At the Mermaid Bay General's Mansion, having been notified in advance of Florence's return, her father, General Kusen, was already waiting at the door when she arrived.
Step, step, step…
"Father!" Florence called out joyfully.
"Florence, are you alright?" Kusen scanned Florence from head to toe. Seeing no wounds on her, the heavy worry in his heart eased considerably.
"I'm fine," Florence hurriedly shook her head.
"Come, let's go inside first. You must be hungry, right?" Kusen said with concern. Some things were better discussed slowly and privately between father and daughter once they were inside.
"Mm, I am a bit hungry," Florence said, patting her flat belly. Swimming all the way here, she had eaten far too little.
"It just so happens that my subordinates brought in a large Spiked Spearfish yesterday. There's still more than half of it left, and the meat is incredibly delicious," Kusen laughed heartily.
The Spiked Spearfish had a spear-like spike growing on its head and possessed extremely ferocious offensive capabilities. If one wasn't careful, their body could easily be pierced through. It was incredibly difficult to catch and could be considered a true treasure of the sea.
Mermaids highly revered the Spiked Spearfish. Anyone who could catch one single-handedly was hailed as a brave warrior. In his youth, Kusen himself had caught a Spiked Spearfish on his own.
"Alright," Florence said happily. She also had a lot she wanted to talk about.
Step, step, step...
The group entered the mansion and sat down in the dining room. The Spiked Spearfish was sliced into pieces and served, along with a saucer of dipping sauce made from sea salt and seaweed.
The meat of the Spiked Spearfish was crimson red, looking just like rubies, which greatly whetted one's appetite.
"Hurry up and eat," Kusen said gently.
"Okay." Using a skewer polished from a seashell, Florence pierced a piece of fish, dipped it in the sauce, and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Mmm..."
Her expression turned strange. Why does it feel like this Spiked Spearfish isn't as delicious as it used to be?
"What's wrong? Is it not good? Or has it gone bad?" Kusen asked in concern. Even he didn't get to eat Spiked Spearfish for every single meal.
"No, it's very good." Florence suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and quickly began to eat.
She couldn't very well say that because she had eaten so much delicious food in Sedona City, the Spiked Spearfish she once found incredibly delectable now failed to move her palate at all.
"Then eat more." Kusen turned his head and ordered his subordinates to slice up more raw fish. He then looked at Florence and asked, "Florence, where have you been recently?"
He had previously thought Florence had been captured. He had sent many people to search for her and even took the initiative to attack pirate ships to find traces of her. However, two or three months had passed without finding her, which inevitably led his thoughts toward grief and anger.
He had originally planned that once he became King, he would lead the mermaid warriors to sweep through the pirates on the sea, using that method to search for Florence.
"I was being hunted down before, and I escaped inland through the Whispering River..." Florence recounted the situation of her pursuit, then said excitedly, "Then I got injured and was saved by humans."
"Saved by humans? Who?" Kusen asked with a stern face. He hated those traitors to the core for nearly causing his daughter to die in the Whispering River.
"It was a noble named Lucas. He's incredibly amazing. I spent my recovery days in Sedona City, and there is so much delicious food there..." Florence babbled on, introducing Sedona City.
"Oh?" Kusen was surprised, then said earnestly, "Then I really must thank Lucas."
He decided to send some pearls to Lucas. Humans loved mermaid pearls anyway, so he would use them to repay the life-saving debt of gratitude.
"Mm, I also feel we need to thank him. Ultimately, I spent a lot of things in Sedona City," Florence said, her face flushing slightly. She still owed him for more than half of those lollipops.
"Alright, when the time comes, I'll send people over with some gifts," Kusen said softly. Anything that could be solved with pearls wasn't an issue at all.
"Father, please leave this matter to me," Florence said hurriedly.
"You still want to go back?" Kusen froze for a moment, noticing Florence's intentions.
"Yes, I promised Annie and the others that I would go back to visit everyone," Florence said with a serious face.
"This..." Kusen was somewhat reluctant and hesitated, "I can just send a squad of mermaids over with a few hundred pearls."
"Father, Lucas and his people don't lack pearls," Florence quickly said. She thought of the Pearl Pavilion in Sedona City; there were quite a lot of pearls in there, at least a thousand. Sending another hundred pearls or so would just be icing on the cake and wouldn't hold much meaning.
"They don't lack pearls? How is that possible?" Kusen was the first to disbelieve it.
"It's true. Lucas has found freshwater pearl-producing mussels," Florence assured him.
"Freshwater pearl mussels?" Kusen was dumbfounded; this news was rather shocking.
If humans possessed freshwater pearl mussels, then their mermaid pearls would no longer be unique, nor would they be as precious.
"Yes. When I first found out, I was also quite startled," Florence said with a bitter smile. She had originally been thinking about using pearls to repay them, too.
"Then... he hasn't spread the news about the freshwater pearl mussels, has he?" Kusen asked nervously.
Pearls were the very items the mermaid used to trade with humans and dwarves. If too many appeared on the market, pearls would lose their value.
Otherwise, given how many pearl mussels the mermaids raised, they had accumulated a massive amount of pearls. However, to maintain the market value, they only ever traded a small portion of them.
"He hasn't," Florence shook her head. She remembered Nicole mentioning that a large portion of the pearls were ground into powder to be used as an ingredient for rouge paste.
She had also told her that if the price was right, they could buy small-grain pearls from the mermaids to use as raw materials.
Remembering this, she asked, "Father, where did all of our small pearls go?"
"Small pearls? They're all sitting in the warehouse. They're things nobody wants," Kusen asked in confusion.
"Those small pearls can be sold. Lucas said that if the price is right, he will purchase them," Florence said softly.
"Huh? He wants those small pearls? Why? We have large pearls here. For the sake of him saving you, I can sell a portion to him cheaply," Kusen said, puzzled. They had accumulated an enormous amount of pearls over many years.
"No, he specifically wants small pearls. He wants to grind the small pearls into powder to produce cosmetics," Florence shook her head.
No matter how cheap large pearls were, there was a limit. If they used them, producing a single box of rouge paste would likely be terrifyingly expensive.
"What a strange idea," Kusen still couldn't quite understand. In his mind, even if there were freshwater pearls, there had to be far fewer of them than seawater pearls.
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