DEMON'S VIRTUE

"You boiled yourself? Does that raise Fire Element affinity? Maybe I should..." Rudy muttered quietly in response to what Eiro just revealed, but the Imp himself immediately interrupted him. "Don't do that, please. We still don't know exactly if there might be things that can hurt you. And there are a million other ways I can think of how that might hurt you than direct damage." The Imp replied, but Jura instead turned the conversation somewhere else.

"That is not possible." Jura said quite clearly, and Eiro looked at him surprised. "What is not possible?" He asked instead, and the old man turned toward Eiro. "To gain an affinity in such a manner. Sure, your affinity can be increased over time and a lot of hard work via refination of natural mana, through special blessings like that of the 'Lonely Naiad' you have, or through Divine Items such as the Cards... Simply sitting in a hot bathtub will not raise your affinity..." The old man pointed out, and Arc raised his hand with a big grin and an idea of his.

"Then maybe it was because he was evolving?" The boy suggested, but before anyone else could react to that, Nelli instead offered a possible reason.

"Spirits... can raise their affinity in such a manner." The naiad pointed out as she floated over toward the young Demon, "To say it in a basic manner, we are the consequence of a spell cast by the world itself. Spirits have a body made of Mana held together by Life Force, so we can even subconsciously take in energies we have a basic, raw affinity with and use it to increase our affinity, and with that our strength, over time."

"So you're saying Eiro is actually a Spirit?" Clementine asked excitedly, and Jura was listening was intensity at what his Contracted Spirit had told them just now, trying to figure out what it meant.

"No, no, he is not, but... He might be something similar... Eiro, do you remember what it was like when you grew up?" Nelli inquired, but the Imp himself just stared back at her and shook his head. "I didn't."

As a first response, the Spirit turned around in thought, seemingly to figure out another way to go about this, before she started to realize what Eiro actually just said and started to get confused.

"You... didn't? You didn't remember, but now you do?" She asked, but Eiro shook his head. He had explored this memory a couple of times, and was quite confused about it himself. But in the end, there was just one thing he had to accept.

"I didn't grow up." The Imp said clearly, but Jura just scoffed at that for a moment, "Outrageous, of course you did! Even Demons are living beings, they are born, they age, and they die! Why should you be an exception?" The old man asked, although Eiro thought something was rather weird about how he was acting. As if he was trying to actively deny everything that Eiro said at the core of his very being.

"My first memory is the sight of a large hall, with other Lesser Imps in front of me. And then, there is something... something obscured. I can't actually see it, but I know it's a person... no, a monster? It's... It's weird. Either way, that... thing, spoke. 'Sun, do you not remember what I said about interruptions?' It asked, and another Monster stood in the doorway as if frozen... And then the thing looked down at me and..." Eiro muttered quietly, and the more he spoke about this somehow horrifying memory, his body kept shaking and shuddering, as if his very being was trying to reject this knowledge.

"And... what?" Sammy asked nervously, seemingly taken aback at how Eiro was grasping at his chest like he was, soemthing that the Imp himself didn't even notice doing. "And... And then it said 'A Failure... But well, these Demons are fodder anyway, so what does it matter?' and then it sent me away..." He explained, and only now the realization of what all of this meant sunk in. Eiro wasn't exactly sure, but it seemed like whenever he thought of this before, he simply subconsciously dismissed it as unimportant, but now that he actually spoke about it out loud, he couldn't do that anymore.

"What... what am I?" Eiro asked quietly as he stared at the blue skin on the palm of his hand, and Jura sighed deeply and stood up, walking up to the Imp before hitting him on the back of his head. "You're just tired, that's what you are. You have to continue your work as soon as you can, so just rest." The old man said in a commanding tone, and Eiro turned back after dismissing the red notification in front of him, telling him about the little bit of damage Jura just inflicted upon him.

"Alright..." The Imp said, simply feeling defeated for some reason. Tiredly, he made his way over to his bed and threw his things onto the ground next to it and then just plopped down onto the cold, fluffy surface.

Jura was right, Eiro was simply tired, that's all there was to it. Later when he would wake up, he would surely feel far, far better, wouldn't he?Yes, the Imp was sure of it...

