Demon's Virtue

Eiro slowly sat up in his bed. He managed to figure out another four of five percent of the meanings of the words in the tome, bringing him to a point where he knew a third of the words used in it.

And as Eiro was just sitting there in his bed, trying to think for a while, he heard someone approaching his room.

"Come in." Eiro said just as they were about to knock on the door, and was able to hear a sigh the next moment, "I know that knocking is completely unnecessary with you, but could we at least pretend to have a normal routine?" Ariella asked as she entered the room, and Eiro shrugged as he was still sitting in bed, his body partially covered by the blanket.

"Sure, if that's what you want. I'll let you knock the next time." Eiro replied, "Anyway, is there anything that you wanted to talk about? You don't usually come to see me at this time of the day."

"Ah, yeah... I wanted to talk to you about something. Basically... It's not particularly necessary for Hannah and I to keep living here, is it? There haven't been any Undead Hunters around lately, and the more I understand your abilities, the more I know that in case we encounter an enemy that I can't take care of myself, you'll be there to help us out at any point." Ariella explained, and Eiro closed his eyes for a moment as he took a deep breath.

"If you really want to leave, then you can, of course. But I don't have an issue with you staying here however long you want. We have plenty of space here, after all." The Demon pointed out. Ariella stood in front of the bed and lightly turned her head to the side to break eye-contact with Eiro.

"I get it, but..." She muttered, and Eiro smiled at her, "Don't worry, I get it. But at the very least let me make sure that the place you two will stay at is safe, I think I can scan the perimeter a bit quicker than you."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it." Ariella nodded her head, and the two of them were there in this room in silence for a while, before the Nephilim looked at Eiro somewhat awkwardly, "Aren't you going to get out of bed?"

"Of course, but ever since you told me I shouldn't walk around naked while you're there, I figured I shouldn't just yet." Eiro pointed out, and Ariella raised her brows, "O-Oh, so you're... Alright, I'll leave you be, then..."

Ariella quickly rushed out of the room while Eiro threw the blanket to the side and stepped out of his bed. He swiftly walked over toward his closet and picked out some clean clothes to wear for the day. After getting dressed, Eiro stepped out of the room and soon made his way downstairs, where the children were already gathered as well, simply sitting there before they were all going to head off to the academy.

Eiro looked at them with a smile on his face, "Did you guys eat breakfast already?" The Demon asked, and the children quickly turned toward him and nodded their heads. Although, they seemed to be a bit concerned about something.

"Yeah, but... What happened last night? Avalin was looking for you all around the house, but couldn't find you... I had to tell her a story so that she could end up falcling asleep." Sammy explained to Eiro, who looked back at his daughter and awkwardly scratched his neck.

"About that... It was a bit of a mishap in my training, it won't happen again, don't worry." Eiro explained to them, before he noticed one of the monster servants cleaning up the table that the children most likely sat at to eat earlier, "Erm, in your guys' opinion, are the monsters doing alright jobs here at the moment?"

"What? Why're you just changing the topic, dad?" Arc laughed a bit, "I mean, they're doing fine, but we were talking about how we literally didn't see you all day after class ended. We were worried, until Bavet told us that you were here." Arc pointed out, and Eiro looked back with a slight sigh.

"I'm sorry. As I said, it won't happen again. It was something rather unpredictable, since I was working with Arcane Magic. It works in a very different way to other sorts of magic, so the effect that it had on my mind in the infusion chamber was rather unexpected as well. In just a second for me, a few hours passed. So, I won't be using the infusion chamber like that anytime soon, so this kind of thing won't happen. But I promise to check in with all of you when I come home now, yesterday was just a bit... rough for me in general." Eiro apologized to the children, who were slowly looking at each other. They understood that Eiro was serious, although that still didn't solve one of the issues that they had brought up.

"I think all of us accept your apology, but we're not the ones you had to apologize to that much anyway. We're used to you sometimes fading in and out with your attention." Rudy pointed out as he looked at his father. The Demon slowly nodded his head as he replied.

"I'm going to apologize to Avalin as well, don't worry. But for now, all of you get ready to head to the academy while I do that. Rudy, remember that you have to hand in your project today." The Demon said as he slowly turned around, and Rudy quietly sighed as the group of four swiftly stood up from the couches.

---

"No!" Avalin yelled out, with Eiro standing in front of her room's door, "I don't want to see you anymore!"

Eiro looked at the wooden surface in front of his eyes. He could sense Avalin on the other side of the door, stomping her foot onto the ground with deep huffs of anger. Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose a bit worried, as he tried again.

"Avalin, I'm sorry, but it was an accident. I promise that it won't happen again." Eiro tried reassuring the girl on the other side of the door, while Leon was trying to use this time to keep sleeping for a bit longer in his bed. He turned around a few times since Avalin was bothering him with that, but that wasn't particularly the greatest issue that Eiro was seeing right now.

Instead, he noticed that Avalin's smile seemed to have grown a bit bigger on the other side of the room as she seemed to become somewhat excited about something.

"I will... forgive you if you bring me..." Avalin muttered, and Eiro already knew where she was going with this.

"Oh no..." The Demon muttered nervously, as Avalin continued to tell her father about her conditions for forgiving him.

"If you bring me as much candy as I can eat!" She exclaimed, and Eiro let out a deep, but quiet, groan.

"Fine, but only if you promise not to complain when you feel sick later. Alright?" Eiro replied, and Avalin crossed her arms, "I promise nothing!"

"Avalin..."

"Nothing!"

Eiro closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, "Fine. You can eat as much candy as you want, and I'll even let you complain once you feel sick from it. Alright? Will you open the door now?"

"Okay~!" Avalin exclaimed with a broad smile on her face as she pulled the door open. Eiro stepped inside and knelt down in front of her to be at an eve eye-level with the girl.

"I'll bring you the candy later. For now, let me apologize again. I'll..." Eiro said, but at that moment, he noticed something. He snapped his head over toward Leon. He hadn't noticed until now since Eiro had practiced to not intensely focus on other people, especially ever since he was by Ariella that it was rather inappropriate, so he hadn't really noticed anything until it was this obvious.

Eiro immediately jumped up and walked up to Leon, pulling the blanket off of him.

"H-Huh? What is it..?" Leon asked tiredly, and without a moment's hesitation, the Demon stared deeply at Leon, "Your scent is different..." The Demon pointed out, "Why is your scent different..?"

"My scent? But I bathe every day..." Leon muttered as he slowly stood up, and Eiro immediately proceeded to grab the young boy's head. He could feel the blood-flow intensifying around certain parts. The Demon stared deep into Leon's eyes, and could spot a small change.

"Your eyes are changing... Their color, at the very least..." The Demon said out loud. Leon's eyes had always been dark, practically as black as his hair. But now, it was different. They were brightening up a bit. Leon's hair as well, it had started growing a lot faster than before, and it was not only longer but far thicker than usual.

Eiro grabbed the young boy's body and swiftly turned him around. With a swift press on the center of Leon's back, Eiro sent in a light pulse of mana that he wanted to use to figure out all changes within his son's body.

"A concentration of mana and blood-flow at the lower end of his spine... It's similar to when it happened to me... Leon, you're growing a tail." The Demon said, somewhat confused.. Changes within a beast-man's body were only supposed to happen when they entered puberty. So why was it happening to this eight years old boy right now?