Demon's Virtue

Eiro slowly stared at Evelyn, and took a few steps toward her, but the bloodstone sorceress simply looked back with a confused expression and slowly moved backward away from Eiro.

"That black blood... You can only use it once, right? It was basically just a special sort of blood with a high amount of mana placed into it so that you can still control it from further away, but now, all the mana was used up." Eiro guessed, and the woman slowly opened her eyes wide in shock.

"How do you-" She asked, although she couldn't even finish the sentence before Eiro interrupted her, "Because I'm not an idiot."

Hearing this short conversation, Solomon grew curious about what they were speaking of, "Eiro, Evelyn, what is the meaning of this? What kind of 'black blood' do you mean?"

Eiro stared deep into Evelyn's eyes and with a deep glare, while turned away from the King, said "Ah, don't worry Solomon. Evelyn already knew about what I am. Probably through sensing special properties of my blood, or my form through my blood or something. It seemed like she was trying to stop me from revealing this to you using some special substance." The Demon explained. The tone of his voice insinuated that he was laughing about this, but his face, which only Evelyn could see, was filled with pure and utter anger and hatred.

And then, Eiro's face turned into a broad smile as he turned around, "She was probably worried about your reaction." Eiro laughed as he slowly made his way back toward Solomon and the daughter of winter, while Evelyn just stood there completely perplexed.

There were a few reasons why Eiro didn't just reveal what Evelyn did. For one, if he pissed her off, she may end up just killing Solomon and Eiro, get rid of Eiro's body, and then tell the guards that couldn't see this place that well at the moment that Eiro was the one that killed Solomon.

Eiro wanted to kind of avoid that, somehow. Well, since the daugher of winter was here, it would probably be pretty hard for Evelyn to do that anyway, but in the first place, Eiro didn't want to fight in front of that Daughter. It felt disrespectful.

"I see... Then you truly are getting along after all, are you not? I am glad that you are! Then Eiro, does that mean that you-"

"Oh, you and I will lead her to town without her, Solomon. My choice still stands with that." Eiro explained immediately, simply interrupting Solomon, and the King slowly nodded his head, "I understand. It is a true shame, but if that is your choice, then I won't overlook that choice. I am sorry, Evelyn. Please, head off toward town before us."

The bloodstone sorceress glared at Eiro with pure anger in her eyes, and then slowly nodded her head, "Of course, your majesty." And with that, Evelyn turned around and made her way out of this forest ahead of the others.

Eiro would have loved to kill Evelyn right now, but just because he wanted to and managed to evolve doesn't mean that he would be able to. Either way, it would be risky. But to Eiro's luck, his stat-growth per level up was rather high compared to others. His stats would end up growing incredibly as long as he just went out and tried to hunt for a while. 

Although, the fact that the 'Fractured Frost Walker' only gave Eiro one level already seemed like a really bothersome thing. That would mean that Eiro would need to start looking for far stronger monsters than you would normally find, but that was something bothersome in itself. He wasn't sure if there were any places like the one he was thinking of right now. At least not around here.

It was bothersome, but it was something that Eiro had to live with for now.

"So..." The Demon started as he slowly prepared to put his cloak back on by infusing his wings with shadow magic again, and then looked at the daughter of winter, "Did the ladies find a replacement guide?"

With a slow nod, the Daughter smiled at Eiro, "Yes, there is a young man that seemed quite interested in the position. When a scout was sent out to look for a good new guide, that man was practically already waiting to be able to take on the task of Guide."

"Oh, really? Interesting." Eiro pointed out, "Then let's hope he does a good job, right?"

"Of course. However, I doubt that the ladies will find him as fun as you and Jura." The Daughter chuckled quietly, and Eiro returned that chuckle himself, "I see..." Eiro started as he tried to think of a few topics that the Lady of Winter would usually like speaking about, which her daughters would usually also be pretty curious about, so that Eiro would be able to hold a proper, smooth conversation with her as they were waiting on being able to make their way to town, and while actually walking to town, of course.

And in the end, it seemed like that idea worked perfectly, as it didn't take long for Eiro to find a good topic for now. It did mostly have to do with the different plants that usually had to be collected for the lady and daughters, like what kinds of used they had beyond what Eiro knew, or rather guessed, what they were used for in the Spirit Realm that the daughter of winter would return to later.

