Chapter 145: The Unbreakable Bond Between A Mother And Daughter

Hearing Luca call out, Luna suddenly had an intense look on her face.

She looked like she wanted to prove something—prove that everyone was wrong about her.

Without warning, she stepped forward boldly, turning back to the crowd with a confident grin.

“You all just wait!” She declared, pointing at them dramatically. “I’ll shoot a bullseye right through the center of that target! And then we’ll see who should be laughing!”

“I’ll show you who’s the boss around here!”

More laughter erupted, but Luna sniffed haughtily and continued her march toward Luca.

But the moment she reached him—the moment her back was to the crowd and no one could see her face—her bravado crumbled.

She grabbed Luca’s sleeve, tugging him down slightly, and whispered urgently,

“Luca, are you REALLY sure I’ll be able to shoot it?”

Her eyes were wide, panicked.

“Because…Because even though I said all that stuff, I don’t actually believe in my abilities at all. I mean, I’ve never hit a bullseye. Ever.”

“And if I mess up now, in front of everyone…”

She gulped.

“…I’ll die of embarrassment. I’ll literally die. They’ll never let me live it down.”

“But that’s not even the worst part—”

She glanced furtively over his shoulder.

Leona stood there, watching. Not with her usual cold distance, but with something almost like…attention. Curiosity.

Luna quickly looked away, face flushing.

“My mother is watching.” She whispered urgently. “Even though I’m not really talking right now…I still don’t want to look bad in front of her. Especially after she made that incredible shot earlier.”

She grabbed Luca’s sleeve.

“So please tell me the truth—is it really possible for me to shoot like you said?!”

Luca looked down at her for a moment.

Then he shook his head.

“Honestly? Whether you shoot correctly or not—that doesn’t depend on me at all. It depends entirely on you.”

Luna’s face fell. “Wha—”

Luca held up a hand and solemnly said,

“I can give you the best equipment, Luna. I can give you perfect instructions. I can stand right beside you and guide your every move.”

He looked her straight in the eyes.

“But I can’t shoot for you. If you hesitate, if you rush, if you second-guess yourself at the last moment—none of my help will matter.”

Luna’s mouth opened, then closed.

“So the question isn’t whether I believe in you.” Luca continued gently. “The question is—do you trust yourself? Do you trust your ability to learn in this moment, to follow through, to do exactly what I tell you to do?”

Luna stood frozen.

’Do I trust myself?’

She thought about every failed shot. Every missed target. Every time she’d let go too soon, aimed too fast, panicked at the last second.

’I don’t. I really don’t.’

But then—

She glanced over Luca’s shoulder again.

Leona was still watching. And this time, Luna really looked at her mother’s expression.

It wasn’t cold.

It wasn’t dismissive.

There was…concern there.

Worry.

And beneath that, something that made Luna’s heart stutter—anticipation and hope.

Like Leona actually wanted to see what her daughter could do.

Like she believed Luna might actually succeed.

Seeing this, a spark ignited in Luna’s chest.

’I want to prove myself. To everyone who laughed. To everyone who doubted. But most of all…’

’To her.’

Luna took a deep breath. When she looked back at Luca, her eyes had changed.

No more panic. No more doubt.

“Teach me.” She said firmly, nodding once. “Just tell me what to do. I’ll do it.”

Luca smiled.

He reached into the portal and produced the larger compound bow—the one he’d shown earlier. He handed it to her carefully, along with a single arrow.

The moment the crowd saw Luna holding the bow—

Pandemonium.

“MOVE AWAY! MOVE AWAY!”

“GET BACK, EVERYONE!”

“DON’T STAND IN LUNA’S LINE OF SIGHT!”

“OUR SOULS MAY GET TAKEN!”

“PROTECT YOURSELVES!”

Elves scrambled in every direction, pushing and shoving to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Luna.

Some dove behind trees.

Others flattened themselves against the ground.

A few particularly cautious souls actually produced shields from somewhere—actual shields!—and held them up defensively.

Even those watching from the tree platforms quickly ducked behind railings, some even hiding inside their homes and peeking through shuttered windows.

Luna’s eye twitched.

“You guys!” She shouted, face red with fury. “This is too much!”

She gestured wildly at where Lisa stood with her friends.

“When Lisa shot the arrow, no one reacted like this! But the moment I even touch the bow, you’re all acting like I’ve declared war on you?!”

And in response, behind the bush, Selma’s head popped up.

