CHAPTER 56: MERCHANT GUILD

Shortly after healing Claudia and confirming that she could sustain the sea journey, Mirelle promptly arrived at the perimeter of Leonard’s chamber.

Outside the chamber stood Curtis, who remained guarded. The look he gave her was unfriendly and almost hostile.

Knowing that her action had made the guards disdainful of her, Mirelle didn’t mind the hostility. It would have been more abnormal if she still received friendly gestures and remarks.

"The Crown Prince summoned me," Mirelle approached Curtis and said calmly.

"I’ve heard." Curtis nodded and sidestepped. "The Crown Prince didn’t wish for us to enter, but considered this a warning. Even if you’re a sixth circle mage with the Mage Association’s backing, there’s a limit to how much you can cross."

"I give my thanks to the warning," Mirelle replied and entered the chamber.

Upon entering, Mirelle spotted Leonard standing near the mirror and donning another set of clothes. Unlike the previous all-black uniform, he was wearing quite a colorful outfit that resembled the likes of wealthy merchants.

’How many sets of clothes has he brought along?’ Mirelle twitched her brows in disbelief. She thought she had understood the crown prince somewhat, but reality had repeatedly proven her wrong.

He was unpredictable and eccentric. His attitude changed faster than the time it took one to breathe properly.

"If you’re here then come help me wear these clothes properly." Amidst her dazedness, she suddenly heard Leonard beckoning for her.

He was trying to put on the wealthy merchant’s clothes before Mirelle arrived.

But to his dismay, the process was quite difficult and he was struggling to understand which part goes where.

Sometime later, Mirelle approached him and began assisting in his clothes.

"Do you even have any form of identification card for your disguise?" She asked in concern.

Although Velastra was a free trade city and did not require any form of identification as long as one had the money to pay the entry fee, he still required one if he wanted to be in disguise to deceive others.

"Do you not see the items by the bed?" Leonard replied nonchalantly. "I have long prepared for the situation. Or did you think I made an impromptu one?"

Mirelle was struck in a daze upon shifting her eyesight to the bed which contained many items. She was too distracted and concerned about Claudia’s fate to notice them earlier.

After assisting Leonard in his clothing, Mirelle walked closer to the bed and glanced at the identification card. "Merchant Vincent, certified trader of the Merchant Guild. Certification and license obtained from Veridale?"

She was stunned and alarmed once again by his means.

Besides the certification license obtained from the city of Veridale, just the fact that Leonard could falsify an association with the Merchant Guild was an unbelievable feat.

One must know that the Merchant Guild’s influence was no less than the Mage Association. The Mage Association acted like a neutral party that upholds all mages whereas the Merchant Guild controlled the economy.

After all, the Merchant Guild was universal. Each of the ruling parties in the 5 continents jointly created it.

To prevent a great depression or great recession, the ruling parties agreed to not mess with the Merchant Guild and agreed for the guild to self-operate.

Self-operating meant all the merchants certified by the guild were protected and could not be harmed by any authorities unless concrete evidence was presented that they broke the laws.

Yet Leonard was clearly treading the gray line by having a falsified identity in the Merchant Guild.

"Why are you risking this much?" Mirelle finally couldn’t suppress her curiosity and asked.

"You’re the Crown Prince of Aldros. You only need to remain in the capital and do some publicity occasionally to solidify your position. There’s no need for you to travel to Velastra."

"The assassin isn’t related to you at all. There’s no need for you to risk yourself for her." Leonard responded in kind and advised her, "As long as you give her up and stop trying to save her. You’ll be safe and sound as the well-known tutor."

Silenced, Mirelle realized his rhetorical statement was the same as her question to him. It was a different perspective and how one looked at the situation.

Just because she perceived his action as risky and unnecessary, the same might not be true for him.

Not to mention, she was still clueless about his real objective in Velastra.

Sometime later, Mirelle took a seat and asked, "Why did you summon me here? It can’t just be a simple conversation regarding your disguise or the assassin, right?"

If Leonard intended to learn about the assassin, then he would have done it in the prisoner’s room.

"I’ve heard from Curtis that disguise magic is rare and difficult to use. I want to know if you can cast a disguise spell." Leonard inquired.

His portrait might have been given up, so he wanted to alter his face. A mask could have done the job, but it would be difficult to prolong the disguise. If he wanted to be a merchant, then not showing one’s face would arouse suspicion.

Mirelle frowned and pursed her lips.

"I can disguise your appearance to someone else. But if you want someone to disguise your face, then it’s impossible." She responded. Her subtle meaning was clear that she understood what he wanted to ask next.

It wasn’t hard to alter one’s facial appearance, but to completely impersonate another one was a difficulty.

This was especially so when the impersonation target was of royalty. Any royalties born were immediately safeguarded by many spells and runes. One of them happened to be anti-disguise, an extremely tedious procedure and required many seventh circle mages to conduct the process.

This anti-disguise protection prevented the possibility of someone intending to infiltrate confidential places or impersonate as royalty to overtake the empire.

"Hmm, so even you cannot have my appearance disguised by someone else." Leonard rubbed his chin and stood up.

"Then what about the assassin? They were able to perfectly mimic the appearance of crewmates to assassinate them silently. Surely, her disguise was quite unique and different from the ones you know of."