Demon's Virtue

"Of course, what do you expect? The last hero was the strongest that we"ve seen in hundreds of years, and he was killed as if he was just a bug. People didn"t see much hope in defeating the King, so they pushed the blame onto the one person they could. Jura." As the Elder Dwarf pointed this out, Eiro just started slowly growing more and more angry.

"Hmm, then maybe I should end those that did that to him?" The Demon muttered quietly although Armodeus swiftly responded, "That would mean you would have to destroy the world, something that I doubt even you can do. But there is something else I would like to speak about." The Craftsman pointed out, and Eiro lightly raised his brow.

He was still angry, but it wasn"t like he could change anything about what happened in the past. He would try to change Jura"s reputation after his death if he could, but there was no use in trying to kill everyone in this world. So, Eiro just looked at Armodeus and waited for him to speak.

"Which cards do you have?"

With a slight frown, Eiro looked at him in surprise, "Why do you want to know?" He asked, and Armodeus just so slightly smirked.

"Curiosity. As you"ve probably noticed..." The Dwarf started, however before he could finish, Eiro spoke, "You also have a card. Yeah, I noticed." Eiro replied, and Armodeus just started to laugh loudly.

"Well then, guess I should start first then, huh? Mine is the Eight of Pentacles, dubbed "Hands of G.o.d"."

"Makes sense. That should be the perfect card for someone like you." Eiro pointed out, and then just thought of the story of the one that first received this card.

It wasn"t as tragic as some of the others" stories, but still pretty interesting in the end. It was the story about a prodigious young craftsman, whose hands were crushed after he was falsely accused of stealing something from a n.o.ble.

Despaired over this, the craftsman tried to end his life, but the Arcane Dealer appeared before him and gave him the card that changed his life for the better again. He could move his hands even better than before they were crushed, and he used them to create a Sword that could kill anything.

That blade was then used to kill the n.o.ble that falsely accused him, but due to his malice in the creation of the sword, it became cursed and killed him along with the n.o.ble.

"Of course, it"s the card made to be used by craftsmen!" He exclaimed, and then looked at Eiro curiously, "Now tell me, which cards are yours?" Armodeus questioned the Demon, who just sighed deeply and leaned against the wall.

"Ace of Cups, Three of Swords, and Five of Pentacles." Eiro explained, making Armodeus just smirk broadly, "Well, well. Never expected to see a triple card owner in my lifetime. But the three of swords, huh? That would explain what you said before..." Armodeus muttered quietly. Hearing this, Nelli just turned toward Eiro confusedly.

"Why? What did you say before?" She asked the Demon, who just slightly sighed in annoyance because he really wasn"t in the mood to fight about something like this now, "We were speaking about the cause of that kid"s injuries, and Solomon mentioned it might have been a card, the Three of Swords. And I just said that it couldn"t have been that. I didn"t tell them that it"s impossible because it"s my card, obviously, so calm down."

"That"s still one of the less smart things you"ve done..."

"I know, but I felt bad for the kid. He lost his arm and leg. I know how at least part of that feels. I didn"t want them to chase wrong clues." Eiro pointed out, and at that point, Nelli couldn"t really complain anymore, "As long as you don"t actually tell them you"re a card owner, it should be fine..." The Naiad replied, and Armodeus was just rather silently staring at Eiro.

"It"s still quite weird to me. A monster with true compa.s.sion? Sure, it"s not like that"s unheard of, but that only happened a handful of times in recorded history..." Armodeus pointed out, and Eiro simply shrugged.

"Yeah, I haven"t heard much about that either. But personally, I"m more curious about what you made for the kids for now. We can"t stay too long, so I"d like to know before we head off again."

Surprised, the Elder Dwarf crossed his arms, "You"re leaving already? Not staying in town for a little while?"

"Not for now, sorry. I"m sure Jura told you about it, but my youngest boy and oldest girl both had their unique skills sealed. Leon"s seals are starting to break his body down already, and it can"t be too long before it happens to Sammy as well."

"It started already?!" Armodeus asked with a loud scream, and then with concern stared at the demon in front of him, "You still have the potions that Christoph made, right? The one to hold that off from happening?"

"I do, don"t worry. And we"re ahead of our travel schedule, so it should all hopefully last. We"re heading out tomorrow morning as soon as the sun rises. Tonight I just wanted to get the things you made and get the kids their cla.s.ses before then." Eiro explained, "So please, I don"t want to be rude, but after I made those prosthetics we don"t have much time left to get to the Church. Could you just tell me about the weapons?"

With a slight grumble, Armodeus nodded his head, "Sure. But I think I might have a solution to your problem. Kings usually have their own Cla.s.s-Change crystals with them, because their royal guard always needs to be in peak form. You"re his benefactor now, so he"s surely going to let you use it." Armodeus explained, and Eiro raised his brows surprised, "Oh, that might work!" He exclaimed, "Let"s try that." Eiro said with a satisfied smile, and Armodeus chuckled slightly, and just followed Eiro"s request.

