The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-45

Chapter 45: The Lodge

Nangong was standing on the platform of a countryside train station as a light breeze was blowing in his face. He took a deep breath and thought the air smelled like dried dirt. A hint of happiness could be seen on his elegant features, though they weren’t altogether handsome. “Can’t you feel it? There’s certain smell lingering in the air.”

His look gave Hao Ren the creeps as he felt that Nangong could be a time bomb: This demon hunter is really keen. He could sense the chill coming from the castle the moment he got off the train.

“I can’t smell anything.” Vivian sniffed. “And the Yorkford Castle is still quite far from here, isn’t it?”

“‘Their’ scent can spread across a long distance,” Nangong replied as his fixed his messy hair, looking rather happy. “As a demon hunter, I excel in catching their scent. Of course you can’t detect it. It takes lots of practice. Alright, craps aside, we really need to find a place to rest as the sun is already setting.”

Nangong picked up his luggage and walked towards the slope at the end of the station. After he had walked for about 10 meters ahead of them, Lily suddenly opened her eyes and shouted nonsensically, “What smell are you talking about? Let me do the job, my nose is very sensitive!”

“You can just go back to sleep,” jeered Vivian while slapping Lily on the back. “Oh,” replied Lily who did not take offense at it. She slumbered into a sleepwalk in seconds as the jetlag catch up to her.

“I really don’t smell anything.” said Vivian while shaking her head from side to side as Hao Ren looked at her. “The Blood Clan has superb sensitivity to the scents of spirits. Yet I don’t detect any odd scent at all. Plus, the Yorkford Castle is just too far away and it isn’t after-dark yet. Our hour of prime has yet to come. That self-acclaimed demons hunter… Does he really have the ability in sensing unusual creatures? He wasn’t even aware of our identities.

Hao Ren rubbed his chin as he gave thought to what Vivian just said and finally surmised. “He is probably just boasting.”

“… It could be!” said Vivian.

The station was located right on the outskirts of Brewshire. The both were connected by a narrow country road. Unfortunately for this company of four, there was no bus in sight so they hitched a ride into town. It was almost dark when they entered the town. The last scarlet ray of setting sun was fading over the horizon. The streetlights in town lit up one after another. Nostalgia struck Hao Ren as he was gazing down the street in a foreign land. He was not really an outgoing person and thus rarely stays overnight outside, let alone going abroad. He had never thought that one day he would be standing here in a foreign land, 8-hours behind time, dealing with unfamiliar surroundings, people, lifestyle, and language. Though the last was easily solved with the help of the MDT, the rest remained as challenges. He folded his arms and sighed, missing his cozy home and his black little pet cat. He wondered how was ‘Rollie’ doing. It was probably out on the streets by now, mingling with stray dogs and cats.

While Hao Ren was having a hard time adapting to the foreign land, Vivian had no problem with it at all. The vampire had gotten used to travelling around the world. She was enthralled by the scenery along the way from London to the Brewshire. As if finally figuring it out, she blurted, “It doesn’t seem to be as serious as it was in the news. There are not many outsiders here there for it could be that the situation was just exaggerated in the news or that the paranormal enthusiasts aren’t here yet.”

After making sure that Nangong was far ahead and out of earshot, he whispered, “How can you tell?”

“Just by listening to their heartbeats and smelling their blood. It’s my strength.” Vivian shrugged her shoulders and answered. “The heartbeat exposes one’s emotion and the taste of blood reveals one’s family ties and ancestry. Every creature native to a land has similar component in their blood. It can’t be altered within a short period of time. Thus, I can vaguely sense how many among them are outlanders and the number of those whose hearts are restless. By combining these two sets of figures, I can estimate the number of people who came for the haunted castle. These are the absolutely necessary skills the Blood Clan must possess in order to hunt down their preys. Though I don’t prey on humans, I still possess the natural gifts of the vampires.”

Vivian’s words set off ripples of goosebumps under Hao Ren’s skin. One could almost see the blood red glow in her eyes: Though speaking in her usual tone, the content of this vampiress’ speech really creeped the daylight out of you. This useless vampiress had finally gave us a glimpse of her true prowess as one belonging to the aristocrat of the dark night. Though this helped her much in scouting and making sense of the current situation in town, she was still pretty much useless.

Hao Ren turned to look at Lily who was tailing them in her sleepwalk. This time, it’s the stupid werewolf’s turn to fall short of his expectations. This numbskull kept going on and on about the keenness of all her senses, especially her sense of smell, which was superb. Disappointingly, of all the times, she had to be sleeping now, and the best her sense of smell can do at the moment was to keep her from losing her way.

“Anyway, it’s a good that we don’t have that many outsiders here at the moment.” Hao Ren nodded and said, “Raven 12345 instructed us to go to the Yorkford Castle. She also said that both the ‘client’ and we will be able to sense each other when we arrive at a certain place. However, she wasn’t sure about the current state of the ‘client’. Therefore, it’s better to have no irrelevant personnel on scene.”

“Are we departing at night?” Vivian frowned. “I have the advantage in combat at night. The big dog will also be more alert after midnight. She would be a force to be reckoned with, more or less.”

Hao Ren curled his lip and thought. “This is utter nonsense. I could knock the shit out of this piece of Blood Clan nobility with the simple toss of a brick. Isn’t that something to be reckoned with?”

“It depends. Let’s observe the movements of the paranormal enthusiasts. We have to get into action before tomorrow night. The more we delay, the more will the number of people gathering here be.” said Hao Ren.

“The growing crowd could work to our advantage.” Vivian muttered. “We can mingle with the crowd, telling them that we are here for the ghost hunt as well. Sometimes, the best guise is to be act openly, as if we have nothing to hide.”

“What if, in plain sight, a headless knight jumps out from the castle, holds on to me and starts calling out, “landlord!”? What if a hologram pop up into the air from my pocket saying, “Matching Successful? What if the new tenant we are about to meet is a looney, a troublemaker? I have to take into consideration my rotten luck and the unreliable Raven 12345 who claimed that backup will be always ready. If anything of these sort occurs, you will have to figure out a way to get me out of the MI5… Are you confident enough to help me jailbreak in England?”

Vivian nodded earnestly and said, “I did it before. However, the prisons in England then had wooden fence and I so I managed to sneak in via an underground tunnel. After knocking out about 10 knights, I rescued my sister from her cell. She was captured by a demon hunter …”

“Let’s not mention what happened back in the 1190s.”

Vivian was speechless.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted. “Let’s stay here tonight! It’s getting late. We probably won’t find any hotel further down the road.” Nangong interjected.

The last Hao Ren remember, the three of them were way behind Nangong. He looked up and saw that they had reached an inn. The inn was a three-storey building. It wasn’t big but it looked clean, new, and beautiful with those white walls and blue tiles. Above the door, a line of words was flashed on a neon light signboard. With the help of the translation system, Hao Ren read it out as if he was reading in his mother tongue, “Angus’ Lodge… Hey, what a small world!”

This was the same inn they heard about on the news yesterday. The boss of the inn should be the man who appeared on the news.

Three of them followed Nangong and entered the inn. There were two people behind the ground floor counter. One of them was a young lady who seemed to be the cashier while the other man was a chunky middle-aged man who looked decent and honest. He was the man they saw on the news.

“Yo, welcome to Angus’ Lodge!” The man greeted them warmly and turned to look at the lady as he said proudly, “Look, another group of foreigners. Now we don’t have to worry about business no more.”

Hao Ren was stunned and thought: “Even the British looks down foreigners as gullible tourists?