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Chapter 443: 443

Eiro landed on the windowsill of one of the second-floor windows, and swiftly stepped into the hallway of his manor . It was a lot quicker than having to go through the front door, especially with his target currently being Leon and Avalin’s bedroom .

The boxes were still floating right beside Eiro, and everything was perfectly intact . He made sure of that by manipulating the air-currents around the boxes while he was flying back home .

The Demon swiftly opened the door to his children’s room . Avalin jumped up the moment she saw Eiro and ran over toward him, dropping her pens that she used to draw a bit right now .

“Yaay!” She exclaimed . But of course, that wasn’t an exclamation of her happiness of seeing Eiro, but rather, of seeing the boxes right beside him . Eiro rolled his eyes and placed the boxes onto the table at the side of the room, and opened them up .

Eiro quickly whistled a short melody, and then said, “Get us some plates . ”

A minute or two later, the door opened up once more and one of the monster servants was carrying four plates . He placed them down onto the table, and then excused himself . Eiro then proceeded to put some of the cookies, a bit of cake, and a few of the fresh macarons onto the plate .

“Now, eat it slowly, alright?” The Demon said, before Avalin practically ripped the plate out of his hands . She rushed over to her child-sized table and proceeded to dig in and eat the sweets .

“Do you want some cake as well, Armodeus?” Eiro asked, and the Elder Dwarf slowly turned around to him, “Ah, later, maybe . For now . . . Do ya really think that the boy is alright? He’s been doin’ nothing but sleep lately . . . ”

Eiro approached Leon’s bed and sat down on it, rubbing his hand over his son’s leg through the blanket, “Yeah, don’t worry . He’s probably fine . Leon has always been a heavy sleeper . Back then, it was because of the markings used to seal away his skills, and now, it’s because of the changes that he’s undergoing right now . ”

“Hm? Changes . . ? Ah, right, Gondos said something about pre-maturity?” Armodeus said, “What exactly does that mean?”

“Well . . . basically, when a beastman ‘matures’, they gain their physical identifiers binding them to their guardian spirit . In cases where a child’s flow of mana is suddenly and extremely changed, it can cause this event to occur even before puberty, which is when it’s usually supposed to happen . That is what’s happening to Leon right now . My best guess is that it happened exactly because his skills were unsealed . ”

“Ah . . . I see . . . So does that mean that the boy’s suddenly gonna shoot up in height as well? Basically skip a few years?” Armodeus asked, but Eiro immediately shook his head, “No, it’s not like that . In the books I read about this, it said that he’s going to age and otherwise physically mature like normal, as he would have otherwise, he simply already has . . . you know, whatever identifiers he has . During his puberty in a few years, he might end up being a bit hairier, but that’s basically it . No need to worry about it . . . Mostly . ”

Armodeus looked at Eiro with a worried expression . Leon was clearly dead asleep, so they had no issue whispering about it here, so Eiro swiftly explained, “The process of maturity is not an easy time for a beastman in the first place . Their body is changing in rapid ways . In Leon’s case, as he seems to be growing a tail, he is literally gaining new bones . He’s going to have a tough time seeing for a while since his eyes are also changing . If he is from a carnivorous tribe, his teeth might start aching soon . It’s that kind of thing . ” Eiro explained, “So at the end of the day, nothing to worry about, but we’ll still need to take care of Leon a bit more than normal . ”

“Alright, if you say so, lad . . . But really, to think that this boy is a beastman . . . He really looks completely like a human, doesn’t he? If he could have stayed like this a while longer, life might have been easier for him . ” Armodeus sighed, and Eiro swiftly turned toward the Elder Dwarf, “What do you mean, exactly?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s . . . in most places, simply because of this ‘maturity’ as you call it, many see beastmen as . . . ‘Monster Kin’ . Not true monsters, but somethin’ close to it, I guess . ” Armodeus pointed out, “So due to that, they’re not particularly kindly regarded in most places . Sure, in Skyhart, such discrimination is outlawed, but in the surrounding and allied countries . . . Not so much . ”

“Well, at least he’ll have me and my name to protect him from anything that could happen to him . ” The Demon grumbled quietly, still feeling incredbily disgusted and angry at the idea that Leon might be mistreated in such a way simply because he wasn’t exactly the same as others . Although . . .

