With a deep sigh and grumble belonging to it, Eiro opened his eyes once the sun hit them. The demon slowly pushed himself off the ground and took a look around himself. Everything was still in order, and the changes were to the amount one might expect to see happen naturally during a night.
The children were all in the carriage as well, so the Demon relaxed a little again. Or rather, he relaxed as much as he could in this situation. By this afternoon, the group would reach the first major city they've been to together. One that wasn't just a small town or village, like those that they've been passing through for the past two weeks.
Eiro was actually slightly nervous about that. It's been a while since he's been around that many people, after all, and he wasn't entirely sure how things worked in a place like that. He heard rumors, but those were apparently not always true, as far as the Demon heard. So even if Argberg was said to be a peaceful place without much poverty, it could be the exact opposite. A place where people killed each other day and night to survive.
Although, that might be a bit too far-fetched, now that he thought about it. Either way, Eiro didn't want to be put in any dangerous situations, so he needed to be well-prepared. Or at least as well-prepared as he could be. He had everything that he could need in an emergency in his treasury, and anything else was directly within reach inside of his satchel, including some replacement parts for his own hand.
Just in case, Eiro had taken some more of the Tree's wood with him and turned it into anything he could need. Really, just to be prepared for any situation that could come up in the future.
"Morning..." Rudy yawned tiredly, and Eiro slowly turned around toward the boy with a smile, "Good morning."
"What are you doing?" The boy asked next. But Eiro just shrugged and scratched the back of his neck, "Nothing, really. I just woke up."
"Then why don't you go ahead and practice with the puppet again? It's been a few days, right? You seemed pretty eager about it too..." Rudy pointed out, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, breathing out his nose as he lightly smiled.
"I'd rather wait a bit longer until we know we're properly on track. I don't want to waste too much time." Eiro explained, but Rudy looked at him with a slight frown, "Don't just think of us, think of yourself sometime. We'll be fine. We're already a week ahead of schedule, right?"
"I know, but still..." The Demon started, "I don't want to risk anything. So let's just eat and then keep going, alright? Depending on how things go, we can... sight-see in Argberg." Eiro suggested, even if he once more felt pretty unsure about it.
"Really? That would be really cool!" Rudy exclaimed, before Eiro slightly crossed his arms, "Actually, I think we should use this chance to get you guys your classes." He added, and immediately, from inside the carriage, Eiro could hear some rumbling, "Classes? We're finally getting them?!" Arc asked immediately, looking at Eiro with a broad grin that was impossible to contain at this point.
With a slight smirk, Eiro just nodded his head, "Better while we're ahead of schedule than if we're behind schedule... right?" The Imp pointed out, and with his hands formed into fists, Arc stretched them high into the air excitedly, "Hell yeah!" He yelled, and Eiro stared at him with a deep frown and then crossed his arms.
"Duck." He said, and Arc lightly tilted his head to the side with a puzzled expression, "Heh? What do you-"
Before Arc could even finish his sentence, he lost his balance from standing on the edge of the door after being hit in the back of the head by a pillow.
"Shut up, you maniac!" Sammy exclaimed angrily, before Arc turned around with a light laugh, "Hahah! At least now we can head off earlier, right?" Arc pointed out, "We're getting our classes today!" He explained to Sammy, but it took a little while for the still half-asleep girl to properly grasp what Arc just told her.
"So what about it, why-... Wait, we're getting what now?" Sammy asked, slowly thinking about what she just heard, "We're getting our classes?" She asked excitedly, and Eiro lightly smiled at her.
"If everything works out right, yeah."
"Awesome!" Sammy exclaimed, in a manner similar to how Arc did it, and Eiro lightly smirked and started helping Rudy prepare breakfast.
Once everyone properly ate, Arc took over the task of driving the carriage again while Eiro rode on Lugo's back to be prepared for everything.
It then took a couple of hours, but soon enough, Eiro was able to spot the town in the distance, even if all that the others could see was a small speck.
That speck turned into a blotch, and that blotch into the image of a town, growing larger and larger the closer they came.
The whole town was constructed on some cliffs at the side of a mountain with a peculiar shape. On one side, it seemed to have the regular shape that a mountain should have. On the other side, however, it was nothing but a cliff-face. A cliff-face that then had a town built upon it.
In front of that town was a thick wall, although it only covered the lowest 'layer' of town. The higher parts were far above the actual base wall since they were protected enough already.
Once they started getting closer to this town, Eiro started to feel a slight unease that took him a little while to grasp. But after actually thinking it through properly, he finally found the source of it and managed to calm himself down again.
The source was nothing but a monster-repellant. It was relatively strong, but nothing that Eiro really had to worry about in the end. It might be a bit annoying while trying to relax, but Eiro doubted he would do that anytime soon anyway.
Seeing that they were this close already, Eiro quickly asked Arc to stop by the side of the road for a little while.
