Demon's Virtue

And then, all of a sudden, the bubble of ice surrounding the boiling water shattered apart and the hot water started covering the ground as Eiro just stood there, looking around himself as the ice melted immediately and the hot water cooled down to fit the surrounding temperature. It was highly refined, after all, so such changes happened quickly.

As Eiro looked up into the sky with his teeth grinding against each other, Nelli went ahead and pulled all of the water out of Eiro"s clothes to properly dry him, before the Demon pushed a deep breath out of his body. It was rather hard to control his temper somehow, and his magic seemed to lose control similarly. After all, his breath had been heated up enough to create incredibly thick steam despite it not being all that cold right now.

And then, all of sudden, Eiro noticed something else. The moon was at a completely different position. For some reason, just seeing that helped Eiro snap out of it at least a little, so he turned toward Nelli. "How long was I in there?" The Demon asked, and Nelli slowly replied.

"Three hours, I think." She explained, and Eiro just so slightly narrowed his eyes down as he looked back at her, "Three hours without breathing?" Eiro replied, but Nelli simply shrugged.

"You were inside highly-refined water, and you"re not exactly a regular being. Maybe the mana gave you what you needed to survive instead?" Nelli suggested, "It"s not like I breathe air, and I"m still alive."

Slowly, Eiro looked down onto the ground and then waved his wooden hand to the side to gather the highly-refined water up again. But this time, he also gathered up the roughly-refined rocks that the Gnome made.

Eiro made the rocks slowly cover his right, wooden hand so that he was basically wearing a rock-gauntlet, and then proceeded to create a thick pillar of ice in front of him out of all the water he had available.

While manipulating his life-force to give him as much force as he could spare, Eiro took up a stance and just swung his rock-covered fist into the ice pillar. He literally had not the slightest idea why he was doing this, but Eiro then just proceeded to continuosly beat this pillar of ice as hard as he could, as if he wanted to let out all of his leftover anger and frustration out of his body.

He couldn"t do this to Enka, after all. Enka was an enemy that Eiro couldn"t even dream of beating anytime soon. He knew that, but that didn"t get rid of his incredibe hatred of him. Until now, there was only one other being that Eiro felt such anger and disgust for, and it was Zaragon.

They were the same in one thing, and that was that they were untouchable to Eiro. Sure, he got stronger over the past seven years, but that didn"t mean that something like Zaragon was an easy match for Eiro now. He would still be killed nearly instantly if he tried to face Zaragon. And Eiro was sure that the situation wouldn"t be all to different if he were to face Enka.

But that wasn"t necessarily the point where Eiro"s thoughts of them overlapped. Enka"s very existence was a threat to Eiro"s peace, those that Eiro cared for. Obviously that didn"t mean Felix just yet, but rather the fact that Felix was meant to kidnap Sammy.

Everyone else that dared to even think about something like that quickly ended up dead, but Enka had to keep running around. That caused Eiro immeasurable anger, grief, and frustration.

Again and again, Eiro kept pummeling the ice-pillar while trying to keep his senses concentrated on the double-room that the children were sleeping in as much as he possibly could, until something else entered his perception.

At the front of the Inn, a carriage arrived drawn by beasts that Eiro didn"t really recognize from here, and it seemed like one of the hidden scouts, actually the one that Eiro spoke to in the middle of the night, approached the man driving that carriage.

From what Eiro could hear, the driver was instructed to bring the carriage behind the Inn, and swiftly did so so while accompanied by that scout. The Demon swiftly let the ice-pillar turn back into water while letting the rocks drop off his fist as he looked toward the entrance to the backyard.

Once Eiro was able to properly see the carriage, he was actually quite surprised to see what it was. He noticed that something was weird about it already, but he couldn"t really tell what that weird thing was all too well.

The carriage"s main body was actually rather inconspicuous. Sure, there were a few decorative carvings on it, but its color was just a dark brown and it didn"t have any weird metallic decorations on it like expensive carriages like this usually did. It seemed like the most special things about the carriage itself were the wheels and axles, however.

Eiro wasn"t sure what exactly it all meant, but there were some faint runic carvings all over them. He hadn"t been able to find that many books about Arcane and Runic inscriptions so far, so all he could really do was spot that they were of that kind, and when he turned toward Nelli the spirit quickly confirmed that there was magic running through the wheels and axles.

And then, there were of course the two most obvious things in front of the carriage. The two creatures currently drawing the carriage.

They were both dark red in color to the point of nearly being able to call them black, and they were bipedal reptilian creatures. Of course they weren"t humanoid, but rather just what you might expect from a small dragon if it had ma.s.sively prominent hind-legs that it walked on, with rather small forelegs. It weirdly reminded Eiro of the sight of a rabbit standing on its hindlegs, stature-wise at least.

