Demon's Virtue

Chapter 234 - The Collector

Eiro sat there on a small block of rock that he created with earth magic so that he could have a proper place to work, all the whilst taking a look at the homeless-man's stump and other leg. He wanted to figure out what the prosthetic had to look like, and especially what kind of wood it should be to make sure that the prosthetic wouldn't be rejected somehow.

In the end, the Demon had a pretty good idea about what it had to be, and slowly looked at the man's face again, "Where do you live, or sleep, or whatever?" Eiro asked, and the homeless man slowly glanced up at him, still confused about what this random masked person was even doing.

"Wherever the fuck I want, aye... I dun' have a place to stay..." He pointed out, so Eiro slowly raised his brow with a light grin, "Hm, I see." Eiro replied.

"Then I'll try and find you again. In a day or two at the very latest. Don't leave town until then." Eiro suggested, but the man just scoffed. He rubbed his arm under his nose before pulling his rusty, old, broken sword more tightly toward him, "Heh, where the fuck would ya expect me to go other than 'ere?"

"Keep making comments like that, I don't care as long as you don't waste my time and just stay here until I come meet you again." With that, Eiro stood up and placed his foot onto the stone-seat that he created before, practically pushing it back into the ground, "Anyway, you said that a lot of people with physical injuries were gathered where exactly? Some large, old, run-down building? Is it different to any of the other old, run-down buildings here? Can you give me at least a direction?"

The homeless man clicked his tongue and slowly swung his arm to the side, "Go to the walls... ye're gunna find it there, ya ain't gonna miss it... lotsa people scutterin' around outside 'f it..." The man muttered, and Eiro slowly nodded his head as he made his way into exactly the direction that the homeless man mentioned.

And he was right, it really was quite hard to miss. There were a lot of people gathered there. If he had just started searching around the area properly, he probably would have found this spot sooner or later. And so, the Demon figured he should do a little bit of asking around if anyone knew anything about the murdered girl, while seeing if there was anyone else that he could help. In particular, Eiro was interested in finding the man that had his arms, including shoulders, literally removed while he was asleep.

James' arm had been ripped off together with his whole shoulder, and as far as Eiro could tell when interacting with him and checking on his prosthetic every once in a while, it was horrible to be restricted to that extent. Having both arms removed like that must have been even worse.

Although, the other people here weren't all too well-off either. Most of them were either on drugs, or selling stolen goods or even themselves for the night for money to actually afford those drugs. Sometimes even both at once.

It wasn't a great sight... Eiro should probably speak to Solomon about this sometime. Even this Demon that literally slaughtered half a village in bloodlust was feeling bad about seeing all this. Although, Eiro was kind of interested in who made those drugs... There might be some knowledge in such things that might let Eiro create things like poisons.

He did already know a little bit about it, considering that he did have medicinal knowledge related to creating things like anesthetics that he was taught by Jura, but it couldn't hurt to find out more about it. Maybe it would help him figure out what some of the weird concoctions, powders, and pills that Eiro found in one of the hidden rooms in the Manor did without having to take them or feed them to someone or something. Not to mention that Eiro still didn't manage to produce Venom in his tail, so any knowledge about things like that could help him figure out what he had to do for that.

Either way, Eiro was sure what he had to do after seeing all these things. One, help some of these people out by practically giving them a second chance at life. And two, keep Clementine and Arc away from here. Clementine because she would simply be overwhelmed by all the pain that could inevitably be found here. And Arc, simply because... Well, a lot of the time, people took drugs to 'feel' something, some other emotions than what they usually did. Someone that was basically cursed into feeling happy all the time might be weak to things like this. Not to mention that the rules of Arc's skills were sometimes rather... questionable, so who knew? It might actually do something for him if he did end up taking drugs, and if he did... He most likely wouldn't feel the negative parts of them. He wouldn't feel them destroying his body, and would only experience the pleasure that came with taking drugs. It really wasn't something that Arc should ever experience, if in absolutely any way possible.

Eiro slightly ground his teeth as he stepped through the area and stopped in front of a group of five people, two women and three men.

