DEMON'S VIRTUE

On his way back to the clearing, Eiro looked down at the gem in his hand for a little while. It was pretty high-quality, as far as he could tell at least. He didn't know too much about how to determine the worth of gems and crystals, but he knew when he saw a precious kind, at least.

It was clear and beautiful, had a strong physical form that made it nearly impossible to break, and it was good at letting magic flow through it, especially ice magic. It would be an amazing material for a staff as well, but for now it should be something that Eiro should make use of to properly apologize to the daughter of winter. Even they appreciated things like that, after all.

But just as he was about to get too close to the king, someone stood in front of Eiro, "What is it?" The demon asked with a growling voice. He couldn't calm down when he had this woman right in front of him.

Evelyn simply chuckled and shrugged as she crossed her arms, "Nothing, nothing. I would just love to see what you have there, exactly." She said with a light smile, and Eiro raised his head, "Oh, you want to see what I have here? It's just a dagger, really, would you like to see it up close?"

Not feeding into Eiro's words, Evelyn continued to laugh and started to come closer to Eiro. She looked down at the gem that he was holding and extended her hand forward, "Give it to me." She said, as if commanding Eiro to do so.

"Why would I?" The demon retorted, and simply stepped past her, "Oh... You really think that's a good idea?"

Hearing the tone of her voice, Eiro turned around and stared at Evelyn with a deep frown on his face, "I do, but you're probably too simple to understand that."

Eiro tried to continue walking toward Solomon, but once more, Evelyn stopped him. "That's not what I mean. It's just that if you do go ahead and go there, you will have to live with the consequences, you see?"

"Is that about the black blood you made me swallow?" Eiro asked immediately, and Evelyn slowly started to smirk.

"Good, you realized~. Yes it is. If I wanted to, I could control you however I want. I can make you drop to your knees and beg me to forgive your existence, or I can make you attack that Lady you love so much." Evelyn pointed out with a smug expression.

Eiro raised his brows curiously, "Oh, that blood has spatial attributes?"

"Of course not, what are you even sayi-" Evelyn replied with a deep glare, but she was quickly interrupted and met by Eiro's stares.

"Then shut the fuck up before I actually get mad. It's embarrassing enough you don't know the difference between a Lady and her daughters, so at least try to act like it. Fuck off." Eiro slowly turned around and made his way further toward Solomon again. He spoke to the king a little, telling him about what each of the materials that he gathered were and why they were going to be offered to the Daughter.

It did seem like Solomon was rather interested and invested in this, which was a good thing. It just seemed like he was never properly educated on what he was supposed to do in regards to making the ladies, or their daughters in this case, happy.

Hopefully in the future, he wouldn't keep messing up like this. But Eiro was rather curious about something else as well. Why did the Daughter never do anything despite being treated so 'rudely'? The ladies that Eiro knew would go on a rampage if they were treated like that, but this one simply let it happen. Maybe she was simply a kind or shy one. The daughters did tend to be very different to each other sometimes, and they often had very human personality traits.

Eiro looked at the center of the clearing with pure curiosity in his eyes and then squatted down onto the ground again, "Well... Either way, wake me if you see anything happen in the clearing." Eiro told Solomon, before sitting down cross-legged in the snow and closing his eyes. He just wanted to meditate a bit so that he wouldn't end up wasting this time that they had to wait.

It seemed like it took quite a while. The sun went up and rose to the top of the sky, and even then the daughter didn't appear. But around evening, albeit still a little too early, the daughter of winter seemed to slowly appear in the center of the clearing in front of Eiro.

One last time, the demon made sure that only Eiro and Solomon were here. It seemed like Evelyn wouldn't leave either. It was really, really bothersome, because it was clear that she was planning something.

Either way, for now, that didn't matter. He was prepared for anything she could throw at him, so Eiro would cross that bridge when he got to it.

The demon properly stood up and approached the daughter of winter, who was looking back at him with interest. Solomon was right beside him, also carrying a few of the preemptive offerings that they would give her.

Eiro stopped in front of the daughter. She really did look exactly like the Lady, just that she was the size of a regular person. Her clothes were a slight bit less complex and decorated, but she still gave off the feeling of nobility and divinity that Eiro could feel off of the Lady. It seemed like there was a reason why this daughter was chosen as one to represent the Lady on her own.

