Demon's Virtue

669 Instinct

"Trade? You're seriously considering having us trade with other places soon?" Boju asked a bit perplexed, but Eiro just nodded his head as though it were the most natural thing in the world, "Of course. Any city does that, doesn't it?"

"But... isn't that dangerous? Trading with other cities would mean having to let people into here, and... I don't think the monsters are ready for that... like you asked us to, we tried to at least have everyone use the illusion tools to make them appear like people, but a lot of them really didn't like it..." the highland Orc pointed out concerned, but Eiro quickly calmed him down, "Don't worry, you don't need to let any people into the city. Rather, you just need to have some of the monsters, the ones you know you can trust, lead some small caravans to other places."

Boju thought about it for a moment, "Well, that's... fair... but, just... in one of the books that I found, stowed away deep in this desk, there were some records about spies infiltrating or following merchantries to figure out their methods. And that doesn't seem like something only the people in this city would have done. What if someone ends up following us into the city, they would find out, and then call on Adventurers or Knights or something..."

Eiro thought for a moment, "That's a fair concern. That definitely happens, quite often at that. Though I don't really think you have to concern yourself with that. There's plenty of ways to get around that. I do have the Ace of Cups, and using that it should be more than possible to simply avoid their sight. We'll need to specifically train some of the monsters and have some thief- or assassin-types accompany them to make proper use of it, but it should be easy enough to get around spies following you around."

"Then... what about the actual merchants?" Boju wondered, "It's one thing to have them stationed in your home, since they probably don't really interact that deeply with a lot of people, but that's literally the job of a merchant. Talking to people... and beyond that, a merchant needs to know quite a lot, right? To be able to make dealings properly. We haven't really taught any of the monsters that much general knowledge... rather, we ourselves don't have any of that general knowledge to teach to others in the first place."

"Well, that issue can be resolved pretty easily," Eiro pointed out with a smirk, "It's not like you'll be trading as 'people' in the first place."

Boju was taken aback and frowned, "My... my lord, what do you mean?"

"You'll be trading as monsters."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The highland Orc jumped up from his seat, pressing his hands down onto the table, "What?! But, but that's just going to get them killed! Do you want to sacrifice-"

"Obviously not. This is part of the bigger picture," Eiro explained, "Listen, this won't be a regular trade with other places. It's going to be... a 'mysterious merchant appearing where adventurers frequent." "...I still don't really follow, isn't that far too risky?"

"Of course it is, but everything about this is risky, Boju. Existence as a monster is risky," the demon pointed out, leaning back in his seat, "Listen, the way that I thought about this is very simple. We choose some monsters skilled with their words, and have them protected by some of the strongest in the city. And then, we send them out to areas with weak monsters where only new, weak adventurers can be found."

"... But..." Boju thought for a moment, "Won't even inexperienced adventurers be on guard around monsters?"

"Of course. But that's the point. Stronger adventurers will probably have encountered more intelligent, outwardly calmer monsters. They won't hesitate to cut down anything they recognize to be a monster, no matter how it acts. On the other hand, if it's their first time seeing a monster that acts like that, and one that can speak common, at that? From my experience, they'll be more likely to approach. Especially since their mental stats will be lower, so if we send a monster with high charisma that knows how to use their 'voice' properly, then there's no need to worry. Not to mention that new adventurers will be much easier to fend off in case they do decide to attack."

Boju thought about Eiro's suggestion for a few moments, and soon realized the true intent behind this plan, "So... you'll use this to introduce the idea that there are non-threatening monsters around here?"

"Basically," Eiro smiled, glad that Boju understood so quickly, "We can't just throw you all into the masses at some point. That's never going to work. We need to slowly but surely have you work your way into the minds and hearts of the people... Of course, at the end of the day, the monster merchants are still going to be attacked. There's going to be people sent out specifically to take care of you, or the rare experienced adventure wandering around where they might usually not be. It's dangerous, but it's also worth the risk."

"... Is it really, though? My lord, you saw how things are in the city, right? I know it's not perfect by any means, but it's getting better day by day... Why can't we just keep to ourselves? Why do we have to integrate with... people?"

"I'm not going to force anyone here to integrate. Anyone that doesn't want to is free to take their leave," Eiro replied without even a moment's hesitation, practically cutting Boju off, "I get that it's scary, and might seem unnecessary to you, but that's how things are just going to be. In the future, the monster king, and royals altogether, will disappear. I'll personally make sure of that. Of course, so will the hero and other powerful figures amongst people, but there's a big difference there. All the heroes are only active a few years at a time, throughout their journey to kill the monster king. Not to mention, the nearly two decades it takes for a new hero to be born and raised to a point where they're capable of fighting in the first place. But Monsters are never without their leading figure. There is always a powerful monster king, and there are always powerful royals. But the balance is still there, though usually a bit more in favor of the monsters. Though, that is only the case because of the Mon ter King and the royals."

Boju slowly lowered himself back into his seat, understanding what Eiro means, "So... if there's a sort of balance with the monster king, but without the hero... then once the monster king disappears, the ones that are on the winning side are the people?"

"Right. Sooner or later, the people will realize that the monster king ceased to exist. And without the monster king, they won't need a hero anyway, so they won't be too bothered by their disappearance. So without the monster king, the different countries of the people will most likely begin a complete genocide of all monsters. Or at least, the ones that they can't make submit to them somehow."

The Demon's vision of the future was grim, but from the little things that he knew about people, Boju couldn't even hope to disagree. That's most likely what would happen, "But... when you kill the monster king, won't you be the new one? Can't you use your position to create peace for us?"

"...That will only work for a certain degree. Not to mention, I'm still not confident about the changes that becoming the Monster King would do to me," Eiro explained. Rather, at this point, that was a lie. He had read many things about the Monster King, whether it was in this world, or speculations from the planes of fire or water. Those in particular were things that Eiro trusted in particularly, since they had a special position in this 'war'. They simply weren't involved; they were neutral, but many of the powerful beings, in particular the spirits, had plenty of information of the central material plane. Not to mention. there have been Monster Kings that formed contracts with spirits, so there were quite a few accounts that knew what they were talking about.

As far as Eiro could tell, becoming the Monster King inflicted the Monster with certain side-effects. Their monstrosity would be strengthened many times over, and they would be inflicted with a particular 'instinct. To protect monsterkind. And since one's monstrosity already made one already despise people, there was a clear direction most Monster Kings would head to. Though of course, that instinct didn't mean that the monster king couldn't be cruel toward individuals; as long as monsterkind strived, individuals didn't matter to most of them.

Of course, the easiest way to avoid this would be to simply rid himself of monstrosity once he attained the 'Key' and enhanced it for this to become possible, but Eiro had one more fear. That if he did this, if he didn't have any 'monstrosity' anymore, then his soul, originally that of a person, might become unable to accept the 'splinter' of the Monster King. He was confident he could control himself enough to commit suicide if it came down to it. Rather, he would change his body to make sure he could be easily killed at a snap by someone he trusted, just before becoming King, so that even if he turned mad, he could be gotten rid of. And since his soul would fully fuse with the splinter, the 'Monster King' would cease to exist forever. That was Eiro's current plan. He simply didn't know enough to predict what effects that splinter would have on him.

That was why, "I want to make sure I account for all possibilities. Even if I'm not capable of helping once I become Monster King, I need you all to become the pillars that protect and lead all monsters."