“I’m back.”
Jiang Lingwei slipped through the window, lowered her voice, undid her transformation, and spoke.
“It’s good you’re back.”
“Yah.”
She hadn’t expected a reply, so when Jiang Cheng’s voice sounded, Jiang Lingwei jumped a little in surprise and looked over at the tatami.
“Chengzi, you’re not asleep?”
“I woke up as soon as the midnight breeze blew in.”
Jiang Cheng sat up straight. He didn’t seem to mind at all. Except for being a bit tired that day, probably from overexerting his mental energy in the illusion, he usually had little need for sleep and was just as energetic during the day even if he slept late and woke early.
“Ah, well,”
She mumbled softly, transformed again, and after a two-second transformation sequence and her entrance line, the pink-haired magical girl stuck out her fragrant tongue and tapped her own head.
“Eh-heh~(‘s’) Forgot to close the window, sorry.”
“Why are you transforming?”
Jiang Cheng, who looked like he had been awake for a while and was already fully dressed, was now eyeing the transformed Jiang Lingwei with curiosity.
“Of course, to compensate you! Come, let me give you a vitality buff.”
Walking up to Jiang Cheng, the girl (no arguments allowed) pulled out her staff and gently tapped the top of Jiang Cheng’s head.
“[Brain Platinum Technique].”
“This year, no gifts for the holidays~ The only gift is Brain Platinum~”
As the girl finished humming her weirdly melodic magical song, the staff glowed faintly, and Jiang Cheng felt his mind become much clearer.
Not only that, but in the room, only the bathroom light was on. The sky wasn’t fully bright yet, only a dim early light.
In this situation, Jiang Cheng could clearly feel that everything in his field of vision seemed sharper.
“I just used the same buff on Yaoyao. Giving you this should make sure you stay awake and healthy, too.”
Aurora put her hands on her hips, looking every bit the seasoned old Chinese medicine doctor.
“That’s amazing.”
Jiang Cheng cheerfully stood up and sat down again. “I really do feel a lot sharper, and my body’s more agile, too.”
While stretching, he suddenly asked, “By the way, did you drag Yaoyao out for special training in the middle of the night?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Plopping down onto the tatami, Jiang Lingwei crossed her legs and gave a small yawn.
Maybe because she was the caster, the pure light magic wasn’t quite as effective on herself. The buffs that worked wonders for others had a marked decrease in effect when used on her.
The Brain Platinum Technique was the same.
But well, as long as it helped a bit, she’d just rely on her willpower and bonds to get through the rest!
Look at that dung-head next door, who can fix anything else with ease, super strong, right? But his power is useless on himself, and he still gets by. At least her magic works a little on herself—that’s not bad at all.
“I just can’t rest easy. I have to improve Yaoyao’s strength, and also her friend… Maybe I’ll need to add that one who does construction work, too.”
Counting on her fingers, Jiang Lingwei sighed.
“Normally, their abilities are enough, and with you around, I can just top up your magic regularly.”
“But I don’t know if I’m just unlucky or what, there always seem to be dark trash coming to cause trouble.”
“It’s not exactly troublesome, just really annoying.”
As she spoke, she didn’t even notice that she’d leaned onto Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.
Jiang Cheng had no objections, but he caught onto a key point.
“You fought someone? Where? Where’s the enemy?”
“An abandoned school outside the city.”
Jiang Lingwei rubbed her eyes.
“Originally, I just wanted to find a random empty lot, but when I checked the Evil-Deed Map, I found a school built before the Great Dark Cataclysm.”
“I thought, wouldn’t that be more atmospheric?”
Leaning further, she soon ended up lying sideways on Jiang Cheng’s lap, pouting, “Who knew there’d be a monster squatting in that dump, probably buried for who knows how many years.”
“Some people just have bad luck—even their secret training gets interrupted.”
Jiang Lingwei didn’t care about how to classify it. As long as the thing had intelligence but didn’t look human, you could call it a magical beast, a magus, whatever—it didn’t matter.
She couldn’t help but complain:
“That thing was so ugly, just unspeakably ugly—I can’t even describe it.”
“At first I thought its ability was just to make some deceptive illusions and pretend to be a victim calling for help. I was going to have Yaoyao try fighting it for practice.”
