When Luo Shuangyue and Luo Shuangxing—both transformed—met Xia Mo in front of the Magic Department in Xinghai City, all three wore expressions tinged with awkwardness.
Are we really about to go to space?
The same thought shone in everyone’s eyes.
The news had come so suddenly that it was hard to prepare oneself.
“Have you explained everything to your family and friends? If you can’t find a good excuse, just tell the Magic Department—they should be able to help you handle it,” the Soul Summoner Princess reminded from the side.
The three exchanged glances and then nodded simultaneously, “We’ve explained it.”
In truth, none of them had actually messaged each other, let alone explained anything.
Explain what? No need to explain. Let’s just say we’re going out together these days.
“This time, you’ll be up there for over a month.
And because the Lunar Base is still under construction, we can’t arrange individual rooms for you.
You’ll have to share rooms in pairs—is that okay?” the Soul Summoner Princess asked again.
Sharing rooms?
Luo Shuangyue exchanged a look with Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing. Although there was a slight hesitation, it was not impossible to overcome.
“It won’t be like the apartment buildings you live in now; it’ll be more like a smaller dormitory,” she added, gesturing roughly to indicate the room size.
It was about the size of a regular school dormitory, so two people sharing wouldn’t feel cramped.
“I don’t mind,” Luo Shuangyue spoke first.
Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing also expressed no objections after hearing Luo Shuangyue.
Or rather, they were all quite looking forward to living under the same roof as Luo Shuangyue.
For Xia Mo, it was obvious—being closer to Luo Shuangyue made her happier.
Plus, once in the sky, Luo Shuangyue would be Dark Moth, acting only under that identity.
That meant that the Luo Shuangyue up there was every bit the sweet and charming young girl, far better than the one on the ground.
As for Luo Shuangxing, she thought the same. Living in a dormitory wasn’t hard to accept; she understood the saying, “The mountain isn’t high, but it becomes sacred if an immortal dwells there.”
As long as her elder sister was there, she didn’t care at all.
Besides, the Magic Department wouldn’t be so poor as to provide dorms so drafty and unlivable.
The basic comfort would surely be guaranteed.
“That’s good. Grab my hand; I’ll take you up through the water,” the Soul Summoner Princess nodded with satisfaction.
Before the Demon Disaster, it was difficult for humans to travel to the nearest star from their mother star.
After the disaster, much technology was lost in the chaos, and now humans themselves didn’t have the ability to leave the ground.
But Magical Girls did.
They didn’t need those massive rockets or sophisticated life-support systems anymore to journey into the cold, silent stars.
Initial Bloom-class Magical Girls might find this long journey difficult on their own, but with the help of Full Bloom-class Magical Girls, traveling through the starry sky was no harder than going to the next city over.
As their altitude gradually increased, Luo Shuangyue saw the earth below becoming a vast sphere of blues, greens, and blacks.
The black areas were the regions most severely affected by the Demon Disaster, still unfit for human habitation.
Only the Monster Sweeper Squads of Magical Girls regularly went there to clear newly emerging Demons.
The mother star grew smaller beneath them, and Luo Shuangyue felt her magic consumption steadily increase.
The current environment couldn’t sustain normal life functions, so her magic began to maintain her Magical Girl state by consuming her own energy.
“We’ve truly entered the starry sky now. Hold tight; I’m accelerating!” the Soul Summoner Princess warned, then increased her flying speed dramatically.
Full Bloom-class Magical Girls faced many restrictions on the ground—speed being one of them. But in the near-frictionless vacuum of space, their top speed could be nearly a hundred times faster than on earth.
From afar, one could see a purple meteor streaking rapidly toward the moon, but from Luo Shuangyue’s perspective, it didn’t seem very fast.
The vastness of space and the lack of reference points blurred her sense of speed.
At first acceleration, she felt the speed was incredible, but as it stabilized, she noticed her magic consumption dropping very low.
In near-zero resistance space, high-speed flight didn’t require much magic energy.
If they wanted, they could even brush against the laws once thought untouchable by scientists.
Soon, the moon loomed larger.
They saw many large machines working on the lunar surface, operated by Magical Girls, rapidly constructing all sorts of structures.
At the center of these machines stood a simple silver-gray building, metallic and cylindrical, with no decorative embellishments.
Only three large characters were written on its exterior: Magic Department.
Straightforward indeed, Luo Shuangyue thought silently.
“Prepare to decelerate. This time, try it yourselves,” the Soul Summoner Princess’s voice came from the side.
She’d handled acceleration with the three juniors, but deceleration was up to the girls to manage.
In the combat environment of space, this skill was indispensable.
Luo Shuangyue summoned her butterfly wings with magic, intending to use them to slow down.
But the effect was mediocre at best, far from what she had expected.
Xia Mo’s method was much better; she used four large cannons as braking engines.
Although her deceleration was slow, she was certain to slow down before reaching the base.
Seeing Xia Mo’s approach, Luo Shuangyue felt a pang of envy—she couldn’t use that trick.
She needed to think of another way to slow down…
The butterfly wings originally relied on air resistance on the mother star to accelerate or decelerate, but space was near vacuum—how could she slow down as on the mother star?
Hmm… As she thought, an audacious idea formed.
Her butterfly wings didn’t necessarily have to rely on air resistance; there must be something in space her wings could touch to reduce her speed.
What should she choose?
Something omnipresent in space…
A spark of inspiration struck Luo Shuangyue.
Her butterfly wings became somewhat translucent, and sure enough, her speed gradually slowed down.
