Demon's Virtue

The sound of carriage wheels turning and crushing pebbles and dirt underneath them filled Eiro's ears while his whole body was just so slightly shaken up here and there.

He was laying on something soft, although he couldn't see anything even when he opene his eyes. Although then he noticed that he just had a wet piece of cloth on his forehead that slightly slipped down onto his eyes. The demon raised his hand and pulled the cloth away as he sat up.

The moment that he started moving, Eiro felt a weight on his body as Avalin just jumped onto him, "Daddy!" She exclaimed, and the Demon looked down at the young girl as she was pressing her face into his chest with teary eyes. Eiro looked around and soon spotted Felix just sitting on one of the seats while looking out of the window. His ears were covered in thick bandages, just like Eiro's whole body was at the moment.

"How long was I out?" Eiro asked with a slight groan, since his body still ached all over, and Clementine looked at him with a bright smile, "Two days..." She said, seemingly just happy that Eiro woke up again at all. It seemed like Rudy and Arc were sitting on the bench in the front of the carriage, and Clementine, Sammy, Avalin and Leon stayed in here to take care of Eiro and Felix.

Lugo was running right next to the carriage, while Nelli and the Gnome were floating right above Eiro, "I see..." The Demon muttered quietly, and then proceeded to raise his voice a bit, "Arc, Rudy. I'm up!" He yelled out, and could immediately hear the two of them shift around in the front before making the Aria stop.

The carriage slowing down seemed to have gotten Felix's attention as well, and he slowly turned his head toward Eiro with a completely emotionless expression. He had dark rings under his eyes, and really didn't seem very healthy at the moment.

"Ah... you're... up..." Felix said quietly, although he seemed to be straining himself to speak. And that wasn't because he couldn't physically do so, but probably because he couldn't hear himself speak.

The carriage came to a halt and Sammy opened the door a few moments later to step outside, before Eiro tried pushing himself off the ground as wel. His broken leg had apparently been mostly healed using magic, but it was still hard to place all his weight onto it.

Eiro dragged his body out of the carriage and proceeded to take a deep breath once outside.

"You scared the shit out of me!" Nelli announced, albeit in the in-between-space so that the kids couldn't hear her swear, and Eiro just looked at her with a light smile on his lips.

"Sorry about that. I'll try to make it a safer win next time around." He replied to her, before he found himself being embraced in a tight hug by the others, "I swear, if you pull something like this again, you're done for." Sammy told Eiro, who just slightly chuckled and returned the hugs happily. It hurt him a fair amount, but Eiro could deal with it.

"Just..." Eiro said, and then slowly turned toward Lugo with a deep glare, "What the fuck were you thinking by..." The Demon started, although he stopped in the middle of the sentence because something was really different all of a sudden.

"Don't be mad at Lugo, he just came to grab those staffs and magic stones, but Felix and I wouldn't let him go without us. It's not his fault." Arc told Eiro before looking at Felix again, "I know that it didn't necessarily turn out well, but... still... Could you have beaten Enka without Felix stealing that earring?"

The Demon slowly thought about it but then shook his head, "No, I couldn't have. I know that it was a help in the end, but that doesn't mean I like it." Eiro said and then extended his hand toward Lugo.

Instead of flinching like the others expected, since Lugo was usually pretty cowardly, he just accepted the touch. Eiro placed his palm onto Lugo's forehead and had a status appear in front of him, although Eiro really just cared for the very first line.

[Name – Lugo][Race – Forest Deer][Level – 1]

"How the fuck-" Eiro started confusedly and turned toward Nelli, "How does Lugo have a level all of a sudden?!" The Demon asked, hoping that the three-hundred years old spirit had some sort of answer for him, although she immediately shook her head and approached Eiro.

"I have no idea how... He was just an animal before, right?" Nelli asked, and Avalin, who was still clinging to Eiro's leg, looked up at him, "Daddy, animals don't have levels?" She asked, but Eiro immediately shook his head

"They don't. It's as if a person never got a class, they just... live, grow up, and never level up... When I first met Lugo, I thought he was a Magic Beast, sure, but he didn't have a level when he became my Familiar. Then why now..?" The Demon muttered quietly, and Nelli quickly floated in front of him, "Well, the woman we're going to to have Leon and Sammy's skills unsealed might now. She's really knowledgeable about this kind of thing." The Spirit pointed out before Eiro just slowly nodded his head.

