Chapter 334 Lucia's Self-Proclaimed Ability
Lucia saw that she had successfully distracted Aleshia from her gloom and continued. "Well, I am a magical witch hat," she exclaimed. "I can do magic, and I am a witch hat. I can also eat, but I haven't really had the opportunity or reason to want to eat. Plus, if I did eat regularly, you would probably run out of rations in just a few days if you tried to feed me with what you have now."
"Wait, hold on, how would you even be able to eat? You don't have a mouth," Aleshia asked as she looked up at Lucia. She continued her line of questioning, "If you don't need to eat, how are you able to move around and think? Or is it that you don't need something to fuel you?"
"Well, no," Lucia replied. "I suspect I need some form of energy, as there are times when I sleep and feel fatigued, just like most living things. I can get energy from something other than food, but that doesn't mean I can't eat," Lucia explained.
Aleshia nodded slowly. "Alright, I understand the energy part, but how does your being able to eat food explain how you do it?" she asked. But before Lucia could respond, Aleshia speculated, "Do you absorb food when it touches your body? Or do you have tiny mouths or many teeth like a lamprey or leech hidden inside you?"
As she continued to make guesses, a realization dawned on her. Horrified by the thought, she cautiously asked, "Is that where your teeth are?" She began to move Lucia off her head, worried that something like that could actually be true.
Lucia found Aleshia's theories to be wild and somewhat appalling, but she understood that it was all in good fun. Still, she decided to humor Aleshia's theories. "Well, I suppose I have teeth like a leech somewhere, but it is not in the place you are thinking," Lucia said mysteriously.
Aleshia's hands grew shakier upon hearing Lucia admit to it, and she asked a hesitant question, "A-are you like a parasite?" Her hands moved quicker, as if she were handling a dangerous bird that had made its nest on her head.
Lucia felt like she had indulged Aleshia's delusions for long enough, and now it was time to break them. "I'm just kidding! I'm not anything like that. What are you even thinking?" she blurted out with a chuckle.
Relief washed over Aleshia, like a gentle waterfall, as she realized Lucia was only joking. Her unsteady hands dropped back down to her sides. "So, how would you eat anyway? And please, no jokes about this."
"Very well, do you not remember when my front transformed into a maw? The reason you and others haven't seen it is that, just like how you close your mouth, I am simply closing mine, making the maw disappear from your sight," Lucia explained.