The Match Concludes

The blinding white light lasted for several seconds. During this time, apart from Larkspur and Asō Madoka, no one else could see what was happening in the training field.

What happened within the light? What kind of confrontation occurred between the two? Most people don't know.

But when the white light dissipated, all that remained were Lin Xiaolu, who was still standing, and White Thistle, who was kneeling on the ground.

The Magic Armament in White Thistle's hand had fallen to the side at some point, and her magical clothing showed signs of charring and tearing, clearly indicating that her magical power was almost exhausted.

Even so, she still stared intently at Lin Xiaolu, her fighting spirit undiminished.

Lin Xiaolu's situation wasn't much better either. She was still able to stand only because she still had magic power. The magic particles floating on her body proved that she had also been injured in the battle.

She rubbed her cheek with her glove to dissipate the remaining magic particles, then glared back expressionlessly.

Is the battle still ongoing, or has it already been decided?

If it's over, who will win?

Amidst the confusion of the several magical girls watching, Moko, in the center of the arena, slowly raised her claws and loudly announced:

--"White Rose wins the second match! Now it's time for the intermission!"

Thus, this match, which could be described as a major upset, came to a close.

Before this, even Asō Madoka, who personally taught Lin Xiaolu the technique of Turbidification, probably couldn't have imagined that this would be the final result.

Others might not have seen it clearly, but she saw exactly what happened in the white light— Lin Xiaolu threw the White Magic Power in her hand like a projectile weapon, while White Thistle, after a moment of surprise, immediately began to respond, her Spell Formula and Magic Armament Turbidification intact, making her defenses thorough.

However, she was still caught off guard.

Lin Xiaolu's White Magic Power seemed to pierce through space, passing directly through White Thistle's prepared defenses and striking White Thistle.

Without damaging the Magic Armament or breaking the Magic Barrier, it simply passed through, as if the Spell Formula in front of it didn't exist at all.

This is the reason why White Thistle was ultimately defeated in one blow. Her defensive measures, prepared with the last bit of magic power, failed to work. Instead, she took a solid hit from the opponent's Turbidification attack.

"What is this, sisters?"

So this time, it was her turn to ask the Larkspur, "Did you teach him?"

"I don't know that trick of hers; she mastered it entirely on her own."

Larkspur shook his head. "I've actually used it a few times before, but it's always been very inconsistent, so it can't be counted in our regular combat strength."

"So... this is what you told me before, the 'special' thing about that child?"

As she thoughtfully rested her chin on her hand, Asō Madoka's gaze swept over Lin Xiaolu was standing not far away. "Offsetter?"

"I don't know," Larkspur replied expressionlessly.

"That's not the answer I wanted, sister. I've told you everything about my 'Turbidification'."

Asō Madoka raised an eyebrow, somewhat displeased. "Anyway, the competition is over, and the hidden moves phase is over. Given our relationship, do you really need to hide something from me like this?"

"I'm telling the truth, because I genuinely don't know."

Larkspur rolled her eyes at her. "I can't confirm whether this is a deviation or not. Can't you feel it? That White Magic Power doesn't show any underlying characteristics other than that of a magical girl."

"Indeed, in terms of its underlying theme, it still seems to be a magical girl... but it's hard to say it's just a simple Turbidification. Are there some different conditions? That's strange."

The troubled look on Asō Madoka's face only lingered for a moment before she smiled again, "Well, things are starting to get interesting."

"I must warn you, it's fine to find it interesting, but don't get any funny ideas about that child," Larkspur warned.

"No way, I'm not Su Shengzi. Besides, she is Anya's daughter, right?" Asō Madoka teased.

While they were talking, on the other side, Lin Xiaolu and White Thistle, having finished their duel, finally deactivated their transformations and walked out of the training ground together.

Walking in front is White Thistle.

After her transformation was undone, White Thistle appeared to be a quiet and composed young woman. She was somewhat slender, with a calm expression, shoulder-length black hair, and dressed neatly, perfectly fitting the stereotypical image of a "top student."

This "top student" kept his eyes down, looking at the ground, until he walked up to Asō Madoka, then hesitated and stopped, slowly raising his head to look at her.

"I'm so sorry, tutor."

She spoke, her voice hoarse. "I lost."

"Yes, you lost."

Asō Madoka nodded. "So?"

"I'm sorry to have disappointed you." White Thistle lowered her head again.

"So what do you think I should do now?"

"...Please criticize me," White Thistle replied softly.

"What you said makes no problem... but I'm not disappointed, so I won't criticize you."

