My Wife and I Became Sages in Another World-Chapter 371: The Shy Imp

After testing the new potion made by Reinar and Jen on one of the warriors, we confirmed that it not only worked perfectly but also made the process painless for them.

Seeing that we had no time to waste, we started doing the treatment to all of the brainwashed soldiers and villagers that we had in the tenth ring.

There were a few kids who were under the effects of the curse, which was the main reason why I wanted the potion to be painless for them. However, while all the mind-controlled children flailed their arms and tried attacking anyone that was close to them, there was one who sat shily in the back.

’What’s up with that kid?’ I pondered.

His eyes had no glow in them, which reassured me that he was under the brainwashing spell, but his demeanor was totally different from the rest.

Every time we healed a person, the imp that was taking over their bodies would materialize and try to attack us. Still, we didn’t even let them take one step before executing them.

It was clear that the way they acted while brainwashed was the way that the imp controlling them would act, so I was confused as to why the kid looked scared while the others resembled wild animals trying to kill us.

After healing all of the children from the curse, we left the shy one for last, and when Vespera and I approached him, he flinched and closed his eyes with fear.

"Umm, are you okay?" I asked.

It’s not that I forgot that the kid was possessed by an imp, but he looked like a normal, scared child at that time, so the words just came out of my mouth without thinking too much about it.

The blonde kid didn’t respond and simply hugged his knees while trembling, so instead of forcefully grabbing him and feeding him the potion, I decided to give it to him.

"Here, drink this..." I said to the kid while handing out the cream-colored potion.

He must have felt somewhat threatened since he drank it in a bit of a panic, but I could see the demonic energy leaving his body, so I was able to confirm that the kid was possessed by an imp.

When the energy accumulated and materialized the imp that was controlling the child, Vespera went for the instant execution, but I quickly moved and grabbed her spider leg before it could stab the imp in the head.

"Ichiro?" Vespera asked, confused as to why I had stopped her.

"Vesp, take a closer look..." I replied.

My companion retracted her spider leg and gazed at the imp, who was covering his face in fear while his body trembled.

The imp was the same height as the others, so he reached up to my waist. However, this one was floating in the air in a fetal position, making him look smaller than the others.

I was still wary of the creature since demonic beings could be misleading sometimes. Still, it didn’t seem like the imp was acting, as I could see his demonic energy waning due to the fear it felt.

"Can you speak?" I asked the creature, who made a small hole between his fingers to peek at me.

"Y-yes, sir..." the imp replied, still floating a few feet away from me.

Its voice sounded kind of like a child who had smoked for over 20 years—if that even makes sense. It had a high pitch to it but a raspiness that made it clear it wasn’t a child speaking.

"P-please don’t kill me..." the imp continued with a trembling voice.

"I won’t. As long as you don’t attack anyone here, then there is no reason for us to kill you," I replied with a friendly tone.

Call me soft-hearted or whatever, but I would have felt pretty awful if we killed the single imp who looked like it didn’t even want to be there.

Honestly, it may have been a demonic creature, but the sadness it was feeling was genuine, and I wasn’t a mindless killer who killed other creatures based on their origins.

When the imp noticed that I had no bloodlust towards it, it lowered its hands from its face, and I saw a black scar on the side of its cheek.

The imp had vibrant red skin, making the black scar even more noticeable, but asking about it didn’t seem as important as other questions we had for the creature.

"You got a name?" I asked.

"G-Grul..." the imp replied.

"Alright, Grul. Relax, let’s talk for a bit..." I said, keeping a friendly tone since the imp was still fearful of me.

The little kid regained his senses, and instead of wondering where he was, he jumped in between Grul and me with his arms extended to protect the imp.

"D-Don’t hurt Grul!" the kid exclaimed.

’Huh? How does this kid know the name of the imp that possessed him?’ I pondered.

All of the other victims had no recollection of anything that they had done while brainwashed. Their last memories always ended right before they got taken over.

Also, they weren’t even aware that it was an imp that was possessing them, so I was confused about how this kid knew about Grul.

"I won’t hurt him, but you two have some explaining to do..." I said firmly but gently.

The kid’s name was "Dan," and he was a blonde, ten-year-old boy with dark eyes who had a fearless expression when standing before us.

We still had a small group of people who needed cleansing, so I asked Gina to bring them to the ninth floor of The Pit to wait for us.

After the two of them were guided out of the tenth ring, we kept our cleansing going with the rest of the villagers.

I tried talking to the imps that materialized from them, but none of them said a word and just mindlessly attacked us like wild beasts, leaving us with no choice other than to kill them.