Demon's Virtue

Chapter 320 - The Pen

Eiro looked at the monsters in front of him and tried to figure out what they were thinking about the Demon's actions. He had clearly miscalculated the way that these Orcs were going to act. It seemed like they were a lot calmer than even the different books that Eiro read about them were describing.

That led Eiro to two conclusions. One, he couldn't solve this with violence in the same way as he did with the Goblins and Kobolds. Those guys were savage enough to accept strength as the most important value a leader could hold, and responded incredibly well to Eiro scaring them. That wasn't the case for these Highland Orcs, however.

Two, the reason why they were leaving must be incredibly troubling, otherwise they would most likely try to stay here anyway. As they weren't the sort that were driven into fear as easily as other monsters were, they must be faced with a quite frightening opponent.

The Demon quickly healed the bones of the Highland Orc and helped him stand up, before standing in front of him apologetically, "I'm sorry for doing that to you. I should have been more thoughtful." Eiro said in a genuine, calm voice. While the Orc in front of him didn't seem to understand his words, he was smart enough to understand what the Demon was trying to say through his mannerisms and his tone of voice.

He seemed to be unsure about what to feel, even. Normal Orcs were beings that became angry incredibly easily, but this Orc just stared at the others around here for help for what to do. It was as if they didn't have nearly as much natural monstrosity in them as one would expect.

Eiro took a deep breath as he turned around toward the rock-hut behind him, the one where the Highland Orc child had been hiding in, "Kid. I know you can understand me. Come out, there's something we need to speak about." The Demon said, and he could hear the child inside of that rock-hut flinch surprised, seemingly quite scared.

And honestly, that was to be expected. Even if the adults were brave enough creatures, that didn't mean that a child would be able to act the same way. With a soft smile on his face, Eiro explained his reason for coming here, "I want to help you. I know you are all in trouble, and I want to get rid of that trouble."

Immediaetly, the child became a bit more attentive, quickly moving toward the window again, "Wh-Why do you want to help us?"

Eiro looked at the child, surprised at how well it was able to speak Common, "Some of you attacked a Kobold-village, right? They happened to invade the village that I'm currenty trying to take care of while I was away. I heard about you from them, and then figured that there was something wrong. So-"

"No... Why would you help us..? There is no reason to."

Eiro couldn't help hismelf but smirk slightly. This kid was really quite smart, "There is. I want all of you to become part of that village I mentioned. You have abilities that will become more than just useful to me. With you all by my side, we would be able to develop the village quite a bit."

"...Why would someone as strong as you want to develop a village filled with monsters?" The child asked. This was something that the spirits floating next to Eiro were also quite curious about. At the start, Eiro didn't want to do much with the village long-term. He only wanted to get the magic stones, and that was it. But at some point, Eiro started to develop a plan for himself.

He started developing a plan that he could make use of in his ploy to become both a Hero and the Monster King, while also changing the nature of the relationship that People and Monsters had to each other. Eiro didn't know why, but this sort of thing had suddenly become quite important to him. Of course, this was a plan that Eiro was still expanding on further and further as time went on.

Parts were changing, and for example in this situation, he was able to heavily improve upon a part of his plan by quite a bit. But of course, Eiro couldn't just tell them that he wanted to become both the Monster King and the Hero. So instead, he said something that was probably the largest aspect of what made him want to do all this.

"I want to make this world a better place for my children to live in." The Demon said with a soft smile on his face, "And not only for my children. But for their children as well. And for the children of their children. For every generation that is born after this, I want this world to be safer for them."

The Orc slowly looked out of the window again, staring deep into Eiro's eyes, "S-So you want to turn this world into a place that Demons can live in..?"

"Oh, right, I forgot that people wouldn't know this. No, I'm not talking about Demons. A couple of years ago, I adopted some children that I treat as my own. They're humans. Well, mostly, one of them is a Beastman child. But honestly, I must say that you're quite smart and well-spoken... Do you have some special skill of any sort?" The Demon asked, and the Orc child slowly nodded his head, "It's a really useless skill for me... but at least I can use it in these situations..."

