"Good morning Eiro. That time of the month again, huh?" A short, middle-aged, weakly man asked with a broad smile as he looked over the counter in front of him, seeing the young demon open the door.
"Morning." Eiro replied, slowly setting down the bag over his shoulder down on top of that counter. "I finished the requests I took with me last time. Five bags of Moonshade, ten bags Sulfuranum, and five liters birch water." The Imp replied, and got in total fifteen pouches as well as five metal bottles out of the bag.
"Ah, how grandiose! I don't know what we would do without you!" The man replied, and swiftly packed everything Eiro gave him away without even checking it. "Oh, but just a warning, there's some travelers in town... Arrived pretty late, so they should still be asleep, but wear your mask and hood for the rest of the day, alright?" He suggested, so Eiro quickly nodded his head in response, quickly following at least the latter part already, swiftly pulling his hood over his horns.
"Thanks for the warning. Any new-"
"Already sorted out, don't you worry. Been a slow month, so there's only three again..." The man interrupted Eiro as he placed the three pieces of paper in front of him on the counter, although he had a broad grin on his face. And once Eiro checked them, he already knew what that grin was about.
"Hmm, it's been a while since I've seen a hunting request. But Tim, isn't this a bit of a weird one? Ten rabbit legs, six frog tongues, and two eagle eyes?" Eiro read with his brows raised, and the man, Tim, nodded his head with a shrug.
"It is, but what can you do? There aren't many monsters 'round here, so most hunting requests we get are like that. One of those travellers I told ya about made the request. But nevermind that, the reward is pretty nice, isn't it?" Tim asked with a smile on his face, and Eiro looked at the bottom of the piece of paper.
"A small Silver? This is too weird..." Eiro said with a frown on his face, but Tim just laughed loudly. "Hahah, buddy, that kinda request would normally just give ya what, one or two large copper at most? It's a great deal!"
"Fair enough... Been running low on rabbit meat anyway. Thanks, Tim. About the rew-" Eiro said, but he was quickly interrupted by the sound of something slamming against wood right behind him, and the Imp didn't even have to turn around to see where that sound came from. "I'll come by to grab the money when I've taken care of everything else..." He sighed, trying to ignore the continuos slamming, while Tim started to simply laugh.
"Haha, I get what you mean. Winter's coming up, and those kids should be growin' like weeds, aye? Gotta get some new clothes for 'em!" Tim laughed loudly, and Eiro just sighed deeply with a nod. "You can say that again. Especially now that Clem and Sammy getting picky about what they wear..."
"Children, am I right?" Tim asked with a grin on his face, and Eiro just replied with a smile. "Yours are the same, ri-" Just as Eiro was speaking, one of the sounds of wood being knocked against was especially loud, and the Imp turned around annoyedly.
"Lugo, stop it already! I'm coming!" He yelled, and then looked back at Tim, who slowly chuckled and nodded his head. "It's alright. Go on, I'll see you later when you come to get your money." The middle-aged man reassured, so Eiro just smiled back at him.
"Thank you." The Demon replied and swiftly picked the nearly-empty bag up from the ground and threw it back over his shoulder, before stretching his fingers out in front of his face, making a quite simple, boring wooden mask appear right on his palm that he swiftly pushed onto his face before pulling the strings over his head to make it hold in place.
"Lugo, what are you doing? You know you don't fit through the door anymore." Eiro sighed as he pushed the Stag backward away from the door, before the annoyed creature bellowed in response.
"I'm not calling you fat, Lugo, it's your antlers." The Demon replied, rolling his eyes underneath his mask, as Lugo lifted his head up to try and see those damned things everyone's been speaking about. But they were simply too fast for him, always hiding right outside his sight.
"Just come on, we've still got a few places we need to go to." Eiro sighed and quickly started walking along the road, away from the small building with a sign depicting a sword and a staff crossed in front of a shield.
The universal sign of the Adventurer's Guild. Eiro didn't really know what was adventurous about it, in the couple of years he's been signed up there, the only thing he was doing for them was gathering random plants for people in town. At least he got a little bit of extra money, although he didn't necessarily need it, considering how much money was leftover from what Eiro grabbed at the Lord of Greed's place... Why exactly did he sign up again?
Just as he was wondering that, the Demon chose to ignore it and swiftly stepped onto the central plaza, where the four statues of the Ladies were gathered around. It was just a two months ago that he and Jura led the Lady of Autumn here, and in another month, the Lady of Winter would come back already.
It was a rather relaxed job, and the Ladies were all pretty fun to speak to, especially after the others beside the Lady of Winter warmed up to him a little. And luckily, Jura had also given up on lecturing him about speaking to the ladies so casually.
"Eh? And this is really supposed to be the place where four Nature Goddesses go to every year? Really?" An unfamiliar voice asked loudly, standing right in the center of the four statues, something that was seen as more than just disrespectful in this town. That was downright insulting. And while Eiro didn't really care too much himself, he didn't want this to escalate somehow once the more extreme devotees to the Ladies saw the three people standing there, and as such stepped up to the entrance area into that literally fenced-off small area.
"Excuse me, but I don't think you should be there." Eiro said in a clear voice, and once the three of them turned around and looked at the masked, hooded figure, the tallest and physically most defined of them, a warrior with a large sword strapped onto his back, turned toward him and leaned forward to look Eiro right into his face.
