Demon's Virtue

"Cancer... That is that tumorous disease, is it not? The kind that is hard to heal even with most healing spells..." Eiro asked with a light, sad frown on his face. Arc immediately nodded his head in response, and looked to the side, "It was... Horrible. It spread throughout my whole body, and I was in complete and utter pain for the last year of my life... At some point, all my friends stopped visiting me in the hospital, and my grandfather, the only family I had left, died and I wasn't even able to go to the funeral."

The moment that Eiro heard this explanation, he realized something, "And you wished you wouldn't be able to feel the physical pain from that disease, or the emotional pain from being all alone. When you died, that wish was fulfilled."

"...Yeah. That's exactly how it was. At first, when I woke up, I was scared. But then I was happy, realizing what was going on. And later, I was happy because that was the only choice I had. The 'parents' I was given in this life threw me away because they thought I was a freak, selling me to the army because of my Unique skills. There, I met the others, and you." Arc explained.

"Are the others..." Eiro started, but Arc immediately shook his head, "Not that I know of, no. The others don't have any memories of a former life, they're just normal people." 

Eiro slowly nodded his head in response and looked at the young man in front of him, "At some point, tell me more about your past life. I want to know more about it, but first..." The Demon slowly moved his hand to the side and did the motion of pulling something from a shelf. In his hand, a wooden figurine appeared. Eiro had created it during his trip back to town while they were being carried by Lognir.

"Do you recognize this man? Or the weird clothes he is wearing?" Eiro asked, and Arc took a quick look at the figurine, "I mean... I don't know the guy, but the clothes are definitely from my former world... He's wearing jeans, a hoodie... All very modern things, I'd say."

"What are those things? They were made of materials I hadn't seen before." Eiro pointed out.

"Ah... Jeans are made of denim, but i have no idea what that's made of. But hoodies and t-shirts often had polyesters in them. They're like, artificial materials, I guess? I've never seen them here, though, so that'd be unfamiliar to you..." Arc pointed out, before realizing something important, "But wait, when did you even see this guy?"

"...I'll explain it to you sometime. Just... When you happen to see this guy, no matter the circumstance... Listen to what he has to say and don't make him angry. Treat him like a god, if you need to." Eiro said bluntly.

After all, this man that Eiro met in that white space back then, the one that gave Eiro the possibility of unlocking that skill, was clearly the <Arcane Dealer>. A being powerful enough to create these legendary items, the Cards. It was obvious that nobody would be able to put up a fight against him.

Someone that could create such things probably was capable of using all those abilities anyway.

Eiro took a deep breath and placed the wooden figurine back into his treasury.

"Who is that guy..?" Arc asked, and Eiro just looked back at him, "Someone you should never involve yourself with." 

Eiro knocked on the door to tell Bavet to come back inside, and the slime quickly did so. He pressed himself against the Demon's body and transformed him again, before Eiro and Arc carefully stepped outside, "When you're all back at the manor, we'll talk more about this. For now, this is enough. Have fun for the next few days at this camp."

"Huh? Wait, didn't they say you're going to be a teacher? You won't be here during the camp?" Arc asked, and Eiro quickly shook hiss head, "I have some more things to take care of. I'll be there during the first day of regular class. I was asked to teach practical classes in Magic and Physical Combat. And I'll be there in some woodworking classes as well, but that's not set in stone yet."

Arc slowly nodded his head in response, "Then I'll probably have a class with you! Guess I can relax there then~!"

"...Has it been so long since we've seen each other that you forgot my style of teaching?" Eiro asked bluntly, and Arc stopped for a moment, "Right... Meaning that-"

"You'll have a harder time than anyone else." Eiro said bluntly, while Arc let his head drop down with a deep groan, "Yep, fair enough."

With a light smile, Eiro rubbed his hand through his son's hair as they met back up with the others, "So, you five will go back to your special classes, and I'll take Avalin and Leon back home with me already. If anything is wrong, just let one of your teachers know to contact me, and I'll be here as soon as I can be."

