All the Vampires gazed at Atlas, waiting for his answer. Meanwhile, Atlas was looking elsewhere. He was momentarily distracted by something.

Initially, he was fine. He had prepared himself for this moment but seeing Severis, he started remembering his emotionless face when he gave Misella to Carlisle.

Getting no response, Severis developed a frown. He wondered if Atlas was showing attitude.

“It looks like you don’t want to introduce yourself. So you think it’s beneath your dignity to introduce yourself to me?” Lord Severis asked as he started walking towards Atlas. His tone seemed perfectly calm, but there was a bit of anger hidden behind that calm tone.

He sat in the seat before Atlas and looked into his eyes. “Tell me what you want from me? Why are you here?”

“I came here for something important. I came here for Progenitor Ramiel.”

“Progenitor Ramiel?!” Severis exclaimed. Even though he wasn’t old enough to exist during the time of the Progenitors, he had heard some stories. He knew where their bloodline originated from.

He did not know much about other Progenitors or how they were, but he knew there were four of them. And amongst the four, only Lord Ramiel was known for making a proper lineage. He was their ancestor.

The other Progenitors weren’t known for making Vampires; that’s why the vampires from other lineages were so hard to find.

Severis knew that the Ancestor of their bloodline was none other than Lord Ramiel. Even though they had no picture of their ancestor of anything of that kind, he still knew the name and some basic description about how he used to look.

“What about Progenitor Ramiel? What about him?” Severis asked grimly. Finally, his calm facade was gone, to be replaced by eagerness.

“I’m here to ask where he is? I need to meet him. I need to discuss something important.” Atlas calmly stated.

“Meet Lord Ramiel? Have you gone crazy? He hasn’t been seen in thousands of years. We aren’t even sure if he’s alive. Why do you suddenly want to find him?” Severis inquired, moving closer to Atlas.

“It seems you don’t know about it. Pity.” Atlas sighed.

“Don’t know what?” Severis asked, confused. Why did he seem like he knew some secret?

“Well, there is a rumor going around outside that Progenitor Ramiel has returned again,” Atlas spoke after a brief pause. “There have been some sightings of him. So as someone from a different lineage, I thought it was only fair I met him and asked if he knew anything about the Ancestor of my lineage. ”

As Atlas spoke, he kept making up story after story to keep the Severis Clan immersed in the conversation. And what better way to keep them engaged than to talk about something that interested them. Moreover, he knew he could stretch this topic as much as he wanted without being caught, all thanks to Lilith.

“That’s why I came here, looking for information about Lord Ramiel. Only he can help me.”

The manner in which Atlas talked, it didn’t look like he was lying. He was just so serious. In any case, it wasn’t hard for Atlas to talk to Severis while being serious. He was looking at the person who had a hand in his sister’s death. It was easy for him to talk like this.

His seriousness even fooled Lord Severis. “Progenitor Ramiel has returned? Really?”

“According to the stories, yes. In the last few months, he has been sighted three times,” Atlas responded, sighing. “However, it looks like you don’t know about it. You can’t help me either, then. I’ll take my leave. It looks like I wasted my time coming here.”

Atlas stood up, seemingly disappointed. He turned to the exit and started leaving as if he was done here. “I guess I’ll need to check with other clans of his lineage. Maybe they’ll know something.”

“Wait!” Lord Severis stood up. His figure moved like lightning as he appeared before Atlas, blocking his path.

Seeing the speed of Lord Severis, even Atlas was surprised. His speed was much faster than Jovan’s. In fact, it wasn’t even comparable. No wonder Severis was the Lord of this clan. He truly was strong. However, Atlas knew he couldn’t let his weakness show.

He remained calm. “May I ask what you’re doing?”

“I’m stopping you. I might not know about the reappearance of Lord Ramiel, but I want to know about it. Tell me about him! Where was he seen? I might be able to help you locate him. We can find him together! I also know other clans. I’ll personally go to those clans with you if you want,” Severis offered.

This was precisely what Atlas was looking for. He wanted to distract these people so he could keep them busy, and now that these people had jumped into the trap, he just needed to tell tall tales about the appearance of Ramiel to keep them busy.

“Why should I waste my time when you don’t know anything? My time is precious.” Even though this was precisely what he wanted, he couldn’t just say yes directly. He needed to maintain the otherworldly aloof nature if he was to pretend to be someone special.

“We both have the same goals now. We both want to find Lord Ramiel. If he has truly returned, you’ll need my help!” Lord Severis tried to persuade Atlas, unaware that he had already fallen for a big lie. “As you know, the Clans created by Lord Ramiel are all over the world, unlike the lineage of other Progenitors who were more reserved. You’ll need our help if you want to find them!”

Atlas thought for a few seconds, closing his eyes.

“Fine. I’ll waste a few minutes, it seems.” Atlas turned back and walked back to the chair. Even though he said only a few minutes, he had already made up his mind to drag the story for an hour at least.

Moreover, with the story about the Progenitor of the Red-eyed clan, he was sure that none of the Vampires were going to leave this place.

Everyone was going to be curious about their ancestor, so this way, Atlas ensured that there was no Vampire roaming around in the Palace.

Lord Severis took a seat before Atlas. The other Vampires also sat down, looking eager! If their Progenitor had indeed returned, it was great news! So many of their problems could’ve been solved with his return.

“The first I heard of the appearance of Progenitor Ramiel was in the Baltic Empire,” Atlas started telling the story.

“Baltic Empire? Is there a thing like that?” Severis asked, frowning. “First time I’m hearing of such a place.”

“First time you’re hearing of many things today, including the existence of my Alazar Clan!” Atlas exclaimed. “Anyway, Baltic Empire is very far from here. It’s not surprising you haven’t heard of it,”

He didn’t know much about this world and the names of places. All he knew was that there were Empires and Kingdoms. Other than that, he was blank. The only thing he could do to overcome that weakness was to make up fake names so they couldn’t catch him. Moreover, it kept things even more mysterious for the Severis Clan.

“Anyway, one of my Clan members was in that Empire at that time. He saw everything with his own eyes…”

*****

In one part of the Palace, Atlas was keeping the Vampires busy. It was hard for him to keep the visage before the Vampires, but he was maintaining it really well so the plan could be put into motion successfully.

In another part of the Palace, John had also started working.

Taking the boxed trolley, he went upstairs, going straight to the storage, which was on the ground floor. Even he was surprised at the lack of guards. He pushed the trolleys as he moved through the long corridor.

Fortunately, the stairs weren’t far from the storage room. Within a few minutes, he reached the storage room. He pushed the door open and entered the room with the trolley before closing the room from inside.

Finally, he sighed a breath of relief. No one had seen him come here. He sat before the door, patting his heart. Even though he had agreed to do this work, it was still scary what he was going to do. One wrong step, and he could end up dead.

After resting for a few seconds, he stood up. “Time to get to work. God, help me with what I’m about to do. Don’t let me die!”