DEMON'S VIRTUE

It took a few hours, but soon enough, Eiro was finally able to finish the concoction. It was nothing but a dark red liquid, close to being called black already. It was viscous, and its temperature was weirdly far above what it should be. It was just under the level at which it would cause burns to the skin of a human. Sure, the liquid might feel a bit uncomfortable when applied to them, but in the end it should be something that they could all deal with.

"Now, I guess all that's left to do is gather everyone who had a seal placed on their mind. We need to unseal all of them at the same time, or else it might not work." Eiro explained to Solomon, who was somewhat nervously nodding his head, "I see. I already called everyone that you mentioned here. Let us clear up some space so that we can do everything in here directly." The King suggested, and Eiro swiftly nodded his head.

He swiftly started to use magic to clean everything that he could up, and then pushed the tables to the side before setting up some chairs for everyone to sit on.

It didn't take long until everyone got here. The half-dozen people that were affected by the seals.

Solomon, Kristoph, the principal of the academy, one of the security mages, Merlin, as well as the man that created the barrier around the academy in the first place. This was the first time that Eiro had actually met them, and to his surprise, they weren't a full person. They seemed to be an elf, recognized by the system as such, with a bit of monster blood within them.

"Interesting... Bavet..." Eiro whispered to the slime that had once more fused with his body before everyone arrived here, "Just to make sure, but has everyone here been affected by the seal?"

"Yup. Seems like it, at least. And luckily, seems like that's all of 'em. The seal seems complete now, at least." Bavet explained, so Eiro smiled with satisfaction.

He looked at the people in front of him and clapped his hands together, "Now, please undress your upper body, please." The Demon said, and everyone swiftly looked over at the elf that had created the system. They were a woman, so there might be a bit of a problem there.

"Ah, don't worry, you're going to have to sit with your backs toward each other anyway. The only one that's going to see anything is me, and I really don't care about such matters." Eiro explained with a smile on his face. The outwardly surprisingly young woman practically glared at him, "And you expect me to believe that?"

"Oh, yeah, of course. I'm completely asexual, I don't feel the slightest physical attraction to anyone. And I've only felt true romantic attraction to one person in my life as well. So there's no need for you to worry in the slightest." Eiro explained. Somewhat hesitantly, she agreed as well. She waited until the others sat down first, though, and then undressed and sat down as well.

Eiro cracked the knuckles in his left hand, and stood in the center of the circle that all six of these people were forming. But he was able to sense that something was off with this already. Eiro wasn't sure what, though, until he tried to interact with the chaos around him, simply attempting it to figure out what was going on. And that's when he realized.

There was a flow of chaos between Merlin and this woman. It was a deep connection, but not the kind that lovers often had. It was a bit different. Well, not that it mattered to Eiro, he just wanted to get this done to find out what exactly happened with the barrier, and of course to help Solomon remember everything that happened.

However, Eiro did something else first. Something that he felt like he had to do.

"By the way, I have a few questions to ask you. Questions that I need you to answer truthfully." Eiro explained, "They're all related to that incident last year, where the barrier had stopped functioning, allowing someone thought to be a teacher to wreak havoc in the academy."

"What? What is this about?" The security mage asked confused, "Who are you to ask such questions?"

Eiro rolled his eyes in response, "I'm the only man that currently has a chance to figure out what exactly happened that is not a suspect in causing everything. By the way, Solomon is also not a suspect, but I'm not sure if he's going to know much about the situation." Eiro said in a blunt tone.

"Now that we have established that... All of you, tell me what exactly the barrier consistst of and how it was created in your own words." Eiro said, "Solomon, please, you go first. In the meantime, I'm going to start with the unsealing process. It's going to take a while anyway, so let's not waste any time."

Everyone agreed, and Solomon swiftly began to explain what he understood the barrier to be, "The barrier is something created through finely-tuned magic circles placed onto the core underneath the center of the academy. I apologize, I don't know much about magic myself, so that's where my understanding ceases." Solomon pointed out, and although that was a blatant lie, Eiro understood why he said that. Eiro was trying to investigate the others, so he was trying to answer the least that he could. The only reason he was answering in the first place was so that the others had no choice but to answer themselves. After all, if the King could answer honestly, then all of these others could as well.

One after another, the others answered as well. Although in the end, there were only two answers that Eiro cared about right now. That of Merlin and this woman. As he expected, they had a high understanding of the barrier, explaining it in much detail. Maybe a bit too much, but Eiro didn't really mind. Either way, after hearing their answers, Eiro moved on.

"Who was it that caused the incident?" Eiro asked. And as he thought, the general consensus was that it was the teacher, although he did notice that both Merlin and the woman were hiding something.

"How was the barrier's surveilance disturbed?" The Demon then asked. Solomon, the principal, and Kristoph really really didn't know what to say, since they simply had no idea, but the other three understood the barrier enough.

"There are only two possibilities. Either the supply of mana to the inscriptions in the core were interrupted, or someone deliberately manipulated the barrier to cause a disturbance. The former is a lot more plausible, since the level of skill required to do the latter is far too high. I know you did it for the protective barrier placed around the arena that one time, Baron Daemonherz, but this one is far more complex." The security mage explained. That was roughly the answer that Eiro expected. And then, answers from the other two came.

"It is true that the level of skill required is immense, but that does not mean that it's impossible by any means. If it's possible to create such a barrier, it's possible to manipulate it as well. It's as simple as that. Surely, that wicked teacher hid his true abilities and managed to manipulate the barrier somehow, allowing him to do whatever he wanted." Merlin suggested, and the creator of the barrier seemed to agree with that theory completely, not adding anything to it at all.

"Hm, alright. I guess that means I only have one question left." Eiro said, "Who is the true creator of the barrier?"

Immediately, Eiro sensed a spike in the heartbeat of Merlin and this elven woman. It was clear what the answer was going to be. Four of these six people answered with the name of the woman, Gabria, and truly meant it. The other two said the name Gabria and were simply lying. Those two were Gabria herself, as well as Merlin. It was obvious what happened, at least to Eiro, although he still didn't know the reasons. Although he would find out soon.

Eiro now stayed silent and started to instead speed up the process of painting all the intricate patterns on the ground. He needed Bavet to flow his magic through this 'paint' the whole time, so Eiro couldn't just use magic for it, meaning that it took a lot longer. But it was still rather quick, since Eiro was the one that actually drew everything onto these five people to complete the overall un-sealing circle.

"Alright. Now, all of you stretch out your arms and tightly hold the hand of the ones next to you, to create a full circle between all of you." Eiro instructed them. They all swiftly did as told, as Eiro finished up the unsealing circle by painting the patterns onto their arms.

And then, for just a moment, Eiro let go of his fusion with Bavet for this last bit. After all, the slime had to finish everything. He stretched his body thin and touched the back of the necks of everyone involved, creating another pattern in the center, as if turning his body into the shape of a magic circle.

For this, Bavet also spoke a chant, albeit using Eiro's voice for this, and the magic of the sealing arts flowed through the dark red paint that was covering the bodies of everyone involved. The paint slowly lifted off of their bodies as Eiro could directly sense something changing within the heads of each of these six people. He fused with Bavet once more, preparing to ask everyone more questions.

Especially this imposter, Gabria, who was pretending to be the creator of the barrier, as well as Merlin, the one that clearly actually created the barrier.