“S-so strong...”

“The enemies are all gone!”

“How can it be this strong!”

Shock hit first, cold as snowmelt down her spine. Yue Liuyi, the caster, stared like a deer under starlight.

That spell’s force blew past her horizon. Not just elite or master level—no archmage, no legend, could summon a tide like this.

It had stepped off human shores. Only a World Tree Maiden could coax such a miracle from the roots of creation.

“Great!”

Joy burst in her chest like dawn over frost. She looked up at the starry dome, a sky like lacquer and silver. It meant she truly was the World Tree Maiden. It meant she could be useful, a shield for everyone.

“Huh...?”

Dizziness washed over her like a dark wave. The world slowed, and the air turned to glass.

“Body-Pillow Lord?”

“Huh, Little Moon’s sleepy? It’s fine, sleep a bit first...”

“Mmm...”

Darkness drifted in like evening smoke. The blue-haired girl lost balance and folded gently into the silver-haired girl’s arms.

Soft as clouds, warm with a cool spring to it—LittleSnow’s embrace was too comfortable, like silk under moonlight.

Gentle strokes fell like feathers. Yue Liuyi slipped into sleep.

...

...

An endless darkness stretched like a sea without shore.

The darkness had no seam, no ripple. It stayed, unblinking, like a night with no stars.

Time and space meant nothing there, like leaves in a windless room.

Think too long, and it was a world of despair, a well with no rope.

But at some unknown moment, a first thread of light bloomed like a spark in kindling.

Light burst, and the void drowned in brightness like snow swallowing fields.

Matter and distance arose like stones surfacing through mist.

At first, it was a bald planet, a bare pebble hanging in a black river.

Nothing but rock stared back at the universe, like a cliff with no grass.

Somewhere in that stillness, air gathered like dawn mist.

Magma beaded on the skin of the world, like embers under crust.

The first raindrop fell from the empty sky, a pearl breaking silence.

Lava cooled; oceans, hills, and rivers unfolded like ink across paper.

The first life budded from the sea, tiny as a grain yet bright as a spark.

It grew, it changed—it evolved, like a sapling fighting sunward.

Ages rolled by like tides counting stones.

The quiet ocean became a marketplace of color, a reef of voices.

Plants rose, animals followed, green and sinew weaving like braid.

Brave life walked ashore, footprints like seeds across sand.

The family of life swelled, a forest of branches climbing time.

Every life held a maybe, a chrysalis waiting to split.

More ages passed like shadows crossing mountains.

Ancient rulers once gripped the land, crowns like bone and thunder.

Rifts tore, invasions came, like storms spilling from other skies.

Extinctions struck, reigns traded hands. Yet this world and all who endured stumbled on together, like travelers in rain.

Then humans appeared, fire cupped like a small sun in their hands.

They stepped from forest to field and raised the oldest stones, temples like beehives of prayer.

With hearts still tuned to nature’s flute, they wrote a brightest page, lanterns in a river of night.

And then, somewhere, humans changed, like iron rusting in salt wind.

Tall smokestacks pierced the clouds, oil bled across the sea, soil curled under chemical frost.

They stopped revering the planet that fed them, carving her like a wounded whale.

On that once-beautiful sphere, no trees could be seen, only stumps like scars.

The sun rose as always, but couldn’t burn through the thick smog, a lid on a pot.

Hidden currents raged in shadowed corners, like rats under floorboards.

Fanatics of the Doomsday Cult stormed the last court and pulled their triggers, sparks like locusts.

The innocent cried out, and their red stained the last tree on that planet like a flag.

A blue-haired girl, dying, lay on the ground, cold as winter stone.

Why won’t people understand?

Why does the human heart carry so much hate, like needles in wool?

Maybe that’s just human nature, a thorn in the rose.

The floor’s chill seeped into her bones. Life thinned like smoke.

The planet’s life force was almost spent, a well with only mud.

So the girl, at the last moment, had to finish her task, like a lamp’s final flare.

