Demon's Virtue-Chapter 807: Crush

Eiro kept walking around the town while carrying Avalin and Leon. He kept asking if they wanted to walk on their own for a bit, but they simply refused. At this point, he couldn’t even deny them either for any reason beside ’you’re a bit old’, which he didn’t even really agree with. He would carry around Sammy, Arc, Clementine and Rudy as well if they asked him to, but they of course wouldn’t ever do that. Eiro was just a bit worried that they were getting a bit... lazy.

With Leon, his body was basically in the middle of a pretty intense period of change. Being a beastman, he was undergoing a change that made him look more bestial. The positions of his years changed, his body grew stronger, he was growing a tail, and he was in general just covered in a thin layer of fur. With how much his hair was growing, it was undeniable that he was a lion beastman at this point. Eiro couldn’t imagine what his hair would be like once he entered his actual puberty. It would be a literal mane.

These changes, in and out, were extremely exhausting. Plus, he was already used to sleeping all the time, since the full-body sealing that he underwent until a year ago sapped his strength severely, and unsealing him was actually what made his body go into ’emergency mode’ and initiated this early bestial puberty in him. He always slept a ton, so he was just used to it. Plus, lion beastmen tended to simply need a lot of sleep in the first place. So he couldn’t quite blame Leon right now. But Avalin was a bit of a bigger problem.

She was a kind child and incredibly empathetic. Eiro was sure that she was going to turn into a wonderful, upstanding adult ten years from now. But... now was the issue. She was going through a bit of a bratty phase right now, just demanding things and getting upset if she didn’t get them. As a parent, he had been trying his best to raise her out of that, but there were still some weakpoints. He just really struggled to say ’no’ sometimes, especially when it came to this sort of thing where he had little reason to say ’no’.

Eiro was strong enough to carry hundreds of Avalin, and he had six arms, needing just one to safely hold her up. Plus, if there was anything that she did get in the way of doing, Eiro could just use magic. He already used magic as an extension of his own body anyway, so rather than putting her down, it was usually easier to just flick one of his wrists and get it done. It was a bit embarrassing how she had him so wrapped around her fingers sometimes.

That being the case, the demon knew that there was something that he could do to make her a little less like this entitled little princess that she was slowly turning into. It had surprised him quite a bit, but clearly, she had a little crush on Boju. It made sense, of course, kids were just like that. When he brought Arc, Rudy, Clementine or Sammy into town back when they lived in the cabin, there were a few people that they seemed to have crushes on. They tended to be adults or teenagers around the age that Boju would be. Even now at the academy, the amount of whispers he heard from students crushing on their teachers was shocking. There were quite a few whispers around Eiro himself, despite the fact that he, at this point in time, had a rather average-looking face. Either way, one thing that he noticed was that students actually tended to be a bit more productive, as if they were trying to impress the teachers they had a crush on. Eiro welcomed that productivity, but he obviously always kept his professional distance to the students. Even the ones with special circumstances that he had to pay a bit more attention to were individuals that Eiro was always professional around, as far as he was able.

As for Avalin and Boju, Eiro obviously wasn’t going to take too much advantage of that crush, or try to push Avalin into changing her behaviour using that crush as a tool; that would be cruel. However, he could already see that as a side-effect of that crush, Avalin was paying particular attention to what Boju was doing. And Boju was a quiet, kind, and helpful young man. Walking through town, he made sure to stop around the monsters that he knew and chatted with them briefly, asking how they’re doing or just helping them for a moment. To make sure that Eiro wasn’t going to change those dynamics, he used his stealth skill to make himself fade into the environment. He wasn’t disappearing, it was just that nobody would pay him much mind. The fact that he was Eiro wasn’t even going to cross their mind unless pointed out to them, which he had asked Boju not to do.

Despite how he looked, Boju was amongst the strongest individuals here in the town, even stronger than many of the combat-focused monsters. He had received some special guidance from Eiro, who taught him tons about magic and passed on some knowledge that he had gathered around the world. As of now, he wasn’t able to pass on things from the Towers of Books yet, but that was something that should come with time as he conquered the main tower and realized his potential as Morgan la Fey. Once the tower truly recognized him, more than just letting him into the hidden floor at the top of the tower, he should be able to circumvent all the rules the tower set out. That was why Boju, who was already vastly intelligent before Eiro came along, was an incredibly potent magic user. Plus, being an orc still always gave him a steady boost to his stat values and made his strength stat grow quite a lot alongside his other ones whenever he levelled up.

That was why he could help out in a lot of surprising ways. Carrying things, fixing mistakes of the other magic casters, even construction – whenever he took breaks from studying or working, he tended to just do all sorts of things for other people here in town. And that was showing even while they were just taking a walk. And Avalin was watching him the whole time. And it wasn’t as though she didn’t like helping people. When she was asked for help she gladly gave it, but since Avalin was always in her own little world, she just never really thought much about it. Helping her be a bit more focused on the world around her and consider other people more was what Eiro was hoping to achieve right now.

It wouldn’t immediately change Avalin’s behaviour, but it would plant the seed in her mind. And with proper care, that seed could be grown into a massive tree. Of course, Eiro was going to do his best to nurture Avalin into the right direction with everything he had.

"So? What do we do now? Is there anywhere else you wanted to see?" Boju asked, and Eiro shook his head.

"Nothing in particular, no. There is a place I want to maybe stop by later, but it’s outside of town. Rather, I don’t even know exactly where it is," the demon pointed out, "I’ll go there on my own, too. For now..."

Inside the mental library, Eiro glanced at the clocktower to get the current time, "Let’s get something to eat, and then head over to the place where they want to do the sacrifice later. I know they want it to be a ’surprise’, but I think there are a few issues with their method."

"Issues?"

"Well... The thing is, what they’re doing is common demonology. Most common demonology that’s been spread throughout this world is sort of... ’infected’. Technically, every demon lord has their own unique keys and aspects that are needed to connect to them. I taught mine to Gobu, so that’s not an issue, but the circles that they’re using are extrapolated from other lord’s patterns. They were made to be ’blanks’, so that they would work to contact or borrow from any demon lord. Demonology is, at its basis, borrowing power from fiends. You give something in return. But these ’infected’ circles are basically sapping away some of the power that is given in return," Eiro sighed loudly, "To get some favors from the demon lords, the Devil spread certain patterns around demon worshippers, and now those are the only ones that are known."

"Okay, okay, so... if they’re setting up that sacrifice, though you’re the main lord it goes to... part of it will go to one of the other lords?"

"One of, or multiple, yes. I was going to just let it be and act surprised, but I think it’s better to make sure none of their effort is wasted than not ruin a surprise. If they’re going so far for me, then I refuse to let anyone else have this," the demon said bluntly, "I’m figuring out my own versions of these ritualistic circles right now, but by the time we’re there, we should be good and can just help them replace everything."