The Key to Remaining Unwed

As the host, Ariel could hardly refuse an enthusiastic guest like the Rose of Decay. By the time she came to her senses, she had already escorted the Rose of Decay to the most bustling commercial street in Storm City. How on earth had she ended up shopping here? Hadn't they agreed to talk business? Regardless of Ariel's confusion, the Rose of Decay acted as if they were already best friends, affectionately pulling her along on a wild shopping spree. Compared to an impoverished kingdom like Raging Tide, the Underdark might have had a terrible environment, but it was exceptionally wealthy. Even if the undersea gold mines of the Raging Tide Kingdom were mined to exhaustion, they would yield less than a few tens of millions of gold coins; small veins like that were not even worth mining in the Underdark. The Rose of Decay spent money lavishly. Whatever caught her eye, she tossed down handfuls of gold coins, buying up half the street in no time at all. Ariel's eyes went wide. Even as a princess, she had never been this extravagant. At first, she had minded wasting time wandering the markets, but seeing the merchants overjoyed, she felt there was nothing wrong with shopping a bit more. Letting these impoverished folk earn a few more gold coins was a good thing after all. With that thought in mind, Ariel warmed up and began enthusiastically introducing local specialties of the Raging Tide Kingdom to the Rose of Decay. Aged salted fish, large round pearls, fist-sized fish-green stones... whatever merchandise caught her eye, she talked it up as an exclusive local specialty of Raging Tide that couldn't be bought anywhere else. The Rose of Decay played along completely, smiling as she scattered gold coins freely. By the time they reached the end of the street, even Ariel felt embarrassed. Along just this one stretch of street, the Rose of Decay had spent nearly two thousand gold coins. Two thousand gold coins! That was precisely what the Raging Tide Kingdom lacked the most; it was enough to purchase a massive estate in Storm City. Many vendors had jacked up their prices on the spot. Seeing how generous the Rose of Decay was, the people of Raging Tide demanded exorbitant sums. Ariel had noticed several times, but after hesitating, she never spoke up, letting the Rose of Decay pay tenfold the price for useless trinkets. Having finished this walk, Ariel felt uneasy. She seemed to have helped the common folk of Raging Tide make a fortune, but swindling this generous Undead Queen like this... wasn't that rather shameless? The Rose of Decay, however, seemed entirely oblivious. Instead, she eagerly asked where else they could buy Raging Tide's local specialties, as if she hadn't spent enough money yet. This made Ariel feel all the more guilty. The queen trusted her so implicitly, yet she was continuing to deceive her? Ariel hesitated a moment before saying to the Rose of Decay, "I apologize, Queen Rose. You spent far too much money just now. Those things aren't really worth that price. I'll have someone return the excess difference to you." The Rose of Decay said in surprise, "Not worth that price? Why would you say that? Those are fine things I've never seen before." Ariel said helplessly, "Everything in the Raging Tide Kingdom is hauled from the sea. Those supposed oceanic treasures are actually quite common. They aren't worth anywhere near that much gold." The Rose of Decay said with apparent gratitude, "Ah? Is that so? Sister Ariel, you are so kindhearted to admit such a thing! Anyone else would have dragged me to another street to keep shopping long ago." Ariel said sheepishly, "Our Raging Tide Kingdom is too poor. Seeing so much gold, I lost my head for a moment. But you are a guest, Queen Rose. We shouldn't have done this." "No, there is no need. Sister Ariel, hearing those words from you is worth a hundred times more than those gold coins. Starting today, I consider you a true friend," the Rose of Decay said, linking her arm through Ariel's. "Friends?" Ariel felt her head spinning. How could someone she had just fleeced end up praising her? How had they suddenly become friends? The Rose of Decay gave her no time to think, waving a hand to her attendants behind them. "Everything we just bought is to be gifted to my dear sister Ariel, as a token of our meeting." The sheer magnitude of this gift left Ariel completely stunned. A gift worth several thousand gold coins! It was equivalent to giving her an entire estate in Storm City. The gift was so lavish that Ariel hardly dared accept it. Yet she was no match for the Rose of Decay. After a few polite refusals, the Rose of Decay cut her off with "Does this mean you don't want to be my friend?", leaving Ariel utterly bewildered as she accepted the gifts. With just one shopping trip, Ariel's relationship with the Rose of Decay drew much closer. Far from rival negotiators maneuvering against each other, they had become close as intimate confidantes. Afterward, the Rose of Decay did not mention business to Ariel at all, merely saying that she was exhausted after flying all this way and wanted to rest for the night. At this point, Ariel did not even pause to consider whether an undead could get tired, unthinkingly arranging accommodations for the Rose of Decay right inside the royal palace. Late at night, when all was quiet, Melina finally could not help asking the Rose of Decay, "Mother, why did you go shopping with that princess? And why did you let them swindle so much money from you?" In fact, Melina had already sensed something was off while they were shopping today. Clearly, both stalls were selling pearls, yet the first had asked for one gold coin, while the next demanded ten. Even Melina could see through pricing like that. The Rose of Decay was very pleased with Melina's observation. The silly child could at least sense when something was amiss, proving she had