“Success!”
What existed in the starry sky that Magical Girls could sense and touch?
Luo Shuangyue’s answer was magic.
The power of magic permeated space.
Relying on it, she could easily perform actions similar to those on the ground.
She could even adjust her wings’ sensitivity to magic to gain stronger maneuverability.
Hey, why hadn’t I thought of this before? Luo Shuangyue muttered quietly.
Regardless, she had perfectly achieved her goal and successfully slowed down.
“So you used this method? Not bad.”
The Soul Summoner Princess naturally understood how Luo Shuangyue slowed down.
For Luo Shuangyue to come up with using magic to decelerate without guidance was impressive—she truly was the one the princess had chosen.
The two Initial Bloom-class Magical Girls managed to slow down, but the last member of the trio was less fortunate.
“I can’t stop!” Luo Shuangxing exclaimed.
She tried to slow down using cannons like Xia Mo, but her output was nowhere near Xia Mo’s level.
At her current deceleration rate, she might crash into the moon before slowing enough.
And Luo Shuangyue’s method? Luo Shuangxing couldn’t use it.
Though she could feel the omnipresent magic ocean nearby, she couldn’t manipulate it.
They seemed like parallel lines—Luo Shuangxing could see it but couldn’t influence herself through it.
In the end, the Soul Summoner Princess grabbed Luo Shuangxing and helped her slow down.
Still, the princess didn’t scold Luo Shuangxing.
After all, she was just a Bud-level newcomer, and couldn’t be expected to match the combat experience of seasoned Initial Bloomers like Xia Mo and Luo Shuangyue.
From the start, she never expected Luo Shuangxing to stop on her own.
As the four approached the Magic Department building, several spherical objects flew over, circling them twice.
Then, the indicator lights on the spheres switched from yellow to green.
Probably identity verification? Luo Shuangyue thought.
“These are the Magic Department’s latest inventions—supposedly long-endurance flying devices. I have no idea where they got such good stuff,” the Soul Summoner Princess introduced the spheres.
To counter powerful enemies, the Magic Department pulled out all the stops.
Anything with safety concerns was placed where it wouldn’t matter, and anything safe was deployed regardless of resource consumption.
Even the princess didn’t know how long these spheres had been developed.
Landing before the towering cylindrical building, the four passed through three sets of gates and finally entered inside.
The building was quiet, empty of people, but filled with all sorts of robots.
Still, the environment inside was much better than outside—comfortable temperature and breathable air.
Here, Magical Girls didn’t need to expend magic to sustain their lives.
In the lobby on the first floor, there was only one living person—a black-haired girl sitting at the front desk, her face bored.
“You’re from Xinghai City, right? Here, take these three room cards. Keep them safe, and if you lose them, come to me for replacements.”
The girl glanced at the four and casually handed a box labeled “Xinghai City” to Xia Mo.
“All daily necessities are already in the rooms. If you need anything else, let us know, but excessive demands might not be met.”
It was a special period, after all; they couldn’t satisfy all the Magical Girls’ requests.
“Okay, got it,” Xia Mo accepted the box and politely thanked the black-haired girl.
A girl who could sit at this front desk now must have a notable background—most likely a highly experienced senior.
And the conversation between the Soul Summoner Princess and the black-haired girl soon confirmed Xia Mo’s guess.
“You’re so lazy; it’ll set a bad example for the juniors.”
“I’m like this; everyone knows. Besides, isn’t it because no other place wants me?”
“When those guys arrive, you’ll have plenty to do.” The Soul Summoner Princess chuckled, then introduced the senior to the three girls behind her: “Singularity, the Magic Department’s ace.”
Hearing the name, Luo Shuangyue’s expression changed to one of awe. This truly was a great senior!
If Long Wen ranked among the top five fighters in the Magic Department, then Singularity was even stronger in pure combat power—indeed, she was the pinnacle of destructive force in the department.
But with such overwhelming power came a price: she only had destructive capability and lacked any other utility.
As a result, she often found herself without tasks. The Magic Department only sent her when an Emperor-level Demon appeared.
And if the situation was under control, she couldn’t intervene, because her destruction might be worse than the Demons themselves.
Now, every Full Bloom-class Magical Girl had their own duties, so the least demanding front desk job naturally fell to this powerhouse.
Just standing in the lobby handing out supplies to arriving Magical Girls—how could anything go wrong?
The boxes were all clearly labeled; it was hard to mess this up, right?
Well, maybe.
“Senior! You gave me the wrong room card!” A clear, youthful voice rang from above Luo Shuangyue and the others.
Instinctively, Luo Shuangyue looked up to see a lively red-haired girl jumping down from the upper floor.
Boom! The girl landed steadily and held up the card, protesting to Singularity.
Indeed, there were no stairs or elevators in the building; since all residents were Magical Girls, they simply flew wherever they needed to go.
All those extra designs? Completely unnecessary!
“Wrong card? Let me see.” Singularity blinked in surprise, took the card, scrutinized it carefully, and said confusedly, “Aren’t you Crimson Core?”
“Of course not! I’m Scarlet Moon! Crimson Core is my sister. She’s not in my room!” The red-haired girl shook her head vigorously.
“Ah, then I was mistaken.” Singularity showed no shame for the error; she simply pocketed the wrong card and bent down to rummage through a pile of boxes for Scarlet Moon’s.
While she searched, the red-haired girl caught Luo Shuangyue and the others’ eyes.
“Hello! I’m Scarlet Moon from the Magic Department!” she greeted them warmly.