Chapter 214 - Goons

Eiro looked down at the figure of the young man as he grabbed his throat with his remaining hand while gasping for air. He was spitting up blood, and was trying to somehow say something to Eiro. But all that the Demon did was grab the man by his collar and pull him up with him as he started to fly. Before the demon knew it, he was already on his way to his mansion. Although, just then... something else happened.

At an incredible speed, an arrow was shot toward Eiro. It was an unnatural speed, really. Impossible, rather.

Eiro was able to somewhat dodge it, but just barely. It slid by his body, and then... slowed down to a regular speed, "This f.u.c.ker..." Eiro growled and proceeded to let go of the man he was holding by his collar, slamming him down onto the ground as quickly as he possibly could. Now it was clear to him. Beside just being able to change the size of things, he also had some special item holding the same effect as Enka's earring. He was able to alter how time time worked.

But soon, just as Eiro thought, the effect disappeared from him and he was able to see the man drop to the ground in slow-motion while there were people down below trying to catch him. It seemed like they were other people from the organization, or at least they were all wearing the exact same outfit. They were probably just random goons.

One of them shot at Eiro, which was probably only possible because the demon was carrying the man in the first place, which made the effect of the ace of cups a bit weaker and made him easier to notice. With a deep sigh, Eiro dropped down to the ground and started to fight these people. There was already plenty of red snow laying on the ground, a little more probably wouldn't hurt anyone as long as Eiro got rid of the bodies.

These guys were obviously really just goons. Eiro was able to kill them within a few moments each. They didn't even give Eiro enough experience to level up even once, although he did get close. Once everyone here was dead, Eiro scratched his cheek and looked up at the man, as he was still falling down in slow-motion. It would probably take a minute or so for him to get down here, so Eiro had enough time to figure out what to do.

Soon, he was reminded of the hand that was cut off the man's arm, and quickly scuttered over to it. He pulled the glove, which was missing three of its fingers, and pulled it off. It was actually roughly around Eiro's size, coincidentally. He placed it onto his hand and pushed his mana inside of it while pressing his palm onto the three people he just killed. Just a few moments later, they were all shrunken down to the size of a finger.

"Huh... This is a useful one... Maybe I should try and steal that card from the organization, maybe I can figure out how to make use of the effect in this way as well." Eiro muttered quietly. Either way, it would be pretty easy to get rid of these corpses now. Eiro would just bring them to the mansion with him to figure out if there was anything on them that would be of use in any way.

And then, Eiro turned over toward the man right next to him, who was relatively close to the ground by now. With a slight smirk, the demon got an idea. He used his his three of swords and wrapped them around the man's limbs, using them to easily pull the slow-motion man around. Honestly, Eiro had no idea how this even happened to him. Most likely, the item with the slow-motion effect broke somehow while Eiro fought against him, and it just started affecting the man himself. Obviously that wasn't the actual effect. 

Or... maybe it was? It could be some safety system. Like this it would be easy for these goons to get to him quickly for first-aid. That was an interesting idea, really, maybe Eiro should look into trying to get that time-card as well. Although... Eiro may have to get a fair bit stronger for now. If anything, then Eiro should try and steal the data on how to enhance card items from the organization.

"Hmm... That also sounds like a good idea..." The demon muttered, while keeping his eyes on the shrunked-down goons in his hand.

--- 

Eiro stood in front of the castle, once more wearing his full cloak and mask, hiding his true identity, and was about to go inside when he was stopped by the guards.

"Halt, criminal sc.u.m!" They exclaimed, pointing their weapons at Eiro, who just stared back at them with a wry smile, "...what..?" He asked, and the guards slowly looked at each other, quickly nodded once, and looked back at Eiro.

"It has been determined that you have attempted an assassination on his Majesty, King Solomon Sigurd Skyhart!" The two guards yelled in unison, and Eiro sighed deeply and squatted down on the ground with a loud groan.

"...surrounded by f.u.c.k.i.n.g idiots..." The demon grumbled, before one of the guards seemed to have seen an opportunity to arrest Eiro and proceeded to push his spear toward him. But of course, all that happened was that Eiro grabbed the spear before it even hit him. He pulled it out of the Guard's hand and instead hit him over the head with the blunt end of it. 

Obviously, the Guard was injured, but it wasn't anything serious. He would just be unconscious for a few seconds, enough for Eiro to knock the other guard out as well and start dragging them into the castle with him.

