Chapter 224: Chapter 222: Prince? Just a Penny-Pincher!

It’s said that the Royal Mercenary Corps was formed by the Royal Family. Hilia was unsure if it was true or not. To avoid being recognized by the people of the Royal Family, before going for sales, she disguised herself... oh no, dressed up a bit.

Soon, Hilia became a different person.

Looking at the completely unfamiliar Hilia, Elina’s eyes were quirky.

Suddenly, a question popped into her mind—

Which appearance was Hilia’s true face?

The one before, was it really her true self?

Hilia noticed her confusion and smiled, "Don’t worry, since we left Southern Border City, what you’ve seen is my real appearance."

Elina couldn’t help but ask, "Everyone knows we’re a team now. Does changing your appearance still help?"

Hilia retorted, "How do you know what others see is the same as what you see?"

Elina: "..."

The Elf Maiden suddenly felt a bit creeped out.

"Just kidding, keeping up a disguise consumes Magic Power. I wouldn’t usually do it. Anyway, let’s go."

"..."

Soon, the two arrived at the location of the Royal Mercenary Corps.

As two of the advance exploration mercenary corps, like the Eternal Night Mercenary Corps, they had occupied a pretty good spot by the pond.

They even made use of nearby resources, chopping some timber to make wooden fences and enclosing their camp.

The wooden fence wasn’t high, about a meter tall. If one really wanted to get in, they could just jump over.

But most people used the front entrance; no one would just jump over the fence without reason.

There was someone.

Hilia saw as she and Elina entered through the main entrance, Rose’s shadow stepped over from the side of the fence.

As Hilia and Elina explained their purpose to the mercenaries guarding the camp, Rose had already entered the Royal Mercenary Corps Camp, wandering around and touching things.

Hilia felt that if he wanted to, he could quietly take away the camp’s belongings without the Royal Mercenary Corps noticing.

However, Rose still maintained a trace of divine dignity, just roaming around without touching the camp’s belongings.

While Hilia was talking to the camp’s guarding mercenaries, she sneakily watched Rose, curious if he found anything interesting inside.

After all, Rose rarely came out.

But since Rose didn’t say, she didn’t dare to ask.

Elina seemed to have sold intelligence data to mercenary corps before and appeared adept at handling such situations.

Soon, the guarding mercenaries led them into a large tent.

Inside the large tent, at the far end facing the entrance, there was a low table, behind which sat a young man who looked remarkably noble.

There were also two tables on both sides of the tent entrance, forming a cross with the door flap.

"This is our leader, Pascal," the leading mercenary said.

"Are you the legendary mercenaries who entered the ruins this morning? Please have a seat."

Pascal gestured for them to sit down.

Hilia looked at Pascal, feeling that she’d seen the name before, but couldn’t recall it at the moment.

She started to recall what she knew about Royal Family affairs.

Official reports said there were nine princes and princesses in the current Ista Royal Family generation, but apart from the first three, the others were still mysterious and unrevealed.

Rumor had it that they were scattered across top-notch Magic Schools, furthering their studies.

Hilia hadn’t had the chance to contact that circle yet, so she didn’t know where they’d ended up, but she was sure there were some at the Divine Magic Academy.

After observing Pascal, Hilia made a judgment.

"He must be one of the princes."

Ordinary nobles couldn’t display such a world-conquering demeanor under gentle manners. Only the Empire’s most noble had that air, nurtured by being served by countless people since childhood—true "nobility".

If he’s a prince... then it’s time to strike a hard bargain.

Hilia looked Pascal in the eye and asked, "The ruins have opened; Pascal, aren’t you going to explore them?"

Pascal smiled slightly, "This opportunity, I gave it to my sister. I’ll go after she’s done exploring."

Sister?

So it seems there are two royal family members.

Elina also smiled, "That’s a very rational choice because the ’Initial Trial’ to reach the true gate of the ruins is extremely dangerous."

Pascal was intrigued, "Extremely dangerous? How dangerous?"

Elina thought for a moment, "Dangerous enough to wipe out an entire temporary camp."

Pascal laughed, "Haha, sounds like you ladies encountered great challenges in there. But maybe it’s due to your lack of experience. It seems you just reached the gate of the ruins and haven’t actually entered yet?"

Such keen insight.

He directly concluded that they hadn’t gone in, very confident, seemingly not afraid of being wrong.

Hilia looked at Elina, feeling that Pascal had a reason for keeping them at such a distance.

Intentionally preventing them from communicating to divide them and gain the upper hand in the ensuing negotiations.

In response, all Hilia could do was to speak up before Elina, "Mr. Pascal, the ’Initial Trial’ isn’t that easy to complete; under normal circumstances, it takes at least eight hours. And without our intelligence, your sister is certain to fail—do you believe that?"

As for royal brothers and sisters, Hilia didn’t believe they were united.

Otherwise, why not explore the new ruins together, instead of leaving Pascal in the camp to wait for his sister’s return before he explores?

Pascal smiled, "You don’t know my sister. What you ladies can accomplish, my sister naturally can as well. You may not know—but when you entered the ruins, my sister had just arrived today. The reason the gateway of the ruins opened was because she brought a Pure Magic Crystal, left it on the gateway, allowing all mercenaries to explore."

That indeed was unknown to Hilia and Elina.

They hadn’t had time to visit the temporary camp’s tavern for news after returning, just discussed and headed over.

Hilia praised, "Your sister is very bold. I wonder if Mr. Pascal is bold enough; the core information for clearing the ’Initial Trial’ is available for a one-time fee of 20 Gold Coins." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Pascal’s smile faded, "Lady, though our Royal Mercenary Corps may appear wealthy, we’re not fools. The so-called ’Initial Trial’ is merely an entrance test, not top-secret information for clearing the ruins—I’m sorry, but that price is too high."

Hilia frowned slightly.

This prince, why is he so stingy?

He couldn’t even spare 20 Gold Coins, excessive!

Hilia couldn’t help but reminisce about Benovia, unaware of which great noble or merchant family she was from, using gold ’heart runes’ for practice and casually giving her 200 Gold Coins for exploring ruins.

In comparison, this prince was a real penny-pincher!

Hilia snorted lightly, "That’s today’s special price; tomorrow it will double."

"So confident?"

Hilia motioned for Elina to stand, "Mr. Pascal, if you don’t purchase it now, it’ll cost 40 Gold Coins tomorrow. We welcome you anytime, just remember—before we set out to explore the ruins, being ahead of step is invaluable~!

"If Pascal has doubts, you can wait to see if your sister takes at least 8 hours to return, and surely hasn’t completed the ’Initial Trial’. She might even return with injuries."