Chapter 155

Lin Yun saw the "Magical Girl" mentioned by the staff on the interrogation room's surveillance feed.

In a small room made of special glass, a girl in tattered clothes with handcuffs on her wrists sat leaning against the wall; though trapped in prison, she showed not the slightest sign of tension on her face.

She really does look like a Magical Girl, Lin Yun thought to himself.

The reason he believed this claim and thought she was truly a Magical Girl was that what he saw was not just one girl, but also a fairy.

"What on earth are you doing! Are you an idiot? Why did you even bring the wrong cash!"

And that fairy had no intention of hiding anything; at this moment, it was shouting at the girl with immense agitation: "Now everything is ruined! No place to live! No place to bathe! We're about to end up in a shelter!"

"I told you, cultivation has no sense of time; it is inevitable that the world changes after breaking out of seclusion," the girl in the tattered Taoist robe said leisurely. "Times change, and the world is impermanent; this has at least increased our knowledge."

"What knowledge? The knowledge of being locked up in jail? I shouldn't have agreed to come out with you; I should have refused from the very beginning!"

The fairy stood its tail upright, clearly extremely agitated, and said indignantly: "Did you train your head into muscle by practicing martial arts? Why didn't you resist at all when facing a group of ordinary people, just surrendering like that! What if they cast a magic-suppression spell on you later! Won't we all become fish on a chopping block!"

"A weakling's magic-suppression spell cannot constrain a strong one; no need to worry. Besides, we only ate a free meal and didn't hurt anyone; why go to such lengths?"

Leaning against the wall, the girl squinted slightly: "As for surrendering... I hate bullying the weak. These officials were just following orders and held no malice toward us, so there was no need to fight. If we are polite and explain the situation clearly, I believe they won't make things difficult for us."

"Did you forget that we came to Fang Ting City to cause trouble, that we are actually bad guys?" the fairy suddenly fell silent and said in a low, eerie voice.

"But we haven't done anything bad yet, have we?"

The girl remained calm and composed: "For things that haven't happened, what crime is there?"

"What will you do when they ask for your certification card number later?"

"Just report my old code name."

The girl remained calm: "Anyway, this code name is genuine; they won't be able to distinguish truth from falsehood for a while."

"Then what if they contact the Kingdom and find out that this code name actually belongs to a traitor!"

The fairy stood its tail upright and said angrily: "Then everything will be exposed!"

Lin Yun watched their dialogue, which was like a crosstalk performance, through the surveillance; his originally relatively calm expression now became somewhat subtle, and for a moment he didn't know how to react.

The information density of the dialogue between this human and fairy was simply too great; just listening to such a short segment allowed him to judge their origin—they must be from Claw Marks.

However, their posture in conversation was too unguarded, as if they completely didn't know there was surveillance video in the interrogation room, chatting so openly as if no one else was around, which made Lin Yun harbor certain doubts about the authenticity of this conversation.

Leaving aside other things, the other party's experience was strange enough; a dignified Magical Girl not only ate a free meal but also surrendered obediently after failing to cause trouble. After being caught, she still maintained such an indifferent appearance, which was truly incredible.

Was what they said true? If it was true, and this Magical Girl came from Claw Marks, then what was her purpose this time? Why would she willingly let the Anomaly Bureau catch her? Could this be a trap?

If this was false, then it was even more worthy of deep thought; what was the point of a Magical Girl and a fairy coming to the Anomaly Bureau to pretend to be from Claw Marks? Was there a deeper scheme behind it?

After thinking for a moment, Lin Yun felt he still needed to contact them personally.

Since the other party had delivered themselves to his door, whether it was a scheme or a coincidence, he had no reason to turn a blind eye. The former could not be avoided, and the latter did not need to be avoided; it was better to try to draw some information out of them.

Leaving the surveillance room, Lin Yun followed the staff's guidance to the corresponding interrogation room, instructed them to wait at the door, and then entered alone.

The scene before his eyes was identical to the image on the surveillance—the tattered Magical Girl and the black cat-shaped fairy both turned their heads together to look at him as he walked in from outside the door.

