Chapter 292: The Mystery Behind the Antagonism of the Unusual Creatures
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was very rare for Vivian to resort to such a sardonic tone. Even when she had her scuffles with Lily, her voice rarely carried such venom. Her few words earlier were zeroed in on Zeon's pretty face and the latter was so nonplussed that he stood there, stunned for a good while. He never thought Vivian would argue with him from that particular perspective.
It was almost as if he never imagined that Vivian, being a part of the Blood Clan would take the perspective of an outsider and chastise him for something he thought was for the immense benefit of his kind. This was almost unthinkable to most normal vampires.
Leaving the question of ownership of a thousand-year-old ruin aside, the fact is, a normal vampire would not have even questioned Zeon's actions (while his claims were indeed dubious). Vivian was however, not your run-off-the-mill vampire. She had a very unique view when it came to matters of race. While she may at times think like a usual vampire, like hating werewolves for instance, most of the time she took the side of the outsider and discarded her identity as a vampire to determine if a course of action was right or just. She had a very unique "detached view" as a vampire, but how this point of view even occurred to her, the lady herself did not seem to know.
But her point of view had certainly put the Lucas Family in an awkward position. Even Hessiana looked at Vivian with tears almost welling up in her eyes. "Lady Vivian... It... sounds like you're scolding me as well... I have the other half of the key..."
"That's the reason I asked you why you even got involved in this? It's better to just leave unknown energies alone. Who knows if that energy is radioactive." Vivian took a glance at Hessiana, her eyes were much more gentle now. It seemed like she had recovered from that "detached view" of hers. "I admit I was rather harsh earlier, but facts are facts. The ruins does not belong to any of you. They belong to the Olympians. Of course, you can say that the sorry lot has been destroyed, so that's that, but let me remind you, Hesperides is still on the Peloponnese. She has her reasons to not bother with the ruins. That is not something you can simply ignore."
Vivian recomposed herself and a faint sadness appeared across her face. "Let me also remind all of you about another thing... To all of you young ones (she emphasised the "young ones" very heavily), the destroyed Olympian Family is a distant past, but to me, I can still hear their laughter and I even remember the time I was here in their gardens as a guest. The meaning of the ruins will differ between you and me. However, I hope that you understand this—I don't wish to see the relics of my old friends used as tools and stepping stones for your selfish endeavours."
Zeon demurred for a moment before he asked, "My Lady... If I may... what does Zeus look like?"
Vivian's expression changed almost immediately from nostalgic to stunned. She stammered for a while before she said, "The faces and voices of those hadst hath passed art still hither; how can one allow thee to claim this house as thou own? I will enter the ruins and my friends are following me!"
Hao Ren slammed his head on the table: Vivian's indignation earlier was nothing but drama. He almost believed that the lady had cured her amnesia. Zeon's innocent question had her going to the extent of using Shakespearean English for dramatic effect!
Zeon Lucas, having witnessed this ancient oddball being so adamant on the matter, and also recalling the non-stop rumour mill about her (mainly about her attitude and way of doing things), had undergone multiple changes of expression in a span of a few moments. Clearly, he was shaken. He was first shaken when Lily reminded him about the precarious situation the unusual creatures were in and again when Vivian roasted him for being presumptuos on the ownership of the ruins. Both ladies had done a good job in rattling him. After demurring for a moment, he slowly rose and left the table. "I need to discuss this thoroughly with the rest. But, I will let you know. I have my stand on this, so I cannot simply discard that because you are an elder."
Vivian motioned her hand for Zeon to go ahead. "It would be a disappointment if you did not have your own stand on this. You'd be worse than your brother."
Zeon bowed and left with his followers into a quiet room to discuss the matter. Hao Ren took the chance to pop the question that he had held in for the entire day. "Why is this so complicated? Can't he... just open the door? Why do we need to even get to this stage?"
