“It’s about time you tell me what’s going on right?”

Noah’s line echoed clearly within the cave which is not that big in the first place, it turned the mood into a tense one.

Noah had thought that his encounter with the Strauss siblings would only be a one time thing. Even if he’s curious as to why the Strauss siblings are out for his job, he didn’t plan on hanging around long enough to find out.

However, at this point, Noah thinks he can’t treat the 3 as just some random people stumbling into his life for no other reason than the gloomy, dim, hurt and dejected look on the Strauss siblings’ faces.

“Noah Onii-san…”

Lisanna tried to say something while looking hesitating but before she could say anything Mira put a stop to her.

“Lisanna!”

Lisanna kept her mouth close and her anxious face turned into a dim one, it looked like she’s feeling pain as well. The same applies to Elfman.

Only the delinquent looking girl, Mira returned to her usual icy and distant face.

Seeing this, though Noah didn’t exactly know what the siblings are hiding but he more or less could guess the situation.

Despite being of such tender age, Mira, Elfman and Lisanna all have their painful past which they would rather not talk about like Erza.

“Argh….”

Noah sighed in a light manner but it resounded clearly enough within the quiet cave, at least well enough to enter the ears of Mira, Elfman and Lisanna.

“I don’t know what you guys are hiding but…”

Noah cast his glance towards the hand which Mira is trying to hide behind her cloak.

“I think it should have something to do with that hand of yours yeah?”

Mira didn’t respond, instead she hid her face behind the cloak in an attempt to hide her expression.

“Noah…”

Elfman said in a shaky manner.

“Aren’t… Aren’t you afraid of my sister?”

“Elf nii-chan!”

Lisanna yanked at Elfman’s shirt in a reprimanding way but her eyes were on Noah, those eyes were pleading him.

Pleading for what?

Pleading for me not to be afraid of their sister?

Noah furrowed his eyebrows before an idea quickly came up.

“Could it be that you guys don’t know why your sister’s hand became like that?”

This time, Elfman, lisanna and even the silent Mirajane lifted their head. They were dazed a bit before their faces started beaming up.

“Noah nii-san!”

Lisanna ran over to Noah’s side and held his hand tightly without caring about anything else. She looked like she’s not sure yet but there were hope in her eyes.

“Do you know why Mira-nee’s hand turned into something like that?”

“I would exactly put it like that!”

Noah relaxed his frown and turned over to Mira, coincidentally meeting gaze with her.

“Only you guys would know what happened to your sister for something like that to happen. However, from the looks of it, your understanding is only a small part of the greater whole!”

“A small part?”

The Strauss siblings parroted.

“I don’t have the distasteful habit of scooping up people’s secret or past they would rather hide!”

Noah said as he looked at the siblings in turn. He appeared to have noticed something before laughing.

“However, if you guys would like to share it with me, I think I just might be able to play the role of a good listener, confidant and answerer.”

The Strauss siblings went silent.

“Mira-nee…”

Elfman and Lisanna both turned to their big sister, they both look wanting to say something but holding themselves back.

Noticing this, Mira lowered her head and didn’t say anything. Just when the two siblings are getting a bit anxious, a low voice came.

“In the church of the village we use to live in, there’s a strong demon residing there. Because it is an existence that brought fear and despair to the villagers, we thought about exterminating it and we got close to the church..”

“Mira-nee got possessed by the demon because she wanted to save the village from the dangers the demon posed!”

Perhaps because she could feel her sister’s emotion from her tone, Lisanna declared that before biting down on her lips.

“However, the villagers treated sister who defeated the demon as another demon and chased us all out of the village!”

“Our sister aren’t at fault here!”

Yelled Elfman who is always a bit spineless.

“She got rid of the demon and yet everyone treated her like that, that’s just going too far!”

“That’s enough, Elfman.”

Mira said with indifference.

“There’s no point bring up here, we can’t go back to the village anymore.”

Elfman and Lisanna looked downcast and Noah more or less grasped what happened.

He laid the cloth bag with the arming sword in it by the side of the cavern walls before standing up and walking on over to Mirajane’s place. He then squat down and reached his hand out.

“Show me your hand!”

Mirajane frowned but before she could turned her head over and ignore him she heard Noah using an unusually high tone with her.

“Give me your hand!”

The commanding and yet calm voice made Mira recall the minotaur who got bisected in the forest. Her eyes wavered and she reluctantly reached her hand out.

This is the second time he has touched the hand of another one of the fairer sex after that night where he met Wendy.

It’s just that, compared to Wendy’s soft and cold hands, Mira’s gave him only one impression.

Rough.

Can’t help it though, this isn’t her original hand in the first place.

He couldn’t ascertain whether or not this belonged to a lizard or crocodile, or a mix of both but her hands are full of scales and the 5 fingers she had were sharp as nails, akin to claws of a demon. It looked pretty menacing as well.

Furthermroe, the dark aura covering and faintly radiating out of the hand would probably lead a normal human to be afraid of it.

For a hand like this to be on a girl who looks very cute in every other way is honestly not just incongruous it’s just cruel. Mira thought so as well seeing as she hurriedly tried to retract her hand after coming to her senses.

However, Noah is not having any of that as he held her hand tight and touched the malevolent looking scales all over. His manner of examination is so soft and gentle that it made Mira somewhat calm down despite being traumatized by her past encounters. her struggling also settled down.

Noah touched the scales on Mira’s hand all over while using his ridiculous senses to feel the dark aura coming off them. When he detected magic power belonging to Mira within those aura he finally confirmed his hypothesis.

“First off, let me tell you right off the bat. Your hands are like this not because of some demon possession or whatnot!”

This line shook the siblings’ hearts.

“Tha-is that true?”

Lisanna intensely moved, stood up as she asked.

“In other words, Mira didn’t become like this because of demonic possession, right?”

“Then, why did big sis’ hand turned into something like that?”

Elfman quickly followed up.

“Do you have any way of helping sis regain her original hand?”

Mira kept her eyes on Noah as well. She looked hopeful and scared at the same time.

“Help your sister regain her hand?”

It’s Noah’s turn to be cconfused now. He curiously asked Elfman.

“You’re telling me you have no way of returning this hand to its original form? I do recall her hand being completely normal when I met you guys at the Inn though?”

“That’s just the effect of a magic item.”

Lisanna explained.

“it’s a magic item that eludes people’s visual perception. We got it by chance but that item can only be used once. Mira dispelled the item’s effect to protect us during the magic beast assault not long ago. That’s why the item is useless now.”