Chapter 1448: Chapter 1449: The King’s Story
Xu Huo and his companion were soon summoned by the King.
After dismissing the guards, the King asked sowhat urgently, “Where is the gemstone?”
Xu Huo took out the gemstone, and the King, upon seeing it himself, sighed in relief and asked, “Where did you find the gemstone, and where is the thief?”
“The thief got away, but he said he only stole this one gemstone,” Xu Huo replied. “Jewel City is full of gemstones, what’s so special about this one that it’s worth killing so many people for?”
The King was shocked at first, then sighed and said in a lowered voice, “I had no choice, these gemstones were entrusted to the castle by soone else, they cannot be lost.”
It was as if emotions long suppressed in the King’s heart found an opportunity to be released, and he told Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu a story.
He and the Queen were a loving couple but had no children after their marriage. The Queen, who loved children, began making puppets for amusent with various scraps, and as her skills improved, she could make puppets from all kinds of materials. One day, the puppets she made began to co to life, becoming their children.
Up to this point, the puppets made by the Queen still retained their puppet form, without expressions, unable to speak, only able to move stiffly and occasionally help with simple tasks.
Of course, in the Fairy Tale World where the King resided, it wasn’t odd for puppets to move and see humans as parents. The change occurred when Xiao Si appeared.
Unlike other puppet children, Xiao Si was made of tal. When she was first completed, unlike other puppets, she couldn’t run or jump. The Queen thought she had failed, but surprisingly, after so ti, Xiao Si suddenly walked out of storage, capable of speaking, thinking, and doing delicate tasks like cleaning and cooking.
The Queen couldn’t stop herself and started making more puppets with tal, while the King was responsible for finding materials for her.
On one trip to find tal, the King encountered a puppet person, distinctly different from the Queen’s rough puppets. Although it was still evident that it wasn’t real, its appearance was incredibly close to a human’s.
He gave the King a black gemstone, stating clearly that if the black gemstone were placed inside a puppet, the puppet would turn into a real person, capable of laughing and crying. He could provide such black gemstones, but the condition was that the majority of the puppets made by the Queen would have to be given to him.
Though the King owned a mountain of gemstones, he had never seen that kind of black gemstone and doubtfully took the gemstone back. When the Queen put the gemstone inside a puppet, all other puppets, including Xiao Si, turned into people akin to the King and Queen. The Queen generously distributed gemstones to each child, allowing them to establish a nation, and they beca the masters of that nation.
Later, the puppet person would co by every so often, taking away the puppets painstakingly made by the Queen, becoming more and more unpleasant each ti, even killing maids or Jewel City residents upon discovering them. The King was terrified, but he and the Queen could never leave Jewel City.
After the black gemstone was stolen, the King worried day and night, fearing news of such would bring disaster upon the puppet person’s discovery, hence sealing the gates and repeatedly sending guards to search, not daring to reveal more information to outsiders, fearful that the news might reach the puppet person’s ears through other channels.
“But now it’s fine, the gemstone has finally been recovered.” The King gave Xu Huo and his companion a grateful smile, “Thank you, strangers.”
Xu Huo paused, “Does the Queen know about this?”
“I haven’t told her,” the King replied with gentle eyes, “I’ll bear the worries alone.”
“Where did those killed puppets go?” Yan Jiayu couldn’t help but ask, “Did the Queen repair them?”
The King shook his head, “If she knew the puppets she made were killed, she’d be heartbroken.”
“You’re so kind to the Queen.” Xu Huo proposed, “Can we see the Queen one more ti?”
The King looked at them, “The Queen has been worrying about
being overly exhausted these past days, she’s currently resting in bed.”
Implying it was impossible to see her.
It didn’t matter whether they could see her or not; having this ti was enough.
Xu Huo handed a black gemstone to the King.
The King was delighted to hold it, imdiately taking a magnifying glass from the drawer to scrutinize it closely, and then suddenly his face changed, “This isn’t the black gemstone I lost!”
“It’s not?” Xu Huo was also visibly surprised, “Didn’t you look at the photograph?”
“The photograph looks very similar, but it’s not the one I lost!” The King seed to have run out of patience and casually tossed the black gemstone on the ground, intending to dismiss them.
“Perhaps it got mixed up.” At this mont, Yan Jiayu interjected, reaching into his pocket and eventually pulling out several pieces of black minerals to present to the King, “Take a look.”
The sizes of these minerals were roughly the sa, and they were all black. The King, seemingly unable to recall the specific appearance of the lost gemstone, had to pick up the magnifying glass again.
Yan Jiayu stood not far from him, pressing on with questions about what was special about the minerals capable of bringing puppets to life, offering to help identify it.
Xu Huo opened his Spiritual World, shifting his attention to the Rose Garden outside.
Behind the floral wall used to obscure the view were roses stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see, interspersed with arches and untad, unpruned floral trees, giving the garden an unclear look, with many spots capable of concealing vision. Unsurprisingly, he quickly found so puppets buried under the foot of trees not far from the floral arches corridor.
A significant number, including residents, maids, and guards.
Thanks to the different Spatial Rays, they even discovered a pile of props.
Indeed, a pile of props, housed in a tal box, placed in a tools storage floral wall compartnt.
The level of the props couldn’t be discerned by the naked eye. Xu Huo was still in the castle, unable to access or retrieve the props.
“Sunflower One?” Yan Jiayu called him once.
Xu Huo’s attention returned to the study.
The King had already identified the lost black gemstone from among those stones and voluntarily provided them with an excuse, “The thief was too cunning, he actually mixed the real gemstone among stones of the sa color!”
“You’ve helped
recover the gemstone, speak of any reward you desire!”
“We heard yesterday when we arrived at the castle that a thief was executed. We want his personal effects,” Xu Huo said.
This was a trivial matter, and the King imdiately ordered the guards to handle it.
Soon after, the guards brought over a bag, “This contains items taken from criminal number 37, including clothes and shoes.”
Xu Huo glanced at it briefly, then accepted the bag, bidding farewell to the King, and said to the puzzled Yan Jiayu, “We’ll talk outside.”
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