Chapter 273: You are so fat.
In the moment of tense silence, grandma Jess decided to take charge. She rallied the guards and servants, ordering them to take the handcuffs off the captives and bring good chairs. They got to work quickly. Chairs were carried out, sturdy, ornate, set in neat rows for captives. One by one, the handcuffs were removed, the clinking of iron echoing like a fading storm.
Many rubbed their wrists, some defiant, others trembling, but all forced into uneasy silence under whispered threats from the fox guards and servants.
The water in the boiling pots was suddenly turned into tea! Cups were filled and distributed, along with fresh steamed buns. The captives were confused, but the royals knew what this was. It was grandma Jess doing damage control. The next thing the old woman would claim was that this was all a misunderstanding.
Elias took this chance to find his wife and whisper, "What’s the plan here?"
Sienna tapped his chest. "Watch me."
As soon as the King and Queen sat down, Sienna threw herself to the ground with theatrical force, her knees slamming the ground harder than she intended, her palms pressed flat as if she was the tragic heroine on stage. Her sobs rang out, raw and deliberate, echoing through the air.
"Your Highness! Your benevolent Highness!" she cried, her voice breaking like glass. "You have to give me justice. You have to show me mercy. My siblings have been beaten, mocked and humiliated. I sent then to school to learn, but they were tortured to the point of almost suffering mental breaks. And the reason why? Because my mother and I are human! Because we don’t carry the beast gene! Is it as sin? Is it a crime?"
The king and queen exchanged startled glances, their regal composure cracking under the weight of her performance. Elias stiffened, jaw tightening, torn between pride and embarrassment at his wife’s dramatic display.
Sienna’s tears glistened as she raised her face, "Your Highness, are humans not part of this empire? If we are not, then separate us from the beast men. Grant me the title of Human Empress. Let me rule my kind, since beast men do not accept us."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. The Prime Envoy, whose girth strained his fur cloak, stuttered in outrage. "Madness! This is madness! You dare insult the empire with such theatrics? Do you think the king and queen believe you?"
Sienna’s eyes blazed. "Madness? No. I say this is corruption."
Elias blinked rapidly. Where was she going with this?
"Look at you, Prime Envoy." Sienna shouted, at the top of her voice. "Your fat nature is not from honest labor or the cute roundness of a panda beast man but from stealing taxes meant for the people. Your grandson in turn steals allowance and food from other children. Every roll of your bellies is a stolen coin. Every jiggle, a stolen bun or grain of rice!"
The crowd erupted in murmurs. The Prime Envoy’s face flushed crimson beneath his black and white fur. He jabbed a stubby finger at Sienna.
"And what of you? You are no slender gazelle yourself! Not too long ago, you had three rolls of fat yourself. Don’t be proud just because they are now two."
"One and a half." She cut in.
He seethed. "I don’t care. All I see are cheeks that puff like dumplings! Perhaps you too feast on what is not yours! Just like you stole the fox matriarch position that never should have been yours."
Sienna shot to her feet, her tears vanishing in an instant, replaced by fury and indignation. "At least my belly is from having children and eating too many unhealthy foods. It is from honest work. Yours is from lounging on silk cushions, stuffing yourself with taxes while peasants starve!"
The insults flew like arrows, each sharper than the last.
"You are so fat," Sienna sneered, "that when you roll over, the earth thinks it’s an eclipse!"
"You are so fat," the Prime Envoy retorted, "that bees mistake you for a hive and swarm your folds! Why else do you live with them?"
Sienna’s voice rose, cutting through laughter that began to bubble among the crowd and royals. "You are so fat, Prime Envoy, that when you sit in council, the chairs cry for mercy!"
The panda beast man bellowed back, his fur bristling, "You are fat, that when you run on livestream, the ground quakes like a beast stampede!"
Elias scratched his neck, wondering if he needed to step in. They had come to settle the issue of bullying. Instead, they were listening to two chubby people insult each other for being too chubby! He could understand the foolishness of his wife, but the Prime Envoy! Surely, he knew better than this!
Did these two even recall that they were standing before the king and queen? Or, that they had an audience?
The king raised a hand, but even he struggled to hide the twitch of amusement at the absurdity. The queen’s lips pressed tight, her eyes darting between horror and reluctant laughter.
Sienna pressed forward, her finger stabbing the air. "You are so fat, Prime Envoy, that the bees I sent earlier mistook your sweat for honey and stung you for stealing their hive!"
"Aha!" The Prime Envoy roared, clutching his belly. "You admit to sending them. I have got you on record. And for the record, you are so fat that when you bend down to pick up your pan, it hides under you for fear of suffocation."
Corven Junior whispered to Soren, "Are we taking score? Who is winning?"
The younger cousins, unable to contain themselves were shaking with suppressed laughter.
Ali was giggling openly, her small voice piping. "Mama, he is so fat, he looks like a ball rolled in fur!"
The crowd teetered between scandal and comedy. Some teachers covered their faces, horrified at the spectacle. Others peeked through their fingers, unable to resist the absurd duel. Most hoped the absurdity would save them from this tumultuous situation.
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