Demon's Virtue

"Huh? Noma? No, I don't really know him that well. I spoke to him a couple times, but he tends to keep to himself, I guess." Arc pointed out, looking up from his book while sitting on the couch, "But why are you asking? Did he do something?" Curious, and hopeful to find out some insider-infomration, Arc quickly sat up, staring at his father with a light grin.

Knowing that it might be better not to tell Arc about it, since he would probably just go to Noma and try to ask him about it the next time he saw him, Eiro simply shook his head, "No, I just saw him at the library quite late last night. He seems like a rather dedicated student. I figured if you two spent some time together, he could rub off on you."

"...I'm the highest ranking student of my course. I broke literal academic records on multiple occasions."

"Yeah, but you're kind of an ass." Rudy pointed out as he entered the room, before looking at Eiro, "You're talking about Noma, right?"

"Do you know him?" Eiro asked, and Rudy quickly smiled, "Yeah, he's a friend of mine. His sister is in the craftsmanship course, and the three of us are together in the breaks a lot. I heard he used his talent for earth magic to help out in the village they grew up in, in the fields and during construction and such."

Arc quickly jumped up, "Ignoring the fact that insulting me has become far too normalized in this family... who's this girl that I've never heard about that I'm hearing about so much all of a sudden?"

Rudy turned his head, locking eyes with his brother, "Please don't do this. Let's just... not get into that, alright?"

"What? My little bro's in love, and we can't even talk about it?"

"In- I mentioned the existence of a girl I know, and you think I'm in love?"

"You're not?"

"...Shut up." Rudy replied immediately, turning away from his brother to his father, "Anyway, as you said, he does spend a lot of time studying. He's pretty obsessed with magic, it seems."

Eiro crossed his arms in thought. He had been considering asking one of them to see if they could find something out about that flesh magic that Noma seemed to possess, but if Rudy was that close to him, then he would rather not. But it did still mean that he had to be a bit quicker about a certain aspect of his curiosity. He had to find out soon whether or not Noma was dangerous. A talent for necromancy usually came with an obsession with death in one way or another, and flesh magic was probably similar. He should probably ask Koperia about it, when she finally came back.

After the group returned from their vacation, she went off somewhere for some experiments or something. She had been quite secretive about what she was trying to do.

"Thanks for letting me know, then. I think I'll just have a conversation with him soon. It's good to see that he's so passionate about magic, but he's still only 16. Overworking yourself at that age is anything but good for you." Eiro pointed out. Rudy looked at his father and scratched the back of his head, "I mean, I can talk to him about it as well. You don't have to go out of your way."

"I'm his teacher, of course I should be the one to talk to him about this." Eiro pointed out, "I don't want to have you be my messenger." He said, before he got a bit of an idea, "Although... how about you invite those two over sometime?"

"Finally. I'm first. Hear that, you watered-down bozo?" Eiro said to himself, looking at the structure stretching out far into the sky right in front of his eyes. It was the Tower of Books. They finally reached it, after taking a few shortcuts by manipulating the magic that made up the terrain. Eiro had no idea what sort of changes something large-scale like that would do, but he didn't particularly care either.

"Erm... My Lord... where are we..?" Jyoti asked nervously, holding onto his small piglet friend. The Demon turned toward them, and quickly explained, "We're at an important place right now. I'm not sure if you'll be able to enter, though. So... Sarius, you stay out here with him."

"Huh? Why'd I have to babysit a brat like him?" The Salamander complained instantly, making Jyoti slightly flinch. Eiro looked at the Spirit annoyed, "Shut it. You're staying with him because you can't come with me either. Our contract connects us, but I don't want to unnecessarily upset the owner of the Tower of Books by bringing you along." The Demon said bluntly, "Now just be quiet and wait out here."

Clicking his tongue, Sarius laid down on the ground to try and take a nap on the grass, while Eiro looked at Jyoti.

"If something happens, just give Sarius a good kick and he's going to take care of it." He advised him, "I don't know how long this will take, but I'll let you know through Sarius."

"A-Alright... Good luck in there!" Jyoti exclaimed, and Eiro just smiled at him while turning around, "Thanks, kid."

The Demon spread his wings out, and used them to shoot forward toward the tower, closing the rest of the distance in an instant. It didn't take long until he stood in front of its doors. Quite quickly, he spotted a small incave between the handle-less doors, and quickly pulled out the coin that he got from the librarian. He pushed it into the round hole, and soon watched as the doors opened all on their own.

Eiro quickly glanced at the magical mechanism, and curiously stepped through the doors. The original Eiro had done some editing to the bodies of the two duplicates in the elemental planes. Mostly, it was in regard to their sensory organs, fusing them with aspects of either Sarius or Nelli, so that they could have the true magical senses that a spirit had. Of course, while Eiro could sense mana to an extent even without them now, there was still a vast difference between what he could see and the real thing. Through all this, the duplicates were able to send a lot of information of the importance of magic in the elemental planes over to the mental library as well. There was a mental duplicate in charge of just analyzing this importance to write a dissertation on it. Eiro did want to get into the business of selling some books in that regard here and there, after all. It was something that simply interested him on a personal level, so it wasn't like it was part of a greater plot or anything like that.

But for now, Eiro simply concentrated on what was in front of him. The magic inside of the tower of books immediately felt different. While the magic of the elemental plane of fire was still flowing through every inch of this building, it was mixed with the unique mana that the Tower of Books itself possessed.

Right now, he was just in a separate room, and not in the actual library though, since he probably hadn't earned that yet. However, it didn't take long until someone did step into the room through one of the doors. They were quite weak, and Eiro could see the library stretching out behind them... If he wanted to, he could probably force his way in. But that would probably not do him any good.

Either way, taking a closer look at the being in front of him, Eiro was rather surprised. It seemed like they were both a person of this plane, like Jyoti outside, and a spirit. As if a spirit and one of those elemental people fused with each other.

"I welcome you." They said, standing there rather relaxed, "Since you passed the first test, it is time for the second."

Eiro raised his brow, a bit surprised, "You're not even going to try and figure out whether I'm really the one that passed? I could have very well stolen this from someone else."

The person in front of him shook their head, "It does not matter whether you stole it or not. This second test is many times harder than the first, so it should be impossible for you to cheat. Having the first test it really just a way to bring potentially promising people here."

"...That so?" Eiro replied, "If that's the case, then let's get to it. What's the second test?"

The person in front of him swiftly walked toward the center of the room, as the door that Eiro had walked to closed on its own. The floor started to light up, and that half-spirit looked deep into his eyes. Slowly, he opened his mouth, and his voice escaped.

"§#!&%#"

Whether it was the frequency, volume, or content of the words that were spoken in that single instant, Eiro's mind was immediately overwhelmed. A flood of nonsensical, chaotic information hit him. And not even just himself, every version of himself that shared his mind was hit by this stunningly painful chaos. But it just took a moment for Eiro to take control of it. He was a being that could manipulate chaos freely, after all. Closing his eyes, it didn't take long until he brought some order into it. And soon, the true content of what was said became clear.

In a single moment, this half-spirit had recited the content of a whole book to him.