With a silent stare directed at the scout, Eiro just chose to wait for an explanation, one that he soon received. The scout walked up to Eiro with a light smile and then turned toward the carriage and two creatures.

"Master Eiro. This here is the gift that King Skyhart wishes to bestow upon you." The scout explained with a light bow, and Eiro looked at him rather confusedly, "He wanted to give me a carriage? We actually already have one." The Demon pointed out, and the scout immediately nodded his head and chose to explain.

"We were aware, yes. But this here is something specially put together for long trips." The scout started, "For one, the most important part for that are these two beauties. These are specially-bred lesser magic beasts of the ground-dragon variant. They are called Aria." He explained, and Eiro immediately grew a bit intrigued.

Magic beasts were quite special things, really. They were incredibly strong, and definitely inhuman. They were something that was a step above regular animals, while not being monsters. They were a whole other ent.i.ty. Of course that didn"t mean that they were all good-natured, they could simply be seen as animals that posses magic. That"s where the name came from as well, they were all beasts so they couldn"t be humanoid either.

Magic beasts grew up like regular animals and had neither the benefit of cla.s.ses like people did, nor that of evolution like monsters did. They were more like spirits, if anything, since they could often possess incredibly strong magic that represented and even transcended nature.

They were rather rare, so Eiro hadn"t seen any of them before. "So this is what a magic beast looks like..?" Eiro asked quietly, and the scout nodded his head, reliefed that Eiro didn"t immediately refuse this gift.

"I see, so what is their benefit over my horses?" The Demon asked, and the scout swiftly explained, "Their greatest benefit is of course their overwhelming speed and strength. Depending on the terrain and the state they are in, these Aria can run roughly twice the speed of regular horses while pulling the carraige. Of course, this is heavily increased when you are just riding them. Saddles are also provided in the carriage."

Immediately, Eiro opened his eyes wide. If they were really that fast, then Eiro didn"t have to worry anymore, now did he? They would be able to surely reach the place they needed to get to without worries. All the anger and hatred that had gathered inside of him before now just disappeared instantly at hearing these great news.

"Then, there is also the fact that they will need far less rest than horses. While a horse will need a break every three to four hours, on top of the time they need to sleep, an Aria can keep running for up to 10 hours before needing a short break, on top of the time they need to sleep, which is similar to that of a horse. The only downside is that they need to eat more than a horse does." The scout explained, "But as they are omnivores, you can feed them virtually anything. They were bred to have strong stomachs and have high resistance to poisons and such, so you can even feed them things you wouldn"t want to eat anymore."

"This is amazing..." Eiro muttered quietly, unable to suppress a broad smile underneath his mask as the scout continued in a relaxed fas.h.i.+on now that he was sure that Eiro would accept.

"It truly is, Master Eiro. Of course, the carriage itself was simply modified to withstand the speed and force that these two will put it under, while also being made to have a stronger grip on rough terrain. And you will need this if you choose to travel with this carriage hereafter." The scout explained and then looked at the man that drove the carriage here, who handed Eiro a small wooden box.

The demon quickly received it and opened it up, before finding a decorative brooch inside of it. He slowly grabbed it and took a closer look before turning toward the scout again for an explanation.

"Since Aria are quite rare and superior, you can only travel with them if you are of n.o.bility or if you are travelling in the name of one of those n.o.bles. This here is a brooch signifying that you are travelling in the name of King Solomon Sigurd Skyhart. As it is impossible to fake such an item, you will have no issues travelling through the lands. The box it is held in is one specially enchanted with Stealth magic to miss the eye of those that don"t know of it so that you may not have it stolen." The scout explained, but Eiro quickly shook his head.

"That"s fine, I don"t need the box." He explained, before slowly running his hand to the side as if he was placing the brooch down somewhere, before it simply disappeared inside of his treasury, "I have a safer method." The Demon said, and with a surprised smile, the scout still just nodded his head.

"I see. You can still keep possession of the box. It may come in useful at another time." The scout explained, and Eiro just lightly smiled, "Alright, not going to say no to another gift." Eiro laughed lightly.

"Then I can just thank you. And please, thank Solomon as well. I know he said he"s in my debt, but now I"m in his. With this, he may have just saved the life of two of my children, after all." The Demon pointed out, before turning his head over toward the stables.

"Do you have an idea what we can do with our current carriage? We don"t have much time left to stay here and sell it, and I don"t want to just abandon it." Eiro explained to them, and the scout immediately nodded.

"Yes, Master Eiro. King Skyhart instructed us to take this carriage with us back to the King"s personal domain. It will be stored there, and your horses will be taken care of. As such, the King would like it if you came to visit in the capital of Skyhart when your business has been taken care of."

With another light smile, Eiro just looked back at the scout, "Of course."