Demon's Virtue

Anxiously looking around, Boju stepped out of the carriage. It was the first time he was so far away from the mountains, and the first time he was so close to people. Luckily, because they had Eiro's noble seal, they could pass without being checked too thoroughly and the young orc didn't have to talk to the guards too much, but it was still more than nerve-wracking.

At the very least, the 'people' that were walking around here outside of the manor were just disguised monsters, and he recognized all of them.

He quickly stepped inside of the manor, looking around curiously. Boju had heard of this place, but he had never been here before. Excitedly, Boju walked down the hallway, positive that he would find someone that could guide him to Eiro soon. But before he could, he felt his body freeze up completely.

"Who are you and what are you doing here? You're not one of the current servants of the manor, Orc. If you stole that illusion-bracelet and thought it was enough to sneak in here, you're very, very wrong," a deep, rough voice spoke right behind Boju, as that man's hand tightened around his neck.

"I-I... I'm one of Lord Eiro's men, I came to visit here t-t-to give him a report..." Boju stuttered out anxiously, but the man's grasp didn't let up.

"Hm... Do you have any proof for that? That's an easy thing to claim, isn't it?"

Boju nervously tried to hold up the thing that he was holding in his hand, a decorated coin that acted as the seal for Viscout Daemonherz, "H-Here, I have one of my Lord's seals, I-"

"Shimour, what the hell do you think you're doing?" turning around the corner, Eiro, or rather, one of his duplicates, rushed toward the two, "That's Boju, I told you that he would be coming soon!"

Raising his brows, the man, Shimour, immediately let go, "What? But you didn't say that he was an... Orc."

"He's from the Monster Town, of course he's a monster, what else did you expect? All the servants in the manor are orcs, goblins, and kobolds," Eiro sighed, as Shimour groaned.

"But you said he was the vice lord, I didn't expect you'd give a position like that to..."

"They are all Monsters, Shimour. As is the acting Lord," the demon replied, turning away from the large man behind Boju to look at the young orc in question, "I'm really sorry about that, are you okay?"

Boju nervously nodded, "I-I'm okay... My Lord, this man is..?"

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"Right, I guess introductions are in order. This man is Shimour, the Master of Stealth, teaching me more about the Stealth skill," Eiro explained, and Boju quickly bowed to his lord's teacher, "And this here is Boju, as I told you before, he's the vice lord and a Highland Orc.

He's an incredibly intelligent young man, and he's here to give me a detailed report on the state of the Monster Town while I'm unable to go there myself."

"Ah... well, nice to meet you, Boju... Sorry about that," Shimour replied, and Boju quickly shook his head.

"N-No, it's fine! I, uh... I should have announced myself earlier!"

Eiro sighed, looking up at Shimour, "We'll go to my office now. The stealth duplicate is still training outside, so stop sneaking inside for snacks."

"... You knew about that?"

"I might not be able to tell what you're doing all the time, but I can tell when food randomly disappears without a trace," Eiro responded, starting to push Boju down the hallway as Shimour made his way back into the gardens.

"Again, sorry about that... the masters are a bit much sometimes. Even Shimour, though he seems the most reasonable most of the time," the demon tried to explain, but Boju immediately shook his head.

"Please, do not apologize to me! I understand, it was certainly suspicious for me to simply enter the manor without warning..."

"Well, I knew you were coming from a mile away, I just didn't have a duplicate ready to greet you. But whichever may be the case, I'm very glad to see you, Boju. I hope the journey wasn't too rough on you," Eiro said, patting the young orc's back as Boju shook his head.

"It was a very fun journey, actually! I never had the opportunity to see the scenery away from the mountains before. It was very enriching!" he responded, and Eiro slightly laughed.

"I'm glad you think so. I can show you around the capital later if you want. I've managed to expand the range of my duplicates so that I can, at the very least, reach every part of the city," the demon explained, and Boju quickly nodded his head.

"That would be wonderful! And I... won't be found out?"

"No, of course not. You'll be fine, especially when you're with me," Eiro smiled, opening the door to his office where another duplicate was already sitting and working. This was the temporary 'main' body, while the one that had been leading Boju around was just a drone that was currently doing some busy-work around the manor.

A bit taken aback, the orc glanced back and forth between the two, as Eiro closed the door behind him.

"Come on, take a seat," the duplicate behind the desk said, slowly standing up while pointing at the couch, "Oh, and feel free to deactivate the illusion. I know that it can feel a little uncomfortable to keep up long-term."

Boju slowly nodded, pulling on the bracelet that he was wearing. His human form quickly faded away, and his dark brown skin was replaced by a dark blue instead. The orc opened his bag and pulled out a few documents that he quickly placed on the table in front of him, "Here, these are the summed-up reports of the past month since you were last in town.

Crop yields, the amount of monsters that have stable work, the jobs in question, information on the cross-monster relations as well as their socialization with the humans, and of course the current state of construction work. And that is just this one report file, I have a couple of others as well..."

Eiro quickly smiled, grabbing the document and flipping it open with a smile, "I see. Thank you for the hard work."

He looked over the data curiously, and things actually worked out a lot better than Eiro had expected. In basically every statistic, things had exceeded the most likely outcome. Particularly in regard to the group-relations between the humans and the monsters things seemed to be improving at an incredible rate.

"And this information is accurate?"

"Yes, my lord. Every single human villager has engaged with the monsters of the town to some capacity. Two-thirds are speaking to them on a daily-basis in casual manners.

It is generally still more distant than we would like, but it is still incredible to watch," Boju explained with a smile, "And while there are individual exceptions, a great majority of the monsters are more than happy to engage with the humans as well, though we are still trying to figure out if that is because you are the one that commanded them to get along with the humans, or because they truly hold no prejudice."

"Hm..." Eiro tapped his foot on the ground in thought, "Have you spoken to those individual monsters that still take issue with the humans?"

"... Not on an official basis, but we do have a rough understanding of their reasons. In most cases it seems to be a mere dislike of the humans, but there are situations where monsters that have encountered humans in the past hold deeper-rooted prejudice.

There have been no violent incidents toward the humans, but those individuals are a lot more aggressive in general and engage in more violent tussles with others of their species," Boju explained with a worried frown on his face, but as Eiro looked over the data more, he wasn't particularly worried.

"Things are clearly improving. Of course, you should keep engaging with them and properly ask them what their issues are and what you could do to help them out. But still, make sure to push back when they make unreasonable requests," Eiro replied, flipping through the pages curiously, "What about Gobu? How is he doing and acting?

I try not to look at things through him despite making him my Servant to respect his privacy."

Boju's smile slowly dropped, though Eiro could tell that it wasn't a face of concern or fear at the demon's reaction, but rather one that was filled with naught but annoyance.

"Gobu, he's... adapting?"