Slowly, the figure whose head was enveloped in Eisen"s hand just now disappeared as if falling apart into particles of light, and the onlookers around this Market were trying to understand what just happened, so Eisen explained it to them as Guards surrounded him.
"This one here was an Artificial. And I"m not sure if this is a known fact yet, but Artificials are immortal. He will come back in four hours." The old man exclaimed, trying to stop the infliction of fear for a moment by switching from his Yin state to his Yang state.
"I am aware that this might have been something a little extreme to see, but I a.s.sure you, this man will come back as healthy as before. Sure, he might be a little angry, but I"m going to be here to take care of that." Eisen yelled out next, making the people all around him whisper to each other about a lot of different things, but it seemed like they somewhat calmed down at the very least. And so, Eisen wanted to turn around and get back to the Merchant Guild to finally get his stall aproved, although it seemed like the Guards had something to say against that.
Although for some reason... They were smiling at him as they were doing so. They were relaxed, despite the fact that Eisen just crushed someone"s head with one hand, literally killing him. And he wasn"t even an actual Demon yet... but even then, these forms seemed to hold a lot of power. Well, Eisen"s Charisma stat increased a fair bit as well over the past few weeks, so it was pretty close to entering the triple digits, so he figured it somewhat was to be expected?
Either way, for now, the old man seemed to have to cooperate with these Guards. "Follow us. We will-"
"Stop!" The voice of a Middle-Aged man exclaimed. It was the Guild worker from before, who was holding the contract Eisen gave to him before in his hands, carrying it as if it was an ancient treasure that could fall to dust with one wrong touch. Seems like he finally appraised the Seal.
"I am sorry for doubting the legitimacy of this contract, my Lord." He exclaimed as he kneeled down in front of Eisen, pus.h.i.+ng the contract forward to give it back to him, although the Guards were rather confused.
"Erm... Once more, follow us, please..." One of them said, not understanding what was going on, but the Guild Worker basically gave him a death stare as he did so.
"You fool! Your head will roll if you even attempt to do so! Those men have been doing bad things to everyone in this town, all that this Lord here did was act in the name of Royalty!" The Guild Worker exclaimed, trying to show the prince"s seal to one of the Guards, who quickly took a look at it with Appraisal and then took his time to read through the information he got.
And once he started understanding what the Guild Worker was talking about, the Guard turned around to the others, and gave out a command to them. "W-We will not be arresting this... this man. Return to your posts, I will speak to our Lord..." The Guard exclaimed, and then continued trying to properly convince them to do so, and soon enough, they did as they were told and went away, leaving Eisen to stand there in his Demonic Form like that.
"Well then, thanks for the help." Eisen said with a slight smirk and winked at the Guild Worker, before kneeling down to him to whisper something. "Those people standing with the carriage there belong to me, let them set up wherever they want." The old man explained, and while mentally giving Sigurd a command to properly sort this all out, Eisen flapped his wings a few times to properly get some momentum into them before using them to propel himself away into the distance over the town walls.
He would use this chance to just pretend he only just arrived. n.o.body really paid attention to the regular Eisen as he was walking around before after all, and because Eisen"s Demonic Transformation was already mostly done within the Guild Building, n.o.body out here should be able to recognize him if he just returned in his regular form through another gate.
And that was exactly what Eisen then did, and after a little while, he made his way back to the market, where it wasn"t very hard to find the stall. It wasn"t a very large town, after all, so the marketplace wasn"t that large either.
It seemed like everything worked out properly in the end as well, considering that n.o.body was really looking at Eisen weirdly.
"Well then, let"s get started now, shall we?" Eisen asked as he stepped through into the stall with a smile on his face, although both Sky and Kirisho were looking at him surprised, and even slightly shocked, although Bree didn"t seem to mind what just happened all too much.
"Wasn"t that a bit too... too much? You just killed a person... And now you"re working like nothing happened?" Sky asked, slightly nervous now, before Eisen nodded his head. "Mhm. As I said, that was an Artificial, and Artificials inherited the immortality of the Originals. He"s really going to be back in a couple of hours, right where he was sleeping last.
"Erm..." Kirisho started, "Wasn"t that still a bit too... gruesome? I"m sure he was in a lot of pain, dying in such a way..." She asked, but now, Eisen shook his head.
