Beastmen Love
Chapter 77: Market Competitors

Chapter 77: Market Competitors

Astri watches the famous mermen in front of them. They’re beautiful like the tales, and she’s envying their waved hairs that look beautiful without even wanting to be beautiful. Also, she thinks their clothes are beautiful too.

Koa looks at Astri and smiles.

"You’re very beautiful for a land female. Admiring my beauty too?" Koa asks.

She rolls her eyes and even laughs internally.

"Nice meeting you, Leader Koa. Excuse me." She says turning around and walking away, letting her spouses and Beau take the lead.

Koa got confused because she didn’t say he was beautiful or pleaded to be his spouse. Lee now can see how ridiculous he was in the beginning at first by watching Koa’s reaction, and also how lucky he was that Astri accepted him.

"I found it strange seeing the royal boats here and I cannot find the Queen or Kings of Aquaterra anywhere around." Koa says, but still looking at Astri from a distance.

"We came to take a..special guest." Beau answers.

"With two royal boats? For one guest. Are you bringing the King of Beasts?" Koa asks, now aiming his eyes at Beau and the others around. "Who are you all?"

They can’t lie, it would have worse consequences, so they present themselves. Of course, hiding the fact Claud is the Higher Priest. Beau found strange the fact they didn’t present Astri.

"So... Leader Lee, the one who owns the salt market around here. I came here to check how you’re making the salt, but I only saw walls inside the place where your beastmen are making salt." Koa inquiries, eying Lee differently now.

"It’s a secret process that we created. You have yours and I have mine." Lee answers.

"I see.. Are you bringing the King of Beasts to meet the Queen of Aquaterra? Isn’t she sick?" Koa asks.

"No. I’m not bringing the King Of Beasts. I’m bringing.." Beau starts to explain, but then he looks at Claud. Claud’s eyes were telling him to not say anything. "A healer. We learned about this healer to help the Queen."

"An army to protect a healer? Doctors and healers are important, but I never saw an army to protect them." Koa presses for the truth.

"This healer is special. We cannot risk." Tyr answers.

"Why can’t I believe you? You’re hiding something."

Koa noticed Beau glancing at Astri, who was playing with the cubs near the fire. He remembers that she was watching the sea but he had the impression she was looking directly at him.

"All right. Who will be coming with you? I’ll be helping with this task since it’s to aid an ally kingdom." Koa says.

"It’s not needed. We have plenty of guards." Wayde speaks.

"Land beastmen in boats are less than useless. And I can see only four sea beastmen."

Beau sighs, thinking deeply.

"You said that you and your guardians were enough to help us, Beau." Lee says.

"We are. It’s always good to have mermen with us because they can also use their voice to make soulless beasts obey us or stop them for a moment. I think we should ask La.. A.. Well, her opinion about this." Beau speaks.

"Her opinion? The beautiful land female? Why is her opinion important? And why Leader Lee is saying as he is going too?" Koa says, looking at her again.

"No. The answer is no." Lee firmly says.

"Why you’re not asking for her opinion? She’s the most important in this mission." Hawa asks.

"Most important? She’s the healer that you’re saying?" Koa presses.

Astri’s spouses and Tyr sigh in frustration.

"What part of not talking about her you didn’t understand?" Tyr asks Beau and Hawa.

"Koa is an ally. He visits our Kingdom. He will discover it one day since everyone there knows we came after the Goddess." Beau says.

Koa and his companions almost broke their jaws when they heard the word "Goddess". They were more than shocked.

Claud and Wayde hold their faces in frustration, with a migraine. Koa and his companions rush to her direction, the others follow him and Beau holds Koa.

"Land beastmen don’t know about her. They’re secretive about her identity to keep her safe." Beau whispers.

"Now you say that?! Are you for real? You shouldn’t have mentioned her from the beginning!" Lee says angry.

Either way, Koa and his companions dodge Beau and go to Astri. They kneel near her and bow their heads to her.

"I’m sorry about the way I talked to you... I didn’t know who you were. I deeply apologize. Please forgive me." Koa says.

Astri is confused and looks at them with their heads on the ground. She looks at the curious guards and the other soldiers from a distance.

