Demon's Virtue

Chapter 65 - Flash Of Red

"Oh?" Jura asked surprised after hearing Eiro speak about what he wanted to do with the seed, slightly smirking. "So you really want to go out and plant a seed in such a situation? You realize that if you fail, you will never be allowed to learn from me?" The old man inquired, and the Imp just nodded his head in response.

"Yes. I know that. But I simply want to plant this seed as soon as I can." Eiro explained, making Jura just chuckle in response.

"Fine, but eat something first. Rudy made those sausages he spoke about, and they're really good."

Slowly, Eiro nodded his head as he approached the table in the center of the room, trying to figure out what Jura's... unusual reaction meant. Usually when the Imp was thinking about doing something extreme like this all of a sudden, Jura yelled at him... And now he offered Eiro food?

That was really something that the young Demon wasn't used to, but he figured there was no reason to complain. It was Rudy's food, after all.

And then, as Eiro sat down at the table and was quickly given a plate with some food by the young Chef, Clementine, who was already finished with her food, rested her chin on the table and stretched her arms out to grab the Flower of Ice, taking a proper look at it.

"Pretty...!" She muttered quietly, and Eiro turned over to her with his mouth full of food, all the whilst Sammy looked at the small Ice Flower as well.

"It really is! Did you buy this somewhere in town?" She asked, and Jura slowly raised his brows after hearing the flower be moved around.

"That... It still held up?" The old man inquired with a sigh, before turning toward the Imp. "Why did you even do something as unnecessary as that? There was a reason she wasn't carrying anything!" Jura exclaimed, obviously still more than just upset over the Imp's actions in front of the Lady of Winter, and Eiro swallowed the sausage in his mouth and quickly explained.

"I did it because... Because..." Or rather, he tried, but he couldn't find the words, instead trying to use what seemed to be the most logical. "Because she looked sad?"

"Eiro..." Jura started as he slowly shook his head, "You have been here for half a year, and I have not seen any sign of you caring for anyone beside these children." And all of a sudden, it seemed like Jura remembered something, although it seemed unprobable.

"Perhaps... You recognized her?" He asked, and the Imp thought about it for a moment. Did he recognize her? Now that he thought about it, it seemed like he did... As if that young girl looked like a tiny version of Avalin, the Avalin that first picked the Imp up, or rather trapped him.

"I don't know." Eiro replied quite clearly, simply because he wasn't sure if that was really what was going on then or not. He was feeling dizzy and tired, and even as he was carrying her through the forest, it was like Eiro was simply following behind everyone in a haze. The trip that should usually have taken nearly half a day seemed like just a couple of hours to him.

It was weird, to say it bluntly. Maybe she just looked a little similar to her, and he imagined to see her. Eiro really wasn't sure about all of that in the slightest. Next year he might be able to see her again to confirm it.

But in response to Eiro, Jura just sighed and shook his head. "Nevermind then, it does seem quite impossible. Either way, you should keep that flower with you. It is a special one, it is a gift that will show you are an ally to nature. Not something you see every day either, really." The old man admitted with a slight laugh, and Eiro nodded his head in response.

"It... Will not melt, right?" In response to that question, Jura immediately shook his head. "It will not, don't worry. It will not shatter either, but you can lose it, so I would still be careful. You will never gain something like that again."

Noticing the importance of this 'pretty' flower, Sammy quickly pushed it back over toward the Imp, who just placed it in front of him to have it in his sight, if it really was as important as Jura said it was. For a little while, everyone just stayed somewhat silent, although Eiro did somehow end up groaning because of 'growing pains' all over his body. Literally, there was no spot anywhere that didn't slightly hurt.

But even then, and despite it being dark already, Eiro helped clean the table up after dinner, or breakfast for him, and then stepped up to the door, where he tried fitting into his boots. However...

"They don't fit anymore." The Imp said rather annoyedly as he noticed that his toes were curled up beyond what Eiro felt to be even 'slight uncomfortable' and still pressed against the front of the shoe, not to mention how hard it was to even force his feet into them.

Although... He did have that new version of his 'Blessing' now, and he didn't feel cold yesterday, so maybe... "Status."

[You are unable to open your status during evolution]

"Ah..." The Imp muttered immediately as he stared forward at the rather annoying notification, before dropping onto the ground to pull his boots off his feet, now in a rather bad mood.

