Demon's Virtue

Chapter 517 - Sudden Encounter

Eiro stepped in front of Ariella with a smile on his face, "I'm glad you were able to make it." He said, and the nephilim in front of him gently smiled back, "Of course, it was a good chance to come out again. And are you sure you don't mind that I brought Hannah? I'm not sure if this is the best place for her..."

"Yeah, don't worry. If she doesn't feel too good here, I can bring her by the manor later so that she can hang out with Sammy and Clementine a bit." Eiro replied, as he turned his head toward the young undead girl. She was standing in front of Eiro with a thin scarf covering the lower half of her face, "G-Good, evening..."

"Good evening to you too, Hannah." Eiro chuckled slightly, "Is your throat feeling alright?"

Hannah now just replied with a quick nod. It seemed like she was having a bit of a tough time to get used to her new voice-box, which did make sense. Eiro had to go for a lot of work-arounds to make it work properly with her body, but he managed to finish it a few weeks ago with Armodeus' and Koperia's assistance, "Just keep on practicing the things I told you to, and you'll be fine. If you still feel slightly uncomfortable, I can try to adjust the voice box a little bit again."

"No... it... alright." Hannah whispered, and Eiro slowly turned his eyes toward Ariella, who was smiling at the young girl next to her, happy that she was managing everything properly, "Ariella, do you want to drink something?"

"Ah... do they serve wine here?" She asked, and Eiro thought about it for a moment as he turned around to look at the bottles standing behind the bar, "It seems like they do, yes. I'll order some for you, so just go ahead and sit down with the others already."

"Alright, thank you." Ariella said, and quickly walked over to the table where Eiro was sitting at earlier, introducing herself to Biril and Hijar, as well as the other people that lingered and were confused about why Eiro just suddenly got up. A few moments later, as Eiro was waiting for some more alcohol, Biril came up to him, "Do you need any help carrying everything?"

"Sure, thanks." Eiro replied quickly, as the two now waited for the order to be brought to them together. After a few moments of slightly awkward silence, Biril turned back toward the Demon, "Is there a particular day you would like to meet again, so that I can tell you about beastmen?"

"Hm?" Eiro turned his head a bit confused, when he remembered the content of the bet they placed yesterday, "Ah, right. Not particularly. You should all be here a week or two longer, right? Then it would be fine if we just met next weekend. I am a teacher at the academy, so it might be a bit harder to meet during the week."

"Oh? You really become more and more impressive each time I talk to you. To the point where I do not know if I would even stand a chance to become a companion of the hero." Biril explained, and Eiro slightly turned his head toward him, "The journey to fight against the Monster King is still at least another eight years away, preferable even ten, when the hero turns 18. Until then, you can get as strong as you need to be."

"...But you will only continue to grow in that time anyway, will you not?" The beastman pointed out, "Despite your ridiculous power, it doesn't seem like you are at the end of your growth."

Eiro slowly nodded, as he started tapping his finger onto the wooden surface in front of him, "Do you know how I lost my hand?"

"...It was not a choice you actively made to strengthen yourself by turning your hand into a staff for yourself?" Biril asked, and Eiro shook his head with a scoff, "Of course not. This hand is a prosthetic, not a tool. It's supposed to replace that what was lost, it's not supposed to be something you use to improve yourself with. Of course, the fact that this hand can be used like this is a nice extra, but it's not the reason why I have this hand."

"Then will you tell me what happened to you?"

Eiro smiled lightly and nodded, "Some eight or so years ago, I was travelling with the children. We stopped in a small town on our way. And then, that night, that town turned into hell. Quite literally, at that. It had been taken over by numerous kinds of demons, the children had been stolen from me, and despite my weakness, I had to do all that I could to save them. Back then, I was barely able to kill a single enemy, and due to my weakness, I put the children in danger, and lost my hand in return for the chance to save them. A day or so later, I woke up in our carriage, and a certain man had removed my hand from my body, since it otherwise could have killed me. You know, by infecting the rest of my body. And from then on, that man taught me so much that it's nearly ridiculous. He made me the man I am today, and he gave me reasons and ways to become as strong as I am now." Eiro explained, and Biril's heart skipped a few beats as he slowly turned away, "You became this strong in just eight years..?"

"...I became this strong in less than two years. After my father died, we had to leave due to some circumstances I won't get into. But the values that Jura taught me, my will to do anything and everything I need to for my children, and a shitton of luck brought me to this point." Eiro explained, and Biril quietly laughed in response, "So it comes down to luck in the end, huh?"

"Of course luck is important, but that doesn't mean that it was just the luck. If you want to become as strong as me, then you need to work hard enough to make up for the difference in our luck." Eiro said bluntly, "But in the first place, I don't think I'm the kind of person you should compare yourself to." He explained while picking up some of the cups and glasses that had been placed down on the surface in front of him. He paid for the order, and turned around.

"Why not..?" Biril asked, and Eiro slowly turned around with a smile, "Because I'm the kind of man that will even rip apart his soul if it means he can achieve his goals."

The two locked eyes, and as Eiro spoke, a shudder ran down his spine. It wasn't the first time that he heard someone say this sort of thing, but it was the first time that he could tell that it wasn't some kind of metaphor. Biril was convinced that if Eiro needed to, he would destroy his own soul without a moment's hesitation.

He nervously picked up the rest of the drinks and followed Eiro, bringing them over to the table. The Demon lightly smiled at the beastman as he sat down, but Biril really didn't know what else has been going on around him.

"Bro?" Hijar's voice finally pulled him out of that trance-like state, "Could you let go of our drinks?"

"Huh? Oh, right, sorry..." He muttered, and slowly placed the glasses and cups down around the table, but that didn't mean that he had been able to collect his own thoughts now. They were still scattered, as his mind was racing to different places. What could Eiro have done in two years to make him this powerful? It seemed absolutely impossible to change that much in this short amount of time, but of course, Biril still had not even remotely seen the limit of what Eiro was capable of. It was terrifying, but at the same time it seemed to practically open Biril's mind to the world of possibility that was beyond him. He was filled with the determination he needed to really continue on growing in strength. He would become the hero's companion, and he would become someone that could fight side by side with Eiro in the battles against the monster king and the royals.

Of course, if he, or anyone else here that wasn't part of Eiro's central group, knew that one of said royals was actually sitting right here amongst them, enjoying some cool beer and laughing around with everyone, he would be thinking about this situation rather differently.

If they knew, this whole city would immediately move to try and kill Eiro. They would hunt his family, and they would probably try to overthrow Solomon, since he was supporting the Demon so much. So of course, Eiro couldn't let anyone he didn't trust know what he was.

And really, he felt slightly bad for Biril, since his end goal really seemed to be to kill the monster king a decade from now. But considering that Eiro would steal the 'aspect of the hero' from that child in another seven years when it truly awakened before heading off to kill the monster king himself... that was obviously not going to happen.

But for now, Eiro just smiled. He drank, laughed, and spoke to these people around him. And then, from one moment to another, Eiro could feel his heart stopping. One moment, it was beating, the other it was not.

His senses practically disappeared, as the sound around him became muffled. His field of view changed to only let him see a single small point in front of him as everything else went black. Eiro's whole body just shut down as he saw a figure standing on the other side of the room. That was the single point that Eiro was able to see.

Out of the shadows, it came toward him. No... the figure itself was the shadows. It approached Eiro, as the world around him disappeared. It stopped in front of him, and slowly and gently touched Eiro's cheek with a wooden roughness, asd the Demon stared into the deep abyss that was the monster king's body.