Demon's Virtue

Eiro stepped through the town, quite obviously being stared at by the people around him. But with a few subtle smiles, they were able to calm down a bit from this surprising sight and went on with their day.

After all, no matter how inconspicuous this town looked, they were the only town that was the host to all four Ladies of seasons. This wasn't the first time that they saw someone extraordinary come along here.

Eiro knew this, so he didn't worry too much. They would pay attention to him, sure, but they wouldn't be scared of him or anything. Either way, Eiro's first stop was the largest Merchant in this city. And the reason for that was to simply pay him to get all the wood transported to Capital to his manor.

Of course, Eiro paid a lot of extra gold to allow him to get extra carts, horses, and men for this sort of trip, which was obviously necessary, and also gave him an official document that would allow him to travel through certain cities without paying a toll. It was a privilege that Solomon gave to him before he left on this trip, just in case Eiro was planning on doing this exact thing before heading back.

But while Eiro was doing this, he noticed a lot of things here in this town. A lot of things that had changed. It seemed like there really were still a few soldiers gathered here, men and women that were from the same country as those that came here to get the Ladies to help them. Probably, they wanted to see if Eiro returned here at some point to apprehend them.

Obviosuly, even if Eiro revealed himself to them, he could kill them with a single snap of his finger. Well, a snap that was infused with wind magic to create slashing blades that could cut through their throats, sure, but it still counted in Eiro's opinion.

"Is something the issue, m'Lord?" The Merchant asked, waiting for Eiro to finalize the contract with his signature, and the disguised Demon slowly nodded his head, "Of course. I was just enjoying the peace of this town a bit."

As Eiro said these words, with a certain reason behind them, the Merchant nervously swallowed, "Of course, it is rather peaceful here... Although do not believe that this is always the case... M'Lord, if I can make a suggestion, it may be better to leave as soon as you can. A few months ago, a Demon went on a rampage here. A lot of us think that he might be waiting to come back and finish the rest of us off as well..."

"Is that so? Did you inform any official sources of this? I had heard rumors of such an attack near here, but there was never anything in newspapers, and there were no tails from even bards about such a thing." Eiro pointed out. The Merchant scratched the back of his head, "Of course we attempted to. Maybe the people handling such things thought it to be nothing worth mentioning?"

Eiro stared at the Merchant confused. This... was a lie. They never tried to inform any official sources of things like this. Maybe he didn't want to seem like a coward in front of who he thought to be an influential, rich and powerful noble, to try and hide the fact that they were scared of speaking of this... But that wouldn't make sense. This sounded far too rehearsed for that.

"Well, maybe the workers at the Adventurer's Guild might know a bit more of this. They should deal with such information, is that not so?" Eiro inquired, although he already knew the answer.

"Ah, yes, Tom should certainly be able to tell you much more than I am. Apologies, m'Lord." The Merchant said with a slightly awkward smile, but Eiro just shook his head, "Nothing to apologize for. It is not like you owe me any information in the first place. I happen to be a bit of a scholar, and I deal with large sums of money a lot. So of course I know the worth of information. Monetary and sentimentally." Eiro smiled lightly.

"Now, I think I will look around town a bit. You said the basic processing should be done within a few hours, yes? I am going to come back then to check on everything before heading off."

"Oh? M'Lord is not planning on staying for a few nights? We have a wonderful Inn in this city."

"Haha, I have some other business to attend to. And without such a hefty load with me, I will be able to get to it rather quickly." Eiro replied as he approached the door, "I will see you soon." The Demon said, and quickly left as the employees and the head of the company escorted him outside.

"Hah, the fuck kinda act was that? You sounded ridiculous!" Sarius exclaimed loudly into Eiro's ear. Of course while in the inbetween space, where only Eiro, Nelli and Gondos could see and hear him. Eiro turned his head to the side, keeping his act up with a soft smile on his face. But his eyes started aggressively glaring at Sarius, making even the Salamander flinch for a moment.

Without having to say anything, Eiro was pretty sure he managed to convey the message to his spirit.

But now that the wood has been dealt with properly, Eiro made his way over to the main reason why he wanted to come here to this town in the first place.

