DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro slowly made his way out of his room for now to check up on the children before everyone would head to bed. Arc and Rudy were sitting together in the main sitting room of the manor, talking to each other about the Academy.

"You think we'll be alright there? I don't have much experience with school, but I was never particularly popular with other kids..." Rudy pointed out nervously. Hearing this while he was still outside the room, Eiro stopped for a moment, since he didn't want to intrude on this moment that the two of them were having.

With a slight laugh, Arc wanted to cheer Rudy up, "Don't worry, you'll be fine! In the first place, there aren't just kids there, the Academy is for people of all ages! It's more split up into ability, isn't it? I mean, Felix is also going to attend, and he's three years older than all of us."

"I... I guess so... But even then, there's plenty of people that aren't particularly nice to people of my... size..." Rudy explained, and Arc slightly raised his brows with a smirk on his face, "You'll be seven or eight feet tall, Rudy. There's no way anyone's going to make fun of you just because you're a healthy eater. And by the way, compared to what you used to be like, you're already a lot thinner! You'll grow, keep being active physically, and then you'll be totally fine! Rudy, you will be even hotter than me once that happens." With a loud laugh, Arc told his honest feelings to Rudy, who just kept smiling with a bit of nervosity, seemingly not totally believing in what Arc was saying.

And then, it seemed like even Arc stopped being overly cheerful, since this was probably a bit more serious than he initially thought it would be, "Rudy, you can believe me. You're my brother, I wouldn't lie to you about something like this. I don't think you'll have any issues at the Academy. You're kind, you're skilled, you're smart, there's really no reason to assume you'll be messed with. Kids are mean, but people at our age should hopefully be able to see beyond things like your body."

It seemed like slowly, Rudy was becoming genuinely happy in response to Arc's words, and Eiro figured that he should leave those two alone for a little while and instead went to see the others for now. Sammy just brought Leon and Avalin to bed while Clementine was laying in her room all alone. And so, the Demon figured he would go see Sammy first, since she was closer to him right now, and Clementine seemed like she had to think about a few things, although Eiro didn't know what exactly it was.

Eiro approached the young girl as she quietly left the children's room and just smiled at her, and Sammy quickly started to smile the moment she saw him, "Eiro!" She said, in something like a 'whispering yell', where she was excited to see him but didn't want to wake Leon and Avalin up. Especially considering that they would want to speak to Eiro after hearing that he was here and would probably be a bit too excited to go to bed for the next hour or so.

"You were gone all day, is everything alright?" Sammy asked, and Eiro immediately nodded his head without a moment's hesitation, "Of course everything is alright. I just had to take care of something, it's related to the attack on the Lady of Winter before."

"Ah..." Sammy said, her smile quickly disappearing, "Do you know why that man did it by now?"

"I do, yes. Although I don't exactly know the whole situation yet, so I will explain it to all of you once I have all the information? That's fine, right?" The Demon asked with a light smile on his face, and Sammy slowly nodded her head.

"It is, yeah. So how have your preparations been going?" Eiro started to slowly step down the hallway with Sammy soon walking right next to him with both her hands behind her back, "It's been going... alright. I'm just really nervous... It's my first time attending a proper school..."

Eiro slowly turned his head over toward the young woman next to him, "Didn't you say you took lessons in different areas shortly before you were... well, transported away?"

"I did, but they were in the form of private lessons, with only myself being taught by my tutor. My 'friends' attended a prestigious school for noble children, but my parents were too scared that I would... you know, do something..."

"I see." Eiro slowly muttered, "But at least you're not the only nervous one. I think the only one that's not nervous out of all of you is Arc."

"Sounds about right." Sammy agreed with a slight laugh while looking down at the ground slightly awkwardly, "Do you want to see them again? Your parents, that is."

Without a moment's hesitation, Sammy stopped walking and formed a deep frown as she glared at Eiro because of the sheer idea, but just when she slightly opened her mouth, Sammy choked up, "I... I don't know..."

"If you ever do figure out that you want to meet them, then tell me. I think it's a good idea to show them what they've missed because they treated you like they did, instead of caring for you properly." Eiro said bluntly, and Sammy just looked back at the Demon with slightly teary eyes before she nodded her head and wiped those tears completely away.

