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37. Heist

Even more people have been put in the castle within the past four days. As of right now, there are fifty-two prisoners in total. According to the list of sacred beings that Florencia keeps, there are a little over a hundred of them in the country. Ivy shared that she has a good amount of them, though there are still a dozen or so that neither Aquila or Gaia have gotten to. Florencia has been at Queen's Garden, stuck in her lab, working on her science project and she hasn't left until today. As reported by Scooby, Samuel had taken Florencia and several werewolves and vampires out to another state, claiming that he knew the location of one of the sacred beings, who is quite strong and may require Florencia's magic for capturing. In reality, it was just a way to get the Queen Witch out of her throne hall, also known as her laboratory. A distraction that not only wastes Aquila's time and energy, but also one that gets me the chance to go to the underground lab and steal some equipment that we need for our weapons.

Orion and I are about ninety percent finished our drafts and outlines of ideas for the weapons, designs and details done. Now, we just need to build and test them. Today, I am out of the castle for a solo mission get the ingredients and materials needed for our projects. Orion is at the library, trying to see how he can get the drones to target Aquila only in the battlefield. Zander has been banned to go outside the castle by Scooby, who does not want to risk the two brothers having another violent encounter, so he is inside the castle, in his cat form, playing hide and seek with the young vampires and werewolves. How the kids just that accepted that the cat can understand them and behave like a human being, I don't know, but they're all having fun so that's all that matters. I know Zander started their discussion on how they can capture the bad guys, though I don't think he told them any important details yet. I think it was more like, "If we were to go out and fight, what kinds of booby traps can we set up to catch them?" But they do get distracted a lot, so it may take a while.

At the moment, on my way to Florencia's laboratory, I decided to stop by an abandoned tree house. Since I will be stealing several things, I thought I'd need something that can help me carry them all, like a bag or a box. The only thing I have in my jacket's pockets are emptied salt and pepper shakers I stole from the kitchen, where I will be storing chemicals. It isn't exactly the safest containers but it's not like the castle has vials, tubes, cylinders, and flasks just lying around. Hopefully, the tree house will have something to hold whatever things I'll be taking.

The tree house is actually kind of cute. I had to climb in order to get in, though there is a ladder rope that allowed me to do just that. Its size is about the same as a single dorm in universities, where there's just enough room for one person and their twin-sized bed, a drawer, shelf, mirror, and chair. I'm guessing food and bathroom is provided elsewhere. I noticed that Roman's house, as well as the Farvale house, is much bigger and looks more like an actual house with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room, while this one is basically just a place to sleep in.

I wondered what Queen's Garden was like before Aquila. From what I know, the castle was a school. One school for all sacred beings, though they took different classes, based on their groups. The people with power, such as the Ignis coven, Gaia pack, and Cassini clan, must have lived in the bigger houses like the ones that Roman is staying in. The guards and staffs either stayed in the castle's rooms or these small tree houses. Surely there are others who lived here. Maybe people who didn't have a home outside of the enchanted forest. Or maybe, these are just for decorations or extra rooms for the privileged to camp out in. Rich people do love having extra houses just because they can, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Whoever stayed here sure has an amazing collection of music records though. The only entertainment in the room is a portable light blue record player set on top of the dark brown drawer, next to a line of albums that came out from various years. Curious to see if it still works, I put on a vinyl record. I waited a couple of seconds until music began to play.