Chapter 127: The Queen's Favor

This sudden “pink-hair party” completely shattered the stiff atmosphere in the tent, transforming it into a bubbling cauldron of chaotic joy.

Elaniel was clearly smitten with her new hair color. She even conjured a massive ice mirror with a wave of her hand, turning her head left and right with immense fascination. The smile gracing her lips was genuine, heartfelt, and utterly impossible to conceal.

After her initial shock and rigidity, Eldara seemed to have completely given up on resisting her fate. Since the Elf Queen was no longer dragging her into a dance, she quietly sat back down by the campfire. With a blank, stoic expression, she accepted the skewer of roasted meat Celeste offered her and began eating it in small, precise bites.

Yet, the ridiculously eye-catching cascade of long, cherry-pink hair created a hilarious visual clash with her cold, murderous Death Knight armor. Every time Selene caught a glimpse of the sight, she couldn’t stop herself from dissolving into a fit of giggles.

Su Wan and Xia Lian also quickly came to terms with reality. After all, with both the Elf Queen and her Knight Commander joining the pink-haired brigade, this was no longer a public execution—it was “sharing in the joy with one’s sovereign.”

Su Wan even leaned in close to the ice mirror, carefully examining the sky-high ponytail Selene had styled for her. Though her lips complained about it being “gaudy,” the sparkle in her eyes betrayed an irrepressible curiosity.

At first, Xia Lian looked like she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. Her face was beet-red as she desperately tried to shrink into the background and minimize her presence. But when Su Wan, still sporting the ridiculous ponytail, turned her “claws” toward her, Xia Lian shrieked and darted away like a startled rabbit.

“Sister Wan’er, don’t you dare come over here!”

Seeing that Su Wan was relentless, and that the chief culprit, Selene, was still rolling on the ground laughing, the nerve in Xia Lian’s brain labeled “shame” finally snapped with a distinct pop.

“To hell with it all!” Her face flushed crimson, a mixture of shame and fury. She snatched an unused, clean bamboo skewer from the ground and pointed it at Selene from across the tent. “Today, either you end up with twin-tails, or I end up with braids!”

Before the words had even fully left her mouth, she charged headfirst into the fray, teaming up with Su Wan to stage the blockbuster of the year: “The Pink-Haired Nezha and the Mortified Ranger versus the Arrogant Paladin.”

A long while later, when everyone was utterly exhausted from the laughter and chaos, they were sprawled out on the soft blankets, panting for breath. Elaniel elegantly twirled a lock of her long pink hair around a fingertip and sighed softly.

“It has been a long time… since I was this happy.”

Her voice carried a trace of nostalgia, a gentle melancholy accumulated over countless years. She looked around at the girls sitting in a circle around her, her gaze softening with exceptional warmth.

“Ever since I became the Elf Queen, the eyes of my old friends and companions have gradually filled with nothing but awe and distance whenever they see me.”

“They bow carefully and speak to me with the utmost respect, but they never again throw an arm around my shoulder or crack a harmless joke like they used to.”

“I know it is not their fault,” she murmured. “It is the weight of this crown. It has carved an invisible chasm between us.”

As she spoke, her gaze drifted inadvertently toward Eldara, who was sitting ramrod straight beside her. The queen let out another faint sigh.

“Even Eldara is like this. I watched her grow up, promoted her myself. Back then, she was nothing like the iceberg she is now. She was a mischievous little brat who would tear the roof down if you didn’t watch her for three days. She was naughty enough to turn the entire Moonlight Forest upside down.”

Elaniel’s tone was colored with the smile of fond reminiscence.

“When she was little, she beat up Tholdrin from the neighboring village until his face was black and blue, all to fight over a single Moonlight Fruit.”

“Later, when she discovered a method for the living to control the power of death and became the first Death Knight, some of the more conservative elves criticized and slandered her. Do you know what she did? She blocked their doorways and performed a very thorough ‘physical persuasion’.”

She shook her head, her expression one of pure indulgence. “But now… even when it’s just the two of us in private, she always keeps her back perfectly straight and carefully addresses me as ‘Your Majesty’.”

“She never again secretly tugs on my sleeve, begging me to take her to the Moonlight Forest to steal bird eggs like she did when she was a child.”

Eldara’s body stiffened almost imperceptibly. She silently turned her head to the side; beneath the curtain of her pink hair, a suspicious flush crept up the tips of her ears.

The Elf Queen’s voice was very soft, yet it instantly quieted all the noise inside the tent.

Celeste listened in silence. She understood.

‘This is the loneliness of being at the top.’

When a person stands at the absolute pinnacle of power, everything they possess is endowed with special significance. In exchange, they lose the right to be an “ordinary person.”

“Perhaps only you guests from beyond the heavens can truly view me as an equal,” Elaniel’s gaze finally settled on Celeste, her beautiful, wine-red eyes filled with a pure and sincere joy.

