Mint's Chagrin

"Yes, your guess was correct."

The next day at noon, in a café in the Emerald Zone, Mint rested her cheek on one hand and held a colorful, unusual drink in the other, her teeth biting the straw, her mouth full of mucus.

Lin Xiaolu had to keep her promise to treat her to lunch, so on the rest day before the second assessment, she found a highly-rated coffee shop based on online recommendations. The three of them then had lunch together in a corner of the coffee shop.

"While I could find many excuses if you were to nitpick over the wordplay, in the most fundamental sense, I am indeed one of the 'Black Ash Dawn' you speak of."

Lin Xiaolu initially thought the other party might not be willing to tell the truth, but to her surprise, halfway through the meal, Mint quite bluntly revealed her secrets to the two of them. "Instead of asking me this question, do you two even need to? Aren't you two already?"

"Huh? Me? Black Ash Dawn? What nonsense are you talking about?"

Lin Xiaolu was completely baffled, and her voice involuntarily rose half an octave. However, considering that the coffee shop was a public place, even though there were no other customers around, she still tried to lower her voice and said somewhat warily, "When I first became a magical girl, I was almost killed by you guys several times! What are you thinking? Do you really think I'm one of your people? I'm practically calling the sheriff now. What are you Black Ash Dawn doing in the Magic Kingdom?"

"Stop pretending. I, the Beast Child, have already laid my cards on the table. What are you two Sacrificial Child still pretending for?"

Mint sipped her drink nonchalantly. "Just like you can sense me, any two Ash Soldiers could feel the fluctuations of Aberrant Beast magic on you two. Not to mention, in the eyes of the Beast Child, you're practically walking light bulbs; there's no way they could mistake you."

"You came to me because you wanted to ask about the Beast Child, and whether the higher-ups have any plans?"

She spread her hands. "There were surveillance cameras in the maze, which is why I didn't want to say much. Now that we're out of the maze, what's there to hide? If you're not even willing to admit this, then there's no point in continuing this conversation."

Lin Xiaolu was speechless for a moment.

It wasn't that she couldn't argue with Mint, but rather that the amount of information conveyed in just a few words was simply too much.

Neither Lin Xiaolu nor Bai Jingxuan had heard the terms "Beast Child" or "Sacrificial Child" for the first time. Back in the incident last year when the Fangting City Welfare Institute was attacked by Black Ash Dawn, the Ash Soldier named "Bing Chu Three" had already used this term to describe Bai Jingxuan.

Now that things have come to this, Lin Xiaolu and the others are no longer completely ignorant about the so-called "Holy Child Project," and naturally know that all these names are extensions of this project. However, she did not expect that by coming to the Magic Kingdom to participate in an assessment, she would actually encounter the very person in question.

"You said... you're that Beast Child?"

Trying to sort out her somewhat chaotic thoughts, Lin Xiaolu decided to start with the more important question, "Could you explain first what these so-called Sacrificial Child and Beast Child are?"

You really don't know?

Lin Xiaolu's puzzled expression seemed genuine, and Bai Jingxuan beside her also looked completely bewildered. Both of them clearly lacked understanding of these concepts, which finally convinced Mint somewhat. "Wait a minute, are you two both unnaturalized?"

What exactly is "unnaturalized"?

Bai Jingxuan's question finally defeated Mint.

She gave a look that said, "This is troublesome," her expression shifting several times, and she even stopped drinking her beverage. After a long while, she spoke again, "Unincorporated, literally, means not returning to the embrace of the Beast Lord... or rather, it means not joining the Black Ash Dawn, a wandering Sacrificial Child."

"But generally speaking, the 'unincorporated' Sacrificial Child are often ordinary people. The Ash Soldier will quickly find those children who are suitable to become Sacrificial Child children and bring them back to the interior of the Black Ash Dawn so that they can learn and adapt to their rightful power."

"I mean, people like the two of you..."

She pointed at Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu, then hesitated, saying, "Not only were they not found by the organization, but they also became Sacrificial Child to magical girls. Theoretically, they shouldn't exist."

"Aren't you a magical girl too?" Lin Xiaolu asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No, we are different from you..."

Mint's expression was somewhat strange. "No, you two are serious? You really don't know anything? I, uh, oh dear... I was actually quite happy because I just happened to run into two Sacrificial Child left behind by the moth, but now this is troublesome."

Clearly, she seemed to have mistaken Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan's identities for some reason, which is why she was so annoyed now that she realized her mistake.

However, Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan clearly couldn't understand her suffering, so the two could only look at each other, puzzled by Mint's reaction.

Mint's inner turmoil continued; she not only talked to herself but even began to wallow in self-pity, frantically scratching her hair.

"No, so can you two answer me first? What's going on with you? Isn't Moth supposed to be in your city? Why have you really become magical girls? Isn't anyone going to do anything about this?"

Even if you say that...

Lin Xiaolu blinked. "It's not like nobody came looking for us, is it?"

"Yes, there have been, and more than once," Bai Jingxuan echoed in reply.

"That makes sense, someone must have been looking for you. So what? Why didn't you go with them? You should be asking why they let you go?" Mint asked, looking puzzled.

"Because it was killed by the Larkspur."

"Because I killed him."

Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan continued their back-and-forth banter.

"Huh... huh? Take him down?"

Mint looked at her as if she were listening to gibberish. "Is this something that can be killed? No, your city has magical girls who can kill moths, so it's normal that the other Ash Soldier Ash Guard can't beat them, but what you're saying is..."

She clapped her hands suddenly. "You two aren't Moth's Sacrificial Child? You were chosen as magical girls from the very beginning? I swear... I knew Moth had no idea how she managed to hide two Sacrificial Child right under Cornflower's nose. So she really didn't get anything done in your Fangting!"

Now she finally understood that she had been too clever for her own good.

The reason she was so distraught actually dates back to before the maze assessment even began.

When she was first assigned to Squad 629 and noticed the Aberrant Beast magic fluctuations on her two teammates, she thought she had discovered the hidden truth: that Moth had not died without accomplishing anything; although she was killed by Cornflower, she had successfully hidden two Sacrificial Child.

Upon realizing this "truth," Mint's mind began to race. Although she wanted to reveal her identity to the two Sacrificial Child, they were in the examination hall at the time, and there were bound to be eavesdroppers. So she devised a story, using the excuse that she was from the Central City and had heard about Fang Ting.

However, as a Beast Child, her Control Stage over the Aberrant Beast magic far surpasses that of Sacrificial Child. If she wanted, she could subtly reveal her magical fluctuations to her two teammates on a small scale. In Mint's mind, since these two were Sacrificial Child, they would naturally know her identity once they sensed her Aberrant Beast magic.

However, things didn't go so smoothly at all.

Of the two teammates, the one codenamed Bo Xue did indeed detect her magical fluctuations, but it was completely different from what Mint had expected. When Bo Xue discovered her magical fluctuations, she didn't show any kindness; instead, she became even more hostile towards her.

As for White Rose, she was an idiot, completely oblivious to his magical fluctuations. And no matter how he tried to hint at it, she didn't react at all.

Mint had been subtly hinting at the outcome of the entire assessment, but she felt like she was trying to wink at a blind man. As a result, towards the middle and later stages of the assessment, she started to get anxious and deliberately amplified the range of influence of her magical fluctuations.

Well, that turned out to be a good thing; his two teammates didn't react at all, which attracted an Arrowroot.