Demon's Virtue

"I want to speak to Irensen." Eiro said clearly and without hesitation, although the man that greeted them just looked at the Demon with a light smile. "I don"t think that"s going to be possible. Lord Irensen is a busy man. Not even Sir Chief Warrior, nor Sir Armodeus would be allowed to see him." The man explained, and Eiro just stared at him with a deep glare before turning toward the inside of the shop again.

He soon noticed some sound of work coming from the back, although he wasn"t entirely sure which of them Irensen was, "Then could you show us one of those special magic items that were made lately?" Armodeus asked instead, and the man slowly nodded his head with a slight bow.

"As you wish, Sir Armodeus." He replied, before starting to step further into the shop, "Follow me, if you please." The man added, and the three of them quickly did just that, showing them a display of a couple of different blades, wands, and staffs. But... the smell was off. There wasn"t even a trace of the Gnome"s scent in them.

Before Eiro could say anything about this, that task was taken over by Armodeus again, "Oh, you are saying that these low-grade weapons are something that Irensen made? I"m going to repeat myself, I want to see the special magic items that contain a certain special material." The Elder Dwarf explained, slowly pointing toward the Gnome that was floating by Eiro"s side.

The man squinted his eyes just so slightly in response and then nodded his head, "I see, so you are aware. As expected." The man said, "Then follow me to the second floor, please." He continued, and the group of three quickly continued to walk behind him up the stairs next to the shop"s entrance to get to the second floor.

Up there, Eiro took another look around, and immediately found what he was looking for. Although just to make sure again, Eiro turned toward the Gnome and smelled it again before immediately making his way through the room.

"Our selection of high-tier magic-compatible items is up here." The man explained, "Although even I do not exactly know which have that "special" ingredient or which do not." He added, and Armodeus just shrugged in response.

"That"s fine, I"d say. I"m sure he"s found them already." The Elder Dwarf pointed out with a smirk, just looking at the Demon that was currently walking around the shop while remembering the item-codes of the things that seemed to contain part of the Gnome"s body.

Once he finished walking around the room, he simply returned to the other three and stared at the worker.

"S234D. 3H23A. 9IBVT. 46G-" Eiro said in a clear voice, although the worker just looked at him with a bit of confusion on his face, "Sir, what may you be speaking about?" The worker asked, and Eiro just looked back at him with a frown, even if it was hidden under his mask.

"The codes for the things that were made with the Gnome"s body." He explained, and the worker just raised his brows in surprise, "You memorized those this quickly?"

It seemed like even Armodeus seemed pretty curious about that part, and Eiro just nodded his head in response, "I remember everything that I"ve seen, smelled, or heard in my life as if it just happened."

The worker, seemingly quite intrigued, placed his hands behind his back and formed a slight grin, "Is that so?"

"It is. Now give me those things before I cut yo-"

"Before we complain to the Lord." Armodeus interrupted immediately, not wanting Eiro to start something like this in a literal weapon shop, and the Demon just looked back at him disappointedly, "Right, or that." He grumbled, and the shop-worker just slightly smiled back at him and Armodeus.

"I don"t think that will be possible. We have a one-item per person policy." He explained, so Eiro just shrugged, "That"s fine. Gnome, come on." The Demon said, slowly helping the spirit over toward the first of the items.

"Nelli, can you help it refine its body back out of it?" Eiro asked the Naiad next to him, and she slowly placed her hand onto the shortsword in front of her, "I can try, at least."

"Excuse me, but what may you be doing?" The worker asked with a bit of confusion, and Eiro glared back at him, "Just taking back what"s rightfully ours."

Soon, Nelli wrapped her magic water around the blade to act as a conductor for the Gnome"s spirit refinement. After a little while, since nothing really seemed to be happening, the shop-worker just slightly chuckled.

"It seems like what you attempted did not really work." He pointed out, and Eiro, without even looking at him, immediately replied, "That"s what it looked like to you, huh?"

Confused at what Eiro was saying, not only the shop-worker, but even Enka and Armodeus walked up behind him as they stepped up to the next object, trying to repeat the same thing. But once the shop-worker just placed his hand onto the shortsword that they were at before, he immediately turned around toward Eiro and tried to pull him away from the next items.

"You are now banned from entering this shop at this or other locations. After you pay the full price for that sword, leave immediately." The worker said with a strict tone, and Eiro slowly turned his sight toward the sword and the small sign that was attached to its stand, "Hmm, so if I turn the things here useless, I can get away as long as I pay for the damages?" Eiro asked, and the worker looked at him with a deep frown.

