Chapter 108 - Change of Plans

"I'll be off." Eiro told everyone as he picked up the materials that he had collected for the Lady of Autumn over the past few days, and everyone swiftly sent him off.

They were quite busy right now, actually. Since Arc and Clementine's tasks have been cut down on quite heavily lately, they were doing their best to help Rudy when it came to cooking and preparing provisions for the long trip. Thinks like jerky from the meat that they wouldn't be able to eat before it would go rotten usually, or some fermented or pickled vegetables. All the things that they might need at some point during a longer trip, really.

In the meantime, Sammy had been practicing the control over her 'intention'. Since Eiro figured that intention was a rather big aspect that played into Sammy's 'A Liar's Truth' unique skill, he suggested that she should just try and control what she meant to be opposite to what she was saying, just for practice.

She had learned to do so relatively quickly, actually. Since Eiro could hear things like the other's person's heartbeat, their breathing, and could see the slightest change in facial expression, he was able to figure out the moods of others quite well as long as he tried to pay attention to it. He did have to buy a book on it first, but that didn't really matter.

Either way, Sammy was able to for example say 'Thank you' in a situation where she actually genuinely meant it, but show all the signs of sadness or anger. Or she could complain about things and tell Arc to stop messing around while showing the classic signs of excitement and happiness.

It was quite interesting to look at, anyway. Right now, Sammy was just continuing to try this all out to be properly prepared for when he unique skill was unlocked. Of course, she also helped Leon practice a bit to be able to soon control his own Unique Skill a bit, but his way to practice was a bit weirder than her's.

But for now, Eiro couldn't stay there and watch them any longer, and instead really had to get going toward the place where the Lady of Autumn would soon appear, so that he could properly greet her.

Once in the windy clearing together with Lugo and Nelli, the former of which once more helped Eiro carry the gifts like he did for the other Ladies, the Demon kneeled down on the ground and just waited for the Lady's appearance.

A couple of hours later, the wind sped up more and more, and the leaves that had been dropping for the past few weeks were gathering together in the center of the clearing, creating a red, orange, yellow, and brown storm, before each and every one of those leaves suddenly started slowing down and moving to a specific spot, slowly building up the Lady of Autumn's body piece by piece.

Soon, her dress of Autumn colors was fully put together, and numerous leaves gathered around the legs, arms, and head and then just disappeared in a strong gust to reveal the limbs of the Lady of Autumn smiling down onto Eiro.

The moment that their eyes locked, Eiro slightly bowed forward and greeted her properly, "Nice to see you again, my Lady." The Demon exclaimed, and the Lady of Autumn just kept tiredly smiling at him, "Raise your head, Eiro." She told him, before all of a sudden, a few small figures peeked out from behind the Lady's body. The Daughters of Autumn.

In dresses similar to the Lady's, they swiftly jumped forward and approached Eiro, receiving one gift after another from him before walking back toward the Lady, who had been looking around for a while now.

"I do believe that Jura is not here this time... Why is that?" She asked curiously, although Eiro knew that she didn't truly care as much as she showed. While she seemed rather nice, amongst the Ladies, she weirdly enough was the coldest, even colder than the Lady of Winter. Although, that may also just be the case due to the fact that Eiro was closest to the Lady of Winter amongst all of them, so she simply wasn't that cold toward him. Although... Compared to how the Lady of Autumn treated Jura, she actually did also treat Eiro relatively warmly.

Either way, Eiro had to explain. He told the Lady of Autumn that Jura passed away nearly a year ago, and then swiftly moved on toward how he would be leaving soon, and then started to explain the situation with Rumia and how the other ladies agreed to follow along with Eiro's plan.

"Hmm... That should be quite fun indeed. Seems like I am quite lucky to be the last, as I will see how this whole act unfolds, is that not so?" The Lady asked, and Eiro just slowly nodded his head.

"Indeed so. If you wish, should we make our way toward town to get started?" The Demon inquired, and the Lady swiftly nodded her head.

"Let us, yes." She exclaimed, and immediately turned around to start making her way toward the town, with Eiro, Lugo and Nelli silently following behind. Unless they were spoken to, they weren't allowed to speak, after all. Well, Eiro could do that with the Ladies of Winter, Spring, and Summer, but he was nearly killed when he did so with the Lady of Autumn, so he wouldn't try to do so again.

And so, they silently made their way to town, where the townsfolk was already awaiting them. Now that he was in here, Eiro could see a fair amount of changes to the last time he was here as well. And the most important of those changes was that all the soldiers seemed to have packed up and were preparing to leave the moment they got the support of all the ladies.

Which was just absolutely perfect for Eiro. Since he told all of the ladies that no matter what he told to Rumia later, they should never ever support his country for as long as they existed, he could very easily pretend to fall the 'final choice' and make them believe that the ladies would give their aid to Rumia. They would leave, and Eiro could finally have a little bit of fun once they weren't in town anymore. Luckily they didn't end up recruiting someone from this town for their army, meaning that Eiro could kill anyone without worrying about what this town would think.

