Chapter 23 - Steeling

And so, time seemed to have passed by quickly as Rei lost herself in the devouring of human substances.

"This is some gourmet stuff if I've ever tasted any …" Rei was surprised at her lack of disgust as she ate like an animal, making a mess of Berto's corpse without any regards for keeping up an act of elegance.

The entire night had really been nothing short of a learning experience for Rei.

She found that although she was quite weak in a lot of ways, her teeth had no problem with crashing against skin and muscle, even managing to break bone if she tried hard enough.

Rei looked at a puddle, and illuminated by the moonlight's soft glow she found herself staring at her hands and her reflection from the blood.

"Oh …? Isn't that interesting." Rei said to herself as she brought her hands up to view, a strange phenomenon occurring as she did so.

The blood seemed to seep into her skin, absorbing it by itself like a towel would when it came into contact with liquid, though unlike a towel it seems like Rei couldn't really wring it out and that it had no altercations on her skin's appearance, which Rei found herself quite thankful for.

After all, as malicious as she was, Rei was still a young (?) girl, it would be troublesome if her appearance started unexpectedly changing for the worse.

"Oh …?" Rei found something interesting in Berto's pockets while looting it to see if she could have anything that she could have made use of.

Unfortunately, he was penniless, but Rei unexpectedly found something that could have been of more importance on his person.

It was a silver necklace adorned with a small well-sculpted key of the same material hanging around its base, quite odd considering the standing of the man she was currently chowing down on didn't at all seem to be particularly wealthy.

Did he steal it? Was it an inheritance? A gift perhaps? Well, to Rei it didn't really matter.

'I guess there would be no harm in keeping it.' Rei came to a decision, wearing it on her neck as a reminder of what transpired that night, not really minding the implications of such a thing.

From hereon, she would remember the experience, but forget Berto's existence and move on with her life.

"Well, time to go back then."

…

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…

Rei moved her feet, as now it really felt like she needed sleep.

After taking a different, and less direct route back to the Red Hilt headquarters, Rei stumbled upon something unexpected.

'A carriage …?' It was a carriage not really notable in appearance, but what was beside it were Red Hilt members unpacking and a blue-haired girl with a high-quality robe seeming to be cursing the heavens up above.

"Section Chief, please calm down, please see the bigger picture!" Dublin was trying to persuade a furious Elena from making up too much noise in the middle of the night.

"Holy Mother, I swear one day when the Captain croaks I'm going to absolutely murder that fucking slant-eyed Traveller scu–" Elena was straight up using Ylen's holy name to dedicate her intentions of vengeance against a person Rei wasn't really aware of, but stopped when Rei came into view.

Elena shooed Dublin away seeing as she had calmed down for the moment, enabling Rei to come over.

"Ah ah, look who it is, our beloved Section Assistant Intern has returned from her lovely walk in the middle of the night! Did you enjoy it, did you bring your new family anything back as a souvenir?"

"You haven't paid me yet, I have no money to get souvenirs even if I wanted to."

"Ah! How cruel! Our intern is quite cold … by the way what's all this then?" Elena said while making a pointing gesture throughout Rei's appearance, noting all the blood on her clothes.

'Ah …' Rei had only noticed just now, quite used to returning home with bloody clothes as she could have just thrown them to maids and then showered after.

She really had to fix her habits from the old world, Gaiya was quite new territory to a still-bewildered girl who hasn't been in it for a week.

"Ah don't worry, it isn't my blood." Rei skillfully brushed off Elena pointing out her unusual appearance.

'Ah? So I was correct then, you can fight.' Is what Elena's smug face seemed to be thinking.

"You also managed to grab something off of him I see … It must have been quite a bad night for the person who tried to mug you, do you want to file a report against him?" Elena asked as she noticed the shiny thing hanging around Rei's neck.

"No need, I already consider this to be ample compensation. It suits me doesn't it?"

"It really does suit you, yes … I didn't think you were the kind of girl to take an interest in jewellery though."

"It has occurred to me that I should accrue shiny things as much as I could since something tells me that my salary won't be covering my expenses." Rei took a slight jab at Elena, but she didn't mind it since that was obviously by design.

"So, what were you doing outside then? Surely don't tell me you went out just to stab someone right?" Elena said, a joking tone quite clear in her voice.

