Demon's Virtue - Chapter 659: Through the Streets

Eiro and Lugo were warmly welcomed into the city of monsters. Partax, however, was only regarded rather coldly, with the monsters of the town staring at him with suspicion. It’s been a while since they’ve seen a ‘person’, after all. For nearly all of them, with just a few exceptions, it was the first time they’ve seen anything beside fellow monsters since their monstrosity had been suppressed. Clearly, they were feeling rather hesitant about it. But since they were all holding themselves back properly, Eiro didn’t really pother to say anything about it, and just let it be for now.

Partax being here was actually an incredibly good thing for the city in some sense. Exposure therapy, so to say. Basically, soon they would realize that there’s no reason for them to worry; their monstrosity won’t flare back up all that easily. And once they realize this fact, they will probably feel even more in control over their own bodies than before. Eiro was pretty sure everyone here was anxious that their new lives, their new mind without the cloud of anger, fear and utter despair that was known as ‘monstrosity’ was something they could only live without since they were amongst fellow monsters. Once that anxiety subsided, maybe many of the monsters here would actually feel a bit of curiosity at the idea of living alongside people.

Some of the younger monsters were already showing some of that curiosity. While their parents avoided Partax and acted as though he weren’t even there, the kids hid behind those parents’ legs and curiously glanced at that old man as he was carried around on metal legs.

Eiro smiled at Gobo, “You’ve managed to evolve again… I’m guessing that means that you’ve encountered some trouble since I’ve been gone.”

The Hobgoblin looked at the Demon awkwardly, “I guess you could say that…” Gobo looked around, seeing the amount of eyes that were on them at the moment, and walked up beside Eiro, “Maybe we should make our way elsewhere, where we can discuss this in private.”

Even more curious, Eiro nodded his head and quickly started to follow the Hobgoblin down the road. He made sure to continue inspecting the whole area as he was before, noticing some aspects of the city that he hadn’t been aware of before.

Since everything here was constructed on top of this floating island, and in a large portion was made using materials either grown or mined from the island itself, everything had even just a small amount of gravity magic flowing through it. Certainly, it wasn’t much. It was so little, that Eiro wasn’t even able to spot it before actively looking for it as he did now, with his own magic flowing through every part of the city around him. He couldn’t even spot the subtle scent of gravity magic since that enormous magic stone at the core of the city was bascially overpowering the scent of any other magic at this point.

This amount of magic definitely wasn’t an issue in regular day-to-day life, nor would it be even noticeable in the slightest. Maybe a few grains of dust would move around a bit more easily than before, but that was all. However, in regard to artificing, where the slightest flow of magic that hadn’t been accounted for could ruin everything or cause unwanted effects… that was different. Especially in a place like this, Eiro understood just the better why exactly Partax wanted him to do this in the academy; to make sure all the processes that would be installed would work properly, and every little detail could be accounted for.

Though, Eiro did wonder if this might cause some weird side-effects in the evolutions of the monsters… the gravity magic would end up spreading through the soil and into the vegetables and fruits that are harvested, and of course would soon spread to nearby animals through regular plantlife, meaning that the solely carnivorous monster species would also end up being affected somehow. Not to mention the animals that feed on the magic-infused herbs in the first place.

It probably wouldn’t really cause any issues, and if it did at all, then only a few dozen generations down the line, and it would be a problem that could be watched over time too.

Soon, as Eiro was trying to think of how the bodies of the local monsters and animals might change, Gobo had led them to a building that they seemed to be using as a base of operation for now. Eiro removed the harness of Lugo’s body and moved the cart to a spot at the side of the road where it wouldn’t bother anyone. Gobo was just about to tell some of the nearby monsters to unload the cart, but Eiro waved them away.

“No need,” Eiro said as he glanced at Gondos. The Demon didn’t even have to say anything before the Golem created multiple pillars of rock, which Eiro quickly imbued with his magic before turning them into servants temporarily, “Carry the materials inside. And be careful as you do, some of them are fragile.”

