Can Someone (Anyone!) Please Turn Off the Auto-Skill Setting?! - Chapter 66
In the blink of an eye, Aaron had the Ferron with his face in the dirt, his back pinned under Aaron’s foot.
“Is there a village nearby where your people live?”
“We live apart from the group! It’s just me and my son in this area!”
“I saw multiple smoke trails on the way here. There’s no way that much smoke came just from the two of you. It’s clearly from a village.”
Aaron pressured the Ferron, telling him not to lie and to speak the truth. As a former paladin, he was relatively reasonable with people, but when it came to demons, he turned into a merciless human who knew no forgiveness.
“Dad!”
The young Ferron, who couldn’t bring himself to run away, wailed. Seeing the little one stomping his feet like a puppy, Nancy stepped in and tried to calm Aaron down.
“Hey, isn’t this a bit too violent in front of a child?”
At the mention of a child, Aaron hesitated for a moment but then quickly hardened his expression.
“Even if they’re young, demons are demons,” he said dismissively. “Hey, you. Lead us to the village.”
“No! You must never show them the way!”
The father Ferron desperately shouted at his son. The young Ferron looked at his father with tear-filled eyes, but eventually, he nodded reluctantly.
Aaron tied up the father Ferron with rope, forcing the boy to lead them to the village. Along the way, the father tried to stop and resist several times, but Aaron’s strength was overwhelming, more than enough to subdue him. Aaron, who had taken on one of the Four Cardinal Guardians alone, easily kept the Ferron under control.
When they arrived at the village, the Ferrons there were startled and hurried into their homes, locking doors and windows tightly. But through the cracks, Aaron could feel the eyes of the villagers warily watching them.
“There’s quite a crowd. It’s going to take a lot of work to deal with them all.”
Aaron muttered to himself, causing the young Ferron to swallow hard. He looked back at his father, his tear-filled eyes pleading for help. The father, looking resigned, clicked his tongue and chastised his son for his foolishness.
“Do you think these humans wanted to be led here just to get a warm welcome? Thanks to you, we’re all going to die—me, you, your mother, and your sisters!”
“Please, spare us! We haven’t done anything wrong! We even get along with the humans who visit sometimes!”
The young Ferron desperately pleaded for mercy, claiming that they followed the human law of not coveting others’ belongings. Unfortunately for him, Aaron focused on something else in his plea.
“Humans who visit sometimes? Are there humans who have dealings with demons?”
The father cursed his son for being an idiot and warned him to keep quiet. The boy, unsure of what to do, began to cry harder.
“Tell me the names of the traitors who trade with you.”
“Please, please spare us! We’ve done nothing wrong! We didn’t even try to attack the heroes!”
“Enough!”
The scene in the middle of the village had turned chaotic. Nancy, who had been watching from a step away, finally spoke up.
“I have a question.”
All eyes turned toward her as she spoke. She pointed to a spot with her finger, and their gazes followed.
There was a field next to a house, with farming tools and baskets filled with what looked like freshly harvested red radishes. The Ferrons who had fled had left them behind.
“I heard demons can’t farm due to the miasma in their bodies. How are you managing to grow crops?”
The young Ferron, whose mouth had been covered by his hand, glanced nervously at his father. The father stood firm, unwilling to answer.
“What are you so curious about? Are you planning to steal those crops from us? Isn’t it your god who commanded not to covet what belongs to others?”
“That’s a statement I can’t ignore.”
Aaron was furious that the father had referred to their god as ‘your god in the sky’. His killing intent flared, and the son quickly removed the hand covering his mouth and answered.
“We have gloves! We made special gloves that stop miasma from transferring, so we can farm too!”
Nancy walked over to the field. As a merchant who occasionally dealt in agricultural products, she could tell the quality was high. The crops they were growing had vibrant colors and large, healthy-looking radishes.
She picked up one of the crops and used a skill to check it, confirming that her assessment was correct. It was a high-quality radish.
“No need to believe what demons say. I’m sure they stole those crops from a human village.”
Aaron refused to believe that they had grown the crops themselves. Nancy tilted her head to the side, momentarily lost in thought.
If they had stolen the crops, they could just eat them. There was no need to go through the trouble of planting them in the ground again, only to harvest them later.
