DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro stopped in his tracks and stared at Solomon intensely, clenching his wrist as he was trying to figure out why exactly Solomon was asking him about this. In the first place, how did Solomon know that Avalin was the 'Holy Priestess'? There was no way the others told him about it, and considering how much they've been practicing how they should best hide her identity, he definitely didn't see her eyes either.

"How did you figure it out?" The Demon asked, and Solomon turned toward him, simply waiting for a proper answer, "I'll tell you if I can understand your reasons."

Eiro thought about it for a moment, but at this point, he obviously couldn't hide it anymore. He looked Solomon deep into his eyes and let out a long sigh. "I'm not a true Demon." Eiro explained, "At least not a normal one."

"I noticed, considering that you're actually conversing with me like this."

"No, that's not what I mean." Eiro replied, "I'm not 'normal' in the way that I was artificially created by the Monster King. Something went wrong with me, and I became a variant, which led me to straying onto a path like this. But nonetheless, the command of the Monster King was, and to an extent still is, part of me. Now I can completely suppress it, don't worry, but back then, I couldn't. When I first used the ace of cups, I wandered into the castle in the Empire's capital. <The Sun> was threatening the knights there and wanted to get Avalin himself. Instead, I picked her up, and brought her with me to bring her to the Monster King. I was supposed to bring Avalin to the Monster King so that he could turn her into <The Fool>. But, I resisted and instead raised her myself. And I think it was a good choice, because when I then first met a Baron from the Holy Empire a year ago, I found out that she would have already been a complete weapon of war."

Solomon looked back at Eiro with a deep stare, and just for a moment, Eiro could see the King's pupils turning into a black slit while Solomon's whole aura changed rapidly, giving Eiro deep shivers all over his whole body.

Slowly, the corners of the King's mouth curled upward before he nodded his head, "I see. I'm glad. I knew that you were a good guy, but I simply needed to be sure about this. I know I can fully trust you, the man who is raising the one being that is meant to be able to kill him instantly, and was ready to divulge all this to me." Solomon pointed out with a light smile, and then turned back around, "There is a place we could speak about this a bit more privately, is that not right?"

Eiro lightly smirked and nodded his head. He knew there had to be more about Solomon than met the eye. The Demon quickly led him across the hallways of the manor and brought him to the library, before walking up the stairs to the room-internal second floor, before he swiftly opened up the entrance into the secret section of the library.

"Is this what you had in mind?" Eiro asked as he led the way inside, and Solomon quickly started to nod his head, "Of course it is." Solomon looked around the room with curious eyes, although he was anything but surprised.

"You knew about this place?" The Demon figured, and Solomon slowly nodded his head, "I knew there was an extra special place connected to the library, and many other rooms of this manor, but I wasn't directly aware of what was hiding here. Although it certainly is no disappointment."

Eiro walked over toward the corner of the room, where there was a specific area where people could sit down and spend their time reading, with comfortable chairs, couches, and tables. He sat down on one of the chairs, and waited for Solomon to do the same, before he waited for an explanation.

"So..." The King Skyhart started, "It is time to return the trust you have shown me. You already know about the Unique Bloodline skill that both Charles and I possess, but I doubt you know what exactly it is."

"You're right. I was wondering if it was a skill that let you turn special beings into your familiar, considering what you said back then, but that doesn't seem to be the case after all." Eiro pointed out. With a quiet laugh, Solomon shook his head.

"Actually, you're not too far off." He explained, "While it has certainly happened that those without this skill have been able to form Familiar-contracts with these beings, it is quite rare. After all, if you don't have a strong connection with your potential familiar, or the difference in strength is too large, there are heavy repercussions for forming Familiar contracts. With this being in particular, the rules are strict, and failure in forming the contract usually results in death. Amongst other things, the bloodline skill I possess makes it so that most of those rules are simply unnecessary. Of course, a strong connection is still needed, but it is easier for us to form such a connection with them in the first place."

Patiently, Eiro listened, growing more and more curious the more Solomon was speaking. He had some rough ideas of what this 'being' may be, but he wasn't entirely sure if he was correct or not. And then, Solomon continued, "This 'being' is nothing but the noble race of Dragons. Magic Beasts of immense strength and authority."