Asō Madoka smiled and said, "After all, you did everything within your capabilities. You didn't underestimate your opponent, and you didn't make any mistakes. You simply encountered something beyond your capabilities, which is why you lost. I have no reason to blame you."

"Therefore, my previous unauthorized use of Turbidification against an unsuspecting opponent violated principles. Please criticize me."

"Didn't I already tell you about that? So let's just consider it a thing of the past, and just be more careful next time."

"So..."

For some reason, White Thistle stopped halfway through her sentence.

Her shoulders trembled slightly.

Asō Madoka looked at her student with a helpless expression, reaching out to ask her to look up. But when her hand touched the student's shoulder, her smile froze, and a look of surprise crossed her face.

She realized that White Thistle seemed to be crying.

"Sigh, why are you crying? Is it really that hard to be sad? Let me see."

This moment of surprise didn't last long. She quickly recovered, smiling as she cupped White Thistle's face in her hands, "It's just a loss, no one's blaming you, don't worry about it."

But to her surprise, her attempts to comfort White Thistle only made her cry even harder.

If she had only been silently sobbing before, after hearing Asō Madoka's words, her sobbing turned into wailing.

"I'm... so... not worth your expectations...?"

She cried as she said, "So... Waaaaaah... You never expected me to win from the beginning, you were always biased towards White Rose... Waaaaaah!"

The cries were heart-wrenching, so poignant and sorrowful that they were unbearable to watch.

Hearing the commotion, the other magical girls all turned to look in this direction. The members of Fangting City didn't think anything of it, but the other two from Bai'an City were extremely astonished.

After all, in their eyes, White Thistle was always mature and steady, and could be considered the backbone of the three younger generation. He never complained, let alone cried, no matter what hard or tiring work he encountered. On the contrary, he always helped Wood Lily and Mimosa resolve their inner conflicts.

This White Thistle actually cried in front of everyone?

Not to mention the other magical girls, even Asō Madoka was momentarily dumbfounded.

She could only follow her instincts and subconsciously reached out to pat White Thistle on the back, wanting to say something, but considering that it seemed to be her words that made the other person cry so sadly, she froze completely.

After thinking for a while, she could only blink and look at the Larkspur.

"Apologize," Larkspur said firmly, arms crossed.

"Why?" Asō Madoka laugh.

"There's no reason why; this is the consequence of betraying someone's good intentions."

With her eyelids drooping, Larkspur commented, "What you just said sounds to her like, 'I never thought you were a good candidate from the start. I thought the other side was stronger, so it's only natural that you lost. There's no need to criticize you at all.'"

"Furthermore, you even gave her opponent extra coaching before the competition. She's supposed to be her mentor, but instead she's helping her opponent against her. Of course, she feels very wronged in that situation."

Having analyzed the situation this way, and believing she had grasped the whole story, Larkspur nodded. "So, apologize."

"Waaaaaah--"

No sooner had she finished speaking than White Thistle's sobs rang out again, as if to confirm Larkspur's statement.

Now, Asō Madoka had no choice but to believe it.

Rather than being persuaded by the Larkspur, it's more accurate to say that she herself had a vague awareness of this.

Previously, in her mind, White Thistle had always been a sensible and worry-free student, with a deeper understanding of things than his peers, so she shouldn't have any issues with him over something like this.

Asō Madoka has always thought this way since she proposed this "competition".

Although the technique of Turbidification was created by myself, I didn't keep it to myself after it was created. Instead, I taught it to many people. It was almost a semi-public thing. It's quite normal to teach this semi-public technique to others as a favor.

In the competition between the two city teams, although I am the mentor of Bai'an City, if my students win too easily, it will not serve as a training exercise. "Giving the enemy an advantage" within a certain range is actually reasonable.

As for the outcome of this match, since the opponent was an unconventional magical girl who possessed extraordinary abilities, losing was not something to be ashamed of at all, and there was nothing wrong with stating this fact.

All the ideas were "normal," and all the actions were "reasonable," but one fact was completely ignored.

"You silly child... do you really like me that much?"

This is something that Asō Madoka has never realized.

In her view, she was merely a senior who had tricked the other party into becoming a magical girl under the guise of "hiring a worker," and then taught the other party how to fight as a magical girl.

As White Thistle had always said, their relationship was that of "mentor" and "student." Although they were acquaintances and trustworthy companions, it wasn't enough to make the other person harbor such intense feelings.

It is precisely because of this misunderstanding that her relationship with White Thistle has always been purely businesslike, or rather, somewhat impersonal.

In a sense, she ignored the other person's feelings.

