Demon's Virtue

"Hm... Have the structures in this part of town altered next," Eiro pointed at the city map, and Boju looked away from it a bit confused.

"Wait, why here? The trolls seem like they're going to prefer moving closer ot the southern part of town. That's where all the large roads are," the highland orc pointed out, not understanding Eiro's logic. But the demon quickly explained his reasoning.

"That's exactly why they shouldn't move there. The end of summer is getting closer and closer, and in the region we live, we get tons of cold winds from the glaciers at the north of the continent. Not to mention the river running through the city will bring plenty of cold air with it.

Trolls are weak to fire, but they're more cold-blooded than the other species in town, excluding the lizardmen of course. That's why instead of in the southern part of the city, they should move to the east that's generally more protected from wind and rain.

Plus, most of the buildings there are old industrial buildings that have been repurposed, so it should be easy enough to alter the buildings to fit the trolls a bit better."

Boju slowly nodded while taking notes of what Eiro was saying, "So then what about the actual lizardmen? Where should they stay as weather gets colder?"

"Most of them are currently here by the old museum, right?" Eiro confirmed, though he already knew the answer, "I think it might not be a bad idea to keep them here for the time being. Over winter, lizardmen enter a state of brumation. They huddle together with their tribe for extra protection and conserve as much energy as possible.

Of course, that won't be quite as necessary if we can provide them the heat they need, but there will still be plenty that simply prefer it, even if just out of ritualistic reasons."

"So then we should make the museum better fitted for the large groups of lizardmen?"

"Yes, exactly. It already has large halls with a decent layout. To protect the art inside, the structure is pretty well-insulated as well. During the time that the city was taken over by the horde, part of the building was destroyed, but it should be easy enough to repair everything until winter actually comes around."

Boju quickly continued taking notes, already thinking about everything that they were going to need for the reconstruction and repair efforts. Meanwhile, Eiro looked out of the window. The sun was starting to come up, so it was about time for him to go and try to meet the humans.

He would have preferred if Boju had gone to bed instead of staying here to plan out future city developments with Eiro, but considerign that the demon wouldn't be able to personally come here for quite a while, he figured he owed it to the orc to help out as much as he could.

Obviously, Eiro was going to closely watch the town through the eyes of servants and could write detailed plans and instructions through a duplicate, and if he had to, Boju could always come to the manor to discuss things with Eiro directly, but that was all still very different from Eiro directly being here and helping out. But this was a good step that they had to go through in the first place.

He couldn't be there for them forever. Becoming less dependent on Eiro was only going to be a good thing for this town. Especially once things spread beyond the confines of just this town, Eiro simply wouldn't be able to take charge of it all.

Eiro slowly stood up from his seat, "I will be heading out for a bit. By the time everyone else is back, I will come and make some announcements."

The highland orc quickly nodded, "Yes, sir! I will continue to-"

"No, you're going to rest. Just take a nap until I'm back."

"But-"

"No buts. Except for yours in the bed," Eiro said immediately, looking deep into the orc's eyes. Realizing that he can't win a discussion against Eiro, Boju slowly nodded his head.

"... Alright... I will try to rest for a bit," the young orc said, and Eiro nodded with a smile.

"Perfect. I will come and wake you later, okay?"

Boju nodded, and Eiro quickly turned around and headed toward the door. He made his way back downstairs toward Lugo, who stood up the moment he saw him. The two walked outside and Eiro climbed back onto the stag's back. They made their way to the edge of the town to the disconnected small village that had been prepared for the humans.

And while they were going there, Eiro was doing some work on his body.

It was breaking down more and more; worst case, he would have to enter his coccoon later this evening after going back home. And really, he couldn't show himself to humans in this way. Monsters were used to others changing rapidly in their appearance, since they were all used to evolution to some degree, but that wasn't the case with people.

Rapidly changing looks always accompanied a stigma of a permanent decrease in health. Considering that the last time they saw Eiro, he was in peak condition, he didn't want to appear weak to them after returning from the battle with the Devil. He wanted to show them that Eiro came out on the other side stronger than before.

Eiro let mana flow into his veins, producing a bit more blood than normal. He pulled it into his sunken cheeks, making them fill in a bit more while giving his skin a deeper crimson color.

Similarly, he used a large amount of his mana to grow masses of flesh under his loose skin to fill in the parts that his muscles took up not too long ago to improve his stature and make him appear healthier, fitting his clothes well.

His teeth that were growing yellow and crumbling over the past few days were quickly filled in with compressed snow from his ice magic, keeping them opaque and slightly rough instead of perfectly smooth. Eiro slightly exhaled. His breath smelled like death. He quickly pulled out the seed pouch from his bag and picked out a specific one, dropping it into his mouth.

The seed quickly sprouted and buried its roots in Eiro's flesh. It was uncomfortable, but he didn't have to deal with it for too long. These fresh leaves that were pressed up against the inside of his throat were going to freshen the smell of his breath.

And then, after infusing his horns with some magic to make their colours pop slightly more and pulling back the blood from the veins in his eyes to prevent them from looking bloodshot, Eiro grabbed another seed from his bag and pressed it against his chest, also making it sprout.

Roots as thin as thread spread out under his skin, tightly connecting his skin to his flesh to prevent it from 'slipping' as it seemed to do quite actively. It was like a layer of cloth keeping his skin and flesh connected. This all vastly weakened him to the point where he would be concerned if he weren't in a well-protected barrier that he fully constructed himself together with Partax.

Not to mention, the people he was about to meet weren't going to do anything to him. They were weak villagers that could be defeated within a single blink of Eiro's eyes.

Lugo slowly came to a halt in front of the village. Some of the humans were already out and about, trying to form some kind of routine in their new home. They looked tired and thin, though they should have plenty of food to eat. But this was probably just the stress getting to them all. And the moment they saw Eiro approach, they dropped everything they were doing.

Some of them tried to hide, but most of them just froze, unsure what to do. This was the first time that Eiro had come here since he dropped them off.

One of the villagers ran over to the home of Marius, the humans' representative. He was still sleeping, but hearing that Eiro was here, he immediately jumped up and sprinted out of the house, dropping to his knees before Eiro could even step down from Lugo's back.

"Oh great King Daemonherz, this humble servant welcomes you!"