This made Rei flinch by a miniscule amount before realising it was a joke.

"I simply wanted to take a walk outside, explore some stuff you know?"

"Oh? Did you run into Johan then? He usually ventures to the nearest church at this time." Elena mentions Johan's surprisingly devotion to the Mother.

"I don't recall having seen him, no." And Rei was nothing short of thankful for it.

She couldn't take the chance that Johan was beyond murdering her in the darkness of night seeing as how it was all too easy to explain it as just another case of petty crime in Guella.

"Either way I'm going to rest for tonight, you better as well." Elena said to Rei.

"You seem to be unnaturally worried about my well-being, how did it come to this?"

"Well … it's just a hunch, but I feel like things are going to be picking up from now on." Elena said as a final footnote as she went inside the headquarters, leaving Rei outside to stare at her back as the carriage started to leave.

It was a good assumption. After all, no matter how hard Rei tried it seemed like trouble only followed her relentlessly,

Rest was a nice suggestion made from goodwill, but …

'There's no way I can do that, at least not yet …' Rei thought to herself.

There was still so much more to be done.

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After finishing her morning work and successfully refraining from joining other members at breakfast, Rei worked out gaps in the schedule that left the kitchen as open as it would be late at night.

"I only have thirty minutes at most, I better make it quick." Rei said as she brought out a dirty pot, opening its lid and releasing the pungent smell of salted meat into the air.

What was inside? Berto's remains of course!

Rei obviously lacked the vitality she possessed as she once did during the Maltha incident, and found it hard to fully finish one corpse during the lowest depths of her power.

But that didn't mean she was just going to bury the rest of the meat and forget about it, especially not after all the effort she put into acquiring it.

And besides, Rei had never been quite a big fan of food waste, and even moreso as she became full with the desires of Gluttony.

"This required quite the effort." Rei puffed as she brought the heavy clay pot along the counter.

The effort to cut up the pieces to make it look unrecognisable at first glance, hide the remains as she went back to go look for a clay pot, and then finish the remains that she couldn't bring along, and then lug the pieces that she could back to the headquarters all without noticing took about five hours in total.

Now what exactly did Rei bring along? Well to start with, the head obviously was plucked off the body and everything edible was consumed raw on the spot, if Rei had to make a note then it would be that the brain and eyes tasted almost like dessert to her.

'But I digress …'

The forearms and everything below the knees was also consumed on the spot, they were too recognisable along with the head and Rei wasn't about to make the rookie mistake of someone accidentally stumbling upon her food and then seeing what was obviously a human finger.

The skin likewise was peeled skillfully with the dexterity Rei possessed, but of course there would be waste here and there.

One example would be the reproductive organs, even with the hunger Rei couldn't really bring herself to just eat such a thing, so she fed it to the nearest dog instead.

'I'm sorry once again …' Rei prayed, hoping Berto would accept her heartfelt apology.

The rest she processed by cutting into pieces that would fit inside pots, separating the meats from the organs and making them mostly unrecognisable.

With this she at least hoped that if anyone actually managed to stumble into it, she could at least pass it off as some kind of exotic meat.

"Thankfully this modern design made rounds." Rei said as she pat her strongest ally ever encountered in this world.

The meat grinder, a tool that she could finally consider as something that made her life on this shitty world just a bit easier.

"Hmm hmm hmmm …" Rei calmly inserted in one of Berto's kidneys, a slice of his liver, and a bit of his thigh meat into the meat grinder, turning them into truly-unrecognisable meat.

Rei thereafter added in some local herbs she collected along the way hauling her boon last night, as well as sea salt for more taste.

'It's turning out very nicely, but it's still not up to par as the things I would have usually eaten.' Rei sighed as she wished to add saffron, cumin, or even just pepper into her mix, but alas although Travellers brought with them spices and the knowledge to cultivate them artificially, they were more so just a common sight up north instead of the desolate south, where they were still treated as luxury products.

The Red Hilt's kitchen had some spices, but Rei had the foresight to see that it was reserved for those with higher positions, and she didn't want to take the chance that Elena would put two and two together and discover that Rei gorged down on what little luxury was left in Red Hilt's inventory.

