Book Five: Chapter 37

“Thou shalt eat thy dead?” He looked away from the little man on the ground. “Would hate to see the other nine commandments.”

“It’s not really for us to judge,” Yuki said as she summoned a blanket of snow to cover the body. “To them, the act of eating their own is no different than you brushing your teeth after meals.”

“That serves an actual purpose, though,” he objected.

“And you think this doesn’t? At a bare minimum, their bodies become food for others. You only find it detestable because you were raised with the idea that you don’t eat grandma when she dies.”

“Maybe that started because grandma is too chewy,” he said. “Not a lot of great meat on an elderly woman.”

Yuki snorted. “Maybe humans don’t eat grandma for the same reason that Nirumbi eat each other—as a sign of respect.”

Mike nodded. Though cannibalism didn’t make complete sense to him, his own lifestyle could be seen as immoral and confusing to others.

They continued onward for a