“Oh, shut up, Luna!” She yelled back. “Your sister already told us everything! About how you tried to ’assassinate’ the hero this morning! How you almost killed him! The secret’s out!”

“Everyone knows about your infamous assassination attempt!” Ivy chimed in gleefully. “We’re not taking chances!”

Luna’s face went pale.

Then beet red.

“LULU!”

She shrieked, whirling around to find her sister, who had immediately hidden behind a tree, only her ears visible as they twitched guiltily.

Luna’s eye twitched more violently.

She was about to explode when she noticed someone standing perfectly still, completely unbothered by the chaos.

Nyx.

She was leaning against a tree with her arms crossed, looking as calm and amused as ever.

Luna’s face lit up with relief.

“Thank Goodness!” She exclaimed. “Auntie Nyx! At least you’re not running away from me! At least you trust that I can shoot properly!”

“I knew I could trust you unlike—”

“Oh, not at all, dear.”

Nyx’s playful voice cut through like a knife.

Luna froze, while Nyx waved her hand lazily, a mischievous grin spreading across her face as she went on to say,

“I’m not standing here because I trust your skills. Not even a little bit.”

She tilted her head, eyes sparkling with mischief.

“I’m standing here because if you accidentally shoot me—if that arrow happens to hit me—I can guilt trip you for the rest of your life.”

Luna stared in horror.

Nyx continued, warming to her theme.

“Just imagine. Every time you refuse to do my chores, every time you don’t want to help me with something, I can just—”

She clutched her shoulder dramatically.

“Oh, the pain! The arrow wound! It aches so much when I’m disappointed in my dear niece!”

She grinned in a evil manner.

“This little arrow wound will do wonders for me in the future. So honestly? I don’t mind if you shoot me. In fact…”

She leaned forward eagerly.

“…I kind of want you to do so.”

Luna’s face went through several shades of red before settling on purple.

She spun back to Luca, grabbing his sleeves with both hands.

“Teach me, Luca!” She demanded, voice cracking with desperation. “Teach me how to pull this stupid bow! I want to show them who they’re messing with!”

Luca laughed out loud before nodding his head.

“Alright, alright. Calm down. Here’s what you need to do.”

He guided her through the same process he’d shown Lisa—how to hold the bow, how to use the trigger release, how the cams would help her once she got past the initial draw weight.

Luna listened with intense focus, absorbing every word.

Finally, she stepped forward, planted her feet, and nocked the arrow exactly as Luca had shown her.

She locked the trigger mechanism onto the string.

The moment she did—

“COVER YOURSELVES!”

“SHE’S GONNA SHOOT!”

“EVERYONE HIDE!”

“HIDE HIDE HIDE HIDE HIDE!”

More scrambling. More shields. More faces disappearing behind trees and railings and anything else available.

Luna rolled her eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn’t get stuck.

But she ignored them.

She focused on the bow.

And pulled.

The resistance was heavy at first—much heavier than Lisa’s bow. Her muscles strained, her arms trembled, and for a terrifying second she thought she wouldn’t be able to do it.

But she remembered Luca’s words. It gets easier halfway.

She pushed through the resistance.

The cams rotated.

And suddenly—with a satisfying click—the draw weight dropped.

Luna’s eyes went wide.

She was holding the string at full draw. And it was…easy. So easy. Like holding nothing at all.

From the crowd, whispers erupted.

“Look, she actually pulled it…”

“But that’s not the hard part. Anyone can pull it with enough effort.”

“The hard part is holding it. Keeping it steady while you aim.”

“Exactly! We can never hold it long enough to aim properly. That’s why we have to shoot immediately, and that’s why we always miss!”

“Yeah, Luna always shoots within a second of drawing. She never aims—she just fires and hopes!”

“Wait for it…”

“Any moment now…”

But—

Five seconds passed.

Luna’s arms didn’t shake.

Ten seconds passed.

She was still holding steady, actually aiming through the sight Luca had shown her.

Fifteen seconds.

Her expression was calm, focused, utterly concentrated on the distant target.

The elves’ jaws dropped.

“How?!”

“How is she holding it for so long?!”

“That bow has to have some kind of strength! Even Lisa’s bow had draw weight!”

“And this one is bigger! It should be harder to hold!”

“Look at her! She’s not even straining! Her muscles are completely relaxed!”

“How is that possible?!”

“Maybe the bow is giving her magical strength!”

“Or maybe—maybe the bow itself is holding the weight for her?!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

Luna heard none of this.

All she heard was Luca’s voice, low and steady beside her.

