Demon's Virtue

"Hm?" Sammy turned around with a puzzled expression, looking at the man standing there holding the pouch. Confused, she looked toward her side and saw that it really was missing. "O-Oh, thanks." She said embarrassedly and swiftly grabbed the pouch again. Or at least she wanted to, but the young man slowly pulled his hand away.

"First, don't you think we should agree on a little reward?" He asked with a light smirk, and at that point, Eiro already wanted to grab him by his collar and immediately chuck him over the edge of the bridge, but... apparently that wasn't good manners, so he refrained from doing so.

Instead, he just intervened with words, "What kind of reward do you expect?" The Demon asked, but the man just slowly turned his eyes toward him with a glare, "Sorry bud, I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to this beautiful young lady here." He replied, and then just slightly smiled at Sammy again.

"It seems like you are travellers, so I was thinking maybe I could show you around town?" The young man suggested, and Sammy looked at him with a light frown, "You want your reward to be to give us a tour?"

With a slight chuckle, the man simply shook his head, "Not exactly... My reward would be to be able to spend more time with you." He smirked, and Eiro felt like throwing up. He did read quite a few novels before, and whenever he read someone say such a line... the demon felt embarrassed and disgusted to his core.

Sammy, however, seemed to think differently. Her heart-rate sped up and her face flushed to turn a bright red as she just took the pouch from him, "Th-That's fine... Right?" She asked and turned toward Eiro, trying to hide her face from this man, and the Demon just glared at him from underneath his mask.

"Of course, my dear Daughter. If you want to, that's fine." Eiro said, purposefully saying the word 'Daughter' as loud and clear as he could so that this man would understand.

And it seemed like he did, because the next moment, he opened his eyes wide in surprise, "Y-You're her father?" He asked, and the Imp just kept glaring at him, "That I am. But having someone like you show us around might be quite good. After all, someone with fingers as quick as yours seems to fit right into a town full of craftsmen." Eiro added, trying to tell this man that he knew about him having stolen the pouch.

But while his face went pale for just a moment, he started laughing shortly afterward, "Of course! I grew up here, everyone knows me! I'm practically famous!" He exclaimed, "My name is Felix. And what's the name of this beauty here?" Felix asked, slowly turning his sight back toward Sammy.

"I... I'm Samantha, nice to meet you Felix..." She explained nervously, and Arc immediately started laughing, although that's something he had been trying to hold back for a while now anyway, "Samantha? What are you even saying?" He exclaimed with a loud laugh. And although Sammy had been trying to shut him up by elbowing him into his stomach, things like that didn't help much when it came to a boy that didn't feel pain, "Just call her Sammy, like all of us." He pointed out as he looked at Felix, just wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Sammy, huh..?" Felix asked with a light smirk, "That is a quite cute name... But a name like that does not do your beauty justice. It's too childish, is it not? Samantha, on the other hand, sounds far better than that."

The moment that Sammy heard Felix say this, her face became even redder than before, and she started being unsure what she should say. With a slight frown, Eiro turned his eye toward the Spirit floating next to him, visible only to him.

"He's doing something with his voice... I think he might have a Charisma centered class." Nelli explained, and immediately, Eiro raised his brows and started grinning.

'I see... Then we might be to get Sammy a pretty good teacher, huh?' He thought to himself. Of course he wouldn't ever let anything happen to Sammy, so he would keep his eyes on both her and Felix at all times. But even then, since it seemed like Felix had an ability similar to Sammy's unique skill, albeit obviously far weaker, it would be good for her to know what it was like to be on the other side of the control.

On the other hand... Thinking about her being controlled like that made Eiro want to rip Felix's throat out so that he would never be able to speak again.

"Felix." Eiro said, trying to get him to stop looking Sammy's body up and down like that, and the young man, who seemed to be just a few years older than Sammy, turned toward him with a slight smile, trying not to annoy the Demon, "Yes?"

"We need to find our way to a craftsman. His name is Armodeus. Do you know where he is?" Eiro asked, and without hesitation, Felix nodded his head, "Of course I do! There's nobody in his town that doesn't know about Armodeus! He's an Elder-Dwarf that's even called the 'King of Craftsmen'!" Felix exclaimed, "I'll show you where his shop is, don't worry!"

"Thanks. Now come on, I think the line is advancing again." Eiro pointed out, and everyone swiftly followed the Demon back to the Carriage, where Arc immediately filled Rudy in on what just happened. Of course, without decency, as he didn't hesitate to yell it out in his regular loud voice.

With a bit of a sigh, Eiro sat down at the front of the carriage to properly make the horses advance whenever necessary. Roughly an hour later, it was finally their turn, which Eiro accepted with more than relief. After all, in that time, Felix had been smooth-talking Sammy constantly, and he didn't like that in the slightest.

