Reason! The Girl Possessed by a Demon!

(A huge thank you to '潘ysjd' for the 3776 reward! '醉里云烟' for the 1888 reward! And thank you to '冰·月影', 'Qi Guanxuanqi', '吢魂落魄', '墨羽瀶殇', '二次元是我家', 'Sing Zai', 'pokémon', 'Long Tiani', '蒂影', '熊猫啊!', 'Yun Qi Qing Gu', and '未知的約定' for the rewards!)

"Care to tell me what's going on?"

Noah's words echoed clearly in the small cave, turning the atmosphere from oppressive to heavy.

Noah had initially thought of his encounter with the Strauss siblings as a mere coincidence. Even though he was curious as to why they were trying to steal his job, he didn't plan on getting too involved.

But now, Noah realized that he couldn't just treat them as passersby.

Simply because the Strauss siblings were all displaying dark, gloomy, sad, and heartbroken emotions on their faces.

"Noah, big brother…"

Lisanna, looking anxious, started to say something, but Mira coldly interrupted her.

"Lisanna!"

Lisanna immediately shut her mouth, her anxious expression turning to gloom, even a hint of sorrow. Elfman showed the same reaction.

Only Mira, whose delinquent-like demeanor had completely vanished, was now as cold as ice.

Seeing this, Noah understood, even though he didn't know what the Strauss siblings were hiding.

Despite their young age, Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna, like Erza, had a past that could be described as unbearable and painful.

"Sigh…" Noah sighed softly, but the sound echoed in the silent cave, clearly reaching the ears of Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna.

"I don't know what you're hiding," Noah said, turning his gaze to Mira's hand hidden behind her cloak.

"But I think it has something to do with your hand, right?"

Mira didn't speak, instead hiding her face in the hood of her cloak, concealing her expression.

"Noah…" Elfman hesitated, saying with some difficulty.

"You… aren't you afraid of my sister?"

"Elfman, big brother!" Lisanna tugged at Elfman's clothes, seemingly blaming him for saying such a thing, but her gaze remained on Noah, her eyes full of pleading.

Pleading for what?

Pleading for him not to be afraid of their sister?

Noah frowned deeply, a certain idea flashing through his mind.

"Could it be that you don't know why your sister's hand became like that?"

This time, Elfman, Lisanna, and even the silent Mira looked up, stunned for a moment, before a glimmer of hope appeared on their faces.

"Noah, big brother!" Lisanna couldn't care about anything else, running straight to Noah, grabbing his hand tightly, her face filled with trepidation and a hint of hope.

"Do you know why Mira's hand became like that?"

"That's not quite right!" Noah's frown slowly eased, and he looked at Mira, meeting her intense gaze.

"Only you know what your sister went through to become like that, but it seems you only know a part of it!"

"A part?" Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna murmured simultaneously.

"I don't have a habit of knowing other people's secrets or mentioning things they don't like to talk about!" Noah glanced at the Strauss siblings, and as if guessing something, chuckled softly.

"But if you're willing to share with me, I think I can be a good listener, confidant, and problem solver."

The Strauss siblings fell silent.

"Mira, big sister…" Elfman and Lisanna both turned their gazes to their sister, looking hesitant.

Seeing this, Mira lowered her head, saying nothing, until the two siblings became a little anxious, and her low voice finally began to speak.

"In the church in the village where we used to live, there was a very powerful demon. Because he kept making the people in the village feel fear and despair, I thought about whether I could eliminate him, so I approached that church…"

"Mira, big sister, was possessed by the demon in order to eliminate the demon that was harming the village!" Lisanna bit her lip, speaking loudly, perhaps having heard some emotion in her sister's voice.

"But the people in the village treated the sister who eliminated the demon as a demon, and drove us out of the village!"

"Big sister didn't do anything wrong!" Elfman, whose personality was slightly timid, also spoke indignantly.

"She clearly eliminated the demon, but everyone treated her like that. Everyone is too much!"

"Enough, Elfman," Mira's emotionless voice sounded again.

"It's useless to say anything now. We can no longer return to the village."

Elfman and Lisanna's faces were filled with dejection, and Noah roughly understood what was going on.

Putting the bag containing the Knight Sword against the wall, Noah stood up and, under the gaze of the Strauss siblings, walked to Mira, squatted down, and extended his hand towards her.

"Give me your hand!"

Mira frowned, wanting to turn her head away, ignoring Noah completely, but she heard Noah's voice suddenly rise.

"Give me your hand!"

The slightly forceful and inexplicably calm voice reminded Mira of the scene of the giant bull-man being cut in half with a single strike that she had witnessed in the forest, and her eyes trembled slightly, involuntarily reaching out her hand.

Apart from the night he met Wendy, this was the second time Noah had touched a woman's hand.

However, compared to Wendy's cold and tender little hand at that time, Mira's hand gave Noah only one feeling.

That's just how rough it is.

But there's no helping it, as that wasn't Mira's original hand after all.

Whether it resembled a crocodile or a lizard, or perhaps a bit of both, Mira's hand was covered in scales, with fingers that were exceptionally sharp, like the claws of a vengeful ghost, and its shape was unusually grotesque.

Plus, with the faint, yet perceptible, dark aura emanating from it, it's safe to say that no normal, ordinary person wouldn't be afraid of such a hand.

To graft such a hand onto a girl who was, in all aspects, incredibly cute, was not only unfitting, but also extremely cruel. Even Mira, after regaining her senses, immediately wanted to retract her hand.

However, Noah tightly grasped Mira's hand, and without any disgust, stroked the grotesque scales, his movements exceptionally gentle and tender. This eased the shadow that had enveloped Mira's heart due to her own misfortune, and her movements slowed down as well.

Noah first touched all the scales on Mira's hand, using his exceptional sensory abilities to feel the dark aura emanating from them, until he finally sensed a trace of Mira's Magic Power within these auras, confirming his suspicions.

"First of all, I want to tell you that your hand didn't turn like this because it was possessed by some demon!"

Those words made the Strauss siblings tremble.

"R-really?" Lisanna couldn't help but stand up, saying with some excitement.

"So, you're saying that Mira wasn't possessed by a demon, that's why she turned like this, right?"

"Then, why did my sister's hand turn like this?" Elfman also hurriedly asked.

"Do you have a way to help my sister restore her hand to its original state?"

Mira also stared intently at Noah, her eyes filled with both hope and trepidation.

"Help your sister restore her hand to its original state?" This time, it was Noah's turn to be puzzled, as he looked at Elfman with a questioning gaze.

"Isn't there a way to restore this hand to its original state? But when I met you at the inn, wasn't your sister's hand perfectly normal?"

"That was just the effect of Magic Items," Lisanna explained.

"It's Magic Items that can deceive people's vision. We obtained that item by chance, but it can only be used once. When we were attacked by that Magical Beasts, Mira released the effect of the item in order to protect us, and now there's no way to use it again."