DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro soon reached his next class. And coincidentally, it was one of the practical classes that was taught at the same time as those for the higher years, which included Richard.

The young man stood there holding his weapon, ready to start his practice for the class, and only ended up stunned in confusion when he saw Eiro enter this large training field. The Demon proceeded to wave at Richard, basically showing him that he did indeed encounter that mage. With a light grin on his face, Eiro whispered something and manipulated the air to have his voice carried over all the way to Richard, "Meet me after class, please."

And so, the rest of the class proceeded without any issues. Eiro did feel Richard's glares and heard his muttering every once in a while, but for the most part, it was just a regular class like any other. Once class was actually over, instead of meeting Eiro, Richard immediately left the area, most likely to try and find that mage. Of course he was long gone, Eiro made sure of that. He didn't particularly want to leave on his own, so the Demon had to kick him out himself.

However, while the mage wasn't an issue to Eiro in particular, he could have been a threat to others that could possibly become Richard's target. Like Rico, Richard's orignal target of bullying, or Eiro's kids. Of course not all of them either, Arc and Rudy would be able to at least get away from the mage somehow, as they were frontliners anyway. But if Sammy, Clementine, or Felix were to become a target, an archer, a supporter, and a non-combatist, that would be a different issue.

Eiro had to make sure that Richard understood that he couldn't do this sort of thing. For now, there really wasn't any threat anymore, though. From how Richard was acting, he most likely only hired one person to try and take Eiro out, and it would take a while to hire someone else.

So for now, Eiro was going to keep teaching his classes for the day.

---

Once work was over, Eiro checked the campus to make sure that nobody dangerous was hiding out here as the students either made their way to their dorms or left the campus altogether. And as he did so, Eiro came across a certain colleague of his. Kristoph, a fellow member of the organization.

"Hey there, how are you?" The Demon asked with a smile on his face, and Kristoph seemed rather annoyed as he looked back, "That a genuine question? Some asshole messed with the protective measures we set up here, and it's freaking me out. It's similar to... you know, that incident last year. I'm going through the campus to see if there's anything else wrong, could you help out? I know your perception is a lot better than mine, so you should be able to spot something more easily."

Swallowing his pride, Kristoph asked Eiro for help. For the past few weeks, the two of them held up a strictly professional relationship, and didn't talk to each other outside of class in the slightest. They never even brought up business related to the organization either, they just acted as if it didn't exist, and as if they didn't know about part of each other's secrets. This was the first time that Kristoph acknowledged it, so this must really be quite serious.

"Really? This is similar in what way?" Eiro asked. He didn't know many details about this situation, after all. Kristoph crossed his arms in thought, "Well... You know about the barrier around school, right? While it doesn't directly hold people out, it allows us to have a high surveilance of what actually happens here, if we actively try to see what's going on. And of course, we can also cast spells through the barrier to any place within it. Before the incident last year, we lost control over the barrier completely. We weren't able to access any of the information it gave, and we weren't even able to interact with it."

"And that same thing is happening again?"

"Somewhat. We can't see the information, but we can still access it in other ways. Of course without the information the barrier gives, that's too risky, but at least it's not the exact same. I'm still worried about if something is going on, though." Kristoph explained to Eiro, and the Demon was immediately confused. If that was the case, then most likely Richard had some kind of contact to whoever orchastrated the incident last year. This was too much if a coincidence, after all.

Eiro wasn't allowed in the room where the barrier was constructed and held up, but he was still able to sense a few aspects of it, especially after fusing with one of the spirits. The barrier was created through an extremely complicated array that was incredibly hard to just create after a lot of research, not to mention analyze after it was already created by someone else. And since that was the prerequisite to taking control of such a setup, it would require an extremely skilled mage or artificer.

"This... is indeed troubling. I was attacked by a mage today, Richard hired him because I exposed the kind of person he is to his father." Eiro explained. Kristoph stared back at him, utterly perplexed, "And when did you think about reporting this?"

"...Not at all, actually. I just wanted to speak to Richard on my own. He's part of my friend's family, and it's worse because Solomon and Marcus are actually really close to each other. Richard has some issues, but I don't want to ruin his life if it can be avoided."

"...How are you this kind of person at school, but you slaughter people without hesitation anywhere else?" Kristoph asked with a deep frown, and Eiro simply shrugged, "I'm trying something new. Trying to fit the role of a 'teacher', and... at the same time I'm trying to find some new sides to myself while playing this role. And if I do that, then I'll go all the way."

"Yeah, but that has its limits. If Richard really hired the teacher that did that..." Kristoph muttered, and Eiro looked back at him surprised, "I don't think he hired the teacher."

"True... He did go completely mad, I doubt that it would be possible to convince him of something like that."

Eiro stared back at Kristoph and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Are you a complete fucking idiot? Obviously the guy didn't actually go mad! How are you not connecting the points you literally just told me? If there were issues with the barrier for a few weeks before the incident, the 'incident' was planned. The guy didn't go mad, he did it on purpose."

"What? No, no, but he was a good guy, like one of the nicest people I knew. He was just really unlucky." Kristoph said, waving Eiro's suggestion off as if it was ridiculous. Annoyed, Eiro looked Kristoph into his eyes, "Sorry about this."

"Hm, what do you-" Kristoph was interrupted as Eiro pressed his hand onto the man's forehead. He whispered, so that only bavet would hear him, "Do you feel something?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it... There's a seal, like that king dude's. Actually, exactly like it, the same exact one."

"Ah, shit... I completely didn't think that it was possible..." Eiro sighed, "At least we had a lot more of the materials ordered than we needed for just Solomon."

"No, you don't understand..." Bavet said, "This seal is the exact same seal as Solomon has. Whoever sealed their memories did so at once. The same cast of the sealing arts."

"So it was someone incredibly powerful... Interesting..."

"But this also means that we're gonna have to unseal everything at once... Or rather... Ah shit, lemme think about this for a bit, I ain't as smart as you..." Bavet groaned into Eiro's ear, while the Demon just sighed. Kristoph hit Eiro's hand away and stared at him, "The fuck are you doing? Are you talking to yourself?"

"Kind of." Eiro replied, "Well, I'll explain it to you some other time. More importantly, who knows about the fact that the barrier couldn't be controlled last year?"

Kristoph was confused, but he thought about it for a moment, "Maybe half a dozen people? His majesty, then there's the principal... Me, Merlin, one of the security mages that alerted us of this in the first place, and... Oh, and of course the guy that made the barrier in the first place. And you as well, but I somehow thought you'd already have known. Otherwise, we managed to keep it a secret from everyone else. I hope, at least."

"Alright..." Eiro muttered. That meant that he had to check on another four people, "Tell me the names of those last two people. Oh, and by the way, for now you have to know that there's nobody on campus that you should worry about."

"What? I hope you won't just leave me with that."

"I was kind of planning on it." Eiro shrugged. Kristoph groaned loudly, "I just told you a secret that I wasn't even allowed to tell you, and yet you won't give me any more information?"

"Yes. Because I don't have any more information. I'm going to figure this out soon, and once I did, I'll let you know. It does involve you as well, after all." The Demon said. Kristoph let out a deep sigh, "Fine. But I'll remind you of that in a few days."

Kristoph quickly left to check on certain parts of the barrier himself, while Eiro turned his head to look at his spirits, who were all staring at him worried.

"Another day, another problem to figure out... Not like I was busy anyway...."