Demon's Virtue

All of the things that were in their old carriage were now carried over toward the new one. Because there were more ways to store some of the heavier things outside of the carriage with this new one, there was more space for everyone inside of the carriage. Since Felix would now be coming along, that space was actually heavily needed.

Eiro quickly made the puppet get inside of the carriage while neither the scout nor the coachman were looking, and then pulled Lugo out of the stables as well, "Wait here, I'm getting the kids." The old man said as he ran his hand over the snout of his familiar, although just to be safe, he also looked at the scout.

"Please make sure he doesn't run off or anything." He asked him, and the scout slowly nodded his head.

"Of course, Master Eiro. It is your familiar, I assume?"

"Yep, and he's an idiot, so seriously don't let him run off." The Demon repeated and then made his way back into the building, stepping into the secret passage-system as soon as he could before making his way to their room again.

It seemed like Arc and Clementine were awake already, although Rudy, Sammy, Felix, Avalin and Leon were still asleep. As Eiro pushed the hidden door open, he saw Arc currently getting dressed for the day.

"Good, you're up. Wake these two up, I'll get the others. I want you all to be ready to go in five minutes." Eiro announced, and while Arc was fine with it, Clementine overheard him as Eiro was currently opening the door to her and the others' room, and immediately started to complain.

"What? Five minutes? But we haven't even had breakfast yet!" Clementine complained, before Eiro lightly grumbled to himself and approached Leon and Avalin's beds, "We have some things to eat in the carriage. Just hurry, please, I don't think we should stay in this town much longer." Eiro explained as he finally got the two youngest children to wake up and proceeded to help them change so that they didn't have to wait for them, while Sammy also woke up and tiredly got dressed as well.

Once everyone was ready in both rooms, they gathered at the room's door and hurriedly made their way outside toward the backyard. On the way, Eiro explained to them that they had a new, better carriage now, and that they would get to their destination far quicker. This made Sammy incredibly excited, of course, and she happily picked Leon up from the ground while the tired boy just rubbed his eyes to try and wake up.

Felix was walking at the back of the group, although Eiro tried his best to make sure Felix wouldn't just suddenly stop following them for some reason. He actually ended up stopping once, but that was probably because he was starting to freak out again. So, Eiro stepped up behind him and pushed Felix forward some more while trying to reassure him that everything would be alright.

Once they all made their way into the backyard, Eiro started noticing something else going on in the distance. Seemingly there were some guards gathering not too far away from the inn they were staying at, and that gave Eiro an incredibly bad feeling.

"Get into the carriage immediately, all of you." Eiro told them, and they all quickly did as asked while Eiro pushed the gnome into the carraige with them, and even Arc who was supposed to drive the carriage at first got in there. Slowly, Eiro turned toward the coachman, "Could I ask you to drive the carriage for us until we're out of town? I don't want to accidentally injure someone in this rather busy place." The Demon explained, and with a light smile on his face, the coachman just bowed forward just so slightly.

"Of course, Master Eiro. Allow me." He said as he climbed back onto the bench at the front of the carriage and proceeded to take the reigns, waiting for Eiro to get ready.

The Demon quickly jumped on Lugo's back and then nodded at the coachman to get him to start driving, before looking down at the scout, "Thank you for looking out for us. If there is one more favor I could ask of you..." Eiro explained, and the scout slowly nodded his head.

"Anything within my power, Master Eiro." He replied, so Eiro just lightly smiled and explained, "If a group of guards should head to this Inn soon asking for where I am, please tell them that I'm heading toward Armodeus' place on the third layer again." The Demon told him, and the scout, rather confused, still just nodded his head.

"Of course. Now, please have a safe trip, Master Eiro." The scout said before Eiro nodded his head as a replacement for a smile, since he was currently wearing his mask and the scout wouldn't be able to see it anyway. Then, the Demon hurried to follow the carriage in front of him toward the closest exit they could take.

Just a few minutes later, just what Eiro thought would happen did actually happen. The guards were looking for Eiro. They didn't say why, but it seemed like Guards in the whole town were trying to find him. But luckily, since Eiro still had his old mask and a cloak that he bought just in case before, he could quickly switch that out to make sure they couldn't recognize him.