It didn't take long for Eiro to find the place where Solomon and the children were already eagerly waiting for Eiro. Of course, Jordan, Solomon's royal advisor was also there, staring at Eiro in shock. Without hesitation, he jumped in front of Solomon to protect him, "Your majesty, watch out! This man must have been the one trying to assassinate you!"

The other guards in the room immediately stared at Eiro as well and lifted their weapons toward him, before Eiro groaned loudly and threw the guards he was dragging behind him in front of him.

"How narcissistic do you have to be to think that your King was the target over a literal nature goddess?" Eiro asked with a deep glare, "I'm not saying Solomon's life isn't important, but he clearly wasn't the target. If you're too dumb to see that, then I advise you to step down from your position to advise him. I have not, am not planning to, and will never try to kill Solomon. He's a friend that I trust. Do you understand?" Eiro asked with a deep glare toward Jordan, making him just so slightly flinch in fear.

With a deep groan, Eiro pulled an extra mask out of his treasury. One of the masks that the goons from before had been wearing. They were similar to Eiro's, as in that they covered the whole face, even the eyes. It seemed like the eye-holes were simply filled in with a special material that only allowed sight from one side, but it was different to the mask Eiro was used to. It had the rough shape of a simple male face, without any particular features. It was as average as it could be, as normal as one would expect from most men anywhere in the world. 

Eiro threw it on the table in front of him and then walked over toward his children, "The one that attacked the Lady of Winter was part of an organization aiming for superior strength. Not as an organization as a whole, but it seems more like the organization is really just made up of researchers and goons. The ones with real strength in the organization are probably not directly part of it, but are just supplied by it and in return supply it in some way, shape or form as well. They are in the possession of multiple Minor Arcana Cards, and they're taking their effects and placing them into artificial artifacts that can be used by anyone with an ounce of mana." Eiro explained, and Jordan looked away from the mask and back toward Eiro.

"Really? Where's the-" Jordan started, before Eiro slowly pressed his palm onto the table and immediately shrunk it down, "If you want proof, here it is. It's unstable because it's broken, so be careful with it, but here, try." Eiro said as he pulled the glove off and handed it to solomon while the table increased back in size.

"That's what was used to attack the Lady. Boulders were shrunken down and someone with incredible throwing-capabilities threw those fist-sized boulders at incredible speeds, had them return to their normal size mid-air, and with that managed to do immense levels of damage." Eiro explained, "But if you'll excuse me, I'm going to tend to my daughter for a moment."

With that, Eiro turned toward his children, as well as Felix and Charles, who were huddled around Clementine who was still more than simply teary-eyed after feeling the pain of Eiro's broken bones. He squatted down in front of her and rubbed his hand on her shoulder, "Are you alright? I'm sorry that you had to do that..." The Demon whispered, and Clementine slowly shook her head.

"N-No... it's not your fault, I c-couldn't control my hun-hunger..." Clementine replied in a way that was practically inaudible to the others with the exception of Eiro, with his great hearing, and Sammy, who was right next to Clementine. Hearing her words, Sammy tried to rub her own slight tears out of her eyes. Sammy was a really empathetic person, so even as a child, she would often cry when someone else cried. She tried her hardest to be strong and not to, as the second oldest of the bunch. Arc was the oldest, but he wasn't necessarily the most reliable amongst them.

"Clementine. If a child is starving, it's not the child's fault. It's the fault of their parent. I won't ever let this happen like this again, alright?" Eiro asked with a light smile on his face, and Clementine slowly nodded her head as she pulled Eiro into a hug.

Eiro tried his best to help his daughter calm down after this, all the whilst listening to the voices of the guards, the few nobles here, and of course Jordan speaking about the children.

"Did that girl manage to heal his wounds all on her own within minutes?"

"What about that boy? He was able to take on those boulders and came out of it without a scratch."

"And how did the other girl make everyone leave so quickly?"

"Personally, I'm more impressed with that blonde boy. Even while everyone else was panicking, he was cool and collected. He might be a good asset in the military." 

Slowly, Eiro let go of Clementine and stood up. He turned around and stared at all the people standing here in this room, a thick aura of pressure enveloping everyone standing there, "I have abstained from doing so until now, because Solomon asked me not to cause a ruckus, but I'm going to say this once, and only once... If any of you bastards dare come close to my children in any way, shape or form, I'll make you regret ever being born."