With the chaotic morning behind them, the trio left their room and made their way to the exit to finally start their search for the Demon-Spawning-Cloud. On their way out, they passed the inn's currently empty dining room.

However, while Fran and Marianne didn't show any concerns as to why the dining hall was so empty since it was only a small village inn, Rina found that fact more than odd. She knew from her past, that this place also served as some sort of hub, where most of the villagers gathered to socialise after breakfast.

After all, she had tried to enter this place and integrate herself into the social life of the village before, only to be thrown out with insults afterwards. They didn't even seem to care, if she, a small child back then, died of hunger or sickness from sleeping outside or not.

Back to the topic at hand, the trio hadn't encountered any staff members since yesterday, except for the innkeeper, which made the current situation even more suspicious to Rina.

Fran, who was leading the group, noticed that Rina was worried about something, so she stopped before they reached the inn's exit and turned around. “Are you worried about the villagers?”

Rina thought about it for a moment, before she closed her eyes and shook her head, swaying her red hair from side to side. “No, it's nothing. I'm not worried about them and I don't think that they'll do anything... in fact, they did leave me alone for most of my childhood.”

Only Rina herself knew whether she had said that because she really believed in her words, or because she only wanted them to be true.

Unaware of the redhead's inner distress, Fran simply nodded in acknowledgement and they continued walking through the empty dining hall towards the inn's exit. Arriving at the door, Fran opened it, only to close it immediately afterwards again.

Seeing this, Rina approached Fran at the door and asked her, even though she could already think of the reason for the elf's strange behaviour. “Um... what's the matter?”

“...”

When Rina saw, that her teacher didn't say anything but instead just grimaced, she knew that her suspicions had been proven right. Behind this door, outside the inn, probably the entire village had gathered to kick her out. As she glanced at Marianne, she could see that the brunette had also a worried look on her face.

So when she realised that both of them were concerned about her in one way or another, Rina couldn't help but feel a little warm inside, even though it was probably inappropriate for her to feel that way given the current situation.

Therefore, to reassure them that she would be fine, she gave Marianne the brightest smile she could muster. Then, she turned her smile towards the taller elf while placing her hand on top of Fran's, which was still on the doorknob. With the elf's hand in hers, Rina rotated the doorknob to open the door and left the inn first.

And indeed, outside, Rina saw that dozens of people had gathered in the street, forming a half-circle around the building she had just left. The people had seemed to be conversing with each other in a somewhat serious mood before, but as soon as Rina stepped outside, she could clearly perceive how everyone immediately stopped talking and looked towards her, as if she were an internationally popular Idol who had just stepped onto the stage.

'Though... seeing them react like this, Idol isn't that far off,' she thought amusedly.

In her past life, there was no way that she would be able to take the hatred of other people towards her with such humour. Quite the opposite. Instead of just ignoring negative attitudes towards her, they had always made her feel worse and made her hate herself even more for what she was.

And despite what it might have seemed at first, things hadn't improved during her childhood in Yggildos. Even though she had tried not to show it, being on the receiving end of the villagers' hatred had taken its on her. She had just decided to endure it and had told herself that she didn't care.

But now, knowing that her existence mattered to three (!!!) people, one of them even in love with her, Rina didn't care about other people's opinions of her anymore.

In fact, instead of wanting to see random people become happy, she now wanted to make sure that only those close to her have a fulfilling life. After all, if they were happy, she would be too.

As a result, she could now look the villagers in the eye, something she had never been able to do before. Therefore, she could now truly confirm that they were indeed full of hatred, towards her.

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Still ignoring the glares she received, and remembering that Fran wanted to get at least some information out of the villagers, Rina did, what could be considered the norm when it came to starting a conversation. A greeting.

Normally, she would do the standard bowing greeting of a noble lady or an aristocrat's servant, something that she had already done many times in the past. Unfortunately, she wasn't wearing a dress at the moment, so grabbing the hem of her skirt was out of the question. After all, she was wearing the Academy's uniform, which skirt was far too short to pull up without exposing some intimate parts of her body.

So, she instead bent her upper body sixty degrees with her right arm across her frontal abdomen and her left arm across her back. Additionally, her right foot was crossed over her left. All these gestures together formed the usual greeting that a male noble would normally make.

As for why she knew how to do it, it was because she had danced with Clara many times. It was customary to bow before a pair could start dancing, and said bow was often performed by the blonde, who had always assumed the male part. Rina had simply copied Clara's perfect example

Back to the situation at hand. While Rina was still looking down because of her bow, she spoke up. “It may be a bit late for this, as I was born here, but nice to meet you. My name is Rina.”

