Concert

"Thump!" "Whoosh!"

A black whip shadow swept diagonally down from mid-air, striking the ground and leaving several whip marks on the already not-so-firm mud.

The Larkspur narrowly dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack. Then, it narrowed its eyes and let the silver-blue threads Tether its wrists forward.

Guided by the silk threads, her body seemed to transform into a puppet, moving several meters in a posture and manner that completely defied human biomechanics. Then, she suddenly stopped at a certain point.

She extended her Magic Armament, which had transformed into a dagger, and thrust it fiercely towards the neck of the person before her. However, this ruthless attack did not cause any serious injury; instead, it was firmly blocked by a blade made of black metal.

Using her longsword to deflect the Larkspur's, Kite let out a long sigh of relief and said, "That's fine."

"Admit defeat?" the Larkspur asked, as she scattered the dagger in her hand into threads.

No, it's a draw.

Yuan shook her head. "Without using anything other than Magic Armament, it seems our fight can only go this far. By the way, have your injuries improved a little?"

"It won't affect your life for now, so don't worry about it." The Larkspur's response was somewhat wary.

This is the third time since Kite arrived in Fangting City that he has challenged Larkspur to a duel.

The first incident occurred at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, where Larkspur, using temporary Magic Armament created by Hong Siyu, barely managed to defeat Yuan. The latter two incidents, however, turned into simple hand-to-hand combat, taking place in an open area on the outskirts of the city, and both ended in a draw.

However, this evenly matched contest relied on the Larkspur's unexpected move.

To be fair, in terms of hand-to-hand combat skills alone, Iris's level was unparalleled in her life; in terms of basic fighting techniques, her opponent's level was that of a grandmaster. However, apart from technique, in the crucial aspects of magic and strength, Larkspur was at a complete disadvantage. The reason she was able to repeatedly turn the tide in battle was entirely due to the use of information asymmetry.

Her fighting style is highly individualistic, built upon the foundation of silk threads and Masterpiece aids. Many of her moves defy common sense, even those that Iris has never seen before. Therefore, Larkspur has to package the information gap into a crucial killing move to end the battle.

Of course, the reason why the battle was resolved so easily was ultimately because the kite defined it as a "sparring match".

"If you do things this way, are you really going to be able to explain yourself to the leader of Claw Mark?"

Thinking of this, the Larkspur looked at the other person with some suspicion. "Or do you have a way to beautify your behavior, to portray playing as testing?"

"Doing things is one thing, following the rules is another."

With a casual gesture, she put away the Magic Armament in her hand, and with a sweep of her hand across her chest, her magical girl attire instantly transformed into magical particles that scattered in the air.

"Claw Mark respects the individuality of each magical girl, allowing them to solve missions in their own way, and my way is to be fair and square."

"Play fair and square?"

"Defeat your opponent fairly and squarely."

Picking up the burlap bundle from the ground, hoisting it onto her shoulder, Yuan shrugged. "Anyway, I've had my fill today. Thanks, wanna grab a drink?"

"Liquor?"

"What else could it be?"

With her free hand, she made a gesture of raising a glass to her lips, and smiled somewhat ambiguously, "Of all the drinks in the world, what could be more intoxicating than what's in this cup?"

"No need."

Larkspur also removed the Magic Armament from her hands and waved her hand. "I'm different from you; I have other tasks."

"Boring."

Yuan shook her head and sighed, "Forget it, I'll go to the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau and see if the director is there. I'll invite him for a drink. It'll be a way of thanking him for acting as a go-between between us."

That's unnecessary too.

Larkspur cursed.

Of course, although she had her own thoughts, her face remained as cold and calm as ever, showing no emotion whatsoever.

Seeing that she remained silent, Yuan didn't bother to make a fool of herself. She simply adjusted her tattered Daoist robe and walked rather gracefully toward the street shrouded in night.

"Oh, right."

Just before the figure disappeared from Larkspur's sight, she suddenly seemed to remember something and turned back to look at Larkspur: "Fangting City seems to have become quite lively lately. If we meet again, please introduce me to your new friend."

New friend?

The word made Larkspur raise an eyebrow, but before she could ask anything more, Yuan's figure had already disappeared into the night, leaving no trace.

Only the Larkspur remained standing there, looking thoughtful.

Let's rewind a little and go back to the afternoon of the same day.

In Sunset District, at Sunset Middle School, students are gathered in their classrooms, enjoying their lunch break after half a day of classes.

In terms of temperature alone, Fangting City's winters are not too cold, but being located in the southern part of Eastern Hua Prefecture, the damp cold air often penetrates everywhere, making it difficult for people to retain body heat with clothing.

Therefore, even during lunch break, students are unwilling to leave the classroom and instead huddle inside, whispering among themselves.

The reason for the whispering was that some students were resting with their heads on their desks.

Lin Xiaolu was also among those resting with her head on the table. The reason was simple: she was too tired.

In the past few days, she has been working hard and studying diligently. Whenever she has time, she repeatedly goes through the process of Force Tempering and Soul Meditation, trying to further improve her magical power and Blossoming the level of Bud Rank.

Unfortunately, although her magical power has indeed increased, her Blossoming potential remains a long way off.

The reason she was in such a hurry was not only because she had seen through some things and her mindset had changed, but also because the first Leaf Rank had appeared in the Fangting City Magical Girl Squad.

-- Just the day before yesterday, Xia Liang Blossoming achieved a promotion.

This means that a teammate who started learning almost half a month later than her, and who is younger and less experienced than her, has already surpassed her in terms of ability by two whole stages.

