Demon's Virtue

Chapter 637: Different

Eiro floated through the water around him, manipulating it to make the books all move around him. It was getting quite monotone just sitting there for days and days, reading things without anything else happening. Sure, he did learn quite a few interesting things, with a few spells here and there that he had no idea even existed, or certain rumours and myths that people had long forgotten so far. But even so, considering the sheer amount that he was dealing with here, things were still starting to feel a little boring nonetheless.

In the past, he always had other things to deal with and never ended up doing nothing but read for literal weeks. Being a duplicate, there wasn’t even a need for him to eat and sleep. Anura wasn’t the best company either. After becoming Eiro’s servant, he had sort of begun to… be sort of obsessive. And loud. And incredibly annoying.

He was continuously mumbling random things as he was reading, as though he suddenly unlearned how to read silently. Eiro didn’t care that much in the end, though it was starting to get on his nerves, especially since the duplicate on the plane of Fire was doing everything he could to rile him up even more. Though, at least Eiro had Nelly around and could talk to her about some of his new discoveries. She was the oldest of the spirits Eiro had contracted, and by accompanying Jura on his travels for decades, she had ended up learning quite a few things in her own right. But even she had never heard of most of the things that Eiro was uncovering in here.

“So you also don’t know what that spell is about?” Eiro asked, and the Naiad shook her head. She was looking at the pages of the book that the Demon had positioned in front of her, and while she was clearly trying to figure it out, she wasn’t able to continuously read it, “No… I’m sorry… I’ve never heard of this sort of spell before. I’ve spoken the ancient language for as long as I can remember, but… even I struggle to read some of these things.”

“Right? Something is weird about that text, though I don’t exactly know what it is. Could it be some sort of unique dialect?”

“Hm… Maybe? Technically Aquarian is also derivative of the ancient language, so it’s possible that it’s something similar? Maybe it’s the language of another people in another realm,” Nelly suggested, and Eiro raised a brow, “That… actually seems like it makes sense, yeah… There’s no Elemental Plane of the Arcane, right?”

Nelly shrugged, “Doubt it. The Arcane isn’t really an element… any plane like that would be the truest origin of magic, right?”

Eiro thought for a while, trying to rattle his brain, “Right… I mean, maybe it’s the language that the Arcane folk speak? Like the Arcane Dealer and such.”

“Didn’t they just speak common? More importantly, we know that people never actually spoke the ancient language anyway, it was more of a ritualistic thing even back then,” Nelly pointed out, and Eiro sighed, “Good point. So, this is either a dialect or a close derivative of the ancient language, spoken by a people that we don’t know yet. Great. Because there wasn’t enough to deal with already…”

“What does this spell even do, by the way?” Nelly asked, looking at the complex descriptions in this weird version of the ancient language, mostly obscured by the sketched drawings of magic circles using a method based on a completely different system than regular magic circles were. As if whoever created these spells discovered and explored magic independently from everyone else.

“This one… is a water-purification spell, I think?” Eiro replied, simply forwarding what the mental duplicates had figured out after analyzing the spell for a while. Nelly scoffed, clearly a little annoyed as she closed the book and threw it to the side, “What, you and Sarius find a cool body-strengthening spell, but you and I find a spell to make drinking water?”

Eiro smirked, waving one of his hands to manipulate the water around the spellbook and move it to where it was supposed to be in the library, “Arguably, this one is much more important. There’ll always be unclean bodies of water, whether it’s because something died in it or because it became murky after standing still for too long, but hopefully, we’ll end up not needing things like body-strenghtening spells at some point in the future,” the Demon pointed out, but Nelly just lightly smiled, “You really think it’s ever going to get to that point?”

“…Maybe. I hope so,” Eiro replied, before stretching slightly, “Either way, I’m pretty sure there should be more spells like that around here somewhere. Once the original casts them, they’ll be added to the grimoire, so maybe that thing’s going to give us some more insight into what’s going on.”

“…The grimoire accepts those spells?”

“Yeah, it does. It was a bit surprising as well, but it opened up a whole new section in the back,” Eiro explained, “I’m guessing because it’s just so different from the other spells?”

“That makes sense,” Nelly replied, before looking at the being still sitting behind the desk next to the entrance, “So, do you have any more books like that around here?”

“…” the overseer of the tower looked up from their book, “If it exists, it’s in the tower. Whether or not it’s on this floor is questionable, though.”

Nelly looked at them with an annoyed expression, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The books of the tower are sorted by their importance, danger, and rarity.”

“…That doesn’t really answer my question,” Nelly complained, but Eiro shook his head, “Actually, I think it might. They’re saying that these spells aren’t the originals. They’re recreations. That it?”

“That’s up to you to see. I’m not able to divulge any such information.”

“Ehh… So stingy…” annoyed, Nelly started floating through the room, taking in the air that was streaming in through the window, as Eiro continued reading the different books of the room, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out soon enough. At this rate… we should get to the next floor in a couple of days, I think. That hot-headed version of me might make it even quicker.”

—

“You bet, you waterlogged fucker,” the other Eiro said with a broad grin on his face, basically just glancing at the pages in front of him as they were flipping past too quick for even him to read. Of course, he didn’t have to yet, it was enough for him to just have a single glance at the page so the mental duplicates could do the rest.

“I’m bored,” Sarius complained.

“Then go for a walk or something.”

“Go for a- do you even hear yourself, Eiro? Why would I do that?”

“So you stop annoying the shit out of me?”

“That hurts. It really, really hurts to hear you say that. I thought we had gotten closer during these past few weeks, but I guess not,” Sarius turned away, his hand covering his mouth, and Eiro looked at him with an annoyed, blank expression, “What volume of that drama are you at now?”

“…Sixteen.”

“Ah. That part. You know, toward the beginning of the third act, Ricardo-”

Sarius immediately jumped up from his seat and started rushing toward the door, “A walk it is! I’ll take the chance to check up on the brat and that pig.”

“Thanks,” Eiro replied, finally able to continue reading in peace. Or so he thought, since before long, the overseer asked a question, something that really didn’t happen often, “And you’re positive that he’s going to be the next Salamander King?”

“So I’ve been told,” the Demon pointed out, “I know that he seems sort of unfit for the job right now, but it’s not like he’s going to take over anytime soon. It’s probably going to be another hundred years or so until that’s even really going to be a thing to worry about.”

“Sure, but spirits don’t really change that much over their lifetime. If he’s like this now, then…”

“I don’t think that’s the case, honestly. He’s already changed plenty, he’s a lot calmer than he used to be. He’s becoming more patient, and every once in a while, actually seems to be excited while making a breakthrough during practice,” Eiro explained, “He’s just a kid, as far as spirits go. Just give him some time, and he’ll show that he can step up to the task.”

The overseer slowly returned to their book, “If you say so, then sure. Though I already feel bad for the next generation’s queen.”

“Heh… yeah, I can see that,” Eiro laughed, “Either way, he’s going to be alright. I’m teaching him quite well, I think. Just out of curiosity, why did you suddenly ask?”

“Hm? Oh, no real reason. Just, we received notice that the current Salamander King is on his way here, so I figured I’d ask.”

Eiro looked away from the books with a blank expression, “What now?”