Demon's Virtue
chapter-82

Eiro sat outside in front of the wooden statue that he himself made, but that was destroyed by James. Jura repaired it with his plants, but they withered away right when he did, so it was back in the state it was in before. Slowly from behind him, he could hear something approach, and soon felt the snout of a certain Stag tapping against his shoulder.

"Hey there, Lugo… Where were you before?" The Demon asked as he turned his head toward his Familiar, who just slightly turned his head away embarrassedly, "Hiding, huh? Thought those were the Venison Bandits?" The Imp figured, and Lugo slowly nodded his head.

"Well, we're all fine, so don't worry." Eiro muttered quietly, and then turned back in front of him, slowly looking at the Golden Card in his hand, before putting it into his 'Treasury' for now.

He would activate it later, but Nelli told him that he should rather wait for a situation where it was quiet and dark, and where he was in a stable, comfortable position, because all his senses would increase once he activated it. That was the ability of this card, after all, the Five of Pentacles.

"Now then…" Eiro said to himself as he pushed his body up from the ground and stepped up to the front door, although he was quickly stopped by Jura's former Spirit.

"Could you come with me for a moment?" Nelli asked Eiro, and the Demon just quietly nodded his head, before being led to the back of the house into the basement. "What are we doing down here?" Eiro asked as he stepped down the stairs, and Nelli just stayed quiet as she floated along the room to the very back.

"Push these to the side." She told the Imp, pointing at the large blocks of wood standing against the wall. It wasn't a type of wood that was really ever used here. It was ugly, way too soft, hard to properly carve, and didn't respond well to final treatments… Eiro didn't really know why they still had it. But nevermind that, there had to be a reason why Nelli told him to do so, so he just did as asked, and stood next the large blocks with his feet set properly onto the ground so that he wouldn't slip away.

Then he pressed his hands onto the lower half of the wood and then just pressed against it, and soon a small room was revealed behind the block. It really wasn't all that large, maybe three by three meters wide, and two meters high, but it was enough to hold the few things that it had inside.

One of them, dead in the center, was the dark wooden casket, just sitting there, ready to be taken out. "Oh… How… how long has this been down here?" Eiro asked quietly, and Nelli just looked at him with a slight smile. "He made it when you went out to town last month." She replied in a clear voice, although she seemed just as upset as Eiro, if not more.

"Ah, there's a few other things in here as well, though! Things Jura wanted to give you when you graduated as his apprentice… So I guess they're your's now…" Nelli pointed out with a slight smile, and Eiro raised his brows surprised as he looked around this room that was only illuminated by the Light Magic Stone that Eiro was holding.

"Is that so?" The Demon asked quietly as he took a look around, and soon found what Nelli was speaking about. In the corner of the room, somehow hidden despite the room not being that large, stood a Mannequin with Eiro's height and build, wearing a black cloak made of a really, incredibly nice but also incredibly expensive material. Eiro recognized it because a wandering merchant that visited the town had it in his sortiment once. Back then, the merchant called it 'Woven Shadows', because it was a material that supported the 'Stealth' skill incredibly. Mannequin

On the Mannequin's face was a mask similar to the one that Eiro had been using up until now, just that it was of far higher quality, and from the front it seemed like just a complete slab of wood without even eye-holes, but when Eiro took it into his hands and looked at the inside, he noticed that it was very much not the case.

From the inside, the wood seemed basically invisible, and Eiro could look through it without an issue. He wasn't really sure how it worked, but Jura's expertise with wood was far beyond Eiro's comprehension anyway, so he was sure that this was done through a sort of magic wood. Either way, when he then placed it on his face, to him it really seemed like he wasn't wearing a mask at all. Neither his sight, nor his breathing was influenced at all, and the mask stuck to his face without even and straps that Eiro needed to pull around his head.

When Eiro took the Cloak off of the Mannequin's body and put it on, he soon noticed that there was a leather satchel by its side. When he ran his fingers over the material, it seemed nearly freezing, and it seemed incredibly tough, but when he opened the bag up, he could barely believe what he saw.

"Did Jura..?" Eiro asked quietly, his voice unobstructed by the mask, and Nelli quickly nodded her head. "He had this made a while ago. On the last trip, we didn't go to care for an animal, but we visited a nearby town that had a skilled craftsman that could deal with such things. And so, the dirty spatial bag that you brought here back then was used to create this piece. In total, it has the same amount of space as the bag had, but is a little bigger, so it might just be a downgrade, but Jura was quite happy with it…" Nelli said, and Eiro just slightly nodded his head, his smile hidden behind his new mask.

"It's perfect, don't worry. And… this?" Eiro asked quietly as he pushed his hand into the satchel, although he did slightly struggle to actually reach the bottom of it with his arm, but he soon managed to grab the small box that was placed inside of the satchel.

