A Strange Competition

On the other side, opposite Bai Jingxuan, Xia Liang also began her own individual tutoring program.

As the only Leaf Rank in the team at present, Xia Liang's main tasks in the coming period, besides continuing to train her Magic Armament, are to study Spell Formula more systematically.

The "Diversion" Magic Armament has excellent synergy with Spell Formula. Besides Explosion School, it can also produce a chemical reaction greater than the sum of its parts when combined with other Spell Formula. However, Larkspur's research on Spell Formula is really limited. The combinations she can think of are limited to Explosion School. Some more ingenious combinations are beyond her understanding. It is indeed beyond her ability to guide Xia Liang.

Based on the principle of prioritizing those who excel, Larkspur assigned the task to someone else. Thus, the teacher ultimately in charge of this special training was Hong Siyu.

As the saying goes, there is a sequence to learning, and everyone has their own area of expertise. Among the magical girls currently staying in Fangting City, apart from Emerald who is outside the scope of this discussion, Hong Siyu Spell Formula. In fact, if we broaden the comparison to the entire Magic Kingdom, the number of Spell Formula that Hong Siyu has mastered is among the top. Therefore, having her in charge of this part of the teaching can be said to be the most prudent choice.

"Then, starting today, I'll be Xia Liang's teacher."

Bringing a large stack of notebooks and draft paper, and having somehow produced a pair of black-rimmed glasses, Hong Siyu sat confidently in front of Xia Liang, saying with great enthusiasm, "I will start with the most basic Spell Formula and try my best to teach you every Spell Formula you should know. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to interrupt me anytime."

"Okay! Thank you for your help, I'll do my best!"

Xia Liang echoed her enthusiasm, but after noticing the notebooks on the table, she asked, "Speaking of which, Sister Hong, what are these notebooks...?"

"Ah, these are some key points I recorded when I was learning the Spell Formula, and some are my notes from university."

Upon Hong Siyu's eyes lit up. She immediately spread out the notebooks in front of her and began listing them off as if they were her most treasured possessions. "This is an introductory note on Shaping Spell Formula, this is an introduction to Transformation Spell Formula, this is a collection of key points for errors in equilibrium techniques, this is the theoretical foundation of waveguide techniques, and this one is on complex functions, this one is on thermodynamics and statistical physics..."

Xia Liang could somewhat guess the content of the first few topics she mentioned, but the more she talked, the more something seemed off. Seeing that Hong Siyu was still introducing each book one by one, seemingly determined not to stop until everything was explained, Xia Liang had to interrupt, "Um, Sister Hong... are all these related to learning Spell Formula?"

"Hmm? That's right." Hong Siyu replied, somewhat puzzled.

"Then, those things that sound like they have nothing to do with Spell Formula, and are probably math and physics..." Xia Liang said slowly, looking at Hong Siyu's expression.

"These are also things I'll be using when I teach you the Spell Formula." Hong Siyu nodded. "Although magic hardly follows the physical laws of the Material Realm, its effects on the external world are still predictable. And mathematics is a common tool in our research work..."

No, that's not what I meant.

Feeling cold sweat trickling down her temples, Xia Liang stammered, "Master, the main problem is that I don't seem to have encountered any of the knowledge you're talking about before?"

"Well, after all, a lot of it is high school or even university level knowledge, and some of it is only for students majoring in related fields. In this Kingdom, generally only magical girls in Research Institute need to learn these things."

Hong Siyu raised her finger, as if showing off, and said, "But your older sister Hong, although she didn't join the Research Institute and her university wasn't a science department, is still a magical girl specializing in Spell Formula, so she still taught herself everything at university."

"Yes, I see."

Xia Liang nodded, swallowed, and said, "Then, the notes here..."

"These are all carefully selected introductory materials. If you learn all of these in the next month, I guarantee you will have a solid foundation in Spell Formula."

Hong Siyu and Jian Xia Liang's eyes widened, and they immediately nodded approvingly. "Already excited? So excited you're trembling? No problem, this is the spirit a magic girl specializing in Spell Formula should have. Then let's get started without further ado!"

"Mmm, ah..."

Xia Liang opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say. She felt the cold sweat that had been lingering at her temples had somehow slipped down her cheeks. She looked down at the notes that almost covered the entire table, then stiffly raised her head and forced a smile:

"Okay, I'll do my best."

"Now you."

In the underground training ground of the base, Larkspur said this while reaching out and handing Lin Xiaolu a magic thread that was intertwined into a complex pattern.

