Chapter 54 - Green Flames

"Go away!" The Imp exclaimed with a deep, nearly feral growl originating in the back of his throat. He may have only met two people that had cards until now, but both of them were insanely dangerous, so Eiro was sure that this old man was as well.

It was obvious from seeing how he was able to dodge all of the Imp's attacks, after all. In response to Eiro's request, the old man just sighed quietly and walked over to the box that he put his tools in earlier, before slowly picking it up and placing it on his back. For some reason, the Imp didn't expect him to be able to actually lift it up, just because it looked pretty heavy, but in the old man Jura's hands it looked at light as the sticks in front of Eiro's feet.

While starting to quietly grumble, the old man turned around and just left deeper into the forest, before the Imp quickly picked up the pieces of wood and sticks in front of him, before quickly bringing them back to the place where the children were already waiting for him nervously.

"What took you so long?!" Sammy exclaimed as she looked at Eiro, who just placed the sticks down in a pile in front of him. "Sorry." He replied quietly before starting to properly turn the sticks into the shape of a campfire, like he remembered it being done from before, at least, and then placed a Fire Magic Stone against the sticks to start a fire.

And a few minutes later, when the campfire was actually burning properly, Arc and Rudy quickly set up everything they needed to properly cook the food in the form of different metal pieces over the fire, before Rudy started to finish everything up properly using the utensils from the Carriage. Of course the Imp was trying to somehow help Rudy out and make sure everything was working properly, even if he didn't need to worry about the boy somehow hurting himself.

Either way, just a little while later, the food was done and they could all start eating after the babies were fed as well. However, from the distance, the Imp could then heard the voices of different people as they approached with the help of a carriage, and immediately scrambled around to try and find a way to hide himself from them. It was a different business with the children, but since Eiro was a monster, if these people were potentially dangerous, then they were f.u.c.k.i.e.d if Eiro was seen.

Immediately, Eiro wrapped his face in some cloth that was in the carriage and tried to hide any parts of his red skin that were visible to the outside, and then stood in front of the carriage to make sure that he got a proper look at those that were trying to pass.

"Damn, we got really lucky this time, didn't we?" One of the two men sitting at the front of the carriage asked the other one loudly, letting the Imp listen into the conversation at a quite convenient starting point.

"You can say that again! If this was really made by that guy, so we should be able to sell the wood alone for, what, a small Gold coin at the very least? And we were just passing through as well!" The Other replied with a loud laugh, while the first one replied once more, holding up a piece of wood in a quite familiar shape, although one end of it was quite bloody.

This was definitely the fake leg that that old man made for the Boar before.

It didn't seem like they were dangerous to the point of randomly attacking other people, so the carriage of those two men just passed through along the road.

Just as Eiro was trying to relax, he heard another part of the men's conversation. "Why is this so valuable though? It's just some wood..." One of them muttered, and the other quickly replied with a loud laugh.

"Ah, it's a popular material for wands'n'shit, cuz it's on the cheaper side for those. But mainly, Nobles burn it up at parties 'cause it dyes the flames when burnt up." He explained, and immediately, the Imp turned around to the campfire, seeing that Rudy was currently trying to place another piece of wood into the fire, one of which was the very same wood those two were talking about.

The very moment that the wood started burning, the red flames shot upward in a bright green color that basically illuminated the whole area around them, despite it being the middle of the day and the sun was up in the sky. "Oi... does it look like that?" Eiro heard one of the men ask, while the other slowed the carriage down, and the Imp swiftly turned toward the children.

"Hide in the carriage." He told them immediately, and although Rudy seemed somewhat conflicted because there was still some food left over the fire, they all just ended up doing what the Imp asked them to and stepped into the carriage again so that the Imp could take care of everything.

And just when Eiro made sure that the door behind them was properly shut, one of the men reached the carriage as well.

"Good morning to you, good sir. Could we maybe ask you one teeny tiny question?" He asked, and the Imp nodded his head.

"Yes. Was that all?" Eiro asked in response, and the man that spoke to him just now turned to the other one confused, who was rubbing the bridge of his nose annoyedly.

"Don't play smart with us here, bud. We're from one of the northern tribes, you're just a twerp. Ya ain't gonna want to start a fight with us here, so just answer us. Where did you get the wood you just burnt up? And did you make this thing here?" The man asked, but the Imp immediately shook his head.

