Demon's Virtue

"Sorry, but it seems like this conversation currently takes a bit of priority..." Solomon said while looking at his cousin. The other man just shook his head and smiled, "Don't worry about it, Solomon. I can tell that it is rather important... considering that Koperia is involved here. Besides, we already spoke about most of what we had to speak about. The rest is something that can be discussed at a later point."

"Thank you for understanding. I will see you at dinner later, I assume?"

"Of course. But for now, I'll head back to the bedchambers that were prepared for me." Duke Melachine explained to the King in front of him, before stepping through the door out of the room. His guards quickly accompanied him. They were rather tensed up because of Eiro's presence, but also at the same time somewhat more relaxed because the royal guard was swarming this building. And considering that they didn't do anything about Eiro, he was clearly not dangerous. At least that was their mindset.

Once Eiro, Lognir and Solomon were alone, the Demon turned toward the King, "Alright, again. Koperia and I will take care of 'The Death'. Since I'm not officially 'The World' just yet, I can keep the card for myself as well, until we found a good way to keep it safe somewhere."

"...What sort of motivation would that woman have to assist you in this?" Solomon asked a bit worried. Such a powerful person, who was known for doing anything she wanted even if it resulted in whole cities being wiped out within a matter of days, helping out someone like Eiro? It didn't make sense.

It seemed like Lognir, as his and Solomon's minds were connected to each other, knew what he was thinking, and quickly explained what he figured Eiro might be thinking right now, "I assume that she is doing this out of her own selfishness, Solomon. I did hear rumors that she liked hunting down other 'powerful' Necromancers, and who else deserves the title of a true incarnation of death beside her? 'The Death' itself."

Solomon turned away from his familiar, instead looking at the Demon in front of him, "Is that right? She is trying to fight the death out of her own selfish reasons?"

"To an extent, yes. I'm sure she is kind of trying to help me out as well, since she and my teacher were friends. Otherwise she could just go to the prison and get rid of the death herself. I'm no match for her in the slightest, so I also won't be that much help in killing 'the Death'. But she's giving me the experience and even the card that comes with killing it. Sure, she's not particularly interested in either of those things, but even then, she could just take it for herself and let the card just disappear." Eiro explained.

Solomon was not entirely convinced, however. He was nervous, thinking that there might be more to it than just that, "Why is Koperia even here in the first place? I know you asked Lognir to spread rumors about a necromancer so that she would come here. What did you need her for? Surely not just to kill 'the Death', right?"

Eiro sighed slightly, since he didn't expect they'd have to speak about this today, "You're right, there is a reason. You know that I was created by the Monster King, right? Well, there were some... issues with my soul that I needed an expert's opinion on. And the expert in this situation was Koperia." 

"What kind of issues were there with your soul?" Solomon asked, and Eiro turned away. It wasn't his fault, and compared to some of the other things that he did in the past, this wasn't anything to be particularly angry about either. Of course the implications were horrific, but at the end of the day, it wasn't like people didn't know about this.

"I have a human soul. During my creation, the Monster King became distracted, and I had an aspect of humanity left within me, which is why I can control my monstrosity." Eiro explained. Solomon's eyes opened wide as he locked eyes with the Demon, "So you're saying that all the monsters of the monster king's army were made not using other monsters' souls, but the souls of people?"

"It's possible... at least a large portion certainly was. But I believe that many are still made from monsters' souls." Eiro explained, "Although at the end of the day, this Monster King is rather unique compared to many of the others that existed. I mean, he led his army to a place that monsters shouldn't even possibly approach."

"The city on the lake... It's formally been a monster nest for quite some time, and we don't even know if the guardian of the lake still lives at this time." Solomon muttered, "But that's not important right now. So because of your soul, you wanted Koperia to come here to..."

"To see if everything was alright with my soul. I've always had rather low mana and health compared to what my level, number of evolutions, and stats would suggest. Now I know why, and throughout my next evolution, Koperia will help me fix that." Eiro explained.

Now, Solomon became even more suspicious, "Really? What did you offer her to help you?" 

