Chapter 103: Disguise (1/2)
The carriage came with two storage compartments, one large and one small. The large one stored Duran and his tub while the smaller one housed our travel necessities; food, clothes etc. As for us, Regine was in charge of driving while Ancarin and I sat in the passenger compartment.
As a qualified thief, she had to pick up a variety of skills along the way. In fact, thieves in the Western Human Realm could be said to be the representatives of multi-talented individuals. At least the famous ones were…
Unlike assassins, they didn’t rely on killing for a living but instead robbed to earn money. Another point had to be made, the Thieves Guild and the Assassins Guild were two separate entities. While they weren’t at odds with each other, their relationship wasn’t that rosy either.
They were, in a sense, business rivals, since both occupations dealt in the procurement and sale of information. However, this wasn’t their main business, so their relationship wasn’t too tense despite their rivalry.
Thieves accepted missions from postings on the quest board within the Thieves Guild. These postings would contain a detailed introduction to the task in order to aid the thief in their thievery. During this process, the thief was allowed to harm a person but not kill them. This however, didn’t mean they could cripple the person either; anyone who broke this rule would get censured by the guild.
This was an ironclad rule of the Thieves Guild, at least while they were on missions. Outside of missions, the guild didn’t stop their members from acts of murder.
The Thieves Guild did not take part in the slave trade either, however this didn’t extend to pets and other living creatures. As for the Assassins Guild, they would even murder the Emperor if you gave them enough money. Compared to the notorious Assassins guild, the Thieves Guild had a much better reputation, with quite a few Robin Hood-esque thieves coming out of it.
The above could be spoken as common knowledge within the realm. However, the forty year old me knew not to take such things at face value. Just because they had such rules, did not make the Thieves Guild the good guys either.
However, given Regine’s current state, I wouldn’t be surprised if she became an assassin sooner or later.
During our previous search of Duran’s villa, Ancarin emptied the villa of any magic book she could find. While it wasn’t some treasure trove of arcane knowledge, there were at least a hundred books found; with the biggest being as thick as a dictionary. Stacked together, they could probably form a wall, or at the very least fill up our carriage compartment. Thus, our carriage trip was to say the least, uncomfortably cramped.
As she held onto a book about occultists, she chatted with me while reading. She seemed to have taken a liking to our conversations.
“From now on, you are a mage who got disfigured from a failed experiment. Due to that failure, you gained a trauma about magical experiments and so decided to become a magister.”
(Magister-> magic warrior)
“That’s how we’ll explain that giant blade on your back.”
“Also, while I don’t know why your grimoire is so interested in other grimoires, you should probably make sure it doesn’t stand out so much…” said Ancarin in an awkward tone as she pointed at the Grimoire of the Dead who was busy flipping through the other grimoires in the carriage.
Naturally, I knew of this as well. While I wasn’t guilty of anything, possessing such a strange object would make me a target just by association. If I was strong, possessing a divine weapon would lead to the fear and respect of the masses. However, I was merely a two-star potato, possessing such a treasure would just make me a juicy target.
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Therefore, I decided to avoid using Shadowfang for now. The Grimoire of Dead would be kept within my robes most of time in order to prevent strangers from noticing its peculiarity.
Not wanting to hide inside my robes, the grimoire began struggling furiously. With a slightly impatient look on my face, I hugged it with both of my arms and threatened it in a low voice: “I already gave you those two horse souls so you better quiet down. Otherwise, I’ll stop feeding you from now on.”
That seemed to do the trick as the grimoire stopped struggling.
As she looked at the comedic sight of me stuffing the grimoire into my robes, she chuckled and said: “My identity is that of your apprentice and assistant. Regine is your follower. Also, we should ensure that strangers do not see that thing we have in the back or else…”
“If someone discovers him, can’t we just say that he’s a “slave used for magical experiments?”
“…” Ancarin nodded but immediately rejected it again with a shake of her head. “While there are a number of mages who perform experiments on humans, it is also a fact that most human countries ban human experiments. The reason being that such experiments usually deal with alchemy, healing magic and necromancy. All three of which cause the subject to turn into that…”
I’d probably be misunderstood as a necromancer won’t I…then I would be chased by countless do-gooders under the banner of “ridding the world of an evil necromancer”…
Then the question remained, how would I explain Duran’s existence should he be discovered, and in such a way that I would not receive a bounty on my head as a result?
It was a complicated question that Ancarin mulled over while eating. As for Regine, I had to feed her once more…and I botched it, staining her face with a patch of sauce…
As Ancarin looked at the now bearded Duran, she excitedly said: “I got it! We can change our faces so that if something were to happen, we can just revert back to our original faces later.”
“Make-up huh, that could work.” I had to admit that this idea, while it wasn’t the best, was the simplest workable solution we had right now. But make-up huh…we needed tools and skills for that…
“Do you have the tools for it?”
“…no…”
“Do you know how to apply the make-up?”
“No…I don’t…”