Demon's Virtue

Eiro woke up in the morning, ready to continue the trip to see find the Dragon of Truth, Solomon's familiar. The Demon had helped bury the elder's body last night after he had passed away, and then proceeded to check on the current housing of the Orcs to make sure they were comfortable.

But now, there was not much that he had left to do. Armodeus apparently already woke up to get the carriage ready, excited to truly see it in action, and the Demon didn't let him wait too long. As Eiro stepped out, he rubbed his hand over Lugo's snout to tell him to wake up, while Bavet slithered up Eiro's leg in snake-form to then sit on his shoulder in the form of an eagle.

Eiro didn't know why, but it seemed like Bavet preferred being in animal or monster form rather than in the form of a person. But it was his choice, in the end.

The Demon watched as different Goblins, Kobolds, and even some of the Orcs helped out bring certain materials to the carriage, loading them in. They were mostly Magic Stones for Eiro, although the majority of those that were mined here were kept for the village itself. There were also a couple of ores that Armodeus was rather interested in. Beside that, a little bit of meat from a recent hunt as well as some vegetables from the fields that the Goblins started a while ago.

And waiting right in front of the carriage were the three chiefs of this Monster Village. Gobo, Kitsue, and the Orc child, Habojugikatsuge, or 'Boju' as a nickname. Gobo still didn't seem all too happy about being left with the Kobolds, although he seemed to have already gotten close with Boju, which made Eiro rather glad to see.

Kitsue seemed surprisingly infatuated with Gobo, however, while she was hesitant about accepting Boju and the other Orcs, while Boju himself was happy speaking with Gobo and felt a bit guilty when faced with Kitsue.

These three had a rather complicated dynamic, but Eiro figured that they would slowly get over it. He knew Gobo's personality quite well, so while he was being angry with Kitsue right now, after a while, they would get closer and Gobo would lose that anger.

"Anything that you three want to tell me before we leave?" Eiro asked. Gobo immediately nodded his head and responded with the only thing that he thought to be right in this situation.

"Have safe travels, Master. I wish you great success on your quest to recover your memories with the great Dragon of Truth." The Hobgoblin said as he slightly bowed forward. With a slightly awkward, wry smile, Eiro looked back at him, "Of course, I'll try my best. Thanks, Gobo. I'll try to bring you a souvenir."

With a slight laugh, Eiro looked down at the Orc Child, who he wanted to give something for now already. While Boju knew Common amazingly well already, he never had the chance to really read a book before. So, Eiro gave him a couple that he could read through, both to find out things about the world beyond the Village and to simply get a little bit of experience with the language beyond that what the system told it.

Of course, conversing with Gobo, Kitsue, and the others capable of speaking Common would help with that quite a bit as well.

"Th-Thank you!" Boju exclaimed, "I will treasure them!"

Eiro smiled softly as he placed his palm onto the Orc's head, "It's fine, you don't need to treasure them. I'll bring you with me to my Manor someday, where I'll let you read any book in my library you want."

Boju looked down at the book in his hands while deep in thought, "Wh-What is a library..? I know the word, but..."

"A library is a room or building with lots and lots of books inside." Gobo said, happy that he was able to teach Boju something as well. It seemed like the young Orc was rather excited about that concept, considering how excited he was about the single book that he was already given to read.

Eiro smiled as he slowly turned around, heading toward the front of the carriage with the others gathering around the vehicle. Even now, Armodeus was still trying to improve upon the carriage a little bit, although it was already amazing as it was.

"You know we have to leave now, right?" Eiro pointed out, and the elder Dwarf turned toward him with a light smirk, "I know, I know. But first tell me. What do you think?" Armodeus asked. With a slight laugh, Eiro glance at the carriage for a moment.

There were runes written all over it now, although they were mostly quite well hidden. On the outside, the carriage really didn't change all too much, except the rare rune that was carved into it, exposed outwardly.

He recognized some of the runes on the wheels from that high-tier carriage that Solomon lent to him before, and different sorts of gems were placed all over it.

