The Real World, “Silver Moon Throne.”
High above the vaulted ceiling made of intertwined living wood, stars flowed silently like a river.
In the center of the grand hall, the Elf Queen, Sylvia, stood barefoot on the icy floor.
Her platinum-blonde hair was loose, cascading down her back, and she wore only a thin, moon-white dress.
Suspended before her was an ancient Obsidian Astrolabe.
Sylvia raised her hand and, using a small silver blade, slashed her palm without hesitation.
Droplets of blood fell.
*Hum — *
The runes on the Star Chart ignited instantly, greedily devouring the blood. On the surface of the disc, a shimmer of light darted frantically through the complex celestial tracks.
Finally, it stopped.
It pointed toward the distant Human Empire, toward the frozen North.
She had finally found him. Aside from that one instance 200 years ago, this was the clearest signal yet.
Thousands of attempts, thousands of disappointments.
Today, she had finally caught that wisp of an aura she had engraved into her very soul.
A sense of exhaustion flooded her like a tide.
Sylvia swayed, grabbing the cold balcony railing to keep herself from collapsing.
The mask of a monarch, eternally engraved with “do not approach,” shattered completely in this moment.
All that remained was the obsession of a woman and a longing that had simmered for 500 years.
That longing nearly burned her bones to ash.
‘Rowling… no matter how many lives you reincarnate, no matter where you are in the world…’
‘I will find you.’
“Your Majesty.”
A Royal Attendant appeared silently behind her, respectfully presenting a sealed letter.
“The invitation to the coronation ceremony for the new Emperor of the Human Empire has just arrived.”
The Elves and the expansionist Human Empire had long been on poor terms, with official contact having been cut off for nearly 100 years.
Sylvia’s gaze shifted instantly from deep longing to reckless determination.
Her personal wish and the affairs of the kingdom merged into one at this moment. Fate had personally handed her a ladder.
“Prepare the carriage and summon the diplomatic mission.”
“I will personally attend the coronation of this new Emperor.”
—
Simulation Instance, Thorns and Masks.
The Queen did not know that the soul she had been pursuing for 500 years was currently ducking into a filthy alleyway at the bottom of the World Tree — a place even the moonlight couldn’t be bothered to visit — all for the sake of a few gold coins.
Shen Luolin had long since discarded the lavish formal attire he wore while playing the devoted fiancé for the Queen. Now dressed in an old, short-sleeved shirt, he navigated several winding alleys and entered an abandoned workshop.
Inside, several small merchants turned pale as if they had seen a ghost when they spotted Shen Luolin.
“L-Lord Luolin…”
The lead merchant, a fat man, squeezed out a smile that looked more like he was crying.
Lately, those in the fuel business had been driven nearly insane by this man.
The Elves were forbidden from cutting trees at will, so commoners relied entirely on Fire Magic Stones for warmth.
This man, however, had somehow acquired waste materials used by nobles and compressed them into something called “Heart-warming Stones.”
The price was only one-tenth of a regular Fire Magic Stone.
This move had directly cut off their livelihoods.
Shen Luolin looked up, his dead-fish eyes scanning the room.
“I know you all have legitimate fuel businesses backing you. But right now, you have two choices.”
“One, you invest, and we all make money from the Lower District together.”
“Two, you refuse me, and then you watch me ruin every single one of your businesses.”
He curled his lips into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
The fat merchant’s face wobbled like a piece of pork jelly.
This wasn’t a multiple-choice question; this was a life-or-death ultimatum.
Images of his shop going bankrupt because of Shen Luolin’s undercutting and his wife and children suffering were already playing on a loop in his head.
Kill him?
The thought flashed through the merchants’ minds for a split second before they snuffed it out.
True, this guy named Shen was a pauper who didn’t even bring a guard when he went out. He looked easy enough to handle.
But damn it, he still carried the title of “Duke” over his head.
Killing a commoner could be settled with money.
Killing a noble? That was a challenge to the entire social hierarchy. The guards would dig up their ancestral graves for that.
Finally, the fat merchant squeezed a few words through his teeth. “We… we will invest.”
Shen Luolin satisfactorily accepted the investment funds they “voluntarily” handed over, counting the coins one by one in front of everyone with utter confidence.
Just then, the sound of arrogant hoofbeats approached from a distance.
The horses stopped, and a luxurious carriage adorned with a red rose pattern arrogantly blocked the narrow entrance of the alley.
