Demon's Virtue
chapter-290

Eiro brought the flower-bud out of this small part of the flower exhibit, and soon looked at James who was surprised to see the Demon bring this object out of there, "...What is that?" he asked with a wry smile, and Eiro looked back at him and just stared back, "It's the conductor. Now, I'm going to bring this to Solomon. You may come with me, or you may leave, whatever you want." Eiro explained swiftly.

James thought about it for just a moment, but soon after just sighed, "I'm coming along. If I can, I'll speak to the King about the Demon that's running rampant around here. Also... Were you talking to someone in there? I could hear your voice sometimes." The Light Elf pointed out.

Eiro slowly turned his head toward the man next to him and slowly opened his mouth, but just when he wanted to come up with some random excuse, he had already forgotten the real reason behind it, "...I was just speaking to myself, don't mind it."

"If you say so." James said, simply accepting it for now, although he certainly did keep it in the back of his mind for now. And then, all of a sudden, Sarius spoke to Eiro in his mind, 'Actually, who did you speak to in there again?'

Surprised, Eiro focused his mind inward onto Sarius, 'You also forgot?'

'I think so... Weird fucking feeling, not gonna lie...' The Salamander pointed out. What exactly was going on? Did Eiro's negative ability somehow affect Sarius because they were fused for a good bit now already, or was it some other reason? After all, Eiro couldn't remember what exactly happened there in that room, so maybe it was something that caused both him and Sarius to forget about it more quickly? After all, this flower-bud was pushing out pollen that seemed to be able to manipulate memories to an extent, so it wouldn't be too far-fetched.

Eiro thought about it for a moment, but in the end simply figured that it didn't matter too much for now. He had to get this done, and he had to do it as quickly as he could. And so, the Demon and the Light Elf made their way through the flower exhibit again and made their way back out into the snowstorm that the two of them quickly tread through.

The Demon used his magic to make it as easy for them as possible, and the whole time, he could feel James' deep glares at the back of his head. It seemed like he wasn't as trusting as Eiro thought he was at first, or maybe he became a bit more suspicious after Eiro and Sarius came back out of that locked-off area.

Either way, it didn't matter. Eiro was sure that all of James' suspicions would disappear once he managed to reconfirm that this Demon was indeed rather close to Solomon. At least that's what he hoped, but he didn't worry too much about it anyway.

Soon, Eiro would hopefully manage to get rid of this whole storm and spell that was connected to it anyway, and at that point, James should remember Eiro, or so he hoped. It wouldn't be an issue if everything worked out, and James and the others would remember all about Eiro. Although, then James would also realize that Eiro killed those kids in an extremely vicious way, which might not lead him to react in the best way.

"Nothing I can do if that happens..." Eiro whispered quietly to himself as him and James were walking through the storm, and not that long after, the two of them reached the castle gates. They were led inside by the guards that had been informed of Eiro's appearance already, and the Demon and the Light Elf quickly made their way toward the place where Solomon was waiting for them.

Once they reached the King's study, Eiro immediately pushed down the handle and pushed forward the door to step inside, while James was staring at him in confusion, "Wh-What are you doing, why are you barging in like that?" He asked, and Eiro stared at him with a frown hidden behind his mask.

"There's no one in here but Solomon and that... That..." Eiro started, and from within the room, an annoyed voice could be heard, "Clark! It's Clark!"

"Right, and Clark." The Demon said bluntly and then turned around before stepping into the study while James worried with his head lowered now that he was in the presence of the King like this.

Eiro held forward the closed flower-bud that Eiro he enclosed in a bubble of ice to make sure that it was truly safe, and then explained, "This is the conductor I was looking for. It has a weird internal structure, as if this was some sort of artificial creation."

"...Are you sure we should talk about this now?" Solomon asked with a concerned expression as he looked at James who was standing behind Eiro, and the Demon slowly turned around, "Well, I don't really care. We can let him get his business over with first and then let him leave if he wants to."

"R-Right, thank you." James replied nervously. Immediately, he stepped up closer to Solomon and knelt on the ground in front of him respectfully before starting to explain the situation. And when he was done, Solomon just stared deeply at Eiro with an anger-filled expression.

