“N-no, um… LittleSnow, that thing on TV just now… w-what was it?”

Pinned to the bed by the silver-haired girl like a moth under moonlight, Yue Liuyi had nowhere to slip, no shadow to hide in.

“Push Little Yue down! Little Yue doesn’t know… but last night, the thought bloomed already, like a bud under spring rain.”

“Huh? Last night!?”

“Mm. Your sleeping face while you were out cold—so undefended, so cute, like a kitten in sun. But… I’ll respect Little Yue’s wishes.”

“C-cute… isn’t that normal!? LittleSnow, we’ve always been together like leaves in the same wind…”

“But being alone like this is our first time, like a quiet lake with no ripples. No one’s nearby, no teammates to notice. It’s the perfect moment.”

“Mmph…”

Yue Liuyi felt a third great crisis rise like a storm tide. Of course, this wave was born from Dixue again, like snow turning to flood.

She’d thought that living with Dixue this long meant a “plain, everyday” rhythm, like tea cooling on a table. But a girl who’d never been a girl had underestimated the “Dixue-type Specialized Humanoid Weapon,” a blade wrapped in silk—especially inside a room this hazy, after watching something this suggestive. The old ice had melted; spring wind overflowed the girls’ hearts.

“So, does Little Yue want it? I’m a beginner lost in mist… but I want to see Little Yue’s happy face.”

“Mmph!”

No way she could say no; Yue Liuyi did like Dixue, like moonlight likes water. But if she said yes, the path might twist into stranger woods.

She was actually a boy, yet a girl was about to push her down like petals pressing snow. Too much.

So the blue-haired girl pressed her lips tight, a sealed letter in rain.

Dixue didn’t retreat; her gaze was a steady lantern.

“If you don’t speak, I’ll take that as yes.”

“Wha!? A-actually I…”

“Don’t worry, Little Yue. I’ll be gentle, like dew on grass.”

Just as their hands were about to open the gate to a forbidden garden, a harsh sound cracked the air—like a crow cutting dawn.

“Enemy attack!”

“Ah!!!!”

Outside, an Elven Guard screamed, raw as torn bark; then came blades clashing, a rain of steel on stone. Hearing it, Dixue pulled Yue Liuyi into her arms like a shield of silver and looked to the window.

White-robed figures, built like specters, leaped through the trees like pale owls. Twin blades flashed; wrists wrapped in bands; faces hidden behind blank white masks—like snow with no mouth, no name.

They struck at the Elven Guard posted at the Commerce Timber Tower—the prison’s perch—moving light as sparrows. Twin edges danced, bodies quick as shadows, no slower than the elven sword-dancers holding the line.

“Mm… n-now, of all times!”

“Um… LittleSnow?”

So close they shared the same breath, Yue Liuyi felt the silver-haired girl’s anger flare, like a favorite toy stolen at dusk.

“I finally got this chance! I finally gathered courage, like ember coaxed into flame…”

LittleSnow’s fist tightened like frost around a branch; she looked down at Yue Liuyi in her arms, and a single tear slipped free—clear as rain on jade.

“LittleSnow! You can push me whenever. But right now, we handle the outside, like firefighters in a storm.”

(No… did I just say something wrong?)

“Huh? Little Yue means I can push you whenever?”

“Don’t make me sound like a blow-up doll!”

“Heh~ got it.”

Calm returned to her emerald eyes like still water. The silver-haired girl smiled, soft as a crescent moon, and took her coat from the rack.

“Stay behind me, Little Yue. We’ll see what’s happening outside.”

“Mm.”

Yue Liuyi dressed, grabbed her weapon like a branch in flood, and followed Dixue out.

The air hung heavy with the metallic scent of blood, like iron rain—this was no mock battle at the Timber Tower.

An Elven Guard’s body slumped in a corner, a fallen leaf in shadow. The guards here were trained, a grove of steady trunks, but the white-robed assailants split their formation like an axe in fresh wood, carving them apart.

There were far fewer elves than foes—barely a dozen against waves from every side, a tide piling up. The elves lost the edge quickly, like candles in wind.

“Is there fighting outside?”

“Did someone come to save us?”

“Thank the stars!”

As the white-robed figures broke the defense and rushed inside the cells, the imprisoned adventurers cheered—voices like sparrows finding open sky. But after unlocking the doors, the white-robed figures did something that froze those hopeful voices like frost on reeds.

They drew blunt instruments and smashed straight for skulls—no hesitation, no mercy, cold as winter stone.

“Weren’t you… here to save us?”

“H-help!”

They showed no pity, only thumping adventurers unconscious, again and again, then dragging them out like sacks, piling them in the corridor like logs.

“H-help…”

Lia stared in panic as one white-robed figure reached her cell and unlocked the door—metal sighing like a weary gate.

