The Record of Unusual Creature

Vivian gently massaged her temples with her fingers and spoke nothing for a long time. Hasse was curious as he kept looking at Hao Ren then at Vivian. “Can anyone explain to me what happened?”

“It’s about Vivian’s memory and her disorientation,” Hao Ren said. He was unsure if he should tell Hasse, so he just gave a cursory response. “She sometimes would become disoriented and have no impression of what happened.”

Vivian suddenly looked up at Hao Ren. “Where’s my manuscript?”

The dimensional pocket had become a conveninet storage where they usually put their important but rarely used stuff in Hao Ren’s custody. The ancient manuscript that contained more than 10,000 years of Vivian’s past was in the dimensional pocket. Hao Ren took out a piece of white cloth written with symbols from the dimensional pocket and unfolded it on a nearby flat rock. Vivian immediately came up and examined it carefully.

The rest of them also stopped what they were doing and came up to take a gander.

“…the early Middle East of Olympus period…Europe after the Olympus period…Egypt in 1426…it coincides in terms of time and place, and each and every battle,” Vivian’s finger moved quickly across the symbols and drawings, the time and place of which matched with Hasse’s statement. “Things that happened every time before I hibernated…”

Lily looked at Vivian worriedly. “Are you at it again, Battie?” she asked.

“No, I just try to figure out what I was doing in the past,” Vivian suddenly raised her head and turned to Hao Ren. “Is it all … hallucination? Or is it something else controlling my mind?”

The most unexplainable part of Vivian’s hibernating cycle was her ‘combat record.’ According to the manuscript, every time before the hibernation, she would bitterly fight a group of distorted otherworldling creatures. Though Vivian had no memory of this, the manuscript records appeared exceptionally realistic. Hao Ren had always thought that this was only a problem of her memory, but the situation was making a surprising turn.

If Hasse was right, then Vivian could have actually fought with the demon hunters and otherworldling, and rats too.

Now thing only got confusing.

Hao Ren scratched his chin and asked, “No one could tell what happened to her back then. Hasse, since you were a witness, did your notice anything unusual about Vivian when she went amok?”

Hasse’s face still deadpan. If not for his stiff muscles, his face would have looked sardonic by now. “Unusual? Who would still study her expression when she burned the entire with her Lightning Strike? I only know that whenever young people questioned whether the Countess of the Crimson Moon was worthy of its name, the elders would always use these historical materials to teach them. Of course, the rats were not included.”

Hao Ren and Vivian looked at Hasse with a solemn face. Hasse’s brows knit together in deep thought. Only after a long while, he nodded and said, “Of course, anyone who have dealt with the Countess would definitely feel something was wrong. She is a peace-loving, gentle and hardly in conflict with anyone though she was moody occassionally. So when she went berserk, people found it unbelievable. We thought that someone might have rubbed her the wrong way. After all, no one is perfect, person do get angry about things sometimes. But now it looks like the truth is still out there.”

“Of course the truth is still out there!” Hao Ren sighed, shaking his head. “Do you think any higher Blood Clan in their right mind will fight with a bunch of rats—and lost it?”

Vivian looked at Hasse’s eyes. “I’m sorry, looks like I’m really responsible for the lost of your eye. I’ll help you cure it if given a chance in the future—if you’re willing to accept help from an otherworldling.”

Even Teuton who was taciturn, and White Flame who had been trying hard to stay in the background were stunned, let alone Hasse. Incredulously, Hasse said, “You… apologize to me?”

“Why are you so surprised? I’m even more surprised by your big-heartedness,” Hao Ren said weirdly pointing at Hasse’s only eye. “You look as if you couldn’t care less even the enemy who has blinded you is in right front of you.”

Hasse shrugged and said nothing; no one knew what was in his mind. These long-lived creatures had a very different worldview. Their views on hatred and memory were bewildering normal people. So, Hao Ren always found it hard to strike up a conversation with them on similar topics.

The conversation ended. Hasse left with the other two demon hunters. Vivian rubbed her forehead and asked, “Mr. Landlord, do you know what I was doing?”

