"Greetings, Your Majesty!"
Nashōmi bowed deeply before Cao Mao.
After their new king ascended the throne, the Wa Kingdom decided to seek aid from Great Wei once more. As a minister with experience traveling to Wei as an envoy, Nashōmi became the best candidate for another mission.
When he first came to pay his respects to Cao Rui, he had only been in his thirties, young and strong.
Now, however, he was elderly, his hair and beard graying. He carried a wooden staff, which he set aside when making his bow to show his respect for the emperor.
Cao Mao's gathering of honored guests had assembled once again, with Sun Hao and the others seated to his left.
They had a feeling that someone new was probably about to join them.
At that moment, Cao Mao frowned, his expression distinctly displeased.
"When you first came from Yamatai to Great Wei, you brought only coarse cloth as tribute. Emperor Ming did not look down on you for being a small barbarian kingdom. He bestowed a gold seal and rewarded you with bronze mirrors!"
"How many years has it been since then? Why have you not come to offer tribute even once?"
"Was it only when you faced destruction that you remembered Great Wei's might?!"
Cao Mao opened with accusations.
Nashōmi was startled as well.
Despite Nashōmi's appearance, contact between the two lands had actually begun very early. Judging by Yan Kingdom coins unearthed on Wa Island, their earliest exchanges could be traced back to the pre-Qin and Former Han periods.
Yamatai also had some understanding of the situation in the Central Plains.
They had been watching developments there over the years.
They knew that Great Wei today was no longer the Wei of old.
The two states that had opposed it