Chapter 123 - Pebble

Solomon slowly stepped up to the stage in a dignified manner, seemingly having turned from a concerned father back into a strict ruler, not moving his sight away from the man that was in charge.

"Immediately set that spirit free, and return every single piece you have taken from its body." The King of Skyhart said with a deep glare, and the salesman slowly tried to adjust himself to bow in front of him, "K-King Solomon, right? I am sorry, but that spirit is how I earn my living! You cannot just take that from me!"

"Oh?" Eiro muttered quietly, tightening the grip he had around the man's neck, "Then it's alright if I slit open your stomach and take your liver, heart, or stomach to sell them on the black market?" The Demon asked, and he could immediately hear the man's heart speed up.

"Y-You wouldn't dare! We are in front of a King, you can't-" The salesman seemed to have wanted to protest, thinking that he was safe as long as they were in front of Solomon, but he was quite wrong. Because in the next moment, Eiro pushed his foot onto the salesman's hand as hard as he could, causing it to loudly crack, "I can't what? Sorry, I didn't really understand you through the sound of your bullshit." Eiro said in a clear tone, and immediately, the salesman looked at the Gnome still weakly floating by the side, although it was now being supported by Nelli at least a little bit.

"C-Come over here..." The salesman commanded, and the gnome slowly started to move toward him and just floated in front of the salesman's face, "I r-release the contract..." He said in a clear tone, slowly stretching out his hand toward it, and once they touched, the Spirit was enveloped in dim light and something crumbled off him, even if it wasn't anything actually physical. It was more like a slight layer of magic that encapsulated it that just shattered.

"Nelli, can you tell if the contract is really broken?" Eiro asked the Naiad, and she slowly nodded her head, "Yeah, but... We need to find it a place that it can turn into its home, or else it's going to just die here..."

"Don't worry about that. First, let me get rid of this." The Demon said, once more grabbing the salesman by the collar before just throwing him off the stage into the chairs that his audience used to sit on a couple of minutes ago.

And then, Eiro sat down cross-legged in front of the Gnome. "Can you understand me?" Eiro asked it, but it simply didn't react at all. But then, Eiro slowly picked up a small pebble and placed it onto the back of his hand, "Can you lift this?" The Demon asked, and slowly, the tiny pebble rose a few centimeters and then just dropped back down.

"Alright, seems like it can understand me after all..." Eiro said quietly, and then properly placed the pebble back onto the back of his hand, "Seen from your perspective, move the pebble to the right for yes, and to the left for no, alright?"

Slowly, the pebble dropped down the side of Eiro's hand, on the right side when seen from the Spirit's perspective. Since immature spirits weren't capable of speech, they had to resolve to something like this for now.

"Are you in pain?" Eiro asked the spirit, and it slowly moved the pebble to say yes.

"Do you know where the rest of your body is?" Sadly, the answer was no.

"Do you want me to help you?" After a few moments of hesitation, the pebble moved into the direction for 'yes' again, so Eiro just lightly smiled, "Do you want to form a contract with me once you become a mature spirit?" The Demon inquired, but the spirit didn't move the pebble at all. And Eiro understood why.

"Don't worry, it won't be like the one you were under until now. I'm not going to own you. You're going to be my partner like Nelli is. Equals." Eiro explained to the spirit, and in response to that, the salesman slowly pushed his body off the ground and tried to protest, "Th-That is not possible!" He exclaimed.

"Spirits do not form contracts to be someone's equal! Gnome, he's just lying to you! Did I really treat you that badly?" The salesman yelled out, but that was a rather dumb mistake on his side. With Nelli's help, Eiro slowly formed a bolt of ice that he made to float around the salesman's head, "Don't you dare say another word." The Demon said with a deep growl and then looked back at the Gnome before Nelli came up next to Eiro.

"You can trust him, we really do have an equal contract. I can help you form it if you don't know how." The Naiad said reassuredly, and just a couple moments later, the Gnome moved the pebble so that it dropped down the side for 'Yes'.

And so, Eiro slowly stood up and cracked his knuckles. "That's that, then. Nelli, how old did you say you think this Gnome is?" The Demon asked, and Nelli slowly looked down at it, "It should be at the right age to evolve... But it seems like it can't find its name because it's missing parts of its body."

"Got it. Then all of you that are here right now, give this one here his body back, will you?" Eiro said with a deep glare, looking at each and every one of them that he noticed had a piece of the Gnome's body on them.

But since none of them really acted on it, King Solomon slowly turned around toward them, "Do as he says. I may not have direct jurisdiction over this place, but I will not let you do as you want." The King said with a deep glare, and immediately, each one of them made their way to the front of the stage and handed the pouches they bought back, although one particular woman extended her hand forward expectingly.

