Xiaoxi should consider herself lucky that she could still get a decent night’s sleep, because Miss L had absolutely no chance of sleeping tonight.
Tonight, an unusually large number of people in The Association were forced to work overtime.
In order to handle the Black Rose situation, Miss L had been busy all the way until dawn.
Actually, Miss L was someone who truly hated overtime, but after joining The Association, she found herself forced into the role of a workaholic, occasionally even having to say insincere words of encouragement to her subordinates—like claiming that the 996 schedule was a blessing.
Xiaoxi knew how the rest of that sentence went. Long ago, Miss L had a private account with a personalized status that read, “996 is a blessing, but I’m just not cut out for it.”
Of course, after joining The Association, she deleted that status.
But tonight’s overtime hadn’t been so unbearable for Miss L, because she knew that once she got through tonight, she could finally enjoy a long-awaited break.
The only reason she had been running herself ragged recently was all because of Black Rose, the major villain stirring up trouble in Summersea City.
Now that the main villain had been apprehended, as long as she could drag the Blood Moon Witch out of hiding, she could finally put her mind at ease.
The Medical Division had worked through the night to examine Black Rose and had come to a truly baffling conclusion.
Black Rose’s condition was very peculiar—she wasn’t a monster, nor had she awakened as a Magic Girl.
She seemed to have only one way to utilize magic: the thorn and rose tattoos covering her body.
Those tattoos didn’t seem to be made of pure magic either, but one night wasn’t nearly enough for the Medical Division to figure out just what kind of “thing” Black Rose actually was.
As for that, Miss L thought it was best to let the big shots upstairs have the headache. She herself was no longer qualified to worry about such matters.
After Black Rose was apprehended, Miss L was surprised to receive a direct order from Headquarters, instructing her to immediately transfer Black Rose there.
Miss L wasn’t sure if one of the higher-ups had taken a personal interest in Black Rose, but one thing was clear—if the higher-ups were interested, it was best for a lowly figure like her to drop all interest immediately.
So Miss L spent the night preparing everything needed to pack Black Rose up and send her off.
Everything was going smoothly; the only hiccup was the Monitoring Division’s concern over the large number of roaming monsters outside Summersea City.
But that sort of minor issue had nothing to do with Black Rose, so Miss L didn’t pay it much mind. A few hours earlier, she had already sent out several squads of Magic Girls to clean up the monsters outside the city walls.
In the underground parking garage of The Association, Miss L personally led two squads of Magic Girls as they escorted Black Rose downstairs.
Black Rose was bound tightly, wearing The Association’s special device meant to suppress her magic circuit, though nobody could say for sure if Black Rose even had a magic circuit in her body.
“Oh my, I didn’t expect Director Lin to send me off so quickly. I thought we’d have more time to chat.”
“Sorry to disappoint you. You can chat with the folks at Headquarters. Our little branch just can’t accommodate a disaster like you.”
If all went as expected, by this time tomorrow, Black Rose would be locked up in Headquarters’ Interrogation Room.
Whatever nasty secrets or sinister plans she had could be left to the bigwigs to investigate.
Right now, Miss L couldn’t wait to ship off this walking catastrophe and go home for some much-needed sleep.
“What a shame. I thought Director Lin would personally interrogate me,” Black Rose said with a face full of regret.
Even tied up, she managed to display her figure shamelessly. “I didn’t expect you to have absolutely no interest in me. Am I really that unattractive?”
“Gag her. Don’t let her say a word until she’s at Headquarters.” Miss L’s voice was cold, as efficient as ever.
“No need to be so cold, Director Lin. I actually prepared some topics you’d find interesting… like intel on the Blood Moon Witch, for example.”
Miss L’s footsteps faltered.
“I have my own information channels in Summersea City, so I just so happen to know where the Blood Moon Witch is hiding. Aren’t you interested, Director Lin?”
Miss L sneered. “You’ll have to spit all that out when you get to Headquarters anyway. It’s not like I have to know the Blood Moon Witch’s whereabouts right now.”
“But if you wait, it might be too late. As far as I know, the Blood Moon Witch almost escaped last night, didn’t she? If you wait a couple more days, can you guarantee she’ll stay put in Summersea City?”
Black Rose winked. That look made Miss L’s blood boil—this woman really knew how to poke at her nerves. But too bad, she wasn’t about to take the bait.
Miss L was about to wave for the others to take Black Rose away, when suddenly someone from the Monitoring Division rushed over and whispered something urgently into her ear.
Miss L’s face darkened, and she instinctively glanced at Black Rose.
At first, the monsters outside the city walls had seemed like a minor problem, but the Monitoring Division had discovered that, despite a whole morning of clean-up, the magical energy outside the walls was only increasing.
The squads of Magic Girls sent out were being overwhelmed and had requested reinforcements.
Black Rose smiled innocently. “What’s wrong, Director Lin? You’re not going to blame a hostage locked up in The Association for this, are you?”
Miss L just snorted. No matter how many monsters appeared outside the city, it would never be enough to spring Black Rose.
She had clearly underestimated The Association’s defenses. But under these circumstances, escorting Black Rose out of the city wasn’t safe.
“Take her back to the Interrogation Room. Activate the city’s magical Barrier. Send more Magic Girls to assist outside.”
There were plenty of monsters outside the city. While none of them could break through Summersea City’s Barrier, if she wanted to quickly get rid of Black Rose, Miss L could only ask her Magic Girls to work even more overtime.
……
Xiaoxi was woken up by The Association’s emergency notification, so drowsy that her eyes were barely open, but she still managed to grab her phone and silence it before it could wake Ye Xinglan.
Last night, Xiaoxi and Ye Xinglan had played games until late, and then, thanks to her insomnia, she’d only slept a couple of hours before being woken up.
But after scanning the messages, Xiaoxi quickly became fully alert.
A monster outbreak outside the city? What’s wrong with this broken Summersea City? If it’s not wind, it’s rain every day!
The situation had come out of nowhere, but Xiaoxi didn’t think it was that serious.
The outskirts were sparsely populated, so there was no way any high-level monsters could have formed.
Most of them would be D-rank or C-rank fodder—no matter how many there were, they wouldn’t cause much of a stir.
Ye Xinglan was still sleeping sweetly beside her, one arm thrown over Xiaoxi.
Xiaoxi wiped off the patch of drool on her chest—Ye Xinglan’s, of course—then carefully got out of bed, dropped a secret kiss on Ye Xinglan’s cheek, and went to take a shower.
After gaming all night with Ye Xinglan, they’d crashed straight into bed, so now Xiaoxi was covered in Ye Xinglan’s scent.
She’d have to change the sheets too; last night… ahem, there was quite a bit of leakage.
Xiaoxi could only hope this would be the last hassle for a while.
She’d already decided to spend more time with Ye Xinglan—maybe then the little heiress would be more willing to open her heart?
Of course, there were many ways to spend time together… not all of them had to be in bed.
When Magic Girl Sirius arrived, the clean-up outside the city walls was already in full swing, but Xiaoxi immediately realized the situation was worse than she thought.
A massive wave of monsters was attacking Summersea City’s magical Barrier, and Xiaoxi could see even more monsters in the distance rushing toward them.
Though the monsters couldn’t break through the Barrier, these brainless creatures weren’t supposed to act with this much discipline. It was almost as if… they were being controlled by someone.
That gave Xiaoxi a bad feeling. From what she remembered, only the notorious Divine Summon Order was skilled at this kind of large-scale monster manipulation.
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