DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Finally, we're here!" Avalin exclaimed with a heavily relieved expression, before turning her head over toward the Imp with a bitter one, and then just grabbed the Imp's hand and continued leading him toward the block of stone.

"What?" The Imp then asked and pointed at the block, and Avalin just smiled at him. "That's called a town. A Place where lots of people live together." She explained to the Imp, who just slowly tilted his head to the side, "Island, not town?" He asked, really confused. The Imp thought that the place that they were at before that began to burn so prettily yesterday was supposed to be a Town, but apparently, it wasn't? Because these two places look completely different!

In response to that question, Avalin audibly gulped down the saliva from her mouth, "It-It is, but this one here needs large walls to defend against monsters." She explained, so the Imp slowly nodded in understanding, even if he still wasn't totally sure why this one looked so different to the town they were at before, but in the end, the Imp didn't really care all that much.

Instead, he returned to his book, which he was actually slowly starting to properly understand when reading the words, so he was slowly making his way through the first chapter, called the 'Ace of Cups'. It seemed pretty interesting, and the Imp really enjoyed reading through it, although he did have to read it a few times to totally understand what the story was about.

From what the Imp could tell, it was about a boy who grew up in one of these 'Towns' that Avalin spoke about, although for his whole life, he was hiding from other people every chance he got.

And the few times that he did go to see them, he stole things from the other people without them knowing about it. After a while, the boy grew older and continued stealing and stealing, until more people joined him within a hideout in the town, and the boy became known as the 'King of Thieves'.

Later, a trap was set for him, and the boy was captured, imprisoned within a deep dungeon. For years, the boy was kept there, nearly starving to death each and every day, and only given the minimal amount of rotten food and dirty water to keep him alive.

But then, out of nowhere, a figure clothed in a brightly colored suit appeared in front of him, and introduce himself as the 'Arcane Dealer', holding a deck of cards in front of him, and telling the boy to pull any one card out of the deck. And the card that he pulled was the 'Ace of Cups'.

Soon after, the figure disappeared, and the card that the boy pulled out of the deck had turned into a decorated golden cup with a pitch-black liquid inside.

Craving any type of sustenance out of sheer starvation and thirst, the boy chose to drink the liquid inside of the cup. The world around the boy became weird and shifty, and out of surprise, the boy dropped the cup to the ground, alerting the guards that stood around his cell at all times.

But when they stormed into the cell, all they found was the cup laying on the ground, while the boy seemed to have disappeared. In reality, however, they were completely unable to perceive the boy in any way, even forgetting who they were supposed to be guarding.

Just like that, the boy escaped the prison, never to be seen again.

The Imp didn't really understand what all of these words meant, but at the very least, he got a rough idea, and figured out that the 'Ace of Cups' was something really amazing! Although he didn't really understand what exactly it did, it seemed amazing, at least!

And when the Imp looked up from the book the next time, he quickly punched some notifications and then looked around himself, noticing that he was no longer outside the block of stone, but inside a town just like the one on the floating island from before!

"Alright, first, we need to go to the Guild. Then we're going to see Zaragon and finally sell the Imp." Thomas told the others with a sigh, although the Imp really didn't understand what exactly he meant with 'Sell the Imp'. He was an Imp, but what did 'Sell' mean?

While trying to figure this mystery out, the Imp continued following Avalin, Thomas and James toward a large building that took them surprisingly long to each, and that time was spent with the Imp eating some of the cooked meat he had in his bag and looking around at all the different people around him.

And when they finally did reach the building, the four of them quickly went inside, although there was a surprising amount of commotion there, and lots of people were running around wildly, yelling at each other. "Seems like they already know about The Sun…" Avalin sighed in relief before James nodded and crossed his arms.

"Good, then we can just relax from now on, right?" He asked with a wry smile, and Thomas nodded his head as well. "I hope so! Then let's go to Zaragon's and sell the Imp already." Thomas said with a smile, seemingly finally able to relax after they started running away from the last town, although Avalin was still tensed up a whole lot. She did keep quiet about what was bothering her, though.

And so, the four of them once more began to walk, to a whole other part of town, even further away than the building they were in before, although the area was a little uncomfortable for the Imp to be in. It seemed like there was someone staring at them at all times, and a lot of hooded people were walking around there, and most importantly, there were more small animals here than in the forests that they were in until now.

And while the Imp generally didn't mind all of that, as he was used to it to a certain point already, all of these things together seemed really… Bad to him.

But then, the four finally reached a small door, which not only seemed completely out of place location-wise, directly set into a wall in an alleyway, but it was the only clean thing around as well. And while the alleyway was dark and gloomy, this door was completely white, without a single speck of discoloration on it.

"Aah! Lucky! First Location!" James exclaimed with a grin on his face, and Thomas nodded his head as well. "Yeah, people say Zaragon always offers you a good deal when you happen to find the door right off the bat." Thomas replied and quickly stepped up to the door, hitting it with his knuckles a few times to knock, and a few moments later, the door slowly opened up to reveal a bright, pure white room inside.

