Demon's Virtue
chapter-64

Slowly, Eiro took a step back from the Daughter of Winter, and then looked up at the Lady of Winter, while Jura stepped up to him and grabbed his arm tightly. "You buffoon! How-"

"It is fine, Jura." The Lady interrupted him, before the old man's grip immediately loosened, as if Jura let go in shock.

"Men shall not harm these blossoms for selfish reasons, that is true, but this Demon here did it for the little one. I cannot call this selfish, can I?" The Lady pointed out as she kneeled down in front of the Imp and slowly stretched her finger forward toward his chest, tapping it just once, before a cold that the Imp hadn't felt even after sitting there for hours was inflicted onto his body.

"Take this as a little gift." The Lady said, all the whilst a notification appeared right in front of the Imp.

[The [Blessing of the Lonely Naiad] has been transformed into the [Blessing of Winter's Lonely Naiad]]

Soon, this penetrating cold disappeared again while Eiro read through the notification and made it disappear by extending his hand toward it.

"Thank you." The Imp said quietly as any cold around his body simply disappeared, as if he had always lived in this environment.

"Now then. Shall we go?" The Lady suggested with a warm smile, and the Imp slowly turned around toward the Stag. The Antler on the left side of his head, which had been broken off by the base, was currently replaced by vines of ice, and its fur was covered in different flowers and plants just like the one that Eiro just put into the Daughter of Winter's hair.

"I... I can't leave it here... Won't it die?" Eiro asked, and while Jura was once more getting angry at him, the Lady of Winter simply shook her head.

"Do not worry, young one. Your friend's life is not in danger anymore, thanks to you." She explained, and the Imp slowly looked at the stag with a nervous frown, before nodding his head. "Alright." He replied, and then turned back toward the Lady, who simply turned away with a slight smile and started walking, right into the direction of the Town, followed by the Daughters of Winter, although a particular one seemed to not want to walk on her own and rushed up in front of Eiro, lifting her hands up toward him, exactly what Leon or little Avalin did when they wanted him to pick them up.

And so, he did just that and picked her up,with his arms around her legs so that she would be sitting on his arms and could still look forward before he started following behind everyone.

They stepped through this forest, which soon started to light up in numerous colors as flowers of glowing ice appeared everywhere the Lady of Winter stepped.

Soon, far sooner than the Imp expected, they reached the town, which had apparently prepared something like festival. Everyone was having fun, stalls were built all over the place and admiring the Lady of Winter. It seemed like some noticed, but nobody cared about how Eiro was obviously not a person, considering that he still was the Lady's escort.

After walking through the town for a little while, they reached the central place where the statues of four women had been built, one in the image of the Lady of Winter. She stood in front of her own statue for a little while, and then returned to the center of the square the statues were forming.

Without saying a word, she just kneeled down there, as one after another different people came up to her, giving her an 'Offering'. Young children, or old men, it didn't matter. It seemed like everyone wanted to give her anything they could.

It took a while for this to finish, but it soon did when the sun rose again. And as the first light hit the silent Lady's body, the Daughters of Winter made their way over to their mother. While their bodies were completely channeling the first light of the day, they soon disappeared as snow started to fall from the sky.

And in front of Eiro, the head of a small flower descended as if trying to push itself into his hand, so he slowly took it and just held it. Somehow, while it was still cold, it didn't seem as if the ice the flower was made of was melting in response to his touch, different to all the other flowers of ice that appeared then, which all disappeared after a little while.

While Eiro was looking at the flower, he soon felt something hard hit the back of his head. And that 'something hard' was Jura's hand.

"You utter and complete fool! You were lucky that the Lady was in a good mood, or you would be dead now! And what are you doing, caring for a half-dead deer instead of following her command? What is so special about that thing that you wanted to save it like that anyway!" He asked rather angrily as he stomped off, obviously telling Eiro to follow him.

"You... didn't feel it?" Eiro asked, but Jura just sighed as he slighly turned back toward the Imp. "Feel what? My heart stop every moment you acted so idiotically?"

The Imp just slowly shook his head, "Nevermind..." He said, still cupping the ice-flower in his hand. "I am sorry. Was I too disrespectful?" He asked, and Jura immediately nodded his head.

"Of course you were!" The old man replied, and for the couple of hours that he and Eiro were on their way back to the house, he lectured the Imp on why what he did was wrong. Of course, he basically just repeated himself a couple of times, so it gave Eiro a good chance to think about what exactly this flower was, whether or not the stag was really still alive, and what happened to his blessing. Obviously, he also thought about what to do when it came to his evolution.

