Chapter 43: 1762
He looked around, in confusion. He swore that he would die from that being's hands yet why is he still alive?
What was going on?
He wondered if what he just witnessed was a dream, he couldn't really see any injuries on his body and everything was so blurry and weird feeling that it just made him uncomfortable.
Like, as if, everything around him was something much more lesser than him.
Arrogance? I think not, i threw that away along with pride.
He thought to himself and got out if the room.
"H-Hey! What the hell, come back inside you bastard, atleast apologise for punching me."
The woman said and grabbed him by his wrist once more.
To which Rueben looked at her in disgust, remembering the disgusting act she had done a few moments ago and clenched his fists once again to punch her.
The woman saw that and immediately let go and pushed her arms up.
"Okay! Don't punch me, please."
The two stared at each other for awhile.
Before Rueben raised his arm, took the best position to punch someone, and prepared.
To which the woman immediately ducked and tackled him, then got her face kicked by his knees.
Rueben looked at the woman squirming on the ground in pain, holding her cheeks, before he turned around, intending to leave this place.
He dashed out into the darkness, much to the woman's surprise.
A few moments later, he came back to where he was from before. Then he looked at the house, then to the woman, still naked, before staring into the darkness.
"...I see."
His eyes narrowed into a squint, then he ran towards the darkness again.
A few moments later, he came back to the front of the house once again, this time, the woman went inside her home and took out undergarments to protect her female genitalia.
Just in her underwear, she looked at Rueben glaring at the distance and sighed.
"You can't leave this place. The darkness just makes it impossible to leave, anything that goes to the darkness would only arrive at somewhere there is light, which is here."
The woman then pointed to the torch with her hand and said, "That torch was something i found a few years back. No matter what you do, it won't go off, even if you submerge it into water. The wood does not burn down either, atleast that's what i think because it still looked the same as i found it."
Then she turned her head to look at Rueben, intending to say a few more words and convince him to just give up like her when she saw him walking towards the torch.
He took it on his hand and stared into the darkness. He put one foot down and started walking.
The woman was flabbergasted for a while, before she ran after him.
"You bastard!! Give that back! I won't be able to return to my house if you take it with you!!"
She took the torch out of Rueben's hand, much to his surprise and ran towards her house. Then she looked at him, still in her underwear, and glared.
"Get the fuck off! Damn, you woke up and chose violence, how could you punch and kick a woman? Didn't your mother teach you etiquette??"
Rueben glared at her and said with no emotion.
"She didn't, i killed her before she could do so."
"..."
"..."
The two stared at each other for a while before the woman suddenly dashed to her house, rumbling noises sounded out from the house before the woman came running down with a dagger in her hand and a torch in the other.
Then she glared at Rueben, looking as if he was some murderer in her eyes.
"I was excited when i found you in my doorstep, after all, i finally saw another human being after being in solitude for years. To think the one i saved is a bastard who kills his own parents."
Rueben looked at her, then to the dagger before suddenly rushing in.
The woman swiftly placed the torch down and span around to gain momentum for her attack, after all, she was physically weaker than Rueben.
Rueben softly dived to the ground and rolled, much to her surprise, and grabbed the torch before he stuck it closer to the house.
The two knew what Rueben wanted to do, forcing the woman to click her tongue and back off three steps.
"Put down the dagger."
The woman looked at him, then she looked at the torch and gritted her teeth. She threw the dagger to the ground.
"Kick it off."
The woman looked at him, frowning.
Rueben's eyes narrowed and threatened, he moved the torch closer to the house.
"Kick. It. Off."
The woman clicked her tongue and softly kicked the dagger towards him.
Rueben looked at her, then softly put down the torch, sticking it into the sandy ground below.
Then he grabbed the dagger, still eyeing the woman, when all of the sudden, the woman suddenly took a handful of sand in her hand and threw it towards him.