"Huh? What d'ya want?" One of the women asked, and the fattest of the three men started to laugh while looking at the Demon, "What kind of mask are you wearin'? Can you even see, you dumbass?"

"Well enough so that I can see that your face looks like someone smashed it in with a bat, yes. But that's not why I'm here, I want to ask about a murder that happened here las-"

"Oi, the fuck are you saying?!" The fat guy asked, before proceeding to swing his fist at Eiro. His pupils were unnaturally large, so it was obvious that he was also on whatever drug that all these people were taking. Since that was the case, Eiro figured he shouldn't kill this guy, but just knock him out. It wasn't really his fault that he was acting like this, and he simply felt bad for all these people, so he figured he should give them the benefit of the doubt for once.

And so, Eiro caught the man's fist and twisted it around on his arm before pulling it behind the man's back, swiftly pressing him onto the ground while the others apparently didn't even notice when Eiro started talking. They might not be too helpful, but Eiro figured it couldn't hurt to ask anyone that he thought may have any kind of information at all.

While he was pressing onto the man's back with his foot, the Demon looked around at the other four people, "As I was saying... Last night, a young woman was killed and gutted here in the slums. Do you know anything about that?"

The four of them looked at each other for a moment before one of them shook their heads, "Nah, but I know someone if you wanna have a fish gutted..."

Eiro stared back at the young woman before pulling his foot away from the man he was pressing down, and then slowly turned around, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Seeing as how nobody seemed to have reacted to Eiro's question in the way that he needed them to at all, they obviously didn't know anything about this. And the same thing was the case with the next group he approached. Even if there were some sober, reasonable people, nobody seemed to be reacting at all. Their heartrate didn't change in an unnatural way. Of course, everyone that he mentioned this to had a small spike in their heartrate, but that was just natural considering that he was telling them a young woman was viciously killed and gutted.

But nobody reacted beyond that. Some seemed genuinely sad, others tried to hide that sadness by acting disinterested, and some were simply disinterested beyond that initial spike. But in the end, everyone reacted somehow.

At least, that was until Eiro stepped into the building that the homeless man from before was speaking of. He asked a couple of people there, but it was all the same, with the exception of a single man. He was the only one that seemed somewhat groomed, the only one that apparently took a bath in the past 24 hours. He was wearing clothes that weren't dirty, and really, he just seemed completely out of place from top to toe.

Eiro looked at him and mentioned the murder, and immediately, he jumped up. He had an immense reaction to hearing about this, more so than anyone else Eiro spoke to. And that was including the young woman that literally started sobbing after being told about it.

"What did you just say?!" The man asked, "She was gutted? Were the organs simply removed and then thrown away, or were they taken along?"

Eiro stared at him with a slight stare before shrugging, "I don't know any more beyond what I told you just now. I found out about this murder, but my source isn't readily available, so I'm trying to find out where the murder happened to find the killer." Eiro quickly explained, so the man stared back at Eiro while grinding his teeth.

"Let me help you! If the words your source used were 'gutted' specifically, it must mean that the organs were taken... Then I may know who the killer is!" The man said, and Eiro immediately raised his brows.

"Oh, that would be quite handy! I really only need to get rid of this killer, that's all. What's his name?" Eiro asked. This man apparently wasn't lying and seemed somewhat trustworthy. He seemed to be here for a similar reason to Eiro, to find this particular killer.

But it may still turn out harder than expected.

The man slowly turned his head away, "I do not know his name, but I do know about him! A vile, disgusting man that repeatedly creates disfigured stitchwork-monstrosities for fun using parts he took from others! Some he lets live, others he does not... It is truly horrifying, and I have been searching for him for a long time now... You see, he used my wife and daughter as parts for his sick toys... ever since then, I have been hunting hi-"

"Sorry, I really don't care about your sob-story. Just tell me anything that can help me find him. Where is he, how does he do things, and how frequently does he take parts from people?"

"Yes, I will tell you...." This man said, although Eiro was a bit annoyed by the nickname this killer received, "I will tell you everything I know about this vile being! The 'Collector'!"