章 14: Decision

Time passed quietly, soon, the other people had arrived.

During this period of time, Aurora spent her time studying and also met with the two princes who brought her along. Prince Charles happily told Aurora about his study and the teachers while Prince Brian was accompanying them politely.

Perhaps, it was because he was older, but Aurora could tell that Prince Brian was also careful in his act in front of a 10 year old kid like her.

Not that she minded.

Because if it was her, she would also not put down her guard in front of children.

She knew very well some children mature too quickly because of various situation and they could have terrifying thoughts in their heads.

Aside from that, Prince Charles would also drag Aurora to see Prince Brian be beaten up by the knights. It seemed that he was so happy to see his older brother unable to do anything when he was bringing Aurora to see them.

"Follow me, your role is to listen," Duchess Isabella said to Aurora.

"Yes, Mother."

The meeting soon started.

…

And Aurora did nothing but to listen.

The people from the other two kingdoms were trying to propose to increase their water's supplies this year too. After all, the water supplies were arranged each year because of the crops needs and all.

If they wanted more water supplies, they had to exchange it with other trades and so on.

In this way, the negotiation lasted for another week before it was finished.

"Have you understood it, Aurora?" Duchess Isabella asked as they walked back after the negotiation was done.

It couldn't be said to be very beneficial, but it was good enough. After all, they were not the one who got the least amount of water this year. But whether it could continue like this next year would be another matter.

"Yes, Mother," Aurora replied. "The season this year is good and it's beneficial to have more water."

"Indeed." Duchess Isabella nodded.

The water distribution would also depend on the seasons and weather. For example, if there were more rain, there was no need for them to fight too much for the water from the lake as there would be more rain water to compensate it. On the other hand, they could get the advantage through other crops.

But if it was drought time, they would need more water and then they would compensate the other kingdoms through other trades that was adjusted.

It was more or less like that.

However, there were not only the kingdom's negotiation here, there were also many other negotiation that had to be done. In other words, there were also proposal from the other nobles plus the taxes they had to pay.

There were a lot of work.

This was the main reason why the people who come to the negotiation switched between Duchess Isabella and the Queen several times. There were even times when the two of them go together.

Only in this way would it be possible to increase the benefit for the Yellow Kingdom.

Not to mention…

Duke White's territory also required the water from the lake that was distributed through the smaller rivers.

"Starting next year, you will be the one to handle the negotiation. The report and proposal from other nobles will be given a month before the negotiation started and you can choose and pick which one of them is suitable," Duchess Isabella added.

She will be the one to do the negotiation?

Aurora's eyes widened slightly.

Even if she knew that her mother's expectation for her was sometimes a bit ridiculous, but Aurora didn't expect that she would throw her work to her like this. Aurora lowered her eyes slightly and replied, "I understand, Mother."

Duchess Isabella glanced at her daughter. "I'll watch over you next year and I hope I don't need to do it the year afterwards."

After saying that, Duchess Isabella walked first.

Aurora took a deep breath and silently followed behind her mother. Her fingers were clenched to form a fist and she understood that if she failed, what awaited her would be the punishment from her family.

She can only succeed, not fail.

How tiresome.