After hearing Luo Shuangyue recount the entire incident from last night, Xia Mo finally set aside her suspicions about Luo Shuangyue, albeit still half-convinced.
She never expected that Shuang Xing would actually get embarrassed over something like this. It made her want to laugh out loud.
“She thinks of you as her mother? Pfft…” Xia Mo covered her mouth, letting out a soft giggle.
Honestly, in every aspect, Luo Shuangyue had nothing in common with the word “mother.” Her figure—well, rather meager; her temperament—also not the loving, boundlessly generous type.
No one knew where Luo Shuangxing managed to dig out that “motherly” feeling from.
“Stop laughing. Who knows what’s going on in that girl’s head? She probably just treats me as a substitute.”
Right now, Luo Shuangxing’s only female immediate family was Luo Shuangyue. If she wanted to look for a mother, wouldn’t she have to turn to her elder sister, Luo Shuangyue?
As for how much of a “mother’s shadow” Luo Shuangyue actually had, that wasn’t important at all.
The two were still discussing matters about Luo Shuangxing when a senior Full Bloom-Class Magical Girl they both knew well appeared at the doorway, gently knocking on the doorframe and interrupting their conversation. The Soul Summoner Princess stood at the door with a smile, casting an ambiguous yet appreciative gaze toward the two girls in the room.
She was, of course, well aware of the closeness between Xia Mo and Luo Shuangyue, and in her eyes, these two girls were a perfect match.
They were young, so it was only natural to pursue their own feelings. The Soul Summoner Princess genuinely hoped they could make it all the way together.
But that wasn’t why she came today—she wasn’t here just to watch a love story unfold. She was looking for Luo Shuangyue, to inform her about the latest itinerary.
“Headquarters has something for you. Seems they want you to assist with something.”
“Huh? Me?” Luo Shuangyue was taken aback.
She’d been fighting monsters in space just fine—why did she have to go back down to work on the ground?
Besides, the situation up there wasn’t easy. If she left—
“Don’t worry. The Magic Department is already transferring the Initial Bloom-class from the ground up here, and they’re trying to build some large-scale combat weapons. Things will still run smoothly without you.”
The Soul Summoner Princess saw the worry in Luo Shuangyue’s eyes and couldn’t help but chuckle.
This child had a strong sense of responsibility, which was good, but she seemed to overestimate her own importance and gave herself too much pressure.
It wasn’t as if the lunar base would grind to a halt without Luo Shuangyue. As an Initial Bloom-Class Magical Girl returning to the ground to help out, things on the moon wouldn’t fall into chaos.
There were still a dozen or so Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls holding things down here. All she had to do was follow orders.
“That’s true, but why me, specifically?” Luo Shuangyue scratched her head.
“Who knows? Maybe Monice recommended you.”
The Soul Summoner Princess shrugged. She was just the messenger—she didn’t know much else. “She’s been busy to death lately. When you get down there, make sure not to get on her bad side.”
Of course, that was out of the question. Luo Shuangyue was a proper worker and had worked with Monice for a while already.
How could she possibly upset Monice?
She still couldn’t figure out why Monice wanted someone fighting in space to come down, but since the Magic Department had already approved it, Luo Shuangyue could only comply.
So, half an hour later, Luo Shuangyue set out alone on the journey back to the Mother Star.
For other Initial Bloom-Class Magical Girls, this was a great distance—at first, they’d need escort from Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls, and even now, they needed to travel in groups to make the trip.
But for Luo Shuangyue, this distance wasn’t too hard to cross.
Although her teleportation was directly disabled as she neared the Mother Star, her speed was still much faster than that of ordinary Magical Girls.
It didn’t take long for Luo Shuangyue to arrive above the Mother Star and see the majestic barrier encasing the entire planet.
“Amazing… This is the power of Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls?” Staring at the barrier like a city wall, Luo Shuangyue couldn’t help but sigh softly.
