DEMON'S VIRTUE

Chapter 614: Sealing Preparations

Eiro walked through the manor, soon arriving near where Armodeus was currently working on a few things. It didn’t seem like he was making anything in particular, but instead just doing whatever he wanted, trying to keep his skills sharp. After walking past the smithy’s door, he arrived at the space that he used for his own craftsmanship. It used to be the manor’s cellar, but Eiro had turned it into a wood-storage. By using some sealing arts on a few parts of the room, he was able to regulate the moisture and temperature in this room quite well, so it had become the perfect space for these things. However, beside just holding different kinds of wood, it of course had a large wall with nothing but flasks filled with different kinds of seeds or nuts, anything that could be turned into a tree or other useful plant. He also had a few boxes filled with medicinal herbs, as well as quite a large amount of different oils, wax, and pre-extracted pigments and dyes. Anything that he could ever need in regards to sealing arts and woodworking, basically.

As for his artificing, that often needed some very specific things, as well as certain gemstones and metals, so those were kept safely in the manor’s treasury. Eiro walked over toward the wall of seed-filled flasks, and quickly grabbed a few of them, grabbing a couple from each flask he picked up. On top of his palm, he made the seeds grow, placing the final small plants onto the nearby table.

“Tsk, can’t even wait for me to split off you, huh?” Bavet asked annoyed, soon standing next to Eiro in his humanoid form. With his arms crossed, he leaned against one of the nearby pillars that held this spacious room up. Eiro shrugged, turning his head to look at the slime, “What difference does it make, really?”

“…None, but that’s not the point. It’s called manners. Manners.” He replied with a slight sigh, “Anyway, are you sure you’re gonna be able to properly do this? You haven’t applied sealing tattoos before.”

“The principle is quite simple, isn’t it? And more importantly, I spent the first year after I inherited the Five of Pentacles from Jura obsessing over Sammy and Leon’s sealing tattoos. You don’t think I know how they’re supposed to be applied?”

“Those? They weren’t a great job, though. If anyone from the temple had applied them, there never would have been a threat to those two’s lives, you know? Only an amateur wouldn’t account for those kids’ growth.” Bavet pointed out, shaking his head disappointedly, even though he didn’t even know who it was that actually placed those tattoos on them. Eiro stopped closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath through his nose, “And you don’t think that this was something you should have told me while explaining the different aspects of sealing tattoos to me?”

“…I didn’t think it mattered, to be honest. I’m surprised you’re even doing it in the first place. While I was talking to you about it, the sheer aura you gave off was making it tough for me to keep up my form. You were always so enraged at the idea of sealing tattoos that I didn’t think you would actually give one to someone else.”

Eiro scratched his head, summoning a card to his hand. Said card quickly turned into a mirror, before a duplicate of Eiro was created through it, “Show it to me. I’ll make you some generic sealing ink, so put it onto that one.” The Demon said, and Bavet clicked his tongue a bit annoyed, “Seriously? Couldn’t you just, I don’t know… let me take a break and wing it?”

The two Eiros turned toward Bavet with stoic expressions, leaving the slime no choice but to play along. He grabbed some of the tools that Eiro had hanging on one of the walls, and waited for Eiro to mix some of the oil, a few pigments, as well as some ground-up plants together, before quickly giving the basic ink to him. Silently, Bavet started to work. To speed the process up a little bit, he created a few more appendages, which could only barely be called arms, being more akin to tentacles, so that he could hold more needles at the same time. After placing the tip of the needle into the ink, letting the hollow space inside slightly pull in the ink, he started poking it into the skin on the duplicate Eiro’s shoulder.

Bavet was able to expertly create the patterns needed for a simple sealing tattoo on the duplicate’s skin, which looked at the tattoo with a slightly curious expression, “I guess it really is a bit different,” he pointed out. Eiro wasn’t sure why exactly it was so different to what had covered Sammy and Leon’s bodies for seven years, but it most likely just had to do with the way that the sealing arts’ magic were interwoven with the ink as it was carefully placed under the skin. The positioning also seemed quite important, particularly in regard to taking one’s future growth into account, as it seemed like Bavet had placed the ink a bit deeper in certain parts of the duplicate’s skin, and a little more shallow in other parts. It was a minuscule difference, but that impressed Eiro even more, seeing how quickly Bavet was able to do this with so many different limbs. A lot of the time, he comes across quite lazy and foolish, but in moments like these, Eiro was more than glad that he had taken Bavet in back then.