"What do you mean? Sir, I know you may be accompanied by Sir Armodeus and Sir Chief Warrior, but I truly do not believe that you understand the cost of the items we sell. I doubt someone like you can afford even one of them. We do have payment-plans, however." The worker explained, and with a slight sigh, Eiro turned toward Enka.

"You"re the chief warrior, so basically you"re something like a guard or official, right?" The Demon asked him, and with a slow nod, Enka replied, "Technically, although a little higher up the ladder. Why?"

"Could you do me a favor and get started on a lengthy questioning of this shop"s staff about the usage of a Spirit"s body in their items?" Eiro asked, "And please, with as high a priority as possible."

With a slight grin, Enka turned toward the worker, just placing his arm around his shoulders before dragging him away, "That"s a pretty good idea, actually. How about we go over there for that?" Enka suggested, proceeding to pull the worker away by what could only be called force as Armodeus stayed there with Eiro. He was a bit confused over what just happened, although he did understand once he took a closer look at the shortsword.

"It became... useless." Armodeus muttered quietly, and Eiro raised his brow, "Useless? We just pulled a little of the Gnome"s body out of it grain-by-grain. It shouldn"t be that damaged, right?"

"No, it has literally become completely useless. It"s going to fall apart during its first battle. As a craftsman, I feel a bit bad about that since it is an amazing blade, but as a person, I would have just shattered it anyway." The Elder Dwarf explained, and Eiro just shrugged, "That"s fine with me. There are seven things here that have part of the Gnome"s body in them in total. I now know what different metals smell like when mixed with it, so I should be able to find the people that bought others as well."

"And what are you going to do if you find those people?" Armodeus asked, and as if it was obvious, the Demon just moved on to the next item and shrugged, "I will have the gnome extract its body from it."

"You know that these items are incredibly expensive, right? Sure, the people that can actually shop here are pretty wealthy, but that doesn"t mean they can just throw money out the window."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Nothing, I guess. I was just saying that I don"t feel great about punis.h.i.+ng someone that didn"t even know about the truth of the item they bought."

"That"s their own fault for being ignorant."

"It"s not ignorance if-"

"I don"t care. I don"t care about other people. I don"t care about their money, their feelings, or their reasons. If they won"t give me whatever they bought, I"ll just kill them and take it from them like that. I have no issue with such things, Armodeus." The Demon pointed out, "Why should I care?"

With a deep frown, the Elder Dwarf just looked back at the Demon, "That is wrong. You can"t just go and kill other people like that. That just makes you-"

Eiro ground his teeth, "So, killing monsters is fine and makes you a great person, but killing people makes you a monster? Armodeus, Jura once told me that I don"t have to choose sides. That I should make my own side. Since then, I"ve been neither a monster nor a person. I don"t care about backgrounds, race, intelligence, things like that. If you f.u.c.k with me, I"m going to kill you."

Rather angrily and disappointedly, Armodeus stepped up right in front of Eiro and stared into the place where his eyes would be underneath the mask, "I don"t think that"s what Jura intended when he told you about that."

"Maybe not, but that"s how it is. Just because I"m kind to my children doesn"t mean I"m a person all of a sudden." Eiro said, and then just saw Armodeus" expression. It was filled with grief, frustration, and pure and utter anguish over what Eiro just told him.

"Five Orcs, seven Forest Spiders, three Goblins, two Flame Elementals, one-" Eiro started enumerating, but Armodeus just looked at him confusedly, "What are you saying? Are those the things you"ve killed so far?"

With an annoyed grumble, Eiro shook his head, "No, that"s the minimum amount and type of monsters that had to die to make the things in this shop." The Demon revealed, and Armodeus opened his eyes wide in surprise as Eiro continued, "To people, monsters are a threat. But they are also an important resource. To monsters, it"s the same. People are a threat to their life, and so they kill and eat humans, use their bodies for nesting or weird rituals. When I chose to be neither of those two, I had to make a choice. Should I reject both perspectives, or engage them? Obviously both monsters and people are a threat to me. So why should I see them any different from one another?"

Slowly, Armodeus started to understand what the issue was here. But that still didn"t mean that he agreed, "I don"t care. Eiro, you can"t just go around killing people whenever they annoy you. That"s just-"

"Are you a complete f.u.c.king idiot?" Eiro asked angrily, and Armodeus looked at him with a slight startle, "Do you think I would be dumb enough to actually do that? I want to, of course. I wouldn"t feel bad about killing piece-of-s.h.i.+t people either. But considering that my children are still people, and the sins of a parent befall their children as well, I can"t go around using my standards the whole time." The Demon explained.

"And even if I say that I don"t mind killing people, that doesn"t mean I would just kill anyone. I do have friends that are people, after all. Since there"s nothing in this world that I wouldn"t kill, there"s nothing in this world I won"t give a chance to get close to me either."