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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

Re:Zero and other products related to the this series are all owned by Tappei Nagatsuki.

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Chapter 21: Of Successes, and Punishments

Warning! Spanking ensues.

"Hanumas?"

Emilia sounded surprised when she parroted the name of the place they were going to visit, but Subaru was fine with the interest he spotted in her eyes. And he couldn't blame her for that. Up to this point, they had focused some effort on improving Arlam to be a proper 'core-settlement' within the Mathers' domain, but it would be a lie to say it was the only or the most important town within the domain itself.

Hanumas' income was twice, if not thrice, larger compared to Arlam's due to its peculiar location: right at the edge of the Mathers' territory with the border over the crownlands. It was the 'entry point' into Roswaal's turf, and a place merchants preferred to check and stay at due to the safety of the path and the location's environment provided compared to the path and the limited safe space Arlam could afford.

While it was rightful for them to not neglect any small settlements such as Arlam, Hanumas was a primary source of income for the domain and, once it was improved too, it would provide them the chance to explore bigger projects. Subaru wasted hours of free time thinking, planning and eventually preparing some suggestions in that regard. Emilia was earnestly reading, thinking and nodding at some while rejecting a couple.

Either for economic reasons or because she felt some were just too 'outlandish' this early on. Normally, rejection would be taken poorly by Subaru after he put so much effort into it, but the half-elf calmly explained why he couldn't accept a couple of those. And he was glad to hear that since he wasn't one that defined himself an expert and, truth be told, didn't even expect these many to pass the girl's strict study.

Still, by the end of that lengthy analysis, Emilia agreed on the main point of this presentation: if they wanted to expand their current resources, they needed to expand Hanumas itself. Before going, Roswaal gave them a warning regarding the settlement. The place didn't have the same kind of nice people as there were in Arlam. While the administration was loyal to Roswaal and was going to treat them properly, the merchants were not going to be as trustworthy.

It was a fair expectation considering some of those weren't even affiliated with Lugnica. And yet Subaru wasn't too worried about it considering his current situation with Elsa and Emilia took the cake in terms of deadliness. It didn't help that Ram was assigned to keep behind and replace Rem in taking care of Meili ever since her and Petra started to train to 'become maids'. That whole situation was just a ticking bomb ready to explode on his face, but he was willing to ignore it for now and try to defuse the mess he was currently dealing with. Hopefully.

Their arrival to Hanumas came after two days of traveling, with the locals going to greet them while guards allowed them to reach the mayoral building where the chief of the settlement greeted them. The old man and his wife, who were both in charge of the city, gave them the most polite greeting, offering them tea, a nice necklace to Emilia and a tour of the place. It was a new sight for sure, and Subaru could compare Arlam's infrastructure to Hanumas'.

Emilia was hooked by the different sights too, but her view had the city stuck in the middle of Arlam as the less-developed and the capital. It was a very big difference compared to the capital, and yet Subaru could see her point as the city had taken some inspiration in the architectural style from some spots in the capital. Could it be that the builders behind these were also the same as the one that made the buildings in the capital? Maybe.

Subaru looked around, listened to what their guide told them about and... tried to look unfazed by the fact both Elsa and Emilia were hugging in his arms. First, it was the assassin, clearly provoking the half-elf to protect her claim too by tagging along. It was a sight for sure, and it made a few people around look amused and outright laugh when they also saw the face Rem had. The stoic maid was mostly expressionless, but her head shakes showed a strong degree of disappointment in the entire situation.

The tour lasted roughly an hour. They really went into details when it came to the various businesses that had settled down in the city and provided a steady and growing source of income. Not only that, but some of these places offered them food. And it was quickly becoming clear to Subaru, the more they delved into the hospitality shown by the locals, that this was also becoming a date. The issue was understanding who was part of it, who was the third wheel and how it was possible for a fourth wheel such as Rem to be part of this whole issue.

Once the tour was over, the four retreated to the living quarters provided by the mayor. Emilia invited Subaru to join her for some planning while Rem kept an eye on Elsa while they were busy. It was a power move, and one that Subaru conceded to so that no more bickering would happen as they delved down into the paperwork they had to deal with. And there was a lot to talk about after a solid hour of looking into properties.

The first thing that came to mind was the fact that there was no 'builders guild' in town. As he had rightfully suspected, the city relied on hiring people from the capital to build new buildings in Hanumas, thus getting to pay quite extra for the whole work and the upkeep of the property. Since the builders were contracted to the Royal Builders Guild, they were entitled to a hefty fee just to get hired by someone that wasn't the crown, and, at the end of the works, the crown would own 30% of the building's value and would give it up for more money to fill their coffers.