Eiro didn't really understand what the 'Northern Tribes' were, but these men did seem pretty strong, so the Imp would prefer to just get them to go away without fighting them, because it probably wouldn't end all that nicely for him.

"I found it in the forest when looking for firewood. Just in small chunks though. And I didn't make that, sorry." The Imp replied, but the men just stared at the Imp annoyedly.

"Seriously? Ya just found it laying on the ground or something?" One of them asked, so Eiro slowly nodded his head. That's technically what happened, after all.

"You expect us to believe that? Wouldn't that be a bit of a big coincidence? This thing here was just made, it's still super dry. And then we coincidentally find someone using this wood to make some food? That'd be a bit weird, wouldn't it?" The man asked, but the Imp had no idea how to respond to that.

Was it? He really wasn't sure about that, but maybe it was. Although, the Imp didn't really care. He just wanted to finally get some sleep, as his legs were already giving in to his body at this point and it was hard to keep his eyes open.

"Listen, just tell us where you and the geezer got the wood, and we'll be right off." The other, dumber and nicer, man pointed out, and the Imp sighed slightly. "In that direction." He explained and pointed his hand toward the forest, although just when he did, he realized something being off. Who was the 'geezer' that the man just spoke about?

The Imp didn't notice when at all, but at some point in time, someone sneaked past him. And it was the blind old man Jura, sitting around the fire currently using a knife to pick up some of the slightly-burnt meat on top of the fire.

"Oh, you must give compliments to that boy, he did a great job with this." Jura said after turning the meat into a mushy substance in his mouth, and then turned over toward the two men standing in front of the Imp.

"But as for you... I worked pretty hard on that, you know? It's not easy to find the right wood for the right beast, much less coincidentally have it with you..." The old man said with a sigh and stood up, slowly stepping toward the men and Eiro with his hands behind his back, before one of them realized what Jura just said.

"Wait, you made this?!" He asked, and Jura slowly nodded his head with a slight grumble.

"Of course I did. And if you please, I would like you to give it back to me so I can hand it back to the Boar you took it from."

Completely ignoring the old man's words, the man just rushed past him and toward the wooden box that stood behind Jura. "Is this where you keep the wood? Is there more inside here?"

"Oh? You are interested in my craft? I am currently looking for an apprentice... Would you like to learn from me? You do seem health enough." Jura said with a sligh chuckle, all the whilst the Imp stared at him, trying to figure out where he came from and how he could actually see those two men with his eyes in the state they were in. Was it some sort of Magic?

"Apprentice? Listen, if you're the one that made this, you're Jura, right? I ain't gonna risk my life to become some dumb prosthetic carver. So tell me how to open this thing, and we won't tell the Guards at the next town you're around here." The man said with a smirk, and the old man just sighed out deeply while shaking his head.

"Is that so? What a shame." Jura replied, and slowly stepped up to the men before just grabbing the box by the handle and swinging it onto his back with a swift motion and then turned toward Eiro.

"Thank you for the food, tell that boy it was delicious." With a slight, calm nod, the old man started to smile and tried to turn away, although one of the men grabbed the box before he could do so.

"Not so fast! Didn't you hear what he just said?" The dumber man asked, trying to pull the old man back, although he failed to do so miserably. And the smarter man then turned around toward the campfire and grabbed a piece of wood that only had one of its ends burning, then walked over toward the Carriage.

"If you don't stop right now, I'll burn this piece of shit thing down!" The man exclaimed, "Do you want that?!"

Slowly, the old man stopped walking and just interlocked his fingers between his back. "Hoho... I'm not so sure you will~." Jura chuckled, and before the man could figure out what he meant, he already had a hot dagger in the side of his neck, something which was only possible because the man was paying attention to the old man instead of the Imp standing right next to him.

And with a quick motion, the Imp pulled the dagger forward and cut through most of the man's throat, making him immediately fall to the ground while grasping at the wound, suffering to properly find air to breath or actually grasp the situation, although that wasn't necessary, because he soon god the dagger right through the side of his head.

[Lethal damage done to Arn Stirg]

[You leveled up!]

[You have 29 Stat points available]

The moment the notification appeared in front of the Imp, something happened to him. He was feeling invigorated for just a moment, but then, the world around him turned pitch black. The last thing that Eiro saw before he hit the ground was the body of the other man as it hit the ground as well, without the Imp even realizing that the old man Jura even attempted to move.