Larkspur's Worries

"Nailed it."

At the same time, in another examination room in the Silver Gallery, a plump Fairy Doll suddenly made such a sound.

"What's done?" Larkspur was sitting idly next to the equipment, turned his head to look at the doll.

"About your child."

The Fairy Doll waved its claws, displaying the light screen in its hand to the Larkspur: "Her test results should have been selected and sent to His Majesty, but I managed to fool her."

Unlike the previous maze assessment's spectator mechanism, the Examination Institute did not organize a group spectator session for the Magic Armament Assessment.

Firstly, the assessment process itself wasn't very entertaining, and secondly, the tests used many of the Research Institute's high-end instruments, which the Research Institute was reluctant to display publicly.

However, not being present at the ceremony does not mean the results will remain unseen. In fact, during this assessment, the data of all Magic Armament that ultimately scored "Briza" or higher will be submitted in real time to the "Crown Faction" of the Magic Affairs Institute's Education Selection Office.

The Crown Faction's Education Selection Office would screen these results, choosing a portion of the Magic Armament information they deemed promising and sending it to the Royal Court. The Royal Court's court secretaries would then conduct the next round of screening, presenting the most valuable information to the Queen.

Undoubtedly, the information presented to the Queen in this manner would leave an impression. If everything went smoothly, the "being given an important position" that Lin Xiaolu had once fantasized about would not be impossible. But unfortunately, she never imagined that there was a villain blocking her path in her "career."

This "villain" was none other than the Larkspur.

Larkspur did not want her daughter's test results to be presented to the Queen.

Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament is very special, even unprecedented. She is well aware of this, so if Lin Xiaolu's information is sent to the Royal Court, she will definitely become a focus of attention.

She knew that because of her, Lin Xiaolu might have already come into the sights of some people. Even the fact that Lin Xiaolu would become a magical girl—even though the key to it had been identified and it seemed to be just a coincidence—still made Larkspur a little suspicious.

Even so, she would not allow Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament data to flow into the Royal Court, because it was a written record that would give the other party an excuse to pay attention to Lin Xiaolu.

The Larkspur didn't want this to happen.

She believed that most of her magical girl colleagues in the world were still good people with a heart full of justice and kindness, and that there were still many upright magical girls in the Kingdom. In fact, she could now try to believe in Emerald and the Gem Scepter that she had once doubted so much... But she could never believe in the Royal Court of this country.

Indeed, she has now made up her mind to set aside her reservations and find a way to access the Sapphire Scepter, to enter the core of power in this country, and to live alongside the Queen. But the starting point for all of this is precisely because she does not trust the Royal Court, and she wants to do her best to see if she can change it.

Until she can truly do all that, she won't let Lin Xiaolu be exposed to the gaze of Royal Court and his ilk.

Perhaps she had her own prejudices, and perhaps this would cut off Lin Xiaolu's path to gaining Kingdom attention as a magical girl to some extent, but if doing so could make Lin Xiaolu's situation safer, Larkspur was willing to be the villain.

"Thanks."

Larkspur snapped out of her reverie, sincerely thanked Emerald, and then took the light screen. "But how can this be done? The Crown Faction doesn't have any of our people, right? Won't it be discovered later?"

"Don't worry, I didn't use any illegal methods. It's actually quite simple: I intercepted some of the B-level assessment results in advance. Once your child's results came out, I released the information along with the intercepted results. As soon as the people on the Crown Faction accessed one file, ten files were already quietly entered into the database. By covering for each other, we could prevent your child's information from being seen immediately."

Emerald manipulated her clone to wave her claws. "After all, I am Her Majesty's Gem Scepter; I would not, and cannot, do anything to betray her."

"What if the Crown Faction later wants to retrieve these entered data from the database?" Larkspur frowned.

"Then they can only see information accessible to those with the authority of the Education Selection Office Division."

The Emerald clone spread its claws. "As for your child's information, it's now restricted to access only by those with at least the Gem Scepter Tier, and as everyone knows..."

"The Crown Faction doesn't have Gem Scepter behind them," Larkspur said knowingly.

"That's how it is," Emerald said lazily. "The whole process was in accordance with regulations. The information backlog can be explained as accidental, and it was also accidental that they missed the S-level rating data at the first opportunity. This data was later upgraded to a level of confidentiality required for our research Research Institute. It's just that only the Crown Faction was responsible for screening the assessment results, but they didn't have enough authority to see all the data, and ultimately missed it."

"Thank you," Larkspur said again, unusually refraining from commenting on these bureaucratic tactics.

In fact, it's precisely this bureaucratic approach that's more reassuring in this matter.

She is now entering this examination room as a candidate named Gentian.

However, because she and Emerald had communicated beforehand, Emerald had prepared a clone in this examination room. At the same time, the two examiners here were also her close associates, which gave Larkspur and Emerald the opportunity to meet in secret.

She looked at the screen in front of her; Lin Xiaolu's assessment results and data were already recorded.

[Ability Specification: Level 4]

[Scope of application: Medium]

[Application areas: Wide range, suitable for most occasions other than support and logistics]

[Development Potential: Gem Scepter]

[Stability: Extremely Low]

[Overall Rating: Soliflor+]

[Note: This candidate's Magic Armament appears to be a novel Magic Armament, unprecedented in its kind. Current testing standards cannot fully measure all its data; therefore, it is rated S+ level, and we hope this will receive attention from higher authorities.]

