Afterward, the two continued strolling through the city. They left the gift shop and continued along the street, and nestled amongst the shops, like a jigsaw puzzle piece forcefully inserted, stood a huge villa.

  "This is the former residence of a Vice-Envoy," Emily explained, her tone like that of a detached tour guide, recounting the house's history. "Thirty-eight years ago, this former Vice-Envoy drank too much honey-wine and failed to prevent the elven rebellion in his jurisdiction, resulting in his demotion and banishment to the River of Ending. Only this house remains."

  Emily also pointed to the wind chimes on the house. "These wind chimes were the Vice-Envoy's invention. He enjoyed shopping in the commercial district so he could often seek out exotic crafts and even lived here himself. After he was stripped of his divine power and punished, the Envoy found the decorations and collections in his house to be of good taste, so it was preserved as an exhibition hall."

  So, the ubiquitous wind chimes throughout Radiant Glade were his invention.

  "Really? Shall we take a look?" Lux replied, following Emily into the exhibition hall. The entrance fee was 50 points, and Lux felt dizzy looking at the exhibits inside: drawings with various strange symbols and mechanical contraptions of unknown purpose. Lux felt like this was a world mentally resisting her entry. Emily didn't seem too interested either. She had started spacing out less than half an hour after entering with Lux, so they casually looked around and then came out.

  "I'd like to go look at a bookstore," Lux said.

  "You don't even know how to read. What would you do at a bookstore?" Emily asked, puzzled by Lux's idea.

  "I want to pick out some books about poetry for Sylvie. I'll need Emily's help to look at them later."

  "Alright," Emily said, then led Lux into a bookstore that was decorated like a giant tree stump. Once inside, Emily helped Lux choose books. Emily selected a play script and two collections of famous poets' works for Lux.

  Just as Emily and Lux reached the counter to pay, Lux picked up one of the books and said, "Actually, I possess magic that allows me to understand books."

  "There's such magic?" Emily thought she knew a lot about magic, but she had never heard of magic that allowed someone to read without knowing how to read.

  "Then let me show you," Lux said, then picked up a book and began muttering unintelligible incantations, flipping through the pages quickly until the very last one.

  "I understand..." Lux said. "This book has 175 pages."

  Emily's expression began to change. Her usually cold demeanor started to crack like thin ice being stepped on. After a moment, she said, "The page number is written on the title page of this book, and you forgot to count the prologue."

  "Really? Thank you, Master Emily, for perfecting my magic. Let me try again," Lux said, reaching for another book.

  "Enough. Just pay quickly," Emily said, her voice a low growl. The other elves buying books all looked towards the two girls, one elf and one human.

  "Okay, okay," Lux immediately paid and followed Emily out of the bookstore.

  "By the way, is there a cake shop around?" Lux asked.

  "You want to eat cake?" Emily replied. "There are some, but the cakes are mostly made with fruit, and they don't label whether the fruit comes from Kabbalah or fruit people."

  "Alright," Lux said, resigned.

  "Go pick out a sword. I reckon your cheap sword won't last more than a few uses before it breaks," Emily suggested.

  Although Lux was a bit reluctant to part with her 'Tempered Dark Sky' (she had decided on the name just this morning), which had only been with her for two days, she still followed Emily's advice and went to a shop called Flower Crown Armory.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "The one you went to before was probably Tree Crown Armory," Emily said. "They mainly sell armor there, so the weapons are more expensive."

  "I see," Lux nodded.

  But after entering Flower Crown Armory, Lux found that the weapons here were still a bit beyond her budget.

  "I can lend you 5000 points. You can pay me back in installments after missions," Emily said.

  "Really? Is there interest?" Lux exclaimed happily after Emily shook her head. "Captain Emily is the most generous!"

  "There are other people here," Emily quickly stopped Lux's outburst, then led her to look at the weapons.

  "Hey, Emily, do you know about unicorns?" Lux asked suddenly while looking at the weapon rack.

  "The legendary sacred beast, now extinct. Why?" Emily asked, puzzled.

  "Actually, I know the truth about unicorns—" Lux picked up a long spear from the rack and said, "—it's because the spearhead of a spear broke off in a horse's head, so it formed a unicorn. Therefore, the unicorn's real name should be Uni-Spear-Horn."

