The little girl looked up into Vain's eyes.
Her eyes were dark. Like the abyss pulling one in. Those tears that she had shed made her eyes into the night sky.
Vain saw those eyes and knew that if entities had such eyes before, they would run this level either way.
"Who are you? Why are you asking about a house?" The little girl's voice completely melted his heart. Vain felt that if he was to be a father in his old world, he most definitely would only be satisfied with her.
He also felt better not hearing the rough voice of a Skin Stealer. He finally lowered his bow and walked up to the girl, "Hello... My name is Vain..." stoping a meter away from the girl in case he scares her, Vain kneeled down and reached out his hand.
"Are you okay? I know you probably want your parents, but when you understand more about this place you will know why I can't help you much with that. That is if you decide to trust me enough."
Unfortunately, the new meeting was quickly cut short by the flickering of the lights to which Vain had gotten some instinct similar to Pops' group. Standing with his bowstring pulled Vain looked around to see a hound running in his direction at high speed. Vain's arrow flew and killed the entity since it runs straight and was directed at him.
A loud screech sounded but was cut short by its death.
Vain sighed in relief and looked back in the direction that the little girl should be. The girl was in the fetal position. Vain this time walked up to the little girl and put his arm around her.
"It's going to be alright. I'm here to protect you. You can lean on me now."
Coxing the girl, Vain got her to stop being in the fetal position, but now she was clinging to him using his shirt as a place to cry on. After 30 minutes the girl stopped crying when Vain's voice was now dry from trying to coax her.
The little girl looked up into Vain's eyes and spoke softly, "Thank you for your help. Can you explain more about what happened?" The little girl was also walking toward the hound's corpse.
Unsure of what the little girl wanted to do, Vain followed her and looked with curiosity. The little girl only looked around the corpse with suspicion in her eyes.
Unsure Vain could only begin to find out more about this child and explain to her what this place is all about
"Hey, can you tell me your name?"
At this point, the little girl appeared to be satisfied observing the body and turned back to face Vain. "My name is Athena." Athena looked at the corpse, "This is most definitely not human..." Staring for a second she turned back to Vain, "What is it?"
Vain was also satisfied that this child isn't a completely ignorant brat that would end with him dead if he met a Scratcher. "This creature is labeled as an entity, by the people here. This one, in particular, is called a Hound."
The little girl had a surprised face, "You will answer my questions?!"
Vain couldn't help but find the girl cute, "Athena, tell me now why wouldn't I tell you?"
Athena looked down and spoke softly, "My parents always said I knew too much for my own good. They said I should just be quiet and follow obediently."
Kneeling down and pinching the cute girl's cheek, Vain looked her in her eyes, "Well your parents were idiots who didn't understand the importance of knowledge. Now that you are here knowledge is the most important thing. Only with knowledge can one truly be safe."
Athena kept looking at Vain as if he was some god, "You are amazing! I feel like you are the best!"
Vain couldn't help but laugh, "You need to be smart now that you made it to this place."
The pair seemed to get along well after this official meeting. Athena suddenly became a talkative child asking all kinds of questions, to which Vain answered to the best of his ability. The questions were always something that Vain had never really thought about, like why not call the entities something completely different like the mugs just to differentiate them from other beings; Vain answered that people probably wanted to connect disgusting things like this with their past world that would have become a sacred ground compared to here.
Sharing his water with the girl lead to even more questions, about why is there Almond water, and what other types of liquids are available.
After having asked hundreds of questions, Athena was able to see how exhausted Vain was getting, to which Vain told the truth as he had before, "I only got 6 hours of sleep, but human adults need around 8, not only that I have been walking for about 10 hours without breaks."
The child spoke loudly, "Then sleep! I need all the answers that my parents wouldn't tell me!"
Vain couldn't help but feel a little hurt that she only considered him an information dispenser. With a sigh, Vain decided to finally check his phone to find out more about where he could sleep, to which Athena ended up asking ten questions in succession about his phone.
"What is that? Is that for gathering information? Can I use it? How does it work? Is it similar to those new computers? Will it even work here? How are you going to use it? Does it need electricity? I don't see any wires to connect to so how will you use it? How is it made?"
It was at that moment that Vain couldn't take it anymore. Sighing he spoke to her, "I understand you are curious because your parents didn't tell you anything, but you have to understand to have patience. I am not a robot that knows everything, nor can I work for hours on end and not get tired like them. I am tired so please give me some rest."
Athena also began to realize that her questions were disturbing Vain too much and she didn't want to lose this new man who could tell her most of what she wanted to know. Not only did he tell her what she wanted to know, but he also encouraged her to thrive for knowledge like she always wanted! "I'm sorry. It's just that I know that when I have to go back to my parents I won't be able to learn like I do now."
At this moment Vain realized that he was just answering her questions instead of telling her what is important. Vain realized that he would have to tell her that she wouldn't see her parents for the rest of her life. The people who are usually the most important people in a child's life will disappear forever.
"Umm... so Athena? Your parents... you probably won't be seeing them for a while..."
Athena suddenly screamed, "That's not true! I know that you are lying to me!"
"I'm not lying... In this place, you can't get back to your old world, at least for now. I know that most people if not all don't know how to exit it to go back home."
"That time you didn't lie to me."
"You shouldn't act like you always know if I'm lying or not."
"But I do know! I always know when people lie to me!"
"Alright, alright. How about I test you. My last name is Ivy. I turn 20 in two months. I never kissed a girl. So which are lies and which are truths?"
"Only the one about turning 20 was a lie."
"Okay, lucky guess. Once more, I went to college. I grew up in a country called the Philippines. I never used a bow before I came here. I wanted to be your father just based on your looks. I've never broken a bone. So now that there are so many which is true and which is false?"
"College is true. The country is false. The bow is false. The father is true, and last, the bone is true."
Vain suddenly began to question life. She got everything right. He even said the embarrassing fact that he wanted her as his child just based on his first meeting.
"Alright last time. The chance you will meet your parents is near zero and in my opinion, it is zero. This place you are in is called level one. This place you are is called the beginner level. When I heard your crying I Thought you were an entity and got ready to kill you. So what is true and what is false?"
"Everything is true."