Yes, Lady Funina!

"Master Ji, do you know where the other demon foxes are?" Yae no Miko asked.

“Five hundred treasuries, five hundred treasuries!” Master Ji replied.

“Okay.” Yae no Miko nodded, then pointed to Klee and Frynn and said:

"They are your friends, and they came here specifically to visit you."

"Play!" Master Ji's voice was filled with surprise, and then he happily danced as he said:

Hide and seek!

Furna strongly suspects that Yae no Miko actually had her own plans, and that bringing her and Klee to see the demon tanuki was just a side effect.

"Yay, hide-and-seek!" Klee didn't think too much about it; she just wanted someone to play with her.

Seeing Keli happy, Master Giddens was happy too. Not wanting to spoil the fun, Frynn spoke to Richard:

"Go ahead and do your thing, I'll watch over Klee."

Richard questioned Funina's overreaching attitude, as her performance just now was hard to believe.

Fulina noticed Richard's suspicion, and her pretty face flushed slightly. She clearly knew that her words were not very convincing.

“Isn’t there a monk named Ji here? Since even the Eightfold Divine Child recognizes it, it’s obviously not weak. Plus, it’s a local monster, so it must know where the danger is and where the safety is. There’s nothing to worry about.” As she spoke, Funina touched the ring on her finger. If all else fails, there’s always the ring Richard gave her.

Therefore, there is definitely no need to worry about safety.

“Although I can manage on my own, it would obviously be more convenient with Richard’s help.” Yae no Miko hadn’t expected that Funina would be willing to let Richard go with her.

Upon hearing Yae no Miko's words, Funina's smile visibly froze. What did that mean?

Has she cheated on herself again?

Klee glanced at Fryna, then at Yae no Miko beside her, and decided it was best not to get involved in the adults' affairs, trusting that her brother could handle it.

In the end, Funina did not take back her previous words and let Richard go with Yae no Miko. 'Is Gokuzo still there?' Richard asked.

Richard remembered that when he first came to Inazuma, the Five Hundred Treasures had been sealed in a stone, and hundreds of years later they were still in the stone.

This isn't a fox demon, it's clearly a monkey.

"Where else could it go besides there?" Yae no Miko shook her head. The person who sealed it was long gone, so how could the seal be broken?

It's more accurate to say that it locked itself inside.

Richard made no comment on this, saying, "One should not advise others to be kind if one has not experienced their suffering."

Richard and Wu Baizang have known each other for many years, but Richard has never offered any advice to the other, though perhaps it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

"So what is the purpose of this visit?" Richard asked Yae no Miko, puzzled.

"It's about some things from the past." Yae no Miko didn't hide anything from Richard; instead, she handed Richard the letter that Saya had given her earlier.

Richard opened the letter, with Yae no Miko explaining in his ear.

"You may not know this, but after you left, there was some turmoil within Inazuma. This Rongcai Festival is not only to show Inazuma its openness to the outside world, but also to investigate some things that happened in the past through this festival."

Richard noticed some disorder on the letter and his gaze fell on the five letters of Thunder and Lightning. There were some familiar names on them, some of which were even his old friends.

After returning to Inazuma, Richard did not consider seeking out the descendants of his old friend. After all, just because he was friends with their ancestors did not mean he would be friends with them.

However, Richard couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness when he saw his friend's junior disappear from the public eye.

If it were just a natural death, Richard wouldn't be so sentimental, but if what's said in this letter is true, then it's something Richard finds hard to accept.

“I remember the parents of the Shenli siblings…” Richard read the end of the letter.

"That's why this investigation came about." Yae no Miko was essentially admitting who initiated the investigation.

After all, it's not the religious family that's investigating this matter. Do you really expect the nearly extinct descendants of the Raiden family to investigate?

Of the five generations of the Thunder and Lightning lineage, three have died out, and the remaining two are almost extinct.

Let them investigate. Even if they wanted to, they wouldn't dare, right?

"Actually, the Shinri clan had already been investigating this matter for a long time. It was only after significant progress that the theme of this Rongcai Festival came about," Yae no Miko explained.

If it weren't for this incident, the theme of this year's Yongchae Festival might have simply been a cultural festival.

It was quite a coincidence, after all, Yae no Miko couldn't possibly stop the Kamisato siblings from finding out the truth about their parents' death, could he?

It should be noted that the Kamisato clan has always been her staunch supporters. In fact, in principle, Yae no Miko also has a responsibility to find out the cause of their deaths.

"It seems like you've run into some trouble?" Richard raised an eyebrow.

"It went smoothly at first, but we've only recently encountered obstacles," Yae no Miko added.

"It's as if there's an invisible hand behind us preventing us from continuing the investigation."

"An invisible hand?" Richard thought, "Shouldn't Inazuma's largest hand be yours?"

The way Yae no Miko said it had a touch of dark humor to it.

"Moreover, some parts are different from the evidence we found before, but looking back, the evidence we found before also seems to have changed?" Yae no Miko was a little uncertain.

Logically speaking, with her memory, she shouldn't have made such a big mistake.

But her intuition told her that what she was seeing now was definitely not what she had found out before, and that some kind of change that she was unaware of must have occurred.

The change was so subtle that even the Eightfold Divine Child was altered without his knowledge.

Yae no Miko hoped that her feeling was wrong; if it was true, it would be quite chilling.

After all, the existence of someone capable of such a thing is clearly beyond the imagination of Yae no Miko.

"The World Tree?" Richard's expression grew increasingly strange as he listened to Yae no Miko's description.

He seemed to have encountered symptoms similar to those described by Yae no Miko not long ago.

But he never expected to be involved in this matter.