  Emily covered her face, while the elf shop assistant watching them spoke looked at them with an expression one might have when seeing strange linguistic attire.

  "Just this sword. Let's pay quickly," Emily immediately chose a longsword for the still-indecisive Lux and handed it to her.

  "Alright," Lux said, feeling slightly defeated by the repeated failure of her excellent jokes.

  After leaving the weapon shop, Emily said to Lux, "Next, all that's left is the flower shop and the elven restaurant. I doubt you'd be interested in either."

  "I'd like to take a look at the flower shop," Lux said.

  "Wait, a flower shop?" Emily looked at Lux suspiciously. "You're not going to tell another pointless joke, are you?"

  "I want to buy some flower seeds for Sylvie," Lux said sincerely.

  Emily continued to stare at Lux for a moment, then led her into a flower shop.

  "Oh oh, Emily, do you know what this flower is?" Lux asked, pointing to a flower.

  "That's a Purple Butterfly Flower."

  "Emily, do you know what this flower is?"

  "That's a Water Pink Flower."

  "Then what flower is this?"

  "That's a White Snake Flower."

  ...

  "Emily, you know so much! But I bet there's one flower you definitely don't know," Lux suddenly smiled and said.

  "What..." Emily instantly realized what was about to happen, but it was too late.

  "The Lux Flower!" Lux said, cupping her chin in her hands and wiggling her fingers like 'green leaf hands.'

  The surrounding elves all turned to look at Lux, who was clowning around. Emily, noticing the attention, blushed slightly, unsure if it was from anger or embarrassment.

  This time, Emily said nothing but walked straight out of the flower shop.

  "Wait, that wasn't a pointless joke, it was a very funny joke, wasn't it?" Lux tried to explain, then quickly rushed out of the flower shop to catch up with Emily, who was walking quickly, trying to escape the situation.

  "Um, I'm really sorry," Lux said, following the fast-walking Emily. "I just thought you always looked so gloomy, I wanted to make you laugh."

  "Laugh?" Emily turned her head and said with a cold smile, "Like that?"

  "Um... a happier kind of laugh," Lux tapped her two index fingers together. "I really want to be friends with you. After all, I think you and Sylvie are both very special elves."

  "Friends?" Emily glanced at Lux and said, "Is that another one of your jokes?"

  "No, it's not." Although Lux sensed that Emily was indeed resisting her attempts at friendship, Lux still wanted to try. "I actually never really had any friends before. Maybe some people I could talk to, but I had to hide almost everything about myself from them. My younger sister was the only one I could be with."

  Emily was silent for a moment, then said to Lux, "You've probably misunderstood. The reason I'm taking care of you is just a compensation for completely severing ties with Sylvie. If it weren't for Sylvie, I would never have any connection with a foolish human like you."

  "Finally, don't try to change anything about me," Emily said, emphasizing each word as a warning, before turning to leave.

  But Lux took a deep breath and walked over. "Emily."

  "What do you want now?" Emily turned back, clearly a bit annoyed, but just then, Lux took a flower and inserted it into the circlet on Emily's head.

  "I just thought that a purple flower would look even better on Emily's head," Lux explained. "I actually wanted to buy you a flower just now, since picking one from the flowerbeds wasn't really appropriate."

  Finally, Lux turned sideways and waved her hand. "I can't make you laugh, so let me add a little fragrance for you, even if it's just for a moment." In that moment, Lux thought she looked quite cool.

  "You didn't pay for that flower just now, did you..." Emily's voice came from behind, shattering Lux's 'I'm so cool' reverie.

  "Um... I was actually just about to go back and pay for it," Lux said awkwardly.

  Emily covered her forehead and sighed.

  Then she seemed to regain her composure and said to Lux, "Alright, I see your footwork is terrible. We still have tomorrow. Remember to be at the central flowerbed before the sun is a quarter of the way up."

  Then Emily gave a stiff, forced smile and said, "That's my 'thanks' for your four jokes today. And don't be late."

  A cold sweat broke out on Lux's forehead. She had a feeling that tomorrow would definitely not be a good day.