Demon's Virtue-Chapter 809: Exchange

"Change this symbol to that one, and this to that. And you've also missed some over here and over there," Eiro explained, glancing around at the ritual engravings placed onto the ground, surrounding the altar in the middle.

"What about the hymns? Are they in the correct tone?" Gobu asked, glancing over to some of the town's monsters currently practicing for part of the ritual. Now that things changed basically last-second, they had to be doubly careful that everything was going to work out.

The demon waited for a moment longer to continue waiting, and then nodded, "Yes, everything is correct. I think as long as you swap out those last few things, then all of part of the sacrifice should go to me.

Gobu nodded and noted this down in the small book in his hand. Though it was quite small in size, it actually contained quite a bit of information. It was a special book that was enhanced with some magic inspired by the knowledge magic Eiro acquired from Anura. It had thousands of pages, though it looked like it should only have a few hundred at best.

Eiro had brought it as a gift last time to make sure that the hobgoblin had something to jot his thoughts down into. Eiro knew the effect that becoming his servant had on living beings after turning Anura into one. And even Mislan had quite the busy mind, despite being an artificial creation in the end. And while Eiro could put this mind to use for himself, it was harder when others didn't have an outlet.

Anura was able to handle everything because he was still in the Tower of Books, and had to fully comprehend every bit of text written there. But Gobu didn't have that sort of thing, so the notebook was something Eiro gave him instead. He actually created a few of them and gave them to gobu so that he only needed a fraction of the notebooks he would usually need as an output.

"In that case…" the hobgoblin muttered, "I believe that we are almost ready to go. The rest of the offerings are still being brought and set up. But beside that…"

Eiro smiled lightly, placing his hands behind his back. Avalin and Leon were playing with the villagers' kids and some of the monster younglings right now, "So, have you thought about what exactly you would like to receive in return for this offering?"

Gobu looked up from the page and stared at the demon, "I-In return? This is a… sacrifice, something we are doing to pay you back."

With a loud laugh, Eiro shook his head, "That's not how that works, sorry. For one, you're already paying me back by just making this town thrive. You know better than anyone that I didn't support this settlement out of the goodness of my heart," he started, and though Gobu wanted to deny it, he couldn't. Especially after becoming Eiro's servant, he could tell just how much malice and viciousness could be mixed in with the kindness that Eiro bestowed upon others, "And the word 'gift' does not exist in the demonic tongue."

Eiro thought about this for a moment, "Well, actually, it does of course, but you understand what I'm trying to say. Demonology is magic of contracts. These sigils you are writing are the outlines, the terms to ensure that each side gets what they want, and how much each will be given. But you need to actually put your request into words for it to come true."

"What if we don't ask for anything at all?" Gobu suggested, and Eiro shook his head.

"Then the sacrifice will be a waste. Of course, these things are skewed very heavily in favour of the requested demon lord, and there's a limit to how much I can change the distribution, but around an eighth of the power that you give to me will be returned to you in power. With the nature of my magic, and my being the 'Demon Lord of Virtue and Sin', the favours that I can bestow are quite aplenty. While other demon lords tend to trade in the negative, like 'kill the king', or 'cause a plague', or 'give me the strength to best my foes', I can do other things. And since I will actively support the process, I can make that eighth become the equivalent of… half of what you give to me. But if you don't ask for something that is worth at least that eighth, the rest of the sacrifice will go to waste. If you ask for something worth just one-sixtienth of your sacrifice, I will only be given roughly half."

Gobu slowly nodded his head, "I see… so… we have to ask for something?"

"Mhm. I can boost the harvest, and I can reduce the rate at which disease spreads. I can make everyone a bit stronger for some time, without the fast decline in health that usually comes with such an increase in power," Eiro explained, smiling lightly, "You don't need to be worried about specificity. I will understand your intent and bestow the blessing to the highest degree that I can."

"What do you think would be the best idea?"

Again, the demon shook his head, "I can make suggestions, but I cannot make a decision. Otherwise, it would count as something bestowed unto me, and it will make the whole thing a lot harder and waste quite a bit of the sacrifice to fix. Discuss it with the rest of the representatives. I will block out the voices from everyone involved in the discussion from my perception, and I will temporarily block your and my connection as lord and servant until you have made your decision so that I will not influence you in the process. Just say the trigger word 'Diceroll' if you want me to listen in again."