"Is that so?" He asked, obviously not that happy with being told what not to do, and Eiro quickly noticed that this was the man that so rudely yelled that out earlier.
"Yes." The Imp replied quite simply, leaving the man rather baffled, while his companion, a woman with hip-long blonde, braided hair and a pointed hat started to laugh loudly, although the third of them simply stood there quietly.
Especially that man's figure stood out amongst those three. A whole chunk of his body was missing, his complete arm including even his shoulder, and he was wearing a mask depicting a simple, ugly, angry demon. He had two dark scalloped daggers on his hips, and his remaining arm and both legs were covered in rather serious burn-wounds and deep scars.
Eiro thought it was rather weird that he so openly displayed those facts, but in the end he didn't care too much either and just looked back at the tall man in front of him, who seemed rather annoyed.
"Don't play smart with me, you little shit." The man said and grabbed Eiro by the collar, but in the end, Eiro just sighed. "You can count yourself lucky that it just rained." The Imp said as he ran his feet over the ground, freezing the entire area around and inside the four statues.
And using that, Eiro just grabbed the man's arm and took a step back. Of course, as he hadn't really expected this to suddenly happen, he lost his balance and then fell to the ground when Eiro finally manipulated the ice to be slightly sloped.
Once on the ground, the Imp just grabbed the man by the foot and pulled him along to get him away from the statues.
"Now, do you two want to come out on your own?" Eiro asked, and behind himself, the Demon could hear the sound of metal scratching against rock as the man pushed his sword into the ground through the ice.
"Don't fuck with me!" He exclaimed, staring at his female companion. "Jess, blast him away!" The man yelled, and the woman was just about to raise her staff up, before the masked man shook his head, revealing the pointy ears that were hidden under his hair until now.
"What?! Dude, he attacked me!" The man exclaimed next, but Eiro turned toward him annoyedly. "I attacked you? I just pulled you out of the place that is seen as holy in this town before the wrong people see you in there. Be happy that I didn't attack you."
Quickly, both the masked man and the woman with the staff got out from the center of the statues, and the woman looked at Eiro apologetically.
"Sorry! We didn't know that place was so special! It looked like you were supposed to go in there, with the large gate and all..." The Woman apologized, and Eiro just shook his head in response.
"That gate is for the four Ladies only. We're not allowed to close it off completely, so the gate is left open." He explained, and then just turned around and went up to the Stag smugly standing there behind Eiro, before the Imp himself quickly reached down and picked up the bag he placed down next to Lugo before, although just when he did so, the woman let out a surprised sound.
Slowly, Eiro turned around toward her again. "Something wrong?" He inquired, but the Woman immediately shook her head. "Not at all! Everything's fine! But where exactly did you get that... erm, hand?" She asked, and soon noticed how insensitive that sounded, although Eiro just shrugged.
"Traveler came through here and made it for me." The Imp pointed out and threw the bag over his shoulder, not wanting to listen to what these others were about to ask.
"Do you maybe know where that traveler is now?" The woman, Jess, asked, and Eiro just shook his head and turned toward Lugo to signal him to follow behind him, but the tall and physically strong man from before seemed like he wasn't exactly happy with that answer.
"Hey, can't you at least answer properly? We just want some help. You see the state our friend's in, don't'cha? So stop being such a dick and tell us where we can meet that 'Traveler'. We've been lookin' for him for years." The man pointed out and placed his hand onto Eiro's shoulder, but the Imp himself just turned around toward him with a glare.
"Hey, can't you at least use your eyes properly? I just shook my head. You see I'm in a rush, don't'cha? So stop being such a dick and leave me alone. My kids are waiting for me at home." Eiro said, returning the rude thing the man said right back to him.
"Heh, a fucker like you has kids? What kind of sad bitch you must've married. Bet those kids of yours would much rather be alone without ya, so you can take your time." The man said with a broad grin, obviously just trying to provoke Eiro.
"K-Krog, what are you saying? Stop that!" Jess exclaimed, seemingly angry for Eiro's sake, and the young Demon just smirked at that as he just stared at the man in front of him, while the ice around them slowly started to melt and move into Eiro's direction.
"That's not a nice thing to say, you know?" The Imp pointed out, and the man just started to laugh.
"Hahaha, not a nice thing to say? It's not a nice world out there, buddy. But I guess some random bum like you wouldn't know that, being holed up in this shitty little town and all." The man said, thinking that he had Eiro right where he wanted him, while the water from the rain slowly climbed down Eiro's body, gather on top of his hand in a rather large bubble.
"Oh? You want to attack me with Ice magic again? Buddy, slow shit like that's not gonna do anythin' to-" The man said, but Eiro interrupted him.
"Better save your breath." He pointed out, as the bubble of water slowly started to give off steam as it started to get hotter and hotter, and slowly even started to boil. "You're gonna need any you have left." The Imp said, and simply pushed the bubble of boiling water forward. But he didn't want to seriously injure this man, just incapacitate him for a little while. That wasn't the reason for this boiling water.
After all, the man, Krog, was right. Usually, Ice magic was rather slow compared to other types. So, Eiro was making use of a law of nature to make up for that.
And before the man could even be injured by the hot water, it started to freeze when it touched his skin, quickly forming a sphere of ice right around his head.
