DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Y-You want me to literally work in the mines..? That's child labour, you know..?" Arc pointed out with a wry smile, but Eiro simply crossed his arms in response, "Be happy that that's all I'll have you do. Do you even know how much that many magic stones are worth? This is possibly going to do some serious damage to Solomon."

"...Well, fair enough... But still, really? A day's work in the mines... Aren't you worried that I'll overwork myself without noticing? Or that I'll accidentally break my hands while working..?" Arc asked somewhat nervously, but Eiro simply shook his head as he waited for his son to stand up, "No, I will be watching you the whole time, after all. And we won't be doing this anytime soon anyway, I want to finish my evolution first. So for now, just go inside and apologize to Solomon."

"Eh, I can do that, that's not a big deal." The young man pointed out, and Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Seriously, the fact that you don't even feel any shame is the most troublesome effect of your skill... I'm happy that you at least stopped walking around buck naked."

"Well yeah, it's cold up here, why would I walk around naked?" Arc asked with his head tilted to the side, before Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Nevermind that. Lugo, you come as well. I know that Solomon won't understand you, but at the very least I want you to show some remorse to him as well." Eiro explained, and slowly turned around. But a moment later, he felt Lugo's antlers being pressed into the back of his head. The Demon turned around and looked the stag in the eyes, and saw that Lugo seemed to actually be somewhat sorry, even if that was only the case because Eiro ended up finding out about the situation.

"Listen, I'm happy that you want to get stronger for my sake as well, buddy, but this isn't the right way to do it. We have plenty of magic stones ourselves, so just eat those instead of Solomon's." Eiro explained as he rubbed his hand over Lugo's snout, "But really... leveling up really gave you quite an increase in mana and life force, huh..? Let's see how else your powers increased through that."

Lugo slowly nodded and started following Eiro, as the three of them made their way into the castle. The servants that they were passing were staring at Lugo with deep frowns, since they all knew about what he had done. Eiro really just ignored them though, and didn't try to do anything about this. He did want Lugo to see what happened when he messed up like this, after all, so that he wouldn't go along with Arc's stupid plans in the future.

Soon, they made their way fully through the royal castle, and Eiro spread his awareness a bit more to see where exactly everyone was. But when he did, he immediately stopped in his track. His nose twitched sligthly as he ground his teeth together.

"What are they doing here?" Eiro muttered in a growling voice, as he turned around toward Arc, "Go meet your siblings, they're in the sitting room on the west wing's third floor." He told his son, who slowly nodded his head, understanding that something seemed to be off.

"Sure..." Arc replied, and made his way through the castle, as Eiro and Lugo immediately made their way to where Solomon, and some guests he didn't really feel like seeing, would be found.

Without even knocking, Eiro pushed the door open. Of course, the guards of said guests tried to stop him, but they were in turn stopped by the royal guards, all of which were aware at this point that Eiro could freely walk around this castle if he so wished. Nobody even thought about stopping him anymore.

Eiro pushed against the large door and it swung openm so fast that the hinges nearly bent and cracked. The Demon entered the room, and immediately locked eyes with Loid as he was sitting on the couch facing the door.

Solomon turned around surprised, and looked at Eiro with his brows raised, "Eiro, back already? How did it go?"

"...It went well. I reached level 100, so it's time to choose my next class soon." He explained from behind his teeth that were pressed onto each other so strongly that they may as well have started cracking apart.

"That's great. I was surprisingly visited by these four, and they were telling me some interesting things." Solomon explained as he slowly stood up. He walked through the room toward Eiro, and placed his hand onto his friend's shoulder, "They were trying to say that your children, Arc and Samantha, are actually their children."

Loid and Aaron looked at Eiro with smug grins, thinking that Solomon was about to agree with them and that Eiro had messed up. Surprisingly, Loid's wife, Samantha's mother, was still sitting there with a blank expression, while Elizabeth was letting her tears flow so much that her husband's handkerchief was already soaked through.

"Indeed so. We have revealed your wicked ways to his majesty! Finally, we will be reunited with our children!" Aaron exclaimed with a broad smile on his face, but before he was able to continue, Solomon lightly raised his hand, "Silence, please. I think there was quite a misunderstanding here. Arc and Samantha are absolutely Eiro's children, there is no doubt about that."

"H-Huh, but-" Aaron let out, and Solomon smiled back at him, "They were born in this country. We found the documentation that indeed confirms this fact. They are citizens of Skyhart, so it is impossible for them to be either of your children, is that not so?"

Loid jumped up from his seat and stared back at Solomon, "Your majesty, excuse my rudeness, but they are indeed our children... I was there during Samantha's birth!"

"Ah fuck off, we both know that's not true." Eiro said suddenly, as if overtaken by instinct, because that was one of the greatest lies he had heard come out of this man's mouth. It was clear that he didn't care about Sammy in the slightest. He probably didn't see her for the first few weeks, if not months, of her life.

"What did you just say?!" Loid exclaimed, replying angrily, but Solomon immediately interrupted him, "Hm? I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't hear anything at all."

Loid looked at Solomon, clearly angry, but he obviously couldn't yell at the king of the country that they were visiting, "I apologize for raising my voice, your majesty. I am not feeling too well, so I think it is about time that we left again." He stood up, and walked to the other side of the room. He was quickly followed by his wife, and Aaron and Elizabeth soon followed behind them as well.

They left the room, and the large, heavy door was closed by the guards, as Solomon looked at Eiro, "Are you alright?"

Eiro ground his teeth and nodded his head, "I'll be alright." He said, before Solomon slowly turned to look at Lugo with a squint, "And what about him? Is he hungry again?"

Eiro smiled lightly and shook his head, "No, don't worry. I want to apologize for that, by the way. I'll try to make up for it, whether it's through money or just by giving you some of the magic stones I have stashed up."

"There's no need, those magic stones never would have been used anyway, at least not anytime soon." Solomon sighed, as he slowly sat down again. Eiro scratched the back of his head with a wry smile, "Don't say that around Arc, or else he's going to steal even more from you." He pointed out, sitting down as well.

Solomon and Eiro sat in front of each other, and the Demon looked down at the ground, "What were they here for?"

"They were basically just trying to explain the situation to me from their view. It was the story that you already warned me they would tell me, basically word for word." Solomon sighed, "Again, I'm on your side, but they know that now. They might just go ahead and try some more aggressive things now."

"Right, let them try. I'm going to have two people with Master Grade skills in my home soon, the support of the king, and I myself am going to awaken to my legendary skill and will become a royal monster. They won't be able to do anything to us." Eiro explained, and Solomon slightly smiled back at him.

"Speaking of, you said you're 'ready to choose your next class'? Does that mean you reached level 100?"

"Yes, exactly. I eradicated all those wyverns that I told you about. I brought some wyvern eggs with me, so I'll raise them to get their monstrosity and behaviour under control, and I'll see to it that they won't be influenced by the Devil at all. I sensed the mark from them, but I should be able to free them from it once I fully evolved. They'll only hatch in a few weeks anyway." Eiro explained, scratching the back of his head, "And some other weird things happened with the system messages... I'll explain that to you once I figured out what exactly happened. But yeah... it was 'recommended' to me that I evolve as soon as possible, so I'll get to that as soon as Koperia is here.

"Perfect. Class is going to start again soon, but go ahead and take some breaks if you need it. I know that your evolutions are sometimes quite painful to you."

"Hah, that's an understatement. I'm pretty sure that my whole body is going to be ripped apart and put back together on the daily during my next evolution...."