DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro stood in front of his friends, once more changing his body's appearance with the help of Bavet. The only difference to before was that instead of having simple brown hair, he now had rainbow hair.

"...Eiro, were you always that..." Tom asked with a wry smile, "How do I say this..?"

"Weird?" The Demon asked, but Tom immediately shook his head, "Handsome?"

"...Excuse me? In what world am I handsome?" Eiro asked confusedly, and Tom raised his brows, "What is your Charisma stat at right now?"

"106, why?"

"...Of course it's something insane like that. And don't get me wrong, you still look like you used to, but in subtle ways, you look just so slightly more 'handsome' I guess. Charisma does that to your body, didn't you know?"

Eiro scratched the back of his head a bit surprised, before letting out a deep sigh, "No, I knew, I just didn't expect it to work on Demons. But I mean, it might also just be my last Evolution, right?"

"Hm, that could also be, but you shouldn't underestimate the power of the Charisma stat." Tom chuckled quietly. Eiro, with a wry smile, quickly summoned a mirror of ice through Nelli's magic water. He looked at himself and rubbed his hands over his face, "I guess I look just so slightly different than I used to. But even so, what does it matter?"

"Oh, it matters incredibly!" Tom exclaimed as if it was obvious, "People love those that are beautiful or handsome unconditionally. It's going to make it so much easier to gather renown if you are pleasant to look at. People will have more to speak about in a positive manner. Of course I'm not saying that it's an absolute necessity, but seeing how you want to get there quickly with an impressive image, it should be something to aim for, right?"

Eiro crossed his arms in thought and slowly nodded his head. That was a fair point. But it would be a bother to have to concentrate the stats he got from leveling up on Charisma just for that. With his current evolution, leveling up was rather tough to begin with. If he concentrated on increasing his charisma... Then that would mean his growth would be stagnant for a while.

Eiro closed his eyes in thought, before slowly nodding his head, "Alright, you have a point. I'll try to improve my looks a bit. With nice clothes and a tidy appearance, that should be easy even if I'm not incredibly handsome right now. Maybe I should ask if Armodeus can make some more impressive clothes for me using his special materials."

"We also have some nice tailors in town, you know? You should take a look. My daughter just took up an apprenticeship with one of them." Tom said with a smile on his face. Eiro looked back at his friend.

It's been a while since they were able to meet like this, and it would take quite a while until it was possible again from now on.

Eiro and Tom continued to talk to each other for a few hours, because that was one of the main reasons why Eiro came here in the first place. He wanted to see his friend again.

But a few hours later, it became time for Eiro to leave again. The merchant should have properly set everything up for the delivery of the wood to Eiro's Manor, and the Demon had to get back to the mountain soon.

Eiro took a deep breath as he approached the door. Bavet transformed him again, although he still kept Eiro's hair brown for this city. It would be weird if he suddenly had a different haircolor just a few hours later, especially if it changed from 'Brown' to 'Rainbow'.

The Demon turned around and looked at Tom, "Really, thank you for your help." Eiro said bluntly, "If you ever want to visit me in the capital of Skyhart..." Eiro muttered as he pulled out a small letter out of his satchel.

"Just carry this with you. When you face any trouble at the border to Skyhart, just show the letter to them and they should let you through without any issues. It should also make it possible for you to stay in high-tier Inns without having to pay." Eiro explained with a smile on his face. Tom raised his head and looked at the Demon in disgusie that was about to leave the building.

"How did you get your hands on something like this..?" Tom asked, but Eiro just smiled, "I wrote it myself. But I guess that wasn't really your question... Let's just say that I managed to obtain a rather powerful position."

"...Is that so?" Tom asked. It seemed like this was enough information for him. He trusted Eiro, so knowing more was simply unnecessary, "I will consider it when I get a bit of time off sometime." The middle-aged man said. With a slight nod, Eiro stepped out of the Adventurer's Guild and quickly made his way to the Merchant to make sure that everything had been taken care of properly.

And then, Eiro made his way to the entrance of the town, although he saw a young man walk toward the gate with a determined stare. Blood was on his armor and blade, and the two Guards that were stationed outside immediately stood up straight the moment they saw him.

