Chapter 478 (1/2)

Hao Ren looked at the large portrait in front of him in a daze. A simple and heavy wooden frame, the edge was decorated with exquisite patterns and a gold pin. It was in a luxurious style, typical of the era of nobilities. From the decoration, anyone could see how special this portrait was to the Andrea Family. On the portrait was an elegant, young lady in a long, black dress. She stood in the midst of roses and the background had a kind of unexplainable gloomy vibe. There was a slight smile on the lady’s face—it was Vivian’s countenance.

Hao Ren heard Vivian’s voice, turned around in astonishment, and asked, “Is this really you?!”

Vivian looked at the portrait, and some fragments of memory finally reorganized themselves in her mind. “…Well, yes, I did have this outfit. I saved up two months for a French tailor. I did live here.”

Then she frowned, looked around and said, “But, it didn’t look this way back then…”

Becky looked at Vivian in horror and asked, “You-You’re the Andrea Family witch?”

“That’s not the way they used to call me,” Vivian said as she frowned, trying to recall her past. She shook her hand and said, “Wait a minute, I need to recall my memories. That period of time has been the mistiest part of my memory, and… the changes here have been too great. Hold on…”

Vivian summoned a group of small bats to create a seat and sat there with her eyes closed. She was lost in her thoughts. White Flame looked at this scene with great surprise. She never thought of looking for a portrait of the witch when she got there. As a demon hunter, she was only interested in her prey, and clearly, she was not interested in the witch, who had been away for hundreds of years. But now, she was just as curious about the matter as everybody else.

Hao Ren pinched his face to confirm that the whole thing was not an illusion. Then, he subtly looked at Vivian: This prehistoric being could really bring to light a bunch of shocking dark history anytime, anywhere. If she had suddenly stood up and announced that the Code of Hammurabi was actually written by her, it would not have been surprising as well…

Lily held up her Flamejoy in front of Vivian’s 300-year-old portrait. Comparing it with to the present Vivian, she muttered, “You used to be so graceful… How did you end up beocming someone who like to haggle over prices?

Before Lily continued any further, Vivian suddenly stood up and said, “I remember now!”

Lily was startled by the sudden move and accidentally thrust her Flamejoy into the antique portrait. It was at least 300 years old and this gave Hao Ren a terrible shock. “This is a 300-year-old antique!”

Lily’s tail suddenly stood on end. “My paws have already ruined stuff that’s worth at least five million dollars…”

Vivian ignored the two of them and quickly talked about the things she managed to recall. “Yes, I did know a human named Andrea… He, and another guy, we did business together!”

“Business?” When Hao Ren heard this word and associated it to Vivian’s bad fortune, he suddenly got it and asked, “You harmed the Romans as well as the Egyptians, and you still wanted to harm the Russians?”

“During that period, I felt like I had a lot of advantages.” Vivian put her hands on her hips and said, “I was in Kama… or the vicinity of Kamsk… I don’t know what the name of the place is right now. Anyway, I knew the two men there. They were small businessmen, unable to make big money, but they made enough to put food on the table. However, they were actually more like my servants: At that time, the village where they lived was being attacked by werewolves, and I helped them. But when I was fighting with the werewolves, they saw everything. They thought I was a witch. Fearing that I would kill them, they surrendered themselves to me without waiting for my explanation… That was the way back then; people were so superstitious, and those in the lower class societies were more accustomed to being submissive. So, I started to think about it. I didn’t have good luck with fortune, but if I collaborated with two humans, and let them make money for me, wouldn’t that be good? Hence, I decided to tryit out. They used their fortune, while I used my knowledge and magic. The three of us collaborated in a wool business…”

Hao Ren raised his eyebrow. “Then?”

“And then, they lost everything,” Vivian said, lowering her head and rubbing her hands. “Not only did they lose all the capital, they even encountered some trouble and caused the Czar to be exiled to Siberia to dig potatoes. A few days later, he was framed by some people and exiled again to the coldest place in the North to die…”

Everybody was at a lost for words.

Lily then muttered, “Luckily the two of them went bankrupt early, otherwise tsarist Russia could have been destroyed 300 years ago.”