But that wasn't all, they also briefly spoke about Skyhart some more, and the ancestor of Solomon who had also been blessed by the Lady of Winter. Solomon never had the chance to speak to the Daughter, as they never were aware of what they had to do for her and of course as such never came closer to her, simply looking at the Daughter as if she was some kind of piece of art or performance that shouldn't be interrupted.

That's why the King in particular was rather excited to talk to the Daughter, and was incredibly glad that Eiro was there to make it possible. At the beginning, Solomon had been incredibly tense, but once they actually started to move toward town, he was not too dissimilar to how he was when just speaking to Eiro.

He was probably a little too relaxed at times, but it wasn't anything that Eiro minded. Just because he was relaxed didn't mean he was an idiot or too naive. He seemed like a rather good judge of people, and always looked beyond the surface, which could be seen with the fact that he simply didn't mind the fact that Eiro was a demon.

The Daughter of Winter was slightly startled when she noticed that there were a lot of soldiers and guards following them, but after Eiro explained that this is how humans worked and that they couldn't just let Solomon walk around without any sort of trusted protection, she seemed to understand and let it be for now as long as they didn't threaten or bother her.

It seemed like Eiro's decision to make them get rid of their weapons was a good idea. As the group was walking and the sun was going down, Eiro could already see the beautifully colorful lights waving through the sky far above them.

It was incredibly stunning, and one of Eiro's favorite parts about the Winter Solstice in general. Soon, they entered through the first gate, and saw some of the people living in the outer circle gathering at the side of the road to watch the Daughter of Winter walk by. Some of them ended up following Eiro, Solomon and the Daughter of Winter as well, just so that they could look at her longer and be there when she was in town as well.

And like normal, the time that it took them to reach their destination felt much, much shorter than it should, and they soon got to the main part of town. Here, Eiro could immediatley smell the scent of numerous dishes, fried, boiled, roasted, anything really. The sounds of people laughing and speaking echoed through the streets, and numerous people were gathered all around.

The only place where nobody was was the central street leading directly to the plaza in front of the castle that the Lady, Eiro, and Solomon would pass through. The moment that the Daughter came into the range of everyone's sight, the oh so busy, loud, cheerful streets became dead silent as everyone was just staring at the Daughter of Winter walking in front of their King and a masked, unkown individual.

After a few moments of the silence spreading through this part of town, some people started to whisper amongst themselves again. Some people were talking about how beautiful and majestic the Daughter of Winter was, some people were speaking about why the King was walking behind her and not beside her, and instead walking beside this 'random guy'.

And of course, there were a lot of people complaining about the new rules that were put into place this year, where it wasn't allowed to gather certain plants anymore during this time, and where some certain people had to gather things to offer to the Daughter.

Soon, they reached the actual Plaza, where a large amount of people were waiting. Those that were chosen to present extra offerings stood near the castle's gates together with Charles and Eiro's children. The three members of Eiro's party seemed to be standing somewhere on the sidelines, as they weren't allowed to be there right in front of the gate. There were plenty of people actually speaking about Eiro's children and why exactly they were there.

There were some ridiculous theories like 'Maybe those kids are the offering' or 'maybe the king had some bastards' or something like that, but in the end, that didn't matter too much.

As they entered the plaza, the Daughter of Winter continued to the center, the place that seemed to be specifically made for her to stand. There seemed to be some carvings in the ground just for this. The runes were once more in a language that Eiro simply didn't understand or recognize, which was more than just annoying. There were so many different ancient languages... Either way, Eiro figured that those carvings were created by the Daughter of Winter, or Solomon's ancestor with the blessing of the Lady of Winter was instructed on how to do it.

Either way, Solomon and Eiro took another path around the plaza instead of walking straight through it, as the plaza itself was currently reserved for just the Daughter. The guards seemed to be against it, and especially some of the onlooking nobles were staring at the Daughter angrily, but Eiro would deal with those morons later.

But it didn't matter either way, as Eiro was just focused on the Daughter as she stepped into the center of the plaza.. With a satisfied expression, she kneeled down on the ground and waited for Eiro and Solomon to arrive at their spots.