DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro was laying on Lugo's back, looking into the sky as the stag was running next to the carriage pulled by the horses. The Demon was casually manipulating the liquid of the Ace of Cups to hide the presence of the monsters inside of the carriage as they approached the first gate into the town, the one closest to Eiro's manor.

And here, this would get a bit tougher, but it should be possible to let the monsters sneak by while Eiro spoke to the guards and distracted them a bit. Basically, he made sure to strengthen his aura in a specific way to attract the attention of the two guards as much as he could, doing the opposite of what the Ace of Cups did. Controlling that power to hide the monsters and this aura-manipulation at the same time was really a bit tougher than Eiro thought, but he was able to figure out how to do this in a stable manner pretty soon.

"Slow day, huh?" Eiro asked with a smile on his face, and the guards stood up straight as they looked at Eiro, "Yes, baron Daemonherz!" one of them, the younger one, replied with a quick nod.

"Did you have a good day so far, Baron?" another one of them asked, and Eiro slowly looked at the obviously far more experienced and relaxed guard, "I did. I just went out for a brief hiking-trip in my new land. It is quite a nice place, at least if you don't need to worry about the monsters there."

"I'm sure it is." The guard chuckled, "Go ahead and come through."

"Thank you very much." Eiro smiled, quickly stepping through, following the invisible carriage without further ado. From now on, there was no need for him to worry about anything anymore. All of the monsters were properly contained within the carriage, and it didn't seem like they were going to come across anyone else until they reached the manor.

Although to his surprise, Eiro happened to see two other people instead. James and Arc. James had started running again lately, to increase his stamina as much as he could, and since Arc liked to go running as well, he volunteered to come along with James for a while until they could make sure he would be able to run the whole route without issues.

"Dad!" Arc exclaimed, lightly steering his path toward the approaching Demon. But for some reason, he steared out of the way instead of keeping on running in the middle of the road, far before he meant to in order to meet with Eiro directly. Arc reacted to the ace of cups subconsciously. That wasn't what surprised Eiro. Instead, what surprised him was James' surprised expression, mixed in with his clear exhaustion and heavy breaths.

"How are you two?" Eiro asked, still keeping his eyes on the way that James was reacting. Arc turned toward James with a grin, "He's slow as shit, what else?"

"You wanna try running with this kinda pain, dickhead?" James asked with an annoyed frown, holding the side of his torso, "Also, why'd you move so fucking weird?"

"Hm?" Arc asked, "What do you mean?"

"I know what he means." Eiro pointed out, "He noticed that you subconsciously avoided the carriage that I cloaked with the ace of cups. How did you notice that, by the way?"

"...Well, I don't fucking know. The magic flowing there is kinda fucking weird, ain't it?" James pointed out, and Eiro smirked in response, "You've got a point. And actually, this gives me some new ideas for your training."

"...Should I be scared..?" James asked with a wry smile, and Eiro casually shrugged, "I don't know. If having to fight invisible opponents seems scary to you, then sure."

"...Fuck you..."

---

Eiro brought the monsters into the manor, immediately leading them to the area where their rooms would be from now on. Of course, the soldiers would end up staying somewhere separately to the other servants, so the Demon brought those guys to their respective rooms first.

"This is where you will be staying." Eiro told them in a strict tone, "Remember the rooms, and take proper care of what's inside."

One after another, the monsters entered their respective rooms, rummaging around inside of it. Immediately, they turned them into absolute messes, making Eiro really quite annoyed.

"Alright then... Bavet." The Demon grumbled, and the slime quickly appeared next to him again, "Yes..?" He asked suspiciously, and Eiro smiled at him.

"You know the proper etiquette of a servant. Teach them." Eiro instructed the slime. Over the course of the next few seconds, Bavet's body, currently slung around Eiro's arm, turned into a rock-like substance.

Eiro pushed his hand onto the rocky surface and pushed Bavet off of him. He fell to the ground and split in half as he landed there, "Stop pretending. Just do it already." The Demon groaned loudly, and within a moment or two, Bavet was standing there in his humanoid form. He rubbed the back of his head annoyed.

"Can't you, just like... Hire someone else?"

"Why would I? I have you, right?" Eiro pointed out, and Bavet turned his head away annoyed, "Fine, I guess so. Just give me a few days to properly teach them, alright?"

"Sure, take as much time as you need. They're all pretty well-behaved anyway." Eiro pointed out, "Just make sure to teach them well, and show them around the house a bit so that they know where exactly to do their jobs. I'll call them when it's time to give them their artificial artifacts."

"Right, right~." Bavet replied, while Eiro turned around and left this area with the guards behind him. Of course, they were technically mostly for show, but they would also help drive off any possible intruders. The spiders that were scattered around the area would take care of basic security while Eiro was gone anyway. But otherwise, the Orcs would still make Eiro feel a little more relaxed. Right now, he had just four of them with him, but more would end up coming soon.

Eiro had fixed up the barracks a bit. They still weren't in a perfect state, but they were useable at the very least.

"You four will be staying here. It's a bit away from the main building, but that means you'll have a lot of time to yourselves. Of course, you'll still be under my complete surveilance, and you are not allowed to leave the property without me telling you to. Understood?" Eiro asked, and once he got confirmation from the four monsters, Eiro showed them around the barracks a bit to make sure they could properly live here.

"I'm going to be the one that will have to teach you a guard's etiquette, and I'm not the most patient person when it comes to this sort of thing, so try your best to learn quickly. Later we're going to meet with Armodeus to have your bodies measured out. He will then make you some clothes, as well as armor and weapons. And most importantly, you will be given a specific item that you have to constantly need to activate while you are working." Eiro explained to them, "It might feel uncomfortable, but you'll certainly get used to it. Especially if you happen to evolve as you get used to using it. It should have a bit of impact at the very least."

The monsters were a bit confused, but Eiro didn't bother to explain anything more to them. He wasn't sure if they were really going to understand in the first place. So instead, he continued showing them around the area, telling them where they needed to especially pay attention. They would mostly need to take care of the outside perimeter, since the inside of the manor was rather well-protected anyway.

"So you need to make sure to pay attention to this area, and if you ever see someone approach this place, make sure to drive them away immediately. Don't kill them, and only fight them if they're aggressive toward you. Obviously defend yourselves, but don't overdo it." Eiro explained to the monsters. It took a bit longer than he wanted to do all of this, since he needed to translate some of the parts into the Kobold, Orc, and Goblin languages respectively depending on whether or not the monsters really understood what he was saying.

Soon, Eiro was done and he could meet up with Armodeus again. The Elder Dwarf was a little bit nervous about being left alone with all of these monsters, but since Eiro vouched for them and assured Armodeus that he would be safe, he was relatively fine.

He took their measurements one after another, and then gave them their artifacts. Eiro showed them how to use it. A group of monsters stepped into this room, and out came a bunch of people. They mostly looked like regular humans, although if you knew their real identities, you would be able to see their resemblance to Orcs, Goblins or Kobolds.

They also all seemed quite uncomfortable with this change to their bodies, but Eiro assured them that it was fine and they stopped complaining soon after. Eiro demonstrated this by himself as well, using a test-artifact that Armodeus made for him. After all, why would their master use this item if it was dangerous?

And so, just like that, Eiro had procured his first servants.. Now he just needed to tell Solomon about them and make sure they would be taught proper etiquette, and then he could start slowly but surely getting the other monsters to him to increase the number of his servants.