"Again, she does whatever she wants, no matter what other people offer her. She probably just wants to see if she can manipulate someone's soul in such a direct way." Eiro explained to Solomon, who slowly nodded his head, "I see... But at least be as careful as you can be. That woman is incredibly dangerous."

"I know, I was nearly killed by her the first time we met. Well, technically I was nearly killed by one of her undead, but that's the same thing, basically." Eiro pointed out, "But let's move on from that for now. Will you give us access to the prison?"

Solomon crossed his arms for a moment, "It would certainly be quite helpful if we were able to use the resources of that basement area for something else. But are you sure that you can get rid of it that easily?"

"Well... strength-wise, I assume that Koperia is probably as strong, if not stronger, than 'The Death' at its full power. And it's weakened right now as well. And then including the fact that I'll try and make use of some magic that should possibly hurt it quite a bit, there's not much to worry about in that regard."

"...You have a point." Solomon said, "Alright, give me a few days, and I'll figure it out. I'll make sure that nobody there will bother you either... Just make sure you figure out a way to get rid of it without affecting the other prisoners in the building, alright?"

"Don't worry, that shouldn't be an issue." Eiro explained, "Now, where's Charles?"

"Charles?" Solomon asked, surprised at the sudden change of topic, "Oh, right, because of the wood for his prosthetics... He should be in his room at the moment, he told me he's trying to study for one of his classes."

"Alright, then I'll go visit him for a moment, if you don't mind. I might be able to help him out with that, and then I'll talk to him about properly feeding the sapling his magic. It's important that he does that consistently if he wants to have high-quality prosthetics."

Solomon nodded, "Of course, go ahead. Thanks for doing that, Eiro."

"Don't worry about it. I owe you quite a bit at this point anyway."

"Oh, don't worry about either of us owing the other something. We will simply help the other out when they need it, right?" Solomon suggested. Eiro nodded his head in response as he slowly turned around to make his way toward the door, "That's what friends do, right?"

--- 

Eiro knocked on Charles' door and waited for an answer. And the next moment, it seemed like he fell over onto the ground. Of course, realizing that he might be hurt, Eiro quickly opened the door. He already knew that he wasn't doing anything that he would want to hide in there anyway.

"Are you alright?" The Demon asked, soon seeing Charles holding his leg. The one that he had left, not the prosthetic. And at the same time, he had a few scratches and some blood on his hand.

"Did you just try to cast a spell?" Eiro asked with a sigh, and Charles looked up with a wry smile, "What if I was..?"

"If you were, then I would suggest doing it on the training grounds next time where you can't damage things in your room. And where there will be people that can help you if you mess something up." Eiro pointed out, looking around the room a bit. Judging from the slight marks on the walls as well as the scratches on Charles' hand, this was clearly supposed to be attack magic.

"I wouldn't have messed up if you hadn't surprised me like that anyway..." Charles groaned, as Eiro rolled his eyes and approached, pulling a flask of purified water out of his satchel that he could use to quickly heal the boy's shallow injuries.

"If you can't cast attack magic because someone knocked on your door, then you simply can't cast attack magic. It's the type that has to be cast while a lot of stuff is happening, you must focus on the world around you at the same time as you're casting your spell." Eiro pointed out, continuously focusing his mana on healing him as much as possible.

Since Charles was so unresponsive to healing, it would take him a lot longer to heal these scratches. As long as it would take him to heal a serious, possibly life-threatening wound on someone else.

"Now tell me, what's going on?" 

"What do you mean?" Charles asked with a wry smile. Eiro looked back at the boy and rolled his eyes, "You know exactly what I mean. One, why are you secretly trying to practice casting attack magic, and two, why are you neglecting your sapling?" The Demon asked, "I have a feeling that the reasons for both are somewhat connected."

"..." Charles silently stared at the ground, "I... I want to be stronger. I've always thought I didn't need to be because of the guards with me, but if I had been even a little bit stronger, maybe I could have helped stop... him. Back then, people in class would look at me because I was the prince, and now... they're looking at me and whispering to each other because I'm the cripple that let his classmates die... I just can't waste time anymore...."