"Hm? Is something up?" The boy asked, and Eiro slowly nodded his head in response, "We need to put Avalin's contacts in." He pointed out, and Arc opened his eyes wide with a quick smile. "Right, forgot about that."
With a swift pull, Eiro opened the carriage's door and stepped inside, swiftly picking up Avalin as he stepped inside and sitting her down on the edge of a low crate before squatting in front of her.
He pulled the small box out of his Satchel and looked at the young girl, "Alright, want to try it yourself this time?" The Demon asked, and the young girl immediately nodded her head, "Yes please!" She exclaimed. Avalin had been wearing these contacts a little bit more often over the past few weeks, whenever they entered the proximity of any village or town, no matter how small it was.
All those times, Eiro put them on for her, but he wanted to try and have her do it herself this time. He couldn't do it for her forever, after all. And fearlessly, Avalin pressed the tip of her finger onto the contact lens like Eiro showed her, and then placed it onto her eye, blinking just a few times afterward.
"Icky..." She muttered quietly, and then repeated the same thing for her other eye. And now, Avalin simply looked like she had blue-gray eyes, and it would be harder to find out who she truly was.
"Okay! Am I pretty now?" Avalin asked with a broad grin on her face, and Eiro slowly patted her head, "You're always pretty, don't worry." Eiro told her, and Avalin just started to smile even more brightly than before, "Hehe~! Daddy called me pretty!" She giggled, and then sat back down next to Sammy, while Eiro left the carriage.
He stepped out of there and slowly looked down at his left hand, the one that he used to pat Avalin's head with. He probably wouldn't have normally noticed it if it was the him from a year ago, but now Eiro knew. The holy energy that Avalin naturally gave off was getting stronger and stronger. It was fine for a while, but just now his hand got just so slightly singed and irritated in reaction to the energy.
Maybe he could somehow get something that naturally let out holy energy that Eiro could increase his Holy Energy resistance with some more. He didn't want to at some point have to stay away from the young girl, after all.
For now, Eiro just let it be for a while, simply climbing onto Lugo's back while letting the slight irritation naturally go away. And so, the group started moving again, swiftly reaching the town within the next half hour.
Or well, they reached the end of the line to enter the town. It seemed like there were a lot of different people standing in line here. Merchants, Adventurers, Travellers, all sorts of people, really. Some were able to just walk by into town, but those seemed to be people that lived and worked in this place.
With a slight sigh, Eiro got off of Lugo and quickly stepped up toward the carriage to look inside, "Seems like we'll have to wait a while. You can come outside for a bit to stretch some." The Demon suggested, "You too, Leon." He added, and the young boy slowly raised his head, "But I'm tired..." Leon replied, and Eiro sighed slightly in response.
"You're always tired, bud. Come on, the sight is pretty neat from here." Eiro explained, and Leon slowly got up and rubbed his eyes as he took Eiro's help to get out of the carriage. And immediately, the young boy and the other children saw the quite beautiful, albeit scary, sight in front of them.
You couldn't really see it beforehand, but there was actually another steep canyon surrounding the town on the outside of the wall. It had a raging river underneath it, and the only way that seemed to make it possible to actually get into town like this was a single central bridge, the one that they were currently on, as well as four smaller bridges scattered along the rest of the town's perimeter.
From where they were currently standing, they could look deep into the dark canyon. Right now, they weer all higher above the ground than ever before. Or well... technically not, but as far as Leon and Avalin remembered, that was the case. Rudy was actually the only one staying close to the carriage right now.
After what happened seven years ago, he developed a quite intense fear of heights, so he wasn't exactly a fan of staring over the edge like this. He knew that he would be fine even if he fell, exactly because of that traumatic experience. But even then, it was still too much for him to take at this time.
So, while the others enjoyed the sight, Rudy just leaned against the carriage while trying to make sure that the horses wouldn't freak out or anything like that.
And while the Demon stood there, actually quite enjoying seeing the world in front of him like that, he noticed someone approach him from the side. And it wasn't just someone walking into his direction, there were plenty of people like that since there was a different line for people without carriages. However, this one was obviously directly heading for the Demon.
With a bit of curiosity, Eiro figured he would just wait and see what would happen. And as the Demon expected, the man walked up right behind the group and with a single quick motion snatched away the small pouch hanging by Sammy's side.
The man actually seemed to be rather skilled at what he was doing, since nobody here beside Eiro himself noticed anything going on at all. But then again, he wasn't skilled enough to see that the pouch he just grabbed was a rather obviously placed decoy filled with nothing but some rocks and regular pieces of metal to make it believable.
Usually, Eiro would have just let this man be, but then he did something that the Demon really didn't appreciate. After leaving, he came back around with the pouch in full display on the top of his palm as he approached Sammy with an embarrassed smirk.
"Hey? I think I saw you drop this just now."
