The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-96

Chapter 96: An Unusual Stranger

If Hao Ren’s memory was accurate, this was the third time that Lily and Vivian’s scuffle had ended up with broken furniture. It has been fine and dandy that Lily was paying her rent promptly and Vivian being a rather decent cook, nevertheless Hao Ren would go broke at this rate buying new furniture to replace.

Retracting her claws, Lily folded herself into a ball of fur awkwardly on the sofa. Vivian let out a deep sigh, “You’ll be paying for this. I don’t have the money.”

Lily’s response was surprisingly fast, “So much for the pride of a vampire.”

Vivian shrugged her off, “Oh, I do have my pride as a vampire, just that I’m broke.”

Hao Ren looked forlornly at the broken table that he had just bought two days ago. Upon hearing Vivian’s nonchalant declaration of ‘No Money’, he too let out a sigh. “Forget about it. I’ll send a report to Raven12345. If we are lucky, we might be able to make a claim.”

The two instantly lit up with a cheer. Vivian had given up asking Lily about her claws and went about doing her house chores. Lily on the other hand was fiddling with her new army knife.

A few ordinary days had passed after that.

Lily had recovered almost too fast from the devastating revelation of being a werehusky. She didn’t seem too disturbed by the fact and by day two, Lily was out and about looking for something to munch on. That itself gave Hao Ren a considerable measure of relief, that cheerful yet naïve of an idiot is back to herself.

After that experience, Hao Ren and the others concluded that Lily was not the kind of person that you’ll need to fret about. Just look at how well she is able to weather a revelation that would normally dampen someone out. So what’s there to worry about? Blessed be the fool for she knows no sorrow. Having to worry so much about a husky just made Hao Ren laughed.

With him confirming that Lily was in a good condition, everyone in the house returned to their normal routines. Hao Ren was mucking about as per normal, and was now in charge of grocery shopping. Y’zaks was busy studying the various cultures of the earthlings, hopefully being able to assimilate into crowds (with that face of his though… tough luck), Lily had a rather regimented routine, she was busy writing on odd days, and out playing veterinarian on even days. Vivian, aside from being in charge of the household chores, was currently guiding Lily on how to control and mold her new profound powers. Nevertheless, figuring out a way to prevent clothes from being ripped off during her transformation…

Hao Ren’s view on the routine was, let live and let be; as long as they don’t tear the house down.

Thus came the third day of Lily’s post-transformation. Hao Ren was out shopping. The weather was getting colder by the day, with overcast and rain forecasted. General temperature of the area are also falling fast, Hao Ren realized that he needed to stock up on necessities.

This time around, he left Y’zaks at home, even though the demon was eager to help. Hao Ren thought that it would be better to let the people around his place to familiarize with that horrifying face of Y’zaks before taking him out again to town. Chances are people would mistake that giant of a man for a fugitive and Hao Ren as his hostage…

As he was about to cross a road, Hao Ren saw another huge hunk of a foreigners walking towards him.

Standing at a pleasant 190cm tall, the man was muscular. He donned a long windbreaker with curly locks. Hao Ren couldn’t tell exactly which country he was from (granted, a country bumpkin like Hao Ren barely knew any foreigners, with English as an exception) but the ash-blue eyes left an impression on Hao Ren. As he walked towards the man, Hao Ren took a few glimpse.

A foreigner in the Southern Suburbs is almost as rare as a wild Hao Ren even doubted that the town had any foreign visitors previously. Well, he was one of the rare whom had non-human guests at home, which had made acquaintances with aliens, therefore he did not pay too much attention. He gotten on his foot as soon as he caught a few good glances of the man. As he was about to step away, the man spoke. “Please hold on.”

With a rather off pronunciation, it can be clearly identified as Mandarin.

“Oh? Do you need directions?” Hao Ren curiously looked at the foreigner who could speak Mandarin.

“I’m Casar Ebben.” The stranger introduced himself in a friendly manner as he held his hand out for a handshake. “I’m a small time businessman in town for a work trade . Can you direct me to the registration office for foreigners report themselves?”

