This lich needs more money.

Chapter 410 The Key to Not Getting Married

As the host, Ariel could not refuse the enthusiastic guest, the Withered Rose.

By the time she came to her senses, she had already brought the Withered Rose to the most prosperous commercial street in Storm City.

Why did I come here to shop? Didn’t we agree to come here to discuss business?
No matter how confused Ariel was, Withered Rose still acted like Ariel's best friend and took her everywhere shopping.

Compared to a poor country like the Kingdom of Raging Tides, the Underdark only has a bad environment, but it is extremely wealthy.

Even if the gold mines in the Angry Tide Kingdom were mined completely, they would not be worth tens of millions of gold coins. Such small veins of ore were not worth mining in the Underdark. Withered Rose was generous and threw a lot of gold coins at anything she liked. In a short while, she had bought half a street of things.

Ariel's eyes widened as she watched. As a princess, she had never experienced such luxury.

Ariel was a little bothered about wasting time shopping, but when she saw those cheerful merchants, she felt that there was nothing wrong with shopping a little longer.

It's a good thing to help these poor people earn a few more gold coins.

With this idea in mind, Ariel became enthusiastic and began to introduce the specialties of the Kingdom of Fury to Withered Rose.

Aged salted fish, big round pearls, and fish bluestone as big as a fist... In short, all the commodities that can be seen are exaggerated as specialties of the Angry Tide Kingdom, which cannot be bought anywhere else.

The Withered Rose was also very cooperative, smiling and throwing gold coins around.

After walking down the street, Ariel felt embarrassed.

Just for this short distance, Withered Rose spent nearly two thousand gold coins.

Two thousand gold coins, this is what the Angry Tide Kingdom lacks the most. It is enough to buy a huge manor in Storm City.

Many of the goods were priced exorbitantly. Seeing that Withered Rose was generous, the Angry Tide people asked for exorbitant prices. Ariel saw this several times, hesitated for a long time, and finally did not ask for anything, so Withered Rose spent ten times the price to buy these useless things.

After walking this distance, Ariel was still uneasy. It seemed that she had helped the people of the Kingdom of Rage to make a fortune, but wasn't it not good to cheat this generous Queen of the Undead?
The Withered Rose seemed not to notice anything at all. Instead, she asked enthusiastically where else she could buy the specialties of the Angry Tide Kingdom, as if she had not spent enough money.

This made Ariel feel even more guilty. The queen trusted her so much, yet she continued to deceive her?
Ariel hesitated for a while, then said to Withered Rose: "I'm sorry, Your Majesty Rose, you just spent too much money. Those things are actually not worth the price. I will have someone send the extra money back."

Withered Rose said in surprise: "Not worth the price? Why do you say that? Those are all good things I have never seen before."

Ariel said helplessly: "Everything in the Kingdom of Raging Tide was fished out of the sea. Those so-called treasures from the seabed are actually just common things and are not worth so many gold coins."

Withered Rose said gratefully, "Ah? Is that so? Sister Ariel, you are so kind-hearted to admit such a thing. If it were someone else, they would have dragged me to another street to shop."

Ariel said embarrassedly: "We are too poor in the Kingdom of Fury. Seeing so much gold, we can't hold back for a moment. But Your Majesty Rose, you are a guest, we shouldn't do this."

"No, that's not necessary. Sister Ariel, your words are a hundred times more valuable than those gold coins. From today on, you are my friend." Withered Rose said, hugging Ariel's arm.

"friend?"

Ariel felt her brain was a little confused. How could she be praised for lying to someone? How did they suddenly become friends?

Withered Rose did not give her a chance to think. She waved her hand and said to the followers behind her: "All the things I just bought are for my sister Ariel. Just consider it as my meeting gift."

When this gift was taken out, Ariel immediately lost the ability to think.

The gift was worth several thousand gold coins, which was equivalent to giving her a manor in Storm City. This gift was a bit too heavy, so Ariel didn't dare to accept it.

But she was no match for the Withered Rose. After she gave in a few words, she was blocked by the Withered Rose, "You don't want to be friends with me", and she accepted the gifts with a confused look on her face.

Just from this one shopping trip, Ariel and Withered Rose became closer. They no longer seemed like rivals in a game of chess, but instead became close friends.

Next, Withered Rose did not discuss business with Ariel, but just said that she was very tired after flying all the way and wanted to rest for a night.

Ariel didn't have time to think about whether the undead would be tired at this time. Without thinking, she arranged for the Withered Rose to live in the palace.

When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, Melina could not help but ask Withered Rose, "Mother, why did you go shopping with that princess? And were you cheated out of so much money?" In fact, Melina already felt something was wrong when she was buying things today. They were clearly selling pearls, and the price at the beginning was one gold coin, but later it became ten gold coins. Even Melina could see that there was something wrong with this kind of quotation.

