Chapter 286 (Self Edited) – Hearing the Situation from the Paladin

A slight silence filled the place.

However, it was simply because of what he was thinking. Ingrid’s appearance was serious. It didn’t look like she was lying, joking and exaggerating.

But…

“Hmm… Certainly, you did say you had saved the village before, right?” (Soma)

When Soma said so, Ingrid had a surprised expression.

If that expression was exchanged with a word, that would be ‘why’. That wasn’t something to be talked about at the moment. Her face was asking why he came up with that question.

And her face turned into a wry smile as it was.

“…Did you notice it?” (Ingrid)

“We haven’t known each other for a long time, but you don’t look like someone who did that for no reason. If so, there would be no choice to relate that matter with this matter, right?” (Soma)

“I see… by the way, you were also saying that it had something to do with this matter. In other words… weren’t you talking about it?” (Hildegard)

“…You guys are a bit too sharp.” (Ingrid)

Ingrid’s wry smile deepened, and the air that was somewhat tense disappeared. Along with the sigh of ‘Oh my’, the expected answer was spit out of her mouth.

“…That day, my parents were possessed by the Devil. I don’t know the cause, and I don’t know if it was in the first place. To begin with, I heard and found out later. It seems that the remains of the Devil can be felt from the two corpses, which coincides with the fact that the Devil possession has become more common in terms of time. However, it was still before the matter of the Devil possession was known, partly because of the initial stage. Because of that, it just seemed to us that my parents suddenly went crazy.” (Ingrid)

“Is that why…?” (Soma)

“Fortunately or unfortunately, they seemed to be weak Devils. I think it was partly because I was able to suppress it at that time.” (Ingrid)

“Hmm…” (Soma)

He suddenly remembered when he heard that in the initial stage, the Saintess couldn’t react in time. It was no wonder one of the victims was Ingrid’s parents.

However…

“I feel that it couldn’t be helped, yes?” (Soma)

“Yeah. Even if it was weak, a Devil is a Devil. If you leave it alone, you won’t know what would happen to the villagers.” (Hildegard)

“You’re right. Certainly, that’s true. But that matter is that matter. That being said, it’s also true that I killed my parents with this hand.” (Ingrid)

“Hmm… I don’t think it’s necessary to think about it in particular, but… no, that reminds me, did you find out later that it was Devil?” (Soma)

“It won’t matter. Eleonora came directly to this village and explained that it was a Devil, but the reaction of everyone in the village didn’t change.” (Ingrid)

“Hmm…” (Hildegard)

Hildegard muttered like a groan while glancing at Soma. He nodded slightly because he understood what she meant.

However, he dared not to respond to her, and turned his gaze toward Ingrid.

“So, were you oppressed?” (Soma)

“No… they didn’t do up to that degree. At most, it was at the level of thinking that I was a nuisance. Well, it was two years ago. I was also an adult, and I was the only force in this village. The villagers couldn’t remove me for what had happened at that time, and if you think whether they could take a revenge on me, they weren’t unable to do it.” (Ingrid)

“Even so, you weren’t being a nuisance, right? I think it’s normal if they wanted to take a revenge on you for a bit, but… it doesn’t look like that, right?” (Hildegard)

“…Yeah, when I think about it now, it doesn’t seem so. Well, that’s probably they were taken care more than expected. I still don’t think of any grudges. Or rather, as I sad earlier, I may take it for granted. However, I can’t think of revenge.” (Ingrid)

Ingrid, who said that, didn’t tell that to herself, but it seemed that she was actually convinced. Then, Soma didn’t need to say anything else.

Hildegard turned her gaze to him as if to say something, but he still didn’t respond. He just shrugged his shoulders.

And just at that timing, they heard a voice saying that dinner was ready. For some reason, he missed lunch today, so he was hungry.

Besides, the talk had just come to an end. Although they would like to talk further, they got up from the spot and headed for dinner, thinking that the first thing to do was to fill their stomach.

—

They decided to take a rest early after eating dinner. There was nothing better to do other than talking to each villagers, and he decided that it would be better to act early tomorrow rather than wasting time. The village mayor seemed to go to bed early, and the inside of the house became completely quiet.

In the meantime, Soma and Hildegard were gathering in the room borrowed to Soma. This wasn’t about doing erotic things, but to continue the previous discussion.

They were talking about what Ingrid meant. This was something that needed to be talked between the two.

“Well… what do you think?” (Soma)

“Hmm, in the end, you’ll end up with the same conclusions that I just mentioned.” (Hildegard)

“Yeah. The perception of either the villagers or Ingrid is strange…” (Soma)

They were certain that the perception of one side was strange. Perhaps, it could be both. After all, the story didn’t matched.

According to what Soma and Hildegard heard, the villagers even said that they were grateful and they didn’t want to chase her away. She did something like a protector because she was good at it… More importantly, they heard that the villagers were sorry that they were looking at her in that way at that time.

Soma didn’t really know what kind of look they gave, but he somehow understood what Ingrid was said since he was listening to the villagers. However, that also meant that the villagers were telling the truth.

The same thing could be said about the treatment of Ingrid in this house. The fact that Ingrid didn’t treat the village mayor as an exception meant that she thought that the village mayor would treat her similar to other villagers.

However, in reality, the room that was no longer used two years ago remained unchanged. Moreover, when she looked inside, it seemed that the condition of the room was good. Considering that Ingrid was so welcome, Soma didn’t think that she was treated as a nuisance.

Above all, at least Soma didn’t think that the villagers were lying. That meant that Ingrid’s perception was wrong, but the problem was that he didn’t think so when looking at Ingrid’s appearance.

And the difference was that it couldn’t be just a slight misunderstanding. Therefore, it was likely that was a problem with the perception of either side or both sides altogether.

If Soma dared to say which one was more strange, it should be Ingrid’s perception. There was a difference in the number of people, and there was also a matter of own recognition in the Holy City.

But Soma couldn’t say for sure because he heard that a Devil appeared here two years ago. besides, that dagger was in such a place, and Ingrid felt something about this village.

Soma didn’t know much about the Devil, but Hildegard said it was easy to change the perceptions of all the inhabitants in this village. In short, it was possible that the Devil was doing something in this village.

She didn’t know what it meant to do that. However, there was a possibility that they couldn’t know the reason.

Perhaps, it was also possible that it was only on the surface, and there was actually a bigger problem. In other words…

“Well, what we’re going to do remains the same.” (Soma)

“Yeah. It wasn’t clear what to look into anyway. We just need to do more investigation while investigating various things.” (Hildegard)

Of course, they were also thinking about the possibility that Ingrid’s intuition was wrong to begin with.

But that being said, the investigation would need to continue. That if they couldn’t find anything when they tried to look it up. At least, they shouldn’t think too much now, and nothing would happen if they thought about it.

Anyhow, there seemed to be a lot of things to do. While thinking about what would happen after waking up tomorrow morning, Soma let out a breath , wondering what he should do first.