After an hour in the room filled with an awkward atmosphere, Matire returned to tell them that the food had been prepared. Upon hearing that, the children rushed out of the house, and beckoned the three exorcists and David to follow. Following the children, they arrived at the centre of the village square, where several tables were set out and many villagers had already sat down.

“I’m sorry if this seems weird, but in our village everyone eats together,” Matire explained as he pulled out a chair for Lux.

Lux glared at him for a moment, then sat down. David did not miss the look of contempt that flashed across her face. Does she despite demons that much…? Why did she even help save the children then? A sense or duty? Commitment towards her comrades?

As these questions flashed across his mind, he followed the rest and sat down at the same table at Lux.

“Ausina kar mesukinatas. Evicteran liminore asinaga timora,” said a villager that looked rather important as he stood up.

“Ausina mekar,” replied all the other villagers as they raised up there glasses.

David looked at the three exorcists, it seems like they didn’t know what was going on either. Seeing their confusion, Matire asked, “Ah do you perhaps not understand M’longkar? It is the common language around here.”

The three exorcists looked at each other, but none of them seemed to have knowledge of this “M’longkar” language.

“M’longkar is a demonic language, it’s not extremely widespread, but many demons do understand it. It also means that this place is… This is the territory of Mephistopheles,” Lucifer’s voice rang out at his time of need, giving David some sort of idea of what was going on.

Mephistopheles huh? It wasn’t an unfamiliar name to David. From what he knows, Mephistopheles is a powerful demon that is often depicted as a servant of Lucifer, yet from Lucifer’s tone, it didn’t seem like the case. There was some sort of worrying tone behind his words. He will ask about that when he gets an opportunity.

Meanwhile, Matire has begun to explain to the exorcists about the village. It seems like this was a village of the M’zakrean Imps, who in general bare a more humanoid shape compered to the ‘imps’ that are referred to by a lot of people. There were about sixty people in he village, so it was by no means a tiny village. They have lived here for centuries in peace undisturbed by wars or plagues.

“… And so that’s more or less the basics of our village. Although, I would like to know what is your purpose of being here. Initially I had assumed that you all were magicians that were looking for a demon to form a contract with… But the fact that you do not know M’longkar makes me wonder,” Matire probed into their affairs.

“Of course we’re not magicians. The three of us are exorcists,” Hikari blurted out proudly before anyone could stop her.

The rowdy village square suddenly turned silent as villagers turned and stared at them. David could tell from their expressions filled with fear and disgust that Hikari had said the wrong thing. Exorcist was definitely not connoted with anything pleasant for the villagers.

“Exorcist…” “…Exorcist…?” “Exorcist???” Countless whispers could be heard as the villagers stared at them. It was as if the entire town had found out a huge secret. A secret that should never have been revealed. One by one, after recovering from the initial surprise, they picked up anything they could find and threw it at David and the exorcists.

“Leave!”“Get out!” “Why are you here!?” the voices of contempt from the villagers filled the air. This reaction was to be expected. There was no way that an exorcist would be easily accepted in a demon village. They are the bane of demon kind.

Yet Hikari didn’t seem to understand. “Wait.. Why are you doing this?” Hikari tried to ask weakly, just as an egg hit the side of her head. None of the villagers replied, all they did were continue to throw things at them while cursing them in various languages.

The exorcists sat there unmoving for several seconds. Hikari was looking around to try to solve her confusion. Guang sat there silently, watching the situation. Lux sat there, immersed in her thoughts.

Seeing that they were going to do anything. David stood up. He wasn’t going to continuously endure this kind of humiliation. He tapped HIkari’s shoulder then pulled her arm, “Let’s go.”

“Ahhh wait…”

As she started to leave, she called out, “Lux-sama, Guang.”

Guang was clearly just worrying about Lux, while Lux sat there brooding, and did not pay the slightest attention to her surrounding situation. Having noticed Guang and Lux’s lack of reaction, HIkari called out once more, “Lux-sama, Guang.”

This time Guang reacted, appearing slightly startled. Seeing that it was Hikari that called him to leave, he tapped Lux on the shoulder, breaking her out from her “trance”. Pretending that nothing had happened, Lux calmly looked around and walked over to David and Hikari, then said, “Let us be off. This place stinks of demonic trash.”

Her words only seemed like it infuriated the villagers even more. More things were tossed at them, more curses were shouted at them. But Lux paid it no heed. She proudly walked out of the village square.

At the edge of the square she turned around, and declared, “Feel relieved that the Lord as mercy upon your wretched existence, for we shall show you mercy today. If you had shown such disrespect towards God Almighty, we will strike you down.”

Her gaze as she said that was one full of fury. This startled the villagers, considering how she seemed like she had quietly taken their curses and insults while she was sitting down. The truth was just that she was so lost in her own thoughts that she neglected to pay attention to her surroundings.

With that, Lux turned away and walked off, with the others soon following suit.

When the four of them had left the village, they looked around for a while and after they decided their direction, they continued to walk following the nearby road.

“What was that about…?” HIkari asked, she was still shocked at the villagers had suddenly turned on them and didn’t think that they did anything to offend them.

“I presume it’s your answering of being exorcists,” David replied. “It was relatively obvious that it was a village of demons, was it not?”

A hint of anger could be sensed in his voice. That much was only natural, after all they had been chased out of the villager due to carelessness.

“Ahhh, but…”

“It doesn’t matter. Staying any longer in that filth would have been terrible anyways. It’s better this way,” said Lux..

“My my, you must hate demons,” David answered sarcastically.

“What about it? Are you telling me your a demon sympathiser? And don’t take that tone with me!” Lux immediately stared at him in vexation.

“Demon sympathiser or not, why do you think I’m taking this tone with you all? We could have stayed there, gathered information and provisions. But yet the two of you had to blow things up. We hardly know where we are. My priority is saving Helly, aside from that everything takes second place. The two of you got in the way of my goal.

And demons or not, does it matter? They didn’t harm you at all!”

“Stayed? In that hellhole? The demons turned on us immediately after knowing we are servants of the Lord, this already proves that they would have been hostile anyways.”

“Or maybe they’re just terrified? They don’t seem like particularly strong demons, so of course they’re react in fear towards the term exorcists. Also, we might have been able to cover up for Hikari’s mentioning of exorcists, but then you had to make a scene and threaten them.”

“Lux-sama, David. Please don’t argue…” HIkari tried to intervene weakly. Now that David mentions it, she felt terrible for agitating the villagers, what David said made sense. However, she didn’t want to see Lux-sama argue with anyone. The always calm and cool Lux-sama. This was the first time Hikari had seem such anger and annoyance portrayed across her face…

“Let me get this straight. You want to get along with demons when a demon was what took your friend away? Is that what it is now?” Lux completed ignored Hikari and asked.

“That demon and those villagers are completely different. Those villagers were nigh helpless, they’re no different from people, and they have not harmed anyone.

So yes, I would have liked to get along with them to gather intelligence to achieve my goal. What is the problem with that?” David replied, he was already starting to get fed up with the attitude Lux had taken towards him.

“Heh, you’re so naïve. You really think that demons can be trusted?”

Author's Note:

How are you liking the story so far? Also, did you see my new cover? Here's the full size image. I hope you guys like it too.