DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro stepped in front of his king with a light smile on his face, "So, how was that?"

"A little bit overkill, especially with that whole speech... But I'm sure there was a reason for you announcing who your parent is." Solomon pointed out, as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "At the very least, you are more than just memorable to everyone here now."

"That was the point, kind of." Eiro pointed out, as he felt something hit his back. It was Clementine, who had rushed up to him after Eiro had let her down just earlier, "Daaad! Why'd you have to do that, that was embarrassing..."

"Sorry, sorry." Eiro apologized, as he slightly glanced out over to the side, looking at a certain man that was now approaching him, "But it seemed to have worked just in our favor."

The man that was currently approaching them was the King of Ramguard, and Loid Garian Kiliar as well as Aaron Minas Gilhart were following behind him with complicated expressions.

The King soon stopped, just a few steps away from Eiro. And of course, the Demon immediately bowed forward, "I greet you, your majesty."

"Ohoho, there is no need for that. This is a party, let us be casual." The King replied, and Eiro of course reacted without hesitation, and followed this king's words. He could feel Solomon's stare in the back of his head, as he was clearly annoyed at the fact that Eiro had never greeted him in such a way before.

"That was quite the show you put on for us. I had no idea kidnappers were so skilled these days." With a light chuckle, the King replied, and Eiro's soft smile disappeared instantly, "With all due respect, but I'm not a kidnapper."

"Oh really? I heard differently."

"You do realize where you are, don't you? Please do not insult my friend with such statements." Solomon said bluntly, stepping in front of Eiro to face Ramguard's King himself. The elderly ruler looked back at him as his smile slowly faded away, "Young Solomon. It is nice to see you again. But once more, I simply have to say that I heard differently. Whether what I heard is the truth or not, is a whole separate matter." He explained, slowly turning around to glance at the two men behind him, who were both wearing pensive expressions on their tired faces.

"I can assure you, it is not." Solomon replied immediately, "I swear upon my honor that those two are the children of my dear friend."

"Hm... That is all I needed to hear." Ramguard's King replied as the smile returned to his face, "Of course, there are some discussions to be had. In private, between the involved parties. How about... tomorrow, in the evening, after we have all rested following this party?"

"I see. Yes, let us get this out of the way before the meeting of kings begins." Solomon agreed, and Ramguard's King immediately nodded, "I am glad we are in agreement, then. Now, there is something else that I would like to ask. However, it is directed at this young man right here."

Eiro locked eyes with the King, noticing that the royal's muscles tensed up instantly and for just a second, before he managed to hide his fear behind his smile again, "I would like to ask you for a favor."

"A favor? After what those two have done, I think I'm the one owed a favor." Eiro pointed out, and the King in front of him stayed silent for a few seconds.

"That... that may be true, but that is a separate matter that is part of the discussion tomorrow. Rather, I would like to ask you for a favor not wholly unrelated to what we have seen earlier."

"Do you mean the fighting, or the magic?"

"I mean your ability to handle those beasts in men's clothing." The King chuckled, "You seem to be quite close to those two over there, at least they have been staring for a while now, and you even managed to create a method of causing maturity before a child's puberty, as I have seen from that beast child earlier. If you do not mind, and if it is not too much to ask, could you sell me that method? You can have gold to outweigh your whole family, enough slaves to make your home seem tiny, and if you wish, I might even be able to offer you and your family a stable position in our country. You are only a baron here, after all, so I'm sure nobody would notice if you left."

Solomon and Eiro stood there, in utter disbelief at what they were hearing. Neither of them knew how to respond, so someone else spoke for them.

"What a fucking idiot..." Sarius muttered with a wry smile, and Eiro slowly turned his head to the side, "Before you insult a royal, fucking hide yourself."

"Huh? Why should I? I stand way above a measly human royal, and you know that. He should be bowing to me right now, just being alowed to bask in my flames."