“One . . . One of my first memories, it was something that I’m not that proud of anymore, but it fits to this . I understand that it’s in the nature of people and even monsters to shun those that are different, but I thought that those with higher intelligence would be a bit different than my lesser-imp self . In the horde, when I was still part of it, the imp that was always walking in front of me was the strongest of the bunch . He was always the one that ended up killing monsters in our group, so he was the first to evolve . I saw that he was growing something out of his back, most likely something like rudimentary wings, and I attacked him for that trait, because he was different . ” Eiro explained to Armodeus, who was quietly listening .

“But before you judge me, that was before I gained even my first point in . . . well, anything, really . I had not a single point in intelligence, wisdom, perception . . . or anything, really . I hit that imp repeatedly, and I don’t think I did a single point of damage to him . ” The Demon leaned back a bit, making sure not to bother Leon as he was sleeping, “Statistically, people have literally infinitely more intelligence than I back then, and they’re still acting like I did? It’s . . . weird . ”

“Of course, this isn’t about logic . It’s about fear . The fear that people have ingrained into them, thinking that even the weakest monster can slaughter a whole town . The fear of the unknown, which all of us possess . . . You can’t tell me that you never felt scared when staring into a deep abyss, not knowing what would come next . Generation through generation, these fears were carried over from parent to child, and grew in intensity . Soon, fear became anger, and anger became hatred . And that hatred . . . became normal . ” Armodeus explained, “It’s something that disgusts me as well, trust me . Even I experienced that sort of thing quite often, when I was travelling through the continent . In smaller settlements where they may have never even heard of a dwarf, I as well was seen as a freak . I might even still have scars from that time . Of course, now I can pass as a bulky human because of my height, but back then, before I ascended to being an Elder Dwarf, I was maybe half the height that I’m now . A grown man with a thick beard and thundering voice, stronger than even most warriors I came across . All that, with the height of a human child . ”

Eiro turned his head toward Leon, and let out a deep sigh, “I think it’s good that we happened to meet Solomon at your shop back then . . . I’ve never entered a church of my own volition, but maybe I should offer a prayer to the Goddess of Fate sometime . ”

“Haha, aye, maybe ya should, lad . ” Armodeus laughed, “The Gods are fickle in regards to who they favor, but it does seem like that one has kept its eye on you for a while now . ”

“Which would be rather ironic, wouldn’t it?”

“Who knows, maybe the human yer soul was taken from was a Priest to the Goddess of Fate . ” Armodeus laughed along with Eiro . The two stayed quiet for a while, as Eiro continued watching Leon sleep a bit longer .

A few minutes later, Armodeus stood up from the chair that he had pulled to the side of the bed and laughed a bit, “I think I’m ready for that slice of cake now, lad . ”

Eiro smiled and stood up as well, “Coming right up . ” The Demon replied . He chose to take a slice for himself as well, and then continued to talk for a while with Armodeus over cake and tea . It was nice . Eiro understood why human nobles liked doing this all the time .

But soon enough, Eiro’s conversation with Armodeus was interrupted, as the Demon noticed someone approaching the manor on horseback .

“Sorry, I need to check this out real quick . ” Eiro said, placing down the cup of tea in his hand . He swiftly grabbed Bavet, who was laying on the ground in his cat-form, and pressed the slime’s core into his chest . The slime covered his whole body just a moment later, “Eh, what’s happening?” Bavet asked, slightly disoriented .

Eiro swiftly stepped out of the room and rushed over toward the open window at the end of the hallway, and simply jumped out . With a few flaps of his wings, he accelerated enough so that he managed to jump all the way over toward the gate in the front of his manor’s premises .

And there, he swiftly stopped the messenger from the royal castle .