Chapter 291 (1/2)

Vivian’s rather direct request to visit the ruins caught Zeon Lucas by surprise. “My Lady, you are interested in the matter as well?”

“You mean the Day of Return?” Vivian raised her eyebrows. “No, not a lick of interest in that. I’m more interested in the ruins itself. I’m from that age after all. I’m a little curious about what you have managed to dig out from that old fool’s grave. Maybe I’ll see something nostalgic.”

Vivian was quite reliable when it came to handling serious business. Of course, she could not disclose the true intentions behind her interest in the ruins, but she could come up with plenty of valid reasons for Zeon Lucas to allow her access. The latter did not seem to have much objection.

“Most certainly, My Lady. You are an elder of the Blood Clan after all. The eldest among all who have lived since the time of yore until now, no one is more qualified than you to go into the ruins. In fact, we have also invited the elders from the Mythological Era like the true heiress of the Peloponnese, Hesperides and the great protector, Grandalr. However, they declined. I hope you understand that this is not a breach of etiqutte on our part.”

“Oh… Hesperides, that old witch is just waiting for you guys to clear the path before going in herself. And Grandalr… that old tree is only interested in feeding the birds nesting on his branch.” Vivian shrugged as she pointed towards Hao Ren and the rest. “What I want to say is, this group here will be following me in, but they are not Blood Clan members.”

As expected, Zeon’s expression changed the moment he heard Vivian’s request. The eagerness on his face turned into a stiff awkwardness.

“These are your friends?” Zeon looked at the group of people beside Vivian curiously. His eyes were glued on the tallest of them all, Wang Daquan a.k.a Y’zaks Goodman. “May I know what race these fine people here are?”

“What they are is not important. It’s here and there anyway.” Vivian smiled as she threw a glance at Lily, giving the latter a fright before continuing, “I’m asking if you have any objections to that. These are people I trust and they have no interest in power or the treasures there. They are like me, just in it for the fun and games.”

Zeon’s face immediately turned grim as he sat upright. “My Lady, I mean no disrespect, but the discovery of the ruins is a very important event and all rights to it belongs to the finder, meaning the Blood Clan. Even if we aren’t talking about rights of ownership, this is a very delicate time and we need to ensure that this remains a total secret before we uncover most of the valuables in the ruins. We simply cannot risk a leak and have the demon hunters on our—”

“Are you saying that my friends are of ill repute? Even Hesperides is not that presumptuous.” Vivian frowned.

Hao Ren was rather curious at the tone that Zeon had taken. His unwillingness to cooperate was rather odd to say the least. It was true that vampires were a snobbish lot, but they now had Vivian as a guarantor and his reluctance was based on rather flimsy grounds. It was not until his next sentence that Hao Ren understood his intent. “My Lady… it’s not that I suspect your intuition… but this…. is mostly due to the way you do things. It’s just very… obvious. I simply cannot allow any other person into the ruins at such a time.”

Hao Ren sighed. Vivian was an oddball vampire who made friends with everyone, aside from the demon hunters. Apparently, this trait of hers was rather well-known.

“This is a demon.” Vivian pointed awkwardly at the members of her troupe. “That’s a siren, this is a landlord… This is a husky…. The thing on the table is a fish… Say, when did Lil Pea get out?”

Hao Ren coughed drily. “She’s been out for quite a while. But she seems to be rather afraid of strangers so, she hid herself in my cuff.”

Lil Pea was frightened by the amount of strangers as she poked her head out to look around. She raised her short hands to say hi before scampering back to Hao Ren. This time around, she did not hide in the cuffs but she climbed all the way up to Hao Ren’s neck and clung onto it, probably asking for a hug. All the vampires were dumbfounded by the presence of this unknown and unheard of little creature. Nonetheless, as most of them were seasoned unusual creatures, they could still surpress their curiosity. It’s just that, when Hessiana tried to play with Lil Pea’s tail, her hand was slapped away by Vivian.

Zeon took a while to recover from the whole ruckus before he realised that Vivian was literally giving nothing away. “I can tell that’s a fish, but what do you mean by landlord and what’s a husky?”

It was the first and probably only time Lily was grateful to be a husky. At least when she was surrounded by a group of vampires, she could ruefully claim that she was another kind of creature, but alas she could not keep her identity hidden as Vivian told the truth after some thought. “Mr. Landlord is a human sorcerer. Husky is a werewolf.”

Zeon and the vampires behind him were shocked by the revelation. One of the vampires even broke protocol as he pointed towards Vivian. “Surely you jest, My Lady?!”