It's impossible for Lin Xiaolu not to feel envy and jealousy. As the only Seed-level member in the team, she felt a strong sense of crisis.

Time has flown by to mid-December, and in three months it will be the annual magical girl Qualification Certification Exam. If she's still only at the Seed level by then, she probably won't even get the Certification Card.

Considering Larkspur's increasingly intimate attitude towards Bai Jingxuan lately, and the somewhat strange atmosphere between her and Xia Liang, Lin Xiaolu didn't dare to think about what would happen if she was the only one who failed the exams...

Whatever the reason, she must awaken her Magic Armament as soon as possible.

With this in mind, Lin Xiaolu has been going to the training ground more often than Bai Jingxuan these days, and she even swallowed her pride and asked Xia Liang for the secret to awakening her Magic Armament... But even after doing all that, her Magic Armament was still as if it didn't exist, without making any move.

Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament failed to awaken, and as a result, she lost a lot of her precious sleep time. As a result, she has been listless for the past few days and often dozes off in class.

That noon, as she lay nestled in her arms, half-asleep, she suddenly felt a pat on her arm.

She groggily raised her head and looked to the side, where she saw a girl she didn't recognize standing next to her, holding two colorful pieces of paper.

"Ah, sorry, Xiao Lu, did I disturb your sleep?"

The girl smiled apologetically and placed the piece of paper on Lin Xiaolu's desk, "Someone asked me to give this to you."

"Others? Who?" Lin Xiaolu asked subconsciously, her mind still a little hazy. Then she saw the girl point towards the classroom door. Following the girl's gesture, she saw a boy with a somewhat familiar face peeking in from the doorway.

Because she had just woken up, Lin Xiaolu had to put in some effort to remember who the other person was—it was the guy who had confessed his feelings to her more than half a month ago.

Perhaps noticing Lin Xiaolu's gaze, the boy met her eyes for a second before hurriedly shrinking back behind the wall.

Seeing the other person's strange behavior throughout, Lin Xiaolu couldn't help but look down at the two colorful pieces of paper on the table, and then she realized what they were: a pair of concert tickets.

That guy, is he trying to invite me to a concert?

Realizing this, she picked up the two tickets without hesitation and handed them back to the girl in front of her. "Excuse me, could you please return them to him? I don't need them."

He said it's okay if you don't go with him.

The girl didn't accept it immediately, but pointed to the ticket in Lin Xiaolu's hand. "Really don't want it?"

"No, I don't want him to waste money on this."

Lin Xiaolu said solemnly, "So please tell him that I don't like this."

"Hmm... okay, then I'll return it."

Having clearly grasped the logic behind the situation, the girl gave a somewhat ambiguous and gossipy smile, "Sorry to bother you, Xiao Lu. Go back to your nap."

Then she took the ticket and walked to the classroom door, and, seeing the boy's disappointed expression, she put it back into his hand.

After confirming that the ticket had been returned, Lin Xiaolu breathed a sigh of relief and lay back down on the table, trying to find a comfortable position to continue her afternoon nap. However, before she could move much, she noticed that someone in front of her seemed to be watching her.

Without even looking in that direction, Lin Xiaolu could confirm: that was Jiang Yuan, the only classmate she could call a "friend" in the class. Jiang Yuan sat right in front of her, their seats next to each other.

"Xiao Lu."

Lowering her voice, Jiang Yuan said to Lin Xiaolu with a hint of mystery, "Do you know how hard it was to get those two tickets that boy gave you?"

"Have no idea."

Lin Xiaolu buried her head in her arms and said in a muffled voice, "I'm not interested either. I don't like any singers."

"That's not your average singer's concert!"

Jiang Yuan tapped the back of her chair with some dissatisfaction, trying to get Lin Xiaolu's attention. "That's a concert by Asō Madoka, a world-renowned pop diva who has been popular for over ten years!"

"So?"

"Even the theme song for your favorite magical girl anime, <Rainbow Sky Angel>, was sung by her!"

Jiang Yuan covered her mouth with her hand while raising her voice slightly. "As a new-era ACG enthusiast, you should understand this level of status!"

"... don't know."

Lin Xiaolu looked up, somewhat bewildered. "The theme song of <Rainbow Sky Angel> is indeed very good, but what does that have to do with star power?"

"Are you stupid? It's a huge deal! Anyone who can sing for a magical girl anime is definitely a top star in the pop music scene!"

Jiang Yuan said with exasperation, "Asō Madoka is a top-tier music star in Eastern Isles, and she rarely holds concerts in Donghua Prefecture! Even when she does, it's usually in large Central City, rarely in a small place like Fangting City. Do you know how rare this opportunity is?!"

"Oh."

"Don't you want to hear her sing the theme song of 'Rainbow Sky Angel' live?"

"... I think I might want to?" Lin Xiaolu asked uncertainly.

"Hmph, then you were right to reject him!"

Jiang Yuan smiled gently, reached into her sleeve, and suddenly pulled out two tickets that were exactly the same as the ones from before:

"Since you've stood firm in our Outcast Alliance, let's go listen together!"

Thank you to the following readers for their generous donations: Magnetic-Field Madman Guy (Alliance Leader), Walking Stone, Fish Hehe, 3zh-bth, Parzen, Xia Lu syaru, and 20200219001153310 (Helper Leader).

The contest for minor character roles ended at the end of last month. I've already selected some suggestions from readers, and I'll gradually release them over time. Stay tuned!