made some progress. The Rose of Decay explained to Melina, "We came here with two objectives. The first is to negotiate the business deal for your father. There is no difficulty in that at all, because your father said no one in the Raging Tide Kingdom could possibly see through the issues in this proposal. Every clause looks immensely favorable to Raging Tide. Even if we did nothing and simply presented the document, they would be forced to sign it. The Raging Tide Kingdom could never resist an opportunity to make their national strength soar. "So, befriending Ariel is not for the sake of this deal, but for the second task your father assigned. We cannot allow that Aeolus to marry Ariel. But we are outsiders; what right do we have to meddle in the marriage of the Raging Tide Kingdom's princess? Your father surely does not want to burn bridges with Raging Tide either, so we must take another approach. "Once Ariel and I are friends, I will naturally have the standing to weigh in on a friend's marriage. Do you understand now?" Melina was enlightened. So that was the plan! But she immediately asked, "Then why didn't Father mention this before we left?" The Rose of Decay smiled. "This is a method only a woman can employ. How could your father prepare for it in advance? Or rather, he had no need to give me detailed orders—he trusts that I can handle it." Indeed, just as the Rose of Decay said, Anbaixiu had always trusted her abilities. Mere brute force was never enough to govern a kingdom. The domineering strength the Rose of Decay usually displayed was only one side of her; when it came to using her wits, she never disappointed. Melina now completely understood her mother's intent, and followed up by asking, "Then what do we do next? Can we tell Ariel now not to get married?" The Rose of Decay shook her head. "It's not that simple. Though we've become friends, our bond isn't deep yet. Now is not the time to bring that up. In a few days, once the contract is signed, Ariel will truly recognize my sincerity toward her. Only then can we discuss such personal matters. Before that, however, there is one crucial detail we need to look into." Melina asked excitedly, "What detail?" Although Melina was not the sharpest, she loved this sort of unraveling-the-clues detective game. Last time, when Anbaixiu had taken her undercover among the dark elves, it had been tremendous fun, though it was a pity she hadn't gotten to enjoy it to the fullest. Now Melina once again felt the thrill of being guided through a detective game, and she couldn't wait to play her part in the plan. The Rose of Decay pondered for a moment before saying, "Through our conversations today, I discovered that people in the Raging Tide Kingdom marry quite young. Women can wed as early as twelve. Yet Ariel is no longer young; she is twenty-eight this year, but appears never to have married. This doesn't match the customs of Raging Tide. We need to find out why she hasn't married, or it will be difficult to broach the topic of marriage with her." "Can't we just ask her directly?" Melina asked, puzzled. The Rose of Decay rolled her eyes at her daughter and lectured her, "At Ariel's age in the Raging Tide Kingdom, she's considered an old maid who couldn't find a husband. If you ask her so bluntly, she's very likely to take offense. You're a woman too—don't you even understand that?" "Uh, not really." Melina felt very wronged. She was barely over a year old—how could she possibly know what a twenty-eight-year-old woman thought? The Rose of Decay did not expect her silly daughter to suddenly see the light, so she merely said patiently, "Don't worry, finding this out shouldn't be difficult. After all, she is the kingdom's princess, the sole heir of the Raging Tide Kingdom. Her marriage must be a matter of public concern. Just asking around casually should yield some information." "That's great then!" Melina said excitedly. "I'll go look into it! I'll ask the merchants who swindled our money today." "You call that gathering information? That's practically turning yourself in, as if you're terrified people won't realize we're plotting something with Ariel!" the Rose of Decay said helplessly. "You'd better just watch, listen, and keep your mouth shut, and follow my orders." Melina deflated like a punctured ball and sighed, "Fine, I'll do whatever you say." This was completely different from playing house before; she didn't get any chance to show off at all. Adventuring with her father was much more exciting. Paying no mind to Melina's grumbling, the Rose of Decay continued spending time with Ariel over the following days, and the contract negotiations proceeded smoothly. Just as Anbaixiu had anticipated, the people of the Raging Tide Kingdom had no concept of 'labor costs.' In their eyes, fishing was work, and working for Anbaixiu was work—and the latter paid vastly more. Ariel had never expected the contract to be so 'generous.' The Raging Tide Kingdom seemed to give up almost nothing in exchange for an enormous return: grain, raw materials, airships, and massive quantities of alchemical products and weapons. For the Raging Tide Kingdom, this was an extraordinarily profitable arrangement. It was so generous that the King of Raging Tide approached Ariel and questioned her in all seriousness, asking whether she had entered into some side arrangement with the lich—otherwise, why would the lich offer terms so favorable? Ariel could only swear that she had met the lich only once and had promised him nothing. The King of Raging Tide was so thrilled that he chanted "Talos bless us" hundreds of times before eagerly signing the contract with the Rose of Decay. Once the contract was signed, the Rose of Decay also managed through subtle probing to uncover the key reason Ariel had remained unwed: her betrothed had died, not very long ago. And this betrothed had gone by the name of Mengge Grayriver.