She looked up and pointed at Fran and Marianne who had meanwhile come out of the inn. “The brown-haired one is called Marianne, she is a friend of mine who works in the same place as me. The elf, well it seems that you already know her, is the temple's former High Priestess and my magic teacher, Lady Fran.”

The two introduced women reacted promptly to Rina's words and stepped forward beside the red-haired girl in front of the crowd. While Marianne bowed like a noble lady, Fran only gave a curt nod due to her social standing

Meanwhile, Rina noticed that the crowd of several dozen people, mostly adults in the most important positions in the village, didn't know how to react to this situation. It was apparent to her that they wanted to hurl their insults at her, along with a few tomatoes or even stones. But it was also clear that they were holding back because of Fran's presence within her group.

So, after they had seemed to be discussing what to do, a somewhat elderly man, probably around fifty, which by the way was very old for Yggildos' life expectancy, stepped out of the crowd towards Fran, while completely ignoring Rina's greeting and existence.

“Greetings, Lady Fran, I welcome you and your companion to our village of Mousa. I am the acting chief of the village.”

Fran's eyebrows twitched visibly when she heard how her pupil was royally ignored. But since she didn't know when the first demons would emerge from the cloud, she just decided to postpone it for later. The fact that Rina didn't even seem to mind being ignored, certainly helped her in doing that.

Still, with everything that had happened since yesterday, Fran was already regretting taking Rina on this mission. She had originally intended to use the villagers' hatred to gauge her pupil's mental strength. But Fran had never imagined that she would grow so fond of that girl, that it would be her own mental strength, that would be tested instead. Who could have thought that seeing the red-haired girl being treated like trash would irritate her this much?

Fortunately, Fran had a lot of experience when it came to talking to annoying people, so she easily shrugged off the annoyance away and nodded at the man. “I see, thank you for your welcome... I assume you already know why we're here?”

“Indeed, Lady Fran.” The man turned around to point at the innkeeper standing in the crowd before facing Fran again. “She had told me that you're here because of an impending demon attack.”

“That's right... According to my information, a Demon-Spawning-Cloud was sighted a few days ago. Have you...” Fran looked past the chief to the crowd behind him before turning back to him. “or any of the other villagers seen it?”

The chief looked at her with a rather embarrassed expression after hearing her question. “I'm sorry to ask, but what is this cloud you're speaking of.”

When Rina, who was observing the interaction like a bystander, heard that, she was at first surprised that neither the man nor any of the other villagers knew about the Demon-Spawning-Cloud. After all, everyone should have been taught that it was never to be touched. But then she realised that its name was only known only to the educated, and those were few and far between in Yggildos.

Fran, also surprised at first, came to the same conclusion and described the cloud's appearance. “It looks like a normal rain cloud...” Fran pointed to the sky as a cloud passed by. “...but instead of being white, it has a dark, sinister colour. They often hover a few metres above the ground and are often a few metres in diameter. You know, the ones that drive people mad when they touch them.”

Hearing the explanation, the colour of the man's and the other villager's faces vanished almost simultaneously. “W-w-what? D-demons come out of it?”

“That's right. If we don't hurry up, they might crawl out of it soon, so if you've seen one anywhere, please tell us, so we can guard the place.”

“A-are you sure about it!? Won't it disappear automatically over time?”

“Yes, I'm sure. And yes, it will automatically disappear over time, but only after the demons have spawned out of it using all of the cloud's innate Mana.”

“BUT THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!”

The village chief's sudden shout made Marianne and Fran flinch. But because Rina was on guard, the loud voice didn't particularly surprise her. After all, she could be considered to be in a danger zone at the moment, as she had noticed that some of the villagers in the crowd had malicious intentions towards her. This malevolence had only increased, after Fran's statement after the Demon-Spawning-Cloud.

Meanwhile, the chief realised that he had just shouted at someone who could be considered a hero to the common folk and therefore paled up even more than he already was. “F-forgive my rudeness, Lady Fran, I didn't mean to shout like that,” he stammered bowing his head deeply.

Fran, the person being apologised to, just waved her hands to indicate that she didn't mind, or rather didn't care, causing the man to smile brightly. “So, do any of you know about it or not?”

“Please wait a moment Lady Fran, I'll ask them.”

Receiving a nod of confirmation from her, the chief walked over the crowd and led them away, where they seemed to discuss something inaudible to Fran's group.

Seeing this, the elf muttered something in a quiet voice, that was barely perceptible to the other two girls. And both of them couldn't help but agree wholeheartedly with what Fran had said.

“What a nasty bunch.”