Chapter 665: Name?

Elion was deeply unsettled.

Few things these days filled him with as much dread as he felt at that moment, and his initial suspicion that she was a monster, or at least something wearing human skin, appeared to have been wrong.

Her status, for all intents and purposes, stated that she was completely human.

But what could have led her to feast on a half-decayed human corpse? He couldn’t reconcile what his appraisal told him with the sight before his eyes.

Realising that Elion wasn’t taking the arm she had offered, the little girl tilted her head, looking up at him with a troubled expression. "Is it too little for you?" she asked, glancing between him and the limb in her hands.

After a moment, she seemed to reach a very difficult decision. With almost tearful eyes, she turned back toward the corpse and pulled off its other arm with the same chilling disregard, then stood and presented both to him.

"Here!" she said, her voice trembling as she squeezed her eyes shut, seemingly unable to bear the thought of parting with such a large portion of her meal.

Elion’s heart trembled.

’Haha.... What a kind girl!’

He didn’t know whether to feel troubled, afraid, or disgusted, and the earnest generosity on her face only made the whole thing more disturbing. This was far too unhinged, even for him.

’What do I do?’ Thoughts and possibilities ran through his mind, but none gave him a clear answer about how to handle the situation. In the end, he managed a strained smile and gently waved a hand.

"Um, thank you for offering, but you seem rather reluctant to part with that, so you can keep it."

She looked relieved that he had turned her down, though a trace of hesitation remained.

It was almost as though the thought of letting him go hungry simply because she was being greedy troubled her.

’A king soul indeed.’

"Are you sure?" she asked, still holding the arms toward him. Elion nodded, and her expression brightened into a happy smile before she returned to her meal.

He turned toward the others, finding that most had already averted their eyes, unable to keep watching. Maya and the rest seemed to have recovered their wits as well, though their faces remained considerably pale.

Elion signalled for them to follow, and they gathered behind the fallen pillar, putting its enormous bulk between themselves and the child. Unfortunately, it did little to muffle the sounds of her eating, which continued through the silence as they exchanged uneasy looks.

"Do you think..." Maya began, hesitating before she could finish. "Do you think that’s a monster?"

Elion frowned, taking a long moment to answer.

For once, he found himself doubting his ability to appraise another living being, despite having relied on it so many times before. If she truly was human, then what could possibly be going on here?

He slowly shook his head. "As far as I can see, she’s fully human."

The others seemed to grow even paler at his answer. Cole glanced toward the edge of the pillar, though he made no attempt to look around it again.

"What a harrowing sight," he muttered, and Elion couldn’t have agreed more.

"What should we do?" Mayumi asked, looking terribly shaken as she hugged her shoulders. "No matter how I look at it, this is wrong. No person should have to live like that, eating another human being’s flesh, dead or not, and especially a child."

Elion nodded, finding himself in complete agreement.

The little girl didn’t even seem to realise that what she was doing was wrong, and perhaps that was even more frightening than the act of cannibalism itself.

"How about we find out whether anyone else is here first?" he suggested. "I find it hard to believe she’s living in this place alone."

The others nodded, and it was then that Elion realised the sounds of chewing had stopped.

’Is she done?’ he wondered, walking back around the pillar to see what she was doing.

However, the little girl was no longer there. The remains of the corpse still lay on the ground, but the space where she had been kneeling was empty.

’Where did she...’

His head suddenly snapped to the side as he sensed a vast presence nearby. There she was, standing right behind the others, though he hadn’t noticed her until that very moment.

His companions looked surprised by his reaction, but when they followed his gaze, they fell silent. They all instinctively stepped closer to Elion, putting more distance between themselves and the little girl.

’When did she even get there?’ he wondered, staring at her.

With his perception, noticing her movements should have been easy, but his senses were sharpest when detecting a presence filled with malice.

She held not even a hint of it, and she had moved so quietly and unexpectedly that he hadn’t noticed her until he went to check behind the pillar.

The little girl simply watched them in silence, a curious smile on her face as her gaze moved from one person to another. She didn’t seem to understand why they were looking at her like that.

Elion let out a quiet sigh and approached, the others making way for him. Doing his best to look past her bloodied, almost ghoul-like appearance, he stopped and crouched before her, forcing a gentle smile onto his face.

"My name is Elion," he said. "What’s yours?"

"My name?" she asked curiously, tilting her head to one side, her dark hair spilling over her shoulder like a flowing river. "Mmm... I don’t remember."

Her answer caught Elion by surprise, drawing a frown from him. Forgetting one’s own name was unusual, no matter how young she was.

"No matter," he said, flicking his fingers as he drew the blood away from her face before pulling every last drop from her stained dress. The little girl watched with wide eyes, letting out a delighted sound as the fabric became clean again.

"Ohhh..." She seemed pleasantly surprised, and although the blood hadn’t appeared to bother her, she clearly preferred being clean. "I made a bit of a mess while eating," she added with a cute laugh, making Elion’s mouth twitch again.