The silk thread transformed into a symmetrical and orderly beautiful pattern between her hands, quietly appearing between the two of them.

"Hmm..."

Looking at the pattern in front of her, Lin Xiaolu hesitated for a moment before raising her hand, but stopped just before her hands touched the silk thread.

She looked thoughtful, frowning as she carefully examined the structure of the silk thread. After thinking for a long time, she finally inserted her fingers into the thread, tugged at it, and took the thread from the Larkspur's hand.

Then, the once perfectly regular pattern suddenly collapsed into a few monotonous lines.

Lin Xiaolu looked at the silk thread in her hand, slightly disappointed.

"... Ah, it failed."

"Yes, it's over."

Both of them exclaimed in unison.

As it appears on the surface, Larkspur and Lin Xiaolu were actually playing cat's cradle.

As a traditional game in the Eastern Hua Region, cat's cradle was once a childhood memory for the vast majority of children in the Eastern Hua Region.

Generally, there are two ways to play cat's cradle: one is for one person to weave various patterns with the rope, and the other is for two people to interact. What Larkspur and Lin Xiaolu just did was naturally a game that required two people.

A thin, looped rope is pulled into a basic shape by one person using both hands. Then another person flips and deforms the shape, and this process is repeated until one party can no longer adjust the rope into a regular shape, or the rope becomes knotted in their hands and falls apart.

What Lin Xiaolu and Larkspur were playing was an advanced version of their childhood game. It didn't follow any fixed rope patterns or designs, nor did it consider how to let their playmates take over. They only needed to follow the two principles of "symmetrical patterns" and "not a knot that is impossible to untie." The changes in the patterns were unpredictable and completely irregular.

That's why Lin Xiaolu was ultimately defeated after a long period of deliberation.

Lin Xiaolu still remembers that when she was very young, her mother played this game with her. However, at that time, she didn't understand any tricks or skills. Most of the time, she just messed around and enjoyed messing up the lines in her mother's hands. Her mother let her do whatever she wanted and never forced her to play properly. In the end, she didn't know much about the game.

At the time, she never expected that she would one day face this situation: a training centered around cat's cradle.

If she had another chance, she would definitely practice cat's cradle diligently from a young age— Lin Xiaolu even had this thought, but unfortunately, there are no "ifs".

The story begins when she proposed learning from the Larkspur, wanting to use silk threads in combat.

At first, Larkspur simply guided her step by step on some combat techniques, including deliberately slowing down her movements to spar with Lin Xiaolu, and using the breakdown of movements to explain how to deal with various situations, so as to demonstrate the versatility of the silk threads in actual combat.

After only two days of instruction, when Larkspur had finally explained some of the simplest concepts to Lin Xiaolu and asked her to try it out with the silk thread, things went wrong.

Or rather, nothing went wrong, because Lin Xiaolu unsurprisingly made a complete fool of herself.

They would either trip over the threads they had laid while walking; or tie themselves up while tightening the threads; or forget where the ends of their threads were after laying them; or they would lose control of the thickness and movement of the threads, often tearing each other's clothes and skin during their actions. The most outrageous incident was when they almost cut off the Larkspur's finger.

After that incident, Larkspur took the initiative to stop the actual combat training and proposed the cat's cradle method.

"Start with the basics. You need to master the spatial changes of the thread, and at least be sensitive to the displacement within space after the thread is pulled."

This is how Larkspur explained the benefits of cat's cradle training, "When you face a real battle, no enemy will give you time to think about your line layout strategy, and you won't have the mind to recall the position of your own thread. Without this sensitivity, you will be covered in wounds yourself without the enemy even having to make a move."

Lin Xiaolu had no objection to this, after all, she herself felt that her various behaviors during the previous training were too embarrassing. After that, the practical training sessions were replaced with a cat's cradle game.

Every day, besides continuing to learn combat skills, train her Magic Armament, and cultivate magic power, Lin Xiaolu also studies how to play cat's cradle.

In the first few days, she could only follow the routine and find some fixed patterns. But as time went on, she finally mastered some tricks and was able to keep up with Larkspur's pace and process some extremely complex patterns.

Although Lin Xiaolu ultimately lost the game of cat's cradle, she had actually lasted several rounds against Larkspur, a remarkable improvement compared to her initial predicament of not being able to solve a single pattern.

