“A little bit more to the left… Yes! Yes! And just lower your arm just a little bit– Yes! That’s it! Perfect!! Just hold it there!”

I did my best to do as she asked, which was basically me reaching out my hand towards the rising sun while holding my Light Sword in my other hand at my side.

The girls were all watching me at a distance and even without looking at them, I know they probably had the same expression on their faces where they were stuck admiring the pose that Ather had put me in.

To be fair, she really does know how to pose me to get the best effect.

Like before, she only needed me to hold the pose for a few minutes before she told me I could relax and she could finish the rest of the painting without me there.

I believe the speed of her painting was definitely not normal since the amount of details she had put into her paintings was definitely not something that could be done in the amount of time she uses.

I figured that to be the case when I noticed that while her hands seemed to move slowly along the canvas, parts of the canvas that she wasn’t touching seemed to be filling in on their own.

Then I realised that she must be using some skill or spell that was speeding up her painting specifically to allow that to happen. Maybe it was Chronomancy?

Either way, we got busy by packing up the rest of our camp so that we could set off immediately once she was done.

As if she had planned it, the moment we were done, she stepped back from her canvas and inspected her handiwork, prompting me to go over to take a look as well.

Just like all the previous paintings before this, it was beautiful enough to take my breath away, though for some reason, this one in particular felt a little different than before.

I’m not really sure what was giving me that feeling but the fact that Atherva was staring at the painting without saying anything for a good long minute might mean that this could be the perf–

“Failure again,” She sighed before I could finish my thoughts.

“Really?” I asked, right as Lisa came over and unceremoniously picked up the newest painting to bring back to the rest of the girls.

It’s gotten to the point they’re just taking any painting she does of me without even asking anymore huh…

Since Ather wasn’t complaining about it, I guess she didn’t mind so I didn’t say anything either.

The painter in question started packing her things while sighing, “It was better than the last ones I did… But only slightly better. It’s still not at the standard that I want yet.”

Oh, so that feeling I got from earlier was a sign that she was improving eh?

She quickly packed up her things and we were once again on the road, and I was once again alone in the back carriage.

Since I didn’t have anything else to do…

“Eins.”

My Shadow Guard appeared while seated across from me, giving me a seated bow as a greeting, “Master.”

“Mmm… I’m bored, Eins…” I sighed while hugging my egg and pouring mana into it. “What can I do?”

“If Master wishes for it, I can gladly suck you off.”

I rolled my eyes, “Not you too… I guess Lisa’s rubbing off on us huh? Actually… Not just her, it’s this entire World that thinks this way so I’m the weird one here… Whatever. If I didn’t just have the girls drain me last night, I would have accepted your offer but no.”

Eins paused for a moment before tilting her head at me, “In that case, would Master like to suck mine instead?”

I stared at Eins, wondering just what had gotten into her.

“I will not be doing that, Eins. At least not now.”

“Understood, Master.”

Before I could ask her to come up with something else instead, there was a sudden whistling sound coming from across the plains.

I turned in that direction to see the source of the whistling sound was from a giant boulder flying towards us.

What the heck?! Where did that come from?!

Right as I was thinking about jumping out of the carriage to deal with that, I saw Odeta leaping out of hers and jumping straight towards the boulder.

She gave it a good kick and sent it flying away from us, the giant rock crashing onto the ground a short distance away.

Nice one, Odeta!

Right then, several masked figures popped out from within the tall grass of the plains from both sides of the road and I realised this was a bandit ambush.

One of them must have had considerable strength to throw that boulder at us… Yet they still set a trap like this.

They revealed their bows and drew back on their bowstrings, all of them poised to shoot at us.

“Alright now! There’s no need for all of you to die here! Just get off the carriage and start running and you’ll be allowed to live!” One of the bandits shouted.

Tsk… My girls and I should be fine but I’m not sure if Ather is able to defend herself and our coachmen would also be in danger too.

Maybe we can pretend to surrender and run off first before we come back and hunt them down?

Before I could relay that plan to the girls though, Ather suddenly jumped off her carriage and… Wait… Are those wings on her back?!

They’re not like my dragon wings, hers were white in colour and had feathers which she was using to propel her right above one group of those bandits.

She then crossed her arms in front of her and two orbs of light appeared in front of her palms.

The light seemed to morph itself into a distinct shape before shattering, leaving two… What the heck?! She has two pistols in her hand!!

She tucked her wings and dove towards the ground, landing right in the middle of the bandits before she started spinning and shooting the pistols in her hands, killing the bandits around her.

My girls also leapt into action at the same time, separating themselves into two groups as they charged towards the left and right.

I also climbed out from my carriage to prepare myself to support them if needed but I doubt it.

My eyes were drawn to the artist as she fired her pistols accurately at each of the bandits, gunning them down with precision while dodging any arrows fired at her with minimal effort.

The bandits started panicking from the sight of their brethren being gunned down one after the other.

“What magic is that?!”

“I don’t know! I’ve never seen that before!”

“She’s a magic gunner you fools!! Hurry up and engage her at close range! We’re at a disadvantage at a ranged fight!!”

Huh… So there’s such a thing as magic guns in this World then? Good to know…

The remaining bandits drew their swords and tried to charge her but she didn’t seem that worried.

I watched as she switched her grip on her pistols so that she was holding them by the barrels instead.

No way… Is she going to…

The first bandit tried to slash his blade at her side but she caught it with the handle of one pistol before she smashed her other pistol across the side of his face, sending him stumbling back.

She had then flipped her first pistol around and fired a round into that guy’s head before spinning back to parry another sword slash coming from above her with her other gun.

Ather did a spin kick that struck the bandit across his face which spun her back to where she was facing while she spun her pistols in her hands with her right pistol tucked underneath her left armpit, the barrel of the gun pointing at the bandit she just kicked.

Two gunshots echoed from the plains as she fired behind and in front of her, killing another two bandits.

One more bandit tried to rush at her and she switched her grip on her pistol again to use it as a hook to divert the sword away from her, allowing her to get past the bandit’s guard to shove the barrel of her other pistol under that guy’s chin.

The bandit didn’t get to say anything before she pulled the trigger, blowing the guy’s head out.

On the other side, my girls were also just finishing up with wiping out the bandits, none of them even standing a chance against us.

As I thought, I didn’t even need to step in.

Ather straightened herself and the guns in her hand disappeared into particles of light, leaving no trace of them once the light particles scattered.

She then walked up to the carriage and I thought she would say something about her having guns or even the white wings of hers but…

“We’re stopping here for a while. This is a good scene to paint.”

You know… I’m pretty sure that besides painting, she doesn’t really think about anything else.

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