The thicket of trees ended in a horizontal line and opened up to a small clearing with tiny, little grasses. Just a few steps in front of it ran a wide river separating the forest.
"The speed here is faster than outside the gates," Eleanor observed as she moved closer to the edge and peered down from there.
This was the very same river that ran between the two massive defensive gates near the Demon Extermination Corp building: The Heiros. However, there was a noticeable difference between the two. The river here flowed faster and more fiercely than between the gates. And maybe because the river here was undisturbed by human interventions, it looked more majestic despite being the same river. The water looked cleaner as well. Eleanor could see her own reflection in the water surface below.
She stood up and turned towards Vanitas.
"Hmm? What are you doing, Vanitas?"
He was standing there, with his eyes closed and without moving a muscle. Eleanor wondered if he was thinking about something deep and she had now disturbed him. 'Maybe I shouldn't have called out to him?'.She started regretting though that did nothing now as Vanitas had already opened his eyes.
"Oh, nothing." He said with a smile.
"You said this river makes a full circle before converging outside the dungeon in the now ruined country of Belfast, right?"
"Y-Yes." Eleanor was a bit taken aback by the sudden mention of Belfast but she somehow managed to hide it from Vanitas. Maybe the fact that he was preoccupied with something else helped her in this case.
"Can we move along the edge of this river a bit?"
"Sure, but why?"
"I have something to check in here. If you don't mind that is. Otherwise, I can first take you back and have you return with everyone else and then come back here by myself." That was also an option and Vanitas was okay with it.
"No, it's alright. We are in a party right now so there is no way I can leave you behind."
Eleanor knew just how strong he was. But even then, there was always a possibility that something could happen that might cause him to make a mistake or something bad might happen to him that could sap away his strength, leaving him in an unconscious state like when they met for the first time in the forest. If something were to happen, Eleanor wouldn't be able to take it well and she will likely live with regret for her whole life. That was something she never wanted to experience, again.
"So you are fine with coming along with me?"
"Yes."
Receiving her confirmation, Vanitas set out walking along the edge of the river while Eleanor followed closely behind.
They walked with the river bank on their right and the line of trees that ran parallel with the river as if someone had cut and lined the trees to be so on the left, while the fast-moving river water motivated them to move faster and faster ahead.
"Oh."
After walking for almost an hour, they reached a large and open space up ahead. The straight line of the trees disappeared and formed a semi-circle that had a small hut in between it and the river.
"It's a hut?" Eleanor murmured in disbelief. "Why is there a hut in such a place?"
The forest was a dangerous place to even roam around too much. The dangers lurked everywhere. To think that someone would even think of building a hut and living in here much less do so was something that felt idiotic to Eleanor. At night, when they were asleep, the monsters could attack them and kill them before they could even realize what was going on. It would have been different if multiple people lived here but looking at the size of the hut, Eleanor ruled that possibility out. The hut was small and looked as if it were designed for the use of a single person. If there were even two people, the hut would look cramped.
While Eleanor noted all these in her brain, Vanitas approached the hut with familiar steps.
He opened the wooden door that had numerous horizontal pores to peek inside and walked in.
Judging by the exterior, Eleanor had thought that the small hut was made using woods from the forest but she soon found out that that was not all. As she went in following Vanitas, she noticed that there were stones and soil used in the construction as well, especially the walls.
She scanned the room. There was a small trench and some ashes were scattered around it with pieces of small dry wood. There was a thick large cloth spread on the ground and some rods and pots. There was a small pitcher full of water near the cloth.
'This place looks like it was in use. Not to mention, it probably hasn't been too many days since whoever the inhabitant was, left. Maybe a week or two?'
As Eleanor surmised that, she looked at Vanitas who was standing in front of a wall near the riverside.
'A week or two?' She repeated those words inside her brain and started sorting things out. They had found Vanitas about ten to fifteen days before in this forest. Both Eleanor and Dominique had no idea who he was or where he came from. Even after they got back to the headquarters and Vanitas met so many people, no one seemed to know him, despite him being a demon contractee.
The question that had not crossed her mind at all for so long finally formed in her head.
'Just who is he? Where had he come from?'
However, before that, she had to confirm her earlier suspicion of whether he was the previous resident of this hut.
She took a few steps forward to ask her question but stopped when she saw Vanitas take out a quill and a single sheet of white paper from his pocket.
He then looked at the wall and started scribbling down something on the paper.
Eleanor sided up to him and looked at the wall.
On the wall, there were many scribblings and inscriptions that vaguely looked like alphabets, words, and symbols but what they were and what they meant, she didn't know.
"Do you understand what these symbols mean?" She posed that question to Vanitas hoping for an answer. Looking at how he was writing those down with ease, she figured he must understand the meaning behind those symbols.
"Do you understand them, Eleanor?" However, Vanitas responded with a question of his own.
"No. That's why I am asking you. I have never seen anything even close to them before." She hadn't seen nor she had even heard of such symbols. Not here. And not in her home country.
"I see. I don't understand them as well." Vanitas lied.
Eleanor dubiously asked back. "They why can write them down on the paper with ease?"
If he couldn't understand, then how could he write them down? Eleanor started thinking he was lying.
"There is no need for me to understand something to be able to write it down. Or rather than writing, what I am doing is copying the symbols and their structures to the best of my abilities."
Eleanor looked at how he was writing them down and noticed the stiff and uneven flow of his handwriting. What he was doing was drawing lines and symbols at random and aligning them so as to make them look alike. If he was someone familiar with the symbols on the wall, he would be able to write the whole letter or symbol in one single flow. What she saw gave credence to his words. Thus, she decided to ask her next question.
Vanitas, on the other hand, was relieved that he had managed to somehow lie his way out.
He had spent more than a week in the Demon Corps headquarters now and came across many writings on the display board on the first floor and the various documents in the General's room. However, he had not come across even a single instance where the runic language was used or even mentioned. He had started thinking that maybe the runic language that was carved on his body was not used here and people didn't know much about it.
He did want to ask about the runic language to the General who seemed quite knowledgeable but he feared that if he were to ask him about something unknown here he will start questioning where and how he had learned it. That could lead to all sorts of difficulties and he wasn't sure whether he could lie undetected to the General. And this wasn't limited only to the General but also to others that he talked with on a daily basis. He wanted to avoid arousing suspicion about his identity as much as possible.
That was why when Eleanor first asked him if he understood the runic symbols he decided to first check whether she knew about it or not before opening his mouth and landing him in a difficult position. He found that she didn't understand it thus in order to avoid her suspicions, he lied that he also didn't know the language and managed to somehow escape the possible predicament.
Vanitas finished scribbling down all the letters on the sheet of paper that he had brought with him.
He folded the paper neatly and put it back into his pocket.
That was when Eleanor asked him.
"Het, Vanitas, you lived in this hut before, didn't you?"