"Hah... Hahah..." Eiro laughed in response, even if it was obviously a fake laugh, "G-Good one, Jura... I... I'll get going to help Lugo now..." He said, quickly pulling the door open and rushing out before anything else could be said about this, as he looked around, his sight getting rather hazy.
"I need to get away from here..." The Imp muttered quietly, just staring forward into the distance in front of him and starting to walk.
Just... walk. Eiro didn't know where he was trying to go, or how long he would, but that didn't matter right now. Soon, walking turned into jogging, and even later, jogging turned into sprinting, until Eiro found himself in front of the river. It was normally roughly an hour away from the house if you walked without stopping, but it seemed like now, Eiro made it there a lot quicker... Although, he really didn't know how long it's been.
He just really wasn't thinking about anything when he was running like that. It calmed him down a bit, but Eiro was still insanely upset over what just happened.
It wasn't that he was angry at anyone, it was more of a raw, pure frustration. After all, how could he not be frustrated? Eiro thought that as long you were strong, you wouldn't need to worry about things like death or disease... And Jura was one of the strongest people he knew, but he was still dying? What the fuck was with that? How could he accept that in any way?
Did that mean that no matter what you did, it was all worthless? If you were to end up dying at the end anyway, then what was even the point, why should Eiro just not end it right then and there, if in the end he just had to succumb to death anyway...
Slowly, in Eiro's hand, a decorated dagger with a small red stone in the handle appeared as if out of nowhere, and the Imp just slowly held the tip against his throat, as a few drops of bright red blood rolled down the cold metal.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" A voice that Eiro really didn't want to hear just then yelled out from behind him. "You're the guy from before, right?! Didn't you say you have children?" Jess, the Wizard from the party of three asked as she stepped through the thicket to somewhere she could speak to him more easily.
Right now, Eiro had his hood on his head so his face was mostly hidden, but it was still obvious to anyone that saw him what he had been about to do with the dagger.
"Shut up." Eiro growled rather angrily, but Jess didn't stop and walked up closer to Eiro. It seemed like she was alone, for whatever reason... but what did that matter anyway?
"No, I'm not going to shut up... Just put the knife down and come over here, alright?" She asked, but Eiro just ground his teeth.
"What, you think I was actually going to hurt myself?" Eiro asked with a slight laugh, and then, Jess suddenly stopped. "You think I would actually be that selfish? That I would leave them behind on their own, after all they've already been through? Sure, the thought to end it all crossed my mind just now, but who are you to judge I would actually do it? That I wouldn't have just stopped after the few drops of blood right there, that pulled me back into my right mind?" He asked, getting more angry the more he spoke about this.
And it was the truth... It was his plan, but after the moment of pain right there, he snapped out of it and realized how wrong it would have been, in any possible way.
But no matter what Eiro said, Jess simply didn't stop. "That's what you're saying now, but can you be sure you wouldn't have done it if I didn't intervene?" She asked, continuing to come closer, while Eiro just continued to grind his teeth as he let his arm hand loosely as the blade of the dagger he was holding loosely pointed to the ground.
"I can't. But can you be sure you would have?" The Demon inquired with her, still facing away, and Jess was now just a few steps away from him when she continued to speak.
"I know people like you, I know you would ha-"
"No, you don't know people like me." Eiro growled as he turned around and stared the woman in front of him right into the eyes as he pulled his hood down, the last sunrays of the day hitting his horns and reflecting off, as this man's Demonic face just stared at Jess'. "Because I'm not a person."
"Wh-What..?" Jess muttered quietly, confused at what was going on, "Aren't you the-"
"I am. I am the guy you met in town, that froze your friend's head in a sphere of ice. I'm a Demon, you see? I'm a monster. Now tell me, knowing this new fact, would you stop me from ending myself again?" Eiro asked, taking a step closer toward Jess, "Would you stop me, or would you kill me yourself? And then proudly sell my horns to some guild, or use parts of my body for your research?" He added, while Jess just started to take steps backward.
"D-Do the people at town know about you?" She asked with shock in her voice, and Eiro just glared at her. "Leave them out of it. This is not about anyone but you and me. Tell me, do you actually care? Do you actually care about keeping me alive? Or did you just not want to see another person die?"
"I don-"
"Just fucking answer me already!" Eiro yelled out as he stared at the woman in front of him intensely, "Just give me a reason to hate every single person! A reason not to be mortified over his...! His..." He screamed, his voice now echoing through the forest around him, and just stared forward at the face of the woman in front of him, as she stood there completely unarmed and terrified, before Eiro just clicked his tongue and stepped past her.
"Get out of my sight. I swear that if I ever have to see you again, I'm going to push this dagger through your throat instead of mine." And so, now Eiro stepped away from Jess again, while he could see Lugo in the distance, slowly approaching him.
