Chapter 132: Emerald

"What are you trying to express with 'Hello there'? If I recall correctly, this should be my office."

Casually pulling the door shut behind her, Lin Yun frowned at the fairy doll behind the desk: "Breaking into someone else's territory without permission—shouldn't you first prove to me that you have no hostile intent?"

"Don't be impulsive, young one. You have no need to waste your remaining magic on this pathetic puppet body. We share many points of convergence in our interests; we can very well sit down and have a proper talk."

The expression on the fairy doll's face was incredibly vivid. Combined with that unhurried tone and lazy demeanor, it gave off a subtle sense of relaxation: "Although it is a bit sudden to say this now, I have come here with good intentions."

"Good intentions?"

Lin Yun did not loosen his grip on the Heart Gem because of the other party's words: "I feel that the prerequisite for good intentions is mutual openness and honesty, not hiding one's head and showing one's tail, skulking behind a doll."

He could be certain that the puppet doll before him was not the other party's true form. Although he was speaking to the doll, the one truly communicating with him was someone else.

"I completely agree with your point of view. However, before you continue to show me hostility, can we explore another possibility: that you actually know me?"

The doll leaned lazily against the office chair: "We have met, young one. And I believe you have no reason to forget my identity."

When she said this, she deliberately drew out the term "young one," clearly wanting to emphasize that this word was an important piece of information for determining her identity. This undoubtedly also reminded Lin Yun, allowing him to quickly lock onto his target after a brief moment of thought; after all, in his memory, not many people would use such a form of address for him.

Combined with the physical characteristics of the doll before him and its behavioral performance, the identity of the person hiding behind the doll became self-evident:

"... Your Excellency, Chief? Why are you here?"

The so-called "Chief" was the title for the position of Emerald, one of the magic nation's Gem Scepters, who held the Green Emerald Scepter and was in charge of the Research Institute.

In the magic nation, there was once an old saying that, when translated into the language of the Donghua Continent, could be put this way: Better to be a research dog for ten generations than an investigator for a single day.

To put this saying more clearly, its meaning was: A magical girl would rather do hard labor as a drudge in the Research Institute until retirement than work a single day at the Investigation Bureau.

The origin of this old saying could no longer be verified. No one knew who the original author was, or if they had already been secretly captured by that Investigation Bureau Director who never showed her emotions. But the fact that it could eventually be passed down and even spread was enough to show that this was the consensus of a significant portion of magical girls.

Among the five major power organs of the magic nation, if one were to ask which held the most power, most magical girls would hesitate between the Finance Bureau and the Investigation Bureau. But if one were to ask which offered the best treatment and the most comfortable and peaceful work, everyone would choose the Research Institute.

One must know that in terms of leisure and slacking off, there was still a power vacuum like the Magic Affairs Bureau among the five bureaus. The magical girls working in the Magic Affairs Bureau were each more leisurely than the last, and every day one could see groups of two or three girls holding teapots, thermoses, and desserts, gathered together for tea parties. Those who didn't know better might think this was some noble lady's back garden, rather than an important power organ of the nation.

Being able to compete directly with such a Magic Affairs Bureau and ultimately emerge victorious to take the throne of "most comfortable work"—everything was related to the Director of the Research Institute, Emerald.

Emerald, Director of the Research Institute and Chief Researcher, Chief Consultant of the Wang Ting Research Institute, Lead Designer of the Garden Project; her old code name could no longer be verified. Like the Director of the Investigation Bureau, who could be called a living antique, no one knew when Emerald had started being the Green Emerald Scepter. Some magical girls gossiped behind their backs about the ages of these two, putting them together and calling them the "Yellow and Green Elders."

Unlike the always low-key and introverted Golden Green Cat's Eye, Emerald's image in the magic nation was much clearer, and her popularity was much higher. This was simply because she liked to show her face very much and often made some earth-shattering remarks that left people unable to respond.

The most famous example was that, it was said that decades ago, at one of the Queen's birthday banquets, which was also the inauguration ceremony for the Ruby Scepter—Pigeon Blood Red. When the Queen spent a huge sum of money to build an open-air banquet venue in the garden and asked Emerald how it felt on the day of her birthday, Emerald's answer was this:

"To be honest, Your Majesty. In an open-air, flat venue, if there are no thrones or steps in the center, the blocked lines of sight between guests might make it impossible for them to see objects that are too short."

