"Could you repeat that?" Really not sure if he heard right, Ryan stared at his uncle with a perplexed expression.

Runar sighed loudly, "Listen, it's part of the job, alright? I end up housing a lot of people upstairs, especially individuals that struggle because of curses or mutations or things like that. This is just the first time that it's going to be a long-term thing."

"Where's he even supposed to stay? I'm not sharing my room with a kid, you know?" Ryan pointed out, but Runar quickly calmed him down.

"Of course not, don't worry. I guess you didn't check it yet, but I cleared out my office. We're having some people come tomorrow to properly set the room up for a kid his age. A bed, a proper desk for a kid his age, we're darkening the windows, and we also have to get him a bunch of school stuff for when he starts."

Ryan frowned lightly, glancing at his friends to see if they noticed it as well.

"You're darkening the windows? Why?"

"Oh, the kid's a Vampire. They have awful sun allergies so we need to block it in his bedroom, obviously. We have this really potent sunblock for when he goes outside, though, but his bedroom should be even safer."

Considering that there was a sapient mass of rocks talking to Runar with lights and vibrations earlier and a Pixie was sleeping just a couple steps away, Ryan knew he shouldn't be surprised by the fact that Vampires were real. Though Silvia seemed like she just had to make doubly sure.

"Vampires are real? Seriously?" She asked, both taken back and curious. Runar let out a long sigh and nodded his head.

"Yes, they're real, and so are Ghouls, and Succubi, and Titans, and- you know what? I'll give you guys a list later, that might make this a bit easier," he replied, slowly pushing himself off his seat, "But yes, again, Vampires are real. Yes, they're allergic to sunlight, no they don't mind garlic, and they're also not vulnerable to holy magic or depictions."

"... So, why are you struggling to integrate them into society?" Ryan asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Runar sighed loudly. This was the part that he was worried about revealing the most, obviously.

"Because they have to live off blood. Or rather, the mana dissolved in all of our blood. They can survive off animal blood for a while, but in most animal blood doesn't have the right quantity or quality of mana, and it can lead to plenty of health issues. Something like... scurvy, basically," he started to explain, "But most species of people have a higher quality of mana, so that's where they would need to go for their blood. And you can imagine why that would cause... friction."

Ryan held his hand to his neck, carefully. Everyone that had heard stories of vampires knew about the classic bite mark on the neck. Runar was immediately able to tell what he was thinking, and quickly shut his thought-process down.

"Oh, no, that's not how that really works these days. I mean, there's always Vampires that go off rogue, but that's really just comparable to other criminals, you know? We have been buying up excess blood from blood banks for a while and providing them to any Vampires that have made contact with us. So there's no direct physical contact. But we have actually been working on something that just left its last clinical trial phase, hence why we're doing a proper test run now. We've been working on artificial blood," Runar stood up from his seat and walked over to his desk, looking for some documents that were scattered around.

Ryan turned around, looking at his uncle with some disbelief, "You guys invented artificial blood just so that vampires don't have to feed off people any more?"

"Well, not just. It's going to take a little longer to adapt it to every species and blood type, but once we do, it's going to go into trials to be used in the medical sector, but that's still a bit away."

Finally finding what he was looking for, Runar picked up a piece of paper and brought it over to Ryan, Silvia, and Modak, handing it to them. It seemed to be the results of the trials that they had run, "In our long term tests, a full 98.7% of vampires were able to fully replace their blood intake with our artificial blood. For the remaining 1.3%, who were only unable to do so because of things like indigestion and mild intolerances that came with the artificial blood, we believe we can adjust the formula as we would into different blood types to make this possible. Oh, and of the ones that were able to replace their intake, 95% had an improvement of health over the course of the next three months, and none had a decrease."

"So... what? You can distribute this to all vampires? And then you'll hold a big press conference, announcing the existence of vampires?" Ryan asked, really not sure exactly how this was all supposed to go. He was happy that he wouldn't have to worry about being randomly bitten by the kid that was going to live with them starting tomorrow, but this was still a bit confusing.