"Your hand is empty. What do you want me to do with it?" Eiro pointed out, and the woman just deeply glared at the Demon, "I paid for this! Now that I returned it, I want to have my money back!" She exclaimed, and Eiro just looked at her confusedly and then shook his head, "Sorry, we have a no-money-back policy."

"Wh-What? That is outrageous! I did nothing wrong here!" The woman screamed out, and Eiro lightly leaned forward, "You know what, since you asked so kindly, I'll make an exception." Eiro said with a light smile underneath his mask, and with a smug expression, the woman turned around toward her 'friends', "See? I told you that all men listen to me." She chuckled, although she soon felt something warm and wet hit her hand.

And when she turned back toward Eiro, she noticed that there was still a thin thread of spit running from her palm to the bottom of Eiro's mask, "Wh-What are you doing?!" She yelled out confusedly, immediately trying to get rid of the spit she was just so kindly given by the Demon, who looked at her with his head tilted to the side.

"Who said the exception was me giving you your money back?" He asked, "The exception was me not messing with you for literally taking a part of a living being's body. So f.u.c.k you, before I take my dagger and cut your ugly mug apart, alright?" Eiro asked with a weirdly cheerful tone to his voice, starting to collect the rest of the Gnome's body that was here.

It seemed like it got a fair amount back already, but most of its body was still missing. Eiro just had to ask the salesman about who else bought it to make the search a bit easier later. But before then, the duke from before that Eiro threw a rock at made his way forward to the crowd and stepped in front of the woman.

"How dare you speak to my wife like that!" He exclaimed, but Eiro just kept staring back, and then looked back and forth between the husband and wife, "Hmm, that's weird." The Demon pointed out, making the duke look at him rather confusedly, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that I thought she was the wife of that guard over there. They really smell like each other, after all." Eiro said, pointing at the guard that stood directly behind the duke, before both he and the Duchess stared at each other for a moment, the latter's face turning dark red.

"Wh-What are you even talking about?!" The Duchess asked, and Eiro just leaned forward toward her, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Now leave, please, there are other things I have to take care of." Eiro pointed out, and then looked at Solomon, "Sorry that things escalated a little bit."

"Do not worry. It is not quite undeserved." He pointed out, just glaring at the crowd of people currently still gathered in front of the stage. Relieved that this didn't somehow screw Eiro's chances over to get Solomon's assistance with some things, the Demon looked at the salesman, "Solomon, could you somehow get him to tell us about who he sold the Gnome's rocks to? I think he may want to speak to you more than he does to me. And..." Eiro said, slowly turning his eyes over toward the man whose arms had caught fire just before while trying to attack Eiro.

After his and Felix's eyes met, he immediately ripped the curtains he was stuck in open and stepped over toward him.

And as Solomon swiftly did as Eiro suggested, the Demon himself made his way over toward the kid he couldn't stand in the slightest, and the man he could only assume to be his father. They had quite similar facial features and their smell was nearly identical, so that's what Eiro figured to be the case, at least.

"Well, hello there." Eiro said as he stepped up behind the man, who swiftly turned around, "Huh? It's you? Sorry, but if you want to continue our fight we have to do it some other time."

"I'm not going to fight you. I might stab you depending on how the night goes, but I won't fight you." Eiro pointed out, and the man just started slightly laughing in response, thinking that Eiro was joking, although the four children that vividly remembered what happened both when they first met Eiro, as well as when they were all kidnapped by demons, didn't really think it was that funny. They knew he was being serious, after all.

"You're a funny guy, I like that. And it seems like depending on how things go, we're going to be family soon, eh?" He said with a wink, slowly looking at his son, who stared back at his father in horror, "I l-literally met Sammy a few hours ago, there's nothing going on between us! Absolutely nothing, no way!" Felix exclaimed, seemingly not only intimidated but utterly terrified after seeing just a sliver of what Eiro was actually capable of.

Of course, Sammy on the other hand, who had been hearing Felix's compliments all day and was being influenced by his magic-infused voice, just stared at the young man confusedly, although she just stayed silent and, slightly disappointedly, stepped away and behind Rudy as if to hide from Felix.

"Did I teach you to treat a lady like that?" Felix's father asked with a deep frown, "Go apologize for what you said right now." He said, and at this point, Felix was unsure who he should be more scared of right now.

But to his luck, and demise, he didn't need to choose. Because Eiro agreed, "Yes, apologize right now. And this time, without using that skill on your voice."