DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro was flying back toward his home while trying to figure out how exactly he should try and find the Collector. It probably wouldn't be too bad if he simply chose to wait and let this quest fail, simply preparing for the fact that he would come and try to kill him. There would be a few issues that he would have to account for, like that he had to properly hide the children until the Collector was dead so that he couldn't use them somehow.

But in the end, while it surely would be helpful to have his rank in the Organization increased a little, in the end, the greatest thing that he would get out of this, which would happen no matter if he succeeded or failed, was the fact that he would level up quite a bit. Considering the apparent strength of the Collector, there was no doubt in Eiro's mind that he would end up leveling up a fair bit after killing him, and that was a lot more valuable than simply raising his rank in an organization. That was something that he didn't even fully know if it was completely worth it or not.

Nonetheless, of course Eiro would still like to find him before the one week was up, and the main reason for that once again wasn't even the rank-increase within the organization, but rather that Eiro would be able to get the advantage of surprise, or so he hoped. Eiro had no idea to what extent the killer would become aware of him and what he would find out, but if it went as far as telling him everything about Eiro's ability's, strengths, and weaknesses, then that would be an immense disadvantage, considering that all that Eiro knew at the moment was that he was skilled in the area of stealth, and could handle a knife.

"Are you alright, Eiro?" Gondos asked a while after noticing that the Demon was eerily quiet, as he often was while thinking intensely, and Eiro turned his head over toward the Golem, "I'm fine, don't worry. Just trying to figure out how exactly the killer managed to just blatantly disappear like that. It just doesn't make sense that he would just be able to... completely erase his scent, except if he was far, far, far more powerful than I thought. But if that was the case, then the quest to kill him would be impossbile, so I don't think that's the case." Eiro explained, trying to put his thoughts into words, something that always helped his process, whether it be through speaking or writing.

"But what if you were never supposed to be able to complete the quest? Maybe they figured out who you were and deliberately gave you a quest that was way too hard for you to solve?" Hearing Eiro's words and noticing how worried he was about this, Nelli gave her insight into this situation as well. But in the end, Eiro just shook his head in response to that.

"I'm pretty sure they would have much easier ways to kill me if they wanted that. Ways in which they could use me for their means. If they had someone else kill me, then that would mean that they would lose three cards. I doubt it." Eiro explained bluntly, before slightly raising his brow, "But actually, I just got an idea. In the worst case scenario, I can just use my Ace of Cups. It only cuts out when I actually kill people, so I can do as much damage to him as I want. The 1 year penalty will be a bit troublesome, but it's better than dying..."

"Actually, why have you never been really using it besides in... well, 'wrong' ways? You never just drink it." Bavet pointed out from Eiro's palm, as he was still fused into it for now, and the Demon slowly nodded, "I don't. Because I don't need to. For the most part, I can solve a situation without it. Sure, if it comes to the point where I will die if I don't, as long as I still have the full potion, I will definitely use it and basically throw it away for another year if the only solution is to kill someone or something."

Bavet stayed silent on Eiro's palm for a few moments, most likely trying to figure out what kind of situation Eiro would need to actually use that card in the right away, and why he just wouldn't use it to make his life easier, until Nelli explained. She most likely understood exactly what Bavet was thinking.

"Right now, the Ace of Cups is arguably Eiro's strongest card. It has a lot of drawbacks because of that, but just as Eiro said, he can practically kill anything with it if he so wants. He can get out of any situation, save anyone he wants, and probably even destroy a whole town somehow. But he doesn't, simply because it is his strongest card. It is literally the ace up his sleeve. In an emergency, it will definitely save his life, there is no doubt about that. And you don't want to use your fail-safe willy-nilly."

Eiro completely agreed with what Nelli was saying. She was absolutely right, that was his mindset and reasoning behind why Eiro wasn't using this card of his. It seemed like even Bavet soon understood why Eiro did it this way, and the rest of the flight was spent in silence once more, although it wasn't even a particularly long flight.