“Look through the peep sight on the string.” He said softly. “Then look toward the pin sight over there. Align both of them.”

Luna adjusted slightly.

“That’s it. It’s only when both of them are aligned that it will go perfectly straight.”

He gently corrected her posture.

“Stay straight. Don’t tilt. Just make mall adjustments with your wrist and don’t change anything else.”

He paused, then said quietly,

“When you’re ready…take the shot.”

Hearing this, Luna’s world went silent.

Her heart raced.

But more than that, she could feel her mother’s gaze on her.

She could sense how Leona was watching, almost as if she wanted her to succeed.

Seeing that made Luna’s heart fill with absolute determination.

She wanted to earn her mother’s recognition.

’I won’t let you down.’ Luna thought fiercely. ’I won’t.’

She took one final breath—

—then she squeezed the trigger.

Whoosh!

The arrow vanished.

No—it didn’t vanish.

It moved so fast that eyes could barely track it.

Faster than the longbow. Just as fast as Leona’s recurve shot.

A blur of motion that seemed to ignore distance itself.

And it flew straight.

No wobble. No drift. No wild arc.

Just a line of death aimed directly at the target.

The elves, who had been screaming and panicking moments ago, all went silent.

They stared at the target in anticipation, holding their breath.

Where will it go?

Where will it go?

Thunk!

Finally, the arrow made a sound.

It sank into the target.

Everyone stared, trying to see where it had landed.

And then they realized.

Bullseye.

Right in the center.

For a moment, the entire clearing was silent.

No one moved. No one breathed. No one could quite process what they’d just witnessed.

Then—

“She…She did it.” Lulu whispered from behind her bush.

Then she finally couldn’t hold it and shouted,

“SHE DID IT! MY SISTER ACTUALLY SHOT A BULLSEYE!”

The dam BROKE.

“HOLY GODS!”

“SHE ACTUALLY DID IT!”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!”

“LUNA?! LUNA SHOT A BULLSEYE?!”

“AT THAT DISTANCE?!”

“IS THIS REAL?! SOMEONE SLAP ME!”

“THIS HAS TO BE A DREAM!”

“She’s just like her mother! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”

“LEONA’S DAUGHTER INDEED!”

Cheers and shouts and disbelieving laughter erupted everywhere.

Elves emerged from hiding, pointing at the target, at Luna, at each other, unable to contain their shock.

But Luna—

Luna was frozen.

She stared at the target. At the arrow. At the impossible bullseye.

’I did it.’

The thought was distant, dreamlike.

’I actually did it.’

’I shot a bullseye.’

’For the first time in my entire life, I shot a bullseye.’

The bow slipped from her numb fingers.

And then—

“MOTHER!”

She ran.

Without thinking, without caring, without any awareness of the years of tension and silence between them—Luna sprinted toward Leona and threw her arms around her.

“I DID IT! MOTHER, I DID IT! I ACTUALLY SHOT A BULLSEYE! THE FIRST BULLSEYE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!”

Leona’s body went rigid with shock.

But only for a moment.

Then her arms—almost of their own accord—wrapped around her daughter and pulled her close.

“I saw.” She murmured, voice thick with emotion she couldn’t hide. “I saw, Luna. You were…You were wonderful. I’m so proud of you.”

For one perfect moment, they were just mother and daughter.

No fight.

No estrangement.

No complicated history.

Just Leona holding Luna, and Luna clinging to Leona, both of them sharing a moment of pure, uncomplicated joy.

But then—

Reality crashed back in.

Both of them realized at the exact same moment what they were doing.

Luna was hugging her mother. Her mother, whom she’d basically parted ways with. Whom she wasn’t supposed to be this close to anymore.

Leona was hugging her daughter back. Showing emotion. Being open in front of everyone.

They sprung apart like they’d been burned.

Luna’s face went scarlet. She stared at the ground, ears flat, arms wrapped around herself.

“I-I didn’t mean to—that was—I just got excited and—”

Leona’s face was just as red. She cleared her throat loudly, looking anywhere but at Luna.

“Ahem. Yes. Well. That was…good shooting. Very good. I mean. Obviously. You’re my daughter, so—”

She stopped, flustered.

“I mean—not that—we’re—”

She snapped her mouth shut, ears burning.

From the side, Nyx watched the entire scene with a soft, knowing smile.

’No matter how much they fight.’ She thought warmly. ’No matter how complicated things get. They’re still mother and daughter at the end of the day.’

’A mother and daughter who’ll never truly give up on each other.’

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