---
Two months and eleven days.
That was how long it had taken.
Learning had taken considerably less. Leon was a competent teacher—methodical in the way people who had spent decades mastering one craft tended to be methodical. He understood supply chains, markup architecture, the particular social grammar of negotiating with nobles who believed they were doing you a favor by accepting your gold. He passed all of it to Michael with the patient thoroughness of someone who genuinely enjoyed teaching.
Michael absorbed it in three weeks.
The remaining time had been spent building.
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The Aaron persona was precise in its construction. Blue hair, cut short and practical. Blue eyes that held nothing in particular—not warmth, not calculation, just the mild attentiveness of someone paying appropriate attention. The face itself was pleasant without being remarkable; people would remember it as trustworthy without being able to say why.