Quickly, the servants started doing as they were told. They brought the materials inside into what Eiro figured to be the storage room, though they were very clearly confusing the monsters inside the building quite a lot.

Gobo let out a sigh and scratched his cheek, “I keep forgetting you can do that now.”

“I doubt you’ll be forgetting about this soon,” Eiro pointed out, as he stepped into the building. He waved his hand and created a gust of wind that stopped the Kitbold, Kitsue, mid-jump, throwing her backward again. Similarly, he stopped Rashi, the troll leader, from approaching by manipulating the wooden floorboards into wrapping themselves around her ankles.

It wasn’t like either of them wanted to attack him, though. They simply didn’t have manners or a sense of personal boundaries.

“Urgh… you could be a bit nicer next time…” Kitsue groaned just after barely catching her fall, and Rashi looked at Eiro with her arms crossed, “So what am I supposed to do about this now? You said I can’t destroy things,” she asked in the trolls’ language, and Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose annoyed.

“Just shut up, both of you. Did neither of you even bother to learn from Gobo or Boju?” he asked, using one of his mouths to speak in ‘common’, and the other to speak in ‘troll’.

Though, he couldn’t be too mad at them. It seemed like both Rashi and Kitsue had evolved since Eiro had last been here too. And as Eiro walked through town, he picked up the scent of some monsters that didn’t belong here, and from how far they had spread, it seemed as though there ended up being quite a few.

“Just tell me what happened here,” Eiro finally asked. While he did have some servants here in the area, he wasn’t signaled when this all happened for some reason. He would have been here to help out immediately.

Though… maybe it was better that he wasn’t, since it allowed Gobo, Kitsue, and Rashi to grow.

“First… my lord, who is the man behind you?” Gobo asked, looking at Partax, and Eiro slowly turned toward him, “Do you want to introduce yourself?” the Demon asked, but the halfling seemed a bit hesitant.

“Introduce myself to… monsters?” Partax asked, and Eiro raised a brow, “I’m a monster.”

“Yeah, but you’re different! An exception! Or… so I thought, but… what are these… these things?” the halfling asked, and Eiro couldn’t help but smirk, “They’re monsters, just different from what you expected, huh?”

“…” Partax looked at the monsters around the room who were clearly growing more annoyed after hearing Partax speak, before finally introducing himself, “My name is Partax Evergreen, fifteenth of my name but first of my titles of Master of Artificing and Alchemy. Eiro’s father, Jura, was my brother in spirit, if not by blood. I am here to teach Eiro, and after hearing about this place, I insisted on seeing what it was like. I expected a nest of monsters like any other, but… Now that I have come, I cannot help but be perplexed.”

“Perplexed? How-”

“That is exactly how! The fact that you are able to speak common so fluently; monsters should not be able to learn this tongue so effortlessly! And it is not just you, all the monsters in this town seem to converse with each other, no matter their species! This place should not- it should not exist, but it does!”

“My lord… is he trying to insult us or not? I’m no longer certain,” Gobo asked with a frown, but Eiro just laughed as he shook his head, “No, he’s just genuinely confused and excited. Don’t worry, you can trust him. He can be a bit much, but I’ll make sure that he keeps up some boundaries while we’re here.”

Partax scoffed loudly, “Boundaries? What kind of-”

“P-Partax..?” Mikey let out, floating up right from the other room. Him and his sister Aria hadn’t been with Gobo, but had stayed behind. They as well, had changed a little since Eiro last saw them. Their forms had solidified more, becoming more humanoid and appearing more as they used to when they still lived, and hadn’t been turned into Will’o’wisps yet. They had evolved too, then.

“Did you say Partax Evergreen? Master of Artificing?!”

“And Alchemy… people always forget the Alchemy somehow,” Partax scoffed, looking at the dark wisp of black light and smoke floating over toward him. Mikey seemed to grin broadly and approached even closer, “I’m a huge fan!”