"Well, we're going to be adjusting the formula and using it as a base for something like those meal-replacement drinks, so that vampires can also start enjoying their meals a bit, and then we'll try to sell them in stores across the country and then expand internationally. And otherwise? We'll just have Vampires slowly reveal themselves. They already live in society, people just don't know that they're vampires. They look near identical to humans, just with slightly more pointed ears, so people probably assume they have some elf blood in them. Well, a press conference isn't a bad idea, though. Just to make it clear that vampires aren't dangerous."

"Wait..." Ryan placed the piece of paper down on the table, looking back at his uncle, "So if they're already living alongside us, just 'hidden'... the test run means that the kid is going to live with us, and we're going to publicly tell everyone he's a vampire?"

"Yep. Legally there's already no issue with vampires coexisting with us as long as they don't harm other people, and since we've practically solved that problem now? It should all go relatively well. Frankly, these days, people are very open. The last species that we properly integrated a few decades ago were the Arachnids, and that was a challenge itself, but we got through that, so vampires should be alright."

Modak raised his brows surprised, "Wait, you did that with Arachnids?"

"Oh, yeah. Non-humanoid species are always a bit rough to integrate, but it all worked out. You know Aranea, the head librarian at your university? She's actually the great-granddaughter of the arachnid representative from when our family helped them integrate," Runar smiled lightly, "I've met her a couple of times, since we still work with arachnids to ensure that they're treated well and their rights are kept up. Actually, I-"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

In the middle of Runar's sentence, his eyes widened confused, "Who the hell-" he let out, jumping onto his feet, groaning loudly, "Godsdammit... sorry, there's something I need to take care of."

As Ryan looked at his uncle, whose irises had started glowing in a soft green light, he saw an expression he had seen plenty of times before. Usually, when there was an annoying customer in the café that Runa was dreading dealing with, he would make that exact face. Usually Ryan would end up taking care of it, but this time, it was different.

"You guys go ahead and stay down here. It won't take long, and running up and down the stairs multiple times just gets annoying sometimes. There's still a lot that you guys should know about," Runar walked over to his desk and grabbed something that was laying on it. A black, engraved fountain pen with golden inlays and small metallic feather on its end. The engravings looked similar to the ones that were on his father's model-building tools, "I guess it's a good chance for you to just sort of digest everything, and maybe talk out what your plan is after this. Oh, and Ryan, if someone comes here and is confused about who you are and why you're here, just tell them your name, and you should be fine."

"Uh... Sure, I guess. Do you need any help?"

Runar looked at his nephew, as if contemplating it for a moment, but he just shook his head in the end, "Nah, I got this. Alright, I'll be right back!" he rushed out the door, shutting it behind him. His footsteps quickly faded away, as Ryan leaned forward, burying his face in his hands. Silvia and Modak were similarly silent, until the dense air was cut apart.

"Holy crap, Ryan!" Silvia let out loudly, looking at her friend as she jumped up from the couch, "A secret society? A secret! Society?!"

"Don't look at me like that, I had no fucking clue! Honestly, I still feel like this is some weird, elaborate prank!" Ryan admitted, throwing up his arms, "Like... how is this kind of shit even real? This isn't some kind of book... is it? Are we in a book? Is this whole thing a stupid fucking book?"

"Calm down, guys, this is crazy, but it's clearly real," Modak slowly stood up with a long sigh, but both Silvia and Ryan were just staring at him.

"Don't act so big, you're obviously freaking out right now," Ryan retorted.

"No I'm not."

"Yeah you are."

"What makes you say that?"

"Your eye is doing that thing again."

Modak held his hand to his cheek, feeling his eye twitch nervously. With a click of his tongue, the orc replied, "Okay fine! This is insane! How could I not be freaking out right now?"

Seeing how his friends were reacting, Ryan slowly stood up and looked at them both, "I... if this is too much for you guys, I can tell Runar and you guys don't have to get involved in any of this."

Though they both clearly wanted to reply immediately, neither of them were able to. This was much too complicated for them to come out with an immediate response. There was so much weight on this all, and they barely had any time to process any of it.

