At Jiang Yuan's urging, Lin Xiaolu half-reluctantly agreed to go to the concert. She had no intention of accepting an invitation from some unfamiliar boy, but she had no reason to refuse an invitation from a friend.
She waited in a daze until school was over. When the teacher at the podium announced, "Class dismissed," Lin Xiaolu, who had spent the whole day half-asleep, stretched lazily and looked out at the dim yellow sky, gradually regaining some clarity.
After saying goodbye to Jiang Yuan in the seat ahead of her, she left the school gates alone. Following Larkspur's instructions, she found a secluded corner and transformed into a magical girl.
Next came the patrol time she had grown accustomed to over these past days.
Although Aberrant Beast activity in Fangting City had dropped drastically over the last two months, making things peaceful and comfortable compared to before the Full Moon Festival, the necessary procedures still could not be skipped. At the very least, this task could not be omitted. Lin Xiaolu moved leisurely between the city's buildings, looking down at the streets below while using Mana Perception to scan the surroundings, lest she miss any trace.
She could have patrolled while flying—but first, her sensory ability was not yet strong enough for that, and it would be easy to lose clues while moving at high speed. Second, her mana control was far from refined. Although flying no longer wasted mana the way it had when she was a beginner, it was still difficult for her to limit her own speed.
For those reasons, Lin Xiaolu ultimately chose a compromise: jumping between tall buildings while checking the mana fluctuations in this district.
Most of the time, such inspections yielded nothing. Today, however, seemed different. As Lin Xiaolu passed an intersection notorious