Demon's Virtue
chapter-242

Eiro, in his disguise as this young man, made his way out of the rock wall that he hid the Guard in, and then stepped back into the prison. He always kept the exact way that the new Guard had been moving in his mind. Usually it wasn't the bigger things, like if people heard Eiro say something wrong or if they saw him do something he wasn't supposed to, since a lot of the time you could simply explain it as an awkward mistake on his part, or he could simply try and lie about it in a casual way.

The things that often made people feel that something was wrong were the little things. If Eiro's mannerism or language used were off while he was trying to copy the Guard, he may not be found out right away, but it would be harder to get away with anything at all. People would double-guess certain things that they wouldn't if Eiro had just added these smaller things into the mix believably.

And as far as he was concerned, it worked pretty well. Other guards greeted him with casual nods and smiles, and Eiro kept walking through the hallways of the prison in a calculated way. He could sense exactly where different people were, especially those that Eiro needed to make use of for his plan.

Slowly, making sure that no wrong people were going into that direction, Eiro made his way over toward the Warden's office again. Without hesitation, Eiro pressed his palm onto the metallic lock. It wasn't actually all that high-quality, so it wouldn't take long to break it like this. He heated it up using Fire Magic until it was glowing in a bright yellow color. He pulled his three of swords out for just a moment, and then pushed the blade around a bit in there to completely mess the lock-mechanism up, shift things around in unnatural ways, before proceeding to rapidly cool it down.

The few parts of the mechanism that weren't broken yet were so now, and Eiro was able to easily push the door open. And that was all that he really needed to do, for now.

"Three... two... one... now." The Demon whispered to himself and started running down the hallway at a very specific pace. A pace that led him to run into the man supervising the person Eiro was pretending to be.

Eiro looked at the man with a fake panicking expression while the supervisor took a step back with a deep frown on his face, "Christler, was it? Can't you look where you're going, dammit?!" With a stern tone, he practically stared Eiro down, but the Demon just swallowed out of fake nervosity as he looked back.

"Ah, S-Sir, I'm sorry! But this is an emergency! Someone broke into the Warden's Office, Sir!" He exclaimed as loudly as he could, and the supervisor opened his eyes wide and immediately ran past Eiro into the direction of the office, quickly followed by Eiro and two other guards that had been around the supervisor.

He pushed the door open, noticing the destroyed lock, and stepped into the office, "What the? Who messes up a door like that and then doesn't even do anything? This place is in peak condition!"

The supervisor was looking around for a few moments, while Eiro faked confusion and looked over at one of the other two regular guards, whispering to him, "I haven't been here for long, 'n I only was in here once, but wasn't there somethin' else on the desk there?" Eiro asked bluntly, and the guard looked at him with a light frown before turning his head. He took a step closer into the room and then ripped his eyes wide open as all color drained from his face, "S-Sir..." He muttered closely, and pointed his finger at the space that was missing whatever the Warden's precious possession was.

He turned his head and looked at that spot, "What are you trying to-"

The moment that the supervisor saw it too, his reaction was quite similar to that of the guard, "You three, shut your mouths and come in here immediately."

With confused expressions, Eiro and the other guard stepped further into the room. It seemed like the other one was also somewhat new, "Is something wrong, Sir?"

"Heh, is something wrong? Is something okay?! Christler, did anyone else see the Warden's office in this state beside the people present here?"

Immediately, Eiro shook his head, "Not as far as I can tell, Sir! I found this room in this state and went to find someone that could help, and then I ran into you, Sir!" He exclaimed, and the Supervisor slowly ground his teeth while grumbling to himself, "Shit... For now, none of you will speak of this incident. You will help me find whoever took this, but if you mention this to anyone you will immediately be fired. Harlon, go and get Stephanson to get the lock to this office replaced. Zimmer, you head to the Supervisors' ward and get the superiors, this is a serious issue. And Christler, you're staying with me, you'll tell me everything you know."

