Demon's Virtue

"Alright, then let's just go up there now." Eiro suggested with a smile on his face, and Solomon looked back at him with a wry smile, "Is that really necessary?"

"Yeah, I would say so. There are some things up there that I want you to see." The Demon explained, and Solomon rolled his eyes, "Fine, but you're not going to carry me. I already called Lognir over here."

"Ah, perfect. You did make sure to tell him about the island first, right?"

"...No, I just asked him to come by." The King replied, and Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Well, then let's hope that Lognir doesn't try to destroy it while he's up there. Because I know that I wouldn't let something like that just be."

Solomon slowly sat down and nodded, "Don't worry, I just let him know to come straight here, even if he sees something he wants to take care of."

"Great. Now, Bavet, please." Eiro said, pressing his hand onto the slime's body, before just pulling on his core, "E-Ey, what are you doing?!"

"There's a guest coming." The Demon said bluntly, "And he's not the kind of man that I want to show my demon form to, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah..." With a light grumble, Bavet once more covered Eiro's whole body and let him take on the form of a person. A few moments later, a knock could be heard on the door.

"Your majesty, if you please, a message has just reached us through magical means." A man said on the other side of the door, and Solomon sighed deeply, "Alright. Come on in, Jordan." He said, and a moment later, the King's advisor entered the room.

As he saw Eiro, he flinched a bit and looked at him confused, "But- How did you get in here? I know for a fact that you didn't come through the main entrance!"

"You're right, I dropped down from a five kilometers high and instead landed on the balcony." Eiro said with a smile, and Jordan frowned at him annoyed, "Hah, sarcasm! The language of fools who believe themselves to be geniuses!"

"Haha, just that I'm actually a bit of a genius, my friend." Eiro said bluntly, "Anyway, go ahead and give Solomon the message."

"I have told you time and time again, please do not speak so casually in front of his majesty!"

"Why? He doesn't care, so why do you?"

Solomon clapped his hands together to get the attention of both Eiro and Jordan, "Please, just give me the message and stop bickering. It is fine if Eiro hears it."

"...If you wish. We have received a message from one of our informants that part of the royal castle of the Holy Empire's capital has been destroyed. The place that was the starting point of the explosion was supposedly the lair of the 'Pure Merchant'." Jordan explained, and Solomon immediately turned his head toward Eiro and stared at him, before looking back at Jordan.

"You may leave. Thank you for the message."

"Erm... There is something else..." Jordan pointed out, and Solomon frowned nervously, and even Eiro was curious what this was about, as the advisor continued, "Following that explosion, this morning... part of the capital was flooded, and waves of strong monster-migration have been reported surrounding the World Lake." He explained, "And worst of all... the World Lake has been thrown into a havoc altogether. The Lake's island suddenly disappeared, and the Lake God began a sort of rampage. For the first time in decades, it has shown itself to the people that surrounded the lake, trying to scare them off."

"...Is there anything else, or is this it?" Solomon asked with a deep frown, and Jordan slowly shook his head, "No, for now, this is all. They did add, however, that there might be more messages coming soon that we should be prepared for."

Solomon placed his hand onto his forehead as he started to think, before telling Jordan to leave again. The advisor did as told, but of course not without glaring at Eiro on his way out. The moment Jordan was far enough away, Eiro looked at the King with a smile, "We can talk now."

"Good." Solomon said, before he stood up. He quickly approached Eiro and proceeded to slap him with as much force as he could muster. Of course, that only ended with a loud crack in Solomon's hand as Eiro's face didn't budge at all.

"Gods dammit..." Solomon swore as he looked at his hand, clearly in pain. Nelli appeared a moment later as Eiro helped her heal the King's hand, "You know exactly that I have more than 150 points in resistance, Solomon..."

"I know, but I was angry. What did you think, just blowing that place up?! Were you not aware that it was within the royal castle?!"

"Of course I am. That's mostly why I did it."

"What?!" Solomon exclaimed, "But why?"

"I just told you, the king and pope formed some sort of deal with Zaragon. He is part of a race of beings who govern over specific physical spaces, and I don't think those spaces can very easily change. It has been, at the very least, a few hundred years since Zaragon began controlling that specific place. My guess is that he is what turned that poor 'Holy Kingdom' into the 'Holy Empire' back then. Zaragon is a vile, horrible being. I just chose to personally punish those that chose to work together with him." Eiro pointed out, and Solomon sighed deeply, unsure what exactly he was supposed to say.

"Eiro, why exactly do you keep doing things that make it incredibly hard for me to keep defending you? Do you really not see any wrong in your actions?"

"Oh, of course I see that I objectively overreacted. But this wasn't an action of logic, it was an action of emotion." Eiro pointed out, as he slowly stood up. His skin began to form ripples since Bavet was being influenced by the aura that the Demon gave off right now, and Bavet even pulled himself back from parts of Eiro's face and arms, "I was just really fucking pissed off. Those guys think they're the best, that they're always just morally right, but they just aren't! They're... they're disgusting people, they're horrible, they... They just make me so incredibly angry! They worked together with that horrendous killer, that guy that devoured Avalin right in front of my eyes! Solomon, do you even know how horrific it is to be able to remember every single tiny detail of the world around you? And have that ability be combined with the greatest senses and deductive abilities one can have?" The Demon asked, moving his arms toward his throat, pushing his fingers into his skin.

"I remember every single crunch, every single tear, every single time one of his numerous teeth buried into her flesh! I remember her voice, her screams, her terrified expression... But of course, back then, my senses weren't what they are now... For a while, barely anything came from it. I could ignore those memories. But then, I stood in that room again. My mind began to race as I took every single detail in that room in. Every single detail of Zaragon's body. And since I know the internal structures of humans as perfectly as possible, my mind brought be to think of the 'truth' of what happened there back then. My mind filled in the gaps, my mind turned that horrific experience that traumatised me to this date into something even worse. And then, there's of course this fucking mark that makes it harder for me to control myself day by day. At that point, everything just fucking fell apart, Solomon. I was angry, I was so fucking angry. But of course, I couldn't show that fully to the closest friends I've ever had in my life. I let my anger out, killing people that had nothing to do with this. And then, I wanted to resolve it, by just blowing everything to smithereens. I just wanted that place gone, Solomon. Gone."

Eiro's explanation, which he had meant to be short and brief, the bare minimum that he wanted to show, had turned into an anger-filled, self-hating rant, and everything just came flowing out in front of his dear friend, now that he had entered a situation where he could really be vulnerable for once, "I don't even know who I am anymore... Am I good, or bad? Am I selfish or selfless? Am I a man or a monster? Is there some higher being just toying with me, enjoying all this bullshit that keeps on happening to me? I just snapped... I... I wanted to destroy that whole city... see it in the same shambles that I saw back then. But I... I held myself back... That's something at least, right? That's worth something, right?"

He stood in front of Solomon, his body slumping in on itself even though he still stood upright, staring into his friend's eyes. Solomon's anger had turned into a mixture of compassion and sadness as he listened to Eiro's worries, emotions that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Eiro's emotions slowly turned from fury into depression, "I'm just so... so exhausted, Solomon... I'm four levels away from becoming something else entirely... from getting everything I've worked for for years... But I don't know if I can do this anymore... I just want to stay behind, keep teaching at the academy, and watch my children grow up...."