Finally, Modak asked, "What about you? Will you... stick around? Will you become a part of this whole... thing?"

Ryan thought about it for a moment. He turned toward Maximus and looked inwardly at Gaia, her two fragments floating in her domain, "Yeah. Yeah, I'll stick around. I can't back away from this any more. There's no way I can go back to living a normal life, always wondering why my father would... doom so many spirits. And come on, this is the perfect place for me, I can actually help people. I can... I can..."

"If you're sticking around, so am I," Silvia said bluntly, "I mean, I know that it's probably different for us, and our decision in this has less weight, but still. I'm not going to leave you alone here."

After the elf's immediate response, Ryan was overcome with relief. Not having to do this alone was going to make this all so much easier. But Modak still had some concerns.

"What if this is dangerous?" he wondered, clearly worried about some things, "I mean, Runar literally placed a protective ward on you. That's not something you do if there's no threat of something horrible happening. Not to mention, that 'corruption' thing? Are we sure that's a level of danger that any of us want to be exposed to?"

Ryan once more didn't have to think about the answer too much, "Dangerous or not, this is something I have to do. I can't not do this."

"... Alright. In that case, I'm staying as well," Modak replied, though the answer seemed to be coming with quite a bit of concern. Nonetheless, Ryan knew that Modak was just as curious about all of this as Silvia was, even if he showed it less than the elf.

"Thank you guys. I cannot tell you how much it means to have you guys here with me," Ryan smiled lightly, "This shit is so weird and tough to wrap my head around, and not having to do it alone means a lot. And Maximus, you-"

He turned around and looked at the small knight, just to be quite taken aback by what he saw. Tiny figures just barely reaching a little above Maximus' knees. There were seven of them, roughly humanoid and completely ink black. Their bodies were practically a 'blank slate'; no eyes, ears, or mouth. Their heads were perfectly round and their limbs round and straight.

These things were all standing in front of Maximus and staring up; even the knight himself didn't seem to have noticed yet, as he was focused on Ryan. But noticing that something seemed to be wrong, Maximus glanced down, finally noticing the figures.

Startled, he took a step back, where another one of them was standing. As Maximus' leg hit that figure, it fell apart into a black smoke that unnaturally moved around the knight's body, gathering in front of him and turning back into that figure.

"What are those?" Silvia took a step forward and squatted down in front of the table, "They're kind of cute!"

"I think those are... Sprites?" Modak suggested, also squatting down next to the table to take a closer look, "Yeah, yeah for sure! I still have a children's book with these in it that my mom would always read to me, they helped the main character with something... Finding some jewel in the forest or something?"

"Are you talking about 'The 100 Tales of Shazir'?" Ryan asked, a bit surprised to hear it brought up. It was a story that he loved as a kid; rather, the one memory that he has of his father is being read this story by him.

Modak quickly nodded his head, "Yeah, that's them, right?"

"I think so?" Ryan responded, glancing down at the small figures.

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Runar jumped up a few steps at a time, sighing with an annoyed expression on his face. He already had plenty of things to deal with, so why were those meddlesome bugs here to waste his time?

Once he got out of the stairway and the floor closed back up behind him, Runar quickly stepped out of the basement. He didn't even bother locking the door behind him; this wasn't going to take him long.

Runar held the fountain pen in his hand forward, drawing something in the air. It was a series of runes floating in front of him in a soft green; the colour of Runar's mana. Droplets of magic were detaching off the writing, and he let out a long sigh, "Man, I should really get some more sleep. My mana control's completely out of whack."

As if triggering it, an exhausted yawn left his mouth as he pulled back the pen from the runes in the air. The mana began to glow for a short moment before dissipating in a flood of individual droplets, spreading all throughout the building. And before he knew it, Runar could see the outlines of everything beyond the walls of the break room he was in. The counter, the tables and the chairs pushed up against them, the shards of broken glass on the ground and of course the seven men that were standing inside the café.

"Two awakened..." he muttered to himself as he spotted the large quantities of mana in two individuals, one of them being a twisted purple he recognized, "Those damn sparrows really don't hold back, do they?"