“You respect my status, but you do not fear my power. You dare to joke in front of me, dare to invite me to eat this… well, this delicious commoner’s food, and you even dared to turn me into… this.”

She gestured to her pink hair, her face devoid of any reproach, filled only with unadulterated happiness.

“This feeling… it is very good. It makes me feel like I am not just the Elf Queen, but also… a friend.”

Looking into the Elf Queen’s sincere eyes, a genuine warmth welled up in Celeste’s heart. She smiled and raised the soup bowl in her hand. “Then, to our friendship. Cheers?”

“Cheers!” Elaniel beamed and raised her own bowl, clinking it gently against Celeste’s.

Selene, Su Wan, Xia Lian, and even Eldara all silently raised their own bowls in unison.

A crisp clinking sound echoed through the tent.

And at that very moment, a mechanical notification sound exploded in Celeste’s mind without any warning!

[Detected a significant change in relationship with key plot character ‘Elf Queen Elaniel’. Friendship level has increased to “Trust”!]

[A deep link has been established with the source of “Embrace of Moonlight”. New effects for “Embrace of Moonlight” have been unlocked!]

Celeste’s heart skipped a beat.

‘Holy crap?! There’s a perk like this?!”Just by having a barbecue with the Elf Queen, dyeing her hair, and throwing a party, our friendship level went up?!”I’d like to call this operation a resounding victory for ‘Barbecue Diplomacy’! I just wonder what this new effect is…’

She suppressed her inner turmoil, pretending to casually sip her soup as if nothing had happened, while her mind had already summoned her equipment panel at lightning speed.

[Embrace of Moonlight (Growth/Unique)]

[Quality: Legendary (Growable)]

[Equipment Requirement: Celeste]

[Effect 1: Moonlight Affinity. The wearer recovers 1% of their maximum HP, Stamina, and Mana every minute.]

[Effect 2: Moonlight Resonance. The wearer’s total attributes increase by 20%. The wearer’s current highest attribute will receive an additional 20% increase.]

[Effect 3:??? (To be unlocked)]

The moment Celeste saw the description for “Effect 2,” her breathing hitched.

‘Total attributes increase by 20%!”And my highest attribute gets another 20% on top of that?!”What kind of god-tier passive is this!’

She immediately pulled up her character panel, her eyes locking onto her attribute bar. Her highest attribute was currently Constitution, sitting at 170 points.

According to the description of Effect 2, her Constitution would receive a terrifying 40% boost!

170 points would soar directly to 238!

And her other attributes would also see a massive jump: Strength and Faith would become 108, Intelligence would rise to 96, and Agility would hit 72. This was an enormous, across-the-board leap in power!

Celeste’s heart began to pound against her ribs. Thump, thump, thump.

She knew better than anyone what an increase in Constitution meant for her. Ten points of Constitution equaled one minute of permanent character card usage time. With her previous 170 points, she could only maintain a transformation for a maximum of 17 minutes.

And now, 238 points of Constitution meant she could maintain her transformation state for nearly 24 minutes!

That was a full seven minutes more! In a critical battle where the tide could turn in an instant, seven minutes was more than enough time to rewrite the outcome!

‘I’ve struck it rich! I’ve really hit the jackpot this time!’

Celeste felt the blood in her veins begin to boil. She had never dreamed that a simple barbecue and a chaotic party could yield such an absurdly powerful upgrade. If she had known, she would have dragged the Elf Queen out to eat skewers every single day; maybe Effect 3 would have been unlocked by now!

She forcibly suppressed her inner ecstasy, trying her best to make her expression look calm, but the irrepressible curve of her lips completely betrayed her mood.

“Celeste? What’s wrong? Why are you smiling so happily?” Su Wan’s keen eyes had already noticed her strange behavior.

“Ah? Oh, it’s nothing.” Celeste quickly composed her expression and cobbled together an excuse. “It’s just that the atmosphere tonight is so wonderful. When I’m this happy, I can’t help but smile.”

As she spoke, she could feel the new, surging power coursing through her body. It was a solid, incomparable sense of fullness. Her very bones and muscles seemed to be cheering, as if she could now shatter boulders with a single punch. She even had the fleeting illusion that she could wrestle an adult giant bear with her bare hands and win.

‘From this day forward, you can call me the Blood Tank Priest!’ Celeste solemnly crowned herself in her heart.

Nearly twenty-four minutes of transformation time! This terrifying boost was enough for her to forcibly flip the table in almost any desperate situation!

She lifted her head, her gaze piercing through the fabric of the tent and looking toward the depths of the forest, shrouded in impenetrable darkness.

The secret realm’s core…

No matter what was waiting for them up ahead, she now had the confidence to face it head-on.

[Elysian’s Note:

Having a good time with the story?

Every single bit helps immensely:

Thanks a ton for making this journey possible!]