Inside the side room, the light was dim.
King walked to the wooden chair in the center of the room, turned around, and sat down.
He looked up, his gaze cold, piercing directly at Yae Miko, who was standing by the door, still shaken and with a lingering blush on her face.
King didn't speak; he just stared at her coldly with eyes that seemed to see through everything.
"..."
Yae Miko felt a chill down her spine from his gaze. The shame from moments ago hadn't faded, and now her heart trembled under this scrutinizing look.
She could feel that the man before her was different from the politicians of other nations she had dealt with.
His majesty didn't need flowery words or complex schemes to build up; simply sitting there and staring at you was enough to freeze the air and make your heart skip a beat.
She subconsciously pressed her legs together and gripped her sleeves tightly, trying to maintain the final shred of dignity as the Kitsune Guuji, but her slightly trembling knees and the uncontrolled biting of her lower lip betrayed her inner panic.
"Inazuma's merchants," King finally spoke, his voice not loud, but every word weighed heavily on Yae Miko's heart, "why would they transport contaminated crystallized bone marrow all the way to Fontaine?"
"Thump."
An extremely faint dull sound, yet one that seemed to resonate directly in the depths of the soul.
It was the emperor engine pulsing gently once more.
It didn't have the world-changing power from before, but the heavy pressure still made Yae Miko's breath hitch.
"Waa—!"
Yae Miko let out a startled cry, as if all her strength had been drained.
A pink light flashed, accompanied by a few wisps of drifting smoke.
Where was the elegant and beautiful Lady Guuji?
Only a fluffy pink fox, about the size of two palms, remained!
The little fox was covered in beautiful light pink fur, with white tips on its ears and tail. Right now, it was standing on its hind legs in panic, its two front paws comically pressed together, bowing repeatedly toward King. Its round lavender eyes were filled with a plea that screamed, "I was wrong, please don't eat me."
King looked at the pink fox before him, whose style had suddenly changed into a cowardly ball bowing frantically. His mouth twitched almost imperceptibly... "Can you change back?"
He was almost unable to hold back his laughter.
"Squeak! Pui, ying ying—!"
It cried out urgently, only to find King's eyes filled with speechlessness.
Only then did she suddenly realize she wasn't speaking human language.
Realizing this, she quickly used human speech to explain:
"It was likely... likely done by the Kanjou Commission!"
"There are some greedy parasites among them who took matters into their own hands!"
The little fox gestured with its fluffy paws while speaking, trying to be more persuasive: "The Sakoku Decree was just lifted, and many rules haven't been straightened out yet."
"Those people found that there's a huge demand for crystallized bone marrow in Liyue and Fontaine. crystallized bone marrow with too much tatarigami contamination can't be sold in Inazuma at all, and it's expensive to process. So they thought about shipping it abroad to de... cough, sell it to unsuspecting foreigners."
"Thus, they secretly organized personnel to mine ore in the most dangerous areas of Yashiori Island, where the gods resentment is deepest."
"Finally, they colluded with Ronin and the remnants of the Inazuma Fatui to smuggle it out through secret routes."
"Moreover, they refused to pay the workers' wages, so the cost was almost zero."
At this point, the little fox's ears and tail drooped, looking helpless: "By the time I noticed the anomaly and started investigating, the first batch... had already reached Fontaine..."
King listened quietly, his finger tapping lightly on the armrest of the chair.
"Tap, tap."
Each tap felt like it was hitting the little fox's heart.
After the pressure was sufficient, King spoke again.
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