The brothers Ai Li and Ai Shan had no room to resist, so they could only nod in agreement.
Xu Huo kept his promise, too. After learning everything they knew, he used Excavator 114 to dig three passages deeper underground for them. Two led to nearby homes, and one ran along the city wall. If they ever couldn't stay in Gemstone City, they could find a chance to climb over the wall and escape. The Players had no way of knowing whether they were thieves or not, anyway.
Ai Li was clever. To avoid attracting attention, he had taken only one gemstone. If the King hadn't caught him as he ran out, no one in the Castle might ever have noticed anything was missing. He had deliberately left that footprint, then changed into shoes of a different size after returning, evading several rounds of comparisons by the guards.
Still, there were parts of the theft that didn't add up. According to Ai Li, he had slipped into the Queen's bedroom while she was taking a Maid to the rose garden. Following his father's instructions, he had found the workshop, taken a gemstone, and prepared to leave. On his way out, he had run into the King, who had come alone.
In other words, the King had also sneaked into the Queen's workshop.
Earlier, when Xu Huo had performed, he had taken the King past the workshop. From the King's reaction, it was clear he knew the Queen didn't like people going in, and he rarely entered the workshop himself.
A gemstone craftsman had witnessed the King exchanging items with the puppets, so the King was certainly in on it. The craftsmen who later entered the Castle and disappeared may have gone looking for answers after their companions died, following the