"You did that for children? For human children?" James asked, unsure how exactly he should react to hearing these things, "Well, at least you managed to get them out of there unscathed."
"I wouldn't necessarily say unscathed. Avalin and Leon were too young to remember anything about it now, but as for the others... I made sure they were kept out of such situations until now, but a lot happened to my older children. Clementine has a special healing ability that lets her take wounds of others onto herself. The Lord of Gluttony used that to keep eating until its body was literally ripped apart, and then had Clementine take his wounds." Eiro explained, all the whilst James kept sitting there listening while holding his hand up to his face, completely hiding it.
"Well, I managed to get Sammy out before anything too bad happened. But obviously she's still not doing too well with it. She was with the Lord of pride, and I think I sometimes remind her of that guy. Then there's Rudy. He was with the Lord of Envy, who continuosly threw Rudy off the tower before pulling him back up. Over and over again. Rudy can't take damage through normal means, so he had to go through that over and over again. He's still scared of heights to this day. And then, there's Arc... He... He was with the Lord of Lust. I'm sure you know what happened."
"And..." James slowly muttered, "What does that have to do with what you said about being a demon of wrath..?"
"Ah, right, sorry. Well, when I left to find the children, I ended up being brought to the Lord of Wrath. He apparently hated everything and anything, and as such tried to kill me immediately. I later made it so that the Lord of Pride and Lord of Wrath would fight against each other. A lot of stuff happened, but either way, the town was in havoc and most of the Lords were dead. As that town was used by [The Devil], I was being watched by him constantly. Then the whole ordeal with Rumia from the Holy Empire happened where I killed him and his troupe, and because I did so while rather upset, [The Devil] found me. He gave me the 'Mark of the Devil'. Then a while later, after I encountered Enka, my anger boiled over and it produced the 'Mark of Wrath'." The Demon explained, "And since then, I become angry far more easily. It actually ended up in me becoming so angry that I slaughtered half the inhabitants of a whole village in bloodlust without control over my own body."
For a few moments, it was completely silent. All that Eiro could hear was the soft breathing of Leon and Avalin laying next to each other on the bed, the goblins messing around on the other side of the village, and Lugo messing around with some random magic stone outside. And of course, James' heartbeat and breathing, before the Light Elf slowly started to speak.
"I suddenly feel really ridiculous." He pointed out, "Compared to what you and those children went through, my life seems like child's play... well, child's play of normal children, I guess, not yours. I never knew my father. My mother was a good person, but I was never that close to her somehow. When I was 15, I made the choice to leave to become an adventurer. I trained under a former B-Rank, and he introduced me to Thomas and Avalin. I had good contacts, and I didn't have to strug-"
"James." Eiro interrupted as he pushed himself off the ground, "Stop lying like that." The Demon said with a light glare, "I don't know why you would do this, but I can tell that what you said just now was not the truth. At least not the full truth."
Out of nervosity, it seemed like James' heartbeat accelerated, and he started to quietly laugh, "You're pretty annoying sometimes, you know?" James asked, "Fine. Then I'll tell you the full truth. My mom was a Dark Elf. Incapable of using magic, shunned by regular elves, and quite evil in nature. Usually, at least. My mom was pretty naive, which is why at some point, as she didn't seem to hold much other value, she was sold to illegal slave traders and passed around here and there. I actually have a few siblings, three that I would like to acknowledge at least. A Dark Human, a Dark Beast, and a Devilkin. So children of a Human, a Beastman, and a Demonkin. After she gave birth to me, the five of us were sold again. To a lab. I got off scot-free because I was too young, but my older siblings were experimented on. My mom became a breeding machine. So, I have numerous half-monster siblings. We ended up being able to escape, but my mom never spoke again, and my half-monster siblings became horrid beings of attempted mass-destruction. Is that what you wanted to hear?" The Light Elf looked up at Eiro, and the Demon looked back at him with a blank expression.