The hobgoblin seemed immediately quite stressed as he turned around. Immediately, Eiro completely blocked Gobu from his perception. It was like a bubble of nothingness moving around. Eiro wanted to influence the decisions as little as he possibly could.

Right then, though, some other people approached. Since the day was getting on quite a bit, the kids were being directed here by Jane. Seeing her siblings, Avalin immediately rushed up to them, "Look! I made new friends!"

She excitedly pointed backward at the kids that she had been playing with. A few human kids, a young hobgoblin girl, a troll boy that was already larger than most grown men, and a harpy hatchling that only recently lost its first coat of feathers, replacing them with juvenile feathers. They were all playing together, and even Leon was getting along with them pretty well. Though, it seemed like his skills were bleeding through a bit, since the monster kids were acting a little weird when they were too close to him. Eiro reminded him regularly to not lose control, and Leon was getting a lot better at it, but at the end of the day he was still just a young kid.

Avalin immediately grabbed Sammy and Clementine's hands, dragging them over to the others to introduce everyone properly. Jane and Arc had been whispering to each other about a few things, though they were keeping things a secret pretty well.

"So... We're staying for the sacrifice?" Rudy asked, looking around curiously, "What's actually getting sacrificed, though?"

Eiro smiled lightly, "Some crops, items, meats, hides. Metals and even a few gems. Just a bit of everything that's produced here in town," he explained proudly, "Sorry about that, we're going to get right back onto the road as soon as we can."

"Are we sleeping in the carriage?"

"No, no, you can sleep in a regular bed tonight. Or well, if you would all like, we can get going tonight. It makes very little difference to me. You'll be the ones that have to sleep in the carriage," Eiro pointed out. Arc immediately shrugged and yawned.

"I can do whatever, wherever, whenever."

"We know, and it's disgusting," Rudy scoffed, and Arc just laughed and kicked his brother in the leg. Not softly, either. A few of the villagers got concerned, but Eiro just sighed and turned toward them.

"Not to worry, that's just some brotherly love," he explained smiling and trying to calm them down, while Rudy was already retaliating by swinging his arm to the side and punching Arc straight in the nose. You could hear the impact, and it wasn't a soft one.

Jane actually stepped back, startled, as Eiro once again sighed, "Rudy here is incapable of receiving or dealing damage. It's his unique skill. Even I can't bruise his skin," the demon explained, "But in turn, he is quite literally incapable of hurting a fly."

The girl looked up at Rudy, confused, "Wait, really? Isn't that an incredibly powerful skill? I thought unique skills usually have a downside," she said, since that was what Eiro had told her. The demon quickly nodded.

"Yes. Again, he can't hurt anything. Imagine not even being able to swat away a mosquito when it's buzzing around you. Not to mention, things can get pretty dangerous, especially in the place he was born," Eiro smiled lightly at his son, "Anyway, it seems like Arc wanted to tell me about something."

Raising his brow while ducking under Rudy's fist, Arc nodded and approached his father, "Right, yes! Come here, this is totally crazy!"

Eiro smiled and followed his son to the sidelines. Arc quickly started whispering, "Listen here... apparently, I died 32 years before Jane did, but I'm two years older! Isn't that crazy?"

The demon was a bit taken aback. He hadn't listened to the details of the conversations the kids had today, just the fact that they met at all, "That... is actually very interesting."

"Right? Don't you think that there could be other otherworlders that are from, like... the year three thousand or something? Ones that have a completely different understanding of the world than I did?"

Eiro tapped his foot on the ground, "If that's the case, then I'm sure I'll find a record of them somewhere," the demon pointed out, glancing over at the horizon, where the moon was already starting to rise. If he got to the tower of books of this realm, he should be able to find out more about otherworlders. He didn't know for sure, but it was very likely that the inquisitors of the holy empire kept some records, which Eiro should be able to access from there. Otherworlders did have a lot of unique perspectives, so maybe he could learn something special from what they left behind.

But that was something he didn't need to worry about for now. It was much more important that Arc seemed excited in a new way. In a more genuine way, somehow. Like an invisible weight he wasn't able to feel was lifted off the boy's shoulders, now that he met another otherworlder.