And when he opened that box up, he soon had a collection of different tools in front of him, all engraved with a symbol… The symbol that was in the center of Eiro's chest. A few years ago, the Demon learned that Marks of blessings were always unique to who had it, even if the giver of the blessing was the same. There was even a small note in the box describing where exactly the blacksmith that made these was, although Eiro wasn't sure why Jura didn't just ask the blacksmith of the nearby town…

Well, that didn't matter too much in the end. What did matter was that these were all just amazing things that Eiro would treasure for years to come, he was sure of that.

With a light smile, Eiro placed the box back into the bag and then was just about to turn around, before he saw that something was missing on the Mannequin. It didn't have its right hand… Eiro was sure that Jura wouldn't do this just to be 'accurate', or to make a 'joke' or something like that. And now that he thought about it, the whole Mannequin was made of the same material that his current right hand was made of…

"I see, then that's the next task, huh?" Eiro asked himself with a smile on his face, as he placed the satchel onto the ground and just quickly pushed the Mannequin's body inside. "Pretty useful, huh?" The demon laughed slightly, before he walked up to the casket behind him, pressing his fingers underneath the wood, before Nelli looked at him surprised.

"If you need help, I'll go get Rudy…" She said, but Eiro just shook his head.

"It's fine. I can carry this one myself…" The Demon muttered quietly, and then managed to push the casket up properly to at least scoop his body underneath it, before he let it back down onto his back as he pushed his fingers into the holes at the underside of the casket that he used to keep it stable, as he continued to manipulate his Life Force to make sure he could actually properly carry the casket despite its weight.

And so, he made his way out of this room and then carried the wooden piece through the room and up the stairs, each step getting heavier and heavier, before he soon saw the light of day outside again, and the others who had been waiting out there quickly came rushing up to him when they noticed what he was carrying.

"Where did you get the casket from?" Rudy asked quietly, and Eiro just smiled at him, although he probably didn't notice, as Eiro's face was still hidden under his mask, "Jura made it himself… A fair while ago, apparently."

"Why didn't you wait for us?" Sammy asked with a frown, her eyes still red from crying, same with the others, and Eiro just smiled back at them. "It's fine. Did you find a nice place to bury him?" The Demon asked as he looked at Arc, the only one that was composed enough for Eiro to ask him that, and the boy nodded his head.

"Yeah… On the small spot inbetween the roots where Jura often sat every summer." Arc said quietly, "I figured that would be a nice place."

Slowly, Eiro nodded his head as he carried the casket over to the place that Arc suggested, carefully placing it back down onto the ground, before Eiro, Arc, and Rudy started to dig the ground up enough for the casket to fit into it, using the shovels that were in the shed, before Eiro made his way inside of the house and carefully grabbed the old man off of the bed… His body just limply laying in his arms.

It was tough for the Demon to see, despite having seen so many dead bodies before… It was just different this time. Jura's body was cold, and heavy… far heavier than anything Eiro had carried before, despite Jura having been so thin toward the end.

Outside, Eiro slowly placed the old man's body into the casket he had made for himself, and everyone just looked down onto the casket as it was set down into the ground.

"Do any of you want to say something?" Nelli asked quietly, and Arc nodded his head first, slowly grabbing the shovel as he picked up some of the dirt on the small mount next to him.

And what Arc said was kind, and nice, and happy, like everything that Arc ever did and said. He was the happiest person that Eiro ever knew. He joked, to lighten the mood, and the Demon really did appreciate that, because he knew he couldn't do that kind of thing.

When Rudy spoke, he was serious and regretful, and told a few stories of what he remembered Jura being like in his day to day life, so that everyone could reminisce about him.

Sammy was similar, or at least she tried to be. She was obviously trying to hold back her tears, although in the end, she had to stop when she just started outright sobbing. And Clementine wasn't much better. She was usually pretty cheerful, but definitely the one out of this group of weirdos that showed her true emotions in the most direct and pure way, so she just spoke of how much she would miss Jura and how much she loved and appreciated him. At least that's what Eiro understood from her words drowned out by her cries.

Neither Avalin nor Leon really knew what to say, it was understandable. They just tightly held onto Eiro, crying because everyone else was. They probably didn't even understand what death was yet.

And then, it was Eiro's turn to say something. But he didn't really know what he was supposed to say. There was so much he wanted to convey, but there were so little words that he could actually feasibly grasp and say right now, as if whenever he tried to start moving his tongue they just disappeared out of his mind.

So, in the end, Eiro could only narrow it down to two words, that he hoped would be able to say all that he wanted them to.

"Thank you."