DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Wait, what?" James asked, "Sister? You mean she's..."

"Apparently so. At the very least, she was telling the truth, meaning that she certainly believes herself to be. And the timeframe fits as well, right? She was assumed to be dead since 8 years ago or so." Eiro pointed out, and Maria looked at him with a somewhat shocked expression, although she slowly let her head droop down a bit, "I see... so I was already announced as dead, then..."

"..." Eiro looked at this member of royalty in front of ihm, unsure how he was supposed to make her feel better about this situation, "I don't know how much you know about what actually happened, I'm sure there was just plenty of chaos, but a royal monster, 'The Sun', led an army to attack the Holy Empire, and this city ended up in its path. I heard you were in the middle of a trip for political reasons and were assumed to be caught up in this, since your last known position was about a day's trip from the city. But you can be sure, Solomon tried to have as many people searching for you as possible. And even now, you're still remembered fondly. He spoke about you to me a few times before." Eiro explained with a smile on his face, and Maria lightly looked down.

"Is that so?" She asked, a soft smile forming on her face, "How is he... my brother? Has he been taking care of himself?"

"...Mostly. There was a period of time where that certainly wasn't the case, but he's doing a lot better now." Eiro explained to her, "But if you want to know about these things, you should ask Solomon yourself tomorrow. We'll be arriving tomorrow in the evening, and Solomon has a tendency to work until late in the night."

"That certainly does sound like him..." Maria pointed out with a soft smile, as tears started filling her eyes. Her legs started to shake, as she just dropped down onto the ground, sobbing at the realisation that she had really been saved after all these years, as Jess rushed over to comfort her. As far as Eiro knew... She was just a young woman when she left back then, just 16 years old. It was one of her first trips for diplomatic reasons, and something like this happened to her.

Solomon had been blaming himself for letting her go without more support, because maybe some of the stronger knights could have at least presented her with an opportunity to escape. Eiro took a deep breath, as he thought back onto that day that he was within this city eight years ago.

It was a beautiful, vibrant place. A rich city, for obvious reasons. It was large city and the easiest way to get over the lake. And the fact that the city was built upon a flying island certainly helped the general tourism quite a bit as well. Back then, while they were moving through town, did Eiro see her here? Did he see anyone that seemed to be from Skyhart back then?

He was pretty sure that he didn't, but at the same time, they could have just very well been disguised somehow to not attract too much attention. Either way, Eiro knew for a fact that she was telling the truth, and she did seem to have a certain resemblance to Solomon as well. They would find out what was actually going on tomorrow.

But as Eiro was going to turn around to head somewhere else, to work on a few different things he wanted to do here in town for now, he heard the crying stop behind him, "W-Wait, I still... I still have a question for you..." She said, and Eiro slowly turned around toward her, "Yes?"

"Why... Why is my brother working with a... a demon..? How did this world change since then..?" Maria asked, and Eiro slightly smiled at her as he replied, "This world hasn't changed much in the past eight years. But I'm a rather... unusual being." He explained, "I think we should keep it at that for now, if you don't mind. But you don't need to worry, your brother is one of the most genuinely kind men I know, and he loves the people of his country."

Maria slowly nodded her head, wiping some of the tears out of her eyes, "I see... Thank you. That is... calming."

"Of course." Eiro said, as he finally made his way out of this room again. He stood there with a deep sigh, thinking about how Solomon would probably end up reacting when he found out that his sister was still alive after all these years. And as he was standing there, the door behind him opened up again as Krog and James both stepped outside, looking at Eiro with worried expressions.

"Was she actually telling the truth? Is she Solomon's sister?" James asked, unsure if Eiro was genuine in there or if he was just playing along for now. It was hard to tell sometimes. With his immense control over the domain of truth caim the fact that it was harder for others to discern lies or deceit within Eiro's words or actions.

"Yeah, she really is. Or again, she really believes herself to be. She certainly smells like him, but that's not always a fool-proof way to see if people are related. Let's just say... It's incredibly likely that she is Solomon's sister. Everything just fits perfectly, so there's no reason to doubt it right now. No matter what, she's definitely not dangerous, so if she ends up not being Solomon's sister somehow, she's not going to be able to harm anyone, especially not with my hand on her back throughout the whole ordeal."

"...I see. Well, that fair, then..." Krog muttered, "But for real, that's just... weird. I was at a public memorial service held for her a couple years ago, like five years after her... 'death'. Seeing the dead appear in front of you like that really is kinda scary, man." The half-goliath explained, and Eiro rolled his eyes. He stretched his arm to the side and snapped his fingers.

A few moments later, a skeletal troll stepped into the hallway, just standing there right in Krog's line of sight, "Because this is so much better, right?"

"Oh fuck off, you know what I mean..." Krog grumbled, and Eiro smiled as he nodded his head, "Yeah, I do, don't worry. Anyway, I was going to clean some things in the city up for now, get a few things ready for now. The monsters need to be able to stay here in the island for now, at least." The Demon said, ready to walk down the hallway, before he was once more stopped by one of the two men behind him.

"Dude, wait, there's something else." James said, with a light frown forming on his face, "Could you explain to us why you're just revealing all of this information about yourself to the people in there? They're completely random people we never even met a few days ago. How can you just trust them? What if someone just ends up accidentally telling someone about you?"

Eiro smiled a bit, trying to reassure his friend, "Don't worry, even if that were to happen, there's nothing to worry about. Especially when I become a member of the Hero's party this summer. I'm a noble that, publicly, has done nothing but good for the society. People know me as a powerful man, and a close friend to the king, who even the leaders of countries we're on bad terms with respect deeply for his strong will and kindness, and soon I will be someone that is going to help train the hero into becoming someone that could kill the Monster King. And then, a few people traumatised after being captured and tortured by a Demon for eight years claim that man, one of the first new people they've seen in nearly a decade, to be a Demon himself... Who will believe people like that?"

James looked back at Eiro and opened his eyes wide, "You're telling me that these people can know just because they're not a threat to you? So what, why don't you go around telling random children you're a demon as well?"

"...It's not that simple, James. Listen, these couple dozen people, as long as everything goes well, will be the key to really... changing something. They're accepting the help of a Demon after all they've gone through. And if they can do that, then a couple of random people can learn to accept... others, as well. I don't know how exactly I will make it happen, but I will turn those people into symbols of peace and acceptance."

"Wait, 'others'? Is this about...?" Krog asked, and Eiro scratched the back of his head, "Of course it's about Leon, what did you expect?" He sighed deeply, before slowly turning around, "Everything I do, I do for my children."