Having delivered that blood-boiling proclamation, Atlas quietened down. He wiped the spittle surrounding his lips using his sleeve and politely sat down.

“Cough, cough, As for my third order; Proceed with excavating the trapped miners. Inform Baron Helm to come back to the town. Butler Rohm will take over his duties over there,” Atlas instructed.

“I thought I was supposed to give my fullest in saving those men,” Butler Rohm said in a mirthless tone.

“You can do both. I believe in you,” Atlas smilingly replied. He even gestured pumping up his fists while quietly chanting ‘fight on, fight on!’

Butler Rohm looked even less amused than usual.

‘Ah!~ Been a while since I’ve done that. It’s really refreshing.’ Messing with other people is a time-tested and super effective stress-relieving method.

“I believe that settles matters for now,” Atlas clapped his hands. Turning to face the scout, he asked, “You got all of that, right?”

“I think s–” Atlas glared at the man. “I did, milord!”

“Good,” Atlas flashed a gentle smile in response. “You may leave now. Take care to deliver the orders properly.” The scout nodded his head in earnest affirmation. He then spoke his goodbyes and left to deliver the news to the Baron.

“How’s the work progressing?” The little prince asked the butler.

“The flooded areas in the eastern part of the town have more or less been cleared. Following your orders, I dismissed the kids and asked them to go to the Child Shelter to receive their meals.” Atlas had instructed Butler Rohm to dismiss the children from their work, one hour after sunset. The work was done, hence Atlas had no qualms about releasing them.

“How’s their work?”

“It’s adequate,” replied Butler Rohm.

“Any major incidents? Injuries and the likes?” While it was difficult to imagine a child worker sustaining injuries from digging the ground, Atlas decided that he really couldn’t take any chances with this world. Who knows what the next RNG event might be?

“None at all.” Butler Rohm shook his head.

“That’s good,” Atlas quietly released a sigh of relief. “How’s the Great Barrier Reef coming along?”

“Pardon, your highness?” A queer expression appeared on the Butler Rohm’s face.

“So dumb. So dumb,” Atlas repeated twice and even clicked his tongue. He then gazed at the butler with pitying eyes and asked again, “I meant the dam. How’s the dam coming along?”

Butler Rohm stared at the little prince’s twitching, mirthful face with stony, unblinking eyes. He held his stare for an entire minute before coldly replying, “Fine.”

Atlas leaked a smile and clapped his hands. “That’s fantastic! You may go now, Butler Rohm. I believe you have work to do now.”

“Would you like me to draw a bath, your highness?” Butler Rohm weakly rebuked. He normally would’ve said nothing at the little prince’s attempts to mock him. However, seeing that smug smile on his doll-like face strangely rubbed him the wrong way.

“No thanks, Butler Rohm. I wouldn’t want to trouble an aging elder like you with more work when you’re already swamped with a lot of it,” answered the prince, kindly.

Hearing the words ‘aging’ and ‘elder’, Butler Rohm felt a vein pulse on his forehead. It had to be known that Butler Rohm was a man in his early forties. Sure, he might look two decades older than his actual age, but that had nothing to do with his vigor.

“I shall thank the prince for his magnanimity,” Butler Rohm stonily thanked before turning around to head out of the tent. He did not want to spend a single second more in the presence of that annoying brat for the butler was afraid that he might lose control of himself and smack the brat.

‘Inner peace. Inner peace. Don’t let that brat wind you up. You mustn’t bring shame to your master,’ Butler Rohm calmed himself, one step out of the tent. Just as he was about to fully exit the tent, he suddenly stopped himself, turned around, and asked the prince, “About the traditional festival of the Morrans… is it true?”

“Have I ever lied?” Atlas asked with a smile. Butler Rohm stopped himself from calling the prince a ‘two-faced bastard’. Replying such was unbecoming of his station and would only bring dishonor to his master.

“Not to my knowledge, your highness.”

“There you have your answer then,” Atlas smiled. He then waved his hands and said, “Leave quickly now. People are dying and they need you to save them. I’d rather avoid widowing any more wives or orphaning any more children if possible.”

Butler Rohm left with a huff.

“See, now that was hella rejuvenating,” Atlas spoke out loud before bursting into a peal of laughter. “I gotta do this more often!”

His gift of the gab was an ability bestowed upon him by God and a skill that he had spent a majority of his life polishing. To not use it as often and as frequently as possible would both be an insult to God and himself.

“I spent every waking second of my transmigrated life walking a tightrope over an abyss filled with flames that I never had the luxury to let loose a little. Letting it all out now truly relaxes me on a spiritual level.” It was good to relax one’s mental state every now and then. This went especially true for a person like Atlas.

‘Now then… I can finally write off the miner event to be complete. Although the outcome is far from the ideal version that I hoped for, it is what it is. Eighteen deaths should hit us pretty hard, but it’s still within the acceptable margin. Now, I’ve gotta start planning how I’m going to break this news. People are NOT going to be pleased.’