If only being sure of something meant that it would actually happen. When the Imp woke back up, he had really forgotten about everything for a moment, but then the memories from last night caught up to him again and he just sat there for a few moments.

"Good Eve- Morning? Wait, what are we supposed to say if he gets up at night?" Arc asked a bit surprised as he looked up from the table where everyone had currently gathered for Dinner, and Sammy seemed to just glare at him for a moment. "How about 'How did you sleep'?" She suggested, and Arc snapped his fingers and nodded in satisfaction before turning to Eiro with a broad smile.

"How did you sleep?" He asked, so Eiro just slowly stood up and smiled, "I slept well, thank you." The Imp responded, despite that not really being the case. His whole body felt sore, and his head seemed to want to just split open this very moment. Eiro didn't exactly know why, but that's just what he felt like.

Confused, the Imp looked around at the ground where he remembered to have left his things, and then noticed them laying on his nighttable, where someone just neatly placed them down so that he could find them properly.

With a smile on his face, the Imp grabbed hte different small items and properly took them again, wrapping his cards in cloth to bind them onto his chest again. This was always a bit unhandy, but Eiro figured it was better than losing them somehow.

As Eiro stood up and walked to the table, half-naked as he still didn't have any clothes that fit him now, although that seemed to change quite soon. "Eiro, if we can't eat without clothes on, then neither can you!" Rudy complained, pointing over toward the pieces of folded-up cloth right at the foot of Eiro's bed. "They aren't that special, but... I did my best." The young man pointed out, and Eiro looked at him rather surprised before he picked the cloth up.

To his surprise... They were new clothes. Ones that should probably fit him. They didn't really look much different to the the ones that Eiro usually wore before, just that these clothes were a bit darker to fit the color of his cloak, and they seemed to be simply a lot stronger than his old ones in the material that was used itself.

"Thank you. These are great." Eiro said with a smile on his face as he turned toward Rudy and swiftly started to put the clothes onto his body. They fit him really well, something that Eiro didn't expect, considering that clothes like these should take a little while to make, as far as he noticed at least. But in the end, Eiro had no reason to mind that fact, he was simply proud of Rudy for making something like this.

And so, with his mood raised a fair bit, Eiro sat down at the table again, before Jura turned toward him as well. "If you want new shoes, you'll have to order them at the cobbler in town when you go there next time." The old man pointed out, so the Imp just nodded his head.

"Alright." He replied in a clear tone, and in the end, just had dinner with everyone like normal, although it was technically his breakfast.

A little while later, once they finished, Eiro just helped clear everything up and then stepped up to the door with his bag to go out for the night, although Jura stopped him just before he did so. "Oh, and just remember... Don't do anything dumb now." The old man said in a clear tone, and Eiro just quietly nodded his head and left the house, slowly making his way down the hill along his regular path to check if anything fell for his traps. At the very least on the path toward the river, there was nothing... Hopefully, Eiro had more luck when it came to the return-path.

Either way, soon, Eiro found his way to the small spot where he planted his seed, stepping over the log-bridge to get there, and then sat down on the ground while placing his cloak underneath his body so that his new clothes wouldn't get dirty.

First things first, the Imp had top get started with his work. Like Jura said, Eiro shouldn't do anything dumb, so what he was about to do was actually rather smart in his opinion. He pressed his feet together and got the 'circle' there going, and then added another 'circle' with his arms, pressing his palm against his stump, and then led his mana out through the 'path' in his tail, so that he could keep this going for even longer!

He didn't really understand all this stuff about 'Life Force' yet, and he didn't get what the whole deal with that 'Thing' from his memories was, but in the end Eiro just had to focus on what he was doing right now anyway, right?

It wouldn't change anything if he just ended up sitting around, contemplating his life without getting anywhere. If he had to know about it, he should think about it when he got stronger...

Although, he did still wish he got some kind of sign that he wasn't just a 'Failure' like the thing said he was. That what he did was actually good, or useful.

Just as he was thinking that, Eiro heard some branches crack around him, and the Imp opened his eyes, interrupting him in his work.

And there it stood, the exact thing he was asking for.. The One-Horned Stag stood there on the other side of the river, with a small fawn looking at Eiro right from inbetween its legs.