Vierveia's Approval!

Mist gathered in the depths of her glasslike eyes, lingering there without falling.

Vierveia lowered her long lashes slightly, concealing the rare flicker of vulnerability and bitterness in her eyes.

As the Empress of the Elf Race, she had long grown accustomed to keeping her joy and anger hidden. Holding the fate of her race in her hands and guarding one corner of the starry river, she had always remained calm and decisive in the face of events, unruffled by any storm.

Even when her race had been thrown into chaos and enemies pressed at their borders, her heart had never wavered in the slightest.

Yet whenever she faced her own daughter, her heart of iron softened again and again, crumbling beyond repair each time.

She slightly raised her slender, fair fingertips, letting them hover gently over the projected image.

Across the distant starry river, across the cold Light Shadow, her fingertips lightly traced the long-lost brightness of Aiselandier's smile.

The motion was featherlight and tender, carrying endless affection, endless guilt, and endless heartache.

"After all these years... you're finally willing to smile."

She murmured softly, her voice so low it was nearly inaudible, as gentle as the evening breeze drifting down from the Sacred Tree.

The Aiselandier of the past had always locked herself within the utmost solitude.

As the imperial princess, carrying her race's great expectations and burdened by shackles from years gone by, she had lived cautiously, wearily, and on constant guard.

Cold and distant toward others, aloof and untouchable; closed off within herself, unwilling to confide in anyone. Across the vast Elf Planet, among countless billions of citizens, not a single person had been able to make her lower her guard and smile from the heart.

Even she, her mother, had been gently yet firmly kept