Chapter 2
Now that I thought about it, I never really questioned what cannibals are or what made them different from humans. Lucy is the only non-human I've ever seen and the thing that makes her different from humans is obvious. Her long ears. Reiya was a separate matter. I didn't know what exactly made cannibals different from humans but Reiya shed light on my impressively dark cavern.
Like the name suggests, cannibals are a race of man-eating humans. Yes, they're humans that eat other humans. They're primarily found in the Tribal Territory, in fact it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they're exclusively found there. Though their diet consists of mainly human flesh, they're capable of eating other foods such as, well, normal food.
Whenever they do eat normal food though they lose the aspects of their cannibalistic inheritance, like their monstrous strength and incredible healing ability. They don't have mana and therefore they can't use magic but their ability to heal on their own more than makes up for that.
She continued by recounting the events that took place during Luck's whole episode. How she got stabbed clean through her chest and broke every bone in her hand. According to her, I stepped up and offered myself as her next meal so she could heal herself. I didn't remember any of it but the way she described it made me feel like a hero.
"I'm really sorry!" she said in conclusion.
I was still completely lost. My head was still spinning and my heart was just about ready to jump out of my chest. I mean I just found out that the reason why my shoulder blade was cracked was because my older sister's best friend bit a chunk out of me…and swallowed it. Did she swallow it? I don't know, honestly I had a lot of questions. First one was..
"Did I taste good?"
"I'm sorry?"
Hadn't meant to say that out loud but it was too late to take it back so I just went with it. I asked again. "Did I taste good?"
A blinding gold light resonated from her retinas. "You actually tasted pretty sweet."
Sweet?
"Sweet?" I echoed
"Yeah, kinda like chocolate."
Never did I feel so …feminine. I expected her to say that I had a meaty taste or something more masculine. Like steak, or bacon. Heck it'd even take tasting like polony, nothing about chocolate says "man". A tear flowed freely down my eye as I sniffled the pain away.
"Of all the things why'd it have to be chocolate?"
"Its because you're a good person. At least that's what my uncle says."
"What do you mean?"
"He told me that the sweeter a person tastes the more love they have in their heart."
That sounds so cheesy I can actually smell it.
"So you think I taste like chocolate cause I'm a good person?"
"That's exactly right. And personally I have a preference for chocolate. I mean I've never actually eaten a piece of anyone else before so I was actually pretty surprised. I expected a gross taste but I was weirded out when I tasted chocolate."
"You're basically saying that I'm your first?"
"That's rig-…"
Her words caught on something before they could take off. Her body froze in place, her head started emitting steam as she stood. Her face went from pale-ish to pink, coming full circle in straight up red.
"When you say 'first' you mean 'first' as in the only person I've tasted and not the other thing right!?" she said with waving hands.
Her panicked face was adorable, but I had no idea what she was talking about.
"What other thing?"
"You know….." she whispered. "The thing lovers do?"
What, kissing?
"Are you talking about kissing?" I snickered.
Reiya's shoulders slumped in exasperation. Her eyes fixed an intense glare at me. I reflexively raised my hands in defensive position, "You wanna go!?" I shouted.
She slapped her hand against her forehead, a deep heavy sigh escaped her lips. "You act like such a grown up that I constantly forget that you're still only eleven."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing at all. We should go or your mom will get worried."
True. She would get worried if when she didn't know that I was completely safe wherever I was. I was fretful at the thought of disappointing my new friend, the unnamed peddler, but time spent away from home is time spent worrying those I left behind. As Reiya and I walked back to my house we exchanged ideas about what I should buy for Lucy.
The first thing that came to my mind was a new dress. I wasn't looking for anything too fancy for her but I wanted it to at least make her look cute. She was stepping into adulthood, and soon enough she'd have to start thinking about moving out. And marriage. I won't lie, the idea of my sister being hauled off to some dumdum I don't know didn't fill me with any sense of joy whatsoever.
Having said that, it was still a possibility I had to prepare for. Or at the very least it was a possibility that I was obligated to help her achieve. If she wants me to. We wrestled with such ideas, tossing possible presents back and forth as we did, eventually reaching the front gate of my house.
