313 The next three weeks

Eiro walked into the large open room that everyone here usually spent their time in when they wanted to be together. It was directly adjacent to one of the doors leading to the gardens, hence why the Demon chose this place to settle down for now.

He dropped onto one of the soft couches that was there and stretched out a bit. His whole body was completely sore after he used that new muscle-building method for only half an hour. Well, he managed to make improvements worth a couple weeks, so that was to be expected.

And of course, these 'improvements' didn't mean that Eiro built more muscle-mass, just that he he had developed certain strands of his musculature a bit more, and let others wither down just so slightly, so that he could move around better for his style. 

There was a little bit of improvement when it came to muscle-mass and -stamina, sure, but it was miniscule compared to what Eiro's initial goal was in the first place. The Demon looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep sigh.

"What a bother, really..." Eiro sighed out with a loud groan, while Nelli floated above him and looked down into his eyes, "That's what you guess for toying with your own body like that..."

"Ah, don't worry, I have my body under control perfectly..." He pointed out, before James looked at him with a slightly curious frown, " 'Under control perfectly'? Does that mean you can dislocate your joints and fix yourself up immediately after?" The Light Elf asked, and Eiro slightly raised his head in response.

"Why would I ever want to do that? Sounds like it would hurt."

"That's fine, isn't it? You seem like a masochist anyway. But well... Usually, the biggest benefit is when it comes to things like... escaping after being tied up, or squeezing through thin gaps you usally couldn't get through." James explained, "I did know someone that used it directly in combat, though."

Eiro looked at James with a curious expression, until he swiftly figured out a good reason for doing that sort of thing, "You could suddenly and unexpectedly increase your range for a moment in return for lower damage."

"Basically." The Light Elf shrugged, and Eiro slowly turned his head over toward his left shoulder. Shoulders were relatively easy to disclocate compared to other joints, so after sitting up properly, Eiro ran his wooden fingers over his shoulder and soon found the right spot.

The Demon pressed down onto that spot while flexing his muscles and pulling his arm forward by grabbing onto his own knee. Immediately, Eiro could feel the pop together with some pain that appeared soon thereafter.

He could still move his arm around a bit, since the muscles were all properly in place, but it felt a lot different to control it since there wasn't the 'base stability' of his shoulder to help him out. Eiro should get used to this rather quickly though, so that wasn't a bit deal.

"...Did you actually just dislocate your own shoulder like that?" James asked with a wry smile. That wasn't the reason why he brought this up, but for some reason, Eiro just went ahead and did it anyway.

"Eiro, I swear, could you stop doing that kind of stuff for once?" The Naiad by Eiro's side floated up to his face and deeply glared into his eyes, while hte Demon just shrugged.

"Sure, when I see a reason why. My regeneration is much higher than normal anyway. I can recover certain sorts of flesh-wounds perfectly within just a few minutes, and even this shoulder will fix itself within an hour or so." Eiro pointed out, as he quickly proceeded to grab his arm and stuff the joint back into it socket, "And when I do this, I'll be fine in a couple minutes. Probably." 

"Well, on a surface-level you heal, but you remember that your exhaustion, your pain, and microscopic damages are still going to be a thing for a while. And also, not all of your wounds heal instantly." Nelli said immediately, without having to even think about an answer. It seemed like this had been on her mind for a while now.

Either way, Eiro apprectiated it, but there really wasn't any need to worry about these things for now, "I won't start randomly popping out my joints, don't worry. If I do it, I'll research the right methods of practicing it before I do anything else. But this wasn't the first time that this shoulder has been dislocated anyway."

"...Doesn't change that it wasn't nice to look at." The Naiad pointed out with a deep, worried frown. 

"I'll be more careful from now on." Eiro said as he slowly pushed himself off the couch, "But for now, let's greet the kids. Their carriage just arrived again."

--- 

"Alright, you have your bandages, the salve, and the mirrors to check your body in the evening. Use them. If anything is wrong, go meet Clementine if you need to, or go meet the-"

"Healer that Solomon introduced us to, I know, I know. They're someone that Solomon trusts, so we can trust them as well." Arc replied with a deep sigh, "Honestly, you don't need to be so overprotective all the time. I'll be fine."