"I forgive you. Please, raise your heads. Let’s not call unnecessary attention." Astri speaks.

They raise their heads.

"Please, let us come to protect you too." Koa says with his right hand on his chest.

"Have you had dinner?" Astri asks, taking everyone by surprise.

"What..?"

"Dinner. Eat, please. We can talk later on the boat. Excuse me, my cubs are sleepy." She says standing up.

Koa nods slightly. Astri flies to the ship carrying Yuki. Lee first brings the cubs to the boat, then comes back to take Zin and Tyr. Wayde and Claud go with Cyprian.

After they put the cubs to sleep, they walk to the outside deck. Astri covers herself with her long vests to protect her from the wind and simply waits. Cyprian and Wayde stand next to her to block the wind on her.

Everyone is in silence, also waiting.

"So? What is the problem? Apparently, you were having a problem and you wanted to add me to this conversation." Astri says.

"Lady Astri, I apologize for disturbing you. I should have taken the lead. I believe that having mermen with us will be helpful and would avoid hard times with soulless dangerous beasts during our travel. It is not that we can’t protect you without Leader Koa’s help, but it will be easier with him." Beau speaks bowing his head.

"Don’t have to apologize. You can ask me anything if you need an extra opinion. Like I told you before, I felt he wasn’t evil and if you believe he will be helpful, I trust your judgment." Astri says pushing Beau up to make him stop bowing. "The only thing that I ask is to learn how to talk and decide things together."

She looks at her mates.

"As my mates, you’re responsible for my safety and our family’s. However, you’re also the main guardians of Nature and sometimes you will need to think less as my mates and leave jealousy and pride behind. Sometimes I will interfere." Then she looks to Beau and the others. "And you need to remember that they’re my mates and guardians. Convince them to trust your judgment too. They have points of view that are relevant. Leader Koa would learn about me someday, but next time let’s avoid letting people learn sooner rather than later. Especially if we will be in the sea, and as I can see news swims faster than I imagined."

They nod, agreeing. Her mates agree that they weren’t effective enough while talking to Koa and Beau also weren’t secretive enough. He was obvious and that’s why Koa noticed. Beau is happy that Astri trusts his judgment and accepts his plan, learning that made him happier than he thought he would be.

Tyr is not her mate, but he also took what she said to the heart and he needs to learn how to keep her presence secretive. It’s easier to simply expose that she’s the most important. She’s a Goddess, she’s loved, she’s beautiful. Naturally, she calls attention, and since he’s a king too she will be brought to attention as well. One more reason for him to finish what he needs to finish is to leave his kingdom to stay with her.

"Now.. You talk to the fish?" Astri asks Koa. He nods and her eyes shine remembering Aquaman from her comic books. "That’s amazing! Mermen have a unique skill. I would like to see that one day." She excitedly says.

Koa blushes, smiling shyly, and nods in response again. Astri raises her hand to ask for them to wait, then she makes a funny face and sneezes.

"I think we’re done here. You should go inside, love. You can’t get sick and you worked a lot today." Claud says.

The others agree.

"All right. If there’s nothing else. Call me if you need anything. Remember, learn how to talk to each other." She says turning around and going back to their bedroom.

They sigh and look at each other awkwardly.

"Just for your information. It’s said that I own the salt market. It’s not true. We don’t produce half of the salt you produce. Producing salt is easy for you, and for us demands time. We just offer to tribes that live further away from the sea market." Lee tells Koa.

Koa nods and now understands better how they’re working. Koa is still selling salt normally, he just heard about Lee and was wondering how he was making the salt not being a merman.

"Know that for us, mermen, the Goddess’ safety and existence is highly important too. It’s in our culture to respect and protect Nature’s will. We didn’t know that the Goddess was alive, but now that we know, you can ask us anything and we will help you. I won’t be spreading who she is or what she looks like. It’s a promise and if I break this promise, You can cut my tail off." Koa says.

They feel like they found mutual understanding and can move forward with this partnership. Lee and Claud made people believe that they were traveling to make partnerships and, in the end, they’re doing that.