"Is something wrong with it?" Eiro asked with a deep frown, trying to understand what Armodeus was currently doing. He was holding Eiro's dagger in his hand, staring at it intensely with a light smile on his face.
But when the Demon's question came, Armodeus slowly turned toward Eiro questioningly, "Where did you find this piece?" The Elder Dwarf asked, but the Imp wasn't sure why he wanted to know that and just approached him quickly, trying to take it back out of his hand.
However, before Eiro could do so, Armodeus pulled his hand away and just stared at Eiro, "Answer my question." He said, and Eiro just stared at him rather annoyedly, "Why do you care?" Eiro asked, slowly getting a bit agitated before Armodeus looked back at him.
"Because I made it. It's been a while, two hundred or so years, but I remember making this for a friend of mine back then. Aren Stinehearth. As far as I know, it has been handed down the Stinehearth family for generations, and the last one that should have had it was..." Armodeus explained, and the more he spoke, the more he started to guess why Eiro had it.
"Don't tell me you hurt her..." The Elder Dwarf asked, but Eiro just stared back while grinding his teeth, "Are you asking me if I killed Avalin?"
The moment that Armodeus heard Eiro say that name, he started to walk forward with heavy steps that made the whole room seem to shake, "You have?!" He yelled out, "I swear to the gods that if you laid a hand on that young girl, I-"
"Armodeus. I didn't kill her. She was eaten by Zaragon." Eiro interrupted, and Armodeus stared back at him, "What... What did you just say...?" Armodeus asked as with a deep, angry voice that originated deep inside of his body.
And that anger soon turned to frustration, "She... really is dead?" The Elder Dwarf asked, slowly sitting down on the chair behind him, "Are you really sure?"
"Of course I am. I was there. It was during the attack of the Sun against the Holy Kingdom's capital. Zaragon was injured, and ate Avalin to heal himself." Eiro explained, but Armodeus stared at him confusedly, "Then how did you get away? If Avalin was killed, then you should have died too! Zaragon is not someone you should be able to face!"
"That's because I didn't. I drank the Ace of Cups and ran away with that dagger in my hand." Eiro said with a deep frown, and while Armodeus was just sitting there with confusion, Eiro took the dagger from him again. Or at least he tried, but without Eiro even properly noticing it, Armodeus had already placed the dagger behind him on the table.
"I am sorry for thinking you had hurt her... But I can't believe she was dead all these years... Sure, James, her former adventuring partner, said so, but her father was convinced he was just going mad because he became disfigured during the attack. He kept on believing that she was alive, like any father would." Armodeus explained, but Eiro just looked at him with a slight glare as he placed his mask back onto his face.
"Can I take this dagger instead of that drake one you made?" Eiro asked as he stepped up to the table and grabbed his regular dagger again, which had actually been proficiently sharpened by Armodeus just now within only a few moments, and Armodeus just slowly nodded his head as Eiro headed toward the door.
"Oh, and I have just one thing to say about that. I didn't know much about Avalin, but... I know that she despised being called a Stinehearth." The Demon explained, and then proceeded to open up the door to step into the front of the building again, his new dagger in his hand and Avalin's old dagger in his treasury, and then saw that the young man that Eiro treated was currently sitting up on the table.
With a bit of hurry, Eiro just made his way toward them to make sure he was there to see if anything was wrong, and then looked at the young man again.
"Is everything alright?" Eiro asked him, and he just slowly nodded his head in response, "It stings and burns a bit, but it's fine..."
"Alright, that's good then. Now, look your father in the eyes and tense your whole body up for a moment, but let me move your body a bit." Eiro said, and the young man looked at him a bit confused and turned to his left side to look at his father, and then tensed his body up like Eiro wanted him to.
And then, Eiro grabbed his upper right arm and started to move it around a bit, before nodding in satisfaction. After Eiro tried moving the young man's leg around by his thigh as well, he just sighed in relief.
"Okay, everything seems to have worked properly." He pointed out, and both the young man and his father, the King, looked at Eiro a bit confused.
"How do you know?" Solomon asked with surprise, and Eiro pointed at the young man's arm, "Because the limb is tense. Usually, it would hang down if it doesn't work. Here, like this." Eiro explained and held his wooden hand forward, slowly pulling the majority of his life force into just his palm, making all his fingers just completely hang down.
"If he doesn't specifically concentrate on using them, they're going to still hang down a bit, because of how long he didn't have his arm and leg, but with time it's going to become as natural as if they were his original limbs." Eiro explained before his own fingers tensed up again a bit as he held them forward to the young man.