"Sure, I would like to see their dumb faces when I tell them that I have a way better father now." She said with a smile, and Eiro nodded while quietly laughing, "That's the spirit."

All of a sudden, before Eiro had any chance to speak to Sammy for too much longer, he noticed Gobo standing at the end of the hallway, just looking toward him with his arms behind his back and a completely blank expression.

The demon let out a long sigh as hje walked up to the evolved Hobgoblin. Gobo stood there with a straight back, and while he didn't actually grow after his evolution, his body still changed quite a lot. The tone of his skin was still yellow-brownish, and his teeth were still sharper than those of a person, but other than that, his proportions changed to be more like that of a human. His face became less ugly, his torso changed so that he didn't have such an extremely blown-up belly while his ribs could be seen, and his limbs simply became more human-like proportionally as well.

Really, at this point, since Gobo's skin tone did slightly change to be a more natural brown-tone, he could probably pass as a person as long as he kept his mouth shut. A somewhat ugly person, but a person nonetheless.

With his arms crossed, Eiro looked at Gobo, "You want something?" He asked, and Gobo slowly nodded his head, "Yes, Master. If you have time. I wish to get more instructions. I am not happy with my swordplay."

Eiro quietly grumbled to himself and turned around toward Sammy, "Sorry, we'll talk later, alright? I'll take care of this real quick and then I'll come see you again."

"That's fine! Take your time." Sammy said with a light smile on her face, before Eiro just smiled back and turned toward Gobo again. The two of them made their way through the hallway, before Eiro made sure that none of the children were around, before hitting the brick wall next to him.

One of the bricks was pushed deeper into the wall and one of the actually far too many hidden doors opened up. Eiro stepped inside and quickly made his way to the library, where he soon found Bavet sitting around and looking at Bestiaries to find monsters that he could practice turning into. Right now, he was a three-headed albino python, and turned one of his heads toward the two monsters as they entered the room.

"Hm? What's wrong, why are you coming through there?" The transformation slime asked, and Eiro slowly sat down on his armchair and looked at Gobo, "That's what I would like to know. Alright, Gobo, what's up? Why'd you use that 'signal'?" Eiro asked with a slight frown, and Gobo held his hands together behind his back.

"I was in the gardens today. Practicing the things that Master told me to. I thought I was being watched. By many different eyes. For one hour, it continued. I kept sensing myself being watched. after that one hour they simply disappeared."

Immediately, Eiro jumped up from his armchair and stared at Gobo, "What?! When was this?!"

"It was after you brought back John into the Dungeons, Master. I apologize for only telling you now. I tried to inform you before, but you were asleep. I could not wake you up then."

Eiro slightly grumbled and nodded his head, "I have been barely sleeping lately, so I guess I just crashed there... But where exactly was this? And do you think they just watched you? Did you see anything, or did you just sense that you were being watched?"

"I only sensed that I was being watched. Acted like I didn't notice them. Because may they would want to fight then. Then they left. I looked at the places I sensed them. But nothing was out of place. Not as far as I remember. But everything seemed weirdly off. I cannot describe how exactly." Gobo explained, and Eiro quickly cracked his knuckles with an annoyed grumble.

"Alright, if there's people scouting out my home while I'm gone, then this is gonna get ugly." Eiro practically growled as he made his way over toward the path that would lead on the quickest way outside, and was swiftly followed by Gobo and Bavet after explaining what was wrong.

"You're going to see if something is different, right?"

"Of course I am." Eiro replied to Bavet, "I trust Gobo's instincts. As a Magic-Warrior based evolution, I trust his senses to find changes in the air like that. If they used skills to hide themselves to an extent, there had to be changes in the mana filling the air. Even if he didn't notice it directly, I think that's where that feeling of something being 'wrong' comes from. And either way, better safe than sorry. If someone might be snooping around, I want to know who it might possibly be.." Eiro pointed out bluntly as he looked at the slime behind him, and then while grinding his teeth said, "I won't let anyone try to mess this place up, there's no way."