"I see... Alright, then let's just see if she can help us..." Eiro muttered, and then kept running his hand over Lugo's forehead, "But seriously, bud. Never do this kind of thing again. I'm glad that you didn't run away out of fear, but you can't just bring the children into a situation that even I have trouble with. Not yet, at least." The Demon told Lugo, who just slowly nodded his head in response before pushing its head into Eiro's chest.

Eiro had to lean back a bit so that Lugo's antlers wouldn't pierce his eyes, but after that, it was mostly fine.

"I think this is a pretty good time to eat a bit, huh? I'll get everything done." Rudy suggested, before Eiro slowly nodded his head. Arc and Clementine meanwhile went to detach the Aria from the carriage as well.

"Sammy, come with me for a bit, please." Eiro said, and then looked down at Avalin and Leon that were standing right in front of him, "You two stay with Nelli for a bit, alright?" He suggested, and a bit hesitantly the two of them did as asked while Sammy and Eiro took a few steps into the other direction.

Eiro leaned against a tree to make it a bit easier to stand right now, and then looked at Sammy, "I am sorry." Eiro said, and Sammy looked back at him confused.

"What do you mean? Sorry for what?" She asked, although Eiro was aware that she knew what he was talking about, "For letting Felix charm you before. I was just thinking about how to teach you how you can use your voice after we unseal your skill, because I was scared that it would change you if you didn't know, but I didn't think about how messed up this method was." The Demon told her, "I really, really am sorry, believe me. I messed up, it was the completely wrong thing to do. I hope you can forgive me."

With a light smile, Sammy pushed the fingers of her hands together behind her back and shook her head, "Don't worry about that." She told Eiro, "I thought about it for a bit, and it really was a good help to figure out how voice-based skills worked. So don't worry, I've forgiven you already." Sammy announced, and Eiro sighed deeply as he looked back at her.

"Thank you." He said, and Sammy just quickly turned around with a smile on her face and helped Eiro make his way back to the carriage where the others were waiting. While they were eating, Eiro kept averting his eyes to look at Felix. He seemed surprisingly calm about everything that happened. That Eiro was a Demon, and he even saw Avalin's eyes like they really were. But he just sat there and quietly ate while staring down at the ground.

Well, a lot had happened over the past few days, really. He had most likely been crippled for life, his father was killed in front of his eyes, and he was suddenly staying with a demon and a bunch of kids that he didn't even know. Most people would need to think about everything for a while to properly adjust to it.

"Hm..." Eiro hummed quietly, "There was that one book, wasn't there?" He muttered, trying to remember back onto a book that he had briefly read maybe two or three years ago. It was mostly illustrations, so it didn't take too long and didn't stick in Eiro's mind too long.

But from what he remembered, it was a sign-language book. Maybe he could help Felix get through this by teaching him some sign language? At the very least, Eiro didn't think that just dropping him off somewhere like he was at the moment was a viable option anymore. A deaf kid couldn't just survive alone in another town like that after all, without any ability to communicate with others properly at that.

With a slow nod, Eiro chose to do it like this, and also try and teach him lip-reading if it was possible for him to do so that easily.

Before then, Eiro had to deal with something else, though. And that was the fact that he leveled up another 25 times after he killed Enka. Eiro probably should leave a reserve of stat points for later, maybe fifty or so, that he could assign to whatever he needed to in an emergency, but for now he should assign the other 215 of those.

First things first, Eiro placed another few points into perception to finally bring it to 100. His Agility and Dexterity were both also increased so that he could hit 100 with each of them.

[Your Perception has passed the 100 point mark! <Keen Senses> Ability Gained!]

[Your Agility has passed the 100 point mark! <Quick Feet> Ability Gained!]

[Your Dexterity has passed the 100 point mark! <Skilled hands> Ability Gained!]

After confirming that all of these simply seemed to be a basic passive buff to Eiro's senses, footwork, and hands respectively, he started thinking about what else he could need and then increased his agility by another 25 points. Being fast was really important, after all.

Next, came Eiro's constitution. He had generally low health for a demon of his level, that was already known, so he really had to do his best to increase it as much as he could for now, and just brought it to 100 as well.

And then, 25 points went into both Strength and Resistance. Six points went into evasion, and now he was left with 50 points that he would spend some more time to think about how to use and to have a basic reserve.

[Your Constitution has passed the 100 point mark! <Vigorous Body> Ability Gained!]

[Vigorous body – Ability that increases your health as if your constitution stat value was 0.1 higher than it is]