# Chapter 1449: The King's Story
Xu Huo and his companion soon received the king's summons.
After dismissing the guards, the king asked with some urgency, "Where is the gem?"
Xu Huo took out the gem. The king visibly relaxed after seeing it in person, then asked again, "Where did you find the gem? Where is the thief who stole it?"
"The thief escaped, but he said he only stole this one gem," Xu Huo said. "Gem City is full of gems everywhere. What's so special about this one that it's worth the king killing so many people over it?"
The king was first surprised, then sighed, lowering his voice. "I had no choice. These gems were entrusted to the castle by someone else. They cannot be lost."
As if finding an outlet for emotions long suppressed in his heart, the king told Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu a story.
He and the queen were a loving couple, but they had no children after marriage. The queen, who loved children dearly, began making puppets from leftover materials to amuse herself. As her skills improved, she could make puppets from all kinds of materials. Then one day, the puppets she made gradually came to life, becoming their children.
Up to this point, the puppets the queen made still retained the appearance of puppets—expressionless, unable to make sounds, only able to move stiffly, occasionally helping them with simple tasks.
Of course, the king was in a fairy tale world, so it wasn't strange for wooden puppets to move and treat humans as parents. The change came after Xiao Si appeared.
Unlike the other puppet children, Xiao Si was made of metal. When she was first completed, she couldn't run or jump like the other puppets. The queen thought she had failed, but unexpectedly, after some time, Xiao Si suddenly walked out of the warehouse. She could speak and think, and could even do fine work, like cleaning and cooking.
From then on, the queen was unstoppable, making more puppets from metal, while the king was responsible for finding raw materials for her.
During one trip to find metal materials, the king encountered a puppet person. Unlike the roughness of the queen's puppets, although this puppet person could still be recognized as artificial, its appearance was already very close to a real human.
He gave the king a black gem, stating that if the black gem were placed inside a puppet, the puppet would become a real person who could cry and laugh. He could provide the king with such black gems, but on the condition that he would take away most of the puppets the queen made.
Although the king owned a mountain of gems, he had never seen such black gems before. He took the gem back half-doubtfully. The moment the queen placed the gem inside a puppet, all the other puppets, including Xiao Si, became people just like the king and queen. The queen generously distributed the gems to every child, allowing them to establish their own kingdoms, and they became the masters of this land.
Later, the puppet person would come periodically, taking away the puppets the queen had painstakingly made. Each time, his attitude grew worse, and he even directly killed maids or Gem City residents when he discovered them. The king was terrified, but he and the queen could no longer leave Gem City.
After the black gem was stolen, the king worried day and night, fearing that if the puppet person found out, it would bring disaster. So he sealed the city gates, had the guards search repeatedly, and dared not reveal more information to outsiders, lest the news reach the puppet person's ears through other channels.
"But it's fine now. The gem is finally recovered." The king showed a grateful smile to Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu. "Thank you, outsiders."
Xu Huo paused. "Does the queen know about this?"
"I haven't told her," the king said, tenderness in his eyes. "It's enough for only me to bear the fear."
"Where did the killed puppets go?" Yan Jiayu couldn't help asking. "Did the queen repair them?"
The king shook his head. "If she knew the puppets she made were killed, she would be very sad."
"You are truly kind to the queen," Xu Huo said. "Could we see the queen again?"
The king looked at them. "The queen has been worried about me being too tired these past two days. She's currently resting in bed."
Meaning it was impossible to see them again.
Whether they could see her or not didn't matter. This much time was enough.
Xu Huo handed a black gem to the king.
The king took it joyfully, immediately pulled a magnifying glass from the drawer, and examined it closely. Suddenly, his expression changed. "This is not the black gem I lost at all!"
"It's not?" Xu Huo also looked surprised. "Didn't you see the photo?"
"The photo looks very similar, but it's not the one I lost!" The king seemed to have run out of patience. He casually threw the black gem on the ground and ordered them to leave.
"Maybe it was a mistake," Yan Jiayu interjected at this moment. She felt around in her pocket and finally pulled out several black ore pieces, presenting them to the king. "Take a look."
These ores were similar in size and all black. The king seemed unable to remember exactly what the lost gem looked like, so he picked up the magnifying glass again.
Yan Jiayu stood not far from him, pressing him about what was so special about the ore that could bring puppets to life, offering to help identify it.
Xu Huo released his spiritual realm, shifting his attention to the rose garden behind.
Behind the flower wall that blocked the view was a sea of roses stretching as far as the eye could see. The archways interspersed within, along with the wild, untrimmed growth of the flower trees, made the garden appear unclear. Many places could conceal one's view. As expected, he soon found puppets buried at the base of trees behind a nearby flower arch corridor.
There were quite a few—residents, maids, and even guards.
Through the different spatial rays, he even found a pile of items.
That's right, a pile of items, stored in a metal box placed in a compartment of the flower wall where tools were kept.
With the naked eye, he couldn't identify the grade of the items. Xu Huo was still in the castle, unable to touch or retrieve them.
"Sunflower Number One?" Yan Jiayu called him.
Xu Huo's attention returned to the study.
The king had already found his lost black gem from among those several pieces of ore and proactively made an excuse for them. "That thief was too cunning, actually mixing the real gem in with stones of the same color!"
"You helped me find the gem. Name any reward you want!"
"Yesterday when we came to the castle, we heard that a thief was executed. We want his personal belongings," Xu Huo said.
That was a small matter. The king immediately called a guard to handle it.
Soon, a guard brought a bag over. "Inside are the items taken from Prisoner Number Thirty-Seven, including clothes and shoes."
Xu Huo glanced briefly, took the bag, bid the king farewell, and said to the puzzled Yan Jiayu, "I'll explain outside."
(Chapter End)