Factions

Refusing the help of others, Larkspur walked to the office chair and sat down by herself. After several minutes, she finally understood the ins and outs of the matter with the explanation of several staff members of the institute.

"... Fine, let's leave it at that, let's pretend it never happened."

Although she now knew why she had been bumped into, Larkspur had no intention of pursuing the matter further. In her view, the person who bumped into her was just an ordinary clerk, and since the other party hadn't done it intentionally, she decided to let it go. "You don't need to put on such serious expressions, just relax."

What she didn't explicitly say was that since she had already accepted this method to enter the Magic Affairs Institute branch, she was there to get down to business and didn't have time to get bogged down in such trivial details.

The so-called important matter was actually quite clear: it was to adjust the security and defense plan for the upcoming assessment to a certain extent, according to her ideas.

Due to procedural legitimacy requirements, it was necessary for them to discuss this matter within the Magic Affairs Institute; for reasons of communication efficiency and confidentiality, it was also impossible for Larkspur to remotely direct them to complete this task.

In the end, she had no choice but to find a way to sneak into the Magic Affairs Institute while remaining undetected.

Furthermore, since the group from the main branch of the Magic Affairs Institute arrived through proper channels and underwent registration, ostensibly to attend a meeting with the Luen Nore and the Research Institute, even the branch academies could verify the complete list of everyone present. In order to avoid any discrepancies or oversights later, Larkspur couldn't even openly blend into the crowd and had to choose this method on Zhe Helan's advice.

Both Zhe Helan and the others, as well as Larkspur, were well aware that they could not reveal their plans to anyone at this stage. Even though most of the staff in this branch were magical girls without any powerful backgrounds or outstanding abilities—such magical girls wouldn't have ended up in such a small branch—there are always exceptions. No one could guarantee that all the staff in this branch would be willing to side with their faction.

Not to mention that there might be other factions within the Magic Affairs Institute among its staff. If they learn of the Research Institute's schemes and betray them, those people will be in deep trouble.

Larkspur now knows that the five factions within the Magic Affairs Institute have different attitudes toward the matter of whether to support Cornflower's return to the Sapphire Scepter.

The faction close to the Research Institute is known as the "Green Faction" within the Magic Affairs Institute. It includes not only veterans of the Interrealm War like Zhe Helan, but also individuals like Delphinium Bird of Paradise, who are natives of Luen Nore, grew up in the city, and some even experienced the war as civilians. While close to the Research Institute, this faction also holds a high degree of respect for Cornflower, who was once portrayed as a war hero. This explains their current united effort to secure the Gem Scepter for Larkspur.

Meanwhile, the Investigation Institute, which has always been close to the Green Faction, calls itself the "Yellow Faction" within the Magic Affairs Institute. The two factions exchange interests quite frequently and cooperate the most often. This faction is also enthusiastic about finding Gem Scepter for the Magic Affairs Institute. In addition, since Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye has had several contacts with Larkspur before, it should be the first person to be won over.

As for the remaining three factions, it's hard to call them "friendly".

First, there's the "Red Faction," which is close to the Civil Governance Institute. This faction has never expressed its opinion on "whether or not to have the Gem Scepter." Most of the time, they are unwilling to get close to any faction and remain on the sidelines. They only emerge to exchange benefits with other factions when the Civil Governance Institute's plans and schemes are thwarted. Otherwise, the magical girls of this faction are the most idle people in the Magic Affairs Institute.

Next came the "Crown Faction," which upheld the Royal Court's rule. They also desired a Gem Scepter to solidify the nobles' Control Stage over the Magic Affairs Institute and expel the other four factions. Unfortunately, in their view, the Gem Scepter should not be Cornflower.

The Crown Faction didn't have a high opinion of Cornflower, a "rebellious person" who dared to "offend the Queen," and was even quite resistant to her. In their minds, the future Gem Scepter of the Magic Affairs Institute should be someone of noble birth, someone "one of their own" who was impeccable in terms of lineage, ability, and will. They were committed to recommending a Gem Scepter from within their own faction and had been trying to bring their scepter candidate into the Queen's sights.

Even the Crown Faction wasn't the most difficult to win over. According to Zhe Helan's description to Larkspur, the biggest obstacle to her becoming the Gem Scepter in the entire Magic Affairs Institute was actually the "Purple Faction," which was close to the Finance Institute.

Because their attitude was actually very clear. "The Magic Affairs Institute doesn't need the Gem Scepter."

Although the Finance Institute's attitude was not like this in earlier years, both the members who remained in the Finance Institute and the Purple Faction in the Magic Affairs Institute could sense that the Diamond Scepter's lust for power had changed significantly after a certain point in time.

Specifically, in the past two decades, the Diamond Scepter has appeared more frequently in the Magic Affairs Institute compared to other factions, sometimes even openly supporting the Purple Faction. As for the powers that should belong to the Finance Institute, they have firmly held onto them, rarely letting them slip through their fingers.

This kind of behavioral logic naturally makes the magical girls of the Purple Faction have a stronger sense of loyalty and belonging to the Diamond Scepter. In many cases, they see themselves as an extension of the Finance Institute into the Magic Affairs Institute, rather than as members of the Magic Affairs Institute. Therefore, what they have to do is to do everything they can to maintain the interests of the Diamond Scepter and never give it up to anyone.

For the Finance Institute and the Purple Faction, the lower-ranking magical girls might only find it a little strange, at most feeling that "the Diamond Scepter's style of doing things has changed slightly." But at the level of Zhe Helan and Emerald, they naturally know the reason for this change, not because "the Diamond Scepter has changed," but because "the person holding the Diamond Scepter has changed."

According to Emerald's description, the current Diamond is a rather sharp-tongued person with a deep desire for power. Because it has been the Gem Scepter for the shortest time, it has a strong desire to maintain its prestige and consolidate its power, so it will show full aggression towards anyone who dares to challenge its authority.

Furthermore, in order to cover up the scandal of "Purple Diamond's defection," the Royal Court has never publicly announced that the position of Diamond has changed hands, even though there are many rumors circulating among the people. As a result, the current Diamond's title has never been officially announced, and he continues to act under the name "Purple Diamond." This situation naturally makes the power-hungry current Diamond even more psychologically unbalanced.

"From her perspective, someone as loyal to the Royal Court and proactive as herself can only hide like a thief behind the Gem Scepter. And you, Cornflower, someone so disrespectful and arrogant, want to openly ascend to the Sapphire Scepter —Royal Court that's probably unacceptable to her."

When discussing the current Diamond, Emerald gave Larkspur a heads-up. "Therefore, in our next move, we must avoid the Crown Faction as much as possible, and at the same time, we must keep the Purple Faction in the dark. We'll wait until they owe us enough favors before using that as leverage to negotiate with them. Otherwise, they will definitely come and ruin our plans."

It was precisely to guard against the possible existence of the Crown Faction and the Purple Faction within the branch that Larkspur sneaked into the Magic Affairs Institute by slipping into a suitcase, leaving no evidence for the branch staff outside.