Demon's Virtue
chapter-679

Eiro walked through the royal castle. A few guards and maids bowed to him as he walked by, and the Demon just nodded at them as he continued through the hallways. He soon found himself in front of Solomon's office, knocking on the door a few times. At this point, the guard standing outside the door knew that this was a signal to 'go on break'. Generally, Eiro would create a barrier around the room anyway, so there was no way that him and the king were going to be overheard, but it still felt like an extra layer of safety to just send the guards on their way for a while. Plus, it wasn't like anything could happen to Solomon while Eiro was there in the first place, so it was the best time to simply take an actual break.

"Come in," Solomon called out from inside the room. Eiro stepped inside, and Solomon raised his brow, "Did we have a meeting scheduled today?" he asked, not raising the nip of his pen from the paper in front of him. With a slight turn of his head, Solomon nodded at the attendant next to him, signaling her to take a break as well, so that him and Eiro could speak alone.

"No, we didn't," Eiro finally replied once they were alone, waving his hand to create a barrier using the Ace of Cups, all the whilst Bavet split off of his body so that Eiro could behave a bit more comfortably, "I'm here for some... advice."

Immediately, Solomon stopped. He carefully placed his pen to the side, "You need advice? From me?" the king asked, looking over at Bavet as if to confirm that he heard correctly, and the slime, who had turned into his own human form, nodded his head and sat down on the couch.

Eiro sighed, "Yes, I need your help. It's about something serious that I can't figure out on my own right now."

Solomon frowned, nervous, "And you expect me to be able to figure it out if you can't? You already walked through all possible paths anyway, right?"

"...It's a bit more complicated than that. It's not a logical issue, it's an emotional one. It's about Clementine," the Demon explained, and Solomon slowly let out a sigh of relief, "Oh... parenting advice. Alright, I can certainly help with that," the king pointed out, dropping down on one of the armchairs, "Don't scare me like that. I thought the apocalypse was approaching and you were out of options," he joked, and Eiro slowly shrugged.

"If I'll be totally honest, it feels similar," Eiro replied, "It's about Clementine. She... she is struggling, and horribly so. And I don't know what to do. I mean, I know what I 'could' do, I've read hundreds of books about parenting and nurture of children. Psychology, trauma; I probably know more about the theory than anyone else in this world does. But actually putting into action, especially when it's about my daughter... it's just so..."

"Scary?" Solomon finished for his friend, who only replied with a short nod, "That, yeah. I haven't felt true fear in ages. Anger? That I can deal with, but fear? It's so... suffocating. I'm at a loss."

With a concerned expression, Solomon looked over at Bavet. The slime didn't have much to say; he was really only here because he had little choice in the manner. And frankly, at this point in time, it was hard to find someone that knew Eiro better than Bavet. Besides Nelly, Gondos, and Sarius, he spent the most time with the Demon, so that was inevitable. It was just natural to be here, whether or not Bavet was actually able to offer any real support in this situation.

"How about you start by explaining the issue at hand?" Solomon asked, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "Clementine is struggling because of her unique skill. You already know the effects, but it seems it's much harder for her to deal with than we thought. It causes a sort of deep hunger in her that she can't fully control anymore, and it's infused into every part of her life, since she feels it constantly. She's being overtaken by this fear of what would happen if she slipped up and let the hunger win for once. And while this hasn't always been the case, the hunger started becoming intertwined with her physical, actual hunger as well. She's eating less and less... and on top of that, she's scared to show passion about anything at all, because she feels that it's going to ruin her if she feeds said passion, just like the hunger always does. I want to help her, but I just... I don't know how."

Solomon listened intently. He could tell that Eiro truly didn't know what to do; something that he had never seen on the Demon's face before. That sort of concern for his child... even many human parents didn't react like this when their child struggled.

"It's a complicated situation, that is for sure. Seeing your child suffer like this; watching them fall into a deep hole that even you can't see the bottom of, it makes you feel helpless. Even knowing rationally what you could do, which I am convinced you know more than anyone could, it's hard to know how to help them forward. It was the same with Charles... after the attack, after he became crippled, I feared that I would never see a smile on his face again. I'm sure you remember what I was like when you first met me."

Eiro nodded. The Solomon from back then and the Solomon sitting across from him now were hard to recognize as the same person. Both in regard to his physical appearance, as well as in his outer composure. Instead of a King, a ruler of a powerful country such as Skyhart, Eiro saw a shell of a man who had been consumed by the loss of a boy who barely clung to life anymore.

"Charles is a strong young man, and he has done well recovering from that trauma, but he still struggles. As much as it pains me to say this as his father... I fear that he will never be the same as he used to be. A situation like Clementine's, where she has been affected by this for her whole life, must have effects you and I can never even imagine. Even once you rid her of that horrible skill, I don't think this is something you, or anyone, can 'fix'."

"...I'm not taking the skill from her," Eiro replied quietly, looking at the ground with a deep pain. Solomon leaned forward confused, and even Bavet was shocked. That was something completely new to them. Eiro had explained his plan of using the Key artifact to help his children to them a while ago, and it seemed like it would happen sooner rather than later, as the war with the Devil seemed to approach ever-more.

"The hell are you talking about? Of course you are – You have to!" Bavet spit out angrily, but Eiro shook his head, "No, I... I can't. A few days ago, I found some research in the Tower of Books in the plane of water. It was research done on the nature of skills. Regular skills were based on experience, and knowledge, and growth. That was something you could take or bestow onto others with little issue. Even a Legendary skill was the same; they were bestowed onto people from an outside force, and could be taken without issue. But Unique skills? They're... aspects of the soul. While all other skills exist 'because' of the system... Unique Skills exist despite it," Eiro replied, leaning back in his seat while letting out a deep sigh, "Yes, because the system makes them more tangible, I could probably pull the Unique Skills out of them. But if I were to do that, I would take a part of their soul. Not the shards of the arcane attached to their soul; but of their actual self. That what makes them... them. I can't even imagine what sort of consequences that could have on someone."

"...So those kids will just have to live with these horrible, horrible abilities? For the rest of their lives?" Solomon asked, and Eiro simply nodded, "They do. And the others, even if they still suffer from these skills every day, are on a path of mastering a way of living with their skills, making use of them. For example, Rudy just works without protective gear now, because why would he need any, really? He seems to be able to deeply connect with his work that way. On top of that, despite his large build and impressive strength, he realized that no matter how fragile, he will never be able to hurt someone or something on accident, so he's become a lot more outgoing. And Sammy? She doesn't even notice it, but her unique skill makes it so that when she sings, her intent and her emotion is so deeply and uniquely infused into her music, instead of controlling others, she can make them truly feel the emotions and truth within that song. But how can I expect Clementine to live with that skill of hers? It is actively fighting against her, every single second of every single day. And I can't even do anything to help her; I'm planning on destroying the boundary between 'Person-' and 'Monsterhood', and get rid of the hero and monster king, but I can't even make my daughter feel better? How pathetic is that?"