We found Lucy standing at the front door with her arms crossed over her chest. At that moment I was tempted to just outright ask her what she wanted for a present. I opened my mouth to speak but Reiya grabbed it shut before I could.
"What are you doing?" Lucy intoned.
"Preventing a natural disaster."
"A what?"
"Nothing, nevermind." Reiya said as she released me.
"That wasn't very nice you know." I spat.
An eye roll. That was Reiya's response. An actual eye roll. Here I thought that we were getting close. That we would take comfort in each other, sharing tears over the brutal betrayal that was enacted by our employer.
Maybe I'm the one making a big deal out of it.
My collar was suddenly tugged on by Lucy.
She forcefully dragged me back into the house without saying anything. Reiya followed close behind us and shut the door as she did. I was effectively trapped between Lucy and Reiya.
"What's going on here?" my voice squeaking.
"Sorry about this, Eddy. But its for your own good." Lucy pulled some white fabric from behind her. I didn't know where it came from or what it's purpose could've have been but I shuddered at the thought of letting it touch me.
"I promise you'll feel a lot better when we're done." Said Reiya, her eyes glowing.
I scrambled back from the two of them as they continued to advance in my direction. The fabric in Lucy's hands looked like bandages, if bandages were made of spider silk. It's glistening whiteness would've put me at ease if it wasn't for the fact that I was in a highly questionable situation. It reminded me of the time I got caught by Ginevra when I snuck into the royal palace.
I chose to fight back then. Now I wanted to try a different approach; letting myself get captured instead of fighting back. And no, that was not an excuse to not use my powers against my sister. I shut my eyes expecting everything.
"It's wet."
A wet sensation crawled it's way up my shoulder. The sensation made it's way up my neck and down my shoulder blade all the way to the side of my ribs. It felt like I was being rubbed with an ointment. I opened my eyes to check and sure enough I was being coated with a weird liquid-ish ointment on my shoulder.
"Don't worry. We're almost done." Reiya said.
Done with what?
Obviously they were trying to coat my injured shoulder with whatever ointment they were coating it with but the question is why?
"Why?"
"Reiya told me what she did," Lucy explained. "I'm sure it must've been painful, and needless to say it left a huge scar."
Wait, I have a scar?
"But don't worry," She continued. "This lotion will get rid of that scar and you'll look good as new. Hopefully it'll be the last time you get bitten though."
"Ugh, it was an accident! I apologized didn't I?" Reiya snapped.
"What good is an apology when you've already eaten a huge chunk of him!?"
"I didn't mean to!"
"Then stop drooling!" Lucy barked.
"I'm not!" retorted Reiya with a slightly drooling mouth.
As I watched Lucy and Reiya hurl insults at each other back and forth I felt a sense of repressed nostalgia wash over me. The past few days have been taxing to say the least. Things were already intense before Luck betrayed us. Premise aside it was nice to see the two of them argue like normal.
"Pfft." I snickered.
Soon I found myself breaking into a hysterical laugh. My laughing seemed to have caught the two of them by surprise. They stared at me with wide eyes then they stared at each other. Suddenly all three of use were laughing. While I laughed alongside them, I wondered.
About my life in the kingdom of Ester. For the past eleven years I've been going by the motions. I've never had a goal, except wooing Reiya, or a life plan for that matter. Luck's attack really brought things into perspective for me. It showed me that I know absolutely nothing for certain.
Over the span of five days I've gone from love-struck child to betrayed employee. I don't even have a job anymore.
What do I do now?
To answer that question I had to ask myself what do I want first.
I want...to buy my sister an expensive gift. I want to know why I was given the same power as someone who existed a long time ago. A legendary figure renowned even in the Saint Christian Church. I want to know who my real parents are, and why they abandoned me. Most importantly, I want to find Eren.
Even I admit that those were a lot of goals. I'd chase after those goals one by one, starting with buying a gift for Lucy. After that I'd decide what to do next though I already had an idea of what it would be. I'd travel halfway across the continent to find the man who wrote me the letter that turned my mind against itself. My ultimate goal was simple; finding Eren Darksoken.