“Moon Elf… I knew it. You filthy outsiders would definitely come to obstruct us…”
Night veiled Satellite City. A group of people with varying equipment and expressions stood in a standoff against a white-haired girl. The leader looked at the stubborn, unyielding girl, a flash of smugness and contempt crossing his eyes.
“Do you think we wouldn’t prepare a backup plan for you elves when we handle these things? Naive! But… I didn’t expect the Elf Race to send a Moon Elf who looks like she only just reached adulthood. Hahahaha! It seems my merits will go up another level!”
“Don’t kill her; take her alive! This is a Moon Elf. The Research Department will owe us a big one!”
The word “elf” repeated incessantly from the leader’s mouth, drawing attention to the pointed ears peeking through the girl’s hair. She grit her teeth, enduring the exhaustion and pain racking her body. She raised her trembling arms, a brilliant white light bursting from her fingertips.
The Moon Elf did not shrink back. Her mana was nearly depleted from her previous efforts to complete her goal, but she did not intend to admit defeat — even if the quantity and quality of her enemies were enough to drive her to despair.
“Moon Magic…”
Before the magic in her hands could take shape, the members of the Human Alliance, who were already prepared for battle, unleashed their various powers. As their glows intensified, the girl became momentarily dazed.
Then, the light transformed into beams flying toward the enemy. Amidst that piercing radiance, as if preparing to welcome her own death, the girl tightly closed her reddened eyes. A single trail of tears slid slowly down her cheek.
‘O Star Elf, you who lead the Elf Race, will your light… shine upon me?’
‘Xingyao… I think I’m going to die. I’m sorry, I never dared to tell you… I…’
At that moment, a youth wearing a black hood ran over rapidly, accompanied by the sounds of explosions and startled cries from the Human Alliance side. The stray smoke from the magic obscured her vision and that of her enemies, but she seemed to hear his shout!
“Yi Shiyue! Pull yourself together!”
“I lo — Huh?!”
The figure drew closer until he grabbed the girl’s wrist, leading her toward the direction of the chaos with unquestionable authority. Only then did she see the familiar profile under the hood.
“Xingyao?!”
“Stop talking and move. I have a safe house nearby. These idiots from the Combat Department… you’re not a monster. To be so ruthless against a Moon Elf, aren’t they afraid the Elf Race will go to war with them?!”
The reappearance of that familiar voice put Yi Shiyue slightly at ease, but the youth before her felt incredibly strange. In all the time they had spent together, she had never told him about her identity as an elf. She had also never heard that the usually gentle and simple youth had such a wild side.
“I…”
“No more ‘I’s.’ Tsk, while the smoke lasts, move! The safe house is under that red and yellow office building. The password is your birthday. I’ll go meet those few who are chasing us.”
“No, I cannot…”
“Your task right now is to go back and think about how you’re going to confess these secrets to me. As for my safety… a few mere First Night Grades can’t hurt me.”
“But I can’t leave you alone out there —”
“The Star Elf needs you more than me (Elven Language). So, go!”
Yi Shiyue was stunned.
‘He… knows Elven Language?’
‘He… knows about the Star Elf?!’
‘Is he really the Ye Xingyao I know?’
While the girl questioned her reality, the youth pulled out a short sword and fished a black Magic Stone engraved with complex Elven Language from his pocket. He channeled the mana within, merging into the night. In the next second, he appeared before the pursuers, kicking over one of the Combat Department members who had lost their balance while running.
Yi Shiyue finally snapped out of it. She clutched the gemstone in her hand and sprinted toward the “safe house” the youth had mentioned.
“Let me guess, are you few First Night Grades superpower users or technology-modified humans?”
Sensing that Yi Shiyue had already left, Ye Xingyao beckoned with his finger in a provocative gesture toward the several low-level pursuers who were on high alert.
“Hmph, talk is cheap. You dare to block the path of the Alliance’s Combat Department, let a Moon Elf escape, and ruin our plans… let me see…”
The leader of the Combat Department group also caught up. He wanted to observe the facial features of this interloper, but he found that the person’s face seemed to merge into the night. With that layer of veil, it was impossible to lock onto the stranger’s identity.
Magic? A superpower?
One of the pursuers seemed genuinely provoked. He ferociously drew a large blade and charged.
“A power-type superpower user. If you were an Entering Dream Grade, I might actually dodge your edge, but a mere First Night Grade… is not enough!”
Ye Xingyao tossed a small, fire-red stone with one hand and then faded into the night once more.
‘A fire-element Magic Stone? Don’t tell me he…’
“Run!”
The leader hurriedly shouted a warning to the companion who had charged out.
“What is this?”
The power-type superpower user swung his blade at the stone.
In an instant, the small, fire-red stone erupted with a terrifyingly high temperature. Blazing flames swept along the blade toward the person who had struck it!
“Retreat! The target can use Magic Stones. Re-evaluate task difficulty and request Midnight Grade combatant support! Repeat, request Midnight Grade… I… why can’t I move!”
Only then did the leader realize that several vines growing from the cracks in the floor tiles had already locked him firmly in place. His communicator had also just been snatched away by the culprit.
“No need to request support. This will be over soon. Of course, I’ll still leave some leeway for the Alliance; after all, I am human.”
The youth’s teasing voice drifted from nearby.
“You! Since you are human, why would you help the elves?!”
Faced with the leader’s questioning, Ye Xingyao shrugged.
“Take a guess?”
Next, the leader’s vision went black as he lost consciousness. The other combatants had already been taken down one by one by Ye Xingyao.
Ye Xingyao merged into the night once again, heading toward the safe house…
***
“To think it would end like this. Truly surprising.”
In the dark sky, a pink-haired girl sat atop a magic wand, watching from a distance as the Human Alliance’s reinforcements arrived late and the Logistics Department began cleaning up the battlefield.
‘Let me guess… who could that Moon Elf and that ordinary person crudely imitating magic be?’
***
“Whew, I made too big of a scene with the Alliance this time… Dammit, if only that Moon Elf wasn’t Yi Shiyue…”
On the way home from school this afternoon, that holy and mysterious Moon Elf had sweetly said to him, “I have to do homework tonight, let’s go play together tomorrow!”
‘This is the “homework” you were talking about?!’
Ye Xingyao stood at the entrance of the safe house, his face covered in dark lines.
‘Who could possibly understand the feeling of finding out your childhood friend is an elf who avoids the Human Alliance like the plague — and the rarest, most powerful Moon Elf at that?’
👀👀👀