Weird shop

A cute girl ran out from the back. She had brown hair put into two braided pigtails and had freckles covering her a portion of her cheeks. She looked to be around Arius' age and had a cute pout on her face. She looked towards the laughing guards and rushed at them with her fists raised, ready to take them down to hell.

However, looking at the guards, caused her to get a glimpse of Amadeus as her eyes widened. Due to the small slip in concentration, she tripped over her own feet and landed on the ground face first. Due to the momentum she slid until the first blade who went to pick her up. Before he even bent down, Amadeus came forward and picked her up with a smile.

Her face was full of tears and snot until she saw who picked her up. Her eyes widened again, and she quickly turned around wiped her face before turning back. She kept rolling her index fingers together and kept sliding her foot with the tip of her shoe. With her face down, she looked up with upturned eyes as Amadeus looked down with a smile. Some of the women who saw this kept thinking to themselves,

'He's too young, he's too young, he's too young…'

Seeing the smile, the girl blushed deeper and ran towards her father and hid behind him. This earned the giggle from all the mothers within the restaurant. While some looked at him with possessive desire, some ended up comparing Amadeus to their own children. Still, this small episode, broke the atmosphere and changed it to a light-hearted one.

Laughing himself, the dwarf came forward and bowed in front of Amadeus.

"Welcome crown prince, it's our honour for you to come to our humble hotel."

Amadeus nodded as looked at the bow at the end of the man's beard,

"Did you do this?"

He asked the girl who nodded shyly. Seeing the girl look at him, a cunning smile found his face. Beckoning the girl over, he whispered a few things in her ear while she started getting more and more red. He then ended it with,

"It's a great idea isn't it?"

The girl nodded before she disappeared to the back. The dwarf didn't know what to say as he introduced himself,

"I am Jack Ironblood, the owner of this establishment, I'll show you and your party the room we have arranged."

Jack led the group past the arguing one to the topmost floor. By now everyone had forgotten about them as the arguing group just settled for the second-best room. The screaming knight wanted to intervene but with a stern glare from his master and gazes filled with bloodlust from the blades stopped him.

The manager took them to the topmost floor which turned out to be one whole room. The best room of the hotel was actually the size of one whole floor. It came with everything from a kitchen to multiple bedrooms to even a small hot bath powered by magic. It was basically an apartment. As the blades stationed themselves, Amadeus immediately started meditating, trying to familiarise himself with his powers. The more he fused with his sun's fire and moon's ice the stronger he got and the larger his dragon form grew. He also started to go through spell books as he had an affinity with all the elements. Due to dragons being one of the closest races to magic, he could just disregard the chant and just shoot the spell. As for draconic magic, each dragon had their own specific ones, he himself would have to learn them by himself. The only help an older dragon could give Amadeus was experience but the rest was all up to him.

Before he knew it, the sun had set, and it was long into the night when Amadeus fell asleep.

The next morning, the maids cooked up breakfast and were eating alongside Amadeus and the blades. In any normal matter this wouldn't happen, but Amadeus insisted as he was used to people accompanying him to eat. At first, they refused rather strongly but Amadeus used his hidden skill, puppy eyes and caused them to reluctantly join him. They were all restrained when eating apart from Velia as she still didn't properly understand these manners.

After a satisfying breakfast, Amadeus dressed up in a cloak and left the inn with only Erika, Velia and Eras, who were also dressed on cloaks. Leaving the inn, the city was slowly starting up and the sound of metal clanking was heard when they stepped out. There was a magic that kept noise out of the hotel.

As Amadeus looked in both directions, he didn't know where to start. So, he just asked,

"Erika, in which direction is your tail pointing?"

Erika looked confused but still answered,

"It's pointing towards the left, your highness."

Amadeus then immediately turned left and started walking in that direction. The others were as confused as Erika, but they just followed Amadeus relating it to his unusualness. The group of four were all wearing hoods and certainly did attract a few looks but as it wasn't uncommon, those gazes didn't last long.

While they were walking, a kid ran and was heading straight towards Amadeus. Before he could bump into him, Eras somehow appeared in between them and the kid ran straight into Eras. The boy didn't seem to look where he was going as he angrily looked up and only came across Eras' fierce eyes. The kid started trembling and immediately disappeared into the crowd.

Sighing lightly, Eras looked back only to see Erika and Velia yet no Amadeus. His eyes that were full of relief immediately became alert as he started looking around.

"You two, where's his highness?"

Erika hurriedly looked around but couldn't find him. Shaking Velia, she realised that the latter was looking at something with a longing gaze. Following her line of sight, a stall selling snacks was on the other end and a tantalising smell originated from it. Smacking the Tengu on the back of her head, bought Velia out of her thoughts.

Briefing her with the situation, they started looking for Amadeus who had suddenly disappeared. Knowing that they had hidden their identities right now, they didn't call out for his name and just silently looked for Amadeus. A messenger bird from Eras had mobilised the blades as they also wore hoods to cover their identities to search for him.

Amadeus meanwhile had somehow got caught up with the crowd and had become lost. Looking left and right he found that he was in an unfamiliar place. Not knowing which direction to go towards Amadeus spun around and went in the direction that he stopped. The more he walked the barren the land became. It was until he noticed a rather unkempt shop. People would just walk past like it didn't exist and Amadeus felt a natural calling towards it.

Walking towards it, Amadeus didn't even know when he arrived inside at the shop as he immediately got into a defensive stance. Looking around, he found that there was nothing that was kept on the shelves and the whole place was filled with dust and cobwebs.

Still keeping his guard up, Amadeus slowly crept to the door that he entered from with only one thought,

'I'm out.'

Yet no matter how many times he thought he went back, he ended up in the same place. It was as if there was a law that existed disallowing him to go back. With no other choice, he started creeping forwards with his hand on the Wakizashi his grandmother gave him. His reptilian eyes looked around as he activated his eyes of truth.

His eyes had somehow evolved once more when he awakened. Now the power of his eyes was what they were called, able to see the truth of things. Seeing that there were no traps ahead, he carefully made his way forward.

Each step he took would result in the wooden floor creaking as he got closer and closer to the main counter. There was a single silver bell there that was covered in dust, indicating that it hadn't been used for a long time.

Extending his hand, Amadeus tapped the top to ring the bell. Every slight move was done cautiously when he pressed down on the bell. Pressing it once, no sound was made. He then pressed it twice, yet still no sound. This got Amadeus slightly annoyed, why wasn't it working.

Looking round, he found that he couldn't step back or jump over the counter but only just stand there and ring the bell. Feeling slightly annoyed, Amadeus started pressing down on the button continuously. It wasn't until a slight noise was heard from the bell did Amadeus' eyes light up. But by now Amadeus was really annoyed, he continuously pressed until it started working again and still carried on. It was only until he felt a slight ache on his arm, did he stop.

Amadeus then breathed out slightly while he waited for someone to come. Silence was all he got as a response until he felt a cold breath down his neck. Turning his head towards his right, he slowly looked back only to see nothing. Sighing a breath of relief, Amadeus once more turned forward and,

"Boo."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"