Chapter 39- A Banquet (Part 1)
'Is this… human blood?' Akio squinted his eyes as he examined the stain on his fingertips thoroughly. The texture, the stickiness, and everything else was all eerily similar to that of humans.
For a moment, a weird ominous feeling crept into Akio's heart and made him frown. However, the next second, he returned to his neutral expression.
'This is just some monster's blood. I don't know every single creature in the Serenity Abyss so maybe this is one of those that have a similar blood structure to that of humans.' He theorized.
In and out of itself, it wasn't completely impossible that this blood belonged to some kind of monster that lurked in this place. However, what's even weirder was the fact that Akio's mind completely rejected the idea that this could be indeed what he suspected it to be.
'Hm?' Lifting his eyes from the puddle of blood, he saw that the trail of blood continued somewhere. Even though Akio wasn't suspicious, he decided to see where this lead purely out of curiosity.
Standing up, he followed the blood, going left and right where it changes directions. The trip took him somewhere on the other side of the village. Eventually, the blood stopped at some point and didn't continue any further.
Looking around him, Akio didn't see anything that catches his attention. He was still surrounded by houses and small alleys.
'Did the prey dry out of blood after being dragged for such a long distance?' He wondered.
Turning around, he intended to go back as there was nothing worth staying here for. Akio was eager to eat something as a day passed since the last time he put something inside his mouth. Although after leveling up, his body seemed to not feel hunger as intense as before.
Maybe it was the Holem Essence nurturing his body or maybe the fact that he went through so many things in such a short time that made him forget about his stomach. Either way, he still wanted to eat even if it was purely for the enjoyment of it.
*Chop*
But, his steps halted when he heard a sound coming from nearby.
'What is this?' He thought as he looked straight at the place where this sound originated from. He could swear that it was that of something being chopped to pieces.
*Chop*
The same sound reached his ears again.
'Is this where the animal is being chopped?' He thought to himself.
Changing the direction he walked in, Akio approached the small house slowly. His steps were quiet and very careful as he didn't want to alert the person inside. There was no particular reason behind it except for the fact that he didn't want to end up engaging in a conversation with someone that he could've easily avoided.
When he was close enough to the window, Akio tried to take a peek inside. The place was dark but he could clearly see the details of the whole place.
'A butchery?'
The smell of meat and blood reached his nostrils. Akio wasn't a particular fan of the smell of chopped meat even when he knew that it could turn into something delicious if cooked properly. This situation was no exception to that.
Right in the middle of the room, he saw someone standing in front of a table with a big cleaver made out of stone in their hand.
*Chop*
Because of the angle Akio was in, he couldn't see what was being chopped on the table. However, from the bits and pieces of flesh and blood that kept flying everywhere with each hit, he knew that this was one bloody corpse if he had ever seen any.
'Tsk, I can't see…' He clicked his tongue secretly and tried to find a better angle to take a look. His curiosity was now over the roof even when he wasn't overthinking anything the butcher was doing at the moment.
'Maybe if I walk from the other side, I can find another window.'
Standing up, he secretly moved to the other side of the butchery. Luckily, he did find another window.
*Chop* *Chop*
With each step he took, the butcher rhythmically chopped the meat as if he was following Akio's footsteps like some kind of musical notes on a piano. Each note was a hit and each hit was a step. This loop continued till Akio made his way all the way around.
For better or worse, the window he was searching for was wide open.
Nodding his head, he approached it and peeked inside.
*Chop*
'What's that?'
Sadly, Akio couldn't recognize the carcass of the creature as it was already chopped into smaller pieces. The meat was a dark shade of red and the blood that trickled down from it was thick and syrupy.
Squinting his eyes, Akio tried to get a closer look, searching for any smaller details he missed.
However…
"Akio? Where are you?"
Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice calling for him.
'Tsk, that boy named Toru…'
Akio didn't know how Toru ended up finding him here but he wasn't going to let himself get exposed there. So, he quickly made his way back.
"Oh, there you are." Noticing Akio coming towards him, Toru smiled.
"Where have you be-"
"How did you follow me?" Akio cut him off and asked.
"I saw you walking somewhere with a focused look on your face. I even called for you a few times but you didn't answer so I followed you here."
"..."
"Now, the village people said that they are going to do a banquet in celebration of our survival. They need all of us there. Come on, food is gonna be delicious." He said as he tried to grab Akio's arm to drag him back.
However, the latter dodged it.
"I can walk by myself."
"Oh, ok."
Even though Toru was trying to act nice, Akio wasn't buying it at all. Not even for a second did he ever drop his guard whenever he was close to this young man.
Toru was still a mystery that he can't wrap his head around.
'I will keep my eyes on him until… Hmm, well, whatever…' Shaking his head, Akio walked silently back to the heart of the village.
His mind had completely forgotten about what he saw as it didn't deem it worthy of attention anymore.
Back there, Akio found many villagers already moving around, seemingly setting up tables and chairs for a banquet to happen.
Their working speed was impressive and perfect. None of them seemed lost or confused about a certain task. Almost as if this wasn't the first time they did such a thing.
'Maybe they would prepare banquets for every prisoner they find each week. Or maybe…'
"Woah!!! This is amazing! Look, Akio, they are even going to light up a huge fire." Toru said as he pointed at the center of the area where a huge amount of logs were put down.
(A//N: Thank you everyone for supporting the book with power stones, golden tickets, and comments. I'm deeply grateful. Let's all keep it up :) )