"But if you'd said from the start that he was yours, General… it would have been much simpler."
The king shook his head. If he'd found a hybrid like this again, he would have declared it to the world.
Ah.
So that was it.
Showcasing him.
"I thought he was dead," Melchior said shakenly. "Or… I wasn't certain." He flicked Sylene's forehead. "After all, he looked quite different from how I remembered him."
A few nobles laughed. True enough—the first time they'd seen him, the hybrid had looked unremarkable, ill-suited, plain. They'd wondered why the peace envoy had insisted on reclaiming him at all.
Even among mermaids, this one would turn heads.
And that concealment potion—strong enough to suppress traits like these long-term, despite side effects annoying enough to make it unusable for humans or normal hybrids. More than one advisor quietly noted it. Why it wasn't outlawed it worked fine for vampire hybrids who are stronger than humans and normal hybrids.