On the night of that banquet, it was said that in front of all the guest seats were placed small cakes personally selected by the Queen, while on Emerald's seat was placed an empty plate.

Besides this shocking remark, another deed of Emerald's that people loved to talk about was the proposition she pushed in the Research Institute. As the director of a bureau, the sentence she said most often was:

"Laziness is the ladder to research progress."

She not only didn't care about slacking off, nor did she discipline researchers for slacking off; she even took the lead in slacking off herself, and it was a common occurrence for her to carry a pillow around to sleep during office hours.

In her words, slacking off was for better inspiration, and the desire to slack off would drive people to create more research and inventions.

An irrefutable fact was that she indeed did exactly that.

Under such high-intensity sleeping and slacking, Emerald still maintained the nation's number one speed of invention and creation. Whether it was magic-driven mechanical devices or complex and complicated magic formulas, she was the number one person in the relevant research fields.

It was precisely because of this that, even though she was shrouded in layers of halos and possessed countless academic achievements and honorary titles, what Emerald liked to display most was still her identity as the Chief of the Research Institute. Therefore, most people's respectful address for Emerald was not "Director," but "Chief."

At this moment, the puppet doll before Lin Yun clearly used quite advanced and sophisticated magic-driven technology. It highly mimicked the appearance of a pure-blooded fairy, to the point that if one ignored the mechanical parts of its appearance, it looked just like a real fairy.

Being able to use such technology, possessing very powerful magic, and adding the "young one" address always on her lips—in Lin Yun's cognition, there was only Emerald.

This answer received the other party's affirmation.

"Correct deduction, but it is not that I am willing to appear here, but that you need me to appear here, young one."

The fairy doll shook its head, which was even somewhat comical given its shape where one couldn't see the neck at all: "Of course, as the provider of material equipment, I naturally have to come and see what the situation is with the products I provide."

"Products?" Lin Yun asked in return.

"That's right, products."

The doll said unhurriedly: "The magic armament you asked for from the Investigation Bureau; the camouflage monitoring you invested here; and even the treatment for that child named Morning Glory—all are the research achievements of our Research Institute. Otherwise, who could you count on? Can that old hag whose brain has been soaked into paste by tea polyphenols help you make these things?"

"I hope you don't forget that you are talking to an Inspector of the Investigation Bureau."

Lin Yun reminded: "The Director might have some opinions about the way you address her."

"No one cares about the opinions of someone who can't even remember how old she is and spends her days taking pleasure in backstabbing and passing the buck. I sincerely hope that the lifespan limits of normal mammals can act upon her, so that she doesn't become an old hag with endocrine disorders due to the long-term lack of emotional life, young one."

The doll's flat tone revealed a hint of disgust, and it squinted its eyes: "Cast aside this unlucky topic; how do you feel about the products provided by our Research Institute now?"

"The magic armament still needs more usage data."

Lin Yun answered flatly, showing no preference: "But the special monitoring system has indeed played some role; both its concealment and ease of use are very high."

"Hmm... can this be understood as 'satisfied'?"

"It can." Lin Yun remained calm.

"Then that makes things easy to talk about. Let's talk openly and honestly."

Holding the armrest of the chair, the doll, which looked like a fluffy round ball, struggled to straighten up: "Do you need some value-added services?"

"... Value-added services?"

Lin Yun raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

The doll stretched out its pair of short claws, likely wanting to express the body language of "supply": "I can provide more products, and they are all very useful to you. Do you want to learn about them?"

"You want to establish another layer of trading relationship with me outside the Investigation Bureau?"

Lin Yun pondered slightly, directly pointing out the other party's intent: "Why? And I don't feel that I can pay the corresponding price."

"You certainly can pay. There is only one thing I want."

The doll moved its body slightly forward, its emerald-green eyes looking somewhat deep: "The 'Source of the Beast' left behind after the death of 'Moss,' the King's Front Ember Attendant of Black Ash Dawn—it's with you, right?"

"Source of the Beast?"

This unfamiliar term made Lin Yun slightly stunned, but he quickly realized what the other party was talking about—that was the purple-black crystal Moss used to cultivate wounded beasts, which was said to be able to cause them to mutate.

