CHAPTER 55: CLAUDIA

Mirelle understood that Leonard’s condition might sound harsh on the surface. But the condition was in fact, a very merciful action.

Anyone who dared to assassinate royalty was destined to be subjected to insane torturous methods and implications toward those close to them.

Even a slight interaction could land them into many troubles and possibly death.

By that logic, Mirelle herself should have been undergoing torturous interrogation for saving the assassin when the latter was near death.

But instead of that, she was only being kept watched and remained safe from any punishment.

While Mirelle was stuck in a dilemma, the assassin sneered at the cost of coughing out blood. "Want to enslave me? You can dream on! I would rather die than become your salve."

"Alright then, bite your tongue and die." Leonard was unfazed and encouraged to end her life.

Almost immediately, the assassin stayed quiet. It was clear that she had no intention of dying. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have allowed Mirelle to treat her wounds and heal her. Her mouth and attitude kept shouting she was willing to die, but her body was very honest.

The explosion that occurred should have easily ended her life even if he sent out a few strands of mana. However, the fact that she was still alive and burned nearly to a crisp meant that she was someone who was afraid of death.

Those who constantly spout about wanting to die or choose death were sometimes the most cowardly people ever.

"I’ve already got a slave collar here. You can either agree to it or you can die here and save me the trouble." Leonard retrieved a collar and tossed it to the floor. This particular slave collar was retrieved from the Slave Merchant Gerald back in the capital.

He thought the item would come in handy even if he didn’t have any plans on using it for his subordinates.

And sure enough, reality proved him correct in his decision.

Mirelle gazed at the slave collar with a silent expression. She was pondering whether to equip the slave collar on the woman’s neck.

"Don’t you even think about it!" The assassin suddenly hissed coldly. "If you wish to seek forgiveness, then you better not put that damn metal thing on my neck."

Upon hearing that, Mirelle’s body flinched briefly. Clearly, she was in the middle of a tug-of-war between Leonard and the assassin. Both sides were cooperating to tear her apart both mentally and physically.

She appeared drained and exhausted to the brim. She wanted to complain about agreeing to become Leonard’s tutor, but if she didn’t agree to the matter, then she wouldn’t have found the sole survivor of the Rabbit Tribe.

The assassin was named Claudia—a name that she had never once forgotten since the Xundraeth 76th war policy.

To ensure Claudia’s survival, she even pleaded with her mentor and nearly clashed with her in exchange for her to be released.

Although her mentor ultimately agreed to her pleas, she was disbarred from knowing when and where Claudia was released. The only thing she knew was that Claudia was given enough resources to survive for 1 month.

’Who could have imagined the weak little girl from back then would become a fierce assassin?’ Mirelle didn’t blame Claudia one bit.

Instead, she blamed the wars and those involved in political games that used human lives as nothing more than chess pieces.

"You can hate me as it is, but I’d rather you stay alive to hate me than die hating me." Having made up her mind, Mirelle’s words caused Claudia to squirm around.

Claudia’s ears were still working and their intelligence didn’t dwindle despite being captured as a prisoner.

As she squirmed around, she hissed, "Don’t you dare! I’ll kill all those close to you if you put it on me."

Alas, her struggles and words fell on deaf ears.

A small clicking sound was made, and Mirelle began chanting the magic rune for the slave collar.

"The chant is done, Crown Prince. You just need to inject your unique mana into the collar to activate it." Mirelle stood up and softly spoke.

Nodding, Leonard didn’t bother to speak a word and calmly injected his mana into the collar. As the mana flowed into the collar, it began to illuminate briefly. There was a slight burning sensation engraving around Claudia’s neck as well, but with her current charcoal-like state, the burning was nothing.

In the next instance, Claudia was officially branded as a slave under the control of Leonard.

"Promise me that you won’t force her to do anything immoral," Mirelle asked pleadingly.

"You think too much." Leonard rolled his eyes.

Oftentimes, people think enslaving a beautiful woman was for pleasure, but he held no such intention. This woman was clearly brainwashed from a young age and trained as a disposal weapon.

Taking such a person under wing was already a risk, but he had no other choice.

The disguised identity he planned for himself was an acquaintance of Slave Merchant Gerald. In that case, he needed to own a slave to make the act convincing to those shrewd businessmen at Velastra.

"You can keep her alive for now, but come to my chamber after 10 minutes." Leonard coolly said and commanded.

"Yes, Crown Prince." Mirelle heaved a sigh of relief when she saw he didn’t have any intention of forcing Claudia to comply with anything.

In fact, he could have easily reneged on his words and triggered the slave collar to forcefully pry open Claudia’s mouth to speak.

However, such an action was extremely dangerous. Just like how a slave collar could pry open one’s mouth, there were also spells that would implode oneself when some confidential information was leaked.

"You really are the worst," Claudia cursed and continued, "You held your hand back then, and now you have improved greatly. You decided to make a move personally this time."

"I know saying sorry won’t resolve the issues," Mirelle said melancholy.

"I only hope you can cherish your life more. Once we reach Velastra, I’ll try to find a way to have the Crown Prince remove the slave collar."