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"Isn't it about time you told me what's going on?"
Noah's words echoed clearly through the small cave, turning the oppressive atmosphere into a heavy one.
Originally, Noah had only regarded his encounter with the Strauss siblings as a chance meeting. Even though he had been curious why they were trying to steal his work, he had not intended to get involved with them.
But now, Noah realized that he apparently could no longer treat the three of them as strangers.
For no other reason than the fact that the gloom, dejection, sorrow, and anguish on the Strauss siblings' faces were all plain to see.
"Noah..."
Beside him, Lisanna looked anxious as though she wanted to say something, but after only calling Noah's name, she was interrupted by Mira's cold voice.
"Lisanna!"
Lisanna immediately shut her mouth. Her anxious expression turned completely dejected, with even a trace of grief in it. Elfman looked much the same.
Only Mira had completely lost the delinquent-girl demeanor she had shown earlier. In its place was an icy indifference.
Seeing this, although Noah had no idea what unspeakable secret the Strauss siblings were hiding, he understood one thing.
Though they were still young, Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna, like Erza, had painful pasts they could barely bear to look back on.
"...Sigh." Noah let out a soft sigh, but it echoed through the utterly silent cave and clearly reached Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna's ears.
"Though I don't know what you can't bring yourselves to say..." Noah turned his gaze toward Mira's hand hidden beneath her cloak.
"I'm guessing it has something to do with that hand, right?"
Mira said nothing. She merely hid her entire face beneath the hood of her cloak, concealing her expression.
"Noah..." Elfman spoke hesitantly, struggling to get the words out.
"Aren't you... afraid of my sister?"
"Elfman!" Lisanna grabbed Elfman's clothes, seemingly blaming him for saying such a thing. Yet her gaze remained fixed on Noah, her eyes filled with pleading.
What was she pleading for?
Was she begging him not to be afraid of her sister?
Noah frowned deeply as a thought flashed through his mind.
"Could it be that you don't know why your sister's hand became like that?"
This time, Elfman and Lisanna, along with the silent Mira, all looked up. After staring blankly for a moment, the same spark of brightness appeared on their faces.
"Noah!" Unable to care about anything else, Lisanna ran straight to Noah's side and tightly grabbed his hand. Her face held both unease and a sliver of hope.
"Do you know why Mira's hand became like that?"
"That isn't quite right." Noah's furrowed brow gradually relaxed as he looked at Mira, meeting her intent gaze.
"Only you would know what your sister went through to become like this. But from the looks of it, you only know part of the story yourselves."
"Part of it?" Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna murmured at the same time.
"I don't have any interest in prying into other people's secrets or pasts they don't like talking about." Noah glanced around at the Strauss siblings and gave a faint laugh, as though he had guessed something.
"But if you're willing to share it with me, I think I can be a good listener, secret keeper, and problem solver."
The Strauss siblings immediately fell silent.
"Mira..." Elfman and Lisanna both turned to look at their sister, appearing as if they wanted to speak but held themselves back.
Seeing this, Mira lowered her head without saying anything. Only when her brother and sister began to grow restless did her low voice finally ring out.
"In the church of the village where we used to live, there was a very powerful demon. He had always made the villagers feel fear and despair, so I thought about whether I could destroy him and approached that church..."
"Mira tried to destroy the demon that was harming the village, but the demon possessed her!" Perhaps hearing something in her sister's voice, Lisanna bit her lip and shouted.
"But the people in the village treated the sister who destroyed the demon as a demon herself and drove us out of the village!"
"My sister didn't do anything wrong!" Even the somewhat timid Elfman spoke indignantly.
"She clearly destroyed the demon, but everyone treated her like that. They were absolutely awful!"
"That's enough, Elfman." Mira's emotionless voice rang out once more.
"There's no point saying any of this now. We can't go back to the village anymore."
Elfman and Lisanna wore dejected expressions, while Noah roughly understood what had happened.
Setting the cloth bag containing the Knight Sword against the wall, Noah stood up. Under the Strauss siblings' watchful gazes, he walked over to Mira, crouched in front of her, and held out his hand.
"Give me your hand."
Mira frowned. Just as she was about to turn away and ignore Noah, she heard his voice suddenly rise.
"Give me your hand!"
That slightly forceful voice, carrying an indescribable calm, made Mira recall the sight of the enormous minotaur being split in two with a single slash in the forest. Her eyes trembled slightly, and she involuntarily extended her hand.
Other than the night he had met Wendy, this was the second time Noah had touched the hand of a girl.
But compared to Wendy's cool, soft little hand, Mira's hand gave Noah only one impression.
It was rough.
But that could not be helped. After all, it was not Mira's original hand.
Whether it resembled a crocodile, a lizard, or both, Mira's hand was covered in scales. Her five fingers were extremely sharp, like the claws of a vicious ghost, and its shape was grotesque.
Coupled with the faint dark aura rising from it, an aura that could be sensed, no normal person would fail to fear such a hand.
Placed on a girl who was very cute in every other respect, such a hand was not only out of place, but cruel. Even Mira, after coming back to her senses, hurriedly tried to pull her hand away.
However, Noah tightly held Mira's hand and, without the slightest disgust, stroked the grotesque scales on it. His movements were exceptionally gentle and tender, causing Mira's heart, shrouded in the shadows of her circumstances, to gradually relax, and her movements slowed as well.
Noah first ran his fingers over every scale on Mira's hand, using his exceptional senses to feel the dark aura upon it. Only after detecting traces of Mira's own magic power within that aura did he finally confirm his guess.
"First of all, I need to tell you this: your hand didn't become like this because you were possessed by some demon!"
Those words made the hearts of the Strauss siblings tremble all at once.
"R-Really?" Lisanna could not help standing up, speaking excitedly.
"In other words, Mira didn't become like this because she was possessed by a demon, right?"
"Then why did my sister's hand become like this?" Elfman hurriedly asked as well.
"Can you restore her hand to normal?"
Mira stared intently at Noah too, her eyes filled with both hope and fear.
"Restore your sister's hand to normal?" This time, Noah was the one who did not understand. He looked at Elfman in confusion.
"Can't this hand return to normal? But when I met you at the inn, wasn't your sister's hand perfectly normal?"
"That was only the effect of a magic item," Lisanna explained.
"It was a magic item that could deceive people's vision. We found it by chance, but it could only be used once. When that Magical Beast attacked us, Mira removed the item's effect to protect us. Now, there's no way to use it again."
Before you continue