All right, he really was selling one thing under the guise of another.
Regardless of whether mountain lion pelts could match yeti pelts in quality, it was still false advertising.
Excellent. That was very Baturo.
Normally, this would have been a straightforward case of commercial fraud. Rhode could simply have handed Baturo over to the trade authorities.
But this time, the people he had cheated were the prince and princess of Lordaeron...
Rhode had no idea whether the kingdoms of Azeroth had anything like the crime of "deceiving the sovereign." If they did, then although Baturo hadn't deceived the sovereign himself, it was close enough. His fate would probably be pretty grim.
Rhode thought for a moment, then said to Baturo, "So you're admitting you sold counterfeit goods? Fine. Apologize to the prince and princess at once!"
Baturo hastily dropped to his knees.
Rhode continued, "All right, go back and change the cloak's name to 'mountain lion pelt cloak.' Do you hear me?"
Baturo nodded like a chicken pecking at grain.
He didn't dare utter a single word now.
"All right, you can go. Remember, no more selling counterfeit goods!" Rhode admonished him, then waved him away.
Baturo understood that Rhode was helping him out of this mess. He hurriedly stood up and was about to leave.
"Hey, wait!" Arthas reached out to stop him, then turned to Rhode. "Earl Rhode, are we really just going to let his fraud slide?"
"Oh... well... yes, yes, he has committed fraud. And he deceived the prince and princess, at that!" Rhode nodded, seemingly considering it for a moment, then said to Arthas, "Your Highness is right. I'll notify Lordaeron immediately that the prince and princess were cheated by an unscrupulous merchant while inspecting Southshore, and ask them to send people to investigate