DEMON'S VIRTUE

Applause echoed through the room as the nobles' immediately switched from being suspicious or borderline disgusted by Eiro, over to being enamored by him. The Demon stood there, with Solomon's hand on his shoulder, smiling down toward the crowd.

And then, a message appeared in front of Eiro.

[You have the chance to take on the name Eiro Jura Daemonherz]

[Through an official ceremony, your name will be adjusted]

Eiro smiled a bit and got rid of the notifications, before Solomon locked eyes with him, "Come on, you say something as well."

The Demon took a step forward as he looked at the crowd once more, "You already heard it. Tonight, I killed 'the Death'. I won't go into what kind of battle it was, I doubt any of you care about that anyway. There is only one thing that any of you truly need to know." Eiro said, continuosly smirking. Solomon was a bit disappointed by the tone that Eiro took on, but he expected this before he asked Eiro to speak anyway. So, the king just let it happen. Eiro knew best what he wanted people to think of him in the first place.

"I am not some holy warrior. I am not a saint who will fight for you like a mindless beast. I am not a weapon. I only fight for what I believe in. I will not pledge allegiance to Solomon, I will pledge allegiance to myself and my own values." Eiro explained with a smile on his face. And this action of course upset quite a few of the nobles again.

"However, that doesn't mean I won't fight for this country, and it doesn't mean I won't fight for its people. This is the place that I and my children now call our home, the place where future generations of our family will most likely be raised. I know many of you see me as an outsider, an intruder. A savage that doesn't belong here. And don't even try to hide it, it's painfully obvious. And you're right, I'm all of that. But with this title, this acknowledgement of my self, that will no longer be the case. By the name I was given, Eiro Jura Daemonherz, I swear that as long as I live, this country shall not fall to ruin."

The nobles were a bit conflicted. The tone of Eiro's speech souded as if he was nearly mocking him, but overall, he was saying things that they wanted and that they agreed with. Solomon was glad that Eiro didn't just go and randomly insult all of these nobles, but the good opinion that Solomon created of this Demon had quickly dropped again.

There was however one thing now fully imprinted in the mind of everyone present here. And that was that Eiro was a powerful man, someone that shouldn't be messed with. Someone with a close standing to the King, and someone that can kill a royal practically on his own.

Eiro was someone who they didn't want to anger. They wanted to get on his good side. So of course, with only a handful of exceptions, everyone clapped their hands. And so, Eiro's sight wandered around the room.

He saw Duke Melachine, and even Richard and his sister standing in the corner of the room. Of course, Richard was absolutely furious at what was going on. But he wasn't the only one. The Bloodstone Sorceress, Evelyn James. After being humiliated by Eiro during their last meeting, she had kept a proper distance. But when it came to a party hosted by Solomon, she couldn't just randomly stay away without any reason.

So now, she had to witness this. Eiro being acknowledged. This filthy, vile, evil demon being acknowledged by the King of the country she lived in. This was ridiculous, wasn't it? Eiro must have done something to trick Solomon! That was exactly what was going through her mind.

Eiro knew what she was thinking, and couldn't help himself but grin once the two of them locked eyes for a moment. However, while Eiro was standing there, listening to the applause of the nobles in front of him, Solomon once more spoke.

"We will soon announce the date for the official ceremony, so I hope to see many of you again then! But for now, let us continue to have fun, as was intended for tonight!" Solomon exclaimed with a smile on his face, as the nobles slowly returned to socializing with each other one by one.

The first thing that happened was that Charles practically sprinted up to Eiro, though.

"You really killed 'the Death'? You killed a royal?" Charles asked utterly perplexed, and Eiro quickly nodded his head as if it was obvious, "Of course. Do you think I would lie about something like that?"

"Of course not! But it's just so... so amazing! Could I also someday..."

"Charles. It's not all about raw power. I am someone basically fine-tuned toward combat in most ways possible. I even found ways to use my non-combat abilities for combat. You, however, are the crown prince of this country. Someone who will lead people. You will hold immense power someday, it may just not be the same kind of power that I hold." Eiro explained with a smile on his face, and Charles slowly nodded his head.

It didn't seem to be the answer that he wanted to hear, but he still understood that it was the truth either way, whether he wanted it to be so or not.

"Of course, that doesn't mean that you can't become powerful like me at all. It will probably be a bit harder than it is for me to get here. But in this world, nothing of the sort is impossible, know that." Eiro smiled, placing his hand onto Charles' head with a smile, "But well, how are your limbs going? I noticed that the way you've been walking is rather stiff."

"Ah..." Charles said, "I fell the other day. Nothing seemed to have really happened, I just basically scraped my leg a little..."

"Hm?" Eiro immediately squatted down and felt Charles' leg. He poured his mana inside and tried to feel Charles' life force a bit more closely, "Ah, here's the issue."

Without hesitation, Eiro pulled on the wooden leg and twisted it a little, fixing one of the mechanisms that was close to breaking. It happened to Eiro's initial prosthetic hand all the time.

"Don't worry about it, but tell me earlier next time. And make sure to properly keep going with that sapling of yours, so that we can replace your limbs soon. Any damage like this will just naturally heal with those, although we might have to look for another solution if it doesn't work with your basic healing factor." Eiro explained, looking up at Charles' face. He held his hand in front of it embarrassedly, and Eiro quickly realized why that was.

Plenty of nobles were currently staring at Eiro, since the Demon suddenly started feeling up the crown prince's leg like that. Eiro stood up and looke at them, stretching his hand out forward to show its wooden nature to everyone, "I'm a prosthetist, I just made sure that the prince's prosthetic leg is alright."

The people were still weirded out, and a few of those that were more 'loyal' to the system amongst the nobles were actually rather upset. But overall, they couldn't really do much, since even Solomon didn't particularly seem to mind at all. He just treated it as if it was normal.

"I must say... I was quite surprised to see this just now as well." The queen explained to Eiro, who just looked back at her with a wry smile, "What? But you obviously know what exactly is going on already."

"Indeed so, but I did not get a chance to witness you working on his limbs yet." She added, and Eiro lightly shrugged, "Eh, fair enough. It just seems kind of normal to me at this point, so I don't really care what other people think."

"..." The queen silently looked back at Eiro, trying to figure out why exactly this man was just speaking to her in such a casual tone. Nobody ever really spoke to her that way, with the exception of Solomon while they were in private, of course. But it was clear that Eiro wasn't afraid of her authority, since he spoke even more rudely to Solomon.

"Now, I think it would be better for you to socialize a bit, on your first night as a yet unofficial noble." The queen suggested, returning back to her seat from where she could see this whole main hall rather well. Eiro nodded his head, and quickly turned around to join the other nobles.

Lugo was following him slowly as well, of course, which is why Eiro made sure not to go toward the seating-area where the stag would have trouble walking without bumping into anything. That also meant that the nobles that didn't want to speak to him had a pretty easy time avoiding him, though. Which Eiro really didn't mind. He was kind of hoping to be approached by a certain few people, and a man related to one of those soon walked up to Eiro.

Duke Melachine smiled broadly, in a nearly proud manner, "I had no idea that you were that powerful. To be the one that slaid a royal! What an immense achievement that is!"

Eiro laughed a bit, "I know, it sounds pretty insane, doesn't it?"

"It sure does!" The Duke exclaimed with a laugh as well, while Eiro could feel eyes staring at the back of his head.