Chapter 705: Chapter 40: Suspicion, Newspaper, Countermeasures
"That’s good, then. Please hold on to the rest of these, Princess..."
Eirin Yakumo was naturally well aware of the Princess’s abilities and had no doubts about them. She casually pointed at the remaining remedies on the table and spoke.
"If such a thing happens again, just repeat the process... However, according to them, when handling that Demon Cherry Blossom next, they should be more careful, and this situation probably won’t occur again. Perhaps by the time you return to the Moon Capital, you won’t need them anymore."
"Hmm..."
The girl with long, straight black hair gently nodded, looking at the remedies on the table, quietly pondering.
Seeing that the Princess had no other expressions, Eirin Yakumo breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed she might have overthought things earlier. Kaguya probably didn’t want to stay on Earth; at least for now, she showed no such intention, only a bit of distaste for the Moon Capital.
This was inevitable...
She thought to herself, perhaps there might be a way for the Princess not to interact with other Moon folk after returning. There must be a solution.
With this in mind, Eirin Yakumo spoke again, "Princess, there are less than two years until you return to the Moon Surface. I will keep a close eye on you, so don’t worry too much. Well, today’s result is also a sort of..."
She frowned, trying to define it, "It can be considered a good thing, resolving it like this isn’t bad... although this matter is indeed quite coincidental, feeling too strange."
Saying so, Eirin couldn’t help but focus her gaze on the Princess, carefully observing her expressions and movements, to see if there was anything unnatural about them. She was very familiar with the Princess’s personality; if she were lying, she wouldn’t be able to hide it from Eirin.
"It is quite coincidental..."
The girl with long, straight black hair replied somewhat irritably. This event was extraordinarily coincidental. The five challenges she posed were entirely based on her whims, rather than any pre-conceived ideas. Besides the Penglai’s Jade Branch, the other four treasures just came to mind randomly.
Even the number of challenges was determined by the number of the most annoying fools.
There were five clueless, stubborn individuals, hence five challenges—
If there were four or six of such fools, then perhaps the number of challenges would also be four or six. These were not fixed.
Under such circumstances, she just happened to pose five challenges, requiring the search for five treasures, which coincidentally someone already collected as a set of treasures. What were the odds of such a coincidence happening? Moreover, that person even used them to design an advanced Technique, with the Principles explained thoroughly.
Even Kaguya herself felt somewhat irked—
Such a minuscule probability event actually happened to her; what kind of situation was this?
Perhaps feeling Eirin Yakumo’s intense gaze, the girl with long, straight black hair instinctively looked up and found the former staring at her, as if pondering something. She was momentarily startled, but then immediately realized, feeling a bit annoyed:
"Eirin, what’s with that look... Are you suspecting that he and I... and he..."
She found it hard to finish the sentence, unable to find a good word to describe it.
"Princess, I just feel like this is a bit too strange..." Eirin Yakumo said, slightly embarrassed, with a smile. She gently withdrew her gaze and spoke contemplatively, "Mainly, this situation is so ridiculously coincidental. Honestly, even you, Princess, find it hard to believe; of course, I can’t be expected to immediately believe it either."
She was a very rational person, more inclined to believe in logic.
The girl with long, straight black hair didn’t know what to say, knowing that Eirin’s words made sense, and directly expressing her thoughts showed her unreserved trust.
"Princess, if... I’m saying if..." Eirin Yakumo hesitated a bit, looking seriously at Kaguya, "If you... uh, if there’s something on your mind, you can tell me directly. Once you’ve made up your mind, I’ll certainly help you..."
She knew the Princess had no barriers with her, but on these matters, wanting to hide them subconsciously was understandable.
Just like children and their parents or elders, no matter how close and trusting, there’s always some reservation about personal feelings due to various reasons... With this consideration, Eirin Yakumo slightly suspected that maybe the Princess was embarrassed to tell her the truth directly, so she arranged this scenario.
However—
"Eirin!"
The girl with long, straight black hair was even more indignant.
"Alright, alright, I won’t mention it anymore..." Eirin Yakumo lightly waved her hand, "It seems it really isn’t like that. In that case, this is indeed very strange."
After all, such a level of coincidence had reached the point of absurdity; otherwise, she wouldn’t have had her previous doubts.
If it was truly just a purely coincidental incident, neither party was aware beforehand, and neither intended it... Then what is this? Fate? The Princess’s theoretically impossible stringent marriage proposal was actually inadvertently fulfilled by someone, even before she proposed it.
As if the exam paper wasn’t even out yet, but the standard answers were already prepared in advance.