"See anything interesting today?" The young man asked, and the Guards looked at each other for a moment hesitantly. This was exactly when Eiro stepped through the gate, ready to leave this place behind.

"Yes, Lord Argenson. This man right here came this morning with a large amount of different unique woods, pulling a cart with his own physical power, something that should be impossible to do."

Instantly, Eiro grew interested. Argenson? That was the last name of Rumia, the Baron in charge of all the soldiers that stayed here for a year, and one of the people that Eiro viciously killed that day.

Eiro stopped, since it would be impossible to pretend he didn't hear those Guards, "Is something the issue with that?" He asked with a light smile on his face, and the young man slowly shook his head.

"Of course not. You must be quite powerful, if that is the case. Judging from your build, you are a warrior?" The young man asked, but Eiro just lightly shrugged.

"I'd call myself a bit of a jack of all trades. I know a few melee techniques, a bit of magic, some production skills... I'm an adventurer, so I tried learning anything that may come in useful."

"...Interesting. My name is Rumia Sieg Argenson II, acting Lord of this town and Baron to his Holy Majesty. Would you be able to answer a few of my questions?"

"Nah, don't think so." Eiro replied bluntly as he turned around, waving at the young man as he tried to leave, "See you."

Startled and confused, Rumia Jr rushed ahead of Eiro and stopped him by holding his hand up, "What you are doing right now is clear misconduct to one of his Majesty's men. Such disrespect is punishable by death if you speak like that with the wrong people."

"Kid, listen here. One, you're a Baron. Nobody's going to give a shit even if I were to beat you up right here, except your own men. Two, someone of your status will not have anyone capable of even cutting through a single hair on my head. And three..." Eiro sighed as he pulled out the brooch that he was given by Solomon a while ago, "I'm a diplomatic envoy from Skyhart. While this country and Skyhart may not be allies, we aren't on particularly good terms either. Do you really want to risk a war because you felt like questioning a man that was slightly above average in ability?" The Demon asked, before Rumia glared back at him.

"Of course not. I apologize if I was rude to you. You can be on your way, if you so wish."

"Thanks, that was my plan in the first place." Eiro said bluntly, and quickly turned around. But of course, it was clear that Jr wouldn't let Eiro leave so easily. The Demon already noticed the people he brought with him just to spy on the people around the town, and Rumia Jr now told them to follow Eiro. Due to this fact, Eiro was a bit annoyed. He expected this to happen, but he didn't want to deal with it at all.

Although, maybe he could use this to his advantage.

"Bavet. When I tell you to, change my hair to the rainbow mode, and make my clothes more vibrant." The Demon whispered. He was going to use this chance to make rumors of his existence spread throughout this 'Holy Kingdom'. Or rather, rumors of the existence of 'Eiro the Adventurer', the persona that he was going to create from now on.

It took him a while, but soon, Eiro reached a point that was far enough away from the Town to not be seen by normal people there. He stretched out and quickly snapped his fingers. With a little bit of Earth and Wind magic combined, Eiro made it look as if a bit of dust was falling off of his body as he turned into his new persona.

His hair changed into rainbow colors and seemed to glow in the faint light, and his clothes suddenly seemed more extravagant. Surely, the onlookers would inform Rumia Jr of this transformation, and the nobles of this Kingdom would find out about his existence. Slowly but surely, rumors about this 'Rainbow-haired' man would spread. Especially because Rumia Jr would certainly try to uncover more and more information about him, and that would happen while Eiro would spread his own name throughout Skyhart.

It seemed like a good plan to passively spread his renown out further through just a simple trick like this. Especially with the thing that Eiro did next.

He turned around and looked straight at the man who seemed to be the leader of the 'spies' following Eiro right now and locked eyes with him, before grinning broadly. With a snap of his fingers, the snow around Eiro's feet started twirling around his body.

And once that snow settled again, the Demon disappeared.

Of course, Eiro just made use of the Ace of Cups' liquids to make himself invisible to the onlookers and then hurried through this forest to head to where Lugo was currently waiting for him.

That should be enough to make Rumia Jr suspicious. And luckily, due to his social status that he made clear to Rumia, it would be impossible for that kid to stop the wood he prepared from being delivered to him.

Everything was working out pretty well at the end of the day.