Immediately, both of the other guards quickly turned around and went on their way, and Eiro was left alone with the supervior. The demon was being stared down by someone that didn't even realize that he was a demon. But the weirdest thing was that it seemed like the supervisor was actually kind of scared.

"Alright, Christler. Go over it again, what exactly happened. How did you find this room in this state? Are you sure you did not notice anyone?"

"Yes, Sir! I just returned from my break, and I thought something smelled weird so I went to investigate. Then, I noticed the door and the state that the lock was in. I made sure that nobody was inside anymore, and then immediately tried to find a superior." Eiro explained swiftly and clearly, and the Supervisor was frowning as he was listening to the Demon, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth.

"Fine, I will believe you for now. The lock is still hot, and there is no way that you would be able to hide that thing on your body. You most likely didn't hide it anywhere with the little bit of time you would have had. But I will not let you out of my sight, understood? You will wait here with me until everyone else has been informed, and we will thoroughly comb through the prison without the warden ever finding out. Understood?" The supervisor explained, weirdly as if trying to comfort Eiro with that last bit in particular.

Eiro looked at the supervisor with a fake nervous expression and swallowed along with that nervosity, "Sir, if I may ask... What exactly was it that was stolen? You seem to be quite worried... Is it a dangerous item?" He inquired, but the supervisor just shook his head and crossed his arms.

"I guess you should be told. Everyone in this prison knows about it anyway, including the prisoners. Don't worry, nobody would ever trust the Warden with anything of any danger, even a knife may be too much for him. No, it's something more... sentimental than that. You remember how you swore on the gods to not relay anything that happened in this prison to outsiders when you formed your contract?"

Eiro slowly nodded his head. The supervisor slowly looked to the side, "It is something that others should not see... It is a memento of his deceased son."

"Hm? Oh, that is actually quite nice, isn't it?" Eiro asked surprised, "Then it makes sense that you want to find it again. Everyone would be mad if they had something like that stolen from them, right..?" Eiro asked, and the supervisor looked to the side while grinding his teeth.

"Y-Yeah, of course. Ah, and since you seem to have impressive perception, please watch out for any sound of a ticking clock. The memento has been integrated into a table-clock."

"I see. I will try my best." The Demon replied. Immediately, he had much more information than he had before. And leads that would help him figure this out as quickly as he needed to. Eiro just had to try and find a ticking clock somewhere. The issue with that was that there were numerous clocks here in this prison... It was a bit annoying, but at least it narrowed everything down a lot.

For a little bit longer, Eiro and the Supervisor just stood there in this office, rather awkwardly at that, and waited for others to arrive. Soon, more of the superiors of the guard that Eiro was impersonating showed up. There was nothing special about them, really. They were boringly... average. But at the very least, they all seemed dedicated to find that memento.

It seemed like the Warden was a much scarier person than he seemed to be inside of the painting on the wall and the articles Eiro read about this prison. Extremely so, if nobody dared to say anything to anyone in fear of the information getting to the Warden.

And so, the Demon just listened intensely to the words of everyone here and how desperate they were to figure out where this memento was. Some were literally drenched in cold sweat, and Eiro got the feeling that there was a lot more about this than it seemed like. Soon, Eiro got the command that he was waiting for, "Christler, you're dismissed for now. Do not speak about this to anyone. We will come and get you if you're needed. Understood?"

"Yes, sir! Understood!" Eiro exclaimed, and then quickly turned around before heading back toward the door. The Demon stepped outside the room and really couldn't help himself stop grinning because of how easy this was. Not only did he get new information about what he was even looking for in the matter of thirty minutes, but he even managed to get new people to help him out in his quest without their knowledge. This seemed a bit too easy, really.

Immediately, Eiro made his way over to a central place in the prison that he already scouted out before. There was a great structural flow that should be able to help his magical perception reach even deeper depths of the prison.

So, Eiro just stood there, tapping his foot while his arms were crossed, releasing mana into the ground whenever he did so. Eiro was able to quickly figure out a few places that seemed like someone may be hiding out in, or at least places where Eiro would try and hide out if he was the thief.

And so, the Demon got properly started with his work.