"Thank you for relaying this to me, James. I appreciate it. I had not heard these details about this situation." He admitted, and Eiro looked back at Solomon, who was focused on James for now.

"Alright, could you please leave the three of us alone for a minute or two? Or if you want, you can leave right now, or we can call you back in a few minutes." Solomon suggested to James, who slowly looked at Eiro, who was obviously just looking back with his blank mask. The Light Elf thought about it for a moment and then replied.

"I think I should check up on the others at home for now. Don't want to leave Krog and Jess alone with those children for too long." James said, and Eiro's body immediately tensed up due to the way that James was speaking about the kids.

"...What children may you be speaking about?" Eiro inquired, and James looked at him surprised, "Oh, we're just taking care of some orphans at the manor." The Light Elf pointed out. But the moment that he did, his heart started to beat a bit stronger and faster, as if he slowly realized that something was off. Although that feeling was gone immediateley after and James calmed back down, "I'll head out for now." And so, James left the room, and the moment that Eiro made sure that he had left, Eiro took off his mask and cloak and took a deep breath as Sarius slowly dove back out of the Demon's chest.

"Urgh... Fuck, that feels... Weird." The Fire Spirit pointed out with a wry smile as Eiro started to swiftly flap his wings around to loosen them up a bit after all the pressure put onto them in Eiro's disguise just now.

"More importantly." Solomon started, "Eiro, what did James just tell me? You did WHAT exactly to those young adventurers?"

Eiro looked back at the King and shook his head, "I'm sorry, I don't remember even meeting them. But since that's not the answer you wanted to hear... Most likely, I did exactly what James just said. I killed and fed on some young adventurers in a mad frenzy."

Solomon ripped his eyes open as he stared back at Eiro, "Do you even know what you've done? Do you even care about what agony tho-"

"If I have to be blunt, no, I don't. After all, why should I care right now? What happens if I feel bad for ten seconds, just to forget what I was feeling bad for? Remind me and punish me when my memories are recovered. Or at least when I stopped losing my memories instantly."

Solomon glared at Eiro while grinding his teeth. Eiro wasn't sure if this King was actually all that angry at Eiro himself rather than frustrated at the situation. After a deep breath, Solomon collected himself properly again.

"Fine. But I do not care for what our relationship is or was, I will not let something like this pass by so easily." Solomon pointed out, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "I wouldn't expect you to... What exactly are we talking about again?"

"Urgh, so fucking annoying! That you slaughtered those kids, you dumbass."

"Oh... Well in that case, my point definitely stands." Eiro pointed out in response to Sarius who was floating around Eiro rather angrily, and at that point, Clark finally pointed out the most important thing. Meanwhile, Eiro walked over toward Lugo to run his hand over the sleeping Stag's head.

"So... what is the conductor? And how do we stop the storm now?" The man asked, and Eiro turned his head toward him and thought about it for a moment.

Immediately, the Demon looked at his notebook and flipped through it a few times, before looking at the flower-bud with a light squint of his eyes, "I'm going to analyze the magic placed onto the conductor and create a counter spell. I will then try and place the counter-spell onto the conductor to stop it from supplying the raw magic, but will only activate it the moment that my 'counter-spell' for the snowstorm takes effect."

"...You make it sound so easy." Clark sighed slightly, but Eiro immediately shook his head, "Oh, it's not easy. Counter-Spells are quite hard to create. It's as if you create the opposite of the spell used to cause something to just break apart, but then you need to still hold up certain rules that all depend on a

lot of different aspects of the place and object the spell is placed on in the first place.

"Also, that flower-bud creates a lot of poisonous pollen that will prolly cause you to lose your memory." Sarius pointed out, as if it was nothing but a side-note, and Eiro swiftly nodded his head, "Right, I nearly forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me."

"...No problem." The Salamander said with a wry smile, while the Demon got ready to work on the counter spell by fusing with Sarius again so that he could properly sense the magic with all of his senses. It didn't take long for Eiro to sit down in a self-containing capsule of ice where all of the pollen couldn't disappear from, and then made sure to try and stop the pollen from appearing in the first place.

And so, the Demon quickly got started on developing the counter-spell for this special flower-bud.