"He wasn"t. Artificials don"t feel pain. Sure, it probably wasn"t very pleasant, but it couldn"t have gone beyond what it feels like having your head tightly wrapped in some cloth. A bit of pressure, but no pain." Eisen explained quite clearly, and Sky and Kirisho looked at each other confused, and even Bree was now paying attention again.
"Wait, what? Artificials don"t feel pain?" Sky repeated, before Eisen looked at them slightly surprised.
"You didn"t know? Neither way I until a while ago, remember? That was the whole reason I could rip my arms out by hand, you know? I"m starting to get the feeling of pain back slowly, but it"s still less than usual." He explained, and then crossed his arms, trying to think about why that might be the case. "I"m guessing... It"s because the soul and the body aren"t perfectly connected? The experience pulled in certain souls and then tried to give them a body, but maybe the body isn"t "Perfect". Either way, I know they don"t feel any pain." The old man rea.s.sured, and Sky slightly sighed out.
"Immortal, insane warriors that don"t feel pain, huh? Isn"t that a little bit too much?" The Fey-Kin boy asked, and Eisen shrugged with a chuckle, glad to see that both Sky and Kirisho calmed down again.
"Maybe it is, yeah. But the Changeling we met before was also an artificial, and he was a good kid. And so are my Grandchildren, Jyuuk"s sister, Brody"s Wife, and Evalia"s friend. There are good people, there are bad people, same for Artificials. They"re probably only going to be fighting amongst each other anyway, so don"t worry about them messing things up. That"s what the Originals are here for, anyway, to keep them under control." Eisen explained to them, before starting to make sure everything was really set up and working properly, and then looked over toward Sigurd, Sky and Bree.
"So, can you three go set up the Dungeon in its large-gated mode outside of town? The road to the east seems to be the busiest, so I think you should do it there to draw in as many people as possible." The old man explained, and the three of them nodded their heads quite swiftly, before making their way through town. Eisen really hoped that everything would properly work out, and he figured he should just go check up on them a little later on.
"Alright... Then I guess I should just get started, huh?" Eisen muttered quietly as he sat down on a chair with a small table in front of him, and then turned over toward the three monster kids standing right next to him. "Could you three go grab me the materials I need? Ah, and Caria, could you make a bit of paper for me?" The old man asked with a smile on his face, and the three of them immediately did as asked, rus.h.i.+ng into the carriage while Kirisho walked up next to the old man, holding the Fox Ego-Golem in her arms.
"Are you... Are you sure you are alright? I"m sure that wasn"t an easy thing to do even for you..." The Mist-Spirit inquired, trying to make sure that Eisen really was alright after what just happened, but the old man just smiled at her.
"Oh, it was horrible. The feeling of crus.h.i.+ng someone"s head is nauseating to the point of wanting to lay down and die this very moment. But even then, those feelings disappeared very quickly, because it seems like the person that I used to be doesn"t mind doing such things. And right now, that is taking up my mind much more than what I just did to that young man." Eisen explained, basically forcing himself to keep this smile up, something that he was weirdly able to do as if this bright smile was the only face he could make, as if it was a mask glued onto his real face.
And then, without waiting for an answer or reaction, Eisen happily took the materials that the kids were so kind to bring him and placed them down onto the table in front of him.
"Now then..." Eisen muttered quietly and started taking his Multi-tool apart to its Knife-Stage, and just when he set the blade onto the leather, he felt a cold, but also at the same time warm, touch from his side.
"Don"t worry... I know how such a thing feels... Actions that you would think you should regret, but don"t... I truly know this just too well." Kirisho said rea.s.suringly as she wrapped her arms around Eisen"s head and pulled him toward her, as if trying to comfort him somehow, while the old man just continued looking at the leather in front of him.
"Thank you." He said in a clear voice, before he noticed that someone was currently looking at the items on display in the front of the stall, trying to stand up to take care of it, although the Mist-Spirit next to him swiftly let go of him and placed her hand onto his shoulder.
"I will take care of this, you go ahead and keep working." She said in her usual quiet, melodic voice, and then took a step forward to speak to the potential customer, while Eisen just slightly smiled and cut into the leather to prepare everything for the item he was making for Dragoon the Changeling.
To start it off, he wanted to work on the first item that he requested, the item to let him properly save and gather information about monsters in a proper, "physical" manner. In the form of a book, a beastiary.