Kei looked at Tobi, who had been sneaking glances at him ever since regaining his memories, and felt utterly speechless. But he still waved his hand, signaling that from now on, Tobi should follow Kaguya.
Although she had lost more than ninety percent of her power, she was still not someone an ordinary person could easily provoke. Moreover, after being sealed for a thousand years, her understanding of daily life and even her worldview needed to be rebuilt from scratch. To prevent her from doing something outrageous that would cause public outrage, someone had to stay by her side.
Although Tobi had always been rather mischievous, he had never actually made any mistakes in his tasks. Now that his memories had returned, he seemed much more composed than before. With him taking care of and guiding Kaguya, Kei could also feel a little more at ease.
However...
"Why are you addressing her like that?"
He was rather puzzled.
If they followed the storyline from the anime, he should be calling Kaguya "Empress," or simply "My Lady." And in the manga's storyline, Kaguya, who was revered as the Rabbit Goddess and worshiped as a divine being, should be referred to as a deity, not a princess.
So why was he calling her "Your Highness"?
"She is not just any princess. She is the celestial maiden who descended upon this great land, the Rabbit Goddess who illuminates the world..." As Tobi explained the reasoning behind the title, his words gradually became filled with admiration and reverence.
Clearly, the memories he had recovered had deeply influenced him. Even though he now knew many truths, his respect for Kaguya remained unchanged.
"I get it, I get it." Kei waved his hand dismissively, so it was just a manga plot thing.
Still, Kaguya wasn't entirely naïve. At least she had the foresight to call herself a divine princess, reinforcing the authority and stability of her divine rule.
"…An imperial princess is still a princess."
Seeing Kei's doubtful expression, Kaguya felt a little aggrieved and insisted on explaining. She could feel the power that had been restraining her beginning to dissipate from her neck, and without wasting time on further discussion, she straightened her posture and lifted her head.
"Imperial princess..." Kei raised an eyebrow slightly.
An imperial princess was the title given to the direct female descendants of the highest ruler of the imperial family.
Based on Earth's mythologies about Takamagahara, with Amaterasu's lineage ruling heaven and Tsukuyomi holding the second most revered celestial authority, it could be inferred that Kaguya was most likely connected to these divine bloodlines.
Perhaps she was a descendant of these celestial rulers of the Ōtsutsuki royal family.
So she really did count as a princess?
But... Was she a disgraced princess?
Otherwise, given her status, she should never have been reduced to becoming a sacrificial offering to the God Tree. As for whether this woman was lying... Just looking at how Kinshiki willingly transformed into chakra and was consumed by Momoshiki in the original story was proof enough.
The people of this clan who lacked status had been indoctrinated with a completely different ideology since childhood.
If she had truly been born at the bottom of the hierarchy and had been brainwashed for so many years, the chances of her rebelling were extremely slim.
"If I may be so bold to ask, how many of your clan members are there?" Kei asked Kaguya.
Everyone present immediately turned their attention to her. If most of the Ōtsutsuki clan possessed power on the same level as her, then just thinking about it was terrifying.
"What do you intend to do?" The wounds on Kaguya's neck were gradually healing. She finally dared to raise her arm again, regaining her usual cold and aloof demeanor as the Rabbit Goddess.
"Rob from the rich to give to the poor."
"...By the time I left, even counting the lowest-ranking servants, there were fewer than three thousand of us left. The rest were just artificial vessels and slaves grown in nurseries."
"Their strength?"
"Those like Isshiki... probably no more than fifty. But the ruling members of the royal and imperial families have absorbed many chakra fruits." Kaguya's expression darkened, and her body visibly tensed up.
Upon hearing this, everyone's hearts sank.
Absorbing a large number of chakra fruits!
Kaguya had become this powerful just by consuming one fruit. If some of them had eaten multiple fruits, then just how terrifying would their strength be?
"Do they just eat all the chakra fruits they collect? They don't keep any in reserve?"
"..." Kaguya seemed irritated by the need to explain.
She lifted a finger to her forehead, directly using Yin-Yang Release to replicate a segment of her own memory and handed it to Kei, who flicked his finger and absorbed the memory fragments into his mind.
A vast amount of information flooded in.
According to Kaguya's memories, the Ōtsutsuki clan did not indiscriminately consume chakra fruits without limitation. Their pursuit was eternal life and power.
While absorbing power beyond their bloodline's limits could push them to evolve to a higher level, it would also severely damage their original genes, drastically shortening the lifespan of their artificial vessels.
To fully control the new power and continue their eternal existence, they needed to find suitable vessels for reincarnation.
The cultivation of a God Tree required a long time. Finding a suitable vessel was an even greater challenge. In other words, unless they were certain and fully prepared, only those whose vessels had not yet reached their limits would consume chakra fruits.
The rest focused solely on gathering chakra fruits and searching for suitable vessels.
Moreover, the Ōtsutsuki clan did indeed have a stockpile of chakra fruits.
Kei recalled the original story's description of Shibai's "continuous reincarnation to surpass death" and now had a much clearer understanding of the clan.
After pondering for a moment, he asked again, "Have you reached your limit?"
"...Almost." Kaguya's expression darkened as she squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.
As a newly emerged member of the Ōtsutsuki clan, she truly couldn't understand why her bloodline had nearly reached its limit after consuming just a single chakra fruit. Under normal circumstances, she should have been able to consume five or six before experiencing this feeling.
If not for this limitation, why would she have clung so desperately to this planet's God Tree, trying to find another way to resist the Ōtsutsuki clan?
"You really are... a stubborn fool." Kei took one look at Kaguya's expression and knew exactly what she was thinking.
With a flick of his finger, he used Yin-Yang Release to replicate a memory and tossed it to Kaguya.
Seeing the curiosity in everyone's eyes, as if they were waiting for him to explain, he simply replicated over a dozen copies of the relevant memories and distributed one to each person.
As everyone became immersed in the flood of complex information, he activated a space-time technique, enveloping the group and locking onto the spatial coordinates of the expeditionary fleet, instantly transporting them all back.
Seeing that no one would be able to process their memories anytime soon, he turned his attention to the system rewards and spoke to the system in his mind:
System, use all Trait Extractions.