DEMON'S VIRTUE

Chapter 641: Zeke

Richard’s body shivered as his face turned red while he tried his best to hold his breath for as long as possible. He didn’t want to swallow that chunk of flesh he had bitten off Zeke’s palm earlier; that would just end up causing a ‘Taboo’. But Zeke didn’t let off, continuing to hold Richard down together with his posse.

But then, all of a sudden, Richard could feel that small piece of flesh starting to wriggle inside of his mouth, as if it were alive. It bulged up and grew, soon taking up more space in his mouth than even his tongue. It forced its way out through those tiny, thin gaps inbetween his teeth, as if it were a liquid, and soon touched against Zeke’s hand.

“Wait, did you just throw up?” Zeke asked with a wry expression, “Fuck, that’s-” he pulled his hand away, and Richard’s mouth was immediately forced open as a living mass of flesh came crawling out Richard’s mouth, though right now, only Zeke and Richard were aware of this. The other two were quickly distracted by the man that currently stepped into the stairwell.

“What’s going on here?” Eiro asked, his voice echoing through the heads of the people involved.

“Th-That, Richard fell down the stairs, and we were just-”

“Save your breath, and just get the hell out of here. I’ll be coming to speak to you later,” Eiro stared at the young men, watching as they practically sprinted up the stairs. Zeke also wanted to leave, but Eiro blocked his way before he could, “You will stay. Richard, get up as well.”

Zeke looked at Eiro with a nervous expression, “Sir! I just- I heard how Richard was acting toward you and your children, so I-” he tried to explain and justify himself, and quickly glanced at Richard behind him, whose expression was just filled with absolute terror. And that wasn’t because of the pulsating mass of bloody flesh that just fell out of his mouth, but rather because of the man that was standing in front of him. He was terrified of Eiro.

Richard moved to his knees and practically started begging, “I didn’t do anything this time, please, just let me go, I- I…”

Eiro sighed, and approached Richard. The young man flinched and closed his eyes in fear, before feeling a touch on top of his head. He surely expected Eiro to hurt him even more than Zeke just did, but to his surprise, or rather shock, his body was soon wrapped in a warm aura. The pain disappeared nearly immediately, and even the smell of blood from all over his face was gone, before Richard could feel his hair being adjusted.

“There you go, that looks much better,” Eiro said, and as Richard opened his eyes, he just saw a gentle, genuine smile. Usually, Richard was terrified whenever he encountered Eiro now, but this time, that feeling was far off in the distance, “Wh-What? But-”

“I’m genuinely sorry for how I reacted at that time. You’re just a child, I shouldn’t have treated you so poorly for acting like one. Even if you were taking it a step too far,” Eiro told him, “Just go and rest, just take the rest of the day off. I will explain the situation to your teachers.”

“Yes! Of course, thank you, I… I’m sorry…!” Richard exclaimed, as he quickly turned around and sprinted away with practically overflowing energy. Eiro looked at his back with a slight smile. Surely that didn’t fix everything, but Eiro still had a year left to make up for his behaviour and make sure that Richard could graduate the academy as a well-adjusted young man. Luckily, he also quickly forgot about the feeling of having living flesh inside of his mouth, as Eiro used the Ace of Cups to quickly hide its existence from his and Zeke’s minds. If he then made enough of an impact in these conversations, then they shouldn’t be able to remember it that easily.

“Why would you say those things with the way that he treated you…? I just can’t-”

“Quiet, Zeke,” Eiro said, quickly glaring at him with an annoyed expression, “Give me your hand.”

Nervously, Zeke held forward his hand, but Eiro let out a loud sigh, “The one that has a chunk missing, obviously.”

Zeke anxiously pulled his arm back, “W-Wait, you won’t use Holy Magic on me too, right..? I could feel that disgusting air all the way over here, you know what I am…!”

While rolling his eyes, Eiro forcefully grabbed Zeke’s hand, and quickly created a spark of flames over his palm. Soon, Zeke’s hand was enwrapped in fire, and obviously, his first instinct was to yelp out and try to get away from the flames, but before he knew it, he realized that the pain in his palm was gone. He stared at his hand, and could see that there was just the blood left, but the wound had been completely healed.

