Luckily, it didn't take much longer for them to arrive at the merchant's shop in order to gather the mistress's elixirs. The walk back seemed to be much quicker than the walk there, though that could've been due to my new found eagerness.
"Here you go." I said as I handed her the basket filled to the brim with shiny cosmetics. Women seemed to be obsessed with those but I didn't really see the appel. To me, they just seemed like expensive placebos used to make people feel better about themselves, or in other words...a complete scam. It wasn't any of my business how others spent their money though. The small women quickly snatched the basket from my hands with excitement, squealing happily.
"Now, where is our pay? We expect it in full." I said blatantly, cutting to the chase. I didn't want to bother wasting any time. I had no intention to tell her about our plans of course. Who knew what she would do after finding out? We did pretty much everything for her so I was pretty positive that she'd be helpless on her own, not that I cared. She deserved it after all. I watched as she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, I have it." She huffed as she pulled out two small bags of silver coins, tossing them to us. Oliver barely caught his and I caught my own before humming, letting go of Oliver's hand.
"Nice! Enjoy your useless junk, don't bother us unless you really need something." I said before turning around to walk up the stairs, Oliver following closely behind me. I didn't need to guide him because he knew the layout of the house pretty well by now.
"Its not useless!" She screamed out as we made our way into my room. I quickly closed the door. and pulled out the flyer, moving to sit down on the bed.
"Hmmm, the training starts in two days." I mumbled out. Now that I thought about it, this was a lot more dangerous then I thought. Not only was I the current leader of the Amalgams, as my father was dead, but I was planning on sneaking in while pretending to be a man, and killing the prince. I could only hope that the other's were still alive. I wasn't sure what I'd do if they all turned out to be dead. He knew that they took a few men as well and assumed that it was so that they could breed them. I hated the thought but it was likely.
There were four main species that were in this world. The top of the food chain. Vampires, Amalgams, Hybrids, and Humans. Vampires, and Humans are pretty self explanatory. Vampires are usually those of the royal family or court while Humans were simply citizens. The 'normal ones'. On the other hand, Hybrids were usually lower class people, who are half animal and half human. They usually occupied the slums. And Amalgams...they were considered to be horrible abominations who enjoyed to prey on the flesh of humans and shaped shifted to lure in prey.
Though yes, those assumptions would've been completely true decades ago, Amalgams made an oath to no longer eat humans. We used magic to quench our hungers, and even treated humans like kings whenever they came by. It angered me that all of this happened when we were trying so hard to prevent conflict. I was broken out of my thoughts when Oliver sat down next to me.
"Are you sure that you are ready to go through such heavy amount of abuse with the royals? Even if you pretend to be a man, you are small...you'll be bullied relentlessly."
"Of course I'm sure. I can handle myself." I said calmly. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a little bit nervous. I've never met a Vampire before and I've only heard stories about how sadistic they could be. I was almost positive that the rumors were true. Then again though...Amalgams were known for being pretty cruel as well once angered. If it was a battle of dominance that was to happen then I was positive that there would be a pretty good chance that I'd be able to win. As far as society knew, non-domesticated Amalgams went extinct when my village was destroyed. The only way I'd be discovered is if someone saw my true form. I couldn't let that happen. Not only would I be executed, I'd be tortured.
"Well...first order of business.." I mumbled out as I pulled off my hoodie and stood up. My hair draped over my shoulders in the front, and the hair that continued to hang reached my lower back. I searched the drawers to find something that I could cut my hair with and eventually found a shard of glass. I began to slowly cut off my hair bit by bit. The sharp end of the shard was a bit dull so it was difficult but doable.
"Hey, how about you let me take care of your hair. I'm actually positive that I'd have you looking better than whatever you're going to do, and I'm blind." Oliver spoke up with a laugh.
"Plus, I'm sure that you aren't even using a pair of scissors right now. Go to my room and grab a pair." He said with a disapproving sigh. I simply checked.
"Whatever Mr. Hair dresser. I'll go grab the scissors." I said, not really minding. Oliver had a better eye then I did despite not being able to see. Once I left Oliver sat quietly for a good minute before slowly standing up. The energy around him seemed to change completely. He walked over to the hair that had been cut and picked up a handful of it. His eyes glowed for a moment at the pure energy that he sensed from it before he stuffed it into his pocket and sat back down. He didn't want to seem suspicious. He slowly clenched his fist closed in order to endure the burning sensation that it gave him.
"Right...this is only the beginning.." He whispered out underneath his breath.