After politely seeing off the Rose of Decay, Anbaixiu could not resist humming a little tune from his hometown.
He had a habit whenever he turned a handsome profit: indulge in a bit of smug gloating, but never get carried away, or every copper earned would soon be lost. This was wisdom distilled from centuries of life.
He had not expected Catherine to appear suddenly behind him, murmuring, "What an intriguing melody. I have never heard music with such a rhythm."
Anbaixiu turned around, facing the Elven Queen whose eyes were still rimmed with red, and found the atmosphere rather awkward.
Earlier, Catherine had merely been a fat sheep in his eyes. He could greet her with a warm smile while secretly readying the butcher's cleaver. But now that the shearing was done, she was slated to work for him in the near future, and Anbaixiu would have to provide her food and lodging. The dynamic felt entirely different.
He disliked having subordinates of noble status and formidable strength. They were complete wild cards, and as a scholar, nothing annoyed him more than such unexpected variables.
"Your Majesty, you really did not need to use yourself as a bargaining chip," Anbaixiu said.
Catherine retorted, "What choice did I have? Who told me to be such a naive, childish little girl?"
Anbaixiu's frame jolted. Had she actually overheard his conversation with the Rose of Decay? The two of them had spoken in hushed tones across a considerable distance.
Catherine fixed her gaze on him. "Did you forget? I am a legend as well, and I attained that rank as a ranger. I can hear every sound in this castle."
Thickening his skin, Anbaixiu replied, "My apologies. Talking behind someone's back isn't right, but that's just how we liches are."
Catherine fell silent for a moment. This lich's excuses came far too easily; plenty of people had surely been swindled by him before.
She pressed, "So earlier, when you took control of the Wheel of Fate and claimed you weren't prying into our secrets, was that a lie too?"
Anbaixiu answered with righteous confidence, "No, I spoke the absolute truth then. I never used your Wheel of Fate to spy on elven secrets. As I said back then, that was my show of sincerity to your people. Business is built on integrity. Everyone who has ever worked with me knows I am the most honest and trustworthy person alive—even the paladins of the Ryan Empire would have to admit that."
"Yet you still learned the secret of our mana addiction!" Catherine exclaimed, growing agitated.
It was precisely because of this that the Rose of Decay had held all the leverage during their negotiations. Catherine's greatest weakness had been seized, leaving her with no choice but to compromise no matter how hard she tried.
Anbaixiu smiled faintly. "Your Majesty, you underestimate me. I am a legend myself, and before transitioning into a lich, I was a wizard of the School of Divination. To uncover elven secrets, I had no need to borrow your Wheel of Fate."
"And you call that honest and trustworthy?" Catherine's eyes reddened again with anger.
"That is just business. Anything I tell you is guaranteed to be true, which already makes me an honest merchant rarely seen on this continent."
This was also why Anbaixiu had avoided laying his cards on the table from the start. He was not close with Catherine, and direct negotiations carried too high a risk of collapse.
Revealing that he could cure mana addiction right away would have led to only two outcomes: either Catherine would accept his exorbitant demands, or the elves would immediately launch a full-scale hunt to kill him. There was no third possibility.
Only by having the Rose of Decay converse with Catherine as a fellow queen could they quell the elves' urge to flip the table. Using a "sisterly heart-to-heart" to smooth over conflicts allowed the negotiation to proceed in the direction Anbaixiu desired.
The same cards played by different hands could lead to having one's fingers chopped off, or walking away with chests full of gold. The results were worlds apart.
This was why Anbaixiu had roped in the members of the Elegy Poetry Society from the beginning. A lone lich was far too insignificant compared to the elven race; in negotiations, he would have been forced onto the defensive.
Catherine seemed to reach an understanding and took a deep breath. "You are right. I truly am a naive and childish little girl. Unlike the kings before me, I never traveled the continent in my youth to experience foreign customs and hone my wisdom and will.
"Whatever the reason, it is my flaw. That is why I made the wrong decision, bringing about nearly irreversible consequences. If not for your arrival, the elven race would have been destroyed because of me. So, I truly should thank you."
Anbaixiu was left a bit bewildered by her sudden shift and couldn't help saying, "If you want to thank me, you should offer more money. How is working for me any kind of gratitude?"
Catherine replied in all seriousness, "Because the Silvermoon High Court does not have much gold left, and elven wealth is not measured in gold coins. Offering this much is already our limit. Rest assured, I am also a competent mage. I will make a qualified lab assistant. Saving the hiring fee of a legendary mage won't leave you at a loss, will it?"
Anbaixiu regarded her suspiciously. "Will you truly work for me wholeheartedly?"
"Of course. After all, business is built on honesty, and what I say is definitely the truth. Heh." Catherine mimicked his tone and let out a light laugh.
