Chapter 15: Relationship

Sara looked at the chest and picked up a small straw doll from within and ran towards Rueben, who was spreading oil unto a beast that he had just killed. He took out his matches and burned the corpse before turning to Sara, who held up a straw doll to his face. He looked at the doll as she threw the doll with the burning corpse of the beast and patted both of her palms together before running towards another chest that she had found.

He looked at the straw doll that was quickly burning and turned his head to look at her, who took out 2 straw dolls this time and threw it towards the fire. She had a scowling expression on her face as she went to another chest.

Of course, she found not one, not two but three straw dolls inside the chest.

She pouted in rage and directly tossed the dolls into the fire before going to his back and held his hand.

She was noticeably angry for some reason and he was tempted to ask why but he held back, lest she goes into a fit of rage because of it.

Sara had noticed his confusion earlier and opened her mouth to explain, "I heard that straw dolls were used as curses. I didn't like it when I held it so I threw it away, then I found two, then three. I am very angry right now."

He looked at her and let out a soft chuckle before patting her head affectionately and walked away with Sara holding his hand like a child. Though she looked like a young teen right now so the scene just looked like a 30 year old haggard looking man was suspiciously guiding an innocent young teen into a back alley….

Sara still pouted and held his hand tighter as she felt him lessen his grip.

She was angry after all. She wanted to be comforted by the man she trusted the most but instead, he laughed at her then patted her head as if she was a child.

She wanted to punch him in the face but she knew that she was way too weak for that so she just gave up and followed him.

At first, Rueben didn't want to her to hold his hand when they explored the seemingly unending hallways of the cellar, he eventually relented after she relentlessly did it quite a lot of times during their travels.

The size of the cellar had also made Rueben wonder what in the world was going on because this cellar was underneath Arkvem, the only place where humans are protected from all the madness outside, and couldn't help but think of this place as some another world or something because it was unusually wide for a cellar.

He had mapped out the entire time he was walking in his mind and knew that he had walked atleast a few tens of kilometers already, making him feel like he was going insane. He had tried to find the other dolls that were Sara's friend but after finding the doll named Jamaica, he didn't find anyone else.

As far as he knew, there were 6 dolls inside this cellar and each doll contains memories of the past. He doesn't know how that could happen but he really didn't try to understand it.

After all, this world has countless mysteries to it and this was probably one of the many.

He should just leave this to professionals or something, maybe they would gain more insight about this matter than him.

Of course, his top priority was finding an exit to this cellar, second was investigating and learning the mysteries of this place and third on his list was training Sara.

Rueben rubbed his forehead and let out a groan to which Sara worriedly asked, "Are you okay?"

Rueben looked at her and nodded his head.

"Nothing, just a little frustrated about our situation."

Sara looked at him in the eyes, she was just a head shorter than him so she really need to look up in order to look at him straight in the eyes, it didn't help that Rueben mostly wouldn't look down as he was busy scanning his surroundings so she really had to look up in order to see his eyes.

"Don't be. Im sure we can find the others soon if we really look clearly. They must be hiding somewhere we didn't expect them to hide."

Rueben looked at her before letting out a small smile and said, "Thank you."

Sara was happy that she cheered Rueben up and was quite proud of her achievements. Rueben just let her enjoy her small proud moment because he knew that building self confidence and self esteem was quite essential if one wants to be a proper functioning Hunter.

Without those qualities, she would only die prematurely before reaching her true potential.

Rueben suddenly flinched and grabbed Sara, hugged her into his arms and started running. Sara was surprised and looked at his back and saw a beast that looked like a pig, here eyes widened in shock.

The beast they occasionally meet had features of dogs, cats, rats, birds, and other small animals but this was the first time they had seen a pig like beast, more surprisingly, its size was too large! It almost occupied the whole hallway yet it still managed to rush at them with fast speed.

It was probably due to the hundreds of horse like legs it had.

Sara grabbed Eve from Rueben's back and aimed it at its legs just like what Rueben had thought her. She aimed her fire and shoot!

The beast screeched and tumbled but it got back up after a moment and started chasing after them.

Rueben had already hidden inside a room with Sara hugging him tightly, the two looked out of the door cautiously and swiftly went back in after they saw the beast past by them. They saw through the crack of the door that the beast was looking around in confusion, trying to find the two of them.

Rueben had planned on reducing the number of enemies that he encountered or fight due to the limited number of bullets he had left.

He had limited resources left.

He could fight with his Caneswordwhipumbrella but Sara wouldn't let him, the moment he takes his cane out, she would suddenly rush out of his grasp and use her body to fight. Though he was an experienced Hunter, Sara was undetectable.

Her presence was like air to him, she even managed to walk straight into a den of beast, get something from it only to throw it away. This made him realize her talent, her presence was so thin that most beast, except those who had already saw her, wouldn't be able to detect her or even smell her.

She was a talented Hunter with great potential to kill many Beasts or Monsters, though, this was probably why her body was innately weak. After all, something so god sent like this must have some defects to it to maintain the sense of balance.

Rueben softly placed Sara down but didn't let her go from his arms as he wasn't sure that it was safe while Sara just enjoyed the unintended hug while also looking out of the door, trying to help Rueben just a little.

The two were crouching inside the room in silence with darkness all over, not knowing that something was watching them from the shadows of the abyss.