(A/N: This chapter is pretty graphic, and if it makes you feel sick reading it, don't hesitate to skip it. It serves to set a backstory for the upcoming chapters, but even if you don't read this chapter, you will be able to follow the story, so you are free to skip this chapter if it is too much for you. <3)
5 years earlier in a certain noble's mansion.
Levy was a kind man. He wasn't the richest noble, nor did he have the most beautiful wife.
He also didn't have the biggest mansion, nor did he have any secret connections to the royal family.
Levy was a baron, which was the lowest rank any noble could have, and he had acquired it from his late father.
Other nobles used drugs or alcohol to have fun. They gambled, cheated on their wives, and abused their power to destroy civilian lives.
But Levy wasn't that kind of person.
He had a loving wife, a beautiful daughter, and a kind young son who dreamed of becoming a knight.
His friends in the noble circles always invited him to "have fun", like they enjoyed doing, but he didn't want to worsen his health with drugs, nor did he want to gamble his small wealth away.
He also loved his wife too much for him to cheat on her, so he always declined.
This made him an outcast of sorts in the noble circle, but he didn't care.
Levy had a loving family, and that was more than enough for him.
---
Like every day, Levy was in his office, sipping tea and writing some documents.
Outside the window, he could see his son swinging a wooden sword, and even though his son was only ten, his skills were getting better day by day.
His wife and daughter were washing the dishes downstairs, and because he wasn't as rich as the other nobles, he couldn't afford any servants, so the cleaning was done by his wife and his eighteen-year-old daughter.
Today was a day when he would go to another noble meeting.
He didn't enjoy going there because he usually didn't have anything to talk about, but he was always too kind to reject the invitation, so he accepted.
Levy got up and went to his drawer to put his suit on. Dressing up in front of the mirror, he checked how he looked in his suit.
Short, brown, wavy hair combed to the back and brown eyes that had small wrinkles around them.
Because he enjoyed smiling when he was with his family, he also had a lot of wrinkles around his mouth.
Levy wasn't by any means handsome, but he wasn't ugly. An average-looking man was a way to describe him.
He had already found himself a wife who loved him, so he didn't care about the fact that he wasn't handsome.
That didn't mean that he didn't take care of himself.
He always enjoyed combing his hair and dressing well, but he didn't do it for himself but for his wife so that he could look good in front of her.
Going down the stairs, he met his wife and daughter walking out of the kitchen.
"Dad!"
His daughter ran up to him, and he greeted her with a hug. She was pretty tall now, so he couldn't lift her up anymore like he had used to do in the past.
"Have you helped your mom do the dishes, Triss?"
"Yes dad!"
She nodded with a smile, and Levy felt his heart melt because her lovable smile would always brighten his day and make him smile too.
He then let go of her and went to hug his wife, Holly.
"I am going to the meet-up with the other nobles, but I will be back by dinner, my love."
"Yes darling."
His wife had blond hair, and even though she wasn't the most beautiful woman in the world, to Levy, she was his everything.
Even if the goddess of beauty descended before him and confessed to him, he would reject her and continue loving his wife.
After saying his goodbyes, he left the house and went to check on his son before leaving.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
His son was training his vertical strikes, and sweat covered his young, muscular body.
"Rex. I will be leaving and will be back by dinner, alright?"
Levy walked up to his son, Rex, and tapped his shoulder.
A smile decorated his face because he was very proud of his son, and every time he saw him train, his pride only grew.
"Yes father!"
"You can call me dad, you know."
Levy ruffled Rex's hair and chuckled.
"No! A real knight has to show etiquette even to his parents!"
Rex proudly puffed out his chest.
"Haha! My son will become the best knight in the entire world."
"Father!"
Rex hugged Levy, and they both smiled.
After a minute, Rex went back to his training, and Levy took a carriage to the meeting.
He had his own carriage, but the carriage driver didn't live in his mansion, so he would always have to inform him beforehand if he wished to use it.
