In contrast, the areas where ordinary people gather appear crowded and chaotic, with laundry hanging between low eaves and the air thick with the smell of sea brine and cheap food.
The gap between rich and poor is clear at a glance.
At this moment, the pier is bustling.
The Officials of the Commission of Retribution are routinely inspecting the cargo of several Liyue merchant ships, their attitudes arrogant and their intention to demand "processing fees" obvious.
Several samurai dressed as Ronin gather in a corner to drink, their eyes unkindly sizing up passing merchants.
Some simply dressed local vendors are peddling crude handicrafts and food, their faces carrying a cautious submissiveness.
Everything is a surface-level "order"—
The Hiiragi Clan of the Commission of Retribution.
The clan head, Hiiragi Chisato, was thrown into prison for being framed in a transnational smuggling case.
The newly appointed acting clan head is a distant relative of the Hiiragi family; his abilities are mediocre, but he is well-versed in the ways of "maintaining the status quo" and "pleasing the powerful."
The Kujou Clan of the Tenryou Commission, after experiencing the turmoil of the Vision Hunt Decree and treason, has suffered damage to its prestige, even though it has undergone multiple internal reorganizations.
However, the newly appointed clan head, Kujou Kamaji, lacks sufficient ability and simply cannot control the people below him.
The Kamisato Clan of the Yashiro Commission is relatively clean and pragmatic, but its influence is more limited to cultural etiquette and local governance, with limited say in major affairs.
The lower and middle-level Officials of the Three Commissions are deeply entrenched, most of them still being vested interests of the old era.
Even after experiencing such a huge upheaval, their style of doing things remains unchanged.
Fawning over those above and squeezing the marrow from those below.
They exert maximum pressure on foreign merchants, scraping away the profits of foreign trade in Ritou and the whole of Inazuma layer by layer.
True wealth and resources are concentrated in the hands of a very few families.
Meanwhile, ordinary Inazuman citizens—farmers struggling on barren land, fishermen risking thunderstorms to go to sea, and craftsmen working day and night in small workshops—receive Rewards that are pitifully meager.
The dividends brought by the lifting of the Sakoku Decree are like drops of water falling into a desert; before they can nourish the bottom layer, they are completely absorbed by the gravel above.
This is today's Inazuma, a nation whose exterior has begun to loosen, but whose interior is still tightly bound by a decadent framework and a huge gap between rich and poor.
Until—
At the end of the horizon, a black dot appeared.
Then, that black dot grew larger at an alarming speed.
At first, some thought it was a large merchant ship.
But as the distance closed, the ship's silhouette became clearer and clearer—
The streamlined metal hull reflected a cold, sharp light in the sun.
A volume hundreds of times larger than an ordinary merchant ship, a towering bridge, cannons covered by waterproof tarps... and that deep blue flag fluttering at the top of the mast, embroidered with the pattern of a scale and a sword.
That is the emblem of Fontaine!
On the pier, time seemed to stand still for a second.
An Official of the Commission of Retribution was receiving a heavy bag of Mora from a Liyue merchant, a satisfied smile on his face.
His smile froze on his face, his hand loosened, and the money bag fell to the ground with a "clatter," Mora rolling everywhere.
But he was completely unaware, only staring wide-mouthed and blankly at the giant ship on the sea, like a moving steel fortress.
"That, that's... a ship?"
His voice was dry, as if squeezed out of his throat.
The registration book in his colleague's hand hit the ground with a "thud," his lips trembling: "Fontaine's... Fontaine's ship, how can it be so big?!"
The Ronin who were drinking suddenly stood up, their wine bowls shattering on the ground, their eyes filled with horror.
The largest ship they had ever seen was nothing more than an armed merchant ship from Snezhnaya.
But this thing before them... this was simply a city on the sea!
It was a giant ship that only appeared in legends!
The vendors stopped their hawking and looked toward the sea in fear, instinctively shrinking back.
The Liyue merchants were first stunned, and then, being well-informed, complex expressions appeared on their faces—
Surprise, schadenfreude, and also a faint hint of expectation.
Fontaine is indeed enraged.
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