"Seriously, you become an asshole in all the wrong moments." Nelli pointed out, pressing her hand onto his face. Steam rose from their bodies, as Sarius' face was snuffed out by the water.

"Thank you, Nelli." Eiro sighed deeply, as he turned back toward the King, who was staring at the spirit with fury in his eyes. Actually... maybe what Sarius did was good. Otherwise Eiro would have knocked some teeth out of this king's mouth, had the salamander not shattered the tension like that.

"A mere spirit, a servant to people, believing himself to be more important than I? What is this? Teach that thing some manners!"

"Well, I am going to teach him manners, but before you continue to speak, I'm pretty sure you should know that this 'mere spirit' is the crown prince. The future Salamander King." The Demon said, nothing but truth in his words, something that the king seemed to pick up.

"The future... salamander king? How did you get your hands on such an important specimen?!" The King asked, "Please, I will give you anything, just sell it to-"

"Aight, sorry about this, Solomon." Eiro said, as the Demon slowed down time using the bits of time left in the ring he carried with him. He looked at the man in front of him, and quickly split his mouth in two as Bavet momentarily let go off his face, "Dude, what are you doing..?"

"Just making sure that this guy shuts it, before I'm forced to make him shut it the hard way." Eiro explained, as he took a step closer toward this man. Using both of his mouths, he whispered into the King's ears, forcing as much of his charisma into his voices as possible. At the same time, he treated the words he was saying to this King as chants, trying to create a spell based solely off of verbal components using mana with special attributes. In the last few months, Eiro had a lot of time to study different sorts of magic, especially with Koperia around to tell him some things that he couldn't find out through books.

"Be silent." – "Be careful."

"Stop treating others like objects." – "Hold fear for what they might do to you."

"Your money is worthless." – "As worthless as your soul."

"They are my kin." – "My kin are everything."

"Don't touch them." – "Stay away from them."

"Or I will kill you." – "Or you will die."

Eiro's whispers went on for a few more moments, before he slowly took a step back again. He fused his mouths back together, turning them back into one as Bavet quickly covered his face again.

"Alright, I think that should be enough." Eiro said, ready to pull his mana from the ring to let the flow of time continue properly, but before he could, Bavet whispered into his ear.

"You know... given this chance, why don't you..." He muttered, creating some tubes and lenses in front of his eyes, to change Eiro's view over toward Aaron and Loid, "Bavet, I may technically be only eight years old, but my soul is about eighty. I'm not doing something petty like that."

"...But it'd be fun."

"Can't argue with that logic." Eiro replied bluntly, as he took a step forward and held his hands on the ears of the two men. He pushed some air inside, and tried to mess with their inner ear a bit, before he pressed his hand onto their chests to manipulate the wine in their stomachs and make their blood absorb it a lot quicker. For one, he went a step further, while for the other, he added a separate little surprise of magic into the bowel region.

Eiro stepped back into his former position, made sure that Bavet fully transformed him, and then let time flow normally again.

"-me! How much do you... want for... it..?" The King asked, as his mind slowly caught up with the magical whispers Eiro pushed into his mind. Sweat started to form on his forehead as his heartbeat sped up. He was clearly beyond terrified at the moment, since he was unable to rationalize those words just yet.

His whole body was shaking, as he took a step back, bumping into Aaron in the process, "O-Out of the way, you buff-" Ramguard's king exclaimed, trying to get away from Eiro, when suddenly another event occured.

The king was soon covered in vomit, the source of course being Aaron, who Eiro made both nauseous and drunk enough to throw up just a few seconds after time flowed normal again. Loid was also trying to keep standing up properly, but around that time, a whole other problem formed within him.

And with unsteady feet, Loid turned around and tried to rush out of the room, trying to find a calm space to do his business.

Meanwhile, Eiro stood there, a light, satisfied smile forming on his face, while he could feel Bavet shaking all over his body out of humorous laughter.