Rei then started a small fire fit for cooking and put an iron pan over it, waiting a few minutes before putting her hand just above the pan's surface and deeming it hot enough to put a tablespoon of lard on it which dissolved in seconds.

The bubbling made itself prevalent, which signalled that it was once more hot enough for Rei to put in the next substance.

"In you go …" Rei gently put in two out of six sausages, cowering in fear for a bit as hot lard splashed and popped, only rising as the condition of the food stabilised.

She then flipped them over after waiting some more, letting the other neglected side of the sausages cook more before adding in an egg to fry it just to synchronise when the cooking finishes.

"Those OurTube cooking tutorials really do come in handy." Rei thanked her past experiences and the great talent and intellectual capacity that her special eyes brought with her.

Eventually, the actual food had been cooked and Rei took care to scrape both the sausages and the eggs from the iron pan and onto a wooden plate.

And with that …

"Tada!" Rei raised her prize up as if she were declaring a new heir to a lion's kingdom.

"A meal fit for a queen!" Rei said, enthralled that she was finally going from eating like an animal to like an actual person now.

"Oh? A meal fit for who now?" Rei swallowed her saliva as a soft voice interrupted her thoughts, and a hand as equally soft crept upon her shoulder.

It was Elena.

Rei swallowed her saliva upon realising this.

"I was wondering where you ran off to, to think you were taking time off work to cook yourself a meal? I see why you didn't join the others for breakfast."

'How did she get behind me? Were my senses dulled? No …' Rei thought about it for a bit, eventually coming to the conclusion that she was simply too engrossed in making a meal that she didn't notice Elena walking up from behind her.

"Dublin would get upset if he found out, didn't you know?"

"I-I just prefer to make my own meals … a-and I was planning to go look for you later …" Rei's eyes darted off to her pot of remains next to the counter.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that it was closed, potentially saving her from a great crisis.

"I see … well before that, let's have a try of this then." Elena said as she grabbed a fork.

"That's not–!!" Rei was about to protest, but was unable to stop her unexpectedly swift flick of the hand as she put a piece of the dish she cooked into her mouth.

"..."

"..."

The sounds of a magician chewing only made itself present in the environment of silence.

Rei herself didn't have anything to say, if anything, she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

She was utterly stunlocked by the scene in front of her.

"Mmm … that's actually quite good? The pork tastes quite unique, I don't think I've ever tasted anything like it." Elena covered her mouth, not at all expecting the taste of Rei's Berto special.

Elena had just eaten human meat.

"This pork is very peculiar, it's quite sweet and very soft! What kind of spices did you add to it?" Elena described the taste quite vividly.

"What's the matter? Haha, you look like you've seen a ghost!" Elena pat Rei's shoulder while giving off her usual shiny look.

Rei on the other hand had a higher heart rate than when she was 'fighting' the source of the meat that Elena had just chowed down on.

"Ah … no, it was just that … um … I was thinking you wouldn't like it since I was trying something new … yes …?" Rei wasn't even sure about what she was saying.

"Well, I do admit … it's a lot more crude than what I'm used to usually eating back in the Reikland capital, but this pork tastes quite exotic! Where'd you even get the ingredients from …?" Elena shone as she was quite genuinely curious about how Rei's 'pork' was made as it is.

"I'm quite well-versed in herbology, and I've noticed quite a bit of ingredients perfectly edible that nobody uses but throws out, so I thought of making a new dish using the local ingredients considered useless." Rei said so, barely mustering up the confidence.

"Unexpected, quaint even … so what do you call this then?" Elena asked, lifting the dish up to eye level and observing it with one eye from all corners.

In Elena's eyes, it was quite smart as she assumed that what Rei said was true, which technically was because human meat was technically perfectly edible but is thrown away uselessly when the body dies.

Rei simply blurted out the logic behind the creation of chicken nuggets.

This question made Rei suddenly generate a bolt of energy as she realised she may have just created what counts as a new local specialty!

"I call it the 'Reiwurst'." Rei proudly proclaimed, puffing her chest out.

"By the way, you mentioned about wanting to talk with me?" Elena put aside Rei's food and leaned against the counter, expectant of what Rei was going to be bringing up.

'It's time!' Rei steeled herself.

"Please, teach me how to become stronger!"

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