After a ten-minute ride, Levy arrived in front of a mansion that was twice as big as his. It belonged to a Marquess, and he would invite the male nobles for a drink, every now and then.
Levy was then led by a maid to a room, and when he entered, he saw three men already sitting down and drinking whisky.
All three of them were fat, so they probably had a lot of money if they could afford to eat so much.
Food wasn't scarce, but only the nobles could afford to eat because they felt like it and not because they were hungry like the other civilians.
Levy sat down in one of the chairs, and a butler poured him a glass of whiskey.
He didn't like drinking, but rejecting it would look rude, so he always drank one glass and then went home.
"Levy! How is your family doing!"
One of the nobles, who had a black moustache, shouted when he saw Levy arrive.
"Same old Marquess Harry, but thank you for asking."
Levy nodded with a smile.
"Did you hear about how the duke's young daughter had a secret affair with the prince?"
"What? That's preposterous!"
They then started talking about different rumors concerning other nobles, but Levy didn't really care about anyone other than his family, so he always just nodded or said things like "Really?" or "I see".
The hours quickly passed, and it was time for Levy to leave.
He had finished his glass of whiskey a long time ago, and he was just getting up to excuse himself when the other three nobles stopped him.
"Levy! Are you leaving already?"
"I am afraid so, but I have enjoyed your company."
He politely bowed.
"Then let's have one last glass together!"
"I can't, Marquess. You know how my wife gets angry when I drink outside."
He politely rejected it with his go-to excuse, but every noble knew how much Levy loved his family, and everyone was jealous that Levy was the only noble with a functioning family that had no rumors going around about them.
"Just one glass, Levy, or do you not respect me enough?"
The Marquess frowned.
This made Levy flustered that his excuse didn't work, and he decided to agree.
"Then just one."
He nodded, and a butler handed him a glass of whiskey.
What he didn't know was that while he was talking to the Marquess, the butler opened a small paper package and poured some kind of dusty substance that quickly melted in Levy's whiskey.
After clinking his glass with the other nobles, Levy downed it in one go and smiled.
"Thank you, but I really have to go now."
"Of course. We will see you later."
They said their goodbyes, and after Levy left the mansion, the nobles creepily smiled.
"He drank the drug, so the first part of the plan is done. Now we just have to wait for the good news."
They then started laughing, but Levy didn't hear them because he was already in his carriage, heading home.
Inside the carriage, he grabbed his head because it was starting to hurt, and his ears kept ringing with a high-pitched noise.
He soon arrived in front of his mansion, and when the carriage driver noticed how weird Levy looked, he tried to help him.
"Sir, are you okay?"
The carriage driver worriedly asked.
"I am fine. It seems that I had too much to drink."
But Levy dismissed him and went toward his mansion.
On the way there, the pain in his head kept getting worse and the noise in his ears kept getting louder.
His vision was also starting to turn a lot darker than it normally was.
Opening the door of his mansion, he looked around to see his family, but there was nobody there.
Through the high-pitched noise in his ears, he could hear something in the basement, and he went down there to take a look. But on his way there, the pain got so bad that he had to clench his teeth to continue walking.
His ears started to bleed, and his vision turned dark as if he were blind.
But he knew the layout of his basement, so he continued walking in the direction he heard the noise from.
While walking, he was touching the walls to know where he was, and after entering a room in the basement, he smelled blood.
This metallic smell of blood that would normally make Levy scrunch up his nose in disgust smelled like a heavenly wine drank only by the gods.
Hunger.
A terrible hunger arose in him.
It felt like there was an abyss in his stomach that needed to be filled no matter what. His already weak state of mind also didn't help.
And so, abandoning all sense of self, he lunged forward.
What he didn't know was that in front of him was his family, shackled to tables.
His wife had her wrist cut, with blood slowly dripping out, and they were all shouting at Levy, but he couldn't hear them.
