Demon's Virtue

"My class?" Eiro repeated after hearing Felix's question, and the young man nervously nodded his head as everyone started looking at him, "Y-Yeah, or is that too much to ask..?" He inquired and Sammy, still mad from being messed with by Felix, immediately started glaring at him.

"You know what, yeah it is. Don't ask about something that's obviously none of your business." She said in an angry tone, and Felix slowly let his shoulders droop down as he looked at the ground. Eiro knew that Sammy was just trying to change the topic since Eiro didn't have a class, but it wasn't like the Demon hadn't thought about something like this before. And since Felix would be spending a fair amount of time with them from now on, Eiro didn't want the kids to fight with each other all the time.

"It's fine, Sammy." Eiro said reassuredly as he looked over toward the girl next to him. He was aware that Sammy was also still mad at him, but at least she apparently tried her best to understand Eiro as well, "Thanks, though." The Demon smiled, even if Sammy couldn't see it from under his mask, and Eiro then turned back toward Felix.

"My Class is 'Collector'. It's nothing special, really." Eiro explained, but it seemed like Felix was more than just impressed, "Collector?" He asked, obviously appreciating that Eiro answered him after all, and the Demon nodded his head in response.

"Yes. From that, I got that storage ability." He pointed out. With a light smile, Felix nodded his head and then ended up looking back at the ground, "My class-ability is something really unnecessary. It's called 'Charmer's Tongue'... It let's me choose my words more easily, although it mostly just feeds me really embarrasing pick-up lines..." Felix admitted, and Eiro couldn't help himself but slightly start laughing.

"Yeah, I noticed. They were quite... extraordinary." He pointed out, and Felix just started smiling wrily, "Hahah, yeah... I know, I'm sorry about that. That's just how it ended up, really.. Despite that skill, I don't actually have a high compatibility with the charmer-type class." The boy explained, and to try and get him to come out of his shell that he hid in after yesterday, Eiro engaged that a bit more.

"Really, then where is your real talent?" The Demon inquired, and with a light smile Felix kept looking at the ground, "Right, but... don't laugh, alright? It's really embarrassing..."

"Ahh, just tell us already!" Arc exclaimed, "It can't be that bad!" He laughed a bit after seeing what Eiro was trying to do, seemingly attempting to help out a little.

With a nervous expression, Felix nodded his head, "Erm... My biggest talents are in... p-painting and sculpting..." The boy explained with his eyes pressed shut, and it immediately fell silent, until Felix slowly opened his eyes just to see completely confused expressions on the people around him.

With a wry smile, Clementine looked at the others to see if they could confirm her thoughts, "And what's embarrassing about that? I think that's pretty cool, actually." She pointed out, and Felix was rather surprised to hear that before Rudy nodded his head immediately.

"Yeah, definitely. I'm good with my hands, but I can only do things like cooking, sewing, basic carving, and so on. I'm not good at painting..." The boy pointed out, seemingly slightly jealous as he gave out a deep breath, and now Felix was the one that was completely confused after hearing this.

"What..?" He muttered out quietly, and Eiro quickly tried to get Felix's attention. Underneath his mask, he was already frowning and glaring immensely at the insinuation of what Felix just said.

"Who told you that was something to be embarrassed about? If sculpting was embarrassing, then carving would be too. And I don't feel embarrassed about what I do in the slightest. I don't necessarily have a great eye for art, but from what I know, a good Painter is often seen as a treasure by nobles. I can't see why it would be embarrassing, really." Eiro explained, and Felix immediately shook his head, trying to refute what he was just told.

"No, no, but it's really embarrassing, right? What you just said can't be true, painters are just a laughingstock to everyone, right? That's what Fath...." Felix said, and then slowly stopped while trying to figure out which word to choose, "Enka said."

"Should have figured." The Demon sighed deeply, trying to calm himself down again, "Just... We'll figure something out so that you can work as a painter or sculptor if you want." Eiro suggested, but it seemed like Felix still wasn't so sure.

"Really..? Are you sure that it's not weird?"

"It's not, don't worry." The demon pointed out reassuredly and then slowly stood up from where he was sitting, "We'll figure something out." He added, and slowly made his way over toward the carriage. Out of one of the boxes that were strapped on top of it, Eiro grabbed a small piece of wood and then made his way into the carriage to get a small carving knife.

He made his way back over toward Felix and then just handed him the piece of wood and the knife, "Here. Whenever you want to, just try to carve into this a bit. As I said, sculpting and carving is pretty similar. So just try to figure out if it's something you like doing." Eiro suggested and then sat back down, before Felix looked down at the two things in his hands and slowly turned back toward Eiro.

"Thanks..." Felix replied quietly, before Eiro slightly sighed, "Don't worry about it."