"I don't know." He replied clearly, while James just sighed and leaned back against the wall, "Either way, it's not really like anything happened to me directly. I don't remember any of it, I just heard stories about it. I was taught to always hate monsters because of this stuff. Really, all that I said was true." James pointed out, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "I get what you-"
But suddenly, Eiro was completely interruped as he heard the sound of something cracking and crunching from outside. He turned around immediately and stepped through the cave entrance, "Lugo, what the fuck are you doing?" The demon asked as he ran up to the stag, that currently started crushing up one of the nature magic stones Eiro had prepared here for later already, "Spit it out." Eiro exclaimed immediately and held his hand down under Lugo's mouth, "Spit it out you fat moron."
But no matter what Eiro told Lugo, he simply kept chewing, so the Demon quickly stuck his hand into Lugo's mouth and pulled it open as quickly as he could. It wasn't that hard with his strength either.
Eiro quickly pulled out the leftovers of the magic stone out of Lugo's mouth, although it was only roughly a third the size that it was before Lugo started literally eating it.
"You have to be fucking kidding me, Lugo you goddamn moron!" Eiro yelled out, "Throw it up immediately, it's not good for you!"
Eiro started placing his hands around Lugo's throat in specific places to try and make him throw up, but Lugo quickly shook his head and tried to escape from Eiro. With a loud bellow, he pushed the demon away from him using his antlers.
"What is wrong with you? Do you actually want to die?" Eiro asked, but Lugo just shook his head without hesitation. And although the Demon was about to rip open Lugo's mouth once more to push his hand down his throat and pull the magic stone out of Lugo's body like that, Nelli and Gondos quickly stopped him.
"Wait, Eiro! It's... It's gone!" Nelli exclaimed as she floated up to Lugo's side, placing her palm onto the side of his stomach area, while Eiro looked at her with a deep frown, "What do you mean, 'It's gone'?"
"Exactly what I said, the parts of the magic stone Lugo swallowed are now gone. Simply... dissolved." Nelli pointed out, and Eiro stared at Lugo with a deep frown, "Actually... the reaction from cutting or crushing magic stones without special methods should have literally blown his head off..."
Eiro looked at Lugo with a deep frown and then pulled up the stag's status page. So far it didn't change at all since the last time he saw it, with a single exception when he checked on Lugo's experience within his current level. He was still level 1, but his experience went up from 0% all the way to 43%.
With a broad grin, Eiro looked at Lugo and held him by the sides of his face, "Lugo!" Eiro exclaimed, and quickly picked up more of the nature magic stones off the ground, "Eat these too! Hurry up!"
Rather excitedly, Eiro held the magic stones up to Lugo. The stag was a little hesitant, until Eiro quite literally pressed the magic stones into his mouth and started making him chew by moving Lugo's jar up and down.
"Wait, what are you doing? You just got mad, so why are you actively feeding him magic stones now?" Jess asked with a frown as she looked at Eiro, thinking that he finally just lost his mind, but the Demon just smiled.
"Lugo is a special being. He's not an animal, since he has levels. He's not a monster, since that would mean he would level up simply by killing creatures. And he's not a magic beast, since that would mean he would level up by using his mana. He didn't progress at all doing either of those things. But now..." The Demon pointed out and watched as Lugo's status quickly updated. The numbers updated by turning into light and Lugo's stats were increased as his level became 2.
"But now, he leveled up by eating magic stones!" Eiro exclaimed while staring at Lugo excitedly. At least he now knew that Lugo could actually level up and get stronger alongside him.
"He's leveling up by eating magic stones? Isn't that kind of... insane?" Krog asked with a completely confused expression, and Eiro turned toward him with a broad smile and immediate nod.
"Yeah it is. It's more than just insane, it's something a maniac would come up with. But it is how it is. Lugo, it might be expensive, but now we actually have a pretty good use for the other magic stones. A source of fuel to get you to level up!" Eiro exclaimed excitedly, although Lugo just tilted his head to the side.
Eiro tried to think about what magic stones he could spare, although soon, his excitement subsided. Because then, he realized that there would surely be other effects. There was no way that Lugo wouldn't end up getting imbued with some of the magic stones' elements after eating them, so maybe he should think about what he should give Lugo a little bit.
Eiro could probably figure out Lugo's affinities and then try to only give him magic stones in tune with those affinities. That might actually help him level up a little faster as well.
Either way, now, Eiro knew that he really didn't imagine anything from back then. Lugo was really a unique being.