Rueben swiftly dodged the pieces of sand, but some of the sand still got inti his eyes, forcing him to close them.
The woman then tackled him before punching him in the chin, to which Rueben responded with a head butt in the head.
The two scuffled and rolled around for a while before the woman was pushed down on the sandy beach with both of her arms behind her back.
Rueben sat down whilst pressing the edge of the dagger around her neck.
Grinding her teeth, she turned her head and scowled, "Who the fuck are you!? Damn, i shouldn't have saved you, fuck, i should just left you along to die! Fucking bastard! Die, fucker!"
To which Rueben responded with a jab on her cheek.
"Tell me who you are."
He looked at her coldly, staring straight into her eyes.
The woman looked at him, before saying, "Greyart-"
Smack.
Rueben punched her in the head.
"Tsk! Royol-"
Smack.
Another punch in the head.
"Ow!? What the fuck!? Im trying to tell you my name, okay? Stop hitting me!!!"
Smack.
"Stop!!"
Smack.
"Hey! Motherfuck-"
Smack.
"Hey!!!"
Smack.
"Stop!"
Smack.
"Okay, okay! I'll tell the truth, my name is Doraemo-"
Smack.
"Muza-"
Smack.
"Okay!!"
Smack.
"Stop!"
Jab.
"S-Stop."
Jab.
"Please..."
Slap.
"Sob, okay, okay!"
The woman gritted her teeth in humiliation as she felt her head sting from the pain of getting punched, smacked, and slapped.
After all, for a woman, no matter how much life punches her in the face, if the humiliation was too much for her to bear, of course she would cry.
Sobbing softly, she then answered, "Im Gwynne Grey, a Hunter from the Hummingbird Division!"
Rueben looked at her, then stabbed her hand.
"Oww!!!! What the fuuuuckk!??? Wuwuewuu, my hannddddd...."
Gwynne sobbed, she glared at Rueben, "Why did you stab me!? I told the truth!"
Rueben looked at her with disdain in his eyes and said, "Try practicing lying more, the Hummingbird Division was disbanded 20 years ago and all of their members, except for those who were already dead, was executed in the Main Plaza."
Then it was Gywnne's turn to be shocked.
"What!? What did they do? How did the Division disbanded???"
Rueben thought for a while, before he answered, "Well, they planned a coup to overthrow the "Crown", but before they could execute their plan, the Army arrested all of them and had all members and their families and friends executed along with them."
Gywnne looked at him, then shivering, she asked, "You... you must be lying... Yes, that must be. You liar! I only left for 2 years!"
Rueben rolled his eyes and said, "I don't care, i only told you the truth and its not my problem if you don't trust me."
Tears started falling from her already swollen eyes, "There is no way... Arthur, Gerald... Emi, Arya.... Yeah, no way they are dead... No way... They promised me.... Sob.."
Rueben looked at her, then raised his arm up with the knife.
Gwynne was still sobbing as she mumbled names.
Rueben stared at her for a moment, before he looked at his hands, his blood red eyes glowed.
Then tears suddenly fell from his eyes.
'Huh?'
Surprised by this, he swiftly wiped it away before stabbing the knife into the sandy beach.
'Am i... Crying? Why?'
After he wiped his tears away, he looked down and saw that Gwynne was silently sobbing with her eyes closed, she looked defenseless and pitiful.
It was as if something came and trampled on her last hope, her only hope which gave her the strength to survive and live.
Rueben looked at her tears falling down from her eyes before looking at the knife stabbed through the sandy beach, then to his hands.
'I... Did i try to kill her?'
Then he stood up and let go of Gwynne.
Gwynne felt him get off her but she stayed still and silently sobbed.
Looking at her, he felt a sudden guilt and disgust towards himself.
'Why did i try to kill her?'
He asked himself, it was strange.
After all, he is Human, a human won't be able to take the lives of another human unless they themselves have already turned into monsters under human skin.
