Things like that are far better than this ambiguous, stuck-in-the-middle situation.
“Hoo… I’ll find a chance later to clear things up with Shuang Xing,” Luo Shuangyue exhaled a long breath of stale air, silently thinking to herself.
What she had agreed upon with Xia Mo before was to gradually transform her identity from brother Luo Shuangyue to sister Luo Shuangyue, and now, this transformation was right at the doorstep.
All it needed was the right moment, and Luo Shuangyue would be able to reveal her secret to her younger sister, completely changing her identity.
As for when that moment would come, Luo Shuangyue didn’t know. All she could do now was wait.
But her intuition told her that moment wouldn’t be too far from now.
“Finally, it can be over….”
“Huh? Over the heavens?”
“Not over the heavens, over the Moon,” Monice shook her head, correcting Luo Shuangyue’s mistake.
She pointed her right index finger toward the sky.
It was broad daylight, so the Moon wasn’t visible yet, but that didn’t stop her from making sure Luo Shuangyue understood.
Luo Shuangyue blinked and then firmly patted her own ears.
What was going on? Just a couple of days ago, they were still on the ground, and now they were heading to the Moon?
That didn’t make sense, did it?
“The Magic Department has decided to transform the Moon into a frontline base to resist the attacks of Universe Monsters. For that, they are gathering a large number of Magical Girls to station at the lunar base and adapt to the combat environment in outer space,” Monice explained succinctly.
It sounded simple enough — the Magic Department wanted to keep the enemy outside. And in their eyes, the best fortress was the Moon.
They couldn’t invite wolves into the den by fighting on the home planet, so the battle had to be fought on the Moon, the satellite.
The cosmic battlefield was a strange place for Magical Girls. Without training, nobody could say how much power they could really bring to the fight.
So before the real battle began, the Magic Department decided to let the combat-ready Magical Girls go and actually experience the battlefield environment.
It wasn’t just the Magic Department’s own Magical Girls — even those not affiliated with the Magic Department received invitations, or rather, demands.
To sum it up in one sentence: Our home planet is on the brink of destruction. No matter what conflicts we had before, set them aside and come help us.
Those conflicts can wait until after the Monsters are dealt with!
“We in Jidong City also need to send a Magical Girl up there. I still have research to finish and can’t go, so you’ll have to go,” Monice said, patting Luo Shuangyue’s shoulder with a face that said, “I really have no other choice.”
But she also gave Luo Shuangyue some good news. Sort of.
“Your two friends are going too — Rosemary and Lily of the Valley. They’ve been selected as well.”
“Huh?”
It made sense that Xia Mo was chosen; after all, Xia Mo was a competent Initial Bloom-class Magical Girl with one of the only two weapon spirits in existence assisting her.
In the upcoming war against the Monsters, she definitely couldn’t stay on the sidelines.
What Luo Shuangyue couldn’t understand was why Luo Shuangxing was also taken.
In terms of strength, Luo Shuangxing hadn’t even broken through to Initial Bloom-class yet — she was still in training.
Besides, the Xinghai City Magic Department only had three Magical Girls total. Taking two of the strongest away would leave just Siam.
Wouldn’t that cause problems?
“Lily of the Valley? Why does she have to go? Her strength….”
“She wasn’t supposed to go, but the trainers who are training you felt that since you were going, Lily of the Valley couldn’t be left behind during special training. So they requested the Magic Department to bring Lily along as well.”
At first, the Magic Department really hadn’t planned on taking Luo Shuangxing.
They calculated that Bud-level Magical Girls’ combat power in space was basically negligible. Instead of letting these rookies go to the Moon, it was better for them to stay on the ground and do support work.
But a few veteran Magical Girls collectively petitioned the Magic Department’s higher-ups with a solid argument that was impossible to refuse.
The Magic Department didn’t mind doing this favor.
After all, Lily of the Valley was one of their Magical Girls. Someone was giving her special training to improve her strength — they were more than happy about it and wouldn’t try to stop it.
After seeing Luo Shuangxing’s various data, they even exclaimed in surprise that they hadn’t realized this gem before.
Regretful, yes, but unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret.
Still, having so many Full Bloom-class Magical Girls serving Luo Shuangxing made the Magic Department feel less uneasy.
After all, when you break it down, these Full Bloom-class girls were essentially working for free for the Magic Department, right?
“I see. What about Yi? Is she going to the Moon or staying on the ground?”
“She wants to go to the Moon herself, but her current strength is still too weak. Compared to fighting Universe Monsters hand-to-hand in space, I’d rather have her play a role on the ground,” Monice shook her head.
Although Xiao Yi had become the unique alien Magical Girl, her value didn’t lie in her being a Magical Girl.
Her real value was bringing Elf Technology to the Magic Department.
That technology came from a civilization that spanned the stars.
Even if Yi only remembered parts of it, it was enough to elevate human civilization to a new level.
“The Magic Department’s people are working around the clock to extract Elf Technology from Yi. The Moon base is already using a lot of this new technology.”
Without the existence of Magical Girls, even if humanity got this technology, they wouldn’t be able to utilize it in such a short time.
Reality isn’t a game. You don’t just get a new tech and instantly start using it.
If you haven’t laid the groundwork for prerequisite technologies, how could you possibly make use of advanced tech?
But now humans have something unreasonable — magic.
The power magic can unleash is unimaginable.
No need for prerequisite tech or theoretical foundations!
We don’t care about those now. As long as we can make things work, that’s enough!
And conveniently, one of the Full Bloom-class Magical Girls has the ability of Void Creation.
When she got Yi’s technology, she immediately started using magic to create those things one by one.
Though it can’t be mass-produced, and all of this depends on the Magical Girl’s power, having some is better than none, right?
Without the tech Yi provides, constructing the Moon Fortress alone would be a huge challenge for the Magical Girls.
“Yi’s power is peculiar. Until we fully understand what her ability actually is, neither I nor the Magic Department’s people will let her go to dangerous places.”
She could wrestle with ordinary Monsters on the ground, no problem.
But going up to space and fighting ruthless Monster armies with bayonets? That’s a no.
Yi can contribute best from the rear.
“Alright then, when do I leave?” Luo Shuangyue nodded, accepting the arrangement.
There was nothing unreasonable about it — Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing were going with her, so she wouldn’t be lonely.
“If you don’t have any other matters to deal with, wait here. Around noon, the Soul Summoner Princess will come to take you all up.”
“Eh? That soon?!”
Luo Shuangyue thought they’d leave tomorrow or the day after, but now she was told they were leaving immediately?
Wasn’t that a bit too rushed?
“This is a critical matter. There’s no time to waste. The Magic Department is as anxious as ants on a hot pan right now. We certainly can’t afford to act lax, can we?”