Although the Magic Girl Squad within The Association has “Magic Girl” in its name, in reality, Monsters can also join the combat division.
The reason why, during the initial period of the Great Chaos, Magic Creatures ran rampant instead of being blown to bits by Heat Weapons is because products of Magic Power can only be destroyed by magical means.
Conventional human Heat Weapons are almost useless against Magic Creatures, which led to society’s rapid breakdown at that time, since there were almost no Magic Girls back then.
To put it simply: only magic can defeat magic.
Monsters, like Magic Girls, can fight using Magic Power. When it comes to dealing with Magic Creatures, Monsters and Magic Girls stand on equal ground, so it’s nothing new for Monsters to join the Magic Girl Squad.
At least, Xiaoxi didn’t find this odd at all. What truly felt off was Qiuli’s past identity.
Even An Wanwan, a Bounty Hunter who had never made any serious mistakes, could only be recruited by Miss L and thrown into Su Ying’s Café for proper reform.
For a notorious Bounty Hunter like Qiuli to be directly recruited by The Association—was that really possible?
The Astrologer could tell what Xiaoxi was thinking, but she didn’t offer an answer, merely sighing helplessly.
“It’s a pity, Miss Xiaoxi, but this is all the information The Association can provide you for now. The rest, I’m afraid, you’ll have to investigate on your own.”
“The Tianqi Church has refused to let The Association continue probing into the matter. Their reason is that the incident with [Judgment Scales] occurred under The Association’s watch, and all suspects are from within The Association itself—they don’t trust our investigation’s results. Plus, with a mole in The Association, the Church also refuses to share any findings.”
Xiaoxi frowned. The reason sounded rather forced, but unfortunately, the main base of Tianqi Church was in North Blossom City—an outsider couldn’t overpower the local force.
[Judgment Scales] was also one of their own, so The Association really couldn’t go head-to-head with the Church here.
Still, Xiaoxi actually thought things would be easier this way.
Rather than asking the Astrologer to have them look into the culprit, it was more like sending them to North Blossom City so that, after meeting Qiuli and Silverflame Dragon Princess in person, they could confirm whether the two were really the culprits.
These two had a good relationship with [Judgment Scales].
The Association was merely suspicious of them for now, without any real evidence, so the presumption of innocence still held.
On top of that, the investigation in North Blossom City was restricted by the Tianqi Church.
Sending Xiaoxi and Ye Xinglan—neither of whom could possibly be The Association’s mole—to investigate secretly really was the best option.
“Let’s start with Qiuli. The Association should be able to arrange for us to come into contact with her during work, right?”
After thinking for a moment, Xiaoxi made her choice. As teammates, she trusted Silver Bell’s character, so naturally, she’d start by checking out Qiuli.
But the Astrologer just smiled, answering with something else: “By the way, Miss Xiaoxi, aren’t you from North Blossom City? Won’t you consider going home to see your family first?”
“Eh?”
“Hehe, I really don’t want to be that kind of boss who squeezes her subordinates dry. If you’ve managed to return home but are too busy with work to visit your family, it just wouldn’t feel right. So there’s really no rush. You can go home first before we start our work.”
“You’re a very important subordinate, you know. I wouldn’t want to mistreat you.”
Xiaoxi gave an awkward smile. “Ahaha… That’s not necessary. I’ll make time to visit home myself, it won’t get in the way of work, haha…”
“That’s strange,” Ye Xinglan said suspiciously, “Xiaoxi is only a C-rank Magical Girl now. The Council’s really okay with letting her handle something so important?”
“The Council mainly values your abilities, Miss Ye Xinglan,” the Astrologer replied with a smile.
“Xiaoxi is just here as your Guardian, so she has to accompany you. If not for your girlfriend status, she’d be dying to report straight to the Council herself.”
After the video call ended, Ye Xinglan’s nose was practically pointed to the ceiling in excitement. Xiaoxi just clicked her tongue and didn’t bother arguing.
“Senior Xiaoxi, looks like I outrank you now. Shouldn’t I be your boss?”
Ye Xinglan was saying this because recently Xiaoxi had been using her Guardian identity to boss her around.
Whenever she couldn’t keep the little rich girl in check, she’d say that as her Guardian, Ye Xinglan ought to listen to her.
“Oh really? But I remember you saying before that if we’re coworkers, then the boss has to do the grunt work.”
“That’s different. That’s when you’re the boss. If I’m the boss, the story should go like this… ‘Xiaoxi, you don’t want to lose this job, do you? Come to my office after work today!’”
Just then, the doorbell rang. In high spirits, Ye Xinglan hopped out of the bedroom.
“That must be the takeout I ordered. I’ll go get it!”
When she opened the door, before Ye Xinglan could grab the takeout set at the doorway, the door next door suddenly opened a crack. A small hand shot out and grabbed the food.
Through the narrow gap, Ye Xinglan could just make out a petite figure in a hoodie with the hood pulled up.
The lighting in the next room was dim, so she couldn’t see much else, but she was sure she made eye contact with the other girl for… half a second, maybe?
The hand on the takeout recoiled as if shocked, and the door shut tight.
Ye Xinglan blinked… What was that? Why did her neighbor seem a little strange? Who wears a hooded sweatshirt at home, anyway?
Just as Ye Xinglan was about to take the food and close the door, the girl next door seemed to finally gather her courage and opened the door again.
This time, the gap was even wider, but Ye Xinglan couldn’t see her eyes because the girl had her head bowed so low it was practically buried in her chest.
“S-s-sorry, I heard a noise outside and thought it was my food… Ahh! It’s just that nobody’s lived next door for so long so I…”
“A-anyway, I wasn’t trying to steal your takeout. I just didn’t want you to misunderstand. Uh, uh… Oh right, hello, please take care of me from now on…”
After rattling off this long, awkward string of words, the girl shut the door with a bang before Ye Xinglan could reply, leaving her standing stunned at the entrance.
This new neighbor… seemed a little odd? But Ye Xinglan didn’t think too much of it.
She carried the takeout back in, planning to pester Xiaoxi into playing some games with her after dinner.
—
The next day, when Xiaoxi led Ye Xinglan into the North Blossom City Magic Girl Association building, she felt a rare surge of energy.
Using the excuse that there was an investigation the next day, she sternly turned down Ye Xinglan’s invitation for a game that night.
Now both of them were members of the North Blossom City Association Magic Girl Squad.
Xiaoxi planned to try contacting Qiuli through her work first.
After all, they were conducting a covert investigation and couldn’t act too obvious.
Xiaoxi didn’t hold any preconceived notions about Qiuli just because her background was suspicious.
What was in the files couldn’t be fully trusted.
She thought that if they didn’t actually interact, nothing could really be concluded.