Demon's Virtue
chapter-248

Eiro ran through the town after he flew to its outskirts just to save a little bit of time. First things first, he had to find Bahlsen somehow. Of course, while he was doing so, he was constantly fused with Gondos so that he could find the Collector's scent if possible and if he ended up trying to hide it again like he did before.

Soon, the Demon reached Bahlsen's Inn and made his way inside. Eiro climbed up the stairs and soon reached the investigator's room. But when he did and was just about to knock on the wooden door, he noticed a slight, sudden shift inside of the room.

And it wasn't one that came from Bahlsen, that was for sure. It was just completely different to him. Eiro pushed his hand onto the lock and slowly had Bavet help him out by turning into the right key for this lock, before Eiro slowly twisted Bavet around and opened the door up.

Somehow, the person that was inside didn't even try to hide for whatever reason. But there was no doubt about it in the demon's mind. This person was the Collector. His scent drove into Eiro's nostrils, and the whole vibe that he was giving off was exactly like how Eiro imagined it to be.

He stood there, in a long black trenchcoat on top of a pitch black suit. The only parts that weren't black where the few bits of silver and red that were added as details for the outfit. Even the hat that he was wearing was completely black with just a few red and silver stitchings.

That man's hair was raven-black and tied into a ponytail. Both his hair and his clothes completely contrasted his alabaster skin that seemed to practically glow in the darkness, while his red iris seemed to shine on Eiro as if they were spotlights.

"Ah, so you are Bahlsen's little assistant, are you not? You have quite a handy set of abilities, you know?" He pointed out. His voice was hard to pick up and narrow down. Somehow, Eiro wasn't even exactly sure if his voice was low or high-pitched. It was just hard to pick up, somehow.

Eiro stood there, thinking about how to attack the Collector. He soon figured out a good way. But it really didn't matter that he did, because the moment Eiro tried to adjust his body for the setup of that attack, the Collector started to move.

His feet slid over the ground while it seemed like the rest of his body was just stuck in a single position. Immediately, Eiro pulled out his dagger out of his treasury and stabbed it forward at the man's chest. But the moment that it was supposed to push through his clothes... Eiro realized that there was nobody there. No, instead, the man was standing right behind the Demon and slowly grabbed his chin with his hand.

His strength was overwhelming, so much so that Eiro didn't even have a hope of starting to move. But somehow... this reminded him of a trauma that Eiro didn't overcome yet. He hoped that he had, but he didn't.

It reminded Eiro of that time in Zaragon's shop. The Demon's heartrate skyrocketed and he felt himself descend in a panick that he dind't want to experience ever again. Instinctively, without having control over his own body, Eiro stopped infusing his tail with the shadow element and pushed it out from underneath his cloak before using it to stab the collector.

He managed to dodge somehow, but still... Eiro couldn't ignore the quiet sound of a wooden button dropping down onto the ground. The Demon managed to hit him a little bit, so the Collector wasn't completely unkillable for Eiro. And now that he managed to calm down a bit, the Demon might actually have a good chance to kill this guy.

Immediately, Eiro tried to jump forward, using his two daggers as well as his stinger to try and attack him as much as possible. His focus really wasn't to cause a lot of damage at once, a little bit would be enough. As long as Eiro was able to injure him a little, he would get the Collector's blood. And then, he would never be able to run from Eiro ever again. At that point, he would have far too much information on him.

But somehow, no matter how hard Eiro tried, he was unable to hit the Collector again. He dodged every single of Eiro's attacks. The Demon was being played with. Eiro ground his teeth and pulled out his ace of cups, immediately activating it.

The range of Eiro's blades might have surprised him a little, but they still didn't hurt him. Sure, the Collector seemed to have a slightly harder time, but he still didn't lose that creepy smile of his. Or at least Eiro thought that it was a smile, he really wasn't sure anymore at this point.

All of a sudden, however, the Collector just looked at Eiro with his glowing red eyes, "Was nice playing with ya. I have to go, get another piece for my puzzle."

And without a moment's hesitation, the Collector turned around and stepped toward the door, before crossing around the corner and walking down the hallway. For whatever reason, the thought of following the Collector didn't even cross Eiro's mind until it was too late. He ran out into the hallway and turned to the right where the Collector went, but instead of seeing him still walking there, Eiro saw something else.

