Demon's Virtue
chapter-56

"Where are we?" Eiro asked confused, stepping off of the carriage with the bone-filled bag in his remaning hand before following Jura toward the structure in front of them.

"This is my house, what else?" The old man said with a slight chuckle as he unlocked the door up using a rusty metal key and then pushed it open, slowly stepping inside.

"It is quite dirty, but please, make yourself at home." Jura pointed out as the Imp slowly stepped onto the wooden floor, looking around nervously.

There really wasn't much inside here this room, however. A small table in the center of it, as well as some counters with plates and cups on top of it. However, the walls were covered in shelves with numerous types of wood, tools or different containers in all shapes and forms inside of them.

And one of those containers was swiftly grabbed by Jura. It was a small glass bottle with a bead inside of it. After pulling the cork off the top, the old man seemed to try and sniff the interior a few times and then shook his head, swiftly grabbing another similar bottle, repeating the same thing.

For a little while, that's all that the old man did, while Eiro just stood there in the doorway. He knew he was told to 'make himself at home', but he wasn't entirely sure what that meant, exactly.

Either way, there was something far more important that he needed to know. "Should I wake the children?" The Imp asked, as he wasn't sure what was about to happen, while Jura kept grabbing different bottles and judging their smell, "Let them sleep a little longer. They will be as save in that carriage as anywhere."

Just a few moments later, it seemed like Jura then found the seemingly right bottle and handed it to the young Demon with a smile on his face. "Here you go." Jura said, but the Imp just looked at him confused. And while Jura couldn't see the confusion on his face, it seemed like he sensed it. "Ah, sorry, sorry. This is a bit of a test. I want you to find a suitable place near this hill to plant this seed, and then care for it. Once it sprouted into a health sapling, I will accept you as my apprentice."

Slowly, the Imp held the bottle against his chest with his right arm while pressing the bag of bones into his pants' pockets to try and hold the bottle properly, before then taking a look at the 'Seed'.

"And... How do I find a good spot to plant it? Isn't any spot fine?" The Imp asked, but Jura shook his head without hesitation.

"Not in the slightest. You need to listen to the voice of that seed and the voice of the forest to find out where it can grow. If you plant it in the wrong place, it will never sprout, even if you dig it up again and plant it somewhere else, so make a good choice. Until we know which it is... You and the children can stay here." Jura said with a slight smile, letting the Imp just nod in response. "Thank you." He said, and with a slightly surprised expression, Jura interlocked his fingers behind his back.

"Who is it that taught you to speak like this?" The old man asked, and just when Eiro wanted to open his mouth to answer, he felt his body suddenly get heavier all of a sudden. Surprised, he twisted his body to look at the source of that weight, and soon enough saw Clementine's short blond hair.

"Eiro! You're fine!" She exclaimed with a sniffle, trying to pull the Imp as close toward her as she could muster apparently, and the young Demon nodded his head. "I am. Are you fine?" Eiro asked her, and she immediately nodded her head, although she still had her head buried inside of his cloak, before he saw the other children step out of the carriage as well, all of them making their way over toward the Imp quite swiftly.

It seemed like they were more than just worried about him when they came out of the carriage and saw him collapsed, but Jura apparently calmed them down a little, which the Imp was quite glad about.

"A-And when old man Jura was cutting your hand-" Rudy was explaining worriedly, although he was swiftly interrupted by a deep, loud grumble originating in Eiro's stomach, making Jura laugh in response, "Hoho, well, it is to be expected. You were asleep for two days, after all. Come, I still have some bread left, I think." Jura admitted and pointed at the table in the center of the room while motioning the Imp and the children to sit down on there, although he himself was confused over what he was just told.

"I was sleeping for two days?" The Imp asked, and Eiro immediately nodded his head as he went through some cupboards. "Oh, yes. I was surprised as well. But you seem to have the Exhaustion Restistance Skill, do you not?" Jura asked, letting the Imp simply reply with a nod, prompting Jura to continue.

"That explains it then. At the start, that skill makes you resistant to the feeling of Exhaustion, not exhaustion itself. There are many that relied on that skill too much and overworked themselves until they died, so try to sleep properly from now on." The old man suggested, and Eiro immediately felt cold stares at the back of his neck after Jura's explanation, the source of which being the Rudy, Sammy, Clementine and Arc, all seemingly quite upset over how careless Eiro was being, apparently. Even Arc was staring at him with a frown, something that the Imp didn't expect to see on him in such a situation.