"Good afternoon to you, Sir." The Guard standing in front of the carriage said, "What's your reason for coming to Argberg? Are you passing through, here on vacation, or for work?"

"Passing through." Eiro replied clearly, so the Guard slowly nodded and then looked over toward Lugo, "Is the stag with you?" He asked, so Eiro slowly nodded his head and ran his wooden hand over Lugo's forehead, making a small glowing mark appear there, "Yes, he's my familiar." The Demon explained, and the Guard slowly nodded although he seemed to be more interested in his hand right now.

"Alright. Then how many people are with you?"

"Four adults, two children." He replied, and the guard raised his brow as he looked at the group of people walking next to the carriage, "There's five adults, right?"

"Oh, that one guy isn't with us, he's from this town. We just met him." Eiro explained and then pointed at Felix, before the Guard sighed and looked at him as well, "Hey bud, wrong line. Wait for them inside."

With a disappointed expression, Felix nodded his head and smiled at Sammy as he made his way over toward another entrance where he passed right through.

And once that was done, the Guard just nodded his head, "Then we should be all set. We just need the entrance fee. Five small copper for adults, and children get in for one small copper. So that would come to two medium and seven small copper." The Guard explained, but before he was done, Eiro already handed the coins to him, which the Guard greatly appreciated.

"Thank you. Have a great stay in Argberg. There's a rather large selection of Inns right along the main road. Most of them even have some stables attached to them." The Guard added with a friendly smile, and Eiro just slowly nodded his head as he turned toward the children, telling them to get into the carriage.

Once they got through the short tunnel to reach the other side of the wall, Felix soon came back up to them, and then smiled brightly, "Welcome in Argberg! The place you need to go to fulfill your dreams!" He exclaimed, and then turned around with a broad smile, "Here, let me show you toward a really good, affordable Inn!" Felix told Eiro, who just sighed in response. He didn't really want to, but it was probably a good idea to stay the night and have a proper rest every once in a while. After all, they were ahead of their travel-schedule right now.

"Sure." Eiro agreed, and Felix then just smirked and climbed up onto the carriage and sat down right next to the Demon and then explained to him where exactly the Inn was. And while he did technically agree to Felix's suggestion, he was checking out all of the Inns placed around the main street here to see what the regular quality of them was.

Once he then saw the Inn that Felix brought them to, Eiro was rather disappointed. It was dirty, there was a wretched smell coming from inside, and there were obviously some hidden passages inside. This wasn't a regular Inn, just a setup to rob people easily.

"Yeah, we're not staying in that place." Eiro said with a deep glare, but Felix looked at him just confusedly. On the outside, it did look pretty good, after all, "What? Why not? I work here, so I can probably work out a discount." The young man said with a wink, but Eiro simply shook his head once more. Although, before he could fully disagree, Sammy stepped out of the carriage and walked up to his side.

"Come on, please..? Could we maybe stay here? Just for tonight..?" She asked Eiro, who didn't exactly know how to react.

"...Fine." He finally agreed, "We'll stay here. Then get us a place in the stable, please." The Demon Felix before getting off the carriage, and then waited for everyone to get out before stepping in once more, turning toward the Puppet in the corner as he pulled out two tokens out of his treasury.

The 'Stealth' and 'Hand-to-Hand Combat' ones. "If anyone tries to come inside of here, immediately defend it. Understood?" Eiro whispered, and then put both of the tokens into the puppet's chest, watching it as it practically disappeared from his sight while standing right in front of Eiro.

Once Eiro came back outside, he watched as Felix brought the carriage into the stables before the Demon made his way into the Inn to get a room for everyone for the night. And so, he paid received the keys, and then everyone made their way back outside.

There, they met back up with Felix, who swiftly guided them through town, talking about random things that Eiro didn't really care about while also continuously smooth-talking Sammy.

With a deep grumble, Eiro just shook his head out of irritation and tried to look at the shops around here. Basically any shop was one that offered to make any of their items by hand, even the bookstore. That's something that Eiro was actually slightly interested in, but for now, he simply chose to find Armodeus' place.

And to his surprise, that was actually rather easy. Soon, they reached a large building with the writing <Armodeus'> on the front of it. Just that. Once they got there, Felix stood in front of it and spread his arms wide, "Here we are! Armodeus'! The shop of the greatest craftsman in the world!"

But once Eiro turned his sight toward Nelli, the Spirit just shook her head, "This is the wrong place. He's at the highest layer's shop most of the time."

With a deep frown, the Demon just shook his head, "Felix, didn't I tell you to bring me to Armodeus? I meant the person, not the shop."