From the child's words, Eiro got the last hint for what it was speaking about, and actually became rather excited to hear this, "Let me guess, it's about your 'Complete Tool Proficiency' skill, right? What's your tool?"

"... It's the 'Pen'." The Orc explained, and Eiro immediately took quite some interest in this. The 'Complete Tool Proficiency' skill gave the user all the information that they may possibly need in order to make use of it properly.

In the case of a Blacksmith's Hammer, it would be the knowledge of different metals, what temperatures they needed to be worked with, different techniques, and basically anything else that was a requirement for a Blacksmith's Hammer to be properly used.

And it seemed like in the case of the 'Pen', the thing that was seen as something that was needed to work with it was 'Language'. Although it did make Eiro wonder...

"What languages can you speak?" He asked, and the Orc slowly replied, "...Orc and Common... You can't write in Orcish, so I think that's why I learned Common..."

With a broad smile on Eiro's face, he approached the hut that he child was inside of, "I see. Kid, if you want, I can teach you how to use that skill properly. I've read literal libraries worth of books up until now." The Demon said with a light smile on his face. The young Orc seemed quite interested in Eiro's words.

Thinking that things were working out and he was slowly gaining the trust of at least one of the Orcs, Eiro tried to approach the rock-hut a bit further. Just before he took a step to the side and caught an arrow that was shot toward him from the other side of this huge hall. It was quite impressive that there was someone here that was able to shoow this arrow so accurately.

"Sorry, none of you will ever be able to get a hit on me, even if you try to do it while I'm distracted." Eiro smiled softly as he slightly threw the arrow into the air before proceeding to quickly create a magic circle, which he activated once the arrow hit the glowing lines of concentrated air magic.

The arrow twisted around and was soon covered in a thin layer of twirling wind. The arrow shot toward the other side of the room to where the arrow originally came from. Eiro then turned back around toward the Orc standing in front of him. It was the one blocking the entrance to the rock-hut that this interesting Orc child was hiding in.

"I don't want to hurt him. I just need his help so that we can figure everything out. Is that alright?" Eiro asked with a light smile, but the Orc just kept staring down at him. Noticing that there was a clear language-barrier between Eiro and the other Orcs, the Orc child chose to speak to them.

"Weegha! Hiohjada ria magaha! Oigho, hama-uh jhioha!" The child began to speak as Eiro heard the first coherent languages spoken in the Orc language. It seemed like the others that were gathered here immediately understood what the child said, and even believed it without hesitation. But even then, it seemed like they were still slightly suspicious of Eiro, even though the Orc Child helped out quite a bit.

The child stepped out of the rock hut and Eiro was able to see its whole body for the first time. To his surprise, it had a few tattoos covering its exposed skin.

From what Eiro knew, Orcs gave each other tattoos according to certain accomplishments and traits. The one standing in front of Eiro until now had quite a few on his body as well, but they were different to the ones that the child had. For a moment, Eiro looked around, trying to see if he could find the tattoos on any of the other orcs. Once he saw a bit more than a dozen of them, it was enough for Eiro to figure out certain patterns in them. And in the end, Eiro came to one conclusion.

"Kid, you're the chief?" Eiro asked, and the child looked back at him a bit surprised, "...I am... Why, is that unusual?"

"Of course it is, and you must know that. Those tattoos are quite fresh, so you probably haven't been the chief for long, right?"

"... You're right, I haven't..." The child said in a bitter tone, looking down at the ground. If he compared the child's physique to the others and with what Eiro knew about the growth-speeds of different sorts of monsters, he judged this child to be roughly 14, maybe 15 years old. Highland Orcs supposedly had a lifespan similar to humans, and aged at the same rate as well. And that made Eiro wonder what exactly happened.

If this Orc child was the chief, then that must mean it must have been the child of the former chief. That's how these tribes usually worked, at least.. And that meant that this enemy that was causing the Orcs to despair was quite a tough one.