Between the dense trees, a garden flashed into being—color spilled like paint across the earth. A soft breeze came and carried petals’ perfume, light and heady.

Dew clung to leaf-tips like tiny glass beads, not yet dried. A clear spring burbled nearby, already playing nature’s quiet melody.

Sunlight filtered through the canopy, throwing mottled shadows like lace. Bees hustled, butterflies drifted; their wings flickered in and out like a dream.

A three-story wooden cabin stood in the heart of the flowers, quiet as a hermit’s bell.

Yue Liuyi and Yedie Snow followed a bluestone path and stepped closer.

“Wow. So pretty…”

“Little Moon, this is the elves’ research institute.”

This was Linyun Academy’s institute. Unlike human labs, even a place this important never felt rigid. Plants grew as they pleased. Even the air tasted relaxed.

“Do we… just walk in like this?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, Little Moon. I asked around. The director here—‘Gray’—is a scientist and a mage, a pacifist who opposes war. She can help.”

“Eh? Gray?”

“Mm. Among elves, only those deeply respected earn a single-syllable name.”

“Then… she must be a granny?”

“I’m not a granny.”

While Dixue and Yue Liuyi were talking, a gray-haired girl came up beside them without a sound, like fog.

She wore a fitted dress of pale violet. Elf-born, but small in stature. Her skin was pale as milk. Her eyes, soft-violet and a little sad, stayed still as a pond, fixed on Yue Liuyi.

“Ah!” Yue jumped. That feeling of speaking someone’s name and they appear—it was too uncanny.

“Heh… Master Gray, don’t scare my junior. She startles easy.”

“You two are…?”

Gray’s gaze rested on Yue Liuyi, then moved to Yedie Snow. It lingered on that bright silver hair a breath longer, then softened. “You came all the way to the Elven Forest. What brings you?”

“Eh? LittleSnow… were we found out?”

Seeing Gray spot at a glance they weren’t local elves, Yue tensed inside.

“We couldn’t hide it anyway. I’ll introduce myself properly. I’m Yedie Snow, leader of the Azure Front, branch head of the Rangers Lodge… and this is my wife—mm… body pillow—Yue Liuyi.”

“I’m not a body pillow, I’m LittleSnow’s partner!”

“Welcome, esteemed guests from afar.”

The gray-haired girl nodded lightly, calm as a still lake.

…

They moved to the small deck behind the cabin and sat around a table, sharing snacks.

Soft-pink sakura cakes waited there. A food unique to elves, made with cherry blossoms, flour, milk, and eggs. One bite and your mouth filled with bloom-fragrance.

“So good~ Thank you for the treat, Master Gray!”

“You’re welcome. I should be thanking you. Because the Azure Front exposed the unknown faction’s plot, my beloved came home safe.”

“Eh? Master Gray’s beloved… don’t tell me… human!?”

“Mm. Little Moon, you might not know. Twenty years ago, I fell in love with a human adventurer. Back then the elves had just opened up. Many opposed us. Only by holding each other up did we finally stand together.”

“Looks like you did your homework. So right now… I strongly oppose this war.”

Yue Liuyi had allies among elves after all. Master Gray was one of them.

“We came for peace as well. We hope to borrow your strength to stop this war.”

“If so… do you know how to stop a war?”

“How?”

“People keep repeating foolish mistakes. Only pain teaches regret. This fight has barely begun. Neither side has truly felt what war is…”

Gray spoke quietly, her gaze on the air, thoughts turning back.

It was twenty years ago. The outsiders had barely reached the New Land.

…

Back then, trade routes weren’t open. Natives and newcomers sometimes clashed, but mostly kept to their own borders, their wells untouched by each other’s buckets.

Then it happened… a case that shocked the whole Elven Forest. A flower-season elf girl was murdered, cruelly. Her body was defiled, then tossed in the Elven Capital square, found only at dawn.

It had to be humans. The culprit was likely a Murder Fiend. But simple-hearted elves took it as proof of “human civilization.” Humans couldn’t even hand over the killer…

Anger pooled across the tribe like storm-clouds. Some elves tried to be rational. Then more elf girls were murdered. Their bodies again abandoned in the square. That broke every last restraint.

The First War began.

Gray and her lover had only just fallen in love. Elves already denounced her being with a human. Now angry voices rose like a hive in upheaval.

She had to spirit her lover away in secret, forced to part…

Days of shaking under the weight of longing were hard beyond words.

