DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro watched as the situation in this room slowly settled down. Ariella had been forced to play with Avalin, due to the little girl's selfishness, while Sammy and Clementine proceeded to make Hannah feel more than welcome in this household.

Sammy in particular was even trying to teach her a few words in sign-language, since she had started to study it so that she could properly speak to Felix. Since Hannah was literally incapable of speach at this current moment, Sammy figured that her knowing this specific way of communication was rather useful.

However, soon enough, Ariella saw what was happening, and nervously looked at the children before turning her head toward Eiro, "Erm... Wh-What is she doing..? Is she casting some sort of spell?"

Eiro looked at Ariella and let out a deep sigh, "Of course not. You didn't hear Sammy explain it earlier? It's sign-language. It's a language that mute and deaf people usually make use of."

The Nephilim looked at Sammy confused, "The girl is deaf?"

"What, no, of course not, she was responding to me normally earlier. That kid over there is deaf, though." The Demon said. It seemed like Felix got the rough idea that someone was talking about him, since he slowly turned around and looked at Eiro nervously. The Demon quickly proceeded to sign toward him, "Everything's fine, just continue painting. Don't let us distract you."

Felix slowly turned back around and got back to work. Eiro knew that a proper workflow was rather important, especially for Felix. His teacher specifically said so. Since Felix wasn't particularly skilled yet, and just talented without any sort of experience to speak of, it was hard for him to pick up where he left off earlier at this point in time. So being able to get as far a possible with a painting at a time was important if Felix wanted to complete a high-quality painting for now.

"Oh... Wait, is he not one of your children?" Ariella asked, and instead of Eiro, it was Avalin that answered, "No! Felix is Sammy's boyfriend~!" She exclaimed, proceeding the teenage girl in question to immediately freeze up.

"A-Avalin, what do you..." She muttered, and Eiro turned his head toward his eldest daughter, "Stop pretending now, we all know it's true."

"Urgh... Dad, can I maybe... Just maybe... use my ability for once..? To, you know..." Sammy asked, and Eiro raised his brows and locked eyes with her, "I'm not going to let you use your unique skill to make everyone forget about what your sister just said, Samantha."

"Oooh, he used your full name~!" Arc said with a smirk on his face, and Sammy turned her head to the side, glaring back at him, "I swear to the gods, if Dad wasn't here, you would think you're a cat right now."

Arc squinted as he looked back at Sammy, "So, you want to turn me into a cat-boy, I see? You're ahead of the times on that one, sis..."

"Arc, please stop with those obscure references that nobody can understand." Eiro sighed. It was clear that it was some sort of reference regarding Arc's past life, but since nobody else here knew about this, and Eiro wanted to keep it that way for now until Arc was comfortable to reveal it to the others himself, he wanted to make sure that Arc didn't accidentally make the others question his origins. After all, Arc could be a bit air-headed sometimes, despite how intelligent he was at the end of the day.

"Sure, sure... Well, anyway... Rudy, wanna start practicing a bit? You have your first combat-oriented class next week, right?" Arc asked. Meanwhile, at the same moment, a rather heavy, tall man stepped into the room with steps that made the floor shake just a little.

"Eh? The kid's takin' combat classes? I thought he wouldn't?" Krog asked, clearly exhausted just from walking around and doing basic morning exercise in his special heavy armor. Eiro turned toward him with a nod, "Yes, Rudy's not taking regular classes. He's just taking an introductory class to shield-wielding. Luckily, Solomon assigned me to help teach that class, so we don't have to worry about others finding out. The other teacher shows them the form, while I create missiles for them to defend against, at least in the first few classes."

"Hu... Wanna have the kid just help me? I could use a target that ain't breakin' anytime soon." The warrior pointed out, ogling Rudy as he was at it. The boy looked back with a wry smile, "Err... I'll take it as a compliment for now, but even though you're saying that, you do keep throwing me at least a meter or two backward with every heavy attack of yours... And those are the only ones you would ever need my help with."

Krog let out a deep groan as he sat down on the couch, disappointed that Rudy didn't want to help him out this time, "Fine, fine, I thought you could-"

As Krog was speaking, he was quickly interrupted by the sound of something violently breaking apart. Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose as he looked back at the heavy warrior, "What are you doing? Did you forget how much you weigh right now?"