Daughter, I’m sorry... I couldn’t save our home, like a mother failing to stop a flood.

You’ll face something harsher than mine, winds like knives.

More humans will want to kill you, like hunters sighting a deer.

Newborn, how will you survive, a sapling in storm?

But if it must be so...

If you live as a human...

Maybe you’ll grasp what I could not, like catching snowflakes on your tongue.

May you live happy, like sunlight on a doorstep.

In that new age...

The girl died, like a candle blown out.

When all in the world

fell into darkness, a lid on a lantern,

it was also

when the world’s everything

stirred awake, like seeds after rain.

“Mmm...”

Yue Liuyi shook her small head like a wet bird. She woke.

She’d just had a very long dream, like a river in fog. The instant she woke, it slipped away like fish.

“Little Moon, you’re awake!”

Her eyes focused, and a beautiful silver-haired face came into bloom, like a lotus. LittleSnow wore a pretty white dress today, patterns carved like frostwork.

“Huh? LittleSnow? Where are we...?”

“In the Lily Room of the Forest Fortress!”

Yue Liuyi looked around. A tidy room, a faint floral scent, a hush like a garden at noon—the Lily Room of the Forest Fortress.

“Eh!? Where’s Wan Han! That fight—did we win!?”

Panic fluttered like sparrows. She’d actually fallen asleep... By the time she woke, the battle was over.

“Of course we won! Little Moon, two days ago you were amazing! You cast that huge spell in one go, and the broken ones got flattened like wheat!”

“U-urgh... being praised is embarrassing... Wait, two days ago!?”

“Yep! Little Moon slept two whole days and nights! Just like a little lazy piglet, so cute!”

“Ugh!”

She felt the corner of her mouth damp, like dew on a leaf. While she slept, LittleSnow must’ve done all kinds of weird cuddly things...

“Lia and the others are okay, right? And everyone! Breeze and Dawn Goose—are they safe?”

“Mm-hmm, of course~ Everyone came back with the rabbit sprites. Right now they’re under the tree in the plaza, having a gathering like a summer fair!”

“Oh... then I’m relieved.”

No companions dead—that alone was a blessing, like rain after drought.

She knew her own nature. As a boy, maybe she’d act a bit tougher, a shell on a turtle.

But now, if any companion had died... she would definitely cry, like rain from a full sky.

...

Though no one died, the troubles left behind weren’t small, like burrs on a cloak.

From outside, Zero Wei’s voice burst in, anxious as a kettle boiling. The tone felt serious, a drumbeat before storm.

“Butterfly Snow President! Bad news! Princess Shao Rong and Princess Qinhui are fighting! Princess Ji Wan tried to mediate, and now it’s a three-way brawl!”

“Hah!?”

Hearing the report, Dixue frowned, a crease like a blade.

She wasn’t annoyed at Zero Wei. She was angry at those three young ladies from Dragon Heaven. “Get Dawn Goose to intervene! Anyone who keeps making a scene—shorten her maid skirt by five centimeters! If she resists, switch to a bunny-girl outfit!”

“Huh!? But Lady Maria already put them in bunny-girl outfits!”

“Hah!? Ugh... Then say anyone who keeps fighting wears an apron with nothing under it!”

“Okay! Zero Wei got it!”

...

“Whoa! LittleSnow, the apron-with-nothing might be a bit much!”

“It’s fine, there aren’t any boys in the fortress anyway... huh?”

Dixue looked at Yue Liuyi, and a thought struck like lightning on dry hills.

“Huh...?”

Yue Liuyi glanced down at herself and remembered her identity, a coin flipping midair.

“Wah! I forgot Little Moon grew up as a boy too! If so, that apron will make Little Moon’s desires explode—disaster! Everyone’s gonna get pushed down!”

Panic scrambled her words like cats in a basket. She looked nothing like the usual cool Dixue.

“Don’t talk like I’m some beast! That’s not happening!”