"Is... everything alright?" Rudy asked slightly concerned and surprised, and Eiro just shook his head. "Can't open my status while I'm evolving..." Eiro admitted, making the children and the old man look at him rather surprised. "Really? Isn't that pretty annoying? You look at your status religiously, don't you?" Arc chuckled as he leaned back in his chair with a cheeky smirk, but the Imp just glared over at him.

"Stop teasing him! Eiro is in a bad mood!" Clementine exclaimed in response, more upset than the actual Imp in question. "I think you're the one in a bad mood here. Did you overeat or something?" Arc asked teasingly, now directing his need for humoring over to the young girl.

"No! But I can feel that Eiro is hurting, so my Magic Stomach is grumbling, but I know it's nothing that I can eat!" She replied, making the young boy once more just slightly laugh. "Magic Stomach? I know you can eat as much as a Dragon, but that doesn't make your stomach magical. That just makes you an overweight lizard!" With a loud laugh, Arc leaned all the way into his chair, although Clementine seemed not to really be happy with it at all and kicked the chair the boy was sitting on with all her might, causing him to immediately drop backward onto the ground, although that didn't really seem to bother him all that much. "You know what I mean! My... well, Magic Stomach! The one that all the Ouchies I eat go to!" She yelled out, as serious as she could, although her choice of word just made Arc laugh even more.

"You big dummy!" Clementine yelled out, seemingly seriously upset, and started running to the beds to hide under her blanket.

"Yikes..." Arc said as he slowly stood up, his mood to laugh seemingly gone, "What's up with her?" He asked, and everyone just stared at him, although the Imp in particular noticed something that Jura seemed to have as well, but before the old man could say something, Eiro threw his boots to the side and stepped up to Arc, immediately grabbing the sides of his face.

"Wh-What are you doing?" The boy asked surprised, and Sammy stepped up to Eiro and held his arm. "I get that he upset Clem, but you shouldn't do... that..." She said, seemingly as nervous as ever when it came to the topic of 'punishment', but Eiro just shook his head as he stared deep into Arc's eyes, although he did try to keep a little bit of distance.

"That's not it. Arc hurt himself just now. I saw the red notification through his eyes." The Imp explained, and after confirming it pushed the boy to sit down on the chair before looking him over, while Sammy just took a step back surprised.

"From... across the room?" She asked, and the Imp nodded his head in response.

"Yes." He said quite clearly, before swiftly taking a look at any place that Arc might be hurt at to make sure it wasn't anything serious and soon noticed a small spot of red in his hair. Everyone was especially carefully about possible injuries when it came to Arc, because he was the only one that didn't feel any pain, so they had to make sure he really was fine.

Even Clementine had a hard time finding small cuts on him if Arc himself didn't notice them, because the way she usually 'sensed' them was through the pain the other party was feeling. And if there was no pain, she couldn't find the wound easily.

"Jura..." Eiro said as he looked over toward the old man, but he just shook his head. "Shouldn't be anything serious. Just a small scratch, I think. The blood should already be drying." Jura said to calm the Imp down, before Arc sighed annoyedly.

"Stop touching me, it wasn't even 10 damage..." The boy said annoyedly, but Eiro shook his head. "Yes, but the wound could have become worse over time. And now be quiet and let me clean your hair." As the Imp said this, he quickly stepped over toward the barrel in the kitchen where they kept their drinkable water and tried to get some water from there, but Arc just once more sighed.

"I can do it myself, it's fine." He said, but Eiro just ignored him, although there did seem to be someone else that was against Eiro doing it. The little girl peeking out from underneath her blanket with tear-filled eyes.

"C-C-Can I... C-Clean it?" She asked, trying to stop herself from actually starting to sob from hurting Arc like that, although Eiro had rather mixed feelings about that.

"Can you promise not to eat the wound?" The Imp then asked, and Clementine slowly nodded her head up and down, before he looked at the other children.

"Make sure she really doesn't. This is a good wound to test her self-restraint on." Eiro said, having properly calmed down after seeing the flash of a red box inside of Arc's eyes, and then gave the small bowl with water to Clementine together with a small towel to properly clean it up, and then headed back over to the door.

At least it let him stop thinking about his own pain all over. "Be careful, and stop fighting, all of you. I will be back later.." The Imp told them as he opened the door after simply pulling the cloak over his body, choosing to just not wear any boots to test whether he really didn't mind the cold anymore, as he stepped out through the door.