CRUNCH
He started eating his lovely wife alive.
Levy was eating the woman who had supported him, helped him during his darkest moments, and loved him the most out of anyone in the world.
She shouted, but he didn't hear.
She struggled, but he didn't feel.
She cried, but he didn't see.
Bite after bite, he slowly ate her until she bled out, with tears falling from her eyes, but Levy was still unsatisfied.
His stomach groaned, and waves of pain surged from it, forcing him to find something else to devour.
Turning to his right, he jumped on his daughter and bit down on her.
CRUNCH
His beautiful little princess that he cherished more than his life.
The girl who would know when to hug her father because she knew how he looked when he was sad.
The perfect daughter who had to help her mom cook and clean but never complained about it.
And when she smiled, Levy's life would turn bright, and his heart would melt from happiness.
Not realizing what he was doing, he bit his daughter again and again and again.
Flesh tore, bones shattered, tears fell, screams echoed in the basement, and after a few minutes of this horror, she finally stopped moving.
His beautiful little sunshine was dead.
Levy no longer looked like a human.
Blood and pieces of flesh were stuck on his clothes. He was also salivating with his wide mouth open and flesh stuck in between his teeth.
Levy couldn't see anything and didn't know why, but his tears kept streaming down his bloodied cheeks.
The hunger pains were slowly going away, but he felt like he was trading parts of his soul to make them disappear.
His hearing didn't work, but each time his daughter and wife screamed, his body shuddered. His vision was dark, but each time their teardrops fell, his heart felt like it was being squeezed.
These were signs that his body was showing him in hopes that he might wake up from his drugged state, but the drug that he was forced into consuming was too strong, and so he remained a monster.
Levy then turned to his last surviving family member, his son Rex.
Every day, Rex would diligently train, and he was Levy's pride.
He believed that his son could actually become the strongest knight, and he would do anything to help his little boy.
The way Rex never missed a day in his training motivated Levy to also not stop working for his family.
So whenever he would feel swamped with work, he would look outside the window to see his son swinging his wooden sword that he gave him on his seventh birthday.
Seeing his son train gave him energy to push on, and he always worked with a smile on his face.
But this lovely inspiration and his greatest pride was being eaten by him right now.
CRUNCH
First, he tore his leg off.
His son cried, but he didn't ask his dad to stop. Instead, he kept repeating the question "why?".
This afternoon, he saw his dad being the best father he could ever wish for, but right now, he was acting like a hungry, wild beast.
Then his right arm got torn off.
Rex was sad because, without his arm, he wouldn't be able to lift his sword anymore.
He remembered how his father had told him that he would become the best knight, but right now, his father was chewing on his right arm, that Rex needed to wield his sword.
The third bite was to his face.
Levy tore off a portion of Rex's face, but Rex had no more tears to shed.
With his bloodshot eyes, he remembered how someone entered their mansion after his father left.
They tied him, his sister, and his mom down in the basement while saying that they were doing this because his father ordered them to.
His mother resisted, but she was beaten. While those men were waiting for Levy to arrive, they did things to Rex's mother and sister that he was too young to understand, but from their screams, he understood that it wasn't anything good.
He tried to resist the men, but his arms were shackled, and soon his father came.
After seeing his crazed father eat his mother and sister alive, he swore with bloodshot eyes to never forgive him.
Rex was only ten at the time, so he didn't know that the main culprits behind everything were those three nobles who were so jealous of Levy's perfect life that they decided to turn him into a monster.
Naively believing his captors, he blamed his father for everything that had happened that night.
But before his father could finish eating him, knights burst into the basement, and they threw Levy on the ground.
THUD
"Grrr!!!"
He was no longer human but a beast, and all he did was growl at the knights while they pinned him to the ground with their weapons.
Rex was too exhausted at that point.
He had lost too much blood, and he had had enough.
The tiredness quickly took over, and so he closed his bloodshot eyes, finally falling asleep.