"...It's easy to forget, y'know." Krog said, trying to quickly stand back up after just breaking the couch under his own weight, due to the special armor that he was wearing. Since he seemed to have a bit of trouble right now, Eiro quickly pulled him up, "Just go outside, I'll come and practice with you in a bit."

"Urgh... Right, right..." Slowly, Krog made his way through the room, quickly leaving toward the gardens. He didn't even really pay attention to the Undead girl, or the Nephilim sitting by Avalin's side, that's how exhausted he was.

Either way, for now, everything was going well. Ariella seemed to understand that Avalin wasn't just some tool to be used, and that Eiro genuinely cared for the children. If she really did understand it, then that would mean that there was nothing for Eiro to worry about in that regard.

The Demon sat down on one of the chairs, and began to think about his next actions. Until the Queen of Undeath finally reached this place, he didn't have much to do. He would keep training his party members until the tournament for the Hero's companions. If Eiro won, which he was rather confident that he would, he would still have some time until he had to actively meet the Hero.

That would be the point in time at which Eiro would start moving toward the completion of his other plans. They would go to the Holy Empire's capital to try and meet Zaragon, so that James and Eiro could kill him together.

And then, using whatever Zaragon would have in his shop, Eiro and Ariella, as well as the Demon's party if they wished to help him, would go ahead and try to fight the Devil so that Eiro could get the 'Key that opens everything' from him.

All of these things were quite a bit away, and would require a lot more preparation. Of course, until then, Eiro had to meet with another group as well, which he hoped would have managed to grow properly until then as well.

At the end of the day, everything was going according to plan.

---

"Make sure you practice your stances properly. I'll see you all tomorrow." Eiro said to the students of the class he had just finished teaching. They all stood up from their seats and made their way out of this room to head to their next class.

However, before Eiro had the chance to leave, some other people stepped into the room. They clearly weren't students, as they weren't wearing any uniforms, but they also didn't seem to be teachers. They were wearing a specific armor-set, which was different to that of the school's guards as well.

"Can I help you?" Eiro asked as he was packing his things up into his satchel, and the two of them quickly approached him, "Are you 'Eiro'?" One of them asked. Eiro slowly nodded his head as he answered her.

"Yes, that's me. Again, can I help you?" The Demon squinted as he looked at both of them. Judging from the colors on their armor, Eiro figured they were part of a specific family's guard.

"Did the Melachine boy call you here?" Eiro asked. The other of the two guards nodded his head, "That is correct. We need you to follow us."

"Mhm." As he rolled his eyes, Eiro quickly stepped past the two and headed toward the door, ready to make his way to his next class already. However, one of the guards quickly said, "Did you not hear what we told you? We need you to follow us."

"And I'm only going to say once that I don't care about what you need me to do. You can't command me to do anything."

"Lord Melachine wishes to speak to you. You are a mere commoner, you should listen to the command of a Duke if you wish to continue your work here." One of them said. Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose annoyed.

"Not this shit again... Get off your high horse, you two are nothing but goons. I'll meet Melachine, but only because I wanted to visit him about that brat's behavior anyway. He's in the headmaster's office, is he not?"

"H-Huh? Yeah, he is. How did you-"

"What, you think I'm some idiot? Just shut it and follow me." Eiro groaned. He proceeded to walk through the halls past the students to get to the headmaster's office, where the duke would be waiting. The Guards quickly followed Eiro, of course, and Eiro didn't slow down to let them catch up to him either. Soon, Eiro reached the office. Of course, he still couldn't just be unreasonably rude to the headmaster or the duke, so he didn't just push the door open, but quickly knocked.

"Come in." The headmaster said, and Eiro swiftly stepped into the room. He saw the headmaster behind his desk, more guards standing alongside the walls of the room, as well as a bruised Richard Melachine sitting on a chair. With Duke Melachine sitting right beside him, glaring at Eiro angrily.

The Duke immediately stood up and approached Eiro, deeply staring into his eyes. Without a moment's hesitation, he swung his hand and tried to slap Eiro. But of course the Demon didn't let this happen, grabbing the Duke's hand immediately.

"What's going on here?" Eiro asked.. Of course he already had a rough idea, seeing Richard's light grin, although he had some clearly fake tears in his eyes.