With a smile on his face, Eiro pulled open the door in front of him and stepped into the rather small building. The middle-aged man that was in charge here was tiredly leaning onto the counter until now, but quickly propped himself up before looking at Eiro with a smile.

"Welcome! Are you a traveller, perchance?" Tom, the Adventurer Guild's Master in this town, asked with a broad and energetic grin, like he usually did.

"Something like that. Actually, I'm here to hand in a bit of an overdue request." Eiro explained as he pushed his hand into his satchel. He pulled out a couple of herbs that he picked not too far from town, placing them onto the table with a piece of paper that seemed to have been crumpled up multiple times before, nearly ripping into pieces many times.

A bit confused, Tom looked at the piece of paper, "My apologies, Sir, but except if it is specifically stated so, you cannot hand in such requests in towns beside the ones where you took the request." He explained, before looking at the piece of paper.

And once he looked down at it properly and read the name that was written on it for the one that took the request, he raised his head as Bavet slowly split off of the Demon's body, removing Eiro's physical transformation.

"It's been a while, Tom." Eiro smiled genuinely. With shock written on his face and a heart beating fast enough to make Eiro scared that Tom would fall over dead any moment now.

But instead, he simply dragged his crooked legs in front of the counter and stood in front of Eiro, despite the Demon's immense physical changes since the last time these two had seen each other. And without a moment's hesitation, Tom pulled Eiro into a hug.

"What did you do, just disappearing like that, you fool?" Tom asked loudly, and as Eiro slowly pulled back, he looked back at the middle-aged man's face, "I killed a lot of people right in the middle of town. It's not like I could stay here too much longer."

"Pah, forget about that! That's nothing to worry about, most of us have seen worse already!" Tom exclaimed. Eiro couldn't help himself but laugh a bit in response, "That so? Well, either way, it was good timing anyway. We had to leave to get things with Sammy and Leon dealt with. Those two are totally fine now, by the way."

"Hah, I'm glad to hear that! I must say, I was worried about them! So, now that they are fine, you plan on coming back, yes?" The man asked, assuming that he had the right idea, but Eiro's smile quickly disappeared as he shook his head.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Tom. But I can't come back. Even if I could trust that I would not terrify anyone in this town just by being here... I have other obligations now. The children are going to school, I have a lot of others to take care of. I need to become stronger... And that's simply not possible out here."

Tom, with a rather disappointed expression, took a step back, "I see. Then if that is the case, I will support you, my friend. Is there a reason why you here? Certainly not because of this request?"

"Of course not. It was just a lucky coincidence, I guess. I was not too far away from here, and figured I should come by to see how the situation here is. And also... I would like to ask you for some ideas. Tips, and tricks."

"Oh? You finally want to use my wisdom for once, I see." Tom replied smugly with his arms crossed, and Eiro laughed back silently, "Right. It's because of your position as a Guild Master. You must have a bit of information about how the Guild handles ranking people up into higher positions?"

"Of course, as long as you prove yourself through capability and power, you are allowed to rank up. But why are you-"

"I want to be- No, I need to become an S-Rank. Help me figure out ways to do that. I know there are aspects beyond just power and capability at that point." Eiro said bluntly, and Tom looked back surprised, "You never seemed too interested in ranking up... You really need to tell me what happened later. But I guess... Power is certainly the most important factor, of course. If you are not far beyond the capability of an A-Rank, you will not even be considered for S-Rank. However, after that, you need to be able to become a proper public figure. Because S-Ranks are 'Common Heroes', people that sometimes gain the same renown as the actual 'Hero' out there."

"And what do I need for that?" Eiro asked bluntly, and Tom crossed his arms deep in thought, "Well... I am afraid it might be impossible for you."

"...What do you mean?"

"An S-Rank needs to have a unique, extraordinary appearance. Something unmistakable, to make them a true symbol for the people." 

Eiro already knew what this meant, and he could see that not only Bavet, but Nelli, Gondos, and even Sarius were rather excited about it.

"Urgh... Fine, bring back the rainbow hair...."