Of course, that most likely wouldn't help when a guard was already suspecting Eiro to be the one they're looking for, but since they should be searching for a man with a white mask and a black cloak that covers his whole body, this light brown mask and cloak that basically was just a cape with a hood should help disguise him at least a little bit.

On top of that, they would be taking the entrance for special people now, so the guards might pay less attention to him if they thought Eiro was just an attendant to someone in the carriage or something.

To Eiro's luck, they managed to get out of town without being recognized, although Eiro was able to gather enough information like this to figure out what he was being accused of. It seemed like sometime last night, Irensen was stabbed with a dagger, and the worker at the shop said to have clearly seen Eiro kill him.

Obviously that was nonsense, even if it wasn't too far off from what Eiro wanted to do to Irensen, but luckily the scouts and guards were there to testify that Eiro never left the Inn's property, and even spent a few hours 'practicing' out in the backyard.

It seemed like the town guards didn't care about this too much, however, and still just tried their best to find Eiro, although they soon made their way out of the town to a safe spot where Eiro doubted they would be found anytime soon as long as they kept moving immediately.

He nodded his head at the coachman and thanked him, and he swiftly made his way back toward the town on foot while Arc stepped out of the carriage and cracked his knuckles as he climbed up on the bench instead.

"Alright! These were called Aria, right? I'm excited to see what they can do!" The boy exclaimed, and Eiro sighed slightly in response, "Just try to get them to move first. I was told they know the same commands as horses do, and because they're a fair bit smarter than the regular horse, it should be pretty easy." Eiro explained, before Arc immediately nodded his head.

"Okay! Then... Walk." Arc told them with a smile, and the two Aria soon did as told and started walking forward with ease. Their regular walking pace was already a fair bit faster than that of a horse. Arc tried to make them speed up a little bit until they were at a seemingly good speed for these two. It seemed like Lugo was actually surprised that he had to rush this much all of a sudden, but it was also a good idea for this stag to get some more excercise like this.

"They're only going to need a break in roughly ten hours, so let's get as far away as we can and then take a break for a bit then." Eiro suggested, and Arc swiftly nodded his head, "Aye aye, Cap'n."

With a light frown, Eiro looked at Arc with a bit of confusion, and the boy just chuckled slightly, "Nevermind, sorry."

For now, the group continued on moving into the direction they had to to get to their destination, managing to get far further than they had planned. Once the first 'shift' of ten hours was over, they had travelled nearly two times further than they would have usually been able to, and that was on relatively rough terrain. The fact that they needed to take far less breaks combined with the extra speed was just really working out amazingly for them.

With a broad grin on his face, Eiro couldn't help himself but immediately grow relieved when he detached the Aria from the carriage to let them drink and eat something for a while. Everyone from inside the carriage slowly stepped outside to just walk around a bit and get rid of their stiff legs after sitting for so long, before Rudy immediately started to try and cook something.

And then, thinking that this would be a good chance, Eiro approached Rudy with a curious expression, "So..." He started, and Rudy, who had by now grown to be a fair bit taller than Eiro, looked down at the Demon, "Yeah?" Rudy asked, so Eiro just lightly smirked, even if the young man wasn't able to see him do so.

"The others' classes are fairly straightforward, honestly. They have regular classes with an extra part attached to it. But yours is a completely different class. What's the ability you got through that class?" Eiro inquired curiously, and Rudy scratched his cheek with a wry smirk and immediately started to explain.

"The ability is called 'Castle' too.. I don't actually know what it's all about myself, there's no real explanation for it." Rudy pointed out, and Eiro raised his brows just so slightly as he took a closer look at Rudy and what he was doing. He was really just trying to compare his movements to what they were before.

"Hmm, from what I can see, it at the very least passively increases your dexterity?" Eiro suggested, "At the very least, your hands are moving a bit more skillfully today." He pointed out, and Rudy looked down at his hands surprised, "Heh, really?"

"I think so..." Eiro pointed out, and although he then spotted a bit of a familiar scent within Rudy. It was something that he knew from himself, actually. And that was...

"Ah... Rudy, I think it might be a storage ability."