Slowly, the Lady of Autumn made her way into the center of the statues, which wasn't occupied by Rumia anymore. He learned his lesson after making the same mistake with the Lady of Spring again, and ever since then was at least a little more respectful, albeit still just as condescending as always.

Once the basic celebration part with the Lady of Autumn was done, Rumia swiftly stepped up and held the same speech that Eiro had now heard four full times, with the same disgusting content that made the Demon's blood simply boil.

And once he was done, the Lady of Autumn looked down onto Rumia and slowly nodded her head, "I see... Well, truthfully, I will have to agree with you. The King of Monsters is quite a threat."

'Hmm..?' Eiro thought to himself confused. That wasn't what they spoke about before, "What is she doing?" Nelli asked quietly, in the space where only Eiro could notice her, but even he didn't know.

"I think the choice is clear. I will lend you my power during that war, young man. And so, my sisters will too." The Lady of Autumn explained, and Eiro stared up at her with utter confusion, while Rumia laughed loudly.

"Hahahah! As I thought! One of you had to agree with me!" Rumia exclaimed, and the Lady of Autumn sighed deeply, as if disappointed, "Truthfully, when Eiro came up with that plot to trick and kill you, I thought this would be something I was supposed to disagree with. But you, young Demon... Why should I disagree with Rumia? Just because you are a monster, and you are my guide, I should take the side of those wicked monsters as well?" The Lady asked, and Eiro just glared up at her, while Rumia's stare was directed at Eiro.

"Demon? Monster? What do you mean?" He inquired with a hateful expression, all of that despise focused on Eiro, who just sighed deeply in response, slowly taking his mask off while pulling his hood off his head, revealing his red-skinned face as well as his spiraling blue and red horns.

"Exactly what she just said. I'm a Demon. An Imp, to be exact." Eiro explained, making not only Rumia, but also Nelli react quite surprised, "What are you doing now?! Did everyone here go crazy all of a sudden?" She asked, but Eiro shook his head and clicked his tongue.

"Well, I surely didn't go crazy, but this bitch here surely did." The Demon said as he stared up at the Lady of Autumn, something that made everyone in this town look at Eiro with shock. Shock, and despise. After all, he just insulted one of their gods.

With anger in her eyes the Lady stared down at Eiro, "You, a mere guide, dare sp-"

"Shut the f.u.c.k up. I'm not a 'Mere Guide'. Not anymore. My Job as a guide ended the moment you stepped into the center of those statues. And since that was my last 'trip' as a guide ever, I'm not someone you can command anymore. Now I'm just the one that your Sister, my Lady Winter, blessed. One that she chose. If I was still your guide as well, it would be a different story, but now you can't even hope to threaten me without feeling the repercussions through all three of your sisters." Eiro explained with a deep glare, and the Lady of Autumn just stared down at him, slowly extending her hand forward toward the Demon.

"What do I care!" She exclaimed, but Eiro just took another few steps away from her, "Also, I know that once you're in there, you can't leave the center of those statues anymore. So try me, you bitch. Don't think you can beat an Imp in trickery and fraud." The Demon pointed out, and without hesitation started to yell out to the town around him with the help of Air magic.

"You heard it right! I'm not their guide anymore! I can't stand all those uptight pieces of shit! That's why I quit my job as a guide! F.u.c.k them!" Eiro exclaimed loudly, continuing on and on until every single person living in this town started to hate the Demon, albeit with some exceptions. Of course, Tom could see that this was just a trick as well.

"Hahahah!" Rumia started laughing loudly, interrupting Eiro's successful attempt at provoking the whole town, "I knew it! You were pure evil! Men, kill it!" He exclaimed, but with a sigh, Eiro just looked at all the soldiers bearing their weapons toward Eiro while Nelli appeared around him and prepared for the fight as well, although she was obviously rather upset at Eiro's rash action.

But the Demon didn't care much. Since the only ones that could really be aware of what Eiro was about to pull out would soon be dead, he got his Three of Swords out as well and connected it with his dagger, immediately making all the soldiers around him stop.

They were from a larger town, they obviously had heard of what the cards actually looked like. They knew that this was real.

But Eiro didn't care too much, and just swiftly pulled one of the three rings from his left hand, something that he learned to do recentaly, and placed it onto the middle finger of his right hand. And then, he took the ring that connected with Eiro's dagger and placed it around the end of his tail which he started to swiftly unwrap.

The threads of the blades all wrapped around the limbs they were now connected to, tightly holding the blades in place on them so that his two arms and his tail practically turned into weapons themselves.

His tail like a scorpion's stinger, and his arms like a harpy's, which had had sharp claws at their end. Although, for that, Eiro was still missing the wings.

"Why did you have to do all of this?!" Nelli asked, not understanding why he deliberately escalated the situation, and Eiro looked at her before just pulling her closer so that only she could hear him.

"What else should I do? Like this, the town will sell me out to the men that come look for Rumia. They won't be punished because of me."