DEMON'S VIRTUE

"...useless..." someone slowly muttered, "So you're saying, you're just absolutely useless in a fight? Urgh, what a shame..." They groaned loudly in response to hearing what Rudy's abilities were. But Eiro didn't care for that for now. He expected things to this extent, and Rudy was more than prepared for this sort of thing as well, so he wouldn't interfere at something that just went to this extent. Rather, Eiro was paying attention to Tin, who had been listening to the whole conversation.

While suppressing his aura and using stealth, Eiro walked past the crowd completely unnoticed, soon standing next to the Goliath warrior.

"You get it now?" Eiro asked, and Tin slightly flinched as he looked at the man now standing next to him, "...Get what?"

"Why Rudy isn't living in a Goliath Tribe anymore. You said it yourself, didn't you? At birth, a goliath is marked with the sigil of their tribe. But considering that the needle couldn't pierce that child's skin, that wasn't possible. But hey, they could look past that. After all, a goliath unable to pierce the skin of an infant? That meant this child was absolutely incredible, right? Everyone would have high hopes for a kid like that. And then, upon finding out that no matter what, that kid couldn't even kill a bug on his own... all those hopes were shattered. You heard it just now, right?" Eiro explained to Tin, "He'd be considered 'useless', especially to your people, who only care for the strength of the individual."

"...So? Does that change the fact that he isn't part of the clan?"

"Of course it doesn't. But we also know that it changes everything else for you. You're not an idiot. You actually seem to be quite smart to me. So don't act like you don't get what I'm trying to tell you right now." Eiro said somewhat annoyed, as he stepped back to his seat, when the rest of the group got to the point that Eiro knew he was going to be bothered with.

It just needed a single moment. A single spark, to ignite the flame.

"...But... wouldn't he still... make the best shield? He can't be damaged, so if he's taught some luring skills or spells, wouldn't that make him the best tanker anyway?" Someone asked, and immediately, the opinion of the whole group shifted once more. In general, they immediately focused on the uses of these kids.

Sammy's and Clementine's uses were obvious. They could manipulate the enemy and heal the injured respectively. Having a fighter that couldn't feel pain nor remorse was in itself something amazing too. They could fight forever without needing to recover things beyond physical exhaustion, and even then they could push themselves further thant anyone else. And as that one person just said, Rudy was the perfect shield.

Immediately, someone stepped forward. It was a fighter from some south-western country on the continent, a quite small one. She was noble-born apparently, so she quickly stepped forward, "If you join the efforts of our country, then I promise, you will be immensely rewarded! All four of you! You'll get whatever you want!"

With that offer, the air around the group shifted once more. Everyone that had the power to do so tried to make offers to the four of them. Of course, the warriors from Baram itself were staying quiet in response to the head warrior's promises, although it was clear that he was quite respectful.

And so, to change the air right here once more, Eiro stepped in front of everyone. He grabbed the dagger that was in Rudy's hand, and stabbed himself in the stomach. He then created multiple different daggers made of ice, blood and rock, stabbing them into different parts of his body. But not a single time did Eiro flinch. He didn't blink, and kept up his gentle, eery smile.

"The pain I feel is hundreds, if not thousands of times greater than what any of you feel. I'm the owner of the Five of Pentacles, the card of 'Absolute Perception', but even then, I don't care for simple things like pain. That I'm ruthless and don't mind killing people must be something you all are quite aware of as well. I know you heard about me." Eiro said bluntly, as he pulled all the knives out of his body. Immediately, he made his wounds heal in sight of everyone standing in front of him, in an instant, by combining his natural regenerative ability as a demon as well as his healing magic, "I can use healing magic to instantly heal any wound I come across, and as many of you saw earlier, I can even treat wounds that cannot be normally healed." The Demon explained, "And as you all saw earlier today, I can stop even the greatest impact on my body at will, with the greatest ease. And as for the fourth ability you've seen today..."

Eiro slightly smirked, pushing his hands into his jacket's pockets. He used both of his vocal cords for the most amount of impact, and to make him and his voice seem even more surreal to everyone affected. And with just a single word, Eiro made everyone feel the control over their own body dwindle even faster than when Sammy spoke earlier, "Kneel."

As if the air shifted around them as Eiro spoke, the whole group could feel pressure on their body. At first, it might have seemed like Eiro used gravity magic, but all that Eiro did was once more boost his Charisma stat-ability with his legendary skill, to increase the power of his voice by many, many times. And so, it didn't take long until everyone standing in front of Eiro was kneeling, but in a different way than earlier.

Then, they couldn't control their body, but their mind was still clear. They knew something was wrong, and were actively fighting against it. But now that Eiro commanded them... with both their body in mind, they knelt. Out of fear for their lives. They simply had no other choice.

With a smile on his face, Eiro took a few steps forward and squatted down in front of everyone, "Now do you understand? Of course, my kids are amazing. They're the greatest, best, amazing kids out there and I couldn't be prouder of them. But if you're going to try to use them for your own gain, expect meto be there to retaliate, with the exact power that you all sought to use for yourselves." Eiro said with a sadistic tone in his voice. Obviously he was threatening and warning everyone, but at the same time, it felt like Eiro was practically asking them to do it. Asking them to try to use his children as tools so that he had an excuse to hurt or kill everyone that did so.

"Dad... Could you stop that already?" Arc asked with a wry smile, "You're kinda being embarrassing. I mean, I don't care, but these three obviously do."

Immediately, Eiro froze up and slowly turned around, seeing the expressions of his kids, who were standing behind the Demon, watching everything that he just did, "E-Embarrassing, you say?"

"K-Kinda, yeah..." Rudy stuttered slightly, "Can you just back down for a bit?"

"Em...embarrassing..?" Eiro muttered as he slowly walked away, dropping down onto the chair next to Ariella again, looking at her with a worried expression, "Am I seriously embarrassing..?"

"It's not the word that I would have used... terrifying fits it better... but then again, you did raise them..." She pointed out, but Eiro was just staring at the ground perplexed, as he released the pressure that he made everyone feel. Slowly, they stood back up, still feeling the influence of the Demon lingering around. But when they saw the state he was in, after hearing how the four of them spoke to him... they were even more confused and scared.

Eiro had stabbed himself a dozen times, spoke about killing others without remorse, and let out such a terrifying air that would make any toddler in the hundred mile radius cry out immediately... but they just called that 'embarrassing'?

As everyone managed to collect their thoughts, Sammy and Arc both stepped forward again, "While that is the case... Our father is right. We're not your tools. We're not going to do whatever you want us to do. Rudy? He's a great craftsman, it's where his talents are anyway. He's good at woodworking, leahterworking, cooking, smithing, and basically everything you can do with those damned hands. Clem? She wants to be a healer, a doctor, someone that can actively help people in need. But that doesn't mean she's going to want to risk her life for people fighting a neverending war that you all freely throw yourselves into." Sammy explained to them all.

"And sure, while I'm planning on being an adventurer, I'm not going to be working under some random person just because they asked me to. I'm my own person, you can't just use me however the fuck you want. And Sammy hopes to be a singer, someone to make people happy with her voice. Not someone that manipulates and controls them. Besides the times where she uses it to make me clean up my room, this is maybe the second or third time she's ever used her ability on another person. For months, she didn't speak a single word so that he should get used to her ability." Arc added, placing his hand onto his sister's shoulder.

"The only reason we said this today is because we're sick of hiding this part of ourselves. Just like how dad is showing off his true abilities, so will we." Rudy said, before Clementine finished it off, "In the same way that he is working hard on becoming the strongest he can be, all of us are going to be doing everything we can to become the best in what we want to do."