*Hmph. This girl thinks she can play mind games with a lich? She doesn't even know how many holes are in my ribs.*
Once the money arrived, he would turn right around and send her down into the Underdark, letting the Rose of Decay dispatch her to Ryan to serve as a kingdom-toppling temptress.
Though already scheming to transfer his assistant, Anbaixiu maintained a pleasant front. "Then we will discuss the details of your employment after the formal peace talks."
Speaking of the talks, Catherine's expression grew worried again. "Even though our greatest crisis is resolved, these negotiations probably won't be so simple. How was our march route leaked in the first place? Have you found the reason yet?"
Her words made Anbaixiu frown.
He had been so busy lately that he had forgotten to investigate the matter. The Gate of Hell had indeed been conjured by those infernal cultists, but blocking the elven route with such surgical precision required a dedicated channel of intelligence.
Coupled with his earlier sense of unease, someone was bound to be weaving conspiracies behind the scenes.
Seeing Anbaixiu lost in thought, Catherine suggested, "Aren't you a divination wizard? Why not perform a divination? Wouldn't that make everything clear?"
Anbaixiu blurted out without thinking, "And what if the divination reveals that I die? What then?"
It was not that divination yielded no answers, but that the answers it yielded could not be controlled.
The greatest danger of fate's power was that one could never alter a future once seen.
Anbaixiu could only console himself with the thought that before it was observed, the future was Schrödinger's cat—existing in a superposition of life and death. But the moment you opened the box and saw the cat, your future collapsed into a fixed reality, impossible to change.
Divination was simple enough, but a grim result was tantamount to placing an irrevocable curse upon oneself.
Therefore, every divination demanded extreme caution and thorough psychological preparation, lest one plunge into endless torment.
Anbaixiu had experienced that feeling many times, so he would never casually employ a double-edged tool like divination.
Catherine pressed, "Can't you just look at the past? As long as you don't look at the future, wouldn't that be fine?"
"Nothing comes so cheaply. Wielding the power of fate is like tossing a stone into the river of time. You can make a large enough splash, but you cannot guarantee the spray will take the shape you want. Observing the past does not mean you won't glimpse the future. Even if I explained it, you wouldn't understand."
The School of Divination was the most peculiar discipline among mages. Many of its tenets contradicted the fundamental logic of magic, making it exceptionally hard to learn and even harder to master.
Peering into the past and future was a lethal ability, far more perilous than Anbaixiu's Destiny Weaving. Without sufficient profit to drive him, he would never invoke it lightly.
Catherine said unhappily, "Then are we just supposed to sit by, do nothing, and hope everything goes smoothly? We could easily face a second ambush. If the negotiations fall through, our deal might be compromised as well."
That struck Anbaixiu right where it hurt.
That was an astronomical sum of money; he could not afford to let anything happen to Catherine.
After a moment's thought, Anbaixiu reassured her, "Don't worry. I will make all necessary preparations to ensure nothing goes wrong during the negotiations. I promise your safety will be guaranteed. However, it might be a little painful. Can you bear it?"
Catherine found his phrasing strange. "A little painful? What are you planning to do?"
"I am going to weave a future for you—one where you are guaranteed to survive."
"Is that... also the power of fate? Aren't you afraid of the side effects you mentioned?" Catherine asked, puzzled.
"It's different. Observing the future and designing the future are two entirely separate applications. I don't know how to explain it to you; you would have to read through my fifteen treatises before we could even begin to discuss it. In short, I can do it. Do you trust me?"
Catherine answered decisively, "There is no reason not to. I am quite certain by now that you would do anything for money, so for the sake of this deal, you will definitely keep me safe."
She, too, desperately hoped the transaction would proceed without a hitch; the survival of the elven race hung in the balance.
"Very well. Please give me your hand." Anbaixiu extended his right hand politely.
Catherine placed her palm into the lich's grasp. Immediately, a peculiar power surged from his hand, washing over her body like a cool breeze.
A blush crept onto her cheeks. What bizarre spell was this?
Had the person before her not been a lich, Catherine might have suspected he was taking liberties with her.
Anbaixiu, however, harbored no stray thoughts whatsoever. He merely asked, "How about this: what if I weave a future where you lose all your hair when you grow old?"
Catherine shrieked on the spot, "Don't touch my hair!"
"Tsk, vain creatures. Fine, I promise not to harm your beauty."
Since Queen Catherine was unwilling to endure that petty bit of pain, he would find another way.
*Aha. Doesn't this elven queen want to work for me?*
*Then I shall bestow upon her the future of a corporate slave. Working overtime until she breaks down in tears should count as pain, right?*
Chapter 130