DEMON'S VIRTUE

While Leon just nodded his head lethargically and held his hands up to Eiro, Rudy was rather confused over what was going on, and Nelli quickly tried to point that out to him, "Could you have started a bit earlier in the conversation?" She asked, and Eiro raised his brows as he picked Leon up and just held him on his arms for a bit.

"Ah, I'm sorry... I should have probably mentioned it earlier, but with my new senses, I can even notice things that you usually couldn't notice. For example, there's a part in everyone's scent that reveals what their race is. And that part of you, Rudy and Leon, smells different to that of the others, so I think you might not be humans." Eiro explained, doing so in a rather dull tone of voice, and Rudy raised his brows confused while the others started coming up to the Demon and the two boys as well.

"Not human? Then what are we?" Rudy asked confused, and Eiro shrugged in response, "I'm not entirely sure, really. I think Rudy might be a beastman, so we should look out for anything that could be a sign for that to grow in, but for you, it's a bit different." The Demon explained, and Rudy just frowned deeply in response, "I might not be a human..?" Rudy muttered quietly. He had always believed he was just like the others here who were basically like siblings to him, but now all of a sudden he was told he wasn't?

"Th-Then why didn't Jura mention anything?" The boy asked all of a sudden, trying to find any sort of loophole in what Eiro was talking about, and Nelli quickly replied to that, "He might have noticed, but just didn't think anything of it. He didn't treat Eiro any different to how he would treat anyone else either." She pointed out, so Rudy slowly looked down, although he soon felt something hit his back playfully.

"Don't worry, dude. Even if you were a monster, we wouldn't care either way." Arc reassured him, so Rudy slowly turned around toward him and then nodded his head in response, "Alright, I got it. Then... smell me, I guess?" Rudy replied, and Eiro just nodded his head as he first started trying to get a closer idea of Leon's smell.

"Mhm, it's really similar to the smell of the Beastmen in town, so that might be it... Sammy, if you find anything on him at some point, let me know." The Demon suggested as he let the young boy back onto the ground, and then looked at Rudy, who slowly took a step forward toward Eiro, who quickly started to concentrate on Rudy's scent a bit more, basically delving into it, picking it apart into its parts.

There wasn't too much for Eiro to go off of, but soon, he noticed something that led him to frown a bit. "Hm? That's..." Eiro muttered quietly, and Rudy looked at him nervously, "Is something the issue?" He asked, and the Demon just shook his head in response.

"There's no issue, it's just a bit weird." Eiro started, "I do smell a bit of 'Human' in you, but it's something just very raw and not very prevalent." The Demon explained, so Rudy raised his brows confused.

"So I'm partially human? Like a Half-Human?" Rudy asked, and Eiro shook his head immediately. Since he did concentrate on the smell of different people in town through his memories, he did manage to figure out what half- or part-blooded people smelled like, "If you were part Human and part of another race, I would be able to smell both in you, not a single smell with a bit of one of them in it." Eiro explained.

"It's like you're human, but at the same time aren't?" Eiro suggested, confused by this all himself, and Nelli quickly made a suggestion of what it might be, "Then isn't Rudy just part of a Sub-Human Tribe?"

Surprised, Eiro turned toward the Spirit and slightly frowned. That was actually a term that Eiro wasn't familiar with yet. And sensing just that, Nelli just chose to explain.

"Sub-Racial Tribes are just what the name implies. They're tribes of a certain race that chose to live differently to the 'regular' base races, and over the generations changed to be seen as their own race, but their roots are still with the race they split off of. Nearly any race has that, I think. The Beastmen race is actually made up solely of Sub-Racial tribes to the point that the 'base' race is close to extinct..." Nelli explained, "While they are technically very, very different to the race they split off of, that would explain that scent." She pointed out.

"A Sub-Human Tribe?" Rudy muttered quietly, and Nelli quickly nodded her head in response, "Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. The 'Sub' doesn't mean 'Lesser' or anything. Especially when it comes to Humans, their sub-racial tribes are usually a lot better at most things when compared to regular humans. And most Tribes have a rather small population number, so you're actually really special then!"

"Heh... Thanks, Nelli." Rudy laughed with a wry smile, feeling a little overwhelmed by this sudden information, and Eiro looked at the boy in front of him, "Don't worry, we'll figure it out at some point. Sorry to have thrown this onto you like this."

