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?!"
Vivian could only sigh. "It's the truth. She is a reliable person."
"This has nothing to do with reliability!" Zeon swung his hand in defiance. "How can we let these mongrels defile our property! The ruins were discovered by us! There's no part for these mongrels in this!"
Lily's temper flared as she heard what Zeon said. Her ears sprang up with a loud pop and she slammed the table with both hands, screaming, "So what if I'm a werewolf? We werewolves are much more honourable than you! Much braver than you! Much more united than you! We even have bigger tails! Heck, you lot don't even have tails! You guys were just lucky enough to stumble upon the ruins! Who ever told you it was yours? And with things as they are, you are still so stubborn?! Even Hessiana's group is much more reasonable than yours!"
Hao Ren really admired Lily's straightforwardness and guts, but he could not understand what the big deal was in having a big tail...
Shaken by Lily's sudden outburst, some of the vampires started taking defensive postures. One of them who lacked control even bared his fangs. Seeing the situation as it was, Lily bravely stood behind Hao Ren as she pushed the latter forward. "Wanna fight?! Come on! We'll take on all comers! Mano a mano! Just get in line! I'm not afraid of any of you! Right, Mr. Landlord? Right, Big Guy? Right, Vivian? Right, Lil Pea..."
Wuyue, who was being ranked behind Lil Pea in terms of combat ability, was rather unhappy about it. But she wisely kept quiet: She just did not fight.
Vivian found that if she continued to keep quiet, the whole meeting would go down the drain, so she stood up. "Quiet, all of you! You too, Lily! Sit! You are probably the first werewolf I've seen who's so daring in the company of vampires. You're brave, I'll give you that. Zeon, let me ask you something, does my word count for nothing?"
The head of the Lucas Family was clearly stubborn on the matter, so much so that even Hao Ren could not understand his thought process. "This is a matter of principle. Living in the same city with werewolves is already reaching my limits, but I cannot allow them to touch the ruins. You don't understand the situation there, My Lady. Please don't take it that I'm being blindly stubborn. The ruins are simply too special to allow anyone else access to it. It contains the Primordial Powers unknown even in the Age of Mythology. It may very well be the Old Kingdom promised in the prophecy... That said, I cannot allow or accept a werewolf butting her head into this. Lady Vivian, your way of doing things is just too unique. It is not my place to scold an elder, but I hope you understand that these actions will not be accepted by anyone!"
"Allow me to interrupt." Hao Ren had been quiet the entire time and by then, he could not keep his doubts to himself anymore. "Does race even matter in times like this? The demon hunters are close to wiping all unusual creatures from the surface of the planet and you are still at each other's throats? That's foolish."
Y'zaks had a sh*t-eating grin on his face. "If nothing else works, I'll give him a pep talk on the topic of world peace..."
Cold sweat immediately formed across Hao Ren's forehead as he quickly killed Y'zaks plan at its infancy. They were there as guests, not to commit a massacre.
Upon Hao Ren's mentioning of the demon hunters and their current situation, Zeon's expression seemed to soften a little, but he still shook his head. "You speak truly and that is why I accepted a small group of werewolves in the city. However, that doesn't mean that I need to sacrifice the needs of my people for them."
Vivian faked a cough to draw everyone's attention. "Ahem, let me remind you Zeon, that the ruins are not yours, they were never the Blood Clan's property."
Both Zeon and Hessiana were stunned.
"This is the Peloponnese, home of Zeus and the Olympians. Besides, the entrace to the ruins was found in the Parthenon. While the rift may not be tethered to it's original location, it would not diverge far from its origins. I'm quite sure that it's probably one of the Olympian temple complexes, am I right?"
Zeon had a rather perplexed look. "...You are right. But, we aren't sure exactly which temple it is. The destruction in the ruins is very bad."
"So... that means you have taken over someone else's home, changed the locks, made a new pair of keys and called yourself the master of the house?" Vivian stared at Zeon intently. "And while you are pillaging said house, you self-righteously declare those who enter the house thieves? Heh, my, my. Where's your honour, boy?