Emerald was right; that crystal was indeed in his hands now.

Because he knew this thing was one of the roots of artificially creating wounded beasts, Senior Cuique had always used magic formulas to seal it in an empty room at the secret base, and even had Moke keep monitoring and paying attention to the crystal's state. And ever since it fell into the hands of a magical girl, this crystal had behaved very stably; if it weren't for the faint magic fluctuations within it, it would even make people think it was a purely dead object.

"I cannot take this kind of thing out for trading, Your Excellency Chief."

Lin Yun squinted his eyes with some vigilance: "Especially on the premise that I don't know what you will use it for."

The carnage created by Moss using this crystal could be called shocking; he didn't know how many people had lost their lives because of her cruel "research." And now, the Director of the Research Institute was actually trying to trade this item with him, making him have to have some not-so-good associations.

His sense of identification with the magical girl group was not weak, and he also believed that most magical girls in this world had kind hearts. But for the Gem Scepters, these existences who had stayed at the peak of power for too long and had long since created a chasm with ordinary magical girls, he had to maintain a bit of vigilance.

If he were to decisively hand over that crystal just because the other party was backed by the nation and belonged to the magical girl camp, he could not guarantee whether this crystal would be used for some evil purposes again.

"... It seems you don't understand my character, which makes me feel somewhat sad."

The doll clearly conveyed Emerald's words, but the completely waveless tone made it impossible to hear any component of "sadness": "But it doesn't matter. You are the one who obtained the Source of the Beast, and the decision of whether to trade it or not is only in your hands. First listen to what I can bring you; perhaps then you will change your mind."

"Please speak." Lin Yun relaxed slightly from his tense state.

"Hmm, well... where should I start? Where did I put my memo?"

Following Lin Yun's affirmative attitude, the sound of rummaging for things came from the doll's mouth. Before long, Emerald's voice came out again: "Ah, that's right. For you, the most important thing is probably your current situation, right?"

"Even without me here running my mouth, you should be able to feel it, right? Your Heart Gem is already on the verge of complete shattering."

"Magic is constantly overflowing, and your true form is also extremely unstable. Even at this distance, I can feel its inability to bear the burden."

"Even if you release your magic with full force now, how much combat power do you still have? Leaf Stage? Bud Stage? If this continues, your power will only weaken more and more, until one day you drop to the low point of the Seed Stage, right?"

Emerald's words could be called hitting the nail on the head.

The price of the magic armament shattering and the true form being damaged was destined to be high. Besides the Heart Gem always malfunctioning, making Lin Yun unable to control his transformation, the downgrade in power was also inevitable.

If one were to say that before the battle with Moss, Senior Cuique's full force in her ordinary state was roughly at the Bud Stage; then now, even if she used her full force, she could no longer touch the magic power of the Bud Stage.

Added to the fact that two out of three forms of the magic armament were gone, the complete magic armament "Life Weaver" could now be said to have only one-third left, like a wall leaking wind, so it was naturally difficult to perform its due functions. As Senior Cuique was now, she would likely struggle to single-handedly take on a Cocoon Stage wounded beast.

"And because of the overflow of magic, the boundary between your true form and your physical body is also being gradually broken. As a magical girl, your magic is starting to pour back into your current body. You should have noticed this point too; the current you can use some magical girl power without transforming."

"... Yes." Lin Yun nodded lightly.

"That's right. Perhaps from the short term, this state has no problems and can even allow you to use power more conveniently; but from the long term, it is only harmful and not beneficial. A male body cannot be compatible with and use a magical girl's magic; it will eventually shorten your body's lifespan."

The doll tapped the table twice and raised its head, its comical face carrying a tone of affirmation:

"If it gets to that step, let alone using power, even your life will be running out."

Thank you to book friends Tiger Feather Nine Little Leaf Empty and watglthhml for the Alliance Leader support, and also thank you to all the other readers who tipped; I love you all.

And because the chapter thoughts for the first volume were set incorrectly, it turned into a paid chapter. Although it was corrected later, it still caused many readers who auto-subscribed to pay for an extra chapter in vain. Recently, some readers expressed strong dissatisfaction to me about this matter. Here, I express to everyone: I am truly very sorry! (Bows)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 133 =====