Demon's Virtue

Eiro sat down at the table with the others, as it was time for dinner. They would be on this ship for about two nights in total, since they could luckily keep travelling constantly like this, so they didn't have to eat a lot at the moment.

For some reason, the Captain even tried to control what sort of food was going to be eaten here on the ship, but with Eiro being a baron, he was able to use some of that influence to convince him to let food be prepared by themselves.

So, Eiro made some food together with Rudy, and just served it. They were still at the river tonight, they would only get out onto the ocean sometime tomorrow, but when they did, Eiro was determined to find some kind of fish, or at least a fish-like monster, that he could haul onto the ship for a bit of a feast. He had never eaten a fish from the ocean that he caught himself, after all. He was kind of excited for it.

But of course, while Eiro and his group were eating the things that they had been 'allowed' to, although the captain never had any sort of authority over that kind of thing anyway. Even if he hadn't allowed them to eat what they wanted, Eiro would have cooked for himself and his family anyway.

And while they were eating that, the crew members that were currently on their break were sitting at another table, slightly looking over toward them. They were just eating some dry bread and jerky, something simple that would give them the least amount of energy that they needed, and that didn't take long to prepare or eat.

It was clear that they were all more interested in the food that Rudy and Eiro made. Sometime in the middle of dinner, Rudy leaned over toward his father, "Don't you think we should just give them some of the leftovers? We did make a little too much for all of us..." He pointed out, and Eiro slowly looked at them, as well as the food that they had left.

The Demon let out a deep sigh, and looked at the crew members, "As long as you guys don't tell the captain about this, you can have some, alright? But I don't want him to annoy me over letting you guys eat something her didn't want you to."

Immediately, the faces of the people brightened up, as Eiro waved his hand around, creating multiple mage hands that he used to hand out some of the food to them. It didn't seem like the captain was going to come down here anytime soon, so Eiro didn't really care too much.

"Yo, what about my food?" Bavet asked, whispering into Eiro's ear, and the Demon rolled his eyes. He grabbed some of the food and held it under the table, where Bavet quickly absorbed it into his mass of slime. It took a little while for him to fully absorb it, so until then Eiro had to be careful with showing his arm, since his normal skin was now revealed.

While everyone was eating, Eiro noticed that someone had come into the room. It was the captain's right hand man.

"What are you lot eating there?" He asked, looking at the crew members, that immediately fell silent despite being so energetic just a moment ago. After taking a look at their food, he turned over toward Eiro's table, "You. We allowed you to eat the food you wanted to, but how dare you give that to our men? Huh?"

Eiro looked back at him with a wry smile, "It's just food. We made too much. There's some for you left as well."

"No, thank you. I won't be eating any of that. And neither will they. I can't believe it. Just because we gave you a little bit of leeway, you think you can do anything you want on here? Who do you think you are?" The right hand man asked, and Eiro glared back at him. He couldn't stand up right now, because of Bavet, but he could still deal with this with just words, if he needed to.

"I think I'm the man that can beat your... behind, and throw you back to the harbor we departed from if you don't quiet down now." Eiro said, slightly censoring himself since Avalin and Leon were sitting right next to him.

The man clicked his tongue and looked to the side, "What a savage. No wonder you have one of those things with you." He said, slightly glancing at Leon. Eiro ground his teeth, and at the same time, Bavet simply threw the rest of the food that he hadn't fully absorbed yet back onto the plate that he had taken it from, and fused back with Eiro's arm so that he could move.

Immediately, the Demon stood up and walked around the table.

"Dad, please..." Sammy said with a pleading expression, "Don't... you know..."

"I won't, don't worry sweetheart. I'll just have a quick conversation with him." Eiro replied with a smile on his face, and quickly walked up to the man, "Will you accompany me outside for a second?"

"No. I will not." He replied, and Eiro locked eyes with him, "Oh, sorry, did I say that like a question? Sorry. You will accompany be outside for a second. And that's not a question." The Demon replied, and immediately grabbed the man's arm as he pulled him out of the room and onto the deck. Of course, he had no way to fight back against Eiro.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"I should be the one to ask you that, asshole." Eiro replied, "Did you forget that I'm a fucking baron? And that I'm soon going to be promoted to a fucking Viscount? By insulting me like that, I can legally fucking kill you right here, in front of your men, and nobody can do shit about it. You hear that?"

"...We're not part of the Skyhart Kingdom. We're mercenaries hired by the Baram kingdom. So not, you can't 'fucking kill' me right here." The man said, "And honestly, with the choices you make for your pets, I honestly don't know if you're worthy to be the hero's companion."

"Pets? Do you mean... Oh." Eiro stared back at him, "So, one death won't be enough for you after all. But don't worry, you'll step off this ship alive. I promised to her, after all."

Immediately, the Demon wrapped his hand around the man's throat, and tightly squeezed until his neck nearly broke. And then, Eiro simply influenced him a little. He made it feel like he actually died, and he did that through an easy way. He boosted his charisma stat ability using his Legendary skill, creating the 'Superior Demon's Charisma' ability. It was enough to make everyone subservient to him in an instant, but Eiro used it to make this man's thoughts betray himself.

Eiro killed this man dozens of times in that moment. It took maybe a minute until Eiro was satisfied, and he threw the man onto the ground. At that point, the captain came out of the control room, having finished his shift and given the control of the ship to another crew member.

"What's going on here, huh?!" The Captain yelled out, and Eiro looked at him with an angry expression. He walked past him, while the captain looked at his right hand man. As Eiro and the Captain locked eyes, the Demon whispered something to him, "That man nearly caused the death of your whole crew, you hear? When it comes to insulting my family, I'm not going to respond with anything less than that."

Eiro walked back down to the place where the others were waiting for him. Basically everyone in Eiro's group beside the children had at least a rough idea of what had happened out there, simply due to their high perception stat that naturally comes with their generally high statuses.

And while Eiro approached the group, Bavet also whispered into his ear, "And what's your excuse for your anger this time? The mark is gone, isn't it?"

"..." Eiro was silent as he sat down again. The mood of everyone in the room had turned sour, so it was quite silent at the moment. But there were luckily two people that managed to lift the mood up rather quickly again.

"Yo man, this food is friggin' great, right?" Arc pointed out, and Avalin immediately nodded her head, her mouth stuffed with food, and parroted her brother, "Frigging great!!" She exclaimed, and Eiro let out a deep sigh as he grabbed a napkin to wipe the girl's mouth clean, since food and sauce was sticking all around it.

"Arc, stop teaching your sister those kinds of phrases."

"What? I just said 'friggin', that's not a curse word, is it?" Arc asked, but Eiro couldn't help but let out a slight sigh. The small, good-natured 'fight' that the two were having right now was certainly helping lift the mood, distracting from the fact that there was someone that yet again insulted Leon for just no reason whatsoever.

Even Leon, who usually never really paid attention to what others said, was starting to get influenced by it. While the others were talking again, Leon was just holding onto the side of Eiro's shirt, his appetite having disappeared.

"Don't worry, Leon. Oh, you know, we're going to meet Hijar and Biril again when we're there. One of them definitely won their country's tournament. We're going to learn alot about you from now on, alright?"

"...Alright." Leon quietly muttered, but kept solemnly hanging onto his father's side.