"Now you understand how a 'standard' Blood Clan member thinks." Vivian smiled bitterly as she shook her head. "You may find that his stubborness is almost hilarious, but a few thousand years no, hundreds of years ago even, this was considered the right frame of thinking. Even humans once adopted this sort of tribalistic thinking. A city would declare war on another just because one of the traded slaves was an unmarked heathen. A village would be decimated to the last inch because someone brought in a statue that was deemed heretical. All of this has happened before and who knows who actually came up which such dogmas. But since I was around, I've seen fools like this who cannot think outside of their tribal circle. The individual you saw was already considered a progressive vampire. At the very least, he didn't attack when he heard of Lily's lineage. He even allowed werewolves to live in the city."
"And there are some vampires living in hideouts under the control of werewolves," Hessiana added. "The situation calls for it... Those who are dead set in their old ways are sure to perish. Those who wish to live must change. Of course, talk is easy. Actually doing it is hard. We have been at each other's throats since time memorial though and a lot of supernaturals simply don't just hate each other, they outright butcher each other. As you can see, asking them to get around singing Kumbaya won't be easy."
Seeing that the people were on this topic, Y'zaks popped a curious question. "How did the vampires and werewolves started fighting? What about the other races? There has to be a start, a cause. Vivian said she can't remember. What about you?"
"Ugh... that's beyond me," Hessiana said as she twirled her hair. "A lot of this animosity seems to be very natural... inborn, if you will... Don't tell anyone that I said this but, I have a guess. The bad blood between unusual creatures isn't all that simple as it looks. There's definitely something more sinister..."
"Huh?" Hao Ren tilted his head.
"I hate werewolves by nature even though I have yet to even fight with one. I've also never received any formal indoctrination and education from the Blood Clan yet, I still hate werewolves. If I knew anyone was a werewolf, I would almost get pissed off automatically." Hessiana looked at Lily sightly embarassed. "I don't mean anything by it, but after finding out that you were a werewolf, I almost lost it. It was Lady Vivian who forcibly held me back. I'm fine now of course."
Lily scratched her head innocently. "Why? Did I do anything wrong?"
Hao Ren felt like he had caught on to something. "Wait a minute. Let's say we take a vampire and a werewolf from their clans, then raise them in an enviroment where they have no contact with other unusual creatures. On top of that, they will be educated in Science and Marxism since young. But based on your guess, when the two meet they'll still be fight? There's no real reason to this. It's almost by instinct that they cannot stand to hear the name of the other?"
"The purer the bloodline, the worse it gets." Hessiana nodded. "I've heard that the most ancient of vampires and werewolves don't even need to know the race of the other. They can simply sense the blood in the other individual. Simply catching a glance of the other was enough for them to go berserk and fight to the death."
Hessiana sighed as she finished. "So... that being said, the purest of blood have pretty much killed each other clean. Hence, we have no witness to that. Of course, Lady Vivian is an exception to the above; she always has been."
Hao Ren frowned hard at the news and felt that things were indeed not as simple as they seemed. Lily however, appeared to have seen through it and she leapt up in a moment of eureka. "Is the problem like... in the DNA?"
Even that could not be easily proved, Hao Ren felt. If they wanted to delve deeper into this, they would probably need dig out whatever records available to find out what happened when and after the unusual creatures crossed over into Earth.
There was no such antagonism between the non-human races in The Plane of Dreams after all.
At the same time, Zeon appeared before them and cut the discussion short.
"I will open the gate to the ruins." The patriach of the Lucas Family still kept to that over-the-top, stiff and formal speech. "This is because Lady Vivian has given us her guarantee. She is an elder that is recognised by the Blood Clan this, she has the right to interfere in any family's business. My decision is stemmed from this understanding."
Hao Ren almost sniggered. Even in admitting defeat, he had set up a very convenient excuse to save face. This old-fashioned vampire seemed almost cute all of a sudden.
"Very well, then we shall dither no longer. I wish to visit the ruins now." Vivian nodded.
Zeon turned towards his followers as he awkwardly gave the order to his subordinates. "...Prepare the sacred relics. Everything will need to be ready before noon for the ritual."