“Little Red Riding Hood hasn’t shown up for days. What has she been doing?”
“No idea. I tried contacting her, but she just said she’s busy with something.”
“Eh, doesn’t that mean the Welcome Party we’ve prepared will have to be postponed?”
“Little Red Riding Hood even went so far as to follow someone like a stalker for our sake. What excuse do we have not to change? We have to show our resolve!”
Right now, the magical girls of Jiuming Sea were discussing how to celebrate once Luo Zining returned.
After watching that Video File sent by Anonymous, they deeply realized their own immaturity and resolved to handle everything at the Welcome Party, once and for all!
But honestly, Xingyue’s actions these past few days had been so frequent, it still made them feel a bit uneasy.
It seemed to foreshadow that something was about to happen between Xingyue and Manjusaka again, something that would shake the magical girls.
Is it really appropriate to be holding a Welcome Party gathering at a time like this…?
***
“Ah! She’s back!”
Jellyfish suddenly shouted, staring at the horizon.
“Everyone—listen to me!”
Whoosh!
Luo Zining descended from the sky, only to find her teammates looking at her with very strange expressions.
“What are you… all doing?”
“Little Red Riding Hood, we know everything…”
Jellyfish hung her head in guilt.
“Know what? What do you know?”
“You went all the way to Huahai City for us, trailing Jinlin like some perverted peeping tom just to learn how to become a team leader, right?”
“What do you mean, perverted peeping tom!? I was learning! Learning by observing! How can you call observing to learn ‘peeping’?”
Luo Zining couldn’t hold back and roared, “How did you all find out!?”
The team members guiltily whistled.
That kind of Video File would be blackmail material on Little Red Riding Hood for a lifetime. Better not let her find out.
Wait for the crucial moment to use it for a little threat—then it would finally come in handy.
“No, that’s not the point!”
Luo Zining shook her head sharply, speaking seriously, “Did you all hear? Xingyue and Manjusaka, along with several other Ten Seats, are having a standoff outside.”
“A standoff? Where?”
“Abroad!”
“Even if we don’t know the details, the fact that they’re facing off must mean it’s serious, right?”
“Ah! I found it, there’s a video! It’s a livestream!”
“Let me see! Let me see!”
The magical girls crowded together.
The video seemed to be shot in a city of some developed country.
The top two ranked Ten Seats were releasing their magical power, facing off.
The tension was suffocating—you could feel it even through the screen.
“Eh eh eh?! Standoff… do you mean a physical standoff?!”
Jellyfish screamed.
If it was just a war of words, fine. But a physical standoff was way beyond what was allowed.
Ever since the Magical Alliance was founded, nothing like this had ever happened!
And the ones facing off were the two strongest in the entire Magical Alliance!
“What do we do, what do we do? Should we go there? Should we try to stop them?”
“What if they really start fighting?!”
“Come to think of it, how did things even get this far?!”
No one could watch that Video File without feeling completely rattled.
“About that.”
Luo Zining took out her phone and said, “Actually, as early as a week ago, there were rumors online that the ‘Number Three’ of that country had allied with Jiehai forces.”
“‘Number Three’? What’s that?”
“It means the person with the third highest authority in that country’s government, idiot!”
“Eh? Isn’t that a super big shot? Can you even arrest someone like that through normal means?”
“Exactly, that’s what I want to say.”
Luo Zining’s voice turned grim.
“I heard from Senior Feiyu that Manjusaka-sama had already informed the country’s leader about this person’s collusion with Jiehai forces days ago, but… well, you can guess how it went.”
They’re all from the same nest—how could there be anyone truly clean?
Even if only the country’s Number Three was proven to have dealings with Jiehai forces, the others couldn’t possibly be spotless.
Maybe Number Three had dirt on them, and as soon as it was exposed, they’d be out of office and in jail, so compromise was their only option.
Or maybe they were all part of the same interest group from the start.
Expecting them to deal with Number Three?
You might as well hope a meteor drops out of the sky and crushes the target—it’d be more likely.
Helpless, Manjusaka could only act personally.
“Just as I thought… Manjusaka-sama was right. If we could count on these good-for-nothings, so obsessed with factional struggles and corrupt mud, to save the world, then the tragedy four years ago never would have happened…”
Jellyfish whispered.
It was exactly because of these useless people that the Magical Alliance had no choice but to take such a risk…
“But I still feel like that’s a line we shouldn’t ever cross, no matter what.”
“Huahua… are you still going to argue about this?”
Jellyfish raised her head unwillingly.
“But isn’t it true? Before, just arresting a few business or criminal organization people caused the Magical Alliance so much trouble. Do you know what kind of level the target is this time? The responsibility and pressure can’t be shouldered by magical girls alone, that’s why Xingyue-sama was willing to go as far as a standoff to stop Manjusaka, right?”
Watching as her teammates seemed about to argue again, Luo Zining’s pupils quivered, and for a moment, time seemed to slow down around her.
She clenched her teeth, her fists tightening unconsciously.
“Quiet. All of you.”
The place fell silent in an instant.
Huahua and Jellyfish realized they’d embarrassed Little Red Riding Hood again, and their argument fizzled out.
But they still couldn’t help but ask, “Little Red Riding Hood, what do you think?”
“What do I think?”
Luo Zining’s face turned cold as she glared at Jellyfish.
This time, Luo Zining’s presence was completely different from before.
The shift was so dramatic that all the magical girls on scene held their breath.
“Ugh… I’ve had enough. Before, I tried so hard to hold back my opinions, just to take care of the big picture, the big picture, the big picture! But now I don’t care anymore—this is all on you.”
Looking around at the stunned crowd, Luo Zining’s bright eyes blazed as she shouted:
“You all say that if we could count on those people obsessed with factional struggles and corruption to save the world, the tragedy four years ago never would’ve happened. So, tell me—what are we doing right now?”
“Aren’t we doing the same factional struggles right now? Is this how we’ll save the world? Are we just as useless?”
The magical girls all turned red with shame, especially Jellyfish and Huahua, whose faces twisted in pained struggle.
It really… did seem kind of like that…?
“Then… what should we do? (quietly)”
“I don’t know!”
Luo Zining replied, hands on her hips.
“How can you sound so confident?”
“I’m just that confident—got a problem with that?”
Luo Zining shot a death glare, and the speaker instantly lowered their head, shutting up.
“I don’t know what we should do, but I’m sure anything is better than standing around arguing over factions. If you get it, then get back to your own stations! Go write out, by hand, any ideas that could help with the current situation, at least three thousand words each. I’ll compile them all. The deadline is tonight! Got it?”
“Got itーーーー!”
The magical girls scattered in all directions like they were escaping from a demon’s lair.
So scary, so scary! It was just like the terror of being dominated by a teacher who was also the homeroom teacher, the discipline master, the Chinese teacher, and the grade dean all at once.