Demon's Virtue-Chapter 812: Boring

"So... Where are we headed first?" Rudy asked excitedly, and Eiro smiled at him as he pulled a scroll from his treasury. It was a map, though not any map. It was one that had been drawn using the Author's Pen. Rather than just being a simple, static map, it covered a massive area and basically encapsuled the entirety of the continent at this point.

Of course, there were places that were a lot more detailed than others, because those were the places Eiro had actaully been to himself in the past. The rest of the map had just been created using other maps as a reference, and he would update this once he had more information on those places.

"For now, we're going to a border city and heading a bit more south. There's a fairly big river in this area, and it had developed before some wars in the past that rearranged the two countries' borders. One half of the city belongs to Skyhart, and the other half belongs to Miria. Right now, the countries are on relatively good terms, but something pretty fun happened because of the current laws of each country." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"...Hm?" The kids curiously looked at their father, and he pulsed some mana into the map, making it zoom in closer on the river. Particularly, the massive network of bridges that was constructed between the two halves of the city.

"The laws of both Miria and Skyhart currently have laws that say, that 'everything built on our land belongs to us'. This is specifically because of certian flying islands that kept drifting across the borders in the past. Those islands would have individual agreements with countries to make sure that they wouldn't be taken possession of, so most countries changed their laws accordingly. Well, places like the Holy Empire changed that later, which is why they shackled down a floating city over their lake, though that island now belongs to us." Eiro smiled at Boju. "Most of these floating islands, after improvements in magical engineering, are now above the ocean either in neutral lands or in areas that actively belong to them. Anyway, there are some remnants of those times in laws that are now taken advantage of by some people."

"... And what does all of this have to do with these cities? Are they floating, or something?" Arc asked, leaning onto his hand, but Eiro shook his head.

"Not technically, no. These are three cities here. The Mirian half. The Skyhart half. And the one built on the bridges." Eiro explained excitedly, "But what's fun here is that this bridge-city belongs to neither of the countries. For a while, when people started moving onto the bridge, it was decided that they belonged to Skyhart's half, since the bridge was originally constructed when it still belonged to us. But then, the people on the bridge expanded and built new bridges. Both Mirian and Skyhart wanted to take claim to these new bridges, but when they tried, the people actually living there basically revolted. In the end, everyone decided that, as long as they didn't commit any major crimes, the bridge cities could be their own self-governed places. And now, they're actually a pretty massive trading port."

"Oh, so... we're going sight-seeing on bridges?" Sammy asked with a wry smile and looked up from the map. "I mean, that sounds... interesting, but not like the exciting first stop I expected."

Confused, Eiro looked over at Ariella, and then back at his kids. "What? But this is really cool, right? I've been wanting to stop by here for forever."

Ariella chuckled and patted her lover's back. "It is really cool, don't worry."

With a concerned frown, Eiro looked down at the map. "Here I thought you would be interested in it. I mean, they have a lot of magic items there. You know, the sort that were created from long traditional practices that even I don't know how to do. At least not yet."

With that, suddenly, everyone seemed a bit more interested.

"What kind of magic items?" Arc asked, leaning forward.

"Hm... all kinds, honestly. Weapons, instruments, tools. I was thinking about picking up a souvenirs for some people and sending them off using a servant. But if you want, we can just skip through and continue our journey through Mirian. What a shame, I heard it was supposed to be a pretty lively place..." Eiro said, keeping his eyes on the map while planning out the rest of the route. He figured it might be a good idea to pick out some more exciting places on the map instead.

The thin line that was placed along the map, showing the planned route, slowly started shifting and changing as Eiro thought about potential places to head to.

"Wait, no!" Sammy immediately said. "Let's stop there for a night! It's alright! Let's check it out a bit longer, maybe it's going to be cooler than we thought!"

Eiro raised a brow. "Oh, if you're sure."

He looked around, and it seemed like everyone was suddenly in agreement. Was the idea of buying stuff for them that good of an incentive? Well, Boju had been excited about it the entire time. Rather, he was just excited about being here and heading out, seeing the world.

"I want a new toy!" Avalin said excitedly, and Eiro smiled at her, patting the girl's head.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll get you a toy, don't worry."

"Yay!"

But just in case, the demon tapped the map and used the conceptual 'knowledge' magic he got through Anura. Like that, he momentarily linked to the map and the information he had about the route and all the places that he wanted to visit. That information was then placed into a magical book, which Eiro placed into a small notebook that he kept under his seat. Almost immediately, the information was written down in the book, which he handed to his kids.

Basically, he just wrote down the destinations he had picked out as well as the things that you could do there, so that they could check things out beforehand already.

"Go take a look at these, if there are any places you're not interested in at all, let me know."

"... What about places that you really want to go to, dad?" Clementine asked, frowning lightly as if she was feeling guilty about this. But Eiro just scoffed and shook his head immediately, trying to calm her down.

"I can go to those places some other time if I feel like it. I can get to any place in the continent in a day. This trip is about me travelling and spending time with you all, and making sure that you have a good time," he said, trying to assure his kids that it was fine if they said they weren't interested in some of these places. Really, he was just surprised and confused about why the kids could have possibly disliked a town with such a cool and interesting history, as well as the reasons and intricate laws and events that led to its creation. "Just let me know at any point. If you hear about anything else that's fun while we're travelling, or you change you mind, just tell me. I want to make sure that all of you enjoy this trip as much as you can."