“Obviously I wouldn’t use Holy Magic on you. On full humans, it has the greatest healing effect. Since I personally don’t have an affinity for unholy magic, I had to use the next best thing, fire, to heal you. Though I’m not sure if unholy magic would even be good for you. In the end, you’re still more human than demon, anyway,” Eiro explained to Zeke, who just couldn’t stop staring at his palm, “You can… use fire magic to heal?”

“You can use any magic to heal or to destroy. It depends on the will of the caster, rather than the element itself,” the Demon said, before locking eyes with the young man in front of him, who was busy looking at his freshly healed hand in wonder. However, Eiro quickly drew his attention away again, “That’s not just the case in regard to magic. A lot of things depend on the will of the caster, rather than more shallow, physical things. Like blood, for example.”

Zeke scoffed, “I mean, most nobles I know of suck pretty bad, and obviously that’s the case for Richard as well… though I guess you’re trying to say that it’s not because he’s a noble, but because he’s just a bad person?”

Trying to hide his annoyance while Bavet held back a laugh, Eiro locked eyes with Zeke, “I’m not talking about Richard right now. What do you think you’re doing, acting like this? Acting like a demon, a monster?”

“…huh? What do you mean? Richard is the one that bit into my hand, I just-”

“Don’t even start with that, I know exactly what you’ve been doing to him. He’s not the only one either, you’ve been savagely bullying plenty of kids around the academy.”

Zeke frowned, growing a bit annoyed himself, “I’m just doing what I have to! All these brats are walking around this academy acting as if they own it! I didn’t know why I was sent here, but now, after coming here and seeing it for myself, and after meeting you, it’s just been so obvious!”

“Since you’ve been sent here?” Eiro repeated, not even paying mind to everything else that Zeke had said, “Who sent you here?”

“…My father, who else?” Zeke said bluntly, a bit confused, “You know that, though, right? He told me I would meet a powerful man here, and that he was the same as I am… That he would help me out, and that I should help him out in return.”

Surprised, Eiro narrowed his eyes. Zeke definitely didn’t have enough demon blood in him to be the son of the Devil himself. If anything, then he must be about three or four generations down from him. But maybe, Zeke’s father had more direct contact to the Devil than Zeke himself. Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose. He could tell that Zeke was telling the truth, and considering how naive he was being about all this, with a bit of acting, it should be easy to figure some more things out, “Right… of course. It’s starting to make sense. I wasn’t told anything about this, so I just helped you because of the blood in your veins, but… Honestly this is quite annoying. How can I meet your father?”

“So… you helped me not because you owe my father a debt, but because… you simply wanted to help?” Zeke muttered, and Eiro looked back down at him, “If that’s what you want to think, then do that. But first, answer my question.”

After a quick nod, Zeke replied, “Of course! My father said he had some business a couple towns over… in, what was it? Kleinhaus?”

Kleinhaus, a small mining town that was a few hours away by carriage. Immediately, Eiro sent off some of his servants to investigate the location in question, to try and find any possible trace of someone with Demon blood. Eiro let out a sigh, “Alright, I’ll see if I can reach out to him. But until I hear from your father, keep it down, okay? If you want my help, then you have to do things by my rules. If you want to control your unholy magic, then you can’t let your ancestry control you first, and that’s clearly what’s happening. Lay low, concentrate on your studies, and don’t cause any more trouble. You hear me?”

Immediately, Zeke nodded his head, “Right! I’ll try not to bother you any more, of course!”

“Get out of here, now,” Eiro told Zeke, who quickly turned around and ran off, before a grin grew on Eiro’s face. Truthfully, at this point, he didn’t know what was part of the Devil’s ploy and what wasn’t, but he knew that the next thing he had to do was fine Zeke’s father. But first, Eiro turned toward the small mass of flesh that he had been keeping hidden with the Ace of Cup’s liquid. It was a piece of flesh coming from Zeke, meaning that it had the blood of the Devil in it as well.

“This was a lot easier to get my hands on than I thought.”