He saw Bahlsen's face up close, because for whatever reason, he was standing there.

"Erm... Eiro, what are you doing here? I don't remember inviting you in... Considering that I was out getting breakfast, at least." Bahlsen pointed out with a wry smile, but Eiro just pushed him to the side and stared past him. But it was too late.

"The Collector was here." Eiro said in a clear tone so that Bahlsen could perfectly understand him. Without a moment's hesitation, the investigator stared at Eiro and stepped into his Inn-room and took a look around. There were slight damages caused to the furniture, walls, and decoration, so he just turned around toward Eiro with a slight frown while just glaring at the blades floating right next to him mid-air.

"Could you be a bit more careful next time? I don't have all the money in the wor-"

"Literally just shut up, look around the room for clues, and let us find that inhuman son of a bitch." Eiro growled at Bahlsen as he pushed his hand into his satchel before pulling out a couple of coins that should be more than enough to cover the bill for the damages in this room, and then crossed his arms while trying to regain his composure a bit.

But after Eiro's words, Bahlsen was concerned about something else, "What do you mean 'inhuman'?"

"Hm? Nothing special, he just didn't give off the feeling of just any other person. But the thing that made it clearest to me was the fact that his irises were red. With the exception of albinos, there are no humans that have eyes like that. And he had pitch-black hair that didn't seem particularly dyed. And other than that, from his proportions and general features, he seemed to be a human instead of something like a high-elf. Those sometimes apparently just have naturally red eyes. So I think he either used something to artificially change the color of his eyes or hair, or he's at least part monster." Eiro explained to Bahlsen quickly, who was already looking through the room looking for clues that might help him figure things out about the Collector.

And then, the investigator squatted down on the ground and picked up the black wood button that was laying there, "Hm..? This isn't a material I know... I think it might be something otherworldy..."

"Huh? No it's not." Eiro replied bluntly, and the investigator stared back at him with a frown, "Listen, I get that you want to help, but after destroying my room while I was gone, the least you can do is let me do what I do best. This wood is obviously a highly-magical sort. But I've already studied numerous different woods, and there are no kinds that are as inherently magical as this in our real-"

Before the investigator could finish his sentence, Eiro pulled off the glove off his right hand and held the wooden prosthetic over toward him.

"If you want to discuss wood, then I'm your best fucking bet. Yes, you're right, that's a piece of highly-magical wood. Seems to be made from a Hurthan-Teardrop that was infused with high levels of pure mana as well as an accent of darkness magic. I think the wood was taken from one of the branches of a three-month old one. Those particular trees grow in the depth of the the Pallendian Desert around a Dark Oasis created by the mana still seeping out of a shut-down gate to the Darkfall. It's a highly-protected place that only few people can even find, and less can go as far as take wood from the trees without being killed by a Drikasi."

The investigator stared back at Eiro with clear surprise at a couple of things, "How do you know so much about a random type of wood?"

"I know I may not seem like it, but the profession I'm hoping to become actually established in in the future is that of a Prosthetist. Coincidentally, my teacher was one of the few that were allowed access to that special kind of wood. I have some with me, and I'm actually preparing to have someone guy get all my other kinds of woods from my old home." Eiro explained, "If they're still there, that is."

The investigator looked back at Eiro with a wry smile, "Yeah, that's not something I expected. But that's... That's kind of a coincidence, don't you think? That you would find two people with access to that kind of material in the same place... Eiro, your teacher isn-"

"He's dead and was literally like a father to me, so if you mutter a single word more I'm killing you and taking that fucking Knight card from you to do this myself. Got it?" Eiro grumbled, although he had to admit, Bahlsen was right. It was a bit of a weird coincidence.

Eiro stretched his hand out and grabbed the wooden button, and stared deeply at it with the help of Gondos to sense even things like mana, and to especially sense life energy more easily.

And the moment that Eiro did, he nearly destroyed the button in his very hand, "That piece of complete garbage. He took that child's fucking tail?"

Bahlsen looked back at Eiro with confusion, while the Demon just ground his teeth. Eiro couldn't believe that the collector would, or even could, take the prosthetic tail from a young Dragon of Death, like the one Jura helped out.