She’d heard Crimson Core mention this barrier before—built in a short time by several Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls from the Magic Department, a true Miracle Wall.
With it in place, King-class Magic Beasts and below couldn’t do any real harm to the Mother Star. Only Royal-Class Magic Beasts could break this barrier and threaten those protected inside.
But this barrier wasn’t very intelligent—it couldn’t distinguish between friend or foe. Meaning, those inside couldn’t get out, and those outside couldn’t get in.
Only at certain specific Barrier Nodes could a few manmade gates be opened for passage.
“You’re Dark Moth?” The guard at the node was a Full Bloom-Class accompanied by four Initial Bloom-Class Magical Girls. The Full Bloom-Class stood outside the barrier, looked at Luo Shuangyue, and called her by name.
“We need to check your identity. That’s alright, right?” she asked.
It was really a formality—after all, only Magical Girls could fly around freely in space now, and all of them were comrades in arms.
But rules were rules—who could guarantee a Royal-Class Magic Beast wouldn’t try to disguise itself as a Magical Girl and sneak inside for sabotage?
“No problem.” Luo Shuangyue nodded.
The senior spread her hands, and a pale blue magical radiance swept Luo Shuangyue from head to toe. The strong sense of being scrutinized forced Luo Shuangyue’s protective magic to stir restlessly.
Seeing Luo Shuangyue nearly turn into a black spiky ball, the senior gave a mischievous laugh, “How cute.”
As she spoke, she waved to the four Initial Bloom-Class Magical Girls behind her.
All four pressed their hands to the barrier, and as magical energy rippled, a small gap was opened.
“Hurry and go in. Keeping this channel open takes a fair bit of effort from them.” After the passage formed, the senior smiled at Luo Shuangyue.
“Alright.” Wearing a bitter expression, Luo Shuangyue quickly passed through.
As soon as she was inside, the four Magical Girls maintaining the channel immediately let go, their faces hollow as if a few more seconds would’ve wrung them dry.
This piqued Luo Shuangyue’s curiosity, so she asked directly, “Does it really take that much effort to keep the channel open?”
“You bet. How do you think we managed to open it?” The youngest-looking Magical Girl of the four, hugging a lollipop-like weapon to her chest, said with a mournful look, “When designing the barrier, the seniors didn’t plan to add more gates.”
“The current channels are actually just us breaking open the weakest spots in the barrier and using magic to stop it from repairing itself.”
“That’s such a simple and crude method?!”
Yes, it really was that simple and crude. As everyone knows, the more complicated something is, the more likely it is to have problems. The Magic Department wanted to make a powerful, smart barrier, but time just wasn’t on their side.
Chasing after all those fancy features would have compromised the barrier’s overall strength—a classic case of losing the watermelon while picking up sesame seeds.
Now, with only defense and self-repair as functions, the chance of something going wrong was nearly zero.
Opening doors for their own people just took a bit more effort, but that was a minor problem. There weren’t many who needed to cross the barrier anyway.
Each day, a Full Bloom-Class would escort Shuang Xing in and out, and occasionally a Magical Girl would rotate in from space. The girls guarding the barrier had a pretty easy job.
It was certainly better than having to fight monsters all over space, right?
After a bit of small talk, Luo Shuangyue bid the Magical Girls farewell and headed directly toward the Magic Department Headquarters.
Having gotten used to high-speed travel in space, returning to the Mother Star’s surface, Luo Shuangyue actually felt a bit uncomfortable.
I’m flying so slow, it’s like crawling like a turtle—so thought Luo Shuangyue.
The drag on the surface was much greater than in space.
After a good while, Luo Shuangyue finally reached the sky above the Magic Department Headquarters. After her identity was confirmed by a drone, she was guided to a place resembling a military airbase.
The Magic Department Headquarters sounded like a government office, but it was much more than that.
Rather than a department, the Headquarters was more like a city—a small city in scale, but with terrifying power.
