Back in the village again, the villagers’ eyes weren’t on Iris this time, instead they were all staring at Michael.

Their impression from earlier was that he was an extremely handsome young man. But now his face was all swollen up like he’d just stuck his head in a beehive, which startled everyone.

Whispers and gossip spread at a dizzying speed, and weird stories appeared along with them. Like Michael actually being a slave who got beaten for disobeying. Some even said Michael was really just a commoner who coveted a noble’s beauty and got taught a lesson.

All those weird stories naturally reached the ears of the three of them. If his face wasn’t already beat up and bruised, Michael’s expression would’ve turned dark by now.

“Hahaha, well, I never thought you were that kind of person, you know?”

Iris, who had been annoyed earlier, was now laughing her head off. She didn’t expect the villagers to know how to talk like that. The more she listened, the funnier she found it.

Even Leo, who didn’t usually tease Michael, found the villagers’ imagination amusing. He never thought they’d have this kind of ‘talent’.

Walking deeper into the village, he saw a figure that was both familiar and unfamiliar. That old village chief looked like he’d aged a lot now.

“Village chief, long time no see.”

Leo stepped forward to greet him. After all, the old man had helped them with a few things before, not greeting him would be a bit impolite.

The village chief used his blurry old eyes to look at him. Although his face looked a bit different, that hair color was rare. The whole village didn’t have anyone with hair similar to Leo’s.

Then he looked over at a face that was swollen and bruised, not looking human. The village chief immediately remembered Michael, since the two of them usually hung out together.

But when he saw Iris in her sparkling outfit, the village chief became much more cautious.

“Is there anything I can do to help you, miss?”

He had planned to greet Leo and Michael, but if he ran into a noble, he naturally couldn’t ignore her.

If he greeted her, maybe she wouldn’t be happy. Being curious about why she was here had a high risk of punishment. It was safer to just proactively offer help, even if he didn’t know what she needed or not.

“Yes, there is. Take me to where the awakening ritual is performed.”

Iris didn’t actually need his help, but thinking about it, having a guide was still more convenient since she’d never been to this place before.

Actually, Michael and Leo knew the way, but she didn’t want them to do it. They were already being misunderstood as being beneath her, so the village chief could just keep misunderstanding. The more he misunderstood, the more fun she found it.

“Yes, Miss. Please follow me.”

Michael and Leo stared blankly at the old village chief, who was friendly and had never been afraid of them before, now bowing humbly in front of Iris.

Anyone with a brain could understand that in the village chief’s eyes, the status of the two of them compared to hers was like comparing the ground to the sky.

Even though he’d just been beaten, Michael couldn’t accept this. What did Iris have that made her so much better than him?

“You…”

Before he could say anything, Leo covered his mouth and shot him a warning glare. The three of them came here to find a ‘normal’ identity, not to cause trouble.

With Iris’s appearance, no one would believe she was a fake noble if she said so. So there was a chance someone would report to that knight that him and Michael were impersonating nobles.

Although Raphael could come and kill both the knight and the witnesses, that would just bring them more trouble.

Besides, the revolutionary ideal didn’t allow such behavior. They could kill criminals, but they couldn’t kill these ordinary people.

Michael, getting glared at, didn’t say anything more. Thinking about it, even if he shouted, it wouldn’t mean much. But when they joined the academy, she absolutely wouldn’t get to act high and mighty with him.

“Haha, you lowly thing should just shut your mouth.”

Iris had wanted to laugh out loud seeing Michael frustrated and unable to say anything, but since she was putting on an act now, she could only chuckle a little.

Michael’s head temperature spiked like a volcano about to erupt. But he was still sane enough not to start a fight.

Now Leo was standing on Iris’s side. f he charged at her, the two of them would definitely beat him up together. Whatever issues they had, he’d just wait until they got to the elementary academy to settle them.

Not long after, the village chief had led the three of them to an old, worn-down temple, but outside it had a few fairly new flags stuck in the ground with a sun emblem printed on them.

On the altar was a statue of a man drawing a bow aimed at the sky. Even though the statue was made really ugly, Iris actually knew this person.

“Wow, so the knight is a person from The Great Sun Temple? The statue here is way too ugly.”

She still remembered what Sun God looked like. In his full-power state, his size wasn’t much smaller than hers. This statue must have been carved based on that state, not his human state.

Hearing Iris mention The Great Sun Temple without any reverence at all, sweat started beading on the village chief’s forehead.

Did any normal person dare to talk like that? Even low-level nobles wouldn’t dare to talk like that unless they belonged to a major power.

“You’re not wrong, miss. This statue, I initially heard it was much more beautiful. But the last time it was refurbished was several hundred years ago. Now in the village, there’s no one with the skill, so we don’t dare to casually alter the god’s statue.”

The village chief kept bowing and lowering his head like that, which made Michael a bit uncomfortable. Not because of the action itself, but because this was discrimination between him and Iris.

When he met Michael, he was clearly very calm, but as soon as he met Iris, he got scared into this state. Really had no spirit at all.

But he couldn’t help thinking back to the first time he saw Iris. Back then, he was also scared to death by her. Thinking about it that way, he could sympathize a little with the village chief.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep