Acclimatizing to a new environment (Part 1)

I could feel my body restoring itself slowly as I sat down on the floor of the dilapidated house.

It could heal faster than before, but I still vividly remembered when I had almost become mush, making me shudder for a few seconds as I understood the mortality of the human body.

This wasn't something that could be avoided, but I knew that as I devoured more and more, my body should evolve accordingly, just like it made my teeth sharper and changed the color of my eyes and hair.

The surroundings were eerily quiet as I was resting, the previous hustle and bustle from all of the training squire seemingly disappeared into the void as they were most likely avoiding me.

Their fear was evident from their actions, they most likely thought that I was going to attack them.

I sighed and shook my head, I felt deep inside that my body wasn't ready for any more devouring sessions, so I had to wait, even if I wanted to eat them, I couldn't, and I wasn't sure what type of reaction the Chuch would have if I ate some of their squires, for prisoners or enemies, it should be ok, but for allies, that was something that shouldn't be done.

That was a dangerous territory I didn't want to go into yet.

As I continued resting, time passed, and I finally heard the door of my new house open. A slight creak came from the door as moonlight poured into the house from two directions now, one from the broken roof, and one from the opened door.

A meek and petite form entered my house. She was trembling from head to toe as she held a bowl of what seemed to be fruits in her hands. She was making small steps towards my location in the darkness as she made an eep sound after she made a wrong step and created a small hole in the floor.

She hastily retrieved her leg before she turned her back to me, thinking that I was behind her after she lost her footing, I decided to pull a prank on her as I got up from the floor and touched her shoulder, making her scream in terror as she dropped to the floor with the bowl of fruits in her grasp. Her whole body was spasming and she was heavily crying as she said:

"Please don't eat me, please don't eat me!"

I shook my head and grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her up and saying:

"I won't eat you, relax."

The girl seemed to be around one year or so younger than me, fourteen at best.

She had a body full of muscles that could be seen through her training gear, a short bob hair-cut, blonde hair, and terrified green eyes that trembled like a cornered deer's.

I didn't have many interactions with the opposite sex, well besides when I killed them on raids with the bandits, so I wasn't sure what to tell her, in the future, she might be my ally on the battlefield, so it was good to create a good relationship, regardless of her fear or what she was thinking about me.

Seeing that I wasn't munching on her entrails yet made her relax a little bit, she bowed her head awkwardly as she put the bowl of fruits in front of her and said:

"I was sent by one of the nuns to give you dinner! Sorry for intruding!"

I shook my head and looked at the bowl of fruits, I didn't have dessert yet, and I didn't think there would be any trouble with eating fruits. After all, they wouldn't be as energy-charged as bodies were.

I took the bowl of fruits from her stabilizing hands before nodding at her and saying:

"Do you want to eat them together?"

The girl looked at the fruits and scratched the back of her head before a growl came from her stomach, and she blushed slightly in embarrassment.

"You skipped dinner?"

My question made her nod as she fully relaxed, seeing that I was easy to approach.

"Yeah, I have been training all day to become a paladin, just like Lord Aratas! He is so cool and strong!"

She had little stars in her eyes as she praised Aratas, making me wonder if he had a big fan club or not.

From what it seemed like, Aratas might be the top paladin of this Church.

I took a shiny green apple from the bowl of fruits and started to munch on it, the taste was quite sweet and I could say that I haven't eaten such a good apple in my whole life.

It must have had something magical in it, or something among those lines, to boost the growth of the squires and other trainees in this camp.

Seeing that I started eating, she meekly went to the bowl of fruits and took one for herself, seeing that I didn't say anything at all, she started to bite into the fruit ravenously, eating as if she was going to drop dead if she didn't finish the fruit quickly enough.

I finished my apple before I put the bowl of remaining fruits towards her and said:

"I'm not particularly hungry. You can have all of the remaining fruits."

The girl's eyes widened as she looked at my lean physique, I didn't gain any particular muscles from training with the bandits, even though they ran me into the ground, and I didn't become any muscular after eating all of those people either, so she most likely thought that I was quite weak at first glance.

She felt a little bit awkward accepting the fruits, but I insisted, and she ate all of them in the end.

She patted her stomach and smiled at me, I nodded at her and then said:

"Well if that's all, I still need to rest from my previous training as I'm not at full capacity yet. You can go."

The girl nodded before she seemingly remembered something and asked:

"What's your name? Mine is Shira."

I smiled at her, showing a bit of a toothy smile, which I guessed looked unnerving to her before I responded:

"My name is Minato. Nice to meet you, Shira."

Shira nodded, and then left. Leaving me alone in the dark house that was lighted only by the moonlight coming in through the broken roof...