As she stood there she seemed to of gained a sudden huge burst of courage. She stood tall and firm facing me; the sword in her hands was thrust out as far as her arms could push it.
The sword itself wobbled like she doesn't have much control over it. In fact she probably didn't as the sword was around three feet long; She was only four feet ten inches, the sword would be fairly large in comparison to her.
Shadows still covered the top half of her face, yet I could still tell the solemn face she had on. The boy behind her hid and held onto her sleeve. His head poked out from behind to look at me.
"Just leave us be! I don't want to hurt you!"
I tried softening my voice to be as least threatening as possible "Look, maybe we could help each other out; You know the layout of this place right?
We could protect you in exchange for your knowledge. Those people are still out there after all and you don't seem like you'd be able to make it out of here alone."
While speaking I raised my foot slowly to continue climbing the stairs towards them.
"How am I even supposed to trust you! For all I know you could have been one of them that just changed clothes! Besides how do you know we won't make it huh? We haven't even tried it yet!"
"How do you want me to prove that I'm not with them?"
"Umm..." At the thought of my question
"B-Big Sister Hu why don't we trust him? He doesn't act like they do; Let's give him a chance."
"...D-Do you have food?"
I reached the top step and it seems like I could convince them with food, at least temporarily.
"Yes! We have food, do you want some? If you follow me back to-"
"NO, we won't go with you! Do you have any food right NOW?"
The out burst caught me off guard making me take a step back down.
"Ah! One moment!" I reached into my robes to search for the food I brought with me.
I searched for a few moments before I finally found something, I took out a small paper package of lap yuk (Cured Meat) and another that was a small package of tea leaves. I laid them down on the top step while searching for the last item I should of brought with me.
'Wait, is this all I brought with me? Shit, that's right I don't enough room in this robe to fit much food. I was planning to be self sustained in the forest hunting some animals. God damn it! Why didn't I ask for one of those spatial rings Li Lian had?
She had enough to fit rings on both hands! Damn it, how could I forget that! That's so important, I could of had things no one would of known hidden away in the ring. *Sigh* It's too late to do anything now.'
I pulled my arm out of my robes with nothing in hand and just pretended like I never reached back in. I picked up the package of meat and extended it out to them.
"Here, it's some lap yak... Actually it's all I have, but you too must have been starving right? How long have you two been in there anyway?" Looking at their figures I tried to see if I could guess their answer before they said it.
Their bodies were mostly hidden from the robes they wore, but the girl who held the sword had her hands, wrists, and some of her forearm exposed. They looked healthy or at least she wasn't in a dire situation.
"Slide it over here! What's in the other package?"
"It's tea leaves, I don't have any water with me right now so I won't able to make any for you." I answered as I slid the package of meat over to them.
I stood at the top step looking over at them as they picked up the package. They were only two meters away from me. The distance was negligible and I could easily make it over there in under a second if I wanted.
"Stay right there! Don't you dare move!" She bent down to pick up the package all the while turning to look at me every second or so, probably making sure I didn't move. As she opened the package the dried brownish-red meat was made visible by the low light.
She passed it back to the little boy behind her before turning back at me.
"Ok mister it's dangerous to be out in the open here. They could come at any time, so we'll talk in here." She pointed to the room she came out of.
"Does that mean you trust me?"
"Only a little, isn't right little Kong?"
"I trust him, he even gave us food! He's a nice man."
"Kong! You have to be careful around strangers and he has a weapon too!"
I moved closer to them as they spoke to one another.
"Wait, what about my companions? I have around six others with me searching around the library. We should probably ask for their opinion as well."
"Um.. we're going to eat this meat you gave us first. You can come in with us, if you want."
"...Ok... I guess.. sure."
They climbed back into the room and as I was climbing in as well I heard a voice from behind. The little boy went in first holding the meat I gave to them in his hand..
"H-Hey! W-Wait for me too!"
'Huh?'
"Who's that!? Do you know that person?" The little girl in front of me looked back at me, she hadn't made it inside yet.
I turned around only to see the person I was looking for a minute ago appear in front of me, Yao Ya. She basically disappeared earlier and now she's back all of a sudden.
"Yao Ya? Where were you? I was looking for you earlier, how did you find me first?" I was slightly baffled by her appearance here.
"I heard you talking over here, so I found you of course!"
"What? But I was yelling your name before and you didn't notice then!"
"Agh! Uh.. that's because you.. were moving the entire time so I couldn't pinpoint your location."
"How could you not notice I wasn't behind you anymore?"
"I was just focused on searching the place, anyway let's head in. Go on in first, We'll be right behind you."
The little girl stared at Yao Ya for a few moments before heading in.
"Yao Ya, I.."
"Yes?" As I looked over at her, the simile that had been there numerous times before couldn't be seen. Although the light didn't reach her face, I was close enough to see her expressions. On that face though shadowy I could see she was expressionless, as she look at me.
'It's happening. She's lost all affection for me! *Sigh* So is this the face those people usually see, at least I know where the that nickname came from. And here I am experiencing it first hand. Maybe I could rebuild it or gain it all back somehow.'
"Would you like to go in with me?" I extended my had out towards her. I had to start trying else it might become irrecoverable.
"Okay." She raised her own hand and accepted my offer.
'Okay, okay, step one is complete... Uh.. what's step two?'
I didn't notice, but her lips curved up into a smile for a few seconds before returning to the face from earlier.
She went in first then I went in after her. The room inside was the size of a small bedroom. The room had two benches opposite each other and a table between them, but one of the benches already had a young man lying down. The two children took out the meat I gave them and tried waking the young man up.
"Mister Jin wake up we have food! If you eat you'll be able to move again right?" The kids shook the man until his eye lids slowly opened.
He blinked a few times and looked over at Yao Ya and me before looking back to the kids. After a moment he used his elbow to prop himself up and stared at us with wide eyes.
"W-Who are you? Are you with them? No, wait neither of you are wearing their robes and... you're a woman!"
"I'm sorry, mister Jin! That man found me soon after I opened the door. I managed to get a weapon though." The little girl said presenting the sword from outside to him.
"Don't worry this is a good thing, they could help us get out of here. Those people are made up of only men, they don't even accept women- Ugh! Wssss.. Ow, ow." His face paled and he grasped at his chest, only then did I notice the bandage wrapped around him.
"Oh? You're hurt?" Yao Ya walked up to him separating our hands along the way. She held up a hand to his chest and I saw as reddish-orange colored glow appeared around her hand.
"Better?"
"Y-Yes thank you."
"I'd like to ask a question, if you don't mind."
"Go on miss, ask anything you want."
"How did you manage to hide away from them in this room, is there anything special about it?"
"Ah! Well this room is special! It's made of some kind of material so that Qi Sense won't be able to detect anything in here, but it's also the other way around, so we can't sense anything outside. I'm just a janitorial disciple, but I somehow managed to find this place while cleaning."
"๐๐ฉ! ๐๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐บ ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ. ๐'๐ฎ ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ."
"Yao Ya, did you say something?"
"Hmm? I don't know you're talking about."
"Weren't you mumbling something?"
"Oh it was only a trivial matter, don't worry about it."