That was what set the Magic Department apart from other world-level government bodies.
For example, the so-called Parliament Organization, nominally leading all of humanity, was really just a showpiece. It didn’t have the power to interfere with the cities beneath it and could only play coordinator.
Its own headquarters sat within a large city and couldn’t even claim absolute impartiality, nor win the total trust of every city.
The other departments supposedly on a global level were similar—like idols on pedestals, only able to give grand speeches, with no real say over their cities’ actions.
But there was one exception.
The Magic Department.
This organization truly held real power—it could genuinely influence the decisions and actions of other cities, and every city’s own Magic Department answered to the orders of Headquarters.
Naturally, this made some scheming conspirators unhappy, so they spread rumors that the Magic Department was actually the ruler of the entire world.
The Magic Department never bothered to trouble these conspirators. After all, they weren’t entirely wrong.
For example, as soon as the Mother Star was threatened, the Magic Department mobilized all available resources, building planetary defenses on an unprecedented scale.
The resources consumed were astronomical—under normal circumstances, the cities could bicker for years and still reach no decision.
But when the Magic Department took action, every city cooperated obediently, without a single complaint.
In these times, the Magic Department was no pushover. Like a war chariot, if anyone dared block their way, they’d crush every obstacle without hesitation.
Magical Girls were kind-hearted—most just wanted to set things right.
But the leaders of the Magic Department weren’t necessarily so kind.
To unite humanity’s strength, for the survival of the whole race, they acted without scruples.
Quite a few politicians had quietly disappeared in recent days.
“Are you Miss Dark Moth? I’m your guide to Headquarters.” A cool girl in a dark uniform walked up to Luo Shuangyue and saluted stiffly.
Luo Shuangyue sensed an unstable magic from her, very different from that of Magical Girls—more akin to a cyborg.
As for strength, Luo Shuangyue thought this girl could probably hold her own against a Soldier-class Monster.
She didn’t mean to belittle her—after all, even a Soldier-class Monster was an extraordinary being beyond the reach of ordinary people. And now, one cyborg girl could single-handedly take down such a beast—an undeniable leap forward.
“Yeah. Are you a cyborg?” Luo Shuangyue nodded.
The question made the girl’s face stiffen, then she blushed slightly and nodded. “Yes, I completed my transformation three days ago.”
She led Luo Shuangyue to the side, where a jetpack-like object rested.
The girl secured the pack on her back, then pressed a few buttons on her arm.
A pair of plastic-looking black wings extended from the pack, their four thrusters glowing with a ghostly blue light as she slowly lifted into the air.
“Magic Equipment?” Luo Shuangyue immediately recognized the jetpack.
“Yes. It’s the latest equipment developed and produced by Headquarters, along with Magic Bullets and Magic Weapons—made for warriors like us who’ve completed our transformation.” The girl nodded.
She fumbled a bit as she operated the pack, letting it carry her forward through the air.
Luo Shuangyue just tapped her toe and floated up to fly alongside her, eyeing the girl’s pack with curiosity.
The magic output was low, so even someone at the girl’s level could use it for several hours at a stretch.
But it was pretty slow—maybe forty or fifty kilometers an hour, which to Luo Shuangyue was like a snail’s crawl.
Still, for those who’d only been ordinary people before, using such equipment boosted their combat power many times over.
Before, all they could do was run on the ground, using weapons that barely scratched monsters. [
But now, they could fly, and wield weapons that could actually hurt monsters. Where it once took an entire squad to deal with a Soldier-class Monster, a single cyborg soldier could now take one down solo.
The progress was immense—so great that these cyborgs had chosen to forget certain important things.
“What’s your name, miss?” “Bo Qing.”
“Oh, sounds kind of boyish! Actually fits your vibe, big sis.” Luo Shuangyue muttered softly, and saw the cyborg girl beside her flush even deeper with embarrassment.
Er, did I say something wrong?