“But then I realized it seemed to have some ability to sense people’s thoughts, and it was sentient.”
“I’m always cautious with things like that, so I just killed it outright.”
After listening, Jiang Cheng nodded.
“Yeah, you did the right thing.”
The twist was a bit abrupt. Jiang Cheng felt there was probably more to it than she was saying.
But since Jiang Lingwei didn’t mention it, he didn’t plan to ask.
“By the way, Chengzi, I read what you sent me. Looking at it again from your perspective, it’s really helpful.”
Resting her head on Jiang Cheng’s lap, her cheek nearly touching his stomach, Jiang Lingwei was surrounded by flickering lights as she exited her transformation.
“Mm~ Mm~”
Like a lazy big cat, she purred a few times, shifted a bit, squinted her eyes, and said,
“I’m not sad. By now, there’s nothing left to be sad about. I just think… my partners might still be in the Magic Dimension.”
“Once I gather all the power they left behind, maybe… we’ll meet again one day.”
“Sigh… The most promising right now is Tianpin’s Magic Armor, but I still don’t know where it is. Before I woke up Yaoyao earlier, I used [Ming] to check—it’s somewhere out in the sea.”
“[Ming] can’t give a specific location, just a general direction.”
“It’s going to be tough…”
Jiang Lingwei said tiredly, “Before that, I want to spend more time with all of you… Once I’m on the road, who knows how long it’ll take to finish the quest.”
“It’s alright. I believe you’ll definitely succeed.”
Gently stroking her fallen hair, Jiang Cheng said softly,
“We’re going down for breakfast at 7:30.”
“It’s a little past six now. You can sleep a bit more, Xiao Wei.”
“Mm.”
Murmuring, Jiang Lingwei fell deeply asleep.
She really did need a little rest.
On the other side, Jiang Yao, who had just jumped in through the window, looked toward the bed in the room.
(Uh-oh.)
The girl was a bit nervous.
(I only thought about going out with Mom… Aurora, and forgot to tell Xiao Bai.)
(If Xiao Bai wakes up at night and finds me gone, will he freak out?)
As her gaze reached the bedside and she saw the fairy snoring away with his whiskers trembling, the girl couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation.
She quietly crept over and reached out to poke Xiao Bai’s whiskers.
“Hoo… hoo…!”
The moment her finger touched his whiskers, Xiao Bai, who had been breathing evenly, snapped his eyes open and said alertly,
“Who?! Who touched my whiskers?!”
Looking up, Xiao Bai saw Jiang Yao standing there, hands on her hips, with a half-amused, half-annoyed expression.
“Ah, it’s—it’s Crystal.”
Just now, he’d been dreaming: thirty years east of the river, thirty years west, don’t bully a poor fairy. He’d found his ancestors, returned to the fairy kingdom, proved his family’s glory, basked in the admiration of all fairies, and taken his place as family head to the laughter of his ancestor twirling his white whiskers.
But just then, some Clip-Mouse popped up from who knows where and started gnawing his whiskers.
It really gave him quite a scare.
When he woke up, he looked around nervously, confirming that the dream was over and this was reality.
“Thank goodness, no mouse… Uh, Crystal, why are you looking at me like that? Did something happen?”
“Mm.”
Grabbing Xiao Bai by the scruff, Jiang Yao said,
“Xiao Bai, last night Aurora and I went out. Did you know about that?”
“Ah?”
Xiao Bai’s face was pure confusion, half-awake: “I didn’t know.”
“What did you go out to do?”
“To study.”
Jiang Yao’s lips curled into a smile. “Wanna learn some tricks that use just a little bit of magic power but do really big things?”
Xiao Bai’s eyes darted about, trying to change the subject: “You know, I can’t really use my full strength on Earth…”
But after just one second, Xiao Bai shrieked,
“I’ll learn! I’ll learn! Don’t touch my whiskers! They’re innocent!”
Clip-Mouse:
A mischievous little mouse from the Magic Dimension. It looks just like a clip with eyes, attached to a hamster’s body. Loves to eat fairies’ troublesome magic power, and plays harmless pranks on fairies wherever it goes.