While that wasn't an issue if one considered this something that happened 'once or twice a year', the problem was that the Hanumas was approaching critical levels when it came to housing. The guide had tried to sugarcoat the mess, but it was clear that the presence of makeshift huts, a worrying rise in poverty, and quite a lot of beggars in the streets were not positive signs.

The housing situation needed to be fixed at once, and a few options were on the table.

"We could try to spend a lot to hire numerous builders from the capital, create a delay for the problem and then campaign to 'create' local builders through an education campaign."

"The expenses would be too high for Roswaal to accept," Subaru remarked, nodding to the points raised by Emilia but knowing these were unfeasible. "And 'creating' builders would take too much time. Even with a massive spending effort, there's just too great of an influx of new people in the city. It would tamper any progress and deepen the economic issue it could lead to."

The half-elf hummed in agreement. "Then what about we... trick the law?"

"What?"

The girl smiled, "W-Well, since the fee regard a guild-contracted builder and his crew, how about we hire one to settle in Hanumas, take unemployed men in his crew and do this work as an independent hire."

"But he is contracted to the guild-"

"Not if him or others like him are contracted to create a new guild here in Hanumas and the contract would be considered legally more binding than the one to the capital due to his relocation."

Subaru leaned back on his chair at this idea. "Would they even accept it?"

"Depends on who we ask," Emilia added. "Not everyone in the guild is treated equally and some people with noble families are favored the most. I think some will accept it if we give them a good pay."

It would be a continuous expense, and it would lessen the economic burden just marginally... but, at the same time, it would open up the chance to not only provide construction efforts that would cost cheaper, and also help them expand Hanumas so that more people coming from lesser settlements could come without risking poverty. It would also open job opportunities and, with a small tax applied to the guild, it would effectively solve the issue and make up for the expenses.

Subaru nodded in relief at that, and the two ended up dealing with a few more minor issues along the way. The housing issue was the primary mess to deal with, but there was also a need to rework the sewers to be less... 'antiquate'. Then fixing the water supply plumbing and ultimately dealing with new tariffs to implement to protect local activities.

Everything was set to be a successful push forward, and, without thinking much about it, a tired Subaru accepted a glass of wine offered by Emilia. The girl was smiling a bit cheekily compared to previously, but he didn't seem to pick up on that as he drank from the glass and... felt the fruity taste kick him awake while also bringing his restraint down. Emilia waited patiently, sipping from her own glass and ignoring the rising heat due to the alcoholic beverage.

Her plan was soon going to be accomplished and-

"D-Did you just try to make me drunk so you could do things to me?" Subaru suddenly asked, his words slurred to a degree but quite easy for anyone to understand.

Emilia tensed up at that, her eyes widening at being caught by Subaru and... the fact he sounded quite serious about it. Did she mess up?

"Y-Yeah?"

...

"And you thought it would have worked on me?"

She nodded slowly.

"Come here. Now."

A shiver went down her spine, part of her didn't want to comply with the order, but Emilia still accepted and approached him. Soon, he was bent over his lap, confused as she felt him raise her skirt and lower her panties. More shuddering, confusion rising as she felt like she had been in this very situation before but... with a woman? Someone older than her, someone caring but also-

SLAP!

Strict!

What Subaru was doing to her, it was something really familiar to Emilia. She wasn't sure where she experienced this first before, but spanking was something she heard about and yet had little to no recollection of dealing with it before now. It was the feeling of resting her belly on his legs, the unease of her butt being exposed to the cool air of the room, and the warmth injected onto her buttocks through the harsh slapping. Her cheeks reddened quite fast due to how pale her skin complex was. Biting down on moans as the spanking went on for a while, Emilia couldn't help but feel like she won something out of this. And yet it was painful. Quite so. So, why did she feel happy about this? She couldn't tell. She only knew that the way Subaru was handling her, despite being a bit rough, wasn't cruel. It was punitive, it was just showing how wrong she was. How naughty she was~.

Sighing, and then yelping in pain, Emilia's brain turned off as she just endured the experience as much as she could.

Unaware to both, Elsa and Rem had gone to check on them and were peeping through the mostly closed door. The tall assassin had a hand brought to her lips, muffling a genuine giggle of amusement and arousal, while Rem just stared at the scene... her cheeks flaring red as she felt her panties growing damp.

Once again, the maid thought, Barusu proved himself a very odd individual with the way he handled the attention and the affection he was getting. Still, time was on her side and her plan will soon enter into motion...

AN

First alternative Arc: 'Fixing Hanumas'. While you may think this is just another round of sexual innuendos and scenes, this is actually the beginning of some serious issues even with Subaru's recent successes. For those that have yet to find the Re Zero Wiki map of the world, I will tell you only this: they are quite close to where the Whale had started to attack the merchants. And Pandora is feeling quite bored.

P.S. I now have a discord server! Discord .gg/ceBMM2Zz6c