And so, the four of them stepped into that room, before the door immediately closed, and Avalin walked up to the Imp and slowly took all of his things from him! His cloak, his meat-bag, his book, and even his wooden dagger! He was left completely naked and exposed now!

Although, that was the way he usually was, so it wasn't that big a deal either. Especially after seeing that the others also placed their armor and weapons away into small white baskets, even taking off their shoes.

"Is this really necessary every single time?" James asked with an annoyed grunt, and Avalin just shrugged quietly as she began to pour water over the Imp's feet, before doing the same to her own. "Zaragon's rules. Nothing we can do about it." She said, and James sighed deeply before nodding his head.

"Right… Just feels weird to place all of my items at the entrance of a shop that you can enter from a dozen places in town." James said with a frown, but Thomas just chuckled quietly while shaking his head. "You know nobody can come in here while we're here, right?" He asked, but James just tilted his head slightly to the side, confused.

"You didn't?" Thomas added, surprised, "I thought that was common knowledge for people who go see Zaragon."

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not from the Capital, the first time I even heard of him was when I came here with you last time…" James replied, so Thomas just chuckled again and stepped up to the next door at the other side of the room, once more knocking on it.

Slowly, the door opened up, and Avalin took the Imp by the hand and, for some reason, squeezed really hard all of a sudden, actually kind of hurting the Imp, even if not by much.

And then, when the Imp stepped into the room, he was met with even more pure white, although some things stuck out of that pure color.

Neatly aligned items, placed against the walls or set on pedestals along the center of the room, and on the side of the room opposite to the door stood a single, tall man wearing completely white clothes. Even his skin was nearly white, so he was basically invisible as he stood there, at the very least that was until the man slowly opened his eyes, showing small, pitch-black circles with glowing white rings in their center.

Just from looking at the man's eyes, the Imp began to shudder, although it became even worse when the man began to speak.

"Welcome, welcome, dear customers. How may I help you on this beautiful day?" He asked with a deep, clear voice that made the Imp want to scream just hearing it. He didn't know why that was the case, but it was.

"We want to sell." Thomas exclaimed in a clear voice, and swiftly, the pure-white man began to grin broadly as he disappeared into a black mist, before appearing directly in front of the Imp.

And while the black mist still came from his body, the man placed one of his glove-covered hands onto the Imp's right shoulder, another one on his chin while pulling his face from left to right, a third hand was pressing onto the Imp's hand while the last one pulled the Imp's eye open and then ran down to his mouth.

Although the Imp really didn't like any of this at all, the sheer force placed onto his body with that single hand on his shoulder made it impossible for him to move.

"Ohoh? An Anomalous Imp, I see? Some interesting skills as well, but most importantly, an Apprentice-Stage Language Comprehension skill?" The man asked with his deep voice, and in response, Avalin nodded her head slowly.

"Y-Yes… When we met him, he said my name after hearing it only a few times… And then I showed him how to read and write, and…"

"Boosted the Language Comprehension Skill even?" Zaragon asked, so Avalin once more just nodded.

"Interesting, Interesting. Doing all of this to a Wild Imp is quite impressive, I must say." The man said and placed all four of his arms behind his back, but Thomas, James, and Avalin just looked at him, confused.

"Wild? No, no, Avalin put an Ownership collar on-" James exclaimed, but he immediately stopped after being hit by Zaragon's glare.

"Did I ask you to speak?" Zaragon asked, but James simply shook his head, so Zaragon swiftly turned back toward Avalin.

"It is true that you put it under the control of Ownership, but this dear young Imp broke out of that control." Zaragon pointed out, looking at Avalin while waiting for a response, so Avalin looked down at the Imp with a frown. "But I placed the Collar on him, and it worked without a problem…" She replied, so swiftly, Zaragon began to smile, showing his sharp teeth as he did so.

"So you did, but this is not an item meant to restrain Demons, you see? It worked as it is nothing but a Lesser creature. Due to its Anomalous nature, it was able to slowly resist the effect. It seems like something happened to considerably weaken the control, although I can't exactly say what that was." Zaragon pointed out, and immediately, the three of them could remember what exactly that moment was before Zaragon continued.

"Either way, that is not of importance. So you say this Imp can truly read?" Zaragon asked curiously, and Avalin nodded her head immediately. "Yes, he can. Erm, he was reading the 'Minor Arcana Tales' a lot since yesterday…" She explained, so Zaragon slowly formed another broad grin.

"Is that so? Tell me, young Demon, can you tell me about any of the stories in that book?" Zaragon asked, and the Imp, feeling forced to oblige after the words of the man, slowly tried to remember what he read.

"Ace of Cups…" The Imp replied, and with a surprised smile, Zaragon raised his brows. "I see, I see. What a coincidence that is." He explained with a laugh, before turning around and waving one of his hands in front of himself, immediately making all of the different items and pillars in the room disappear, just to replace them with a single other one.

It was a pillar, about at the height of the man's waist, with a single small item on top of it. A small card with a decorated, golden cup displayed on it.