From then on, the gray-haired girl held a wish in secret. May no one be split apart by war again. May no one lose the sound of their lover’s blessing.

That was the most chaotic stretch in Elven Forest history. The Inner Ring civilizations sent planes and airships. The elves shot back, stubborn and precise, with arcane bows.

Every day, you saw many wounded. The once-verdant forest was veined with blood.

Then, at last, the murderer was found.

To everyone’s shock, the culprit didn’t look like a feral Murder Fiend at all, but a little girl with empty hands… yet she had orchestrated the killings of elf maidens.

The exhausted elves finally saw the folly of the war. Their enemy wasn’t Dragon Heaven or the Saint Radiance Alliance, mature civilizations. It was criminals hiding among the outsiders.

The war ended. The Elven Queen, guilty of her mistake, stepped down in shame, leaving the crown to her newly adult daughter.

After that, under young Tisinate, twenty years of peace followed. Civilizations exchanged. Elves advanced. They got television. They welcomed many outside technologies and cultures.

Trade routes opened bit by bit.

Elves learned human logistics and built a courier network through the Elven Forest.

…

“Tisinate had a path in mind. Now it seems… she’s walking her mother’s old road.”

Gray gathered her thoughts and murmured.

“But I think… the current Elven Queen isn’t simply hungry for war. She wants something else.”

“Something else? How do you know? Even I can’t read that girl’s heart.”

“The Queen is after a chain. Have you heard of it, Master Gray? A powerful binding tool that can restrict a life’s strength.”

“You mean… the Cataclysm Chain?”

“Mm. That should be it.”

…

Led by Gray, the two girls entered the institute’s archive room.

Elves stored knowledge in unusual ways. Not paper. Not computers. Back then, their tech was primitive. No printers. No disks.

So they kept vital knowledge in seeds.

The plant was called the Illusory Memory Blossom. When it bloomed, it recorded what happened nearby, and conjured strange images.

Elven caretaking and selection refined it over time, until a bloom could store clear scenes, perfect for archives.

Of course, the Inner Ring civilizations found it too. But people being people, some strayed. They turned the blossoms to uses best left unspoken.

So “seed” became slang in the Inner Ring for adult recordings. “Seeking seeds” picked up a saucy tone.

Among elves, “seeking seeds” stayed pure and proper—academic exchange, not hunting for smut.

Gray took out a seed and planted it in a pot. She whispered a spell. In moments, a tender sprout broke the soil.

“This is for you. When you need to read it, whisper the same spell… It holds all we have on the Cataclysm Chain. But since it’s royal property, our records aren’t complete.”

“Mm. This is enough. Thank you, Master Gray.”

Dixue took the flowerpot and bowed, gratitude bright on her face.

“Anything else I can do? If it helps stop the war, I’ll aid you with whatever I can.”

“Mm! Oh—Master Gray, do you like cats?”

“Cats? Those fluffy, soft, liquid creatures?”

“Mm-hmm. Those.”

“…”

She said nothing, but the flush on her cheeks and the tiny trail of drool at her lip said everything.

“Two catfolk girls will host an event at the academy soon. We hope you’ll come.”

“Where? I’m going!”

The serene gray-haired girl perked up, suddenly excited.

…

…

“Whew… that went unexpectedly smoothly.”

Leaving the institute with Dixue, Yue Liuyi replayed their day at Linyun Academy. Everything had slid into place.

Elves were friendly. Yue had thought they’d need to sneak around. Instead, simple talks handled it all.

“Heh. Elves have a saying: cute, beautiful girls don’t lie. So people tended to trust us.”

“Eh!? Really? But in human society, they say the prettier the girl, the better the liar!”

“That’s the cultural gap. Elves are blessed by the World Tree, their youth and life-power long and steady. They treasure that. The more beautiful the girl, the more she worries lying will lose Nature’s favor.”

“Eh!? So an elf’s looks link to her temperament?”

“Mm. While elves speak with nature, life-power answers and settles on them. So ‘as a person, so their face’ is a real rule among elves, not shallow judgment.”

“Oh! No wonder LittleSnow said the more beautiful an elf is, the stronger she tends to be!”

“Yes. Master Gray’s hair, too, was once a radiant gold. Because of her wish, it slowly turned gray.”

“Eh? Why? Gold looks nicer, right? Gray feels… older.”

“Mix every flower’s color in this field, and you get gray.”

“Eh!?”

“That’s the road Master Gray chose to walk…”