"It is nice to see you, Daughter of Winter. I am Eiro, one chosen by your Lady." The Demon explained, but it seemed like that was pretty unnecessary to do, "I know who you are. Who doesn't, after all?" The daughter asked with a light chuckle.

"Rather, I am surprised that this year there are offerings. I was getting rather fed up not receiving any." The daughter explained, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "I understand. I deeply apologize for the way the people of this place have acted toward you over time. This man here next to me is Solomon Sigurd Skyhart, the King of this country and descendant of one chosen by your Lady. Together, he and I came to apologize for the misconducts you have been exposed to."

With a slight chuckle, the daughter looked down at Eiro and shook her head, "Oh, don't worry. The offerings are mostly important for my mother. I can live off of simply seeing the beauty of the people I pass, albeit I would still prefer to receive an offering. You can't exclusively live off of gratitude, after all."

"Of course. Here, these are offerings for you. One offering for each year that you were mistreated." Eiro explained, and laid out the different materials in front of him. Meanwhile, Solomon was staring at Eiro with wondrous eyes, excited to see that he had been telling the truth and really did seem to be the one chosen by the Lady of Winter.

The daugher took a look at all the offerings Eiro gave to her, and nodded her head in satisfaction, "These are beautiful. I thank you. It seems to still be rather early to make our way to the town, is it not?"

"Yes, it is. So instead, I would like to simply converse with you, if you do not mind."

"Of course not? How could I refuse that of the man whose words and demeanor were one of the reasons he was chosen by my mother?" She asked curiously, and Erio slowly nodded his head.

But just at that time, it seemed like Evelyn was moving her hands around slightly, seemingly trying to go for some form of manipulation. Eiro figured it was supposed to be the black blood inside of his body. Eiro immediately got rid of most of it, but there was still a little bit in him. It didn't mix with his own blood or anything, it simply stuck to different parts of Eiro's body from the inside. But because it wasn't all too much anymore, Eiro felt nothing but a slight tug in the direction.

He immediately realized what Evelyn was planning on doing, and simply chose to play along.

"I think to begin with, I owe you to truly show my true form." Eiro said as he slowly placed his hand onto his mask, "The same is the case for you, Solomon. But please trust me that no matter what I am, I am exactly the one that you have come to know over the past little while. There was no deceit in my personality. Just in my exterior." The demon warned, and then just pulled off his mask, placing it into his treasury the next moment.

Eiro's red face was exposed to the air, and the Demon pulled off his hood. He grabbed the shadow magic stone placed inbetween his horns and removed it, properly causing them to return to their original form again.

Solomon couldn't help but stare at Eiro in confusion as the demon grabbed his cloak and pulled it off his body completely so that he could show his true form to the Daughter and Solomon at the same time. Eiro showed it to both of them out of respect. He respected the Daughter as she was the child of an old friend, and Solomon because he was a new friend. Both equally deserved to see him like this.

The light blue patterns on Eiro's red skin reached out completely to the equally light blue parts of the demon's skin. The shadowy mass on Eiro's back slowly disappeared, just to show that they were truly wings, and a threatening-looking tail was now waving back and forth right behind Eiro.

Obviously, Solomon would be surprised by that. And not just surprised, but rather shocked. Eiro understood that. But he still didn't expect Solomon's reaction. Because the next moment, the King started to laugh loudly.

"You were a demon this whole time? That is why you had been wearing that cloak the whole time? Do not worry, my friend, such things matter little to me. I myself have the blood of a monster in me, the blood of a dragon. It is rather weak now that we came to my generation, but nonetheless, the blood of a monster flows in me. I know just too well that being good is more important than what you were born as." Solomon explained, "And while I have heard of you do rather extreme things, I believe you had your reasons. I trust you, there is no need for you to worry."

With a light smile, Eiro nodded his head, "I see... Then I must thank you for accepting me as I am, Solomon."

"Of course, my friend." The King said with a light smile on his face, that Eiro quickly reciprocated. Meanwhile, a certain Bloodstone Sorceress was staring at Eiro, Solomon, and the Daughter of Winter in confusion. She didn't expect both of them to simply not care about the fact that Eiro was in reality a monster.

And with a light smirk, Eiro turned his head toward Evelyn, showing her his deep glare for the first time after his evolution, "And now to you, little lady."