Hao Ren shook the proffered hand, muttering to himself based on the size of the man’s palm. He thought for a while, “You might wanna go to the local police station… Walk to the end of the street and turn left, you’ll find the place towards the ending of the street. But I’m not sure if they are able to help you with that, might need to visit the city for it.”

“Oh, got it. Thanks, buddy!” Casar smiled, but he held Hao Ren’s hand tight. Hao Ren noticed that he was sniffing from time to time, perhaps out of habit, but he felt like the man was trying to get a whiff of his scent. Sensing a chill going down his spine, Hao Ren shook his hand free, “Ah.. you’re welcome. Hahaha…”

Casar nodded with a smile and walked towards the opposite direction. As he walk past Hao Ren, took a deep breath, and left a rather ominous, “Good Luck.”

Hao Ren held his breath until the man was out of sight before releasing a loud sigh, he felt goosebumps were all over him. His rather good mood had been utterly ruined by the thought that he could have ran into a homosexual.

The encounter in the morning had Hao Ren in twists, he quickly completed his shopping and headed home. As he stepped into the house compound, he saw Lily and Vivian practicing Lily’s new ability. The table had mounds of raw lamb meat and Lily was using her ice claws to freeze the meat and shatter it into small tiny bits. She then used her flame claw to roast the meat, with Vivian doing the seasoning by the side….

It was obvious that Lily had trouble controlling her new-found abilities, and there were plentiful chunks of charred, or frozen solid meat scattered about. Vivian however, was enthusiastically cheering her on. “You can do it! Once you have gotten used to this, you’ll be quicker than those stalls selling lamb skewers down town. When the time comes, I’ll set up a stall to sell these yummy treats while you grill them at home… I’ll be rich in no time… OH? You’re back, Mr Landlord?”

“… Can’t you two do something more worthy of your kind?” Hao Ren stepped up and stroked Lily’s head. “… Lily is one thing, but surely you have your vampiric pride to think of no?”

Lily didn’t dodge off when Hao Ren started stroking her head. For once, she actually stood sides with Vivian, “I think Battie’s idea is pretty neat. She is annoying, but she’s smart too… Say… why had you been constantly stroking my head for the past two days?”

Hao Ren quickly lifted his hand. After hiding out Lily’s real identity, he couldn’t help himself with the odd habits he’s picking up.

“Sigh, what an awful day.” Hao Ren felt that there was something fishy behind Vivian’s gaze and quickly changed the topic. “I ran into bear-like foreigner who seemed to be a gay…”

Lily’s ears perked up as she heard that, “OH? Mr Landlord, is it a start of a new life for you?”

Hao Ren shuddered as he caught Lily’s gaze, it was full of ominous anticipation. He decided it was best to put a full stop to this and said, “What’s with that look. I’m straight as a ruler…”

Lily sighed deeply, “Man… I thought I had new writing materials just right beside me.”

Thank goodness that Vivian did not follow Lily’s lead in straying the conversation into an uncomfortable topic. She curiously said, “Let’s hear about it. It’s very rare to see a foreigner here.”

“Oh, it is…” Hao Ren recounted the incident earlier that morning. He too felt something was off, “That guy spoke in a rather decent Mandarin. He should have been living here for some time then. It’s a surprise that he doesn’t know where to register himself…”

“Casar Ebben, you say?” Vivian took interest in the name as she frowned. She quickly shook her head, “Maybe it’s just a coincidence…”

Hao Ren looked at Vivian curiously, “You know of that name?”

“I do know of an Ebben family.” Vivian shrugged. “But the last I heard of them was about a hundred odd years back. They were a bunch of werewolves scheming to revive the fortunes of their kind. Not a pleasant bunch I must say… but their area of operation was in Europe and the Americas. You won’t be able to find that many werewolves in Asia. They won’t be bothering us.”

While Vivian seemed to be unconcerned about it, Hao Ren quickly felt something unpleasant coming his way. This was common for him ever since he met Raven12345.