636 Justification
Eiro properly sat up, looking at the faces of his children, all filled with horror after the man they feared was dead suddenly stood up seemingly perfectly fine. Of course there was some relief in there, but considering that there was no sign of him waking up beforehand, it was still quite shocking.
The Demon placed his hand onto the ground and looked at the spirit floating by his side. Without having to say anything, the two of them filled in all the holes and cracks that had appeared during the fight, and Eiro of course also quickly made some of the damaged plants regrow or repair themselves. As he was doing so, he already picked up Leon and Avalin with his lower arms, stroking their heads with his upper hands. They were both shaking, and Eiro could feel an incredible amount of guild building up in his chest.
Everyone sat down at the tables by the terrace, with the two youngest still sitting on his lap. Leon was still quite upset and as such wasn’t able to control his unique skills well, so Eiro quickly sent out Mislan to restrain or lock up the monsters in the manor that were struggling.
Eiro looked at the kids with a worried expression. Their eyes were all red, even Arc had clearly cried a little, “Arc, how’s your...”
“...It leveled up, yeah,” he replied in a stoic tone, “But whatever, it’s fine, who even cares about that, more importantly-”
“This is more important, are you okay?”
Arc looked at Eiro with an annoyed frown, although it quickly disappeared again as his skill took over, “Dad, seriously, I’m fine. Even if you’re worried, we can’t do anything about this anyway. Just start talking, what’s going on with your... heart situation?”
Nervously, the kids looked at Eiro, and even Shimour stared at him with worry. Sammy picked at her fingernails and spoke as she looked down at the table, “Did... did you get hurt? Did you have to give yourself a prosthetic heart?”
“No, that’s not... I simply got rid of my heart because I don’t need one anymore,” Eiro explained, trying to be as blunt about it as he could be. He hoped that by him being so casual about it, the kids’ worry would subside too. Immediately, Rudy jumped up from his seat, “You don’t need your heart anymore?! What sort of nonsense is that, Dad you-”
.....
“You’re not... hurt, though... I didn’t feel any pain or discomfort from you, so...” Clementine interrupted her brother, looking at Eiro as she placed a hand on Rudy’s arm. Eiro smiled at her, “Right, I’m not hurt. Rather than saying I got rid of my heart... you could say I dissolved it. After I picked up some essence of flesh magic from your friend Noma, I used the chamber to infuse myself with it, and learned how to actually use it myself. I can manipulate my flesh to a degree now. Like that, I took my heart and spread out the muscles that make it up across the veins in my body, not only making them stronger, but at the same time getting rid of the fatal weakness of my heart. I already didn’t need my heart to live, I could use magic to make up for it as I am now even if I were attacked, but the system simply acknowledges an attack to the heart as an incredibly powerful attack that does more damage than nearly anywhere else in your body. So, I got rid of it.”
Shimour frowned, “You used magic to get rid of your heart, and now you’re using magic to make up for your heart? That’s... ridiculous.”
“Not really. I created a specific mental duplicate whose only purpose it is to keep the blood in my body running. Like this, even if I’m attacked and were to bleed, I won’t lose any blood either. Not that it matters, since I have the bloodstone in the first place.”
“But what about your core? That’s connected to your heart, what did you do with that?” Shimour questioned the Demon, unsure what he was about to hear now. Though, he did notice Armodeus’ slightly wry expression out of the corner of his eye, “Just as I did with my heart, I dissolved my core through my mana veins.”
“Alright, now I know that you’re fuc-”
“Language,” Eiro interrupted, and Shimour looked at him annoyed, “...Now I know that you’re... messing with me, because you can’t manipulate your core nor your mana veins.”
Arc groaned, “Dude, catch up, he can. He used Holy Energy once and that sort of completely screwed him and his mana veins up, and since then they were... I don’t know, loose or something?”
Shimour let out a loud laugh, hitting Eiro’s back, “Sorry, but it sounded like your kid just said you wielded Holy Energy... a Demon?! Hahaha,” he laughed loudly, but nobody else in the round seemed to care. Everyone else already knew this, after all.
“Daddy can use Holy magic...!” Avalin exclaimed, wiping the last of her tears out of her eyes, “He’s the super awesomest demon, because he can!”
Shaking his head, still finding this too ridiculous to believe, Shimour squatted down, “Listen here little missy, but a demon can’t even come in contact with holy energy, or else they...” he said, before realizing who he was talking to. This little girl was giving off Holy Energy, so this must be the little ‘Holy Priestess’. Shimour didn’t fully believe Jura, since he thought he was just bragging about his grandchild being gifted with Holy magic, but clearly it was actually the case.
“You...” Shimour said with a wry smile, looking up at Eiro, “You can actually use holy energy? But- how?”
“...I was never affected by it as much as other demons anyway, and once I became a royal and evolved, I became a unique species of demon. Since I was created by the Monster King and wasn’t a direct descendent of the Great Demon, and wasn’t even attached to the species of ‘Imp’ anymore, I was set free from the ‘Original Sin’ that made demons vulnerable to holy energy.”
Shimour looked at Eiro with a blank expression, unsure if he was supposed to take what he was hearing at face value or if he should at least doubt it a little. Because it was simply too ridiculous to believe, but from what he’s seen so far... it didn’t seem totally impossible.
“Urgh, whatever! We already know this!” Sammy screamed, looking at her father, “Just- Why would you do something like mess with your heart of all things?”
“To become stronger,” Eiro slowly replied, and Sammy stared deep at the man sitting across from her, “Seriously? You’re already strong enough, why do you need to do things like that to become even... I don’t...”
“As for that, I think I can give you some insight. Your father is strong, and he will certainly be stronger, but... In the end, I was able to take him down quite quickly. Not easily by any means, but still... if he wants to get rid of the Monster King, then he has to be stronger.”
Rudy slowly turned away, “Why do you even have to get rid of the Monster King in the first place? Just... let the hero take care of that, as always.”
“And then what? The next one comes along. And then the next, and the next. We’re stuck in this never-ending war, and if someone doesn’t put an end to this, then-”
“But why does it have to be you?” Arc asked, “None of us asked you to do this. Not to get rid of your heart, not to become a royal... we just want to live calm and happy lives with everyone. Just let someone else take care of this. You’ve already done so much, without anyone even knowing about it.”
Eiro continued stroking the heads of Leon and Avalin, as the two finally managed to calm down a bit again. The Demon looked at his youngest daughter, and frowned, “I can’t just leave this be... you know that. Especially considering Avalin. They already wanted her once before... and they’ll definitely try something again. I have to do these things.”
Arc slowly turned around and headed toward the door, “Alright. In that case, do what you want. You’re our father, and... I’m sure you know better. Just be careful.”
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