Her weapons had been confiscated. Lia, a blonde diviner, had no strength to fight; her skills were cards in wind, not fists of iron.

“What are you planning to do to my roommate!”

Thankfully, the woman beside Lia acted first—an adventurer with a grin like rolling thunder. Muscle slammed the floor; a heavy punch shot out like a boulder.

That’s the fighter’s boon over mages: even with spells sealed, the body moves like a river.

The white-robed figure hadn’t expected such a fierce strike; it failed to dodge and took the punch to the chest with a clang, tumbling back like a kicked bucket.

But the woman didn’t chase. She stared at her fist, shock blooming like lightning.

“An i-iron man!?”

The white outer layer tore, revealing the “flesh” beneath—if it could be called flesh. The body was a marriage of steel and muscle, a smith’s nightmare.

Red-saffron tissue mimicked muscle in some places; everywhere else, iron plates covered like scales. Through the seams, steel ribs glinted—bones forged, not born.

Her heavy punch did little. The figure stood back up quickly, a jack rising. The commotion drew others; more white-robed “people” turned their blank faces this way, steps like knives.

They put away blunts and drew twin blades; for those who dared resist, they would not settle for sleep—they would reap like cold reapers.

“Danger!”

As Lia panicked, a small planet lit before her eyes, clear and crystalline like a marble universe. On its surface, the atmosphere seemed to surge like mist over seas.

Then countless star-orbs flared in the prison cloaked in night, filling the corridor with a sea of lights.

“The Stellar Moon Compass!”

A blue-haired girl’s cute silhouette appeared at the cell entrance, quiet as a falling feather.

With the star-sea rose a streak of silver—like a comet through the Milky Way. Silver light braided with the stars into a dense mesh; those threads laced the white-robed bodies, and heavy metallic cracking rang out like glaciers breaking.

It was Yue Liuyi and Dixue in perfect harmony. The Stellar Moon Compass warped the field like tide on sand, redirecting Dixue’s arrows again and again, until the attack became flawless—moon and arrow, star and wind.

“Interrupt me and Little Yue, and this is your fate.”

The silver-haired girl strode to Yue’s side, spine proud as a willow, voice leaving no room for doubt.

The white-robed figures fell together inside the woven galaxy, like meteors going dark.

“Ama—amazing!”

“Is that the Lady in the Windcoat?”

“Why is a chef this strong? Are elves all like this?”

The surviving adventurers gasped, relief washing them like warm rain. To them, the elven girl’s figure felt kind now, a lantern in fog. Even if she had helped capture them, she was far better than those cold, purpose-hidden white-robed ones.

“LittleSnow… what’s going on?”

Though they felled the intruders fast, Yue Liuyi stared at the toppled bodies, confused. Sparks danced off their frames like fireflies; these were not ordinary humans.

“It’s complicated. I’ll explain soon, Little Yue. Let’s free Lia first—now’s a good chance.”

“Mm, got it! Lia, are you okay?”

Yue Liuyi reached into the cell, hand like a lifeline cast over water.

“I’m okay! Thank you, Pillow Lord! Thank you, Butterfly Snow President! I’m so grateful!”

“Huh? Lia, you know the elf lady?”

“Actually…”

“Are you Lia’s roommate?”

The silver-haired girl came over and offered her hand to the bold adventurer. “Knocking back a robot in one hit—you're strong.”

“Elf lady flatters me! I’m just ordinary folk, like wheat in a field…”

“Um… Butterfly Snow President, my roommate’s Tiger Girl. I can vouch she’s good. If possible, can you take her too?”

“Huh? Release me?”

“Of course. We shouldn’t linger. The Commerce Timber Tower is surrounded by white robes, and elven patrols could rush in any moment.”

“Mm!”

“E-elf lady, what about us!?”

“Fairy lady, don’t leave us behind!”

“You sisters are so pretty—don’t abandon a little woman here!”

“I’ve an 80-year-old mother and a six-year-old child at home. Please take me too!”

As the four girls prepared to withdraw, the other imprisoned adventurers couldn’t sit still—voices rose like a flock of sparrows.

“Uh…”

Dixue scratched her head, troubled, like a cat facing rain. How to place these adventurers was a thorn. Leave them, and danger might follow like wolves; take everyone, and the plan would burst at the seams. Moving a crowd through jungle is a herd in brambles, and if people don’t listen, chaos breeds like vines.

That was Yue Liuyi’s cue. Knowing Dixue’s mind like reading wind, the blue-haired girl offered her idea, calm as moonlight.

“LittleSnow, I’ve got a good plan.”

“Huh? Little Yue knows what to do?”

“Mm. We just need to say this, like a map sketched in sand…”