Hao Ren pulled his brows together. “You obviously lost your judgement before the hibernation, and it was serious. You would see normal people and animals as monsters. Every fight mentioned in the manuscript is true. God knows how many people you have offended…”

Lily raised her hand, reminding. “The rats too!”

Burying her face in her hands, Vivian said, “Don’t mention the rat again! At least, I won every other fight!”

Hao Ren waved his hand and said, “Okay, okay, let’s not mention the rats. Now I know how you got your prominence. I had thought it was based on seniority.”

Vivian pasted a smile. “I too have never thought about that before. I thought that they feared me was because I was the most senior of them all. How could I have known that it was because had beaten them in the past? I feel so bad now.”

Y’zaks had probably understood the circumstances of the events. He sulkily asked, “Honestly, has anyone pointed this out to you in the past? Don’t you have friends?”

“I do, but we’re not really close, much less with others,” Vivian shook her head. “More importantly, convenient alliances and frequent break-ups have been a norm during the perennial war among the otherwordlings. No one would make a fuss out of that—even if it is most ancient ones. Of course, it’s possible that someone might have mentioned this to me, but I’ve forgot…”

Hao Ren smacked himself on the forehead as he felt that the last phrase was probably true.

He tucked away the manuscript, looked at the sunset, and sighed. “Let’s go home. We can’t do anything without more fresh leads. We have enough headaches to deal with now.”

Their next destination was the Plane of Dreams. Their target was to locate Io, the planet of the sirens. However, before that they got fully prepared. Considering that a brain monster had come to this world through the space crack, Hao Ren suspected that more such monsters had already gathered on Io. Perhaps the brain monsters had assembled an army near the space crack waiting for their compatriot on this side to open the door to invade the surface world. He must respond in advance.

If there was really an army on the other side, the maelstrom was not the only thing that they needed to blow up; they might even need a higher level of armed support to deal with the situation.

After returning home, Hao Ren immediately submitted a report of the Nasaton incident to Raven 12345 before he checked the munitions of the Petrachelys. At the same time, he also sent the MDT to New Aerym to restock his conventional arsenal.

With three more sirens, the already crowded living space in his house became packed to the gills. After letting the three sirens spend a night in Nangong Wuyue’s room, they set off to Andrea Castle the next morning.

But Hao Ren would not let Dumb Cat follow him this time.

“Big Boss Cat, do you really want to leave me at home?” The cat maiden squatted in front of the MDT and looked at Hao Ren with a sad face and drooped tail and ears. “I was very obedient, wasn’t I?”

Indeed, the cat-maiden had been a good during the Nasaton’s mission. She was obedient and brave enough to fight. She did not went up to savor the mermaids though Hao Ren had been worried about this initially. But this time he was not going to take this cat to Io anyway—the reason was simple: compared to Nasaton, which was only a city where the situation was more controllable, Io was a far more dangerous place.

The cat was not be able to cope with the situation.

Dumb Cat would stay back with Lil Pea. Y’lisabet would stay behind too as she was tasked with keeping an eye on the cat and the fish. Despite of being only a child, the little demon had stood in as a commander during the absence of Y’zaks previously. Sometimes, she was more dependable than other adults were.

“You stay at home and take care of Lil Pea,” Nangong Wuyue said, bending down and patted Rollie on the head. “If you listen to Y’lisabet, we will take you out more often.”

Hao Ren also stepped forward and petted the cat. “Have you not learned how to make Bibimbap? This time, learn how to wash the dishes and clean the table from Y’lisabet. When I come back, I’m going to ask Y’lisabet how well you have done. If you do well, I’ll let you eat grilled fish for a week.”

The demon girl immediately patted her chest and pledged, “Don’t worry, Uncle Ren, you can trust me! Remember to bring me some machine parts from Io!”

The cat-maiden looked at Hao Ren and knew that her master was very firm this time. She had no choice but nodded her head in frustration before turning to the Nangong Wuyue. “Then can you turn into a fish and let me lick? When I am finished, I’ll be a good girl and stay home,” she said, making her last request.

Wuyue was struck dumb.

Hao Ren turned his face way and said, “Just let her lick.”

Wuyue looked up at the sky and lamented, “What kind of family is this?”