"Indeed, I also find it strange, and where did he get that Penglai Jade Branch?" The Princess said with a face full of frustration. She felt an unusually strong emotional fluctuation, something she hadn’t experienced for a long time. The transition from complete control to complete lack of control was somewhat uncomfortable.
"A rather mysterious individual. Honestly, I have some suspicion if he has found Penglai Mountain..." Eirin Yakumo nodded, she was also puzzled about this.
But thinking about it, this was probably even more unrealistic. The other party was unwilling to explain, and she couldn’t force an inquiry, only able to speculate on other possibilities. For instance, perhaps when the Moon people migrated to the Moon, they believed they took all the Jade Branches, but actually, there were some remnants?
"And then there’s that previous full moon, but he’s also unwilling to reveal..."
The Princess recalled something and looked in the direction of Eirin Yagokoro: "According to you, Eirin, it should be him, right."
"It should be the case..." Eirin Yagokoro nodded, "I could sense that ancient moonlight aura, very similar to Lord Tsukuyomi’s; perhaps it’s the ancient technique of those immortals. They have never followed the Divine Dao, yet the outstanding among them can similarly condense the authority of heaven and earth..."
So in that respect, it seems that person has extremely refined cultivation.
In some ways, the paths are different but converge, advancing in a certain domain to a level akin to divine powers is not something unfathomable.
"Is this person that formidable?"
Hearing Eirin Yagokoro’s high praise, Princess Kaguya raised her eyebrows: "But at that time, it seemed you were handling it quite easily, Eirin?"
She referred to the initial exchange, although they quickly resolved their misunderstanding and didn’t continue, from the brief skirmish she could discern some things, as she was also very well-informed.
The person’s strength was formidable, abilities mysterious, yet not the strongest.
"If I were serious, I’m certainly confident..." recalling the direct perception of that brief encounter, Eirin Yagokoro said softly, though her expression remained serious, "But it has no meaning, it seems that was not his real body, merely a clone."
"Clone?"
The princess froze for a moment.
She glanced at Eirin’s determined expression, having no doubts as this was the Moon’s Brain, a pivotal Great Sage within the Moon Capital, even her own mother — the "Night’s Food Source and Moon God", Venerable Tsukuyomi, greatly relied on Eirin’s capabilities and wisdom.
— It’s said the migration to the Moon and establishment of lunar civilization...
— All was accomplished under Eirin’s guidance.
Hence it was no wonder from her mother’s view, she, the daughter, was nothing compared to Eirin, to the extent that the usually uninvolved Moon God swiftly sentenced her daughter to death and exile, decisively extracting the Great Sage from the entire disturbance.
Such thoughts flashed in the mind of the black long-haired girl, her expression quite calm.
She didn’t resent Eirin, nor did she harbor ill feelings toward her mother, yet once again deeply felt that sense of alienation.
Eirin Yagokoro noticed Kaguya’s slightly low mood but said nothing, merely sighed inwardly and seamlessly changed the topic: "Princess, I must leave now as well, Princess Toyo-hime and the others can’t cover for me long..."
"Yes, I understand, Eirin, you should go back first." The princess slightly nodded, knowledgeable of this, and would not make things difficult for Eirin.
"I will keep an eye, but Princess, you should also be careful yourself, now that this matter is settled, try not to engage with that person..."
Before leaving, Eirin repeatedly cautioned.
The black long-haired girl was not annoyed, seriously agreeing.
Ultimately, the room quieted, and Princess Kaguya lightly sighed, knitting her brows.
"Oh, right..."
As if recalling something, she retrieved...
A newspaper.
It was during her time dispersing medicine in Kyoto, she chanced upon it, as a Crow Tengu was giving them out for free to the monsters in Heian-kyō.
It seemed to be a routine, but she usually didn’t go out at night, not interacting with humans when entering and leaving Kyoto, much less with non-humans.
Being overly amazed, the Princess casually took a copy back.
"When did such a thing appear on earth..."
Flipping through the "Wenwen Daily" in her hand, the black-haired girl felt a sense of incongruity.
Although she hadn’t seen such things before, it didn’t prevent her from understanding after a bit of perusal, that this was a kind of news medium, surprising despite not being as advanced as the Moon Capital’s.
The headline depicted a scene in a noisy place where several girls were unseemly scuffling, bewildered she flipped through, also seeing strange ads, like recruiting civil servants for the underworld of the Eastern Country, sales at the Magic Ship Curiosity Shop...
......
...
On the other side.
"Found the roots, but the situation is somewhat difficult..." Returning to the gap, within the dimly lit, ambiguous atmosphere of the Japanese room, Gu Mo tapped his forehead distressingly.
"Kill her directly?"
The demon maiden across pondered, then softly said.
