Eiro's body sunk into the couch, as if his muscles themselves were settling and starting to drop the moment he tried to relax them. Solomon dropped down next to him, while Kassandra, Orion and Shimour sat down on the couch across from them. Meshi seemed to prefer standing, so he stood behind the other masters.
"Again, I'm sorry for the assumption... I just didn't think that even someone like Eiro would just come barging in here," Shimour explained, and Solomon turned his head toward the demon beside him.
"Yes, well... I just got used to it," the king pointed out with a long sigh, turning back to the four people across from him, "So? Who are you four? I assume that Eiro didn't just grab some random people off the road and reveal that he's a demon."
Kassandra scoffed, glaring at Eiro, "For a thing like that, he really does a good job at hiding his identity, huh?"
Eiro sighed lightly, "They're the masters that I invited, I figured I would come introduce you to them. Shimour was already here last time, when you sent Lognir to come check on me. That rude elf is Kassandra, who mastered hand-to-hand combat. To her left is Orion, the master of dagger mastery. And behind those three is Meshi, the master of freerunning."
The demon could hear Solomon's heartbeat speed immensely. Adrenaline was starting to flow through him and he was sweating heavily. With a slight sigh, Eiro infused his breath with some magics that he used to envelop the king. It was mostly healing magic with some mental interference that would slow Solomon's heartbeat and help his nervousness.
Realising what happened, Solomon glanced over for a moment, but soon focused back onto the masters, "I see. It is a pleasure to meet you four. So you four will be training Eiro?"
"That was the plan, at least," Meshi replied, leaning onto the back of the couch "But he can barely walk, let alone train."
"What?" Solomon stared at the demon again, but Eiro just sighed and shook his head.
"No, the Devil didn't injure me. I'm undergoing evolution right now. Again, I'll fill you in later. Now stop looking back and forth or you're going to break your own neck," Eiro explained, "I brought them here because each of those guys is basically the military force of a country. Considering the trouble Partax caused, you shouldn't be left out of the loop."
"I do appreciate that," the king responded with some slight relief in his voice. Relief that came both from the fact that Eiro wasn't injured, and that there was no deeper intent behind the introduction of the four masters. Eiro's plans were somewhat hard to see through, so whenever he did something like this that seemed a bit weird, Solomon's anxiety skyrocketed.
Before he could say anything else, Orion spoke up.
The only issue now was Shimour; of course, he had already agreed to teach Eiro before, but the situation was quite different then. While Eiro was sure Shimour wouldn't necessarily go back on his word considering the personality he has been displaying, it was also clear that Shimour wasn't as trustworthy as he seemed.
He was the master of stealth. Of hiding himself. If someone could hide their whole existence from the world, then it was easy enough to hide one's true intentions and thoughts, even from someone like Eiro.
Of course, from his behaviour until now, Eiro had no reason to believe that he was lying or had some bigger scheme in mind, but it wasn't possible to become a master of a skill like stealth without hiding things or lying about them. Rather, Eiro knew for a fact that there was something Shimour was hiding. He knew that there were gaps somewhere, that something was off.
Eiro's whole body was screaming that this was the case, but he didn't know what it was.
It could be a scar on his cheek that he didn't like the look of. It could also be a weapon that he was carrying with him at all times. Or, and this was the worst case scenario, it could be psychopathic habits and behaviour. Again, Eiro couldn't know yet.
He might never know, but it was enough to put Eiro a bit on edge around him, despite the fact that he seemed the most reasonable out of the masters that he had met, excluding Armodeus of course. Even Jura was a bit of a weird guy, all things considered.
"We can discuss that later, I'm sure," Shimour pointed out with a smile, looking at Solomon, "I'm sure it would be better to have a proper conversation with you, your Majesty. It looks like we will be staying for a while, and seeing how close you are to Eiro, this surely won't be the last time we meet."
Solomon slowly nodded his head, "I do come to visit Eiro sometimes. Things have just been a bit stressful recently; international tensions and such. I wanted to come and check up on everyone after the battle, but things have been especially chaotic since-" the king pointed out, seemingly putting something together in his mind.
He carefully and slowly turned his head back to the demon next to him, "Hey, Eiro?"
"...Yes?"
"Was the Devil trying to start a war against us?"
Eiro slowly turned away; or at least, he tried. The muscles in his neck had molten awkwardly, making it a bit hard for him to do. While he repaired his flesh, Eiro was forced to just stare forward awkwardly for a while, seeing Solomon's expression in his periphery.
But in the end, there was only one thing that came to Eiro's mind that he felt he could say, "Well... he's not anymore."