"Well, anyway. All I made were simple things in the shape of the training ones you made for them. Swords, a Staff, Bow and arrows, a damage-focusing s.h.i.+eld... And other than that, just some armor for everyone. For Arc and Sammy, they"re focused on letting them move. Rudy"s is large and bulky, but really light because the armor is just for show so that n.o.body suspects anything when he doesn"t get damaged by strong attacks. Clementine just got specially woven robes that let her easily heal herself should she use that skill of hers." Armodeus swiftly explained and then turned around as he walked toward a box standing on the table that he then opened up.

"Then, there are some other things as well, of course. Pots and pans made for travel, magic items to make your life a bit easier, and then some simpler things like Spark-Snappers, Whetstones, threads, leftover cloth, and so on." The Elder Dwarf added, swiftly getting all of those items out of the box one after another, before looking at the table next to him.

"And then there"s also something else for you." The Elder Dwarf pointed out and then grabbed a small, bright-red Dagger.

"It"s a Drake-Fang Dagger. It generally enhances any sort of Fire Magic. That should be your forté, right?" Armodeus asked, but Eiro just looked at him with his eyes slightly squinted, "Oh, what gave that away? The Water Spirit floating next to me? Or how I used water magic before? Or the blue parts of my horns and hands?" The Demon replied, but Armodeus was just a bit confused.

"What? What do you mean?" The Elder Dwarf asked, and Eiro just slightly sighed as he extended his hand over toward Nelli as she produced a small sphere of water for Eiro"s demonstration, "I do use any magic that I have access to, sure. But mostly, I use fire magic to bring water to a boil..." Eiro started, and the sphere of water slowly started to bubble and give off steam before immediately freezing and turning into ice, "So that I can freeze it. My forté isn"t fire, it"s ice. I was blessed by the former Naiad queen and the Lady of Winter."

"..." Silently, Armodeus just stared at Eiro for a while, before closing his eyes and breathing out deeply with annoyance, "What?" he asked confusedly, and Eiro just looked back at him with a light smile. "Yup, sorry. I mean, that does seem like a pretty good dagger, though... But when it comes to flame-infusion, I"ll still keep this one, I think." Eiro explained, slowly running his hand through the air to pick up his regular dagger from his treasury, making the decorated dagger with the red magic stone in its handle appear in his wooden hand.

And the moment that Armodeus saw this, he opened his eyes wide, "C-Could I take a look at that?" He asked quietly, and Eiro slightly frowned and handed the dagger to him nervously, "Sure... but be careful, that thing"s basically a treasure to me. But now that you mention it, a second dagger might be a pretty good idea. Can I take a look around what you have here?" Eiro asked curiously as he placed the dagger into Armodeus" hand, and the Elder Dwarf slowly raised his head.

"Hm? Oh, of course, of course. I keep the daggers over there against that far wall. Listen, do you mind if I maybe grind this down a bit? Just sharpen it properly, remove some of the nicks and scratches in it?"

With a deep sigh, Eiro scratched his cheek and nodded his head, "Sure? As long as you don"t break it or anything..."

"Tsk, who do you think you"re talking to?" Armodeus asked with a click of his tongue as he stepped over toward a grinding wheel standing in the corner of the room, while Eiro walked around the room to look at the Daggers that the Elder Dwarf mentioned.

There were a few that were pretty interesting, although none that seemed special enough to be worth using, as far as Eiro was concerned. Sure, some of them had interesting gimmicks and properties, but there wasn"t anything that really made the Demon think that he wanted to actually use any of them in a fight.

That was until he found a certain black dagger. Outwardly it didn"t really seem too interesting, at least not more so than the other daggers that were hanging from the wall or laying on the table here, but Eiro could tell that there was something special about it.

That was because the actual blade had a hollow core and had some small holes coming out of it. Once he picked it up, he noticed that despite it lacking a fair amount of metal, it was still a bit heavier than the other daggers here, something that Eiro actually somewhat liked.

The handle itself also seemed to be hollow and could be filled with a liquid if needed to. After Eiro took a closer look at the small holes and edges in the dagger that would seem just like decorative carvings to others without visual capabilities like Eiro"s, he noticed that a bit deeper in, the metal was actually pressed shut, so no liquid that may be on the inside could drip outside.

At the very least, it couldn"t do so like this, but when Eiro cooled the metal down some with ice magic, he saw that the tiny holes opened back up.

With a grin on his face, Eiro held this rather interesting weapon in his hand and tried to just swing it a few times to see how well it would lie in his hand, before smiling with satisfaction. It seemed like he actually found a rather interesting weapon for himself.

But when Eiro turned around to tell Armodeus about the dagger he would like in that "Drake-Fang" Dagger"s stead, he just saw the Elder Dwarf staring down at Eiro"s regular dagger as if it was a lost treasure.