybe after he graduates.

____________________________________________

Quis' POV:

I walked through the dense jungle, finding my way through branches and bushes, twists and turns, ups and downs. Over the past couple of nights spent living in the jungle, I've been much better at navigation. Normally only 3 days and 2 nights wouldn't be enough time to get myself around like this, but I had the help of a hyperactive brain. I was able to memorize the map and compare my position to it relatively easily, it was quite convenient.

Thinking back to what happened back at the bar, I was still a little vexed. Thankfully I care very little for prideful matters such as those, so I was able to keep myself in check and apologize. After I gave my apologies, everything seemingly returned to normal, but I could feel some people talking about me behind my back.

'That incident did show me something important though, I need better social standing in the sect. That would've been much easier if either my social standing were higher, or if they understood the true nature of that decadent girl. I'm not worried about the long-term effects because everything would be explained sooner or later once things develop more between Pulchra and me, but this has shown me to understand my social standing better. I'm still just an outsider who has been here for not even a week. Everyone, even Beulus and Hasrem probably view me negatively now, so I'd better be more careful and bring them back.'

I thought about this while I opened the door of the small building in front of me. Soon a familiar scent of cleanliness and harmony entered my nose as the sight of containers and labels that were carefully ordered and managed in the room entered my eyes. It was the Fruit Hall.

I had to come back here for the resources I needed to grow my Crossbow Bolt Fruit in my Duranian. Then I would practice with the Fruit to get myself oriented with its fighting style. I couldn't do this in the past because of money problems, but recently I came into contact with a good amount of cash for no explicit reason. This would give me an activity to do for a while. However, there was still one obstacle I needed to overcome to get these resources, and she was right in front of me, sleeping without a care in the world.

In front of me lay that degenerate clerk/librarian. She was sleeping again, and I needed to ask her for the correct materials I should use for my Fruit. I just decided to skip the resultless hushed whispers and immediately went up to her with my hand pulled back.

"Ms. Clerk, I do recommend you wake up now, or I will be forced to act violently." There was, of course, no response. I took her silence as consent and propelled my hand, balled up in a fist, forward. Right before it was about to hit her square on the nose though, my fist stopped. Soon my pointy finger which was placing incredible pressure against my thumb a moment ago, was launched forward. It broke the resistance of the air in front of it easily, even causing some access air to hit my face.

Flick!

"Ack! That stings!" The sleeping clerk reacted as soon as my finger made contact with her nose. She covered her face with her hands as her eyes teared up slightly because of the pain. It wasn't soon until she regained clarity and took notice of her surroundings, and when her eyes glanced over me, she froze up.

"Hm! You're here? Don't tell me you're stalking me... Now that I think about it, there was some talk about you doing something horrible to Dartus' daughter. So it makes sense that a perverted boy like you would stalk a pure and defenseless woman like me-"

"To be honest Ms. Clerk, I'd rather not go through this with you again. Instead of me having to shut down your overconfident thoughts, why don't you just give me fifty sets of the resources needed to grow the Crossbow Bolt Fruit?"

Ugh!

The clerk seemed to take more damage from this than she would've if I just said a mean comment similar to the last time I saw her. It felt good to get some steam off on her so I continued, "Well? Come on then. If you can't do this much then what is it you're good at? I'm asking for something really basic here."

"Y-you can make fun of my attitude, but please steer clear of my usefulness!" Contrary to my expectations, she said something to hold her ground instead of instantly crumbling. But something as simple as this is easy for me to solve.

"Your usability? What is there for me to make fun of?"

Hnnng!

This one struck harder than normal, and she finally broke. She depressingly looked down and turned around before rummaging through some boxes. Soon she returned to the counter with 50 pieces of broken arrows. She, without being able to look me in the eye, dejectedly said, "That'll be 50 Dschungels for 50 Broken Arrow Branches."

I gave her 50 Dschungels from my bag of 100 and gave a satisfied nod as I watched her bag the broken arrows. It really was satisfying to take your pent-up emotions out on someone who deserved it. Not only had I gotten some stress relief, but I also got the needed resources to grow my Crossbow Bolt Fruits in my Duranian. This on top of the good progress I had with Pulchra after we escaped from the horde of people...

Today was a good day.