Although by Larkspur's standards, Lin Xiaolu's current skill level is still far from being able to fight with silk threads, if she continues to improve at this pace, it is quite possible that she will be able to learn to use silk threads within a month.

Therefore, she did not make any further requests.

The two practiced for several more rounds until Lin Xiaolu clearly showed signs of losing her train of thought, at which point Larkspur stopped the training.

Around that time, Bai Jingxuan knocked on the door of the training ground.

"Teacher, Sister Xiao Lu, dinner is ready!"

She first peered half her body into the doorway, and only after confirming that both of them were inside did she step in.

During the New Year holiday, considering that the Bai'an City Squad had been staying here for quite some time, it was no longer appropriate to continue acting as guests. The Fangting City base finally re-established a household chores shift schedule.

The three senior members take turns cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning the floor, which are relatively more labor-intensive household chores, while the six junior members and one Fairy are responsible for washing clothes, wiping tables, taking out the trash, and a series of other miscellaneous tasks.

Today, Hong Siyu is in charge of cooking, while Bai Jingxuan is helping out in the kitchen, which is why it's her turn to inform her companions that it's time to eat.

However, even if the job only involves repeating the same thing a few times, the behavior will still be different when facing different people. When calling others to dine, Bai Jingxuan will usually just let them know. When calling Larkspur and Lin Xiaolu to dine, she will quietly wait for the two of them to come out at the door, and then follow Larkspur upstairs together.

Of course, it's the side where Lin Xiaolu isn't.

The three of them walked side by side on the stairs, moving in tandem as if they were a three-legged race. Even though the stairs were wide enough for all three to pass, the squashed Larkspur in the middle still felt very uncomfortable.

As for whether it's more physically uncomfortable or mentally uncomfortable, it's probably more mentally uncomfortable.

In the Larkspur's perception, the two people were huddled together on either side of her. Although they didn't talk to each other, the silence and the subtle, somewhat hostile atmosphere made it unbearable to stay.

This situation has only developed in the last few days.

At first, perhaps because Lin Xiaolu had Larkspur's permission, she spent more and more time with Larkspur and started to act coquettishly more often. As a result, Bai Jingxuan, who had always liked to follow Larkspur, began to lose her place.

Of course, Bai Jingxuan is a sensible child. She didn't throw a tantrum because Lin Xiaolu took her place. Even if she had a little bit of a mood, she could adjust herself.

After all, Lin Xiaolu couldn't be with Larkspur all day long; she still had her own things to do. Bai Jingxuan could naturally continue to spend time with Larkspur during this period.

However, this balance was soon broken as the special training began. Bai Jingxuan had to learn about Turbidification from Asō Madoka and spent most of her time with the Bai'an City Squad, while Lin Xiaolu had to learn about silk thread combat and basically spent every day taking lessons with Larkspur. Naturally, Lin Xiaolu could be with Larkspur almost every day, but Bai Jingxuan almost never had such an opportunity.

This situation wouldn't be a problem for a day or two, but after three or four days, things started to get a little off.

At first, Bai Jingxuan would take the initiative to find Larkspur during her rest and housework time. If Larkspur was in charge of housework, she would take the initiative to help even if Bai Jingxuan was not on duty that day.

This kind of situation is not uncommon. Previously, Bai Jingxuan often took the initiative to help Larkspur with various chores. Even if Lin Xiaolu saw it, she wouldn't react.

However, after the New Year, the nature of the situation quietly changed, and Lin Xiaolu began to actively help Larkspur with her chores.

After a while, it often turned into the two of them vying to do the work.

The situation escalated from vying for jobs to vying for positions and attention, and eventually to a "battle for favor," all within just three to five days.

Of course, this doesn't mean that all the problems arose in just three to five days. Rather, it's more accurate to say that some of the minor conflicts between Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu had been brewing for a long time.

To say that the relationship between the two is like fire and water would be an understatement. In fact, if we put aside the Larkspur incident, Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan have a pretty good relationship.

In Lin Xiaolu's eyes, Bai Jingxuan is a very well-behaved and sensible junior, and often a very cute little sister. She also admires Bai Jingxuan's spirit of perseverance despite her disability, so she doesn't mind being a little more considerate in many things.

To Bai Jingxuan, Lin Xiaolu is a senior and older sister who appears to have a bit of a temper but is actually very gentle. Given the series of misunderstandings that followed, she now treats Lin Xiaolu as almost a real older sister and naturally doesn't want any unnecessary conflict with her.