“Well, thanks. I should be able to do it better, later.” The original Eiro said, before the duplicate looked at the sealing tattoo on his shoulder, quickly locking eyes with the slime, “One thing, though. I’m not sure how useful a sealing-pattern to suppress free will is when it’s placed onto someone’s shoulder.”

“…Not very, but I had to improvise here, alright?” The slime pointed out bluntly, quickly trying to change the topic without taking another breath, “More importantly, aren’t you done yet? Making ink isn’t that complicated, is it?”

Eiro rolled his eyes, while the duplicate that he had created earlier disappeared back into the mirror, “As you said yourself earlier, this is the first time I’m giving someone a sealing-tattoo. There are a lot of things I need to take into account before then, so I’m improvising a little here as well. And to top it all of, the monstrosity created by the taboo and the kind that monsters naturally have just act completely different. It’s just much more erratic, so I have to adjust the general formula for the ink to take that into account too.” Eiro pointed out, but it was clear that Bavet wasn’t entirely convinced that this was truly it.

The demon sighed and gave up convincing bavet, instead just filling the finishedd ink into a bottle. And after cleaning up the equipment that he used, Eiro walked up to Bavet and forced his hand into the slime’s chest. He looked down at the hole that was pierced into his fake flesh, before letting out an annoyed groan, “If you’re mad at me, you can just say it instead of being so passive-aggressive. Wait, you’re not even being passive about it, your hand is literally clutching my core…” 

“Just be quiet and fuse with me already.” Eiro replied, as the slime somewhat begrudgingly covered his body and changed him into a human form once more. They made their way back toward the study, where Rudy, Noma and Naomi were already waiting for him. It seemed like Naomi had cried a bit as well. Immediately as Eiro entered the room, her and Noma jumped up nervously.

“Are you all ready?” The Demon asked, placing the equipment and materials onto the table, and Naomi awkwardly glanced at Rudy, “Y-Yes, but…” 

“…You’re still worried about hurting him?” Eiro guessed, looking at Rudy with a raised brow, “You properly explained your skill, right?”

“Well, no… it’s not about that… it’s about you having to tattoo her whole body…” Rudeus pointed out, and Eiro sighed a bit in response, “Naomi, don’t worry about that. If you need it, I’ll apply some light anesthesia to the area I’ll be working on. You won’t even feel it.”

Rudy quickly shook his head and hid his mouth with his hand, quietly whispering so that nobody should be able to hear him beside Eiro, “It’s about her having to… reveal those areas…”

Eiro looked at his son and the twins standing next to him, before letting out a slight sigh, “I guess you are at that age after all. Don’t worry, I’ll use a spell so that he won’t be able to see you.”

With a somewhat relieved expression, Naomi let out a slight sigh. Although, it didn’t take long until she realized that there would be someone else that was going to have to see her naked. Awkwardly, she glanced at Eiro, who immediately shook his head, “You don’t have to worry about me either. You’re a child, why would I ever care about your body?” He pointed out. Of course, more than that, he didn’t care for the body of anyone but Ariella in the first place, but he didn’t feel like explaining something like that to them. While Naomi was still a bit embarrassed and nervous, it seemed like she was able to calm herself down a little after a while, and soon, they all started with their preparations.

“Noma, create a small mass of flesh. Any amount, really.” The Demon instructed, and he slowly nodded his head. He pulled up his sleeve, closed his eyes, and pressed his palm onto the same place where he seemed to always create flesh from. Soon, a small, finger-sized growth appeared on his skin, starting to twist around until it was pinched off. Eiro immediately healed the wound, and grabbed the small amount of flesh.

“Do you want your brother here while this is happening?” Eiro asked, looking into the girl’s eyes. She didn’t seem to have to think long, quickly agreeing to let Noma stay. The Demon looked at his son, slowly placing his hands over Rudy’s eyes, “Are you ready? This might be a bit uncomfortable, but I’ll tell you everything that’s happening before it does, alright?”

“Alright. Do it.” Rudy said immediately, and Eiro cast a Dark magic spell that covered the boy’s eyes, effectively making him blind, before Naomi started to undress.

“Are you ready?” Eiro asked her, and the girl looked at her brother for a few moments, before they both nodded at each other.

“I’m ready.” She replied, slowly taking the piece of flesh created by Noma into her hand and placing it into her mouth.