The Half Month at the Magic Affairs Branch
The morning in Luen Nore was unusually lively on the day the certification exam began.
Because the first exam was scheduled for the morning, all the candidates living in Luen Nore got up early and left home to make their way to the exam venue.
The Fangting City Squad was no exception.
Compared to the teams residing in Mana-Free District, their transportation was slightly more convenient. Without restrictions on magic use, they could use both flight and Spell Formula, making them naturally among the first group of examinees to arrive at the examination hall.
The Larkspur was naturally among them.
However, she was not here as a "parent of a test taker," but as a "test taker."
In fact, when she first reached an agreement with the people of the Magic Affairs Institute, she had planned not to participate in the so-called exam as "Gentian." Unfortunately, she later learned that the identity of "Gentian" had already been registered in her file, and she had even registered for the exam and reported for the exam. If she skipped the exam without a valid reason but "did not leave the Kingdom," she might be linked to the actions of Black Ash, Claw Mark, and others, which could lead to some unnecessary trouble.
Besides, she had been working overtime with the people from the Magic Affairs Institute these past few days to rush out a new version of the defense plan, and her best standby position was to lie in wait in the examination room.
There are many considerations involved, but the most important one is that among the personnel responsible for this defense mission, there are a large number of magical girls who do not belong to the Green Faction. If Larkspur wants to participate in the defense mission openly, he must use a false identity. However, "Gentian," a "new magical girl from the Material Realm," naturally has no reason to appear in this situation.
Creating another false identity would be equally difficult. After all, in a mission of this scale, there is frequent movement of people, a lot of conflicting information, and everyone is on guard against the infiltration of criminals. The checks and verifications of identities would be extremely rigorous. Even Emerald couldn't just make up an identity for Larkspur that would allow him to pass through without any obstacles.
Over time, Larkspur realized that the most suitable identity for her to move freely in the examination hall and even respond to various crises was actually that of an examinee. And when she was hiding in the center of the examination hall as an examinee, she could reach the scene much faster than if she stayed outside, no matter which direction the enemy invaded.
Why did the Larkspur know this would be faster?
That's because she's already tried every possible route.
The search for the Claw Mark marks yielded no results, as expected.
Ink Lotus and the others seemed to have suddenly left the city. No matter how many informants visited, investigated, and tracked them, they could not find any trace of them.
Since they couldn't find anyone and couldn't resolve the issue verbally in advance, Larkspur and the others could only rely on a defensive plan as a solution, further complicating the situation.
During the two weeks of developing the defense plan, among the various tasks that Larkspur handled day and night, the most grueling was the rehearsals. Because the terrain of the forest outside the city was too complex and the enemy's infiltration routes were too varied, Larkspur had to not only increase the intensity of surveillance but also devise action routes for various scenarios to ensure that she could arrive at the designated location before the other Flower Card arrived. In addition, how the outer defense personnel should patrol to prevent any from slipping through the net, how to ensure the safety of the candidates if the enemy launched a desperate attack, and how the Flower Card should support each other when encountering unexpected and powerful enemies... All of these things needed to be personally verified before Larkspur and the others could feel at ease.
Fortunately, after much back and forth, the team finally managed to produce a solution that satisfied most of the participants.
It is necessary to ensure that the candidates present are not harmed and that the exam is not disturbed; it is also necessary to ensure that the intruders actually cause some economic losses, so that stopping the incident can be considered a "meritorious service"; and it is also necessary to stop the people with Claw Mark as early as possible, so that the Larkspur has time to confront them.
This demand, which sounded like a client making things difficult for the contractor, was actually accomplished by Larkspur and her team.
The price was that not only were the people of the Magic Affairs Institute and some members of the Research Institute working themselves to the bone, but Larkspur herself was so exhausted that she almost couldn't distinguish between day and night.
Besides this matter, she also had to focus on the preliminary work for contacting the Yellow Faction, directing the search for Black Ash Dawn and Claw Mark, continuing her work with the Fangting City Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, supervising the tutoring of the younger generation, and teaching Bai Jingxuan, who Blossoming reached the Leaf Rank, about Spell Formula...
This intense, non-stop work schedule had reached a point where even the magical girl's willpower couldn't withstand it. As a result, a huge blunder occurred during this time: one day, when the Magic Affairs Institute branch was closing, Larkspur fell asleep in her suitcase after getting off work.
The staff member from our institute who was responsible for taking the suitcases out of the branch campus was called away to the archives. At that moment, another staff member returned from a business trip and went to the archives to file documents, leaving his suitcase at the entrance of the archives. Then, when the staff member from our institute came out, he was so busy with overtime work that he took the wrong suitcase.
The Larkspur, who was sleeping in the suitcase, was dragged back home by another branch staff member.
When the branch staff member went home to pack her luggage, she found a sleeping girl in her suitcase. She almost called the sheriff on the spot... Luckily, she suddenly remembered that she was a magical girl, whose security level was theoretically higher than that of the sheriff, so she gave up the idea.
After that, the startled Larkspur, in the midst of the chaos, cooperated with the employee to fabricate some outrageous lies: that she was Zhe Helan's daughter, who had secretly come to the Magic Affairs Institute to visit her mother, and that she had hidden in a suitcase to play a prank on her mother, and had fallen asleep inside the suitcase.
The reason for Zhe Helan is that Larkspur doesn't even know who was responsible for taking the suitcase out that day. In this situation, it's always easier to pass the buck by blaming someone above you.
As for why Zhe Helan, who has always claimed to be "unmarried," has a daughter, and why Zhe Helan's own suitcase is carried by her subordinate, those are issues that Larkspur cannot concern herself with.
Afterwards, the branch staff member contacted Zhe Helan using the Magic Mirror, and Zhe Helan silently took Larkspur away from her home. A few days later, strange rumors spread throughout the branch that "the Education Selection Office is keeping a young lover outside and has secretly given birth to a daughter out of wedlock."
"This was originally the dereliction of duty by our subordinates, and it is only natural that I bear the consequences of this dereliction of duty," Zhe Helan commented on the matter.
As for her secretly making things difficult for those branch staff who spread the rumors, deliberately nitpicking their paperwork, that's another story.