‘At least, I don’t have to worry about sending more of our already diminished rations to those people. That made-up story should make the wolf meat go down easier. Hmm, I wonder what that tastes like? Should I’ve asked them to save me some?’

‘The miners trapped inside the mines shouldn’t be in that much trouble. Though, I suppose there’s bound to be a lot of injured amongst them. Maybe even a few deaths? We wouldn’t know for sure until we interrogate one of the miners. But boy, I sure hope more people don’t end up dead. I can’t lose more workers.’

‘Speaking of lost workers, now that I’ve gotten away with child labor, perhaps, I can push it? Morale is sure to take a huge hit once people hear about the dead miners. Maybe I can use that opportunity to quietly push forward this change? This needs to be thought out in-depth sometime later. People of this world seem to be a little touchy-feely on this matter. I cannot thoughtlessly rush it.’

‘The dam is also finally done. Gotta hand it to Douglas. He might be a strange pervert that overly likes to gossip, but he’s at least sincere about his duty. I suppose I can reduce his sentence for slighting me. Death would be a terrible waste of that guy’s talent. Perhaps, a hundred floggings would do?’

‘I have to call him over tomorrow and discuss the dam. I poured so many resources into that project that the town is completely drained of all its stockpiled resources. Surely, we can use it for something, right? Right?’

‘That reminds me. I also have to get the worker back to working their regular jobs again. A two-day vacation for a mere five days of work? What’s this? A first-world country? Ha! I better increase their working hours to make up for the deficit and the loss sustained in this period. Some may complain at the start, but with clever manipulation and the carrot-and-the-stick tactic, I should be able to push it through.’

‘Oh, I almost forgot. We’re running dangerously low on rations. If I recall correctly, we barely have enough to cover tomorrow and then… that’s it!’

Now that all the major problems had been resolved, Atlas was back to worrying about the minor ones. (To think that he’d consider the lack of food as a ‘minor’ problem, just went to show how major the other problems were.)

While rubbing his forehead expecting an incoming headache, Atlas stared at the ceiling. After blankly staring for a while, he decided to try out an idea that had come to him quite some time ago. ‘I’ve never done this before, but I guess it can’t hurt to try?’

Putting his hands together, Atlas clasped his fingers. He then closed his eyes, assumed his best pious expression, and began to pray.

“If you’re watching me, Gods, I sure hope that you can help your favored child out and provide me with a care package or something. Nothing too grand. Just a few tonnes of fresh produce would be excellent. Did you get that? I’ll repeat just to make it stick. A few tonnes of fresh produce will be very much appreciated!”

“So, how about it? Will it be ‘cloudy with a chance of meatballs?’” The little prince appealed and then held his silence.

A minute or so later, Atlas sneakily opened an eye and searched around. He hoped to find a sign or something that would tell him that the Gods above had heard his prayer and had decided to help him out.

Searching for nearly five minutes rendered him no result. There was no sign.

“A ‘message received’ would go a long way, you know? Just saying…” Atlas grumbled, before grabbing onto his head and burying himself into the table. “Why did I do that? It’s so stupid. Gosh, that was embarrassing.” He immediately knew that this moment would forever imprint itself into his mind and would come to haunt him during those late, sleepless nights.

After wallowing in self-embarrassment for an unknown period of time, Atlas finally unburied himself. He then held the back of his neck and stretched his neck, trying to get rid of a knot that had formed at the base of his head.

“Maybe I should stretch.” He decided so and exited the tent. Walking out into the moonlight darkness, Atlas stretched the various parts of his body.

The moon shone with soft white light, illuminating the earth beneath the cloudless sky. A cool draft gently blew across, bringing with it freshness and the calming scent of nature. The ground underneath his feet gently crunched as Atlas walked over its domain.

After doing some of the basic stretches, Atlas rested his hands on his hips and looked around. He was currently alone and surrounded only by nature. The tents and other constructs that previously populated this area had been cleared after their destruction by the flood.

“I don’t think I’ve said this, but the air is really fresh around here, huh?” It indeed was refreshingly fresh. Far, far better than that polluted smog that he breathed in his previous world. He inhaled another lungful of the fresh air.

“That feels great,” Atlas remarked, sensing his body’s reinvigoration. “Is this why people often go camping? To live within the wilderness?” It was a question that always befuddled him whenever he saw or heard people talking about the topic. Like, why would you go out of your way, abandon the comforts of the modern world, and live in the forest like an animal?

However, now that he was in a similar situation himself, Atlas felt like he had vaguely understood those people’s obsessions.

“If I was given the choice, I would choose to stick with my modern lifestyle. Clean air is cool and all, but have you heard about the bidet?” Atlas’ words revealed just how much he missed the comforts of a modern toilet. He could live without good food and clean water, but without a proper toilet… that was Atlas’ version of life in hell.

“Inventing the toilet, that’s going to be the next project!” Atlas declared to himself.

Rustle! Rustle! The sound of leaves rustling suddenly rang out. Immediately turning around, Atlas yelled, “WHO’S THERE!?”

“Ah! I’ve finally found ya, your hi’ness!” A man replied with a lisp and walked out of the treeline.