Should he accept the 'Unique Evolution' again? He felt amazing with his current body, and it was also given to him through a 'Unique Evolution'... so probably he should accept it, right?

"Are you even listening to me?!" Jura asked a while after the two confirmed that the Stag stood up and left from where it was before, as they were stepping up the hill their house was on, and Eiro shook his head in response.

"No." He replied clearly, as there was no reason to lie here in his opinion, and Jura sighed out deeply.

"Just get inside and heat yourself up. You must be cold after sitting in the snow for a few hours." The old man said annoyedly, although Eiro just quietly denied that fact.

"I haven't felt cold since the Lady of Winter changed my blessing." He explained just as Jura opened the door, but the old man just stood there as if frozen.

"Since... The Lady did what?" Jura asked, and Eiro just stepped past the old man into the house and took off his basically completely frozen clothes off. "The Lady of Winter tapped by chest... and a notification appeared. My Blessing of the Lonely Naiad was changed into the 'Blessing of Winter's Lonely Naiad'." Eiro told the old man as he started drying himself off, and Jura slowly followed behind him.

"She... She gave you her Blessing?" He questioned, making Eiro just nod in response. That's what he just said, wasn't it? For now, the Imp was just really tired, and he definitely needed to get some sleep. It seemed like he wasn't even really registering what was going on right now.

"Can I sleep?" The Imp asked, and Jura simply nodded, letting Eiro drop into his bed in the corner of the room, right next to the beds of the children, who were still sleeping cozily.

And just as Eiro laid down in his bed and placed his cards down underneath his pillow like always, he looked at the notifications he set to the side before and quietly muttered 'Yes' to accept the Unique Evolution.

[Commencing Evolution. Evolution will be over in 6 days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 59 Seconds]

[You are unable to open your status during evolution]

And so, Eiro slowly drifted off into sleep as he dropped the ice flower onto his chest, right onto the blue mark, which had changed in a few ways.

Instead of the royal blue color it had before, it was now ice-blue, and while there were still royal blue lines running through it and the general shape stayed the same as before, the markings became more intricate and complex, as if they were modeled after a snowflake.

To Eiro, it felt like he woke up just as quickly as he fell asleep, although the notification that didn't seem like it would disappear until his evolution was over only went down to 11 hours, although everything else was nearly the same, so he slept about half a day.

He was already aware that you were usually conscious during evolutions, because the Imp that was walking in front of him in the Horde was going through evolution as well, apparently, and he was awake like normal then too.

As he picked up the flower of ice that was still on his chest like last night when he went to bed, Eiro stood up from his bed and got dressed in his clothes for the day, although something was weird about them.

He looked around the room, noticing that the others were just sitting there, eating dinner apparently, and then looked at Arc, whose bed was right next to the Imp.

"Arc, are these your pants? These are... A bit too short and tight for me..." The Imp said, before the young boy slowly stood up from the table and walked over toward Eiro to take a look. "Erm... I don't think so, at least... Those should be yours, but..." Arc said and then stood up straight, placing his hand onto the top of his head before running it over toward Eiro, noticing that it was reaching the Imp's chin instead of his eyes.

"I think you grew last night?" The boy pointed out, and Eiro slowly looked down at his body.

"Oh..." He muttered quietly. "I started my next evolution last night." He explained, and could immediately hair the sound of a chair being pushed away as Jura stood up.

"You did? Just going off and doing what you want all the time, huh? So, what evolution did you choose?" The old man asked as he stepped up to Eiro and tried to smell him for some reason, but the Imp just shook his head. "I don't know. It's a Unique Evolution because of my Cards..." Eiro pointed out, and Jura looked at him with a sigh.

"A Unique Evolution? Interesting, interesting... Well, that doesn't matter for now, then. Oh, and because you didn't go out today, you will have to go outside tomorrow for double the time. You still have to find the way to get your seed to grow." Jura said, and Eiro slightly furrowed his brows. Whenever Jura spoke like this, he expected something of the Imp. Usually he didn't know what to say, but this time around, he did.

"I know how to." He pointed out, before the old man turned around, both excited and in doubt. He was probably supposed to notice something from yesterday to help him find how to get the seed to grow, and that's exactly what he did.

As he looked down at the Ice Flower in his hand, the young Demon spoke, "If something like this can grow out there... Then it doesn't matter where it grows. It matters who cares for it... And I will care for this seed, and will plant it right now."