"We know, Dad." Sammy replied with a light, somewhat embarrassed smile, since he was saying this right in front of a bunch of other people that were clearly their classmates.

"Good. Then make sure to have fun and learn a lot." Eiro smiled, and gave everyone a quick hug before they had to go back to their special classes. And then, Eiro started walking through this building, holding Avalin's hand with his left, and Leon's hand with his right hand.

"Daddy, why do you look so different now?" Avalin asked, since it's been on her mind for a while now. Eiro just laughed lightly and looked down at her, "So that I don't have to wear a mask all the time. Like this, I can walk around freely." The Demon said bluntly. Of course... He would be a bit weaker than he normally was, so he would just end up using his regular outfit if he had to or if he didn't want certain actions of his to be connected to his new persona.

"But I like how you normally look better!" Avalin exclaimed with a huff, and Eiro laughed slightly, "Is that so? Leon, what about you? Do you like me better when I look like I usually do as well?" 

The still slightly tired young boy looked up at his father and squinted his eyes, "I just like Daddy... When he's Daddy."

With a slight laugh, Eiro replied, "So you love me unconditionally, huh? I guess we have a winner for 'who loves daddy the most' here..."

The moment that Avalin heard this, she grasped Eiro's hand with both of hers and stared up at him, "No! I love Daddy the most!" 

With a slight laugh, happy to be able to have fun with these two like this, the Demon in guise of a Human continued on through this school to get familiar with it. And later, he would need to head to the castle.

--- 

"You know how to let your mana flow through you, right?" Eiro asked bluntly, and Charles stared back at him with a nod, as if it was obvious, "Of course I do... And all I need to do is pump as much mana as I need into the seed, right?" 

"Kind of, but not directly." Eiro replied with a deep sigh, "That's not all you need to do. You need to push your mana into the seed, sure, but if you just push your mana in there until you're out, you would end up needing far longer than necessary. Create a circle of mana between your limbs. First, let it flow out of your right hand into your left. It might be harder since one of your arms is a prosthetic, but it should still work because of the wood I used for it."

"And what use does that have?" Charles asked, as if this was completely unnecessary, "Can't I just keep using these prosthetics? They work really well already..." 

"Yes, but at the end of the day, they're still like 'prosthetics'. My hand is technically just a prosthetic as well, but it's also a staff, and I can feel slight touch through it already." Eiro explained.

Charles seemed surprised that this was the case, and Eiro kept explaining, "Once the tree started growing enough for materials to be harvested from it, it will change according to your change. It will be like it's going to be a part of your body, just far away from you. That's why it's going to be the best material for a prosthetic, since it's basically already a part of you. The same tree that you start growing today, will still reflect the state of your mana for the next 10, 20, and 30 years. It will wither when you die, but nobody else would have a use for it anyway."

"...Alright... Then I'll try that, I guess. So let it circle through my body, out one palm and in the other. And then..."

"Create the circle and make sure your mana regeneration is increased while you do so. And then, you only move the same amount of mana as you gain back into the seed. If you combine it with Meditation, you'll be able to keep doing it until you're physically exhausted, instead of until your mana is exhausted." Eiro said. He quickly merged with Gondos so that he could see the flow of Charles' mana. The Demon made sure to help him fix his mistakes, and made sure that he did everything in the most efficient way.

It seemed like at some point, Charles understood the use of doing all this, and got a lot better as well. The seed was placed somewhere in the royal gardens, a place where not many people came. It was especially closed off so that nobody could enter here after this anyway, though. But it was Charles' favorite place here in town, so it was a good spot that had a deep connection to Charles.

With a light smile on his face, Eiro kept watching Charles until the Demon was sure that this prince could do this even without his guidance, "Alright, perfect. Just make sure that you don't overdo it. If at any point you get tired or hungry, go ahead and take a break. There's no need for you to damage your body for this sake. That would be the opposite of what we want."

And just like that, Charles started on the creation of his own personal tree using one of the seeds that Eiro gave to him.. Eiro slowly pulled out one of the fruit that he picked from his own tree and wondered what Charles' fruit would be like.