5.

They didn’t kill Gong Linxun, but the elves’ prison grew by one shadow behind iron-vine bars.

Stealing Ailuna’s panties was a sin heavy enough to be hurled into the Fountain of Origin, a boulder dropped into a sacred spring.

Yet for saving Bernice, Dixue didn’t expose that shame under noon sun; she handed the blond culprit to the Elven Guard for illegal peeping instead.

Even so, for Gong Linxun, the punishment weighed like a mountain pressing down a sapling.

Among elves, girls’ love blows like a spring breeze, and even boys’ love drifts like an autumn wind through leaves.

Mm… perhaps their low birthrate ties to that custom, like seeds scattered on cold soil.

“Heeelp—ah!” The blond youth, dragged away, let out a cry like a torn reed.

Dixue acted as if the wind carried nothing; she opened her arms and wrapped Yue Liuyi in a cloud-soft hug.

“Fly swatted! Little Moon, let’s keep playing!” Her voice skipped like pebbles across a lake.

“Ah!” The sound flickered like a startled firefly.

Fear came first, shivering through Yue Liuyi like frost; her body trembled a beat later.

“Huh? Little Moon, why so scared?” Her gaze was a quiet pool catching starlight.

“B-because I’m a boy…” The words fell like pebbles, then sank.

“Hehe, daydreaming again, Little Moon? When were you a boy? I never heard that, not even from the wind.”

“Huh? LittleSnow, you forgot? That day I—mm… mm-mmm!” Her mouth was a petal pressed shut.

Yue Liuyi tried to speak, but Dixue’s palm covered her lips, warm as sun on silk.

Then the blue-haired girl rose as Yue Dier lifted her whole, a princess carry, skirts flowing like a waterfall.

“LittleSnow!!” The name rang like a bell in a temple grove.

“Little Moon’s this cute. Let’s not say strange things,” Dixue said, syrup-sweet as honey.

“It’s not strange! I really—mm, mm!” Her protest muffled like rain under leaves.

“Mm. Naughty little body pillow. Time for proper training~” Her teasing curled like incense smoke.

Being carried to tour the World Tree Maiden Festival felt oddly special, like floating down a lantern-lit river.

Passing elf girls stared with shy surprise, eyes like dew on grass; Yue Liuyi became a spotlighted stage, and she flinched.

Worse, a few elves mistook her for a body pillow and asked where to buy this talking Maple-Robe body pillow, like shoppers chasing migrating swallows.

Dixue was delighted, though, and carried Yue Liuyi through every stall, chasing bright things like children chasing butterflies.

They hunted treasure, scooped rainbow fish that flashed like shards of sky, and shot arrows that sang like strings in the wind.

By day’s end, prizes spilled like a cornucopia; the gifts were too many for two sets of hands.

“LittleSnow, our stuff’s overflowing. You can put me down now, right?” Her voice brushed like a feather.

“Mm… can’t be helped.” Reluctance clung like dew to silver grass.

With arms full as harvest baskets, Dixue finally set Yue Liuyi down, parting like a tide from the shore.

Even after tapping Mofa, her strength only bloomed like a night flower; she wasn’t a mountain-lifter, and her arms ached.

The girls rested on a small platform in the Old-Roots Ward of the Elven Capital, moss soft as velvet.

Away from the festival’s heart, it felt quiet; the moon hung on branches, and lanterns glowed like old friends.

Fair sounds hid behind trees like foxes, and fireworks unraveled upward, a dream-thread weaving the dark.

“Peace feels so good.” Her whisper drifted like a kite in steady wind.

“Yeah…” The answer settled like warm tea.

From the platform’s far side, a man and a woman spoke; their voices rippled like fish under moonlight.

“The tavern’s business has picked up,” the man said, a tankard catching pale silver. “But those two girls… what happened to them?”

“Those two girls?” The question rose like a lark.

“Morand, don’t tell me you forgot them!” Her scold snapped like a twig.

“Huh? Which two—oh! I remember.” Memory flared like a struck match.

“Seriously! You’re so unreliable!” Her sigh folded like a fan.

Yue Liuyi and Dixue had meant only to rest, but the familiar words tugged like a thread through fog.

These two elves—they knew them, like faces recalled in firelight.

6.

“Miss Charlotte. Mr. Morand. Hello.” The greeting floated like a breeze through leaves.

“Huh?” Their surprise flicked like tails of fish.

A red-haired elf woman and an armored elf man turned together, and saw the cute blue-haired being like a cornflower in snow.

“You’re… a human adventurer? Charlotte, is she a regular at your tavern?” His brow creased like bark.

“No, I don’t have a girl this small coming often. But she’s adorable…” Her smile warmed like sunlight on wine.

Charlotte stared at Yue Liuyi, feeling a bell ring in her chest; familiar, yet the name hid like a squirrel.

Now Yue Liuyi wore a human shape without elf ears, like a mask smoothed by rain.

Dixue walked up and laid carefully chosen gifts on their table, each wrapped like a petal.

“Miss Charlotte, Mr. Morand, thank you for helping us before,” she said, voice like clear springwater.

“You are…” Morand blinked, eyes fogged like a winter pond.

Charlotte saw blue and white side by side and gasped, eyes widening like full moons.

“You—you’re Ms. Dieyu and Ms. Fengyi?!” Her chair scraped like a startled deer.

“Mm!” The answer chimed like a bell.

“Great! You’re alive!” Relief loosened like a knot in silk. “After the Commercial Center was attacked, I feared you’d died…”

She patted her chest and exhaled, breath a warm cloud. “The Elven Forest was rough then. You being safe is a blessing.”

“Huh? I remember Ms. Dieyu and Ms. Fengyi were elves. So why are you…” Her gaze dropped to ears smooth as river stones.

That might grow into a thicket, so Yue Liuyi spoke first, voice winding like a creek.

“Mm… it’s a long story,” she said, the words slow as falling leaves.

Dixue and Yue Liuyi sketched their Elven Forest journey, a path marked by moss and moonlight.

There was no need to hide now; even Ailuna and the Elven Queen stood with them, like trees sharing shade.

They’d helped the elves resolve their storm; only a statue in the Elven Parliament was missing, a stone flower among roots.

“Eh!? You two… are World Tree Maidens from other planets?!” Morand’s shock burst like thunder under clear sky.

“I’m not. Only my Little Moon is,” Dixue said, pride soft as velvet. “So thank you for helping back then.”

“Without you, even spare clothes would’ve been trouble. Please accept these gifts.” Her hands pushed them forward like offerings at dawn.

On the table lay prizes from the fair, and goods Dixue had brought from the Night Clan, night-silk gleaming like starlight.

“This really isn’t necessary! Helping a World Tree Maiden is our duty!” Charlotte waved her head, hair like a flame.

“Morand, you clearly didn’t listen properly,” she scolded, voice a quick rap like knuckles on wood. “Dixue is the World Tree Maiden’s guardian.”

“Don’t just stand there. Bring that out!”

“Wh-which one?” His eyes darted like minnows.

“The nectar wine we’re selling at the festival!”

“Ah, right!” He bent and lifted a basin-bowl from a crate, arms steady as pillars.

He peeled the lotus-leaf seal, and moonlight rippled in the wine; flower-scent drifted up like spring in a cup.