"It's fine, I get it." Rudy replied, making Eiro just smile at him while the boy chose to go back to sewing the rip in Arc's pants shut again. Eiro had expected for Rudy to be just as curious as he was, but somehow he just seemed... sad?

With a light worried frown, Eiro turned toward the other children, who all seemed to be worried for Rudy's sake as well, but they seemed to be worried for another reason. It seemed like they understood what Rudy was going for, so Eiro was rather sad that he really couldn't grasp it completely.

"Did I... say something wrong?" He asked quietly, and Sammy turned toward him with a slight frown, pulling him away to the other side of the room so that Rudy wouldn't be able to hear them.

"You have a pretty different relationship to your race than we do, you know?" She explained, and Eiro raised his brows a bit confused, "Hm? What do you mean?" He asked, so Sammy just sighed deeply in response.

"Your race literally changed twice already, ours won't ever change. Our race is what defines us people..." Sammy explained, and Eiro couldn't help but lightly frown in response, "Is it really that important to you?" He asked, so Sammy immediately nodded her head.

"I mean, it's different for everyone, but I would say it's pretty important... Especially if what you believe in changes a lot." Sammy explained, and the Demon slightly grumbled in response.

"Is that so..?"

---

Last evening, Eiro spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to, or somehow in any way, make up for seemingly making Rudy feel bad yesterday. He couldn't really come up with anything though. He could just apologize, but he doubted that would help a lot, since he technically already tried apologizing last night.

While Eiro didn't fully understand Rudy's reasons for feeling sad or upset, he did know that he did feel like that, and Eiro was at fault for that. Maybe he shouldn't have done that and just should have stayed quiet.

"Nelli?" Eiro asked as he started making his way out toward the forest for the day with Lugo next to him, and the Spirit quickly floated up right in front of him, "Yup?" She replied, so the Demon just scratched his cheek in response.

"Do you know how I can make it up to Rudy?" He inquired, but Nelli simply shrugged in response, "Not really. I don't see much of a problem with what you did either though. He's not a human, so what? There's not really anything wrong with it, is there?" Nelli pointed out, and Eiro swiftly shook his head.

"Obviously not. I wouldn't want to be a human, at least. But Sammy said it's important for them, so I probably did something wrong." Eiro muttered quietly, and Nelli just sighed deeply as she shook her head, "Don't worry about it. Rudy's not really afraid to tell you what he feels like, so he probably doesn't know how he feels himself. Just wait for him to figure it out, and then have a talk with him about it."

"I guess so..." Eiro replied, and then just sighed deeply in frustration. He didn't like seeing that Rudy was mad about something he did, so he wanted to resolve it as quickly as possible. But he would just try to trust Nelli in this and see how Rudy was doing in a few days or so.

"So, let's not think about that. What are we doing today?" The Spirit asked, trying to somehow distract Eiro from his current thoughts.

"Just generic things. Gathering herbs, hunting, and so on." Eiro explained quickly, before Nelli slightly sighed in response.

"What, just that stuff?" She asked, and the Demon simply nodded his head in response, "Yes, just that stuff." He said, and then looked over at the Naiad next to him again, seeing her unsatisfied expression.

"Fine." Eiro said, and then just looked around a little bit before finding a relatively flat spot where not too much was growing, and then sat down there, "I'll try to use my Earth Magic for a bit, then. I should probably have done that a little sooner anyway." Eiro explained, and Nelli then quickly nodded her head.

"That's more like it!" She exclaimed, so Eiro sighed and looked at the Stag in front of him.

"Lugo, just lay down over there for a while." Eiro told him, so Lugo swiftly did just as asked and rolled up a bit out of the range that Eiro wanted to try to work in.

"Earth Magic... Basically, I should be able to manipulate this area directly around me... Right?"

"Basically~! Do you know the basic Earth Magic practices?" Nelli asked, so the Demon just nodded his head slowly in response, "Yeah, it's to feel the earth and to figure out what's around you... That's a bit hard to do, because I perfectly remember this scene, and I saw it with eyes that can see other people's notifications through theirs." Eiro pointed out, so the Spirit just slightly sighed in response.

"Fine, then let's try something else. You have a bit more experience with Magic than others with Beginner Grade Magic would, anyway. Just skip that and go directly to basic manipulation.." Nelli suggested, so Eiro simply nodded and did just that.