DEMON'S VIRTUE

"What is there to even explore around here? It's just a small town." Sarius pointed out, and Eiro rolled his eyes as the two of them were walking through the streets, "It is, but it's completely different to towns in the central material plane."

"Hm... I guess that's true." The Salamander replied, "Then I guess, is there anything in particular you want to do, or anywhere you want to go? I'm pretty sure you already know about everything going on in this town, anyway."

"Well, roughly at least." The Demon said, "I was just thinking about a few things. I would like to have a few subordinates in this plane. I could just create some servants, but most magic servants are quite... well, dumb. So I was hoping to find some magic beasts or some people to transform into servants. I think considering how close they are to magic, they should survive the transformation more easily."

Sarius thought about it for a few moments, and then nodded his head, "You having some servants around here should be useful, I guess. Even if it's just about helping us look for the tower of books."

"Right? So, either way, my plan for now is to just figure out the average ability of the people living in places like this, to see if it's worth it to invest time into them." Eiro said, when he suddenly noticed something that caught his attention. He could hear some fight going on not too far away, although it didn't seem to be anything too serious. More like bullying that could be seen at the Academy every once in a while.

"Let's go check that out, shall we?" Eiro muttered quietly to himself, turning to move straight toward the fight in question, while Sarius wasn't sure what he was talking about exactly. He followed behind anyway, though, since he was just used to following Eiro anywhere he went.

Passing through the streets and alleys on the fastest route possible, it didn't take long until the two of them reached the location of the fight. A young man was being beat up by a group of others around the same age as him. If the people in this realm aged at the same rate as humans... he would guess them to be around 16 or 17 years old. It was just that, the young man that was being beaten up was slinging his arms around the body of a small magic beast. It really just looked like a piglet with small, fiery wings on its back. While flying through this plane in search for a town, Eiro had spotted some magic beasts that seemed quite similar. Just that they were the size of a building, and not small enough to be held in two hands like this one.

"Hand it over already, you little-" One of the bullies yelled out, just like before, but the young man clearly protecting the magic beast immediately shook his head, despite the fact that half his face was completely covered in blood. Or well, the equivalent of blood that these people had, at least. The young man interrupted the bully as he was talking, "No! I won't give him to you! You're just going to kill him!"

"Yeah, of course we're going to! That's a monster, you idiot! That thing's dangerous!"

"He's not a monster! He's just-" The young man yelled out, just to be interrupted by a foot landing in the middle of his face. Hearing this conversation, Eiro turned toward Sarius confused, "So, why exactly do they think that's a monster?" He asked, his voice finally making the bullies realize that someone was watching them.

Sarius immediately just shrugged, "Well, we don't have 'Monster' monsters in this realm, you know? I mean, a few here and there, but they're not from here, they just somehow came here I guess. Anyway, the concept still exists for the people here. To them, 'Magic Beasts' are the kind and calm ones, and 'Monsters' are the more aggressive ones that tend to attack people sometimes. What counts as a monster depends on who you're talking to a lot of the time, I guess." He explained, and Eiro raised his brow, "Huh, really? Interesting." The Demon replied, thinking that this was somewhat similar to what Arc explained his definition of 'Monster' was before he reincarnated in this world.

"Stay out of this, if you know what's good for you!" One of the bullies yelled out, glaring at Eiro. But of course, he could only chuckle. This kid was a bit stronger than your average human, but at the end of the day, he was still incredibly weak compared to Eiro.

"I don't think I will stay out of this, I apologize. I just wanted to quickly tell you, the thing that the boy is holding there isn't a monster." He pointed out, and the small group of bulliest scoffed at him, "Hah! Of course it is! Those things get huge! Obviously it's a monster!"

Eiro smiled lightly, and quickly shook his head, "Actually, that's not the case. Sure, pigs are generally omnivorous, but they usually just eat the things they can get the easiest. Like grass, leaves, fallen fruit, and stuff like that, and they tend to avoid animals, and especially people. They can get a bit annoying if you enter their territory, but a well-trained hog can be an incredible companion, and surprisingly loyal as well." The Demon explained, clearly confusing the group of bullies, "And more than that, it seems like you don't quite have a grasp over what monsters are. They come in all shapes and sizes. Sure, some get incredibly large, but most are the size of you and I at most. A lot even fit on the palm of your hand."

The bullies looked at Eiro, getting annoyed at this random lecture, "And how would you know, huh?!" One of them yelled out. The Demon took some steps forward, and leaned down toward the one that said it so that they were at eye level with each other. Slowly, Eiro's cheeks split apart. He didn't turn his mouth into two, but simply turned his current mouth into a more grotesque form. With his disgusting grin that went literally from ear to ear, Eiro replied to the bully.

"Because it just so happens that I am one myself."

The small group of bullies shivered as the air seemed to stand still. In an instant, when their bodies caught up to their minds, they rushed past Eiro to get out of this alley, without even saying another word. Now that they were gone, the Demon fused his mouth shut to the normal degree, and then turned to look at Sarius, "Now then, I think this is a perfect chance for us to put what we learned into practice."

"Huh?"

"We're healing him, using fire magic." Eiro said immediately, "Come on, let's get to it. I do the healing, you do the fine-control."

"But-"

"Sarius, he lives in the plane of fire, he won't get hurt by whatever we do, he's the perfect practice target. And don't you want to show the king that your time with me was useful after all?" The Demon suggested, and Sarius clicked his tongue annoyed, "Goddamn bastard..."

The spirit stepped forward and then squatted down in front of that kid. He took a deep breath, and then slowly held his hand forward. Using Eiro's mana as a base, Sarius used fire magic like normal. He gathered it into a sphere, and even though it wasn't particularly pretty, it was good enough.

The whole reason why Sarius was even with Eiro was so that he could teach the Salamander how to control his power. He could exert an incredible amount of magical strength, but Sarius was practically completely incapable of controlling said power. Eiro was there to change that. For a while now, they had been taking practice sessions where they were both using magic together, and as time went on, Eiro gave him more and more control over the magic in the sessions to slowly acclimate him to a lower power-output. He still had abysmal control, but it was much better than it used to be.

Sarius slowly moved the flames created through Eiro's mana toward the kid, and tried to cover specifically just the wounds, while Eiro applied the concept of 'healing magic' onto the flames. Fire magic still wasn't the best magic to use for healing, but especially since his evolution and ascension to 'The World', he had become capable of doing this much at least. And here in the plane of fire, using it to heal was far more effective than in the central material plane.

This was really the best place for Sarius and Eiro to practice together. Having the spirit do all the fine-tuning and control, with Eiro standing back and doing the groundwork to allow him to practice as much as Sarius needed to, the Salamander should be able to improve drastically. Of course, the Demon wanted to make sure that Sarius could become the best possible Salamander King imaginable, and for that, he needed to do this much at least.

Due to the quality of Eiro's mana, the wounds on the young man's body were healed rather quickly, and he looked back perplexed, while Sarius stood up exhausted and annoyed. He was ten times Eiro's age, but was being treated like a kid, of course that would annoy him.

"Now then. Let's have a look at the little one, shall we?"