Demon's Virtue

Boju came rushing down the stairs after being woken up by Eiro. He had a bit less time to rest than the demon had hoped, but it was still better than nothing at all. However, when he got down to the large table in the entrance area of the town hall, the Highland Orc certainly wished that he was still asleep. It was much better than having to deal with this situation right here.

Eiro sat at the end of the table, leaning back into the seat. He looked a bit... healthier than he did earlier, but Boju figured there was a reason for that. It probably had something to do with the human that was seated to Eiro's left. It was one of the first times that Boju had actually seen a human; the only other person that he had seen was Partax, who Eiro had brought here before.

And Partax was a halfling, not a human. Of course, there were the Will'o'wisp siblings, but they were undead now, so they didn't really count. Plus, they were doing their own thing most of the time; Boju didn't even know where they were right now.

But right across from the human, next to Eiro on his other side, sat Gobu, who was staring daggers right at that person. Next to him were Kitsue and Rashi. While they didn't seem to be as aggressive at Gobu was, they definitely weren't particularly happy about seeing a human either.

While Eiro was gone, they spent quite a lot of time discussing what to do with the humans that moved into the outskirts.

For a few moments, they seemed to even consider the idea of just 'accidentally' having them all be killed somehow, but knowing that Eiro would find out exactly what they did, they quickly abandoned it. They knew the only thing they could do was listen to what the demon wanted.

Frankly, nobody here really understood exactly why Eiro wanted to introduce them to people and have them become part of 'society', but they went along with it anyway. While it was a bit stressful, particularly for Boju and Gobu, their lives were so much better than they used to be. They were stronger, they could eat better food, they were able to live in peace for once.

Of course, every once in a while, some monsters attacked, but they were able to handle it well. Plus, that acted as a good way to relieve some stress if it came down to it.

"H-Hello... Nice to meet you, you're Marius, right? I'm Boju, I'm in charge of most large-scale planning and future politics," the Highland Orc explained, and Marius quickly stood up, slightly bowing his head.

"It... it is very nice to meet you! I'm Marius, the 'leader' of our village that recently settled in the outskirts of this town," Marius exclaimed in as strong a voice as he could muster without outright screaming.

Boju sat down on one of the free seats, and Eiro quickly continued, "Alright, now that the two most important people for this meeting are both here, no offense to Kitsue and Rashi, we can get started. Gobu is the acting Lord, and you could call Boju the Vice-Lord.

While Boju, as he said, does the planning, prepares everything for future politics and external-affairs on the paperwork side of things, Gobu is the one in charge of everything internal. He's the one ultimately in charge of keeping everyone in line, while each species-leader takes care of their own.

Once we open up the city and connect with others, he will be the one dealing with other Lord-like matters as well."

After giving Marius the rundown, the human quickly turned over and looked at Boju, "You're... an orc, right?"

Boju raised a brow, not sure what he meant, "Yes? Is there an issue?"

"N-No, of course not! There's no-"

"He's just surprised that a 'stupid' orc is the one doing all this 'smart' work," Gobu attempted to translate, not turning his eyes away from Marius.

Boju laughed awkwardly, "A-Ah, right, of course... that... uhm, I'm a Highland Orc, we tend to be a bit more on the intelligent side as a base standard. But we prefer not to judge monsters based on intelligence."

Marius nervously nodded his head, trying to avoid eye-contact. The tension was thick, thick enough to clearly give Marius a tough time. And so, Eiro let out a loud sigh.

"Everyone, calm down," he said in a clear voice, closing his eyes, "This is not happening. Marius, stop judging the monsters of this town. I told you, but intelligence is not how you should try to assign value to others. Rather, you shouldn't assign any values to others at all. Learn to live alongside the monsters. That's why I brought you here, and youu knew that.

If you don't cooperate, you will not gain what you came here for. Power, influence, strength, whatever the hell you want. I'm serving it to you on a silver platter, so just take it."

Marius shrunk back, slowly nodding his head. Gobu had a broad grin on his face, as if he was trying to show off his yellowed teeth, "See? That's why huma-"

"And you," Eiro interrupted, turning toward the Hobgoblin, "Get your fucking shit together. When I gave you the position of Lord of this town, you knew what stipulations that came with. I know that you don't like people, but the kind of shit that happened to you is exactly what we're trying to prevent. Plus, did I ever tell you exactly what the village Marius is from went through?"

Gobu silently looked back at Eiro, "No... no, my Lord," the hobgoblin replied, as Marius' face went pale.

"They were the Devil's pantry. Every night, one of the Devil's servants would come up into their home, and simply snatch one of them. They would forget all memories of who the person that was taken even was. If I hadn't come to them, their fate would have been to be eaten by the Devil, one by one," Eiro explained, and Gobu glanced over at Marius.

"My apologies, but... we are killed day after day, and-"

"Oh, come on, get off it. You kill your fellow monsters day after day, without even batting an eye. This isn't about other monsters being killed by people, this is about you personally hating them," the demon rubbed the bridge of his nose, "My point was that Marius and these other humans are victims as well. They're not the perpetrators.

I doubt Marius even saw more than a handful of monsters in his lifetime until he came here."

"Must've been a peaceful life," Kitsue commented, but she quickly pulled back when she was met with Eiro's glare.

"If you don't have anything useful to add to this conversation, I suggest you take your leave, or shut up. I'm not here to play around. I will not be here for a while. I'm guessing it's the remainder of the cycle, so a couple days short of three months. In that time, you all have to get along.

Boju will be coming to my home regularly to report to me, so if I hear about even the slightest issue from him, there will be consequences for everyone involved. And don't even try to hide anything from me, we all know that's impossible," Eiro said bluntly, and immediately, the side of the monsters, excluding Boju who already knew this, looked at the Demon confused.

"Did I understand you correctly? I know my Common is spotty... did you just say you won't be here for three months? Months was the... the moon cycle thing, right?" Rashi asked, speaking in troll language, and the Demon quickly nodded.

"Yes, you understood correctly. Three months. I'm currently undergoing evolution and the next stage of it will require me to be stuck in my home for a while. And my duplicates don't reach this far. But of course, I have my servants here, so in emergencies, I know what's happening," Eiro explained, before he looked at Marius, who seemed confused about something as well, "Do you have any questions?"

"A few... First, what do you mean with 'Evolution'? And second... how will 'Boju' go to the capital? Won't he be hunted?" the human asked, and Eiro quickly turned to the Orc.

"Show him. That will answer the second question for you. The first is a bit more lengthy," Eiro said, and Boju quickly nodded.

He grabbed the metal bracelet wrapped around his wrist, clicking two of the metal plates on it together. In response, Boju soon turned into a young, dark-skinned human man, somewhere around 16 or 17 years of age, "Some of us, not all, of course, have these bracelets that allow us to appear like people via illusion magic. Using this, we won't be found out directly."

Marius raised his brows surprised, "Oh... that... that's magic? How does it work?" he asked, clearly curious, and Eiro smiled lightly.

"We can have it explained to you soon. But first, it's clear that you need to understand monsters more, and learn more about them. Once I'm back home, I will write some books for you, so study up well. But evolution as a concept is so vital that you really need to learn about it, or you really won't be able to get used to this place," Eiro explained, holding his hand forward.

Using the mirror of duplication in his eye as a conduit, he created 5 different figures, all dressed in thin, simple clothes.

The first was a small, ugly thing. Hunched over and appalling. Just looking at it made Eiro want to gag. But the last was the proud figure that Eiro was now ridding himself of. These were the five races that Eiro lived as in this life thus far.

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