“Guh…”
Ye Xingyao bit her lip, reluctantly found a chair in the room to sit down, and turned her slightly flushed face away. She planned not to give Hongye Qiu or Yi Shiyue another look, letting out a tsundere-like huff.
Hongye Qiu and Yi Shiyue locked eyes again, and the two of them shrugged in unison.
There was no other reason for it; to these two women who were incredibly familiar with Ye Xingyao’s personality, a minor tantrum of this level was just her dramatic personality coming out. She just wanted to play around with them.
“Eh? Is Sister Xingyao angry?”
Unfortunately, there was an honest, clueless girl by their side. Fumier jumped off the bed and began pacing around Ye Xingyao in a panic, her face practically screaming, ‘The Star Elf is angry! Someone come and soothe her!’
Seeing this, Ye Xingyao could no longer maintain her expression. she let out a secret giggle, pressed her hands against her soft cheeks, and sighed.
“It’s alright, Fumier. I’m not angry. I’m just playing around with them.”
Ye Xingyao patted Fumier’s small head. It seemed the one who needed soothing the most was this incredibly honest little girl.
‘Sigh… this honest child… bullying her would probably be quite fun, wouldn’t it?’
Cough, cough. Xiao Yao didn’t have such twisted tastes! Whose thought was that? Go away, go away!
It had to be said that the women around her all had top-tier hair. The silk-like smoothness made her unable to resist stroking it a few more times.
Fumier also seemed to enjoy it very much, tilting her little head slightly along with the movements of the hand, a healing expression appearing on her face.
‘Guh… why is this girl so unexpectedly cute?’
“Alright, you two should stop watching the show and get to business.”
Ye Xingyao looked at the two nearby with a resentful gaze. Seriously, one was a slightly dark-bellied childhood friend, and the other was a wicked woman who loved to tease her…
She really didn’t know how they were going to continue cooperating in the future!
The morning farce of the little Star Elf team came to an end with a single sentence from the Star Elf herself.
“Oh, right. Sister Hongye, why won’t you let us go to the Finale Hotel?”
Before the formal discussion could begin, Ye Xingyao suddenly remembered the Finale Hotel, which she hadn’t visited in a long time. She missed the delicious food there.
“…You have the nerve to ask?! It’s because of you, you little dummy. Every time you go there, you make the waiters pack cakes for you to take out. It’s reached the point where the Boss there thinks I’m someone who loves taking petty advantages.”
Hongye Qiu gave the black-haired girl a flat look and spoke testily.
“Eh? Was that it…?”
Ye Xingyao put on a very disappointed expression. But the cakes made by the pastry chef at the Finale Hotel really were delicious…
Although she was a high-quality beauty who could handle herself in the parlor and the kitchen—at least, in her own opinion—she had one fatal flaw. When it came to pastries, anything other than noodles was a total mystery to her, let alone knowing a thing or two about making them.
“Tsk, do you really like eating cake that much? Wouldn’t it be better if we just ordered some… fine, that’s not the real reason. Even if you went to the Finale Hotel and demanded the Boss personally wear a maid outfit to make cakes for you, it wouldn’t matter, as long as you were willing to spend some Hunter Points.”
“I’m getting off track. In short, the Finale Hotel has a very deep relationship with the Hunter’s Union. If you were to appear there, the Human Alliance wouldn’t necessarily think I’m collaborating with you through the facade of a Star Elf—they would think the entire Hunter’s Union wants to get their hands on Star Elf affairs. Do you understand?”
Hongye Qiu crossed her legs, her ivory, slender legs overlapping in a very queen-like manner.
“Oh.”
Ye Xingyao nodded reluctantly.
As long as it wasn’t because she couldn’t order cake, anything else… probably wasn’t that important?
“Hmm?!”
Wait, something seemed wrong!
“Does the Human Alliance think that highly of me? They even need a facade for the Star Elf… is a Star Elf actually something very powerful?”
Ye Xingyao discovered the blind spot. She knew very little about the prophecy circulating among the Elves back then; she only knew that this Star Elf was a very important person.
Up until she actually became the Star Elf, aside from her physical fitness being much stronger than before and her ability to cast some minor Magic… the Star Elf didn’t seem much stronger than her old self?
“…” x3
Yi Shiyue, Hongye Qiu, and Fumier fell silent in unison, six little dots practically appearing over their heads.
“Uh? Is no one going to explain…?”
Had she asked a very, very stupid question?
Ye Xingyao was completely baffled.
“You… I really don’t know what to say to you.”
Hongye Qiu took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, her chest heaving noticeably.
“Um… is Sister Xingyao joking? A Star Elf… is about the same as a Patriarch…”
Fumier shook her head and gave a bitter smile, feeling as though she was constantly unable to keep up with the thoughts of the older sisters around her.
“Xiao Yao… well, you can probably view the Star Elf as something like a Savior?”
Yi Shiyue sat down next to Ye Xingyao, reached out with both hands to pinch the other’s face, and twisted it irritably.
“Let—let go of me… I get it now, okay? You group of villains, is this how you treat your Savior?!”
Ye Xingyao covered her cheeks, which had been pinched red, and forced a few tears from the corners of her eyes.
Then, she took a sharp breath.
“A Patriarch? A Savior? Me? You’re not joking? Please tell me the Star Elf is just a piece of useless trash, okay!”
Ye Xingyao pointed at herself, speaking in a complete frenzy.
She felt like she had been set up by something, forced to bear pressure that someone of her age shouldn’t have to carry!
“I don’t know if you’re a piece of useless trash or not, but if the elders of the Elf Race saw you like this, they would definitely lose their minds for quite a while.”
Hongye Qiu said with a half-smile.
“Alright, as for what exactly the Star Elf is, who can say for sure? Don’t forget, this is the power that essentially brought you back to life.”
“Oh, right.”
Ye Xingyao nodded again, as if she finally understood something.
She really couldn’t underestimate this power… not only did it bring her back to full health from a near-death state, but it also made her lose contact with her proud little brother…
‘Could this be the price of being a Savior?’
“Last night, I smashed that bottle of blood in Mite’s hand onto the ground, leaving a pool of blood behind, right?”
After receiving confirmation from the others, Hongye Qiu continued.
“However, after the Human Alliance arrived at the scene, they found other traces of fighting. Judging by the evidence photos, that blood had disappeared.”
Hongye Qiu paused, her almond-shaped eyes scanning the faces of the three girls around her.
“In Mite’s confession, he mentioned that the technology he used to create those monsters was given to him by individuals who are closely related to the Monsters. In other words…”
“The Monster camp that we’ve always ignored might actually have intelligent beings within it.”