DEMON'S VIRTUE

At the end of the night, once most of the nobles made their way back to wherever they were staying, whether this was in a high-tier inn in the city or in their own manors, Eiro chose to stay a bit and speak to Solomon again.

The two of them made their way to Solomon's study, and each sat down on one of the two couches.

"So, Eiro Jura Daemonherz, huh?" Solomon asked with a smile on his face, and Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Yep. The Jura seems rather obvious, but the Daemonherz was chosen by Arc."

"Huh, interesting. I know what a 'Daemon' is, roughly at least, but what does 'herz' mean?"

Eiro shrugged a bit in response, "Heart, apparently. Arc heard it in the place he used to live before."

With a nod, Solomon crossed his arms, "Hm, alright, I guess I can see how those are similar."

Eiro smiled a bit as he looked back at his friend, "Let's not keep talking about my name the whole time. I have a plan for what I want to do with my new land, but I wanted to run it by you just to be safe."

"As long as you don't get rid of the mountains altogether, you can basically do anything you want there. I trust you." Solomon replied immediately, and Eiro smiled a bit.

"Don't worry, I won't be doing that. But what I am planning is to further expand the space that makes up the monster village. Turn it into a monster town, or something like that. Right now, they're mining magic stones there, but at some point, those will most likely run dry. Magic stone mines aren't that big usually, after all."

Solomon raised his brows surprised, "Wasn't that your whole reason for creating that village in the first place?"

"Kind of. At the start it was. But now it's more like... an investment, if that makes sense. An investment and an experiment, although I kind of dislike that word in this context. Can I create a town of monsters that act exactly like people? Monsters that simply don't have their monstrosity anymore? You see, as 'the World', my central ability will be 'integration'. But another ability most likely given through that card is something along the lines of 'creation' or 'expansion', I'm not entirely sure about that yet. There aren't many texts speaking about the world right now. But I kind of already feel like I want to create something in that sense. Show that not all monsters are mindless killing machines. Some of us are gentle and kind. It's just that there is this literal force inside of us that stops us from acting like that, except when it's forcefully suppressed."

"And that's why you want to create a place to show that exact fact to others?" Solomon asked, and Eiro nodded his head, "Something like that. You already know about my plans to become the Monster King... And I don't know what sort of powers I will gain when that is the case. Even amongst monsters, I'm a rather special being already, after all. Maybe getting to that point will allow me to do more than other monster kings. Especially since I perfectly have my monstrosity under control."

"You want to turn all monsters docile?"

"No, I wouldn't be able to do that. Only the gods can change something like that, it's... I think what gives us monstrosity is directly integrated into that what makes us 'monsters'. If I wanted to get rid of monstrosity forever, I would have to kill all monsters, and that's not what I want." Eiro continued to explain, "I just... Don't want those with the possibility for so much more than mindless slaughter to be stuck in that world, you know? Make it possible for those monsters that are strong enough in their dedication to easily overcome their nature. So that not all of us have to live like that. And once that is the case, those monsters will need a place to find refuge. That is the place that I would like to create."

Solomon was still smiling as he leaned back into his seat, "And you want to do that in my country of all places? Well, I figured that you wanted to expand that place already, so I can't really say anything. Just, in what way do you want to expand it?"

"I'm not sure yet. There are two possibilities. Extend down below in the form of large cave systems, or spread out on the surface of the mountains. The latter would be much more obvious and easier for others to find, though, which is why I'm currently considering the former. But then again, that will largely influence the development of the monsters in that city, so I don't exactly know yet."

"Hm..." Solomon muttered, "If you need any specific materials for the expansion, just let me know and we'll figure out a way to trade with each other a bit."

"Sounds good." Eiro said, as he quickly stood up, "But for now, I think I should head back to my manor and rest a bit. I did just kill a royal, after all."

"Of course, of course, go ahead. I didn't want to keep you here for that long." Solomon apologized as he stood up as well, leaving the room together with Eiro. The two of them continued having a bit of small-talk as they made their way to the castle's main entrance, talking about regular things that other people could hear if they wanted to. Having this kind of conversation every once in a while was nice as well.

And so, Eiro climbed onto Lugo's back once they were outside, and the Demon rode home on his familiar.

---

Eiro found himself in a pure white space. He couldn't even see his own shadow on the ground. To be fair, he had no idea whether or not this place even had a light-source to create a shadow in the first place.

There was just on thing that Eiro was sure of. He went to bed just moments earlier, so why was he in this kind of place? It wasn't a lucid dream, those felt very different than this. Right now it felt like Eiro's real body was in a different place, as if he was actually standing there.

But no matter what, he couldn't sense anything around him at all, and there was no way for him to wake himself up. In a lucid dream, Eiro could also just instantly wake himself up with a snap of his fingers.

Eiro took a deep breath and waited for something to happen. He chose to just lie down on his back for now, looking up into the sky of this infinitely white space. It was a good chance for him to think about how to spend his new stat points.

But then, all of a sudden, without Eiro being able to sense any of them, three people stood there behind Eiro and spoke to one another.

Immediately, the Demon jumped up and looked at them. They were the same three people as those that Eiro saw back then, when he died through his fight with Edward.

The armored human whose face was nothing but a blank slate, without eyes, ears, nose, or a mouth. The somewhat elderly rhida hunter right beside him. The short elven mage with that huge staff. And of course, the weirdly-dressed human.

They were standing there, chattering amongst themselves as if Eiro wasn't even there.

"What are you all?" Eiro asked immediately, and the four turned toward him.

"It is rather rude to interrupt others, don't you know?" The armored human asked, and Eiro looked at them with a wry smile, "You know what's also rude? Giving me a skill that immediately turned me into an amnesiac that nearly permanently forgot everything that was important to him."

"Huh. You can remember that conversation? I thought I had gotten rid of that memory in you when I gave you that skill." The weirdly-dressed human said, "But well, nothing that can't be corrected."

"Why am I even here right now? Why did you call me?" Eiro asked, and the weirdly dressed human tilted his head to the side, "Did we call you? I thought you just came here on your own."

"Stop lying to me, and just tell me what it is."

"No, no, you really came here on your own accord, although I don't particularly know either." The man said, before raising his brows curiously, "Wait, are you in possession of two cards of the Major Arcana?"

"...I am, what about it?" Eiro asked, and the man laughed loudly, "Nothing, nothing, now I understand why this happened. You have that ability to hold items within a sub-space, right? Well, the two cards of the major arcana reacted with each other in that space, and now that you're asleep, your mind was brought to their creator."

"...So you really are the Arcane Dealer?" Eiro asked, and the man smirked with a quick nod, "That's me, bud. Well, no matter that, let's just send you back. Good job on not dying a second time, by the way. See y-"

"New York?" Eiro said suddenly, and the Arcane Dealer's body froze up as his face twisted into a mad grin, "How do you know the name of that place?"

"...So that was really it? You really are from the same place as Arc? I had a rough suspicion, so I asked him about a few symbols I remembered seeing on your clothes... Those pins in particular." Eiro said, pointing at the bag that the Arcane Dealer kept with him.

The elven mage stepped up to the two of them and looked at the symbols, "They seem rather random to me, though."

"Shut it, I'm talking to him.." The Arcane Dealer said with a broad grin, "I feel like this could be a rather interesting conversation."