"Ah, so that was it, huh? So, you currently have a Dragon as a familiar?" Eiro asked, and Solomon quickly nodded his head, "Yes, in particular it is the Dragon of Truth and Justice, Lognir. As he is currently my familiar, I have gained some of his power. It is greatly weakened through the current distance between us, but I am nonetheless able to see through lies. You saw it just now, didn't you? I noticed that you were telling the truth. I cannot use this ability too often, however, and it's quite weak as well now. Otherwise, I can see through illusions. That is why I truly did not know that you were a Demon, so don't even think that I tricked you." Solomon explained with a slight chuckle.

All of a sudden, everything just made sense to Eiro, "That means you saw through Avalin's contact-lenses?"

Solomon immediately nodded his head, "Yes, albeit just recently. The illusions they make use of are incredibly potent, you know? You must tell me where exactly you received those special things from." The King laughed slightly, trying to loosen up the somewhat dense atmosphere, "It was actually during the Winter Solstice. Strong emotions of any kind tend to amplify these abilities randomly, and that day I certainly was feeling rather strong emotions."

"...I see. Could I ask why exactly you and that dragon, Lognir, are so far apart right now?" The Demon inquired, and the answer was actually quite simple.

"He left my side for a while in order to breed with a female dragon. He came back once to inform me of how things were going, and it seems like he will have to stay and protect the eggs and the dragoness for a while at the very least until they hatched."

"Both of you are quite dedicated parents then, it seems." Eiro laughed slightly, and Solomon looked at the demon with just a smirk, "You're one to talk."

"I know, I know. Well, I'm glad that you entrusted me with this. Then I should probably lay open some further information you don't know about as well. First, I was marked by <The Devil>. A certain situation produced another mark from that one, and ever since then, I've had the tendency to become angry pretty easily. Sometimes it has its benefits, but for the most part, it's just annoying. But you don't need to worry, <The Devil> has no intention of causing me any harm right now, and it doesn't seem like he would care about attacking a place like this either. So we'll be fine for now." Eiro explained bluntly, and that was something that Solomon really didn't expect to hear about all of a sudden.

"A mark by <The Devil>? Are you sure you are alright?" Solomon asked with a light frown, before Eiro just immediately nodded his head, "Of course, I'm totally fine. For now. Don't worry, I'm working on it."

"If you say so, then I will trust that for now... But please, keep explaining this to me some more." Solomon asked, and Eiro slowly nodded his head. He figured that was a reasonable request. After all, it was something that may as well affect Solomon in the future, and just Eiro saying 'It's fine' would obviously not be enough to relax Solomon after hearing something like that.

After hearing the whole story of how the mark has affected Eiro so far, Solomon wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to think, "Truly, so far, it seemed like that mark has become rather helpful to you. But if it becomes harder and harder to suppress, despite you being able to even suppress the Monster King's commands... Then you should try and get rid of it quite soon, is that not right?"

"Of course, I'm trying to look into it. But it's not exactly like this is something easy to get rid of..."

"I see... But I trust your judgement. Of course, over the years with Lognir by my side, I have grown to become capable of judging people pretty well. Although I now obviously know not to trust that judgement completely..." Solomon said, obviously thinking about the incident involving Charles right now.

"Ah, speaking of judgement." Eiro started, trying to change the topic somewhat, and Solomon raised his brows a bit, "Yes?"

"Do you coincidentally know of any trustworthy, good, preferably outlying people of the Humans' Goliath clan?" The Demon inquired, but Solomon wasn't exactly sure if he understood why he wanted to meet such a specific type of person, especially in a combination that should be rather hard to find.

He thought about it for a moment and then shook his head, "I don't think I do. If you're trying to find 'outliers' amongst Goliaths, it shouldn't be hard. Most Goliaths that are traveling around alone are outliers in one way or another, and most of those outliers don't belong to a direct tribe. That does not mean they act differently as if they were part of a tribe, however. But why are you looking for one? Are you thinking of having him join your party?"

"Hm? Oh, no. Rudy is a Goliath, and after hearing about what they're like, he wasn't feeling too great.. So I wanted to let him meet a Goliath that deviated from the 'norm' as much as possible, to make him feel a bit better."