A thick scent awoke Elizabeth from her sleep. She couldn't tell what it was specifically but appeared to be something cooked. It honestly wasn't unpleasant. Of all the ways she could be woken up this certainly would fall on the positive end of the spectrum. Though if the smell lingered for more than a day, she certainly would reconsider that position.

"Wait a minute, we don't even have any fresh meat."

Her just woken-up brain left her susceptible to thoughts she wouldn't normally have and it led to a ridiculous thought. She soon voiced what she had on her mind.

"Wait a minute, I've heard people talk about how burning flesh smells similar to meat being cooked. What the hell's going on out there?"

She soon jumped out of her bed and quickly followed the smell while checking the doors as she went along.

About halfway down the stairs, her brain started to shake off the sleepiness and she held her face in her hands at how stupid that thought was. She quickly looked around and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming no one could have been watching her.

"I suppose since I've already gotten up I might as well check the smell."

What could be producing this? She would bet all she owned that Vanessa hadn't woken up yet and Merill wasn't the type to cook. That left one option but she immediately wrote him off.

"If he could, he would only eat hard-tack for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Would meat even be an option for him? He would probably complain about how he'd have to cook it and trade it for more of those bricks disguised as biscuits."

Well, whatever the case she'd figure it out when she reached the source. Eventually, she made it to the kitchen and it was quite the sight. The place was littered with small bones. On closer inspection, it appeared they were all rabbit bones.

That wasn't all, there were also a few pots and pans scattered about that looked like they had been recently used. One seemed to have some charred bits on it and to her amazement one pot was completely filled with an oil of some kind. There was something crispy on a plate next to it. She first sniffed and decided to take a bite after not noticing the scent of charcoal.

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"It's rabbit meat."

The identity of what was in the pot also became apparent to her as well. It was rabbit tallow.

"But this doesn't make any sense, how many rabbits would you have to render to get this much?"

She looked around and found what looked to be a lot of leftover food. The things that stood out were a breaded ball that by its texture seemed to have been fried in the tallow and a few bowls of stew with rabbit and possibly hard-tack as the main ingredients with one half eaten.

Moreover, she had a big question. Where was the culprit behind this? She noticed the door in the kitchen that led outside was slightly cracked open. She soon approached and found something she didn't expect.

It was Tibaut but his eyes were bloodshot and his stomach was bulging out more than usual. He looked like he was looking in mortal combat with drowsiness as the number of times he'd close his eyes while slowly drooping his head only to jerk his back up with his eyes open as wide as he could manage was staggering. But that was nothing compared to the contraption in front of him.

He somehow had built a rack out of sticks that was about 5 layers with each stick holding tens of skinned rabbits. Below it was a massive flame producing a thick column of smoke the boy was monitoring. Soon he took them off and threw them to a pile.

To her amazement, the pile of smoked rabbit almost reached his knee in height but when she turned to see the amount still raw she knew she had to get involved.

"Wha-what is all this?"

Tibaut just blankly stared at her as he continued his self-imposed trial. There wasn't a single hint of life in his eyes. He truly had become nothing but a tool that smoked rabbit.

Soon after seeing Elizabeth, Tibaut fell to the floor and passed out. He avoided the fire so at least he had that going for him.

Elizabeth saw this and put her palm to her forehead.

"Is this what he does when he's by himself?"

She then looked down at her (previously broken) hand and wondered about something.

"I wonder if they've gotten rid of his body yet?"

----------------------------------------

As usual, the building was empty and a thick layer of dust had built up on the furniture. The notice board was empty as ever and there were only three present. Unsurprisingly two of them were Ezekiel and Mr. Bentley. The third however was new. He was a man in a lab coat with a thick pair of glasses on. This was contrasted by his bright green hair and a burn that covered half his face.

"Ha ha, hahaha hahaha."

"Uh, you good?"

The man paced around the room clapping his hands together and laughing before he responded.

"Good? I'm feeling amazing, what the hell is that? Where do you pick it up? Did you find this for the adventurers' encyclopedia, cause you over-delivered. I don't know what the hell this is but I guarantee it'll make waves."

"I'm surprised you didn't think it was a demon."

The man pushed up his glasses.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what kind of man do you take me for? What idiot would think this a demon."

The reason why was so obvious he didn't even feel the need to state it.