Withered Rose was very satisfied with Melina's performance. This silly girl could at least sense that something was wrong, which meant that she had made some progress.

Withering Rose explained to Melina, "We came here for two purposes. One is to help your father negotiate the deal. This is not difficult at all, because your father said that no one in the Kingdom of Raging Tide can see through the problems of this plan. Every clause on it looks very favorable to the Kingdom of Raging Tide. Even if we do nothing and just present the plan to them, they will have to sign it. The Kingdom of Raging Tide cannot bear the opportunity to let the national strength surge.

"So I made friends with Ariel not for this deal, but for the second mission your father gave me. We can't let Aiolos marry Ariel, but we are outsiders, so how can we have the right to interfere in the marriage of the princess of the Kingdom of Wrath? I guess your father doesn't want to break up with the Kingdom of Wrath, so we can only try another way.

"As long as Ariel and I are friends, I will always have the right to have a say in my friend's marriage. Do you understand now?"

Melina suddenly realized that this was the plan, but immediately asked, "But why didn't father mention this before we left?"

Withered Rose smiled and said, "This is a method that only women can use. How did your father prepare in advance? In other words, he didn't need to tell me too much. He believed that I could do it."

It is indeed as the Withered Rose said. Amberxiu has always believed in the ability of the Withered Rose. Fists alone are not enough to control a kingdom. The strength that the Withered Rose usually shows is only one side of her. When using wisdom, she will not let herself down.

Melina completely understood her mother's intention, and then asked, "What should we do next? Can we tell Ariel not to get married now?"

Withered Rose shook her head and said, "It's not that simple. Although I have become friends with her, our relationship is not deep yet. Now is not the time to discuss this. Let's wait a few days, until the contract is signed. I believe Ariel will truly recognize my sincerity towards her. Only then can we discuss these in-depth issues. But before that, there is one key point that I need to find out."

Melina asked excitedly, "What's the key?"

Although Melina herself is not very smart, she particularly likes this kind of detective game of unraveling the mystery. It was very fun last time when Amber took her to be an undercover agent among the dark elves, but it was a pity that she did not have enough fun.

Now Melina once again felt the excitement of playing detective games with others, and she couldn't wait to be part of the plan.

Withered Rose thought for a moment, then said, "Through today's conversation, I discovered that people in the Kingdom of Raging Tide get married at a very young age, with women getting married at the age of twelve. Ariel is not young anymore, she is already twenty-eight this year, but she seems to have never married, which is not in line with the customs of the Kingdom of Raging Tide. We need to find out why she doesn't get married, otherwise it will be difficult to continue discussing marriage with her."

"Can't you just ask directly?" Melina said curiously.

Withered Rose rolled her eyes at her daughter and taught her, "Ariel is too old to be married in the Kingdom of Raging Tide. If you ask directly like that, it's very likely that the other party will be disgusted. You're also a woman, don't you even understand this?"

"Uh, I don't quite understand."

Melina felt aggrieved. She was only a year old. Who could know what a 28-year-old woman was thinking?
Withered Rose didn't expect her silly daughter to suddenly come to her senses, so she could only patiently say, "Don't worry, it shouldn't be difficult to find out. After all, she is a princess and the only heir to the Kingdom of Raging Tide. Her marriage should be a matter of concern to all citizens. Just ask around and you'll get relevant information."

"That's great!" Melina said excitedly, "I'll go ask around. I'll ask the merchants who cheated us out of money today."

"Are you trying to find out? You're turning yourself in. Are you afraid that others don't know that we're targeting Ariel?" Withered Rose said helplessly, "You'd better listen more, watch more, talk less, and follow my orders."

Melina was like a deflated ball, and said helplessly, "Okay, I'll do as you say."

This is completely different from the previous playing house. I don’t have any chance to show off my abilities. It’s more exciting to follow my father on an adventure.

No matter what Melina thought, the Withered Rose continued to deal with Ariel in the next few days, and the contract negotiation went smoothly. Just as Ambersu thought, the people of the Angry Tide Kingdom had no concept of "labor costs". In their view, fishing was also work, and working for Ambersu was also work, and the latter could earn much more.

Ariel had not expected the contract to be so "favorable". The Kingdom of Raging Tide seemed to have gained a lot without paying anything. Food, materials, airships, and a large number of alchemical products and weapons. This was a good thing for the Kingdom of Raging Tide to make a lot of money.

So much so that the King of the Angry Tide Kingdom found Ariel and asked her very seriously whether she had reached any other contract with the lich, otherwise why would the lich offer such generous conditions?

Ariel could only swear that she had only met the lich once and had never promised anything.

King Fury was so excited that he recited Talos' blessing hundreds of times, and then signed the contract with Withered Rose in a hurry.

After the contract was signed, Withered Rose also found out the key to Ariel's refusal to marry: her fiancé had died not long ago.

The name of the fiancé is Munger Gray River.

(End of this chapter)