Demon's Virtue

Chapter 610: Curiosity

“Huh..?” The frog muttered confused, looking at the fish floating in the water in front of him. He turned around, looking at the spirit that swam up to his side, “Is this… your master?”

“…Contractor, thank you very much. And no, it’s not. It’s something that my contractor made with magic, I guess.” Nelli pointed out, and the fish quickly started to swim around the frog’s head, “That is correct. I got a bit bored down here, so I figured I would try to make use of this excess amount of freetime I have gained.”

Together with a light sigh, the frog pushed himself off the ground and started to swim over to one of the shelves, where he quickly pushed the book he had been holding back into the shelf, “You finally made it to the first floor of the great tower of books, yet you find yourself bored? How did you even manage to suffer through those years of training on lowest floor?”

“Ah, I managed to make it through within 30 minutes of setting my eyes on the tower for the first time. I’ve been here for… four hours now? It took you a bit longer to finish the end of that book than I thought.” Eiro explained bluntly, and the frog stared into the lifeless eyes of the fake fish still happily swimming around in the water, before he turned his head toward Nelli. She was still floating there in a relaxed manner. Rather, she herself seemed quite bored as well, despite being in such an amazing place like this. The frog let out a deep sigh, and started to swim toward the edge of the platform he was on, “There is no need for you to lie like that. As you said, we will be spending the next few weeks here together until I manage to finally finish my reading.” He said, somewhat annoyed, soon reaching the bottom part of the first floor, “You said the fish was a spell? Then where is your real body?”

“My real body? In the central elemental plane. But the body this version of me is using is right over there.” The fish said bluntly, swimming over toward one of the larger windows, in front of which a figure suddenly seemed to appear, as if it was currently being formed out of water. But once the frog realized that someone was there, he could also tell that he had been there all along. More importantly though, there was a constant stream of numerous books floating from one part of the library right over toward the figure, before opening up and flipping through the pages without even needing to be touched by even one of the figure’s four arms. It seemed like a single book was finished within just a couple of minutes.

However, the most surprising part was that, while the man that the figure belonged to was constantly staring at the pages of the books, his eyes shooting around as if he was having a seizure, all four of his hands were working on carving out random parts out of wood, at a pace that didn’t seem possible even by craftsmen that dedicated their life to the craft.

“Wh-What is this..?” The frog asked confused, as the fish suddenly stopped moving around. Instead, a voice now came from Eiro himself, “I’m trying to spend my time here well, what else? I’ll spend the next few weeks on this floor alone, so I might as well make sure that time isn’t wasted. Even if I have no other matters to attend to in the first place.”

“No… that’s not… Just, what do you think you’re doing to the decor of the great tower of books..?” The frog asked confused, looking at Eiro’s source of wood. He had taken apart some of the furniture so that he could have something from this realm to use for his practice. Rolling his eyes, he quickly replied, “These are chairs. People in this plane don’t need chairs.” Eiro said bluntly, “And in the first place, the guide of this tower allowed it.” He pointed out, glancing at the half-spirit still reading books laid out on a desk next to the entrance. Confused, the frog turned around and stared at the guide, who slowly raised their head and nodded after the two locked eyes.

“But even then-“

“Can’t you just shut your mouth already? You’re already ruining this place for me. At this rate, I might have to ask the original for a few more duplicates to finish a few weeks earlier than planned.” The Demon sighed in an annoyed tone, before letting go of the knife that he had been holding, watching it float through the water until it inevitably hit the ground.

Seeing that Eiro had stopped what he was doing, the frog started smiling in relief, although he was wondering why this man was acting so annoyed if he did what he was asked to anyway. However, before he could make a sort of sly comment about it, he watched as Eiro picked up the wooden pieces laying on the ground in front of him. With a few quick movements, he put them together with complicated mechanisms and gears in a straight line. Soon, the narrow construct reached the length of about an arm. But this wasn’t the end of it. Without giving him the chance to figure out what was being built right now, all of the mechanisms were covered up with small wooden plates that the frog seemed to have mistaken for simple woodchips. Before long, and only a few moments prior to the object being finished, did the frog understand what it was that Eiro built.

