{PS: Seeing the stats drop again, I figure it's because it's Monday and people are back at work or school, but some readers probably also feel the plot is dragging, so I'll just speed things up.}
After that, the Aranara planned to hold the Utsava Festival to celebrate the Lesser Jade Grass King's arrival and reward Lumine and Paimon for their hard work clearing the Withering Zones.
However, holding the Utsava Festival posed a problem: many Aranara had gone away. There were seventy-six Aranara in total, and some had returned to Vanarana after encountering Lumine and Paimon. Still, nearly half had yet to return.
Theresa could not be bothered to slowly hunt down those remaining few dozen little troublemakers, either, so she simply used her Authority to forcibly teleport them to Vanarana.
Some of the Aranara, still shaken, said that some Fatui had tried to capture them. Luckily, the Lesser Jade Grass King had used her power in time to teleport the Aranara over.
"That's what happened. If the Lesser Jade Grass King hadn't teleported us back, those bad Nara might have taken us away!"
The Aranara thanked Theresa one after another, and she smiled and shook her head.
Just then, she sensed something unusual: a strange gaze came from above. Theresa noticed a squirrel not far away staring intently in their direction, particularly at her and Himeko, who was holding the camera.
After a moment's thought, she realized that the form she had taken must have alerted the real Lesser Jade Grass King, Nahida.
Her consciousness had attached itself to the forest's small animals, allowing her to see Theresa through their eyes.
Theresa discreetly winked at the squirrel. It froze, then quickly ran away.
{Theresa, was that...?}
Seeing this, Himeko asked Theresa through a telepathic message.
{That was the