Hong Siyu's Guess

It was another morning. Lin Yun sat in his office, staring blankly at the computer screen.

A week had already passed since he had stayed overnight at Xia Liang's house. Xia Liang had clearly become more motivated in both training and schoolwork. After that, the two new magical girls welcomed their summer vacation, while Lin Yun continued his grueling working life.

Of course, calling it grueling was mainly because he put too much pressure on himself.

Working alone would have been manageable, but he also needed to review middle school material to tutor Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang. Beyond that, there was another important duty: he had to hunt Aberrant Beasts.

Perhaps because summer had arrived, Aberrant Beasts had become as numerous as mosquitoes. Ones that had previously appeared only once every ten days or half a month could now be encountered every few days.

A few days ago, there had even been attacks in two different locations at the same time.

Fortunately, Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang could now barely be considered capable fighters. Even stronger Eggs were no longer a problem for them. In the end, they had split up with Larkspur and dealt with the Aberrant Beasts in both locations at once.

And no matter how clearly Lin Yun understood his own capabilities, he had to admit that Fangting City's Magical Girl Squad truly lacked people.

They lacked people for combat, people for teaching and training, and even people for intelligence gathering.

He and Hong Siyu had found quite a few clues while reviewing Fangting City's Aberrant Beast records from the past several years. They could almost certainly conclude that other hidden Aberrant Beasts existed. But due to the lack of information, they had no idea whether any of them had reached the Pupa Stage.

Given the circumstances, along with the considerable gains from hunting Aberrant Beasts lately and the Echoes he had obtained, a thought inevitably surfaced in Lin Yun's mind: What if I gave up on living in seclusion altogether and simply quit my job?

The Echoes magical girls obtained by driving away Aberrant Beasts could, in fact, be used to acquire wealth.

They could not be directly exchanged for money in the Material Realm, but whether it was obtaining currency from the Kingdom or trading for gold, silver, and jewels, there were countless ways to turn contributions into money.

If they did not mind being arrested by the Investigation Institute after being exposed, magical girls could even exchange contributions for supplies or weapons and sell them to Kingdom civilians or lower-ranked Mages in the Material Realm. That was an even more guaranteed source of profit.

Of course, few people were willing to use their identities and powers as magical girls to obtain such illicit wealth. That was why weapons and supplies from the Magic Kingdom still sold at high prices among Mages in the Material Realm.

With his status as a lifelong magical girl, Lin Yun could completely abandon his current job and make hunting Aberrant Beasts his primary source of income, if he wished. In fact, while Anya had been alive, she had always called herself a freelancer, and this "freelance work" had been being a magical girl. She had even joked with Lin Yun about whether he wanted her to support the entire family.

Now, a lifestyle similar to Anya's lay before Lin Yun: earn rewards by hunting Aberrant Beasts. He would only need to use a small portion of the Echoes to support the household, while all the rest could be used to improve the squad's strength.

Though that life sounded entirely feasible, Lin Yun still hesitated.

There was no other reason. He simply did not want to.

When he chose to stop being a magical girl at seventeen, return to an ordinary life, focus on the college entrance exams, and seek employment, it had never been a decision based on profit.

He did not want to be a magical girl. He did not even want to have anything to do with the Magic Kingdom anymore. Even now, he refused to contact the Kingdom personally. There were many more complicated reasons behind that.

As he thought of this, a memory suddenly flashed through his mind: a scene in a small hospital room, where the man on the bed had smiled and said something to him.

"...Dad, was the choice I made back then really the right one?"

Leaning back in his chair, he could not help murmuring to himself.

Yet that question was destined to have no answer. The person who could have answered him had long since left this world, buried by time in a corner of his memories, no longer able to speak with him.

Immersed in his thoughts, still troubled over what choice to make next, he suddenly heard the phone in his pocket ring.

He took out his phone and saw Hong Siyu's name on the screen.

He looked at the screen, paused briefly, then answered the call. "Hello?"

"Senior, are you there?" Hong Siyu's voice came from the other end of the line.

"Mm." His reply was low.

"Have you recruited any newcomers lately?" The voice on the other end sounded rather flippant.

Lin Yun looked at the computer screen and said indifferently, "If it's nothing important, can I hang up?"