But the most important part was of course the way that the different magic stones were used to improve upon the carriage directly. The few Gravity Magic stones that Eiro had given to Armodeus were used in two ways. One, in order to lighten the weight of the carriage itself, with a few twists that Armodeus didn't want to tell Eiro yet. And two, they were directly fused with the horseshoes that the horses had on their feet, while also being placed onto their foreheads with the help of their restraints.

Eiro could also see a few threads woven into their hairs, which is probably how Armodeus properly created the array, which seemed rather incredible to Eiro. Either way, these things placed onto the horses made it so that they themselves were also a lot lighter, while each of their steps had a lot more pushing force behind it.

This would increase their speed and stability on the road manyfold. Armodeus even hinted at the fact that he was making something similar for Lugo, so that the Stag would be able to travel much, much faster than before as well.

On top of that, the Metal Magic Stones were used quite impressively as well. For one, they were used to reinforce the wheels of the carriage, while also being turned into some sort of 'instant defense system' in case they were caught off guard while Eiro was busy.

To Eiro, it seemed like Armodeus added something extra to the wheels and axles of the carriage to make the comfort a little higher. This would certainly make trips with the children a lot easier in the future.

And so, Eiro slowly climbed onto the front of the carriage while Armodeus scooped over to the side. Lugo was already walking a bit ahead while Bavet climbed onto the roof of the carriage, sitting there in his eagle-form.

"I think it's about time we leave." Eiro smiled as he looked at the monsters that gathered around them for this. Now that Armodeus was properly relaxing for the first time in this village, now that he properly finished up improving upon this carriage, that 'relaxation' seemed to stop rather quickly again. After all, it's been a while since Armodeus was surrounded by this many monsters. And even if these ones weren't actually all too aggressive, it was still a weird thing that was hard to get used to for him.

Eiro understood that, of course, which is why he didn't hesitate to start driving the carriage forward toward the exit along these roads that he was fixing with his Earth Magic, of course assisted and amplified through Gondos.

They made their way through the tunnel as Eiro waved at the others one more time. And this time, once he made his way to the other side of this cave-tunnel, Eiro closed the cave up completely using earth magic. Considering that this Monster Village now had some more skilled Earth Mages, there was no reason to keep this entrance exposed for random people to find it.

Until Eiro held a little bit more political power within this country, beside just being friends with Solomon, he didn't want to expose the existence of this place to others. Maybe after he won the tournament in the future, he might be able to use his influence to say that this place was his own personal 'training grounds'. That would keep people from approaching this place unwarranted, at least.

But until then, Eiro would keep this place a secret from as many people as possible. Although even then, that was not what was really on Eiro's mind right now. The thing that he was thinking of was meeting Lognir, the Dragon of Truth.

That would be the first time that he would see a monster like that. One that came from a truly legendary race of monsters from even the lowest point. The most lesser of dragons were seen as great beings, even. But while most lesser Dragons were usually monsters, true Dragons were most likely Magic Beasts, as little sense as that made. Some people even said that they might not even be related to each other at all.

Eiro was more than curious about the truth of this situation, beside just the fact that he would hopefully end up remembering quite a lot of things that he ended up forgetting. He could very well be excited for both at once, couldn't he?

Either way, the Demon figured that for the next little while, they would end up having to keep travelling toward the nest of the Dragon, that luckily wasn't all too far away anymore.

If it wasn't for the curvature of the horizon, he would probably be able to see the mountain where Lognir could be found these days from where Eiro was right now.

But with this carriage, it wouldn't take too long to get there. And really, the moment that they got back to flatland instead of having to maneuver this mountainrange, the difference in the carriage and the horses became painfully obvious.

They were travelling at speeds that regular horses would usually not be able to hope to achieve, and although they still had to take breaks periodically to make sure that the horses were rested enough, they still managed to proceed far quicker than they usually would be able to.

And before Eiro knew it, he had to put his disguise back on as the small group entered the town at the bottom of the mountain that Eiro would now have to climb to meet Lognir. Eiro stopped the carriage at a conventient place as him and Armodeus made a plan on how they had to keep on going.