Hearing Scarlet's voice right now, Xavier's first reaction was pure panic. His grip on the shopping bags tightened sharply. Scarlet never allowed them to interact with other females. If she ever caught the scent of another female on them, she would go completely insane and torture them twice as hard.
Xavier took a few steps back, clumsily trying to put some distance between himself and Annie.
Annie, clutching the still-warm shopping receipt, secretly rolled her eyes. This guy. He turned his back on her so fast. If it weren't for his rank of mental power, she wouldn't even give him the time of day.
Suppressing her annoyance, Annie turned to meet Scarlet's gaze, forcing a fake smile as she curled her lips. "Cousin, you're here."
Scarlet held a noble status. Even though Annie was her cousin, she was still supposed to respectfully address her as "Your Highness." Calling her "cousin" was crossing the line. But Scarlet couldn't be bothered to argue. Mimicking her mannerisms, she gave a fake, tight-lipped hum and casually asked, "What are you two chatting about? You seem so happy."
Annie feigned nervousness and glanced at Xavier, her eyes flashing with a fabricated guilt. She said timidly, "Oh, nothing. I just saw my brother-in-law here all by himself and I didn't know where you went, Cousin. So I was just being nice and keeping him company. Cousin, you know this is the royal shopping district. Only members of the royal family are allowed here. If he was left here all alone, he would have been kicked out."
Annie looked up, batting her innocent eyes. "Cousin, you aren't mad at me, right?"
Without waiting for Scarlet's reply, she acted as if she had just remembered something and said anxiously, "Cousin, please don't be mad at him. I know you hate it when your beastmen husbands talk to other females. It's all my fault. If you want to blame someone, blame me. Please don't punish them anymore. Besides, aside from being your husbands, they are vital talents to the Empire. Any harm to them is a loss for the whole Empire. Cousin, as a princess, you need to think about the Empire and the people."
Annie practically shouted that last sentence, making sure everyone around them heard it.
Even though the shopping center was divided into several major zones, interstellar reporters held a pretty high status. With a press pass, they could come and go as they pleased. This was a joint agreement between the Empire and the Federation. The Star Network spanned the entire galaxy, and it was the only place where commoners, nobles and royalty could communicate without barriers. They needed people to speak up for justice on there.
And on her way here, Annie had explicitly spotted a few interstellar reporters. With Scarlet's scandal blowing up the way it did, she was certain those reporters were lurking all around, waiting to snap up some firsthand gossip.
Annie's tone was incredibly earnest, her voice soft and gentle, reaching an emotional peak. Glistening tears even welled up in the corners of her eyes. A perfect mix of heartache and pity. She was so incredibly understanding that even Scarlet felt a tiny bit moved watching her act.
But that didn't stop her from letting out a yawn.
"Wow. Beautifully said. Next time the intergalactic peace conference is held, I'll definitely recommend to the Empress that you represent the Orin Rosa Empire."
How could Annie not catch the heavy sarcasm in Scarlet's words? Still, she maintained her smile, her expression entirely unchanged. "Then I thank you kindly, Cousin."
"Oh, don't mention it." Scarlet glanced down at the receipt in Annie's hand, taking it from her with a bright, cheerful smile. "If anyone should be saying thanks, it's me. I guess all these things must have cost you a pretty penny, huh? Do you even have enough left, sweet cousin? I mean, you really are way too reckless with your spending. I heard that your lovely beast husbands, because of that little incident with the Starfleet attack, were punished by Her Majesty — docked three whole years of their salary — and on top of that they have to fund the entire Starfleet reconstruction. What was it? Three hundred million star coins? I heard they're frantically calling their families, begging for cash everywhere they can. So how could you?"
As she spoke, Scarlet brought a hand to her lips, her eyes brimming with absolute heartache. "Oh, Cousin, your family is struggling so much right now, barely making ends meet. And yet you're still treating your big sister to such lavish gifts. I honestly feel guilty accepting this. No more of this next time, all right?"
Princess Annie's family being punished by Her Majesty, suffering a massive pay cut and drowning in debt — that was literally the number one trending topic on the Star Net last week. Though the drama had cooled down a bit since then, it was still a vicious thorn in Annie's side.
Annie's breath hitched, her crimson lips pressing together until they turned a stark, furious white. She replied coldly, "Cousin, no matter how tight my finances are, I can certainly still afford a tiny expense like this."
"Oh, really?" Scarlet raised a brow, flashing a brilliant smile. She grabbed a nearby diamond necklace worth five hundred thousand star coins and tossed it right in front of Annie. "Then why don't you buy a little more?"
With her account balance sitting at a miserable three hundred thousand star coins, Annie was instantly struck speechless.
But despite being utterly humiliated by Scarlet, Annie didn't just roll over and give up. She quickly locked onto a new angle of attack. She smiled sweetly, though a wicked, venomous glint flashed in her eyes. Her voice, however, remained sickly soft.
"Cousin, in just one month it's the Empire's annual planetary resource competition. You skipped out on it last year. Will you be gracing us with your presence this time?"
The Orin Rosa Empire governs seventy-two intergalactic resource planets. Every year they hosted the resource competition as a way to push their citizens to strive for greatness. The grand champion of the tournament would earn exclusive one-year usage rights to a specific resource planet. And these resources — they can be incredibly rich, totally barren, exceptionally rare or absolutely essential. As for what exactly you'd win, you wouldn't find out until the very day of the competition.
The rules of the competition are pretty simple. You enter as a family unit. As long as all members are at least rank B, anyone can join. Commoners, nobles, and even royals.
Annie only said that to mock Scarlet's low rank, implying she didn't deserve to compete.
But Scarlet's eyes darted around and an idea popped into her head. She walked right up to Annie, grabbed her by the shoulders, and said, "Thanks for the reminder. I am absolutely going to enter."
The truth was, lately Scarlet had been constantly wondering: what if she couldn't win over her beastmen husbands? What was she supposed to do then? Those affection points Guagua talked about had a terrible return rate in her eyes. It was like trying to put out a raging fire with a squirt gun.
She couldn't just sit around and wait to die. Her only option was to get stronger fast. Her husbands absolutely despised her. There was zero chance they'd willingly throw themselves at her. So she had to go level up in the Lost Continent.
The Lost Continent sat right on the edge of the Orin Rosa Empire. It was split into four main zones: the mist, the swamp, the jungle and the miasma. Every single zone was crawling with mutated plants and animals. By taking them down, you could loot two types of crystals: spirit cedar and moon soul. Spirit cedar boosted your mental energy, while moon soul leveled up your mutant powers.
But females couldn't just stroll into the Lost Continent. There were rules. It needed an escort of at least three males. And the lower a female's rank was, the higher the rank of her male escorts had to be, just to balance things out and fully guarantee her safety. Scarlet was only a rank F. That meant her escorts had to be rank A or higher.
Luckily, her husbands fit the bill perfectly. They had always been obsessed with the resource war. In fact, they had brought it up to the original Scarlet during their first year of marriage, but she had shot them down instantly.
This year, though, Scarlet decided to toss them a bone. She could use this as leverage, forcing them to drag her into the Lost Continent to grind some levels.
Having made up her mind, Scarlet completely ignored Annie and dragged Xavier back home. She had to announce the good news to the guys this very second.
Behind her, she could barely hear someone stomping and yelling. "Scarlet, stop right there. I am not done talking to you."
But well. It was just background noise to her now.