Following that was a long string of highly technical descriptions and data, which Larkspur could only roughly understand with his theoretical knowledge.

Back in Fangting City, Larkspur had already consulted Emerald about Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament. However, due to the limited hardware in Fangting City's temporary laboratory, Emerald was unable to provide any specific insights at that time.

This trip to the Kingdom assessment was actually an opportunity for the two of them to thoroughly evaluate Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament.

Even though she was mentally prepared, Larkspur's heart still sank when she saw Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament marked as "S+".

This is also an unprecedented rating, but anyone with discerning eyes knows what the examiner meant by giving this evaluation: Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament has exceeded the existing evaluation system in terms of value.

Among the sub-data, the development potential marked as "Gem Scepter Tier" also made Larkspur's eyelids twitch.

"... What level is the Gem Scepter Tier?" she couldn't help but ask, looking up.

"It's a purely theoretical concept that I derived from theory a long time ago when I was leading a team researching the potential of Magic Armament."

Emerald's tone remained languid, but her voice rose slightly, revealing a hint of smugness in Larkspur's tone. "At the time, my deputies and students felt that this theoretical concept was too treasonous, even an insult to the Royal Court, and advised me not to publish it. For the sake of these young people who had less courage than laboratory mice, I agreed."

"And then? Why did it appear in this assessment result?" Larkspur lowered her eyelids.

"Of course, it's because I secretly changed the standards recorded in the system afterwards."

Emerald declared confidently, "No one can stop me from leaving the correct research results in this world. If anyone does, it's because that person has proven me wrong. And now, this report fully proves the correctness of my summary of Magic Armament potential; I am right!"

"Ah, I see."

Larkspur hesitated for a moment, then simply nodded and calmly continued with what she considered the important topic, "So what is the specific significance of this rating?"

"This means that if your daughter can grow up smoothly and Blossoming, she may be able to become a magical girl on the same level as us without His Majesty bestowing upon her any power."

The Fairy Doll opened its arms. "The Magic Kingdom will welcome its sixth member, who, though not endowed with predetermined powers and authority, will still possess a 'Gem Scepter' with corresponding power."

Hearing Emerald's slightly arrogant words, Larkspur closed his eyes.

"You don't seem very happy." Emerald tilted the doll's head.

"... I'm very happy."

Larkspur took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and smiled slightly, "How could anyone be unhappy to hear others say that their child will be extraordinary in the future?"

"I'll tentatively believe your story, but you don't seem particularly surprised," the doll said, looking at the Larkspur.

"Surprised... Should I be surprised now?"

Larkspur's voice carried a hint of unspoken emotion. "But I can't deceive myself; I'm not surprised at all. I'm special as a magical girl, and Anya is special too. It would be abnormal if someone as special as us had an ordinary child."

"Yes, that's the abnormal thing."

Emerald affirmed, "We live in a world of Magic Side, and everyone knows that magical talent is inextricably linked to blood ties."

"I know what's right, what's normal, and what's destined to happen. I even thought I was already prepared."

Larkspur knelt with her knees together, rested her elbows on her thighs, bent over, and covered her mouth and nose with her interlaced hands. A hint of worry flickered across her previously calm face. "But when I actually saw the concrete results, I realized that I might still need to convince myself one more time."

"Are you very worried?"

"Yes, there's no way I can not worry."

"I always feel that the child is still so small in my eyes, as if she has only just stepped out of her swaddling clothes. Even though she is still a little princess who is afraid of melting in my mouth and breaking in my hands, at this moment, it is as if I can already see her standing in that position, facing the wind and rain?"

Emerald suddenly asked this question out of the blue.

The Larkspur was stunned. "How did you...?"

"Of course I know," Emerald, her boastful expression unchanged. "I've told you before, I know far more than you can imagine."

"You've been married?" The other person's astonishing remark dispelled her worries; at this moment, Larkspur only felt a little strange.

"No, and I'm not afraid to admit it, but I've never even held a man's hand in my entire life," Emerald said casually, but then added after a moment's thought, "Shaking hands with male colleagues or business partners doesn't count."

"How could you describe something like this in such detail?"

"Sometimes, expectations and love for the younger generation don't need to be tied down by blood ties." Emerald said with feigned profundity, "Like that child whose magic was drawn to the Aberrant Beast, you've actually come to accept her as family, haven't you? After all, the first thing you did when you walked in wasn't to ask about my own daughter's condition, but whether that little girl had given herself away."

The Larkspur remained silent.

The three juniors had already told Larkspur the order in which they would Magic Armament Assessment, so she naturally knew that Bai Jingxuan was the first of the three to be tested.

Before entering the examination room, her three biggest worries were whether Bai Jingxuan would be exposed during the assessment, whether Lin Xiaolu's Magic Armament information would be reported, and whether Xia Liang would be bullied in the upcoming battle.

Fortunately, the Emerald had already brought her two good results: Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu both passed the test smoothly. While worrying about the more distant future, Larkspur was actually much more at ease about the present situation.

"Alright, I'll give you an answer to what you're most concerned about for now. Regarding your daughter's Magic Armament, I still have some guesses, but we'll discuss those matters later."

Seeing that the Larkspur seemed to have finished processing the information, Emerald changed the subject and said:

"Next, let's talk about what I'm most concerned about—you should have already observed those Beast Child, what are your thoughts or conclusions?"

Happy National Day everyone! Have a wonderful holiday. It's been a while since I posted a 4K chapter. Thank you all for your continued support!