And Rueben firmly believe that he is not a monster, rather, he was a human. A certified human.
But was he truly human? With his actions previously, all of those were not something that a human could do.
Only people who lost their humanity would do such a thing, he was still human, right?
Right?
Rueben turned his head and saw a person, no, himself standing beside him, fully clothed.
The "Rueben" looked at the endless darkness infront of it, then turned its head towards him and softly sighed.
"Do you still believe that you are Human?"
"Rueben" shook its head and sighed in disappointment. It then turned its head once more to look at Gwynne lying on the sandy beach.
"You tried to kill a soul who had done nothing to you, you told her a painful truth that made her lose her only reason to still fight, you ate Beasts when you were hungry, drank blood when you were thirsty. You rip apart Beasts with cold blood as if those former humans doesn't matter to you anymore."
Rueben clenched his fists and his eyes shook.
"Rueben" then looked back towards him.
"And you still have the face to call yourself as a Human? Hehe. How hypocritical of you, you slave of blood."
"Shut up."
Rueben threw a punch towards "Rueben" but found that it passed through as if he was punching air.
"Rueben" smiled, spoke, while pointing at him, "Remember this, you monster. YOU ARE NOT HUMAN ANYMORE, YOU DISGUSTING MURDERER."
"SHUT UP!!" He screamed, his red eyes glowing in anger.
Then he found that "Rueben" had disappeared.
Rueben looked at where that thing was before he fell to his knees and grabbed his hair, then he stared scratching his neck.
"Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human
Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human. Im human
Im human....
Im human........
Im human?
Human?
Human?
Am i human?
What does it mean to be a human?
What is a human?
.....
.....
...
"
Rueben looked at the darkness as Gwynne got up and grabbed the knife.
Then she walked until she was behind Rueben and raised her arm holding the knife.
Rueben only looked at the darkness while he was starting to doubt himself, his life, and his existence as a Human.
Gwynne looked at him, then her arm swiftly went down.
.....
...
....
...
Gwynne looked at Rueben, then opened her mouth, "Yeah, like i thought. I was wondering why you were mumbling like crazy, it was because of the darkness."
Rueben looked at her, then to the knife that only stabbed the sandy beach.
"...What are you doing?"
Gwynne looked at him, and wiped her tears off her face and said, "The darkness does not only prevent you from leaving, it would also mess with your head and force you to answer the doubts that are hiding deep inside of your subconsciousness."
"But its weird that it took this long for you to mess your own mind up." She said, then she grabbed the knife and kneeled down to his eye level.
Then she grabbed his hands before placing the knife.
She looked straight into his eyes, which Rueben found her eyes to be dimmed and shadowed, as if she had lost all reason to live.
After giving him the knife, she stood up and grabbed the torch before urging him to follow after her.
Rueben looked at her, then to the knife, then to the darkness. He slowly looked at his hands before closing them.
"What am i thinking. I need to save Sara, yeah, it doesn't if i become a Beast or not. All i need is to save her. Monster, human and whatnot, none of that matters."
Suddenly finding a new resolve, Rueben stood up and followed after her.
Gwynne saw Rueben beside her and asked, "So you told me that Hummingbird Division was disbanded 20 years ago. What do you mean by that?"
Rueben thought for a while before saying, "Literally that."
Gwynne shook her head and said, "No, i mean the 20 years ago part. What do you mean by that? What year is it?"
Rueben looked at her, before his eyes narrowed, "What do you mean what year is it? Its 1782 of the Almer Calendar."
Then Gwynne screamed, "WHAT!?"
She then grabbed his shoulder and asked in a hurry, "Are you telling me the truth!?"
Rueben nodded his head.
To which she responded by yelling, "No way! You're kidding me, aren't you!?"
He softly shook his head. "Why, is it really that surprising?"
Gwynne nodded her head like some kind of chicken and said, "Because i came inside this place in the year of 1762. 20 years before!"
"..."