DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Are you alright? Does your body ache in any way?" Eiro asked with a worried expression, and Leon slowly turned around as he looked at his father, "No, I'm just tired..."

"Okay, that's normal... Is everything normal with your sight?" The Demon asked, and Leon slowly looked up into the air and thought for a moment, "Blurry... but..."

Eiro looked deep into Leon's eyes, and was soon able to see what was happening to his son. Indeed, the reflection was far more blurry than normal. Usually, this shouldn't happen, except if this kind of thing was caused through a skill of sorts. But that wasn't all. Within Leon's sight, Eiro could see something like golden threads floating around in front of him.

The Demon took a step back as he kept his sight focused on his son's eyes, when he realized where those threads originated from. They were all rising off of Eiro's body. Above his head, they were intertwining with each other to become a thicker, yarn-like thread that soon faded away when it got too far away from his body.

So far, this was not something that Leon had been able to see. But since these lines didn't seem to come from Avalin, Eiro came to a quick conclusion for what might be happening.

"There is more to your unique skills than we thought... Or maybe it's something that has to do with you being a beastman... Either way, for now, try not to interact with these threads, alright? Everything is going to be alright soon, okay?" Eiro said to his son in a reassuring voice, and Leon slowly shook his head, "I can't touch the threads anyway..."

"So you tried this? How long have you been seeing these things?" Eiro asked concerned, and Leon shrugged, "For a few days... But daddy's are the coolest looking, the others are just boring and gray, and there are just a couple... But daddy's are really cool!"

"...Alright, interesting... You know what? I don't have many classes today, so I'll spend as much time as I can with you, and we talk about the threads some more, okay? And you tell me how your body feels with all the changes going on right now. I will have to go for a few hours, so just stay here in bed until then, but I'm definitely going to be back earlier today. Is that alright?" Eiro asked, rubbing his hand over his son's back.

"Okay..." Leon replied quietly and tiredly, "Then I'll go back to bed now... okay?" He asked. Eiro immediately nodded his head as he took another step back. And that was when he was reminded of the little girl that he left standing there while he checked out Leon in a hurry.

Avalin was standing there with her arms crossed, and angry scowl, as well as a few tears in the corners of their eyes. The Demon let out a deep sigh as he looked at his youngest daughter, "I'll bring you some cake as well, right?"

"...Two slices?"

"Even three if you want." Eiro said with a smile on his face, as he patted Avalin's head. With his daughter now happy, Eiro stepped out of the room. He didn't have many classes that he was going to teach on his own today, and he could probably opt out of the other few that he had, since he was mainly supposed to be an assistant in those anyway. That meant that the main reason that Eiro was going to head to the Academy was simple.

Eiro was going to head off a bit later, but now he was going to immediately skip breakfast and head to the academy before the children.

"Bavet!" Eiro exclaimed in a rush as he approached the place where the slime was currently to be found. Before Bavet even had the chance to fully transform anything, Eiro grabbed him on his way to his bedchambers. There, Eiro picked up his other clothes and items that he was going to need, and then used one of the secret passages to drop down into the sitting room where the others had already prepared to leave for the Academy as well.

"You guys just take the carriage, I'm going to head off first. I'll explain it later when you're back, but something important came up." The Demon said, barely having put on his jacket properly. He didn't even take the time to use the door, but instead just walked up to the window as his children were standing there, utterly perplexed at what exactly was going on now.

"Gondos, go explain the situation to Armodeus and ask him to watch Leon and Avalin while I'm gone. I'll summon you once you're done." The Demon said, before the Golem right next to him turned around to go meet with the Elder Dwarf living in the manor with them.

Eiro spread out his wings while he pressed Bavet's core onto the center of his chest underneath his clothes. Bavet's slime was slowly spreading all over his body, but he was having a rough time because of how quick Eiro was travelling right now.

The Demon made sure to slow down for a bit to let Bavet properly transform him, before he wrapped his wings around his body. At nearly full speed, Eiro was now rushing toward the Academy without his wings. He pushed through the barrier, since it didn't actively hold people out and instead just watched everything that was going on inside, and used air magic to navigate himself right toward the Library.

Eiro stopped himself with a strong gust of air that created a cloud of dust around him, and was able to rush past the guards right into the library. Maybe Eiro had to talk to Solomon about the security at this place, but to be fair, not everyone was able to do what Eiro just did.

The demon pushed past the professors that were doing their research in here, as well as the few students that wanted to use this space to study, and made his way into the Anthropology section, and specifically to the area dedicated to the research on beastmen.

Eiro was looking for a few specific books that he didn't get around to reading yet. He meant to do it to be prepared for the changes to Leon's body once it was time for that, but right now, he didn't have time to waste. He had to figure out what exactly was happening to Leon, and why he was changing so soon.

The Demon jumped from shelf to shelf, not using the ladders that were meant to be used to grab the books, before he brought a mountain of them toward one of the desks. Without hesitation, Eiro flipped open the first book. He read everything, then had Nelli bring the book away. Then, Eiro read the next book.

He did this until he read all of the books on beastmen that seemed like they were helpful at first. Although, Eiro didn't really read them at all, he just ingrained the text into his mind.

As the Demon started to try and actually understand all of the information that he had memorized already, he finally found a passage that seemed to explain what exactly was happening with Leon.

"'A beastman's maturity cycle usually begins during the child's puberty, but there are exceptions to this rule. As the changes in a beastman's body are akin to what happens during a monster's evolution, albeit not stuck to the limitations of reaching a certain level, they can be triggered through certain magical means. For example, a sudden change in... In the very flow of one's mana.'... shit..." Eiro muttered.

That meant that this early maturity was most likely caused by the fact that Leon's skills were unsealed. It certainly made sense. It hasn't even been half a year since that happened, after all. But then, Eiro continued going through the text and found something that caused him immediate relief.

"...in the vast majority of such rare cases... There is no harmful change to the child's development beyond this point... The only noticeable differences are a possible increase of body-hair compared to other of their kin, as well as bodies that slightly change their disposition to be a closer fit to their spiritual guardian." Eiro muttered, and then his mind practically short-circuited. He was worried that this sort of thing was going to lead to some damages later on in Leon's life, but it seemed like this was fine. Irregular, but fine. Irregular didn't always mean 'bad', after all.

Eiro pressed his face into his hands as he let out a deep sigh of relief. The spirits right next to the Demon were looking at him, clearly concerned.

"Is everything fine? You didn't really explain anything to us either... We just know that you're worried about something..." Nelli pointed out, and Eiro nodded his head. He turned toward the Naiad and nodded his head, "Yep. Leon's body is entering his maturity-phase already, triggered by the fact that we unsealed his skills. Everything is going to be fine with him in the end."

"Wait, really? So that was what you were freaking out about before?" The Naiad asked, "Leon's body is really already changing in that way?"

"Mhm, it is... And now that I managed to figure out that he's going to be fine, I need to do research on all the different beastman tribes so that I know what I need to expect. Haah... If only I had access to a few beastmen to compare him to...." The Demon muttered, staring at the ceiling as he did so.