"It wouldn't hurt to tell me. There still isn't any codename 'Little Brocade' in the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau's records. Doesn't that prove how trustworthy I am?" Hong Siyu sounded somewhat dissatisfied.

"No means no. I was just worrying about the lack of manpower."

That statement was only half true.

In Lin Yun's view, while Fangting City's magical girls genuinely lacked manpower, they were not suited to recruiting more people in the short term.

In the long run, recruiting was necessary. Fangting City had to rebuild its younger generation's Magic Side defenses eventually, and he could not carry everything alone forever. But in the short term, recruiting new magical girls might create gaps in his protection.

The most reasonable plan was to wait until Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang had Blossomed to Bud Rank before considering new teammates.

"Ehh—"

Hong Siyu dragged out the sound. She clearly did not believe him, but she did not press the matter further. "Then, I have some news. Do you want to hear it?"

"Go on." Lin Yun was concise.

"Alright. It's about the assistance we discussed before. The Investigation Institute was unwilling to send anyone, so I contacted several Anomaly Countermeasures Bureaus in Central City. The replies they received from their local Seeders were more or less the same: they all said they could not spare anyone."

There was an indescribable emotion in Hong Siyu's voice. "But the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureaus in York City and Jinglan City got... rather interesting answers from their Seeders."

"What answers?" Lin Yun frowned slightly.

Hong Siyu asked rather abruptly, "Senior, didn't you ask me before whether I was hiding something from you?"

"Yes, I did."

"Then it just so happens that it's my turn to ask you that question now."

Hong Siyu's tone changed from flippant to steady. "Back then, did you perhaps have something you never told us?"

Lin Yun's expression tightened slightly, but his voice remained utterly even. "I don't know what you're trying to say."

"Because I got some answers from them that may be different from what we imagined before."

After a brief pause, Hong Siyu continued, "Do you want me to read them out?"

"...Go ahead." Lin Yun sounded somewhat helpless.

Because he had already roughly guessed what Hong Siyu meant by "different answers."

The sound of fingernails tapping against a screen came from the other end of the phone, as though Hong Siyu were doing something on her phone. Before long, her voice came again.

"The Seeder of New York City, 'Pikali,' said exactly this: 'The next twentieth year is almost here. I refuse to wade into that mess.'"

"The Seeder of Jinglan City, 'Little Youyou,' said: 'You mean Fangting City? Fangting City where that one is? Maybe we should forget it? I wouldn't dare go anyway.'"

"And even when people tried asking further, they acted extremely evasive."

After saying that, seeing that Lin Yun remained silent, Hong Siyu also fell quiet for a time.

After a while, her hesitant voice sounded again. "Senior, this 'next twentieth year' should mean next year. And what they were talking about was... or at least, their reason was different from the Investigation Institute's, right?"

Lin Yun closed his eyes.

Just as he had always insisted before Moko that his codename was "Larkspur," that was indeed the name he used now. But it was also because this was Fangting City, and he feared Moko might react to his former codename.

Seeders—or rather, Fairies—were different from magical girls. At least in certain matters, they always knew more than magical girls did.

"Ha, of course, even if you don't say it, I can guess. Though I can't be sure."

Since Lin Yun remained silent, Hong Siyu continued as though speaking to herself. "I wasn't a magical girl then, but Shengzi told me that after the Garden defense battle nearly twenty years ago, you were summoned to Rose Palace..."

"That's enough, Hong Siyu."

Interrupting her, Lin Yun opened his eyes. His expression was somewhat blank, even cold and hard. "There's no need to continue. You've already guessed correctly."

"As expected?"

"Mm. At least part of what you thought was right."

"That truly was an unimaginable feat."

There was a hint of awe in Hong Siyu's voice. "I see. No second magical girl would dare do something like that, right?"

"Who knows?" Clearly unwilling to continue the topic, Lin Yun gave no definite response.

"So that means we really won't have reinforcements, right?"

"Mm. We won't."

"If that's the case..."

Perhaps sensing the stiffness in the atmosphere, Hong Siyu voluntarily changed the subject. "Senior, you mentioned before that you were giving the newcomers special training for next year's certification test?"

"Yes." Hearing her bring this up, Lin Yun recovered some of his spirit.

"Then, if you still can't spare the time in the short term, do you want to try another solution?"

Hong Siyu asked somewhat nervously, "For example, how about letting me come take a look?"