Enrique Mercado-Lopez

**Enrique Mercado-Lopez** is one of the main characters of *The Gilded Wolves* trilogy. He is the historian of the main group and is of Filipino and Spanish descent. His goal is to get into the inner circle of a Filipino revolutionary group known as the Ilustrados. However, those in the revolutionary group chose not to accept him into their inner circle due to his Spanish blood and appearance.

## Physical Appearance

Enrique is said to have a bronze complexion, dark hair, and brown eyes. He has a pretty face, and is known for bragging about his own beauty. His hair in *The Silvered Serpents* is messy and unkempt. Ruslan Goryunov of House Dazbog even comments on this. At the end of the same book, Enrique loses a ear to Ruslan.

## Personality

Enrique is a witty person, using jokes as armour when he's in a tense situation. He likes his own appearance, often asking others to say that he is beautiful. He's also known to begin rambling about history facts, and is the least eager of the group to break ancient relics to get what they want. Despite his exterior demeanor, Enrique hides in a deep part of himself the pain that he can't join the Ilustrados, and in *The Silvered Serpents*, struggles to get others' attention. He has his own insecurities, with the comic relief and jokes bubbling up to hide them.

## Biography

### Pre-Series

Enrique was born to a Spaniard a Filipino woman. His father and mother had a very good relationship, and Enrique lived in the Philippines for some time before going to Spain, where he learned of the Ilustrados and wanted to help the Filipino revolution. Even when he was in the Philippines, Enrique was shunned for his Spanish appearance, but his mother always comforted him.

When Enrique was thirteen, he did not awaken the Forging affinity he'd wanted so much. Therefore, he began studying history, the closest subject to Forging, as he believed. He was a fresh history graduate when he first entered the museum gallery of Hotel L'Eden, where he picked out mistakes and first met Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. He later preceded to become Séverin's historian and began acquisition quests with him. Later, he was there when Zofia was taken home to L'Eden from the Paris prisons.

### *The Gilded Wolves*

In the auction, Enrique is encased in a false guardian animal. When Séverin arrives, he splits open the animal and Enrique stumbles out. Enrique hands Séverin the fake compass and the latter precedes to put the compass into the House Nyx onyx bear's mouth. However, the teeth come down and Séverin's hand gets trapped. Using the riddle on the bear, Enrique deactivates the Forged object and Séverin is freed. Enrique fakes the appearance of a servant and leaves the auction room, meeting Séverin on the outside. On the carriage, Séverin breaks the compass, revealing a map.

The crew gather in the stargazing room to discuss about the map hidden in the compass. Enrique cracks the code of the figures along the edges of the map, revealing the Horus Eye. From the context inside, they decipher that the Eye can reveal the location of a Babel Fragment, which in turn can make a person a God.

After Séverin receives the letter from Patriarch Hypnos Leclair of House Nyx, Enrique follows the latter to Erebus, the House Nyx estate. Enrique is disoriented by the illusions inside the house, and watches Séverin's exchange with Hypnos, witnessing the striking of the deal. When they return to L'Eden, he checks on Laila and Zofia to see that they are okay.

Again, they gather in the stargazing room to plan for the heist. They decide to split into two teams: one shall get the location of the Horus Eye from the catalogue coin of the courier of House Kore, the other shall get the ancient African artifact from the museum so that they can conteract the effects of verit stone. Enrique and Zofia are tasked with the latter task.

Zofia and Enrique go to the museum exhibition to steal the artifact. Pretending to be drunk, Enrique swaggers in front of a guard, knocking him down and giving Zofia the opportunity to get his fingerprints. Using the fingerprints, Zofia and Enrique enter the exhibition, taking the ancient artifact. But before they can leave, they are attacked by a man wearing a blade-shaped hat and a honeybee chain. Zofia manages to get the chain off and the police soon arrive. The two of them stumble out of the exhibition.

Enrique and Zofia get to the stargazing room and examine the artifact. There is a pad in the middle of the artifact. The letters can be rearanged. Using a combination of math and history, they try to rearange the characters in the right organization. It is only when Enrique prays when he realizes what it is and solves the puzzle, finding four verit stones concealed inside, just enough for them to get into the House Kore estate.

Enrique meets up with Séverin and Zofia on the train as the head towards the House Kore country estate. He is dressed in the costume of Monsieur Chang, the assistant of Tristan Maréchal, and has a hump containing chemicals on his back. They get off the train at their destination, and the verit stones work as they pass through the gates. Enrique then heads off with Tristan to the greenhouse.

The next morning, the group gather in Séverin's room to discuss plans. Laila is to get the key to the library under the greenhouse, while Tristan and Enrique are to close the greenhouse off from the public. When all is decided, Enrique and Tristan go back to the greenhouse to precede with their plans to steal the Horus Eye.

## Relationships

### Romances

#### Zofia Boguska

Enrique is very encouraging of Zofia, and she's the only one who listens to him about history facts. In the Bronzed Beasts, Enrique and Zofia had to kiss in order to activate the swan.

#### Hypnos Leclair

Enrique had been very taken by Hypnos when they first met. Throughout the Gilded Wolves, they were flirting, and at the end, they kissed. In the Silvered Serpents, they were debating whether to tell everyone about their relationship, and by the Bronzed Beasts, they decide that they are better off as friends. However, in the epilogue, it is heavily implied that they end up together along with Zofia. This is later confirmed by Roshani.

### Friends

#### Séverin Montagnet-Alarie

Enrique seems to trust Severin, which is why he was most hurt by his betrayal. They eventually patch up, and act normally.

#### Laila

Enrique likes Laila, and his demeanour toward her didn't change even after she told him that she had 18 days to expire in the Silvered Serpents. She's fond of him too, as she makes food he likes (for example, cake).

#### Tristan Maréchal

Enrique constantly teases Tristan, but seems to like him. The ghost of Tristan's death haunts him as heavily as it does the others.

## Trivia

* Enrique is known to be bisexual, as stated in the book and when he kissed Hypnos.
* He wishes to be musically gifted. He is not.
* In Aru Shah and the City of Gold, Yamini "Mini" Kapoor Mercado-Lopez implies strongly that Zofia and **Enrique** are her grandparents. It's true, as:
	+ Her last name is the same as **Enrique's**.
	+ She said her great-great-great grandmother was an engineer, like Zofia was, and her great-great-great grandfather was a historian, like **Enrique** was.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/lqantsov/status/1462369852564258816?s=46&t=iQii1V0-Yvzx-a0n8kfEgw