Chapter 3144: The Misogynist Dilemma

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Azorheim, Temporal Cave Valley, Temporal Cave No. ES3030

I felt most sad for the female Card Apprentices, as I learned that the reason they were spending their hard-earned merits on beautification wasn’t simply vanity. They wanted to become attractive enough to catch the attention of the male Froslings, who apparently didn’t find them appealing enough to cross the species barrier and actually pursue them.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I went through some of their requests myself.

I immediately regretted it.

To my disbelief, some of these women basically wanted me to transform them into female Froslings, and not just ordinary female Froslings either. They wanted to become the most attractive examples of the race, as though being merely beautiful wasn’t enough. They wanted to reach the very top of the Frosling beauty hierarchy and then throw themselves into the dating pool.

The more requests I read, the more I felt like a wishing well. Or perhaps a magic lamp.

Apparently, after becoming the Ruler of the New Empire, my citizens had decided that I was the most convenient supernatural solution to every unreasonable desire they could think of.

I had started this whole thing thinking I was rewarding my people for their hard work and sacrifices.

Instead, I was slowly becoming the man responsible for entertaining their wildest fantasies.

I couldn’t even complain too much about it.

After all, I was the one who had introduced the Pleasure Card market to the New Empire. I had opened that particular door myself. Once people realized their merits could be exchanged for things they desperately wanted rather than merely things they needed, it was inevitable that some of them would take the idea and run straight into the realm of absurdity.

Still, the requests from these female Card Apprentices were getting out of hand.

I didn’t think they realized that turning themselves into Froslings would actually solve anything.

If anything, I could personally vouch for the male Froslings. They weren’t going to suddenly abandon their own preferences just because these women managed to reproduce the appearance of a Frosling. They wanted the real deal, not an imitation created by some beautification technique.

So if these women went through with their requests, they wouldn’t just be wasting the merits they had worked so hard to earn. They could also end up doing considerable damage to their own bodies in the process.

After all, transforming one’s racial characteristics wasn’t something as simple as changing a hairstyle or reshaping one’s face. The Froslings’ appearance was tied to their racial traits, their bodies, and the innate charm that came with their bloodline. Trying to force a completely different racial design onto their bodies could create all sorts of complications.

And after going through all that trouble, there was still no guarantee that a male Frosling would look at them any differently.

That was the part I felt they were completely overlooking.

They weren’t being rejected because their noses weren’t sharp enough, their eyes weren’t large enough, or their faces weren’t symmetrical enough.

They were being rejected because they weren’t Froslings.

I could already imagine the look on their faces after spending a fortune in merits, enduring a grueling transformation, and finally approaching a male Frosling only to discover that his reaction hadn’t changed in the slightest.

At that point, I would have created an entire batch of very beautiful, very miserable Card Apprentices.

I genuinely felt sorry for the men trying to court them.

Imagine using your hard earned money and risking your life accumulating merits by completing tough missions anyway possible, and finally finding someone you wanted to spend your life with, only to discover that she was so obsessed with male Froslings that she had spent her savings trying to modify herself into one.

That was a romantic battlefield I wanted no part in.

The whole situation also made me wonder about the families of the Freedom Fighters living in Freedom City.

How exactly were they dealing with their new neighbours?

I had specifically asked Dalia to increase interactions between the Froslings and Card Apprentices until the two populations became familiar enough that a minor mixed population could eventually develop.

At the time, it had sounded like a perfectly reasonable plan.

Now that I knew what those interactions had produced, I had only one question.

Why the hell hadn’t Dalia brought any of this to my attention? Had she even noticed this dilemma among her citizens?

I blamed Moon Fright and Dulas for this mess.

Well, mostly Moon Fright.

Dulas was helping Dalia manage Freedom City, as her disciple. She was more interested in learning Array Formations from Dalia than actually managing the city. Besides, she was still a teenager in terms of the chaos dwarven age. Moon Fright, on the other hand, was the Saint of her race, and the Froslings were one of the parties involved in this situation. I expected more from her.

Be that as it may, following through with the absurd requests of these Card Apprentices wasn’t the answer. I needed to step in before things got completely out of hand.

If I was going to fulfill their requests, I at least needed to make sure they understood what they were actually asking for and what consequences came with it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be rewarding my citizens for their hard work anymore.

I’d simply be helping them spend their fortunes chasing a fantasy that didn’t even understand the problem it was trying to solve.

However, there was a dilemma.

I didn’t think anything I said would change these women’s minds. Maybe I would have better luck reasoning with the men, but the women were another matter entirely. If I tried to tell them that turning themselves into Froslings wasn’t the answer, I could already imagine the accusations.

’Misogynist!’

’It’s my body, my choice.’

And if I went a step further and offered them cards that could help resist the Froslings’ racial charm, things would probably get even worse. They could accuse me of trying to control their minds with Cards or interfering with their freedom of choice.

Either way, I would somehow end up being the villain.

I rubbed my temples.

Trying to solve this without making things worse was going to be considerably harder than I expected.

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