Demon's Virtue

Every single step was agony. The sensation of pain, heightened through his recently upgraded perception, was coursing through Eiro's body. But even so, he had to keep it up. Fixing the disrepair that appeared every time Eiro placed weight on any part of his body, the demon led Marius to the main part of the monster town.

Clearly, he hadn't been here before, as his heart was starting to beat heavier and louder the closer they got. Before long, they encountered the first group of monsters. A group of Mountain Hobgoblins, currently transporting the goods recently harvested from the nearby farmlands over into the storage facility.

The moment they saw Eiro, they bowed their heads briefly, but then continued their work. If they had to stop every time Eiro was walking through here, it was going to impede progress, so Eiro made it very clear to them to not worry about these things. Though of course, that was more than confusing to Marius himself.

While Skyhart was a country that was a bit more relaxed on the ways that the populace was expected to treat nobility, the country where the human villagers came from was different. Just the youngest child of a baron had to be treated with the same level of respect as a duke, which meant that in every case, they had to stop what they were doing and properly greet the nobles.

That explained why the villagers took everything so seriously earlier; not only did they feel they had to act like this toward those they considered their 'superiors', but specifically because of who Eiro was, there was tons of extra pressure placed onto them.

That being the case, Marius' expression seemed logical. Both because the goblins didn't seem to pay Marius himself much mind, and because they simply continued their work while in Eiro's presence. Well, the species that were introduced here more recently would react more to Marius, though.

But the Mountain Goblins, most of which had now evolved to Hobgoblins, the Kobolds, as well as the Highland Orcs had been living like this for long enough to not react so strongly. That definitely wasn't the case for the trolls that Eiro met next, though.

It was a group of two that curiously approached, practically staring past Eiro straight at the human behind him, "That... meat?"

Eiro glared up at them, exerting a bit of pressure over them with a simple gaze. The trolls flinched back nervously, cowering despite being so much taller than the demon was, "Speak properly. You learned how, did you not?"

The other troll carefully stuttered out, "I-Is that human... want meat?"

"It's 'does', Kolak. 'Does that human want meat' would be the correct one. And rather than ask me, ask him yourself. That's why you worked so hard to learn 'Common', right?" Eiro pointed out, and the troll carefully nodded. He held forward the bit of roasted Soldier-Ant meat that he was holding in his hand, trying to give it to Marius.

"Does human... No, wait... stupid Kolak... Do... you? Do you want some meat?

To eat?" the massive troll asked, almost shy in his behaviour. Marius glanced at Eiro, who was waiting for an answer just as much as the two trolls were. Nervous, and clearly anxious to say 'no', Marius nodded his head.

"I-I would be happy to, Kolak," Marius held forward his arms, as the troll grinned broadly. His crooked and yellow teeth that looked like a wall in front of Marius shaped an unnerving, but genuine smile. The troll dropped the mass of cooked, hot meat into Marius' hands. He flinched back slightly, not having expected it to be as hot as it was.

He looked back, trying to push through the pain, scared of what would happen if he were to drop the meat, "Thank you, I will... I will enjoy it!"

The two trolls looked at each other excitedly, throwing their arms around each others' shoulder. Starting to speak to each other in the troll language, the two quickly walked away, cheering as though they had just won a battle. Once they were far enough away, Eiro grabbed the hot meat from Marius and quickly waved some healing magic over his hands to prevent any burns, "That one surprised even me.

A troll giving up their dinner to give a gift to a human?"

It seemed like Eiro should praise Rashi a bit more. She ahd been doing a pretty good job at guiding the trolls to behave better.

"B-But... what was that? They were speaking Common, and... why did they give me a gift? Plus, dinner? It's morning, isn't it?" Marius asked.

It seemed like his anxiety was washed away a bit by the shock of what just happened, though he very quickly caught himself in that and tried to correct himself. But before he could, Eiro answered all of those questions.

"Those were two trolls, Kolak and Madek. They're working in the reconstruction team right now, and just saw something interesting on their way back to the trolls' district. I think they wanted to practice the things we've been trying to teach them. Hospitality, how to speak common, things like that. And yes, dinner. Most trolls live nocturnally since they're not good with sunlight.

So our morning is their evening. They also sleep 14 hours a day," Eiro explained, continuing to guide Marius through the streets.

"But... Lord Daemonherz, how is it possible for monsters to learn common?"

Eiro turned around to Marius, "Are you really asking me that? Most high-noble monsters know Common. The idea that monsters can't learn it is just false, and most people know that too. Monsters can learn the skill just like anyone else can. Frankly, I learned Common before I learned the Demonic language.

Of course, it's a bit harder for most monsters, but that's why we've been guiding and teaching them."

Marius understood what the Demon was saying, but it still seemed a bit hard for him to really wrap his head around. Once he met the other leaders, he might understand it a bit better. That being the case, Marius already had to face a lot of different monsters just on his way to the town hall.

Considering the life that he thought he lived only a week ago, this must be an extraordinarily stressful situation for him. He most have pretty high willpower.

Before long, they made their way back to the town hall. Lugo, who had been following behind the whole way, anxiously watching Eiro walk on his own, laid down in the corner of the room again. But this time, the space wasn't empty. The large table on one side of the room was filled this time. As usual, Gobu was doing some work there.

Kitsue was napping, laying her head on the table while the morning sun shone through the window, and Rashi had thrown her legs onto the table. Meanwhile, Boju was upstairs, sleeping as Eiro had told him to.

The moment that the Demon stepped into the room, the three monster leaders jumped up.

"My Lord!" Gobu exclaimed excitedly, "You have returned safely from the battle against the Devil! So it was a success?"

Eiro quickly nodded his head, responding to the approaching hobgoblin, "Yes, I've managed to kill the Devil without issues. I've also already prepared for a large-scale transport of a lot of the Devil's materials and wealth to this town, so use them well once they arrive. Ah, but some of his 'pets' may show up here and cause a mess too, so just deal with them as you see fit."

"Of course, of course," Gobu replied, almost smug to hear this about his master. Meanwhile, Kitsue had forced her head under Eiro's palm, making him rub the top of her head. Especially in the mornings she seemed pretty needy. But Rashi apparently didn't feel like holding back either, approaching Eiro with a broad smile on her face.

"So you've killed that guy? I heard he was pretty rough, so I feel like that deserves a reward... you can choose what you-" Rashi started, but Eiro just rolled his eyes. Luckily she was speaking in the troll language, so Marius didn't have to hear her depravity.

"You three, especially you, Rashi, be quiet," Eiro sighed loudly, holding his hand toward Marius.

"Despite what I had asked you to do, it looks like none of you came to introduce yourselves. So he is now here to introduce himself to you; the leaders of the humans," Eiro started, and Marius carefully stepped forward. He bowed to them.

"My name is Marius. Lord Daemonherz has graciously accepted us into this town as his subjects. We don't wish to cause you any trouble, and hope to become a proper part of this town in the future," Marius explained, once more speaking as though he had practiced exactly what he was supposed to say.

But the three monsters in front of him weren't particularly impressed. Particularly Gobu was holding back his disgust, "Ah... I see. Nice to meet you... Marius."

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