"Greetings to both of you; I am the Director of the local Anomaly Bureau, surname Lin."

He maintained basic etiquette and introduced himself, then asked: "I heard from the staff that there was an incident of causing trouble, and the person involved seemed to be a Magical Girl; I assume it must be this Young Lady accompanied by a fairy. You did not use force against our staff; we are very grateful for this. If our staff did anything improper before, please report it to me, and I will try my best to give you a satisfactory reply."

He did not pretend to be an ordinary person and ignore the existence of that black cat fairy as usual. Because his current identity was the Director of the Anomaly Bureau, theoretically he should have had contact with magic and the supernatural, possessing at least some experience in practicing magic arts; being able to see a fairy made him appear more normal.

"However, to be honest, it seems you are not a Magical Girl and a fairy registered locally; may I ask if you came from another city?"

Lin Yun pretended not to understand and said: "I don't know what the two of you came to Fang Ting City to do? If it does not belong to Kingdom secrets, perhaps you can tell us; this would help the Anomaly Bureau provide some assistance and resolve misunderstandings between us."

He deliberately displayed an attitude of not recognizing the other party as "Claw Marks," speaking and acting like a ordinary government official who knew nothing of the inside story. And an ordinary official would obviously only treat the other party as a real Magical Girl; an attitude of politeness mixed with a little respect was the most appropriate.

Whether the dialogue in the surveillance was true or false was hard to tell; he didn't know if they were also engaging in disguise and deception. Since that was the case, it was the best strategy to pretend to cooperate while hiding his true thoughts and probe them slowly.

After listening to what he said, the girl and the fairy in front of him paused for a few seconds before speaking up one after another.

"Ah, yes, yes, we are from the Magic Kingdom; your Anomaly Bureau has no authority to detain us; release us quickly!"

The black cat fairy spoke haltingly and bluffed: "Be careful, or I'll go back and report you to Wang Ting!"

"That's right, that's right; I am an arbitrator of the Treasury."

The girl in the Taoist robe also chimed in, raising both hands and showing the handcuffs on her wrists: "I came to Fang Ting City for an urgent matter, a duty, so I didn't bring money; I demand more lenient treatment."

The terrible acting and monotone delivery of the human and the fairy made Lin Yun's expression strange; it felt like the helplessness of throwing a punch hard only to hit cotton.

Did they really not know they had already revealed everything on the surveillance?

He couldn't help but feel puzzled; if what was said in the surveillance was just a scheme and bait, then what was this poor acting? Were they deliberately trying to arouse his suspicion? But what was the point of that?

"So this person is actually an official of the Kingdom? That is truly disrespectful; our staff acted impulsively for a moment and gave you such a bad experience. Later I will definitely criticize them properly and apologize to you; please do not hold it against them."

Because he couldn't see through the thoughts of the person in front of him, he continued to maintain a calm expression and said politely: "I will have someone release the two of you from detention immediately; please move to the reception room so we can have a proper talk."

He turned around, called the staff outside the door to come in, and had them remove the special handcuffs from the girl in the Taoist robe—this thing, although it had the effect of suppressing magic, could at most target magic arts practitioners; wearing it on a Magical Girl was actually useless.

He really wanted to take advantage of the chaos to release his magic armor and sense the level of magic power of this Magical Girl in front of him at close range, but considering the other party might not be weak in strength, acting rashly might instead expose his true colors, so he abandoned this thought.

Leading the girl out of the interrogation room, the two walked towards the reception room accompanied by several staff members; during this time, Lin Yun still did not give up on trying to get information from the other party.

"So, what urgent matter brings you to Fang Ting?"

He looked seriously at the girl, as if he really treated the other party as some kind of official: "Our city has recently been severely plagued by the gray magic organization Black Ash Dawn; many staff members have sacrificed their lives while rooting out these heretics, with heavy casualties. Are the two of you here to handle this matter?"

And after uttering the words "Black Ash Dawn," he stared tightly at the other party's facial expression to ensure he didn't miss any possible clues.