“A common lake serpent?”

“Close. The mossy lake serpent. Disregarding their color, they look practically identical, with the exception of their fangs of course. But, well, I have to give the job to someone else anyway. Not like I myself have any life force to bestow onto this child.” Eiro pointed out, as he took the wooden snake and held its head onto the center of his chest, where it seemed to simply disappear. And of course, all of this was done without Eiro feeling the need to look away from the pages of the books flipping by in front of him at quick pace.

Crossing his arms in front of his body, the frog seemed to glare at Eiro deeply, “How are you doing this? And rather, why? It’s not like you can read the content of those books properly.”

“Hm?” Eiro replied surprised, “Of course I can, why wouldn’t I? I’m reading everything I see. I just don’t think about it too deeply. Other versions of myself can truly think about the content of the books, all I need to do is read.”

“And what is all this with the way you’re talking? Youngins these days, really… I know I’ve been here for a while, but is everyone out there like this now?” Clicking his tongue, the frog shook his head as if he was disappointed. And even though Eiro was a little bit annoyed by it, he didn’t want to bother with an angrier version of this guy, so he didn’t try annoying him more, even if it might seem a little fun.

“I’ve only been on this plane for a few days, but from what I can tell, there is nobody like me here.” Eiro said immediately, “In the first place, there isn’t anybody like me on the central material plane where I’m from either, so it would be more surprising for there to be someone like me here?”

“…You said something like that before, but what do you mean with that? If you’re from the central material plane, how did you get here? Through the astral plane?” The frog inquired, his annoyance seemingly being replaced by curiosity once more, but Eiro just quickly shook his head in response, “No, I entered through a spirit gateway from the central material plane. The situation is a little complex, but if you care to listen, I can explain it to you. I know that my words sound rather unbelievable on their own, after all.”

— 

“…That… huh… I’ve read of the royal monsters of the central material plane, but I never expected to see one in front of me like this.” The frog replied with a curious stare, “But well, that would explain some of the things you’ve been talking about. Each one of you is supposed to be incredibly unique, right?”

“Right. It actually comes from our evolution. I didn’t read much about monsters in this world yet in general, not to mention specifics of evolution. How much do you know?”

With a smug grin, the frog nodded his head, “Right, knowledge like this is quite rare, but there happen to be quite a few books on monsters in this library. Through evolution, the body of monsters completely changes, right? In that sense, it seems to be similar to magic beasts, and-“

“What? No, why would it be similar to magic beasts?” Eiro asked with a wry smile, and the frog frowned slightly, “The bodies of monsters and magic beasts can both change immensely, so how is it different?”

Eiro let out a deep sigh. He had expected something like this. There was barely any information on this realm to be found on the central material plane, so it made sense for there to be just as little information on the central material plane here. And so, the Demon figured he should just quickly explain, “Through the actions we have taken in our lifetime, monsters follow paths according to that. So that they can continue following that path, their bodies change so that they can attain more abilities. For magic beasts, it’s the other way around. While they also gain something based on what happened in their lifetime, their new magic, their bodies don’t have to change to get their magic. Instead, upon receiving their magic, their body, being a straight reflection of their own magic, will change in accordance with their new abilities.” Eiro explained, and the frog listened curiously to his words. It seemed like instead of being arrogant like many people in the central material plane, this man simply wanted to learn as much as he could from any opportunity given to him.

“Speaking of all this, what system do the people of this plane fall under? They are people, but in many aspects, they are closer to magic beasts.” Eiro pointed out, and the frog quickly replied, “Right… I have a limited understanding of the ‘Class System’ of the people on the central material plane, so correct my if I’m wrong, but we follow a separate, even if similar, system. Just as you said, we are both people and magic beasts, or rather, people that descended from magic beasts. As such, our path is based on magic, but advances like classes.”