"Your body is a bit weak," Rosse walked up to Otohime, looked at the blonde mermaid lying on the shore panting, and couldn't help shaking his head.
"Mm... I was born a bit frail," Otohime lowered her head with a blushing face.
'So humiliating for a merfolk.'
She only swam for half a minute, and her body was already at its limit.
The key point was, it was even seen by Saint Rosse.
"Are you satisfied with this pool?", Looking at Otohime, who didn't dare lift her head, Rosse smiled and sat down beside her, letting his legs hang in the pool.
His Devil Fruit ability was related to seawater, and this seawater was created by his Fruit power.
In the seawater he created, his perception would be maximized.
This seawater was like an extension of his limbs; with Otohime soaking in it, he could clearly feel the full range of tactile sensations brought by the seawater. [T/N: Sus]
The feeling of touching her fishtail wasn't that slippery sensation of fish scales, but rather a tight, fleshy sensation.
Very magical, also very unique, and Rosse quite liked it.
"Back to our previous topic, after hearing the price that man just offered, what are your thoughts?"
One thing at a time.
Compared to physical contact, Rosse now preferred resonance of body and mind.
Drawing a picture on blank paper into what he wanted, this was currently his favorite thing to do.
"Price, huh...", Otohime raised her head and secretly glanced at Rosse.
She felt Rosse was truly a particularly good person.
Even at this time, he didn't forget to care about her feelings.
Suppressing the messy thoughts in her mind, Otohime began to reflect on Rosse's words.
Right now, Rosse was making her face reality. She couldn't keep disappointing Saint Rosse.
After pondering for a long while, Otohime tentatively said, "The price difference is big? Female merfolks are especially expensive?"
"That's the number, but why? One female merfolk is 70 million Berries, enough to buy 700 ordinary people, why is a female merfolk so expensive?", Rosse continued to ask.
"Because they're rare?", Otohime guessed.
Just now, Doflamingo's quoted price had given her a huge shock.
She had just realized that female merfolks were this expensive. No wonder so many pirates and even fish-men would risk everything.
She was a princess of the Ryugu Kingdom, so she knew more than others.
Behind the increased number of merfolk trafficking incidents were often evil deeds by fish-men themselves. Many of them were bullies from Fish-Man District, and it had already become an industrial chain.
It's just that the source was on the human side. Fish-men themselves didn't need merfolk slaves, so she had always believed that as long as merfolks and fish-men coexisted peacefully, the slave issue could be solved.
But now it seemed, that might not be the case.
Even if merfolks coexisted peacefully, merfolks and fish-men would still have people become slaves.
"Rare? Male merfolks are rare too, so why don't they fetch a price? Isn't a hermaphroditic merfolk even rarer?", Rosse countered.
When it came to persuading someone with firm beliefs, he basically had no experience and didn't think he could succeed.
But when it came to refuting someone, to making a pure person doubt life, he was very good at that.
By constantly making someone doubt themselves, one would subconsciously think: You can raise so many questions, so many things I never thought of, then you must be very capable, and what you say must have high credibility.
That was the effect Rosse wanted to achieve.
Besides, everything he said was true, backed by real cases, and there was nothing he couldn't say.
After all, when compared seriously, even if the order he wanted to build was unfair, it was ten thousand times better than the current "fairness."
Everything could be measured by comparison.
"Then why...", Otohime was confused.
She had already been led in by Rosse. Following his line of thinking, she really couldn't come up with any answer.
"Because female merfolks have a market, and wealthy people have demand for them. And those people are often the ones who control most of the power and wealth in this world."
"Do you know? Just in the Holy Land alone, there are at least over a thousand female merfolks. New merfolks arrive every day, and every day, some merfolks die."
"So many?", Otohime's face turned pale with shock. She couldn't imagine such a massive number.
Although Fish-Man Island had five million fish-men and merfolks, and there were nearly a million merfolks under 30 years old…
But just thinking of over a thousand female merfolks becoming slaves, especially in the Holy Land she had once visited, her heart clenched instantly.
"That's a conservative number. Even in my palace, there are four merfolks, with backgrounds similar to yours, gifts from others," Rosse said blandly, showing no sign of avoiding this topic.
"This...", Otohime suddenly went silent.
She could be sure, Rosse was a good person.
But just like before, she'd overheard the conversation of transport personnel.
After she was captured, she'd be sent to Rosse as a gift for a big shot.
To those villains, female merfolks were like an impressive present that could be casually given away.
Just the thought made Otohime feel suffocated.
Even she had experienced it, let alone other female merfolks.
Thankfully she ended up in Rosse's hands. She didn't even dare to imagine what kind of tragedy would befall the female merfolks who fell into other villains' hands.
"Some problems, even if you don't think about them, doesn't mean they don't exist," Rosse looked at Otohime. Seeing her tear up again, he showed not a trace of pity.
Some emotions, better released early than bottled up.
Between a saint and going dark, what he wanted more was the latter.
"I understand... Thank you, Saint Rosse, for telling me all this," Otohime wiped her tears, her emotions extremely low.
As Rosse kept drawing the picture out step by step, she discovered a terrifying truth.
Don't even mention merfolk survival.
Even among fish-men and merfolks, even among merfolks themselves, there was enormous filth between them.
These contradictions couldn't simply be brushed off by blaming it all on humans as the source.
She could vaguely sense the essence of it all.
Just like her, Neptune liked pearls. Even though she didn't like them, the people below would still enthusiastically gift her pearls.
As long as someone thought female merfolks were truly valuable, there would be someone to catch them, to use them as gifts. Such things were hard to avoid.
Unless...
"Is it possible, through dialogue, to make everyone stop seeing female merfolks as precious gifts?", Otohime raised her head, teary-eyed, and asked with hope.
This was already the most radical method she could think of.
Force was never an option that appeared in her mind, because that was simply impossible.
Fish-Man Island had no military power, and she couldn't use such extreme means.
"Through dialogue? Then let's do a simulation, let's see if you can convince me?", Rosse raised an eyebrow, looking at Otohime with a half-smile.
If things could be solved with words, then what would we need hands and feet for?
This world is a world ruled by the strong, if you lose the fight, anything you say is wrong.
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