"I don't remember many things vividly, but I do remember the time where you broke your leg and still walked for a couple miles without noticing it." Eiro pointed out bluntly, and Arc slowly turned his head away, "Right, that happened... But why aren't you reprimanding the others? They have to be just as careful as I do!"

The Demon looked back at Arc and explained it in a blunt tone, "Clementine and Sammy have abilities that they can control. You and Rudy do not. But I don't have to worry about Rudy, considering that no matter what happens, he literally can't be hurt by anything. You, on the other hand, are more of a wild-card."

"...Eh, fair enough. But wait, aren't you worried about Felix at all?" Arc asked with a slightly suspicious frown, as if something was going on here. He was really just trying to drag this situation into a bit more length, probably.

"...Why would I ever worry about Felix?" Eiro asked with a confused expression, "Amongst you five, he's the one I'm obviously least worried about. Right after you yourself, he's the smartest of you five. Most of the time, he's an incredibly collected, intelligent young man. Even despite the fact that he's physically rather weak and he's literally deaf, I feel no hesitation leaving Leon and Avalin in his care. And on top of that... He's getting private lessons from a man that knows about the situation, with literally nobody else around. And he doesn't have a Unique Skill either, and I didn't notice him making use of his Bloodline Skill at all since he's been with us. Now, tell me why exactly should I worry about him?"

Arc stared back with a blank expression and then looked past Eiro at the young artist that was currently making sure he had all of his basic materials and tools prepped and was ready to go, ��I... have no idea how to react to that. I think I should be annoyed, but I'm not, for obvious reasons. So... I'll just polish my sword a bit."

"Alright. Be careful." The Demon slowly nodded, and the moment that Arc stepped away, Nelli practically glared at him when Eiro tunred toward her.

"Kinda hypocritical, huh?" She asked with her arms crossed and brows raised, and Eiro looked at her with a sigh, "I get it already, I've already been more careful with my manual muscle-regeneration. It's not as extreme anymore."

"Yeah, yeah, still a bit hypocritical."

"Kinda, but don't tell that to the kids."

"Sure." Nelli replied. Immediately in response, Sarius started to laugh, "What are ya two, married?"

"I've known Nelli for the vast majority of my life at this point. Ever since I first met her, the longest period of time I didn't see her was during a rare one-week trip that my teacher went to when she was still contracted to him. And you expect us to act any different?"

"Exactly. Go burn some weeds, you hotheaded moron." Nelli added, and Eiro slowly turned his head toward her, "Me, or hi-"

"Him."

"Just making sure." Eiro smiled lightly. At this point, it was finally time for the children to head to their training-camp for a while, a time that Eiro would make use of to meet a literal dragon and recover all the memories that he had lost so far.

Their carriage and the extra carts had been properly prepared, and all the permits that Eiro needed for what he was going to do had been prepared by Solomon already. And so, Eiro just had to make sure that the others were doing alright.

"You three will be fine taking care of this place on your own?" The Demon inquired. Jess immediately nodded her head, "Yep! We'll continue practicing as much as we can, and we'll take care of Leon and Avalin without any issue during this time either. You can go and do everything that you need to do."

"Thank you." Eiro replied with a smile on his face as he looked at James, who was a bit annoyed by this whole situation, "I mean, I don't mind staying behind if it's for practice, but... You're taking literal monsters and a guy that's been turned into something close to one, but refused to take us? Isn't that kinda weird?"

"...Didn't I tell you guys already so many times? It's because I trust you that I do this sort of thing. Instead of complaining, just use your head a little for once. Remember to feed the sapling outside as much as you can. Jess, please assist him by heating the area a little so that he won't catch a cold."

James clicked his tongue in response, "Tch, do you even know how hard it is to push mana out of my hands in general? And then into a plant?"

"Well, yeah, of course. At some point, it's going to start pulling in your magic instead of rejecting it, so just wait for that time a little bit longer."

"How long do you think it's going to take..?" 

"It should be at that point when I'm back, if you properly keep at it." Eiro said, "And Krog, use the practice method I showed you a bit more."

"Mhm, will do. Should definitely improve my musculature quite a bit..." The heavy warrior said, although he was still a bit unsure about everything that was going on.

But Eiro figured that it was fine for now. After all, they were all going to make some sort of self-discovery over the next three weeks.