As such, Eiro soon landed in front of his manor, and soon made his way inside after this rather long day. It seemed like the children were all in their rooms doing their own thing, working on their own small projects, reading, practicing some skills, or just trying to prepare for school that was set to start in just a little over a week from now. It seemed like especially Felix was rather nervous, seeing how he didn't even think he would be able to attend an academy like that.

And so, Eiro chose to just take a short break himself as he went to his own room and just fell down onto his bed after dropping off Bavet's core into the tub of slime placed in the library so that he could take on whatever form he wanted to right now. He closed his eyes and chose to take a nap, something he actually didn't do all too often.

Soon, Eiro was woken up by someone knocking on his door. There was no light coming through the curtains anymore, so it seemed like night came while Eiro was sleeping. The Demon slowly pushed himself off his bed and with a loud yawn said, "Come in, you three."

The doorhandle was pushed down and the door opened up before James stepped inside, quickly followed by Krog and Jess, who were all looking at Eiro with an expression of curiosity.

"So?" Jess asked, since nobody else was, "How'd it go?"

Eiro scratched the back of his head, trying to think about it properly, before answering in a pretty simple way, "Good, I guess? I became a member, rose in the ranks a fair bit, and took on some quests." He explained, "Speaking of, how did it go for you guys today? You had a meeting with a former client, right?"

The three of them looked at each other with a light grumble before they nodded their heads, "We did, but it's a really annoying and paranoid one. So, when we had to tell 'im that James wasn't the Party Leader anymore, he started completely freaking out and thinking that his 'old enemies' were taking over those close to him... He's a bit sick, if you didn't notice. He gave us a request to find some kind of trinket that was stolen from him. The problem is, he didn't want to tell us anything about the situation because he thought we could sell the information and not help him." Krog explained in a clearly annoyed tone.

Eiro figured that he should ask about that a bit more later, but it was obvious that the three in front of him wanted to know more about what happened with the Organization today.

And so, the Demon started to explain the little extra information that he found out about the organization today, like what kind of people were there, how exactly the structures inside of the organizations' base were built, and things like that. Otherwise, there was really little to tell that Eiro didn't already tell them from the things that he found out by questioning John.

Besides that, Eiro of course explained the quests that he received, as well as his assumptions about the background of those quests now that he got a proper first-hand look at them. That, as well as the issue that he had with one of the two quests he still had leftover, and his encounter with Bahlsen.

"Another Card Holder? And the Knight of Pentacles, at that..." James muttered quietly, "It sounds like a pretty useful card, doesn't it?"

"It sure does, especially if it was combined with Eiro's perception."

"Wouldn't that make it impossible for anyone to keep any sort of secret from him?" Krog asked as he agreed with Jess, and Eiro just slightly shrugged, "Sure, it sounds useful, but I don't think I'll take it from Bahlsen. He seems like a good guy, and not like the kind I'd want to kill. With that kind, I may even feel kind of bad about it. And since the only way to get a pentacle card is to kill the one that owns it, I just doubt it."

The three stared at Eiro a bit surprised, "Really? You'd actually feel bad if you killed him?"

"Of course I would, I don't particularly enjoy killing innocent people. And even if I don't show it, I also feel horrible about the rampage where I literally decimated half a village in cold blood. And at the end, I was literally covered in the cold blood of the innocent people I killed. It's not a great feeling, you know?" Eiro pointed out, "Even if I did go as far as torture John and turn him into a monstrosity like that without feeling particularly anything but pleasure, I do still have something like a 'person's emotions'."

"It still seems weird that you do..." James admitted, "But nevermind that, we're not trying to insult you here, sorry if we did. But either way, do you think you'll be fine going after the guy like that?"

"I do think so, yes. Or well, I hope so. I'm already preparing for the worst-case, really.. I'll finish the other quest in the prison, and then I'll focus my whole attention on the case with the Killer."