"I will try to remember that, thank you." Eiro replied, while Jura placed a small plate with bread in front of him with a chuckle.

"If you truly want to thank me, I would have a suggestion. Of course I said you can live here for now, but an old man like me cannot take care of everything on my own." With a slight chuckle, the old man looked at the Children, and then started to give out a few tasks for everyone.

"Rudy was left with the task of Cooking, Sewing, and other smaller tasks that he could use his hands for. Sammy was given the task to take care of the two Children, while Clementine and Arc were supposed to take care of the horses and other animals that the old man wanted to keep around this house for things like Eggs and Milk. And the Imp was supposed to go out into the forest every day and hunt animals for meat and gather different plants to use in cooking, while also making his way to the town a day from here every couple of weeks for things they couldn't get from this forest alone.

And in the meantime, the old man Jura would... He would... "And what will be your task?" The Imp asked Jura, who just replied with a frown. "I'm going to sleep. I'm an old man, you can't expect me to do so much work!" Jura exclaimed, and then seemed to try to sniff for something before holding his nose, maybe in a slightly exaggerated fashion.

"Now finish eating and go to the river to get yourself cleaned up! You smell like those horses' droppings!" Jura exclaimed, while the Imp just buried his teeth inside of the bread in his hand and looked at the children, who seemed to be of a similar opinion. They themselves were pretty dirty as well, however.

"Then let's go." Eiro said and slowly stood up, placing the bottle down onto the table because he didn't want to break it on his way, although Jura immediately turned back toward him. "Take the seed with you, will you? How else do you want to connect to it?"

With a slight frown, the Imp grabbed the bottle again and just held it in his hand for now. He wasn't sure why he was supposed to take it, but he figured that if he wanted to learn from Jura, it made sense to listen to him, even if he did so slightly involuntarily.

Either way, for now, the Imp and the Children slowly made their way along the overgrown path in front of them to get to the nearby river, stopping by the carriage for just a moment to get some other clothes to change into although the Imp was the only one that didn't have anything else. He didn't really need anything for now either, though.

He didn't feel as weird doing so now, but he still preferred to at the very least wear no shoes, and even if he did like wearing pants and a shirt now, he didn't necessarily feel like he had to. He wasn't wearing a shirt anymore anyway, and his pants were ripped up nearly completely as well. That fact was kind of concealed through the cloak, which was also nearly completely destroyed...

As long as he had something to replace his cloak, he really didn't mind the other stuff all that much, though. He didn't really know why, but it just felt right to have a cloak at this point for him.

Either way, soon enough, Eiro and the Children finally found their way to the small river and could crouched down next to it, starting to simply slowly clean themselves, while the Imp made sure that they were all physically fine. He especially took a closer look at Clementine's stomach to make sure that all the wounds from there had properly healed, or were at the very least on a good way there.

In the end, the river started carrying some red, brown and black bits of blood and dirt with it, especially when the Imp helped the children wash their hair. He saw Avalin do it once, and now he understood why. Hair really got incredibly dirty easily and caught onto a bunch of small pebbles and chunks, making the Imp happy that he was practically hairless.

For him, after a few proper scrubs, which he did end up needing the help of the children with considering the state of his hand, meaning that it was just not there, Eiro was basically sparkling. Although, the children were looking at him weirdly, so Eiro wasn't able to properly appreciate that fact.

With a slight frown, worried that they noticed something he didn't, the young Demon turned toward them. "Is something wrong?" He asked, and slowly, the children diverted their gazes and continued getting dressed again, although Arc swiftly spoke, as the only one that didn't worry about such things simply because he was incapable of doing so.

"Why aren't you upset over your hand?" The young boy asked, and Eiro looked at him confused before staring down at the stump at the end of his arm. "Should I be?" He asked, slightly surprised, and Arc immediately nodded his head.

"Of course you should be! You were more upset over Clem's wounds than your missing hand! That's not normal!" Arc basically yelled, and the Imp just stared at him and said something that he himself felt to be completely natural.

"As long as I live, I can do what I want no matter what parts I'm missing. At least I feel that way, so I don't care. Maybe it is not normal to you... But you are people, I am a Monster. My Normal is different from yours. That is why I don't want to make the choice of what you can and can't, and want and don't want to do. So, yes, I was more upset over your bodies than mine. Because they are more precious."