The carriage door opened, and a young girl in a Noble Academy uniform stepped down fuming. It was Rosa Rhodes’s younger sister, Kaisey Rhodes.
She was followed by several lackeys. Looking at their expressions, it was clear she had just been scolded elsewhere and was looking for a punching bag.
Shen Luolin frowned, shoved his coin pouch into his shirt with lightning speed, and slipped deeper into the shadows.
It was better to avoid trouble.
Kaisey’s gaze swept across the filthy street, finally landing on a small girl huddling in a corner selling flower wreaths.
Kaisey had been inexplicably scolded by her sister, Rosa, today and was full of rage.
To these noble mean girls who hadn’t graduated yet, nothing demonstrated “nobility” more than trampling on those beneath them.
At this moment, the homeless little girl became the perfect target.
Kaisey walked over in a few steps and kicked over the girl’s basket.
Flower wreaths rolled all over the ground, covered in mud.
“Tch.”
She pinched her nose in disgust, pointing at a wreath made of wild roses, her voice sharp and biting.
“What is this?”
“Are you imitating our Rhodes family crest? A commoner like you thinks she’s worthy of touching roses?”
The little girl trembled all over, unable to say a single word.
Kaisey didn’t bother to do the work herself. She turned and looked at a cowering figure behind her.
“Lumina, go and stomp it into the dirt!”
In the shadows, Shen Luolin’s gaze moved past Kaisey and landed on the girl who had been called out.
The girl wore a Noble Academy uniform that was clearly two sizes too large, causing her to huddle within the baggy clothes.
A pair of black-framed glasses, as thick as the bottom of a glass bottle, covered half her face.
Under the pressured stares of Kaisey and the surrounding lackeys, she shuffled her feet and walked toward the wreath lying in the mud.
Shen Luolin didn’t want to meddle in others’ business.
However, even after Lumina crushed the wreath, Kaisey didn’t seem satisfied. She actually ordered the guard behind her:
“Break her hand! Teach her a lesson so she knows what things she isn’t allowed to touch!”
the guard’s massive hand, as large as a fan, reached out to grab the little girl’s slender wrist.
The little girl’s crying instantly turned into heart-wrenching screams.
Shen Luolin sighed silently.
‘How troublesome…’
If someone actually died and caused a riot, how was he supposed to run the Heart-warming Stone business he had just negotiated?
In the next second, a black shadow darted out from the depths of the alley.
“Ouch! Oh, my goodness!”
Shen Luolin landed with a *thud*, sitting right in front of the wheels of Kaisey’s luxurious carriage. The move was extremely smooth, clearly the work of a professional scammer.
He didn’t get up. He just sat on the ground and started slapping his thighs while wailing.
“There’s no justice! Is there no law anymore!”
“I was just negotiating a business deal worth 100 gold coins with these big bosses, and you scared them all away with this broken carriage!”
While he shouted, he intentionally steered the conversation toward “nobles oppressing commoners and disrupting market order.” His voice was loud enough for half the street to hear.
“So what if you’re a noble! Does being a noble mean you can block the road whenever you want and smash the rice bowls of us little people!”
“Come on! Everyone, don’t just stand there! Follow me to the City Hall! We’ll find a high official to give us justice!”
Kaisey had never seen such a street-thug performance. Her greatest fear was that things would escalate and reach her sister’s ears.
She turned pale with rage at Shen Luolin’s shameless behavior, yet she feared attracting guards and losing face.
“You… you lowly commoner!”
In the end, she could only stomp her foot in resentment, leading her equally stunned lackeys back into the carriage as they fled in disgrace.
The chaos subsided.
Lumina was the last one left.
She knelt down, helped the still-sobbing little girl up, and fished a gold coin from her sleeve, quietly pressing it into the girl’s hand.
After doing this, as if afraid of being discovered, she hurriedly stood up to leave.
*Clack.*
Because she moved too quickly, those thick glasses slipped off the bridge of her nose and fell to the ground.
A hand reached out faster than hers and picked up the glasses.
It was Shen Luolin.
He handed the glasses back to her.
In the moment he passed them over, he unintentionally caught a glimpse of her eyes through those lenses thick as wine bottle bottoms.
What kind of eyes were they?
In that instant, he saw a fragment of a shattered starry sky.
Purple, and shimmering with light.
It was breathtakingly beautiful.
It lasted only a flash.
Lumina snatched the glasses, hurriedly put them on, and used her bangs to hide her face again.
“Th-Thank you.”
She kept her head down, her voice soft, and then ran into the darkness without looking back.
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