"Hey there, boy..." Eiro said with a slightly bitter smile, extending his hand forward to the Stag, who just placed his snout into the Demon's palm.
"Yeah, let's go home..." He muttered quietly, and quickly climbed up onto Lugo's back, before the stag started running back toward the hill, while Eiro just looked deeper into the forest around him while rubbing the few drops of blood that ran down his throat away.
It had already dried up, so he didn't need to worry about anything. He was really dumb right there, wasn't he?
Jess was probably right... He had no idea whether or not he would have actually done it, but she stopped him and made sure he didn't. But... Even then, Eiro was right, wasn't he? People despised monsters.
The children didn't because they grew up with Eiro... and the people of the town accepted him because they also all had quite a lot of secrets.
The Town that was built here, far away from any other town or village. It was a town founded by people that couldn't find a place in other place. A town of people that were the offspring off a Person and a Monster, Spirit, or other creature. It was hard to see at this point for the most part, because there were a lot of pure-blooded people there, but for example Tom from the Adventurer's Guild had the blood of a Satyr, so he had two small bump-like horns hidden underneath his hair, and his legs were quite weak as well, so he was sitting most of the time.
The Blacksmith of the town was part Ogre, and his wife part Flame Spirit, so their son had parts of both. Most people wore things that hid any monster-like part they had, but... It was undeniable that they weren't fully people. So while they still had a rather tough time accepting Eiro at first, they still weren't completely hostile to him. And after the time that Eiro had spent around here, they ended up seeing him as just anyone else of the village people.
Eiro wasn't sure if maybe the Villager's connection to nature due to their mixed blood was the reason why the Ladies appeared around here, but he didn't care too much either.
Either way, the people that Eiro had contact with here were all very different to regular people. And from Jess' reaction, it was obvious that he would never be able to live with them like he did with the people of the village.
But why did he need to? He just had to stay with the children and he would be fine, absolutely fine. Who cared about people? Eiro sure didn't.
As the Imp approached the house again, he saw a certain young woman standing in front of the door, and she seemed relieve when she saw Eiro.
"Eiro, where were you? Didn't you say you just wanted to check on Lugo?" She asked while the Imp jumped off of the Stag's back, "Sorry, I had something else to take care of for a moment there. Let's get back inside." Eiro suggested and stepped up to the door, placing his hand on Sammy's back to calm her down a little as well before he walked back inside, where he soon saw Jura sleeping again.
With a slight sigh, the Demon simply sat down on his chair at the table and leaned back as Avalin approached him and raised her hands up toward him, so Eiro just slightly smiled and reached down to pick her up and sat her down on his lap.
"You okay Daddy?" She asked as she looked at him, and Eiro just nodded his head in response. "I'm fine, don't worry." He said reassuringly as he rubbed his hand through the girl's hair, trying to ignore the slight stinging pain that came with it.
"Erm..." Arc started as he looked at Eiro with a slight smile on his face, although it was more of a comforting smile than one caused by actual glee. "So, the Lady of Winter is coming back soon, right?" He asked, and Eiro turned toward him and nodded his head. "In two months, yes. Why, is there anything you wanted to ask her?" The Imp inquired, and Arc just shrugged.
"I just think it would be nice to meet her sometime..." The Boy pointed out, and Eiro raised his brow in response. "Sure, I doubt she would mind. If it's just meeting her, that is. It might be different with leading her to town, though, but we can just ask her then. But is there any reason you want to meet her?" Eiro asked, trying to lead the conversation along, grateful that Arc wanted to take the chance to distract him a bit, and the boy slowly nodded his head in response, just slightly chuckling as he did so, seemingly nervous about what he was about to say.
"Of course there is... You and Jura have spoken about her a lot, so why wouldn't I want to meet my Father's friend?" He said, scratching his cheek with a wry smile, and Eiro looked at him surprised.
"Your father is a friend of her's?" He asked. Arc, like the other children, hadn't spoken about their parents a lot, so-
"Yeah, aren't you?" Clementine asked confused, and Eiro just turned toward her. "Hm, what do you mean? Yeah, I would like to think I am, but we're speaking about Arc's father..." The Imp said with a slight frown, and he just heard Sammy sigh behind him.
"What the hell are you saying now?" She said with a wry smile as she stepped up to him, and Rudy looked at him rather annoyedly as well. "You're the one always going around calling us your children, so what's wrong with calling you our Father?" The young man said with a frown, and Eiro looked at them all completely confused before staring at Arc.
"You... you meant me?" He asked, feeling his stomach tense up a little as he did so, and Arc just nodded his head without hesitation. "Yeah... Wasn't that obvious?" He asked, and Eiro just for a moment stopped doing anything, before looking down and placing his hands over his eyes, slowly starting to laugh, "I knew it... No matter what she had said, there's no way I can hate people if they're like you..."
