Demon's Virtue

"You really aren"t your average King, now are you?" He muttered, "And don"t get me wrong, I like that about you. You are willing to throw away your own dignity as a ruler to kneel on the ground and beg, just for the slightest hope of helping your child recover. That, and you trusted the apprentice of the "greatest traitor this world has seen" enough to do just that. As far as I"m concerned, that makes you someone I can rely on." Eiro explained.

With a puzzled expression, Solomon looked at Eiro and was just about to speak, before Eiro continued.

"But at the same time, such naivety seems a bit out of place. You can"t decide what someone is like with just a single look." Eiro said, and then slowly turned around to look at Felix and quickly got his attention, "Come here." The demon told him with handsigns while speaking the words out loud as well. Nervously, Felix nodded and stood up to walk over toward the desk where Solomon and Eiro were sitting.

"You"ve met him before, right? He was there in Armodeus" shop back then. He is not one of my children, but rather, he is the son of Enka Markos. Argberg"s former chief warrior." The Imp said bluntly, "Outwardly, Enka was a nice guy that came with us to help us out a bit. But just when we wanted to leave town, he tried to frame me with murder and chased me halfway through the country. In the end, I had to kill him. Just before that happened, however..." Eiro said and pulled the hood off of Felix"s head and asked him to show Solomon his ear.

"He crippled his own son like this. And as far as I can see, there is little to no chance of recovery for him."

Solomon stared at Felix and slowly stood up as he stared at the young man"s ear, "This... this is something a father did to their own flesh and blood?" The King muttered quietly.

"It is. So, what makes you think that a horrible person like that couldn"t have infiltrated the Academy?" Eiro asked him, and Solomon simply dropped down onto his chair with a despaired expression, "But... But no... he was a good person... There is no way that he..."

With a light frown, Eiro stared at Solomon and stood up. He walked around the table and pressed his hands onto Solomon"s shoulders, "Nelli." The Demon said as he slowly turned his head toward her, and the spirit immediately understood what he wanted her to do. She floated over toward Eiro"s back and slipped underneath his clothes, swiftly fusing with him.

[Your body has merged with the Naiad, Nellissa Arigata]

And as Eiro felt the cool water envelop his skin, the Demon stared deeply at the princ.i.p.al. He smelled his scent, he looked into his eyes, and he felt his skin.

"Hm... So that"s it..." The Demon whispered quietly as Nelli left his body again, "Gondos, give me the bottle in my bag. You know which one." Eiro said, and the Golem quickly floated over toward the satchel that Eiro placed down onto the ground next to the desk and picked up the bottle with the slime core in it.

"What is going on?" Solomon asked, and Eiro looked at the King with a light grimace hidden behind the mask, "Seems like you were toyed with." The Demon said, "There"s a cl.u.s.ter of some sort of magic in your head. It seems similar to sealing arts, but I just need to make sure. Because if it is, then your memories might have been manipulated somehow. That reaction of yours just now is exactly what it"s like when you realize something you"re supposed to be held off from realizing."

"My memories were sealed? What are you even saying, how could that be? I would-"

"Remember that happening? Try again." Eiro interrupted Solomon as he removed the cork from the bottle and poured the contents onto his palm, just to reveal the congealed slime core.

"Oi, you piece of s.h.i.+t! Where the f.u.c.k are we?! I"ll kill you, you motherf-"

"Sorry about that. Only recently, he lost a seal that detained his Monstrosity. He"s a little..." Eiro started, although he couldn"t really think of the right word, and the others chose to tune in, "Annoyed?" Rudy offered.

"Ah, or was it "agitated"?" Arc asked, and Rudy stared at him with a frown, "Isn"t that literally the same thing as what I said?"

"Nah, mine sounds fancier." The boy replied, and Eiro sighed and shook his head, "No, I think the word I was looking for was "b.i.t.c.h", but those are fine too. Sorry, anyway... He was brought up in a temple specializing in sealing arts, so he should be able to tell if it"s a seal or not."

"Eh? You want me to help you, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d? What do I get in return? If I can make suggestions, then it would be to have you crawl on the floor in front of me like a dog, you mutt!" The slime core yelled out, and Eiro just squeezed it a bit tighter.

"If you help, I won"t kill you. That enough for you?" Eiro replied, and the slime core stayed silent for a few seconds, "So? Ya gonna let me a.n.a.lyze "im or nah?" The core asked, just as rudely as ever. Eiro didn"t know why, but the weirdly well-mannered, even if man-eating and still kind of rude, monk that he met a while ago had now declined into this utter piece of s.h.i.+t after the seal slowly started "unwrapping" after the temple was destroyed. But whatever, this would just make it easier, and far more satisfying, to kill him.

