DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro crossed his arms in thought as he looked at these people that were currently undergoing the mental unsealing process. It seemed like they were in quite a bit of pain right now, but that kind of thing should fade after a few more minutes.

"For now, you can all get dressed again." Eiro told them, "But then, I have some more questions to ask you. And I will ask those one on one, just in case."

"Alright... then." Solomon groaned, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "Right, I think you might be the best one to talk to first, Solomon."

"Of course..." The King replied, while Eiro pulled out the ace of cups. He used the liquid inside to produce a small sub-space in this room that he could talk to everyone without the chance of someone listening in somehow.

And Eiro and Solomon swiftly made their way inside of this sub-space, before the Demon looked him deep into his eyes. He placed his hands onto Solomon's head to make sure that the seal had been properly removed, and Bavet soon whispered into Eiro's ear.

"Everything's gone now, it seems. He should be able to remember." The slime explained. Eiro smiled a bit, and then pulled his hands back, "Good. Are you alright, Solomon? Do you think you can remember?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I can remember..." Solomon muttered, anger seemingly growing inside of him, "It is true that that man was not suspicious... At least not at the level of killing so many people within the acadamy, but he wasn't a perfectly kind man like I thought until a few moments ago. It never came to disciplinary actions, but there were times where we had to reprimand that man for how he treated his students."

Eiro slowly nodded his head as he took mental notes of this information, "Interesting. Now, is there any more information about the actual attack that you can tell me?"

"Yes... I was there that day. And it was a group that invaded the academy, and not just that man. Surprisingly, however, they didn't seem to be trying to kill me, but it was like... they were looking for something, and they just killed the students as a distraction. It is true that Bernard seemed to have gone wild, but it was more like... he finally unleashed his true nature after suppressing it for a long time. And I think... Some of the ones that invaded the academy were humanoid monsters? I remember this one creature... Just standing there, watching everything."

"What did it look like?" Eiro asked, and Solomon tried to remember, "It was... A lamia, I think? Rare for these parts, so it must have been really powerful..."

"Lamia? With sparkling emerald scales, and a large horn in the center of its forehead?" Eiro asked, and Solomon looked back at him surprised, "Yes, I think so... How did you know?"

"That..." Eiro was confused. To an extent, it made sense, but it seemed like far less slaughter than normal for that sort of creature, "If it's the lamia I'm thinking of, then it's... 'The Magician', a royal monster."

Solomon's whole body shivered in shock, unsure what Eiro was talking about, "A royal? Why would a royal be here?!"

"Well, you said it took something, right? Maybe there was something it wanted here... Luckily it didn't let out 'The Death', though..."

"There were some students whose bodies were never recovered... We thought they got crushed by Bernard's powers to be unrecognizable, but maybe..."

"Maybe they were kidnapped?" Eiro asked, and Solomon slowly nodded his head, "It's certainly possible, yes. The Magician is known for doing that kind of thing... But I just wonder, why was it necessary to seal your memories of all this?"

"I don't know, it's just... I'm glad that Charles was left alive..." Solomon said with a nervous expression. Eiro understood his thoughts. Surviving an encounter with a royal was something incredibly rare.

"I think that's enough, I'll just ask the others some more questions. Other things might come up, though, so I'll have to ask you about them later." The Demon said, and Solomon slowly nodded his head.

"I see, thank you. I will be heading back to my study for now, to collect myself a little again." Solomon suggested. Eiro brought him to the door and saw him out, before he turned around to the other five left in the room.

"Alright. Now, you, come on. I need you to tell me more about the circumstances of the barrier. I'm quite curious why your memories were sealed as well." The Demon pointed out, but this man, the security-mage that had been watching the barrier for a while, already seemed quite nervous about talking to Eiro. Hesitantly, he approached the sub-space's entrance, but just before then, he turned around and tried to run away.

Of course, Eiro was able to catch up to him instantly, and grabbed him by the back of the neck, "Ah... It's just as I thought. It didn't make much sense for the memories of such a random person to be sealed, but I get it. You were the one that weakened the barrier, right?"

"P-Please, you have to believe me! I had no choice! They were going to kill me!"

"And instead, numerous students were killed. You happy with yourself?" Eiro asked with a deep glare, and the man immediately shook his head, "How could I be? I feel just horrible! But I had no choice, my wife, she... we just found out she was pregnant, and I couldn't leave her alone like that!"

Eiro ground his teeth and threw the security-mage to the ground, "Who was the one that forced you? This Bernard guy?"

"Y-Yes, of course! He was a terrifying man, truly!" The mage exclaimed, staring up at Eiro. But the Demon was already sickened by this man, and kicked him to the other side of the room, "How disgusting. Kristoph, call some guards in, and have them arrest him, please. Then instead, you. Come with me." Eiro said, talking to the principal. He seemed nervous as well, most likely due to the memories that he had recovered through this process. Eiro noticed that the guards took the security-mage away, and then began to speak to the principal about what he knew.

Surprisingly, he didn't seem to know all that much, just things similar to what Solomon already told to Eiro. The principal himself was cowardly and weak, so he seemed to have been hiding somewhere for most of the attack. It was disgusting to Eiro, the fact that the principal, the man supposed to protect the students of the academy, was hiding out and waiting for the slaughter to end. But the principal seemed to be even more disgusted by himself, so Eiro wasn't that hard on him for now.

Following the principal, Eiro spoke to Kristoph, "So, what kinds of things can you remember?"

"Ah... well, I ended up fighting against some of the intruders. Killed one of them, apparently, but the body was probably taken away by the intruders themselves. There was a lamia there, and I tried to attack it, but it simply disappeared when I got too close and then ended up somewhere else. So, I focused on others. When I saw Bernard battle-ready, I at first thought that he was there to help me, but... Then he started attacking the students instead of the intruders." Kristoph explained, "Oh, and you said that our memories were sealed all at once, right? Well, I remember when exactly they were sealed, but I wasn't around any of the others at the time."

"Huh, really? Yeah, sounds about right. It was 'The Magician', after all, so it's unsurprising that he was able to cast such a spell on multiple targets at a distance." Eiro pointed out, and Kristoph ripped his eyes open wide as he stared into Eiro's eyes, "The Magician? What are you talking about? The... the royal?"

"Yes, of course I'm talking about the royal. I don't know why he was here yet, apparently they were trying to steal something. Probably, they caused that havoc as either a distraction, or as a tool to get what they wanted. Or both, or something else entirely."

"Do you know what they stole already?" Kristoph asked, "Everything was focused on the Magic-specialisation's building, as well as the library..."

"Then maybe they were looking for some kind of artifact or... tome, maybe? I'll have to ask Merlin, then. Thanks." The Demon said, and Kristoph slowly nodded his head, "Yeah, of course."

Kristoph left the sub-space, and now, only Merlin and Gabria were left. But these were people that Eiro wanted to question together, at least to an extent. Eiro sent the principal and Kristoph away for now, so that they were more likely to answer.

"Okay then. First, I want to ask why everyone thinks that Gabria created the barrier, although it was clearly Merlin?" Eiro asked, and both of them were in shock as they heard what Eiro just told them.

"B-But how did you-"

"I have a rather impressive deductive ability, Gabria. Tell me everything. Every single detail about your relationship, the barrier, as well as why the hell the royal 'The Magician' was there. Was there something he wanted to steal? Why did he leave so easily? Why were your memories sealed in the first place? And why just you six? I want to know everything that you know in relation to the incident.." Eiro told them with a deep glare, "And you better not lie to me, I'll be able to tell."