DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro observed the two students that were currently duelling in front of him. Of course, he would make sure that nobody would receive any serious damage, and immediately heal any damage that they did end up receiving during the fights.

But at the end of the day, the fights were more than just useful for not only Eiro, but the children as well. Eiro was able to see what areas he needed to focus his teaching on, and the students knew where they lacked. With the five-point system that Eiro explained to them earlier, the Demon figured that they should be able to improve relatively easily.

It did seem like Eiro's assumptions were correct. In the area of 'bravery', all of them were lacking extremely, with the exception of Arc. They were scared of injuring the person in front of them during the fight. For those without experience, and especially those most compassionate, it was incredibly tough to get a good score in this category.

And so, consequently, the one with the highest rating there was Arc. Not only was he the most experienced, he simply didn't feel any 'fear' of injuring his friends. Although, even then, in these fights even Arc didn't get a full 100 points, since he was somewhat hesitant sometimes. Mostly when he saw his opponent flinching. After all, 'compassion' was a positive emotion, so it was one that Arc still felt, extremely strongly at that.

But due to the circumstances, Eiro didn't retract too much for hesitating in such situations. After all, these people were still their friends, and Eiro would never unfairly judge them for that hesitation. He still had to retract some, but not all.

Overall, these students were doing rather well, however. The average for every category was over 60, and the minimum for each ended up being around 35 or so. At the end of the semester, Eiro would once more make the students duel like this to see their progress, and he even spoke to some of the other combat-teachers about this concept. Since many of them did like the idea, it seemed like it would become more normal to score them for their own progress like this.

Eiro started working on creating rough guidelines to make it easier for the other teachers to score the students properly when he first suggested it. It helped him figure out how exactly he wanted to score things like this in his own class as well, so he maybe should have done that to begin with anyway.

At the end of the class, Eiro gave out notes to the students, with their scores for each of the five categories on it, as well as some extra written notes for things that Eiro noticed in the fights, or what he thought they should focus on in particular for each category.

And then, he sent the students off after healing the few blunt injuries they had received, and made his way to his next class as well. Teaching really was quite fun.

---

Eiro knocked on the door in front of him, and soon heard Merlin call him inside.

"Hello there. Are you busy?" Eiro asked, basically already knowing the answer, and Merlin slowly shook his head, "No, I am not. Do you need any help figuring out some of the texts? Or do you want to take another look at them?" Merlin asked, but Eiro immediately shook his head.

"No, I'm good on that, I'm basically already finished with that. I wanted to talk to you about it a bit more, but I also have another question." Eiro pointed out, ignoring Merlin's surprised expression, "The girl that you were talking to here this morning didn't show up for class today. Did something happen? I'm a bit worried."

"Oh! Ah, yes, she... had some private matters to take care of at home." Merlin explained, "Again, it's not my place to reveal her situation to you, I apologize."

"Well, is she alright, at least? I'm her teacher as well, if she has some sort of issues at home, I want to see if I can help somehow."

"No, no, don't worry, it's all under control for now. It simply takes some effort on her part right now. It should be dealt with rather soon." Merlin said reassuredly, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "I see... Let's hope so. She's a good student, after all."

"Mhm, excatly. Now, what is it that you wanted to speak to me about in regard to the Arcana research?" Merlin asked, and Eiro quickly sat down in front of him, "Ah, that. Well, I finished properly analysing your writing. You wrote a lot about the theoretical part, but very little of the practical aspect to actually learn more about Arcana. So I would like to ask how exactly it works, and how exactly you circumvent the necessity for an element by using the Ancient Language."

Merlin let out a deep sigh, "I shouldn't even be surprised anymore at this point. It is rather simple. Usually, you infuse your mana with an element to cast magic, correct? Well, now you need to do the opposite. The mana you are holding within your body is not pure directly."

"Right, it has a part of my own self within it, and it's directly connected to my being. I understand that part of the theory, I'm simply struggling to understand what form the extracted aspect would take." Eiro pointed out, and Merlin soon understood what he meant exactly.

"I see. The form that this extracted aspect takes exactly is often quite different for each individual. For me, it is simply a light mist when I push it out of my body. It can often be something toxic to your body if you leave it within you for too long, but in itself, this aspect of your own being can be used for many different things as well. Anyway, once you extract that aspect out of your mana and you receive true, pure mana, it will practically lack something. It cannot stay as it is for long. And that is basically it. That pure mana will latch onto your ability to speak the Ancient Language, as well as your understanding of it. And like that, you will have created Arcane Magic within yourself. And thus, your ability to cast Arcane Magic is directly correspondent to your ability to speak the Ancient Language."

"Huh. You didn't mention that aspect at all. I was really surprised, actually, that it was completely lacking the step from getting pure mana to getting arcane magic. But if that's it, then I guess..."

"Oh, but you need to be aware of something else." Merlin interrupted Eiro, "At the start, you will have to let that arcane magic flow through you as much as possible. You need to analyze it, use it, and simply become accustomed to it. Increase your understanding of the arcane, and then you will sooner or later receive the 'affinity' for it. Until then, you should be unable to move it outside your body. It should fall apart the moment it leaves the form of your soul."

"Is that so..?" Eiro asked, "Well, that's fine, I didn't imagine I would be able to cast it immediately. Thanks, though! That helps me quite a bit. The process of how to actually produce pure mana is described in your research, so I can get started at home. Thanks, Merlin."

"Of course. You're... Well, technically my nephew, are you not?" Merlin asked with a light chuckle, and Eiro smiled back at him, "Right, basically. Now, it seems like some students are coming to talk to you, so I'll leave you alone now." Eiro stood up and swiftly made his way to the door, while Merlin stayed seated at his desk.

Eiro opened the door and stepped outside, seeing the students that wanted to talk to Merlin in front of him. He quickly greeted them and then made his way toward the exit.

And as he was doing so, he started ignoring everything else that was going on around him. The only thing that he wanted to do was try and extract his own 'self' from his mana to make it truly pure.

"Eiro..." Nelli said right next to the Demon, who slowly turned his head toward her, "What?"

"Do you really just trust Merlin like that?" She asked, nervously looking back toward the other end of the hallway. Eiro locked eyes with her and sighed, "Well, he doesn't show any hostility to me. He seems a bit annoyed that I got a grasp on Arcana quicker than he did when he first learned of it, but that's it. And I understand that, so I don't see a reason not to trust him."

"How are you not seeing that Merlin is just really fucking weird?" Sarius asked with a deep glare, before Eiro stopped walking, looking at the three spirits in front of him, "And why are you three not trusting my judgement? He's basically Jura's brother. If Jura trusted him, then so do I."

"Yeah, but we don't even know if Jura really trusted him. He literally never spoke of him!" Nelli exclaimed, and Eiro turned his hand into a fist as he glared at her, "Please, stop it. I don't want to think about this right now."

"...So you..."

"Yes, I can see that he's acting weird, but plenty of people that I trust are weird. Armodeus is an absolute weirdo that can't look away once he started working on something, even ignoring the mountain of fears he has. If you forgot, one of my children literally came from another world. And I'm the weirdest being I or any of you have ever encountered.. Weird is our normal, alright? So just stop it!" Eiro said, growing angrier and angrier the more that Nelli was suggesting something may be wrong with Merlin.