From then on, it became a bit more quiet again, since the mood had turned slightly awkward after it was revealed to Felix that his dream-job actually wasn't a useless and despised career-path, contrary to his prior belief, but a little while later it seemed like everyone was done eating and the Aria were ready to go again as well. And so, they quickly started cleaning everything up while Arc and Clementine attached the two Aria to the carriage.

But just when the others made their way back into the carriage, and Eiro carried the sleepy Avalin and Leon in there as well, Felix asked something that he was just so slightly concerned about.

"You didn't eat anything just now, right? Because of your mask?" Felix asked, and Eiro looked at him slightly surprised. He hadn't expected that Felix would pay attention to something small like this, "I mean, you don't have to hide whatever you're hiding from me..."

With a quick shake of his head, Eiro immediately refuted what Felix suggested, "Sorry, I just don't think it's something I can show you just yet. It's better for both of us if you just don't know anything about what's under here, I'd say." The Demon explained, and Felix just so slightly nodded and frowned with a sad expression as he headed into the carriage as well. Why was Felix sad about not seeing Eiro's face? Was it maybe that Felix knew Eiro didn't trust him? It was obvious that Eiro wouldn't immediately trust him, that would be the dumbest thing he could ever do, blindly trusting in someone that Eiro didn't even know.

With a bit of a grumble, Eiro just climbed onto the front of the carriage, since he would be driving during the night, while Lugo stretched a bit and stepped up right next to him, "Alright, try to keep up, alright bud?" The Demon asked with a smile, and once he received the bellowed response from the Stag, Eiro started to have the Aria move forward.

It didn't take too long for them to pick up in speed, although Lugo was obviously able to keep up more than just easily. So, Eiro started relaxing a bit again and grabbed the small wooden box next to him where his food was currently in. Rudy had packed some of the leftovers from just now into it, and Eiro wholeheartedly enjoyed them after finally taking off his mask.

And from then on, they just continued on for another six or so, incredibly uneventful hours until it was time for everyone to go to sleep. Arc and Clementine quickly made their way outside as well so that they could help Eiro bind the Aria to a nearby tree, before clementine headed back inside while Arc, Rudy, and Felix stayed outside and built a small tent onto the side of the carriage that they would be sleeping in tonight.

Meanwhile, Eiro was just leaning against the rolled-up Lugo in front of a campfire and chose to stay up all night again to act as a lookout. He was the only one that could actually properly do so, after all. Considering the situation they were currently in, they couldn't afford not to be on constant search for anything that might be possibly dangerous to them. Eiro was pretty sure they were going to be followed or something like that, after all.

With his anger slowly growing inside of him again, Eiro could not help but think about what Enka might be doing right now, most likely just sitting there with a dumb expression on his face.

---

"Are you kidding me? You lost them?!" Enka yelled out as he sat up properly after receiving the report from one of the guards, "That guy killed Irensen and kidnapped my own son, what the fuck are you talking about you 'lost them'?" He exclaimed and stood up as he hit the table in front of him.

"Send out messages to any town in the country! There is a bounty on that guy's head. Try and figure out what a good number is yourself." The man growled deeply, and the Guard nervously nodded his head.

"O-Of course, Sir Markos! Dea-"

"Alive! Preferably near-dead, I want him to suffer!" The Chief Warrior yelled out with anger in his voice, anger that none of these guards here could tell was absolutely fake. Sure, Enka was a little surprised that Eiro managed to get away like that, but that didn't matter in the end. He would end up dead, and Enka could get Eiro's cards, hopefully.

Soon, the guards currently in the room left to let Enka get rid of his anger alone, and the chief warrior just groaned the moment they left, "Finally. How bothersome." He sighed deeply.

"Ah, it's pretty hard to keep the act of a caring father up, isn't it?" The voice of a mature, but still quite young-looking woman pointed out. With a slight turn of his head, Enka soon spotted the one that this voice came from, "Oh, what a pleasure. What exactly do I have to thank for the sudden visit of the great bloodstone sorceress?"

"Don't you be that condescending with me, boy." The woman warned, but Enka just slightly laughed and turned toward her properly, "Condescending? I would never dare. It was a serious question, you see?" He asked, but the woman just looked back at him with an unamused smile.

"You let a Demon run off with your son." She pointed out, "You can't even take care of such a measly being on your own. I just wanted to see if there was any reason for this, or if you were truly as useless as I assumed."

"Demon?" Enka chuckled, "Sure, he was a bit extreme in his actions, but in no means was he a demon. A title like that rather belongs to someone like you, doesn't it?" The man pointed out with his artificial smile that didn't change in the slightest the moment she entered the room out of quite literally nowhere.

"I should have figured. You can control fools, but you yourself are not much better." She explained disappointedly, "I meant what I said quite literally. That thing was a Demon, boy. Or to be more specific, an Imp of all things.. You were tricked by a demon with intelligence that should be not much more than that of a fish."