"The World Tree?" Yae no Miko repeated Richard's words. She knew about the World Tree, and its fall back then was indeed related to it.

However, she had only heard of the World Tree and knew very little about its characteristics.

Therefore, it is perfectly normal not to think of it. Of course, even if the World Tree knows a lot about it, it may subconsciously ignore this point due to its limited knowledge.

Richard added some information about the World Tree to Yae no Miko.

"You mean the murderer from back then used the World Tree to erase the traces of his past crimes?" Yae no Miko frowned.

"It's hard to say." Richard didn't dare to make a guarantee until the truth was uncovered.

However, based on the familiar methods recorded, Richard felt that it was not something the suspect in his mind could do. That suspect did not have the intelligence to devise a conspiracy of this level. Compared to that, it seemed more like the methods of the 'Doctor'.

Richard always insists on evidence when doing things, and he would never rashly convict someone just because their behavior resembles someone else's.

However, the most urgent task should be to help Yae no Miko eliminate the influence of the World Tree.

"Deceive? Here?" Yae no Miko's expression was somewhat strange. She looked at Richard's hand on her slender waist, and then looked around.

This is the middle of nowhere, isn't it a bit inappropriate?

Richard gave the guy, whose head was full of yellow rubbish, a resounding slap on the forehead. What was this guy thinking about all day long?

And what kind of image does she have of him? Is he really that much like a lustful glutton?

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" Yae no Miko cried out in pain, feeling that Richard had been too rough and showed no mercy, being quite unromantic.

This was just a joke to lighten the mood.

In fact, even if Richard really wanted it, Yae no Miko would never give it to him.

After all, Furnessa and Cleopatra aren't far from here. If they were discovered, would she still be able to be a fox?

But you know what, after Richard tapped her on the head, Yae no Miko felt her mind became much clearer.

Some new things have appeared in my memory, but they have created some conflicts with my original memories.

Even with Yae no Miko's brilliant mind, it took her quite a while to sort out her somewhat chaotic memories.

When Yae no Miko's eyes regained their clarity, the first thing she said was...

"So the problem isn't with me, it's with the world?"

"If you really want to say that, then you're right." Li realized that although the statement was a bit archaic, it wasn't entirely unreasonable.

"However, things are indeed a bit troublesome." Yae no Miko had a headache.

This kind of memory alteration is fine if it's only on a small scale, but what about something like this on a global scale?

Surely Richard can't be expected to use the Great Memory Restoration Technique on each of them one by one?

Even if Richard had the ability, he wouldn't have the time or inclination.

Thinking of this, the Eightfold Divine Child asked:

"Can the changes be reversed?"

“The World Tree isn’t a newspaper, so why would it retract its statement?” Li realized that Yae no Kamiko was overthinking things.

Moreover, even if it could be reversed, Richard would rather find people one by one to perform the Great Memory Restoration Technique than spend so much effort on it.

"There's no need for that." Li noticed that Yae no Miko was usually quite quick-witted, so why did she forget her old profession at a time like this?

You're the owner of Yaedo, a giant in the Inazuma entertainment and media industry. Do you really need to restore someone's memory?

Why not just add a memory segment directly?

The past events were indeed altered by the World Tree, but the problem is that the altered memories themselves are unknown to anyone.

Why not just replace it with the actual events that actually happened?

What? After being modified, what happened before can no longer be considered true?

What are you saying? If a monk can touch it, why can't I?

If he can change things but I can't? Then all the effort I put into regaining this power was for nothing.

After Richard's guidance, Yae no Miko had a sudden inspiration and instantly knew what to do.

"Wait, how come you're so skilled?" Yae no Miko asked with a strange expression.

Richard smiled slightly. If you really want to count, he could be considered a colleague of Yae no Miko.

Fontaine doesn't have a regulation that prohibits civil servants from engaging in business; Richard's shares in Fontaine's major media groups are an important part of his wealth.

Richard even holds a small number of shares in the Steam News Agency. The reason it is a small number is that the Steam News Agency was recently nationalized under the leadership of Funina.

This was also Richard's suggestion to Furina, since sometimes the destructive power of a mainstream media outlet of the scale of Steamwheed Martin could be even more terrifying than the explosion at the Fontainebleau Academy of Sciences.

Therefore, it's best to keep it in your own hands.

As a result, most of Richard's shares in the Steam Wubao were nationalized, with only a small number remaining.

Of course, Richard didn't lose out either, since he had to compensate for the acquisition of shares.

So, here's a no-prize guessing game: who decides how much compensation will be given?

It's just a matter of transferring money from one hand to the other. But I digress; let's get back to the main point. "So, are we still going to find those demon foxes?" Richard asked. Yae no Miko thought for a moment and decided that they should still go.

Don't underestimate these demon tanuki. Back in Inazuma, they were practically everywhere. Their eyes and ears were all over Inazuma, and they even had a presence on Umijima Island, which was at odds with Narukami Island.

While they may not be as prestigious as the fox clan, they far surpass them in numbers.

Even though they have reduced their activity range, their strength should not be underestimated.

“I need more information to determine some details of what happened back then,” Yae no Miko said.

丞

“This information may have been modified as well,” Richard warned.

"Then I can only ask you for help." Yae no Miko put her arm around Richard's arm.

"So what attitude should you use when asking someone a favor?" Richard glanced sideways at the sly fox.

"Call me brother and let me hear it."

It's clear that Richard still harbors some resentment about the time when Yae no Miko made him call her "sister."

Yae no Miko immediately shouted:

"Brother~" Her voice was melodious and sweet, enough to melt anyone's bones.

It's clear that Yae no Miko doesn't care about the form of address at all; after all, she has used the even more ridiculous name, "Fox," before.

Compared to those titles,