430 Forced Marriage (2/2)

Also, none of them took their leave. They looked at each other and seemed to have something to tell the Dragon King but did not know how to start.

Somewhat surprised, Gu Shenwei asked, ”Is there anything else?”

Everyone remained silent, until the most esteemed of them, the one-eyed chief Long Xiaoshi, spoke up, ”There's indeed something. Erm, you are going to be marrying the princess soon, Dragon King. Erm, we're all happy, erm, but, erm...”

It was rare for a swordsman from the Great Snow Mountain to beat around the bush.

Long Xiaoshi coughed a few times before eventually spilling everything out. ”But, sir, you're the Dragon King of Great Snow Mountain. Your first queen should be a woman of Great Snow Mountain.”

They had come to force him to marry one of their own people.

The swordsmen were embarrassed at first, but once Long Xiaoshi spoke, they became direct again. Long Fanyun, the chief of the Canopy Peak, who had always been the most ardent supporter of the Dragon King, was also of a similar mind as his countrymen in this instance. ”If the Dragon King marries woman of the Great Snow Mountain before or together with the princess, it would be our greatest honor,” he said.

”Marrying the princess is for steadying the morale of our army. I thought all of you knew that?,” Gu Shenwei replied. He had to tread lightly, as he did not want the swordsmen to be disappointed, nor did he want to give them false hope. ”Furthermore, we're so far away from the Great Snow Mountain now. I don't think you can make one of the ladies from your tribes suddenly appear here.”

”There's no need to conjure her out of thin air. There's one now,” replied Long Xiaoshi immediately. He looked pleased, evidently having already believed that the Dragon King had agreed to their request.

Gu Shenwei was stunned for a while before realizing that there was indeed a woman from the Great Snowmountain in the capital of the Stone Kingdom.

Jiang, who was from Luoshen Peak, was the Dragon King's personal maid. She had been residing in the royal palace ever since arriving at the Stone Kingdom. As the Dragon King was constantly busy and facing danger upon returning to the Xiaoyao Lake region, he did not bring her from the city.

Gu Shenwei suddenly came to understand something as he thought of the clumsy and constantly blushing Jiang. ”So, you've set me up long ago,” he realized.

The swordsmen were blushing slightly as well. They were ashamed to have deceived the Dragon King, but some part of them was a little pleased at the same time, when they knew that their plan was successful.

”Jiang is the best lady from the Great Snow Mountain, we...” Long Xiaoshi had intended to continue speaking before the Dragon King cut him off with a wave of his hand.

”I'll consider it,” replied Gu Shenwei perfunctorily. The simple-mindedness of the swordsmen usually worked in his favor, but it could also occassionally be quite troublesome for him. Marrying the princess of the Stone Kingdom was meant to pacify the people of the five nations, but marrying another woman at the same time would achieve the opposite results; they would think that the Dragon King was belitting them.

The swordsmen were still unsatisfied, but the Dragon King was obviously asking them to leave. As such, they could only take their leave.

Though Gu Shenwei believed that the matter could not be resolved so easily, he could only try to delay making a decision for as long as possible.

After not even a quarter hour after the swordsmen had left, another three people came looking for him to persuade him. This time round, Gu Shenwei did not even insinuate to them that he would consider taking Jiang as his first wife.

The three warlocks from the Great Snow Mountain were of great importance to the Dragon King and many times in the past when they consulted the Empyrean for signs, the Dragon King always received huge support from it. This was not entirely due to chance or 'divine will'.

The warlocks bowed respectfully to the Dragon King and then remained silent.

Gu Shenwei was in a dilemma. There was no way for him to reason with the warlocks, but he was also reaping what he sewed; in the past, when he negotiated with them, one of the promises he made was for them to pick his queen for him.

He had no idea that they had already made their choice long ago and had even sent her to him.

When Jiang had just been sent to him, Gu Shenwei actually had some slight suspcions, but as the warlocks had never made any request, he had slowly forgotten his doubts.

”Alright,” Gu Shenwei said. He did not have a choice; the swordsmen from the Great Snow Mountain were too important to him. ”I will marry the princess and Jiang simultaneously.”

Before the Dragon King had even agreed, news that he was going to marry Jiang as well had already begun spreading. The swordsmen took it as something they could be proud of and spread it eas far as they could; it was already impossible to contain the news.

Zhong Heng came running over just as the warlocks left. ”Dragon King, they say that...”

”That's right.”

Zhong Heng was stunned. He knew the Dragon King must not have had any room to maneuver to be making such a decision. ”Do they know how dangerous this is?” he asked.

Gu Shenwei shook his head. How could he possibly explain to the swordsmen that there was an ulterior motive for marrying the princess and appointing Dugu Xian as his Left General? He had wanted to use both of them as bait to attract Shangguan Jianyi's attention.

The swordsmen and warlocks did not know that their good intentions were placing Jiang in danger.

Zhong Heng had not told the Dragon King about another of his worries - would his marrying of two women at the same time cause another woman to become his enemy?

He felt a headache coming. ”Women are even harder to grasp than the fickle Shangguan Jianyi,” he thought.

When it was close to midnight, Shangguan Jianyi moved on his first target and started a spree of assassinations. He would use human heads to build a wedding present for the Dragon King.