Immense Pressure

The demon hunters seemed to have an immense pressure on Vivian. Although she tried to appear calm, even someone who was as slow as Hao Ren could see that she was actually deeply troubled.

Vivian’s offer to leave if demon hunters showed up in the city to protect the innocent touched Hao Ren. Although legends portrayed vampires as both cunning and cold-blooded, Vivian seemed to be different. Hao Ren did not know about other vampires but at least, the one he knew was not bad.

Of course, being touched was one thing but facing the consequences was another. He could not allow Vivian to leave just like that. He even had a three page contract with a Goddess in his pocket! How would he explain to Raven 12345 if the two unusual creatures were to really leave his house? "Don’t stress about it and just stay here. There’s no need to worry even if the demon hunters are around, I’ll find a way..."

"Where do you get this confidence from?" Vivian looked at Hao Ren, curious about the reason why this person who was scared of trouble just this morning, suddenly had a sense of accountability. "If you’re saying all this just to comfort me, I don’t need it. Just don’t think too highly of those demon hunters as they’re not fully humans. They are not very considerate when it comes to fights."

"Well… something was up this afternoon and I think both of you can’t just leave as you please." After some consideration, Hao Ren concluded that there was nothing to hide. Fishing out the contract from his pocket, he showed and explained the afternoon’s events with Raven 12345 to the two magical creatures in front of him.

Lily was confused as usual thus, useless whereas Vivian read through Hao Ren’s entire contract seriously. She was in deep thought as she listened to Hao Ren recall his experience and she was aghast. "Everything... you said is true?"

Hao Ren shrugged. "Of course it’s true. I have nothing to gain from lying to you."

"I’ve heard of this multiverse concept from you humans." Vivian said while waving the sheets of paper in her hand. "I can’t help but say that this ‘science’ things of yours is quite interesting. So, this means that you met advanced beings who claimed to be rulers of the multiverse. They have a specialized organization that manages each and every universe called ‘Space Administration’. Then, there’s a self-proclaimed Goddess called Raven 12345 and she found you to ask you to be her assistant. To sum everything up, you’re now…" Vivian looked at the contract, reading it word by word., "An agent of Bastard Barrio at EN35 in the Space Administration of the Xi Ling Empire, a part-time staff outside the administration awaiting confirmation…"

Cold sweat broke out on Hao Ren’s forehead. This coming out from someone else’s mouth sounded more impressive than reading it by himself.

"Landlord, I know that you’re under a lot pressure right now…" said Vivian in a grave and earnest tone after some deliberation.

"I’m dead serious," Hao Ren answered with a bitter smile on his face. "I’ve had to use several hours to take all of this in, imagine you. But no matter what the overall condition of the Space Administration is, Raven 12345 is not someone we can easily mess with. I’ll let you meet her if you don’t believe me. This shouldn’t be breaking the rules and regulations."

Vivian knew that Hao Ren was serious and not fooling around from his expression; she frowned and thought carefully. "I’ve never heard about this organization before and I’ve lived for... Oh, I’ve lost count. But I’ve never heard about a Space Administration since the Bronze Age. However, I’ve heard a lot about Gods but most of it was just humans using it to frighten other humans. Also, the Raven 12345 that you mentioned does not sound like a Goddess to me...… This is weird. Where did they come from?"

Hao Ren nodded his head. "I’ve asked her about this. Raven 12345 said she did not take notice of the things on earth as humans were developing at an alright pace on their own. She even had no clue about atheism and would just hire an assistant to take care of minor matters on earth. That’s why humans don’t know about the celestials. Oh, she often uses the word ‘celestials’ to represent the Gods and I find this a weird thing."

"Try not to think about this first. So in a nutshell, this Raven 12345 is the one who asked you to take care of the mutants staying here right?" Vivian asked as she handed the papers back to Hao Ren. "This shows that she’s not an ally of the demon hunters and its good news to me. It would be best if she could help when the demon hunters show up."

Hao Ren shook his head. "I think this is quite unlikely. According to her, the empire rarely interfere with the workings on earth. They will not interfere unless us humans decide to destroy all of our descendants. However, I’m sure that she’ll contact me in the future. Let’s ask her only when the time comes. I was in a rush this evening and I did not have the chance to ask a lot of questions."

Hao Ren let out a hollow laugh and mocked himself, "Well, you know me. My brain is a mess like glue."

"It’s okay," Vivian answered and pointed to a dazed Lily. "That mind of hers is confused every day and she’s still here with us. You have to try to be optimistic to live a better life…"

Upon hearing this, Lily growled and jumped onto the table. "Try repeating what you said again!!!"

Ignoring the werewolf, Vivian seemed to have her mind set on something and nodded towards Hao Ren. "We need to find a way to see Raven 12345…The way she showed up seems dodgy and it looks as if she understands the relationship between mutants and humans well. I need to ask her about this." Then, Vivian was a bit embarrassed. "Actually it’s hard for us to live in this world as the demon hunters are getting increasingly active and humans are getting harder to deal with. From the top of the food chain, we’ve now dwindled to the bottom. We don’t even pass down our history to the next generation and moreover, we’re divided amongst our own kind. This is also why, many things we know about ourselves are found in records written by humans. Take this werewolf for example, throughout her life she’s never met her kind and all she knows about werewolves were told by humans. I do not want to be as ignorant as her."

Hao Ren knew that Vivian wanted to know more about her own kind by asking Raven 12345; he sensed that the chances of Vivian succeeding were low knowing Raven 12345’s ability of beating around the bush and keeping her lips sealed. However, Hao Ren did not say a word.

In that moment, Lily finally began to snap out of her daydream. The first thing that came through her mind was, "Oh Landlord, what’re we having for dinner?"

Hao Ren could only remain speechless.

He was suddenly jealous of the crude, simple as well as ridiculously innocent thoughts of this canine.

After throwing a scornful look at Lily, Vivian stood up with a smile of her face. "Let me prepare dinner since I do not have to pay for it. I’ll be responsible for the cooking and cleaning until I get a job to pay my debts off. Is this arrangement okay?"

Hao Ren waved his hands in order to show his generosity. "There’s no need for this. You’re being too kind…"

"I should uphold my pride as a member of the Blood Clan. I can’t stay and eat here for free without doing anything in return!" Vivian answered seriously.

Being straightforward, Lily joined the conversation. "You’re already broke, please stop being so proud of yourself. So by pride of the Blood Clan, you mean become someone’s maid in exchange for food?"

Hao Ren immediately grabbed a piece of biscuit and stuffed it into Lily’s hand to distract her, stopping her from continuing. "What a silly and stubborn werewolf! She says whatever that comes up at the top of her head! She shouldn’t have said that even if she wanted to pour salt on someone’s wounds!"

Hao Ren couldn’t help but be proud of himself as he saw a vampire preparing dinner for him in the kitchen and a werewolf guarding his house in the living room. Ever since Rollie came into his life, Hao Ren was the one doing the chores and it’s been a while that he felt so relaxed. Brushing off his worries, Hao Ren made himself a pot of tea and read the newspaper while he enjoyed the air conditioning; he imagined himself as someone who was all powerful, eating. On the other hand, Lily was hitting the TV (canines really knew how to make themselves at home) as she happily shouted, "Landlord! There’s TV signal now!"

Hao Ren’s heart sank as he recalled the brick half that went through the TV station. He realized that he was actually just a high-class nanny, a nanny with very low fighting abilities.

Hao Ren’s life would take another turn once Vivian served dinner.