Chapter 68: Elegy of the Moon

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Elegy of the Moon

She shook her head, an undeniable pain showing in her purple eyes.

Then, in a tone filled with disgust, she said:

"Elf, bad!"

"Dagger, stained, with blood."

"Elf blood."

Elf blood?

Hesia’s heart skipped a beat.

’Does she mean... this dagger was once stained with, and perhaps even used to kill, an Elf?’

He thought back carefully and realized it wasn’t impossible.

Whether it was a potential conflict within David’s adventuring party or Alina being wounded in battle, with blood splashing everywhere... it was all possible.

But so much time had passed. How could she still sense the lingering trace of Elf blood on it?

’This probably... has something to do with those strange purple eyes of hers, doesn’t it?’ Hesia guessed to himself.

What confused him even more was Zoya’s attitude.

If this dagger had truly harmed one of her own kind, shouldn’t she be feeling anger, sorrow, or at least caution?

Why did she say Elves were bad.

Instead, what she showed was a kind of loathing.

To the point of hypnotizing him in the middle of the night just to get a closer look at this dagger?

Could there be some kind of difference between Moon-eyed Elves and other Forest Elves or High Elves?

Or even an adversarial relationship?

The more Hesia thought about it, the more he felt this was the most likely possibility.

With this in mind, he made a decision.

He reached out, unhooked the strangely shaped dagger from his waist, laid it flat in his palm, and then presented it to Zoya.

"You like it, don’t you?" Hesia’s voice was calm. "If you do, just take it."

His objective was clear.

For the sake of those 200 Decryption Points, and for the powerful traits he might be able to draw, gaining Zoya’s favor was a must.

Besides, setting aside personal gain, they were now teammates who had fought side by side.

As for the age-old feud between Elves... what did that have to do with him, a human?

He didn’t know Alina, nor did he know any other Elves.

But right here, standing before him, was a living, breathing Moon-eyed Elf.

Besides, from a purely linguistic standpoint, "Moon-eyed Elf" just sounds more impressive—and much rarer—than plain old "Elf"!

Investing in a rare unit was never a bad move.

Zoya gazed at the dagger, now just inches away, her amethyst-like eyes swirling with emotion.

She didn’t speak.

She just slowly reached out her hand and took it.

She cradled the dagger in her palms.

Under the moonlight, she just stared at it blankly, motionless.

After a long silence, she finally looked up again, her gaze complicated as she looked at Hesia and asked the question that was clearly more important to her:

"How, know, who I am?"

Hesia thought to himself: ’Here it comes.’

Of course, he couldn’t tell her about the Decryption Points. After all, while purple eyes were rare in this world, they weren’t exclusive to Moon-eyed Elves.

He decided to use his old trick: wrap himself in an aura of mystery.

"How I know isn’t important. What’s important is that I might be able to help you."

"Help me?" Zoya’s hood shifted slightly. Hesia knew she was shaking her head.

He had no choice but to throw out a leading, all-purpose question:

"Do you think you can accomplish what you want to do all by yourself?"

Zoya remained silent, which was an answer in itself.

Hesia pressed his advantage, his tone sincere. "Are you worried I’m not capable of helping you? Or... are you suspicious of my motives?"

This time, Zoya gave a slight nod.

"Enemy, dangerous. I, don’t want..."

"Good, I understand," Hesia said. "Then you should at least tell me what you’re up against. What exactly did the Elves... do to you Moon-eyed Elves? If your enemy is unimaginably powerful, I’ll naturally know to back down."

Zoya hesitated for a long time.

The hand gripping the dagger trembled slightly from the force.

Finally, she seemed to have made up her mind. She slowly began to speak, to tell her story.

Her narration still had that halting rhythm, with short sentences that Hesia sometimes had to piece together using context.

But gradually, under the cold moonlight, a story of betrayal, imprisonment, and escape was slowly pieced together...

It turned out that for as long as Zoya could remember, she and her mother had lived in a secret and powerful Elf Tribe.

Her people called themselves the Moon-eyed Elves. Their unique purple eyes were a Blessing from the Moon Goddess Celestine, a mark that allowed them to peer into the world of dreams.

At the same time, her people were born with the ability to weave Illusion Techniques and possessed the knowledge and legacy of Star Magic.

However, great Power is often accompanied by greed and disaster.

The tribe’s peace was shattered by another powerful Elf Tribe that claimed to cherish peace.

They coveted the Moon-eyed Elves’ exclusive knowledge of Star Magic.

A brutal war broke out.

Zoya’s mother, as one of the few Mages in the tribe who had mastered advanced Star Magic, became a primary target for the enemy’s "recruitment."

To eliminate any future trouble, aside from a few "valuable" captives like Zoya’s mother, the rest of the Moon-eyed Elf people, including Zoya’s father, were ruthlessly wiped out during the resistance.

The young Zoya, having inherited her mother’s potential, was also spared.

Her mother, partly because she couldn’t bear to let her young daughter die, and partly, perhaps, with the thought of preserving the last flicker of their people’s bloodline, pretended to agree to the enemy’s demands. She submitted to imprisonment, analyzing and teaching them the secrets of Star Magic.

And Zoya, though she survived, lived from then on under the enemy’s constant watch.

In the eyes of those Elves, her purple eyes—a symbol of the moon’s blessing—became a mark of the alien and the shameful, causing her to suffer ostracism, discrimination, and isolation from a young age.

Furthermore, to prevent her Power from awakening, those Elves placed a Demon-Banning Seal on her, which greatly suppressed her ability to gather Magic Power, making her unable to learn and cast Magic like a normal Elf.

Therefore, she could only learn some of the skills of an Infiltrator.

Her mother, while appearing to analyze Star Magic for the enemy day and night, was actually secretly researching how to break the Demon-Banning Seal on her daughter and planning an escape route.

In this way, mother and daughter lived for several years in a cage under constant surveillance, enduring humiliation.

Until a year ago, the enemy’s patience seemed to run out, and their demands and threats grew more intense by the day.

Although her mother’s research hadn’t managed to completely break the powerful seal, the situation had become too dire to wait any longer.

Finally, her mother seized an opportunity and used all her strength to create a massive diversion, buying her precious time to escape...

"Mother, made me, run."

"Live on. Do not, get revenge."

At this point, Zoya’s voice caught in a sob. "My mother, she..."