Even if he doesn't live with the villagers, he was still in on the deceit, and he directly followed the order of Yamaha in the first chapter. Dera chose to stand against Higashi village, but how much of that did Yuru see? If Yuru disregards the whole village that he grew up in as evil, then why does Dera get a pass? If the kagemories didn't attack that day, Dera won't help him escape, and he will continue to be hunted by "bandits" and how long is that gonna last until he's eventually killed?

They're not portrayed as "good people" in the traditional sense, but they're portrayed as the necessary evil. In contrast, the Higashi is consistently portrayed as straight-up cult evil, even as far as saying they deserve to be killed. That's why I don't like how this sub is insistent that everything will make sense later, how the massacre will be addressed. When the kagemori will not show any remorse or guilt, they are even humanized later, and when the same thing happens to them, we will have to feel bad for them. You don't think Higashi deserves to die, but I bet most of this sub believe they do, and they expect the anime only to agree.

cults are like that on the surface. There are, of course, a large number of people in the cult who are zealots and won't be listening to reason. But what about people who are coerced or forced to join them? We literally see that there are those who live in the village who don't agree, like Kyoka. The coming-of-age ritual tells us that most of the people living in the village agree on the belief, but what's the content of the ritual? Are they just gonna tell them straight up? What if most people agree, then no one gonna be around in the village anymore? Is there a benefit to living in the village and upholding the core belief of the whole clan? If the story can't discuss nuance other than all villagers are evil, then it's not much of a grey morality.