"Hold on to me for a second. Let's try standing." He suggested, and the young man just looked at him with a nervous expression, "A-Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I'm not, but there's no reason to wait. Come on. I want you to be able to show me around town when I visit you in a year." The Demon said, and with a slight smile, the young man nodded his head and took Eiro's hand before slowly letting his real foot touch the ground, and just stood one-legged on it before letting his new wooden leg down as well, slowly transferring some weight to it.
"It... doesn't hurt..?"
"Of course not. Why would it? You could technically walk on your own now already, but you should have a balance issue right now, so I don't suggest it." Eiro pointed out, and then slowly turned around toward Solomon, who was just on his knees in front of the Demon.
"Thank you! Thank you! I don't know how to repay you for this!" Solomon exclaimed, seemingly just relieved out of his heart that his son was able to stand on his own legs again. And with a light smirk, Eiro crossed his arms.
"Well, I would really have a bit of an idea for that." He pointed out, but the moment he did so, one of the King's Guards seemed to get a bit offended. And like Eiro thought, it was the same one from before.
"How dare you! It should be an honor to assist the king in itself! A reward is unneeded!" He exclaimed, but Eiro looked at him with just a slight glare, "Oh really? Sorry, but the thing is... He's not my king. He's 'a' king, but why should that matter? I didn't help him because he was a king, but because he was a father worried about his kid. And if it can help my children in return, I'm going to take a reward."
"That's it! You are under arr-" The Royal Guard exclaimed, but before he could finish what he was saying, he was swiftly interrupted.
"Quiet!" The King yelled out, "As I said before, I am not here as a king, but as a father, like Eiro said! He deserves any reward he wants, understood?!" Solomon exclaimed, and the Guard slightly flinched and nodded his head, "Yes! Excuse my rude behavior, my King!"
"You're excused. But don't let it happen again." Solomon said with a glare and then looked back at Eiro with a warm smile.
"What is it that you wish to have as a reward?" He asked the Demon, who just slightly smiled and looked at the children behind him, "My children don't have their classes yet. And we have to leave as soon as we can tomorrow morning, so could you allow them to use your Class-change crystal?" Eiro asked Solomon, and without a moment of hesitation, he nodded his head.
"Of course! That is no issue in the slightest! Please, bring it here!" Solomon exclaimed as he looked at two of his guards, who swiftly ran out of the house and made their way toward where their class-change crystal seemed to be right now.
Just a couple of minutes later, they returned while carrying a large wooden box. They placed it down onto the ground and opened the top part up, just folding it to the side, to reveal the top of a crystal in a rough, uneven shape. It was like it was a splinter of something way bigger.
"Please, proceed. Simply place your hand on it one person at a time and make a careful choice." King Solomon explained, and Eiro turned toward his children and nodded his head.
"Arc, you first." The Demon said, and he didn't even hesitate to follow up, just pressing his palm onto the crystal.
And then, Eiro immediately saw a yellow notification appear in front of Arc's eyes. Of course, he didn't actually see it, but instead just saw the reflection instead.
[Choose a class for initial setup]
[Low Compatibility]
-Coach Driver
-Fire Mage
[Medium Compatibility]
-Strategist
-Animal Handler
[High Compatibility]
-Swordsman
-Berserker
[Unique Compatibility]
-Painless Samurai
After reading through all of that, Eiro immediately stared at Arc's eyes again, making out what part of the notification he was staring at the most, "I swear, Arc, if you choose Berserker you won't ever see the light of day again."
"But it's on High Compatibility!" Arc complained immediately, and Eiro just stared at him, "I would rather you choose Coach Driver instead of Berserker." The Demon said with a glare, and with a slight pout, Arc crossed his arms, "Fine, then I'm choosing the samurai one or whatever." He said, and Eiro nodded his head with satisfaction.
"Perfect. Thank you." Eiro said with satisfaction before he noticed that Solomon was staring at him confusedly, "Wait, what was that conversation? Did you already manage to have his possible classes read somewhere?" Solomon asked, but Eiro just shook his head.
"Nope. I read the notification's reflection in his eyes." The Demon explained, and then looked back at the children, "Sammy, you're next." He said, just noting the notifications that appeared in front of Arc just now to be up-to-date, and then turned back toward Solomon, who was just completely confused.
"What does that mean? How can you do that?" Solomon asked, and Eiro just slightly shrugged.
"Trade secret." He said, and then turned toward Sammy to be able to see what she chose as her class, and was glad to see that she also made the choice of the unique-compatibility class that was offered to her, 'Siren's Archer'.
After that, Rudy chose the 'Castle' class, although both he and Eiro were rather confused about it. And at least, Clementine chose the 'Devouring Healer' class. Eiro was glad that they all got classes that were created through their unique skills because that might help them control those skills a bit better. He was hoping so the most for Sammy, really.
Eiro wasn't happy that it would take another eight years for Leon to be able to get a class that might help him out, but maybe Leon was able to get it under control anyway.