So she pursed her lips, reached out and hugged White Thistle, gently patted his head, and whispered, "I'm sorry, it was my fault."

She spoke those words with genuine feeling.

Then, White Thistle cried even louder.

This time, however, it was clearly not because of sadness, but rather because the knot in my heart that had been blocking my emotions for so long was untied, leading to an outburst of pent-up frustration.

As for how to appease her, that's up to Asō Madoka herself; Larkspur can't help her with that.

After all, it's true that they need to be appeased over there, but we also have a small powder keg on our side.

"How pathetic. She only lost, yet she cried like this. It's so embarrassing." This is how Lin Xiaolu, standing next to Larkspur, commented on White Thistle. It's as if she has already forgotten about how she locked herself in her room and sullen all night a week ago because she lost to White Thistle.

Larkspur hadn't forgotten, but she wouldn't bring up something so sore subject, so she simply explained casually, "It's not mainly because of the loss, but because she was ignored by the person she admires, so she feels wronged, which is understandable."

"Even if I'm being ignored, there's no reason for it to happen in this kind of situation..."

Perhaps because she had just avenged her great enemy, Lin Xiaolu was quite arrogant. Following Larkspur's train of thought, she tried to belittle White Thistle from a superior position, but she quickly realized what she was saying and couldn't continue. "... That's true, it's not entirely incomprehensible."

"Are you feeling even a little happier now? You beat the opponent you lost to before," Larkspur asked.

Are you happy...?

Looking at White Thistle, who was crying her heart out not far away, Lin Xiaolu's previously smug expression softened slightly for some reason. After a pause, she sighed and said, "She's probably happy, right? After all, she was so arrogant before..."

Larkspur couldn't help but turn her head and look intently at her daughter beside her.

He and she hadn't spoken for several days, whether he was acting as Larkspur or as Lin Yun.

Having just secured a rare victory, Lin Xiaolu, though showing signs of fatigue after the battle, was indeed much more energetic than she had been in a slump a few days ago.

The anxiety of not being able to awaken her Magic Armament and the panic of falling behind her teammates have, if not completely disappeared, at least temporarily lessened in Lin Xiaolu.

However, whether it was just her imagination or not, Larkspur always felt that beneath these emotions, Lin Xiaolu still carried a rather strong sense of confusion.

This sense of confusion did not fade with the victory in the competition; on the contrary, it became even more intense.

"... Larkspur, I did it. Everything I've learned these past few days, everything I've achieved in my training, I've shown you in the battle just now."

After a long silence, Lin Xiaolu spoke again, "Although many things are still not mature enough, I hope you can see them."

"Yes, I know, thank you, I see it very clearly."

The Larkspur said softly, "You've improved a lot. You performed very well in this battle."

"Really? That's good." Lin Xiaolu replied, as if she had breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, she seemed to hesitate for a moment, pausing briefly again before speaking, "So, may I ask? Larkspur, what... exactly do you think of me?"

"What do you think?"

This seemingly random question puzzled Larkspur: "I think it's great."

"Very good?"

Lin Xiaolu's voice suddenly rose two decibels. "Really? You think... you think I'm great? Then, specifically... how am I great?"

For some reason, her speech rhythm was completely messed up, and she couldn't pronounce some sounds correctly. I don't know if she bit her tongue.

"What's better? The precision of magic control has indeed improved, and the application and connection of basic skills show obvious signs of optimization; the judgment of the opponent's attack intentions is more accurate, and some attack routes can be guessed; the movements of dodging attacks have become lighter and more agile, no longer as forceful as before... These are all improvements that can be seen with the naked eye."

Commenting on Lin Xiaolu's previous battles in this way, even just mentioning these improvements made Larkspur feel quite gratified and moved. "You really worked hard, I'm very proud of you."

"... oh."

But little did anyone know that this praise, which Larkspur considered quite accurate and sincere, would inexplicably make Lin Xiaolu depressed.

Was something wrong? Larkspur was a little confused.

However, with White Thistle's crying and Asō Madoka's distressed attempts to comfort her, the competition between the teams from Bai'an City and Fangting City had come to a complete end.

The final score was 2-1, with Fangting City scoring 2 points and Bai'an City scoring 1 point, resulting in a victory for Fangting City.

The final point came from Bai Jingxuan.

The last contestant from Bai'an City, Wood Lily, was the only magical girl in the team who had not mastered the Turbidification and was still at the Bud Rank. In just one minute, she was defeated by Bai Jingxuan's desperate fighting style and unreasonable magic with overwhelming force. Lying on the ground, she shakily raised the white flag.