“Lingwei, I’ve changed my mind. Don’t put them in aprons. A leather harness, macho-guy style, suits them better!”

“Making girls wear that is even weirder!!!!!!!!!!”

Yue Liuyi rushed to stop Dixue’s runaway brain. She had no idea what happened while she was out, but leather harnesses were a nightmare image.

Deep dark fantasy?

Just imagining it felt terrifying, like a pit with no bottom. She hurried up and covered Dixue’s mouth.

“Mmph... Little Moon... what are you doing...”

The two girls tangled like vines with opposite ideas. In the end, Dixue’s strength pinned Little Moon under like a cat pinning a kitten.

Zero Wei, meanwhile, had already hurried off, her footsteps fading like rain.

“Huff, huff...” Dixue panted, eyes wide as she looked down at Little Moon. “Thinking it through—if Little Moon can turn into a boy... that’s the making of a harem king! Ah! Super-pervy Little Moon will play with me, get bored, and toss big sister Dixue into the cold palace! That’s terrifying!”

“I told you... I won’t do that!”

“Hmph! You say you won’t, but your body’s honest... boys are like that!”

Dixue held Little Moon down with love and hate twined, like silk and nettle. Her white-stockinged legs pressed together, the air turning hazy as summer heat.

“Answer me seriously, Little Moon. If a bunch of beautiful girls stood before you, wouldn’t your heart stir, like wind in chimes?”

“Huh...?”

Yue Liuyi didn’t know how to answer. Saying no would be a lie. Such cute, wonderful girls—who wouldn’t want to scoop them up and squeeze them like marshmallows?

“See? I knew it...”

Catching that flicker, Dixue pressed on like a rider with spur. “Little Moon would drift when tempted. But I won’t! I only like Little Moon. I won’t take other girls to bed!”

“B-but! About ‘taking to bed,’ it’s always you teasing me! I haven’t, um, pounced on any other girl...”

“That’s because big sister Dixue has been satisfying Little Moon’s desires! Otherwise you’d be the lead of a stud-harem webnovel! Disguised as a girl, living a decadent life...”

“That’s just fiction! Those are boys’ daydreams, for laughs. In real life, that won’t happen!”

“You say that—but reality’s sneaky. Little Moon’s so lewd, nothing would surprise me.”

“I promised you, LittleSnow—ah! Don’t squeeze! I get it, I get it!”

“Mm... As much as I want to, I’m not gonna demand to have Little Moon all to myself. It’s just...”

Dixue held Little Moon’s small face in both hands like a teacup and spoke solemnly. “Remember this, Little Moon. Don’t toy with a girl’s feelings. Don’t boast about things you can’t do. Many girls will take that as truth. In the end they’ll be left alone, and that’s too cruel, like frost on late blossoms.”

“Huh...?”

“Actually... I didn’t tell everyone that Little Moon can turn into a boy.”

“Huh? U-ugh...”

Thinking of Ailuna and Zaocun, Yue Liuyi realized exposure would be awful, like ink spilled on silk.

Ailuna would burrow into the earth with shame. Zaocun might do something strange, like fireworks in daylight.

Who knew what Dawn Goose and Breeze would do... Even imagining it felt like a handful of nettles.

“But... we should tell everyone, right...?”

“It’s fine!”

Let's fold it into a paper crane and keep it between me and Xiaoyue.

Besides, with Xiaoyue this cute, the word “boy” has no weight at all!

Uu...

So to everyone, Xiaoyue’s still a cute little hug pillow, soft as a cloud!

Just forget the boy part, and keep that willow-soft grace from now on~

How am I supposed to forget that!

Then we’ll make you forget it by force, Xiaoyue! (physical means)

Help! LittleSnow gone dark is terrifying—like a winter shadow creeping up the wall!

From the bottom of her heart, Yue Liuyi felt it: a World Tree Maiden without power is a disaster, like a forest without sap, like lanterns gone out.