To be fair, both of them wanted to get along well. However, if we take Larkspur's matter into account, things become more complicated.

Even when Bai Jingxuan first joined the team, Lin Xiaolu had always harbored resentment towards Bai Jingxuan for "stealing Larkspur's attention."

At that time, Larkspur was still intentionally controlling the distance between herself and the team members, and did not let this identity get too close to these children, so Lin Xiaolu also felt that she should not compete with a primary school student for such a thing.

In addition, she was still confused about her future at the time, and was not so sure what she wanted. She also felt that the idea of "receiving less affection" was a very naive thought, and ultimately did not let this emotion continue to spread.

This sentiment actually resurfaced a month after the Full Moon Festival.

For reasons unknown to Lin Xiaolu, Larkspur and Bai Jingxuan's relationship became closer for some reason. If it could be understood that Larkspur and Bai Jingxuan used to spend more time alone, as Bai Jingxuan was a magical girl who joined the team later and had more homework to catch up on, then after that time, the time Larkspur and Bai Jingxuan spent alone together was often simply because of "pampering".

This made Lin Xiaolu, who was standing to the side, extremely jealous, to the point that her eyes almost turned red.

After that, she went through a series of changes, including a competition with Bai'an City and a battle on New Year's Eve, which finally gave Lin Xiaolu the courage to take a crucial step and ultimately "reclaim her own favor".

In her current view, Bai Jingxuan had monopolized Larkspur's attention for the past few months, and now that it was finally her turn, she should enjoy this time to the fullest. That's why she had a vengeful and defiant mentality towards Bai Jingxuan.

In Bai Jingxuan's eyes, this incident became a blatant provocation.

Bai Jingxuan could actually ignore this provocation, because she could sense that Lin Xiaolu didn't mean much harm; but Bai Jingxuan couldn't ignore it, because Lin Xiaolu had taken over the spot next to Larkspur, which meant that she hadn't been able to be intimate with Larkspur for many days.

In front of others, Larkspur wouldn't let her call her "Mom." She could only call her that when they were alone. So, Bai Jingxuan had always only been able to call her "Mom" and act cute in private, which was something she had always done. But now, because of Lin Xiaolu's obstruction, she could no longer do that.

In Bai Jingxuan's eyes, there aren't many important people in this world. If you count them on your fingers, there are only her biological parents, the magical girl Sakura who once saved her, Uncle Tian, the caregiver who now works at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, Larkspur, Uncle Lin, and her current teammates.

If we had to choose the most important people among them, then it would only be Larkspur and Lin Yun.

However, although Uncle Lin from the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau was willing to be her "father," she also knew that Lin Xiaolu was Lin Yun's real daughter. No matter what, she could never be more important to Lin Yun Lin Xiaolu.

Bai Jingxuan didn't want to compete with her "Sister Xiao Lu" for "Dad" because she knew it would make Lin Xiaolu and "Dad" sad, so she chose to get close to Larkspur.

In her view, Larkspur was a senior member of the Fangting City Squad and a teacher to everyone; everyone was equal in Larkspur's eyes. Therefore, as long as she worked a little harder and was more considerate, even if she monopolized a little more affection, there shouldn't be any problem.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xiaolu is now not only trying to take it all, but doing so so blatantly and monopolizing it, leaving her absolutely no room to maneuver.

Bai Jingxuan is a very sensible child, and precisely because she is sensible, she knows very well what she wants.

She couldn't possibly let go of the position next to the Larkspur.

And so, a war without gunfire began.

At first, Larkspur was just puzzled, but when she realized the strange competition between Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan, she tried to mediate and prevent further conflict between them.

But she soon realized that this was not something she could handle.

Simply because she was a party involved and, moreover, the de facto "referee" in this competition.

Stopping them is pointless; forcibly forcing them to give up the competition is simply moving the behavior from the open to the covert.

If she doesn't stop it and simply tries to get one of them to give up, then no matter which side she chooses to side with in order to seek mediation, it will create de facto favoritism, which is the greatest harm to the child.

Frustrated and overwhelmed, Larkspur sought outside help. She consulted Hong Siyu, but received the strange reply, "I also want my senior's affection." She consulted Asō Madoka, who, while kind and offering some advice, unfortunately proved to be even more ignorant about education than Larkspur herself.

Thus, the only option left for Larkspur was to pretend to be unaware and, while trying to maintain a balance between the two sides, make both Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan feel "favored."

This is why the unusual sight of three people crammed side by side on the stairs occurs.