Unfortunately, the other party had no special reaction at all.

"Urgent matters are urgent matters; they cannot be spoken, cannot be said."

The Taoist-robed Magical Girl shook her head: "It is not a good thing for you ordinary people to know too much; I am here to find the Magical Girl of Fang Ting City."

"The Magical Girl of Fang Ting City?"

Lin Yun imperceptibly squeezed the Heart Gem in his pocket: "May I ask who you are looking for? The Magical Girl squad of Fang Ting City has had frequent personnel changes in the last two years; there may be no one left for you to find."

"I am here to find Cornflower; have you heard of this name?"

The girl spoke boldly: "I remember she is a very famous Magical Girl here?"

Coming to find me?

Lin Yun suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow and said calmly, "'Cornflower' is the captain of the Magic Girl Squad in Fang Ting City; she is indeed quite famous."

"Ah, that makes sense," the girl in the Dao robe nodded. "Could you help me contact her?"

"That is no problem, but you may need to provide your own codename, if that is alright?" Lin Yun pressed on step by step in the shadows.

"My codename? Iris... ah, just call me Tang Changpu."

The Dao-robed magic girl spoke with an air of nonchalance: "She may not have heard my name. If she is unwilling to come, just tell her I can solve the problem on her body."

"... What does that mean?" A jolt struck Lin Yun's heart.

"It means something that has nothing to do with you ordinary people."

The girl seemed completely unwilling to explain: "Just convey my exact words to her; she will understand."

Lin Yun understood, yet he could not believe what the other party had said.

The so-called "problem on her body" could only possibly be her worsening injuries. Currently, only Emerald had promised a way to resolve these injuries, yet now even someone suspected of bearing claw marks had arrived?

Considering that the Claw Marks stood behind the former Purple Diamond, could the girl's words be understood as the former Purple Diamond also using this matter to make a statement to him?

But were the words spoken by the Claw Marks truly trustworthy?

Many conjectures arose in his heart at once, yet Lin Yun remained unmoved in expression, calmly leading the other party to the reception room of the Yi Ce Bureau. As the group opened the door to the reception room, they saw that a square table was already set with various meals and drinks.

This had been prepared by the canteen at Lin Yun's prior instruction to entertain these two uninvited guests in the reception room. The other party had been detained in the interrogation room all morning; they must be hungry now, and a lunch could effectively bridge the distance between both sides.

"We sincerely apologize for the previous misunderstanding. Our staff failed to clarify your identities and intentions, causing you to waste an entire morning for no reason."

He made a "please" gesture toward the square table not far away: "We have specially prepared lunch and drinks; we hope you will like them."

"Oh! Alcohol!"

The girl in the Dao robe at the door's eyes immediately brightened; she was just short of whistling directly: "Great! For so many days we have only camped in the wind and slept under the dew, surviving on breath to avoid grain; my mouth has been terribly lacking in flavor!"

"You don't actually intend to drink, do you?"

The black cat spirit beside her hurriedly urged: "Don't forget why we are here. What if you really get drunk?"

"I won't get drunk, I won't get drunk. What harm is there in a couple of small sips?"

The girl waved her hand, disregarding the spirit's protest, and walked straight to take her seat: "Besides, we martial artists have our qi and blood circulation entirely under control; a little alcohol scent can be dispersed with a single breath."

"You... please pay at least some attention..."

The spirit was clearly still quite reluctant, but knowing she could not dissuade her, she could only sit down as well.

Lin Yun followed closely behind, instructed the staff not to follow, and entered the reception room with the two of them. He sat on one side of the square table and continued chatting with the girl.

Perhaps because there was food and drink, the girl's spirits were obviously much higher; parts that had previously been vague and ambiguous became clearer and more organized.

Of course, from Lin Yun's perspective, more than half of this was nonsense, lies, and idle chatter.

For instance, since drinking the alcohol, the other party had been boasting, "I and Cornflower are like sisters, as close as kin; I came this time to bring her an opportunity." In reality, Lin Yun's memory held no record of anyone named "Tang Changpu."

No matter how freely the other party