Eiro held the slime core toward Solomon"s confused face, before a number of sealing-art magic circles appeared in front of the core. Just a few moments later, the slime grumbled annoyedly.

"Yup, definitely a seal. Wanna remove it?" The slime core suggested, and Eiro looked at Solomon, "So? Do you want to find out what"s really behind that attack, or not?"

Without a single moment of hesitation, the King nodded his head in response, "Of course I do! Please, unseal those memories!" Solomon exclaimed, grasping the armrests of his chair tightly in preparation, and the slime core quickly responded.

"Hm. Then we"ll need a river snake"s liver, a giant vampire-bats saliva, some red swamp cress, a little-" It started, and Eiro looked down at it, "What are you doing?" Eiro asked, "Just unseal it now."

"Eh? Are you an idiot?" The core asked in response, "I"m tellin" you what I need to unseal it."

"...Explain..." Eiro said, and the slime core started to seep down into the gaps inbetween Eiro"s fingers and groaned annoyedly, "Sealin" and unsealin" is a hard thing, ya know? Not everyone can wave their hands around and undo any seal they see. The only reason Hyjun could do that was because he could control the miasma from , but you had to go and f.u.c.k it all up!" The slime core exclaimed, and Eiro slowly stared at the wall in front of himself with a blank expression, "So that means..."

"Sealing Arts are arts that don"t only rely on magic! It"s made up of a combination of medicinal arts and magic! Like alchemy, you f.u.c.king-"

"Fine... Just tell me how much you need of everything, and I"ll get it for you." Eiro said in an annoyed tone. He thought it was just like any other school of magic, but apparently Sealing Arts were more similar to Alchemy rather than just pure magic.

"What... Eiro, what did that core just say? ? As in that, ?" Solomon asked with a scared expression, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "Yeah, that . The royal monster."

"Are you saying it was sealed somewhere and you freed it...?" Solomon asked, and Eiro scratched his neck in response, "Yeah, technically I did." Eiro pointed out, and the king just deeply stared at Eiro with complete and utter fear.

" is one of the monster dangerous amongst the royal! Step aside, I need to warn everyone!" Solomon exclaimed and stood up, although he was quickly stopped by a certain motion Eiro made. The motion of pulling something off a table.

And just when Eiro did that, a large golden card appeared in his hand, displaying the planet in a simple manner.

"You don"t need to worry about that anymore." Eiro pointed out, and once more, Solomon dropped down onto the chair he had been sitting on, "You... you killed ..?" Solomon asked, and to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling he was experiencing right now, Eiro quickly placed the Major Arcana card away again as he nodded his head.

"Yes. So don"t freak out. I made a mistake, but I made up for it."

"You made up for it? How the f.u.c.k did you make up for destroying-"

"Just shut up already." Eiro growled as he pushed the slime core back into the gla.s.s bottle and pressed the cork down onto it.

"Sorry about that. I"m going to get everything ready so that we can properly unseal your memories. And please keep the thing about secret, yeah? Oh, and the thing where I somehow just merged with my contracted spirit, that would also be nice." Eiro said, and just took a step back as he looked at Solomon"s expression.

"Ei...Eiro..." Solomon muttered quietly and stared at the figure in front of him, "Next summer, there will be a tournament in this town... a tournament to look for the strongest person in this country to accompany the hero on their quest to kill the Monster King. Please, take part in that tournament... I will give you anything you want to, just please. You killed a royal on your own, you will definitely be an amazing a.s.set to that war!"

Eiro looked at Solomon with a blank expression. He definitely didn"t expect to suddenly be asked something like this. He didn"t want to get involved in things like that, and he definitely wasn"t strong enough to actually fight against royals. But on the other hand, a position like that might give Eiro the opportunity to meet those that could help him find out what he actually was.

Well, he was a being created by the Monster King, but he was pretty sure there was more to it than that. Because he doubted every single being created by that thing had such a broken system. If all of them were able to a.s.sign their points like Eiro was, then it would definitely make them a much higher threat than they actually are at the moment.

But there was a reason why he couldn"t. Or rather, two reasons.

"I can"t. I"m not going to leave behind my children to go on a suicide mission. I don"t know if I"m the strongest in the country, but on the off-chance that I am..." Eiro said and slowly turned toward Leon and Avalin sitting on the couches, "I want to see those two grow up. Sorry." Eiro said, but without hesitation, Solomon jumped up.

"Of course! And you can do that! The current Hero is around the same age as those two little ones are, and the quest will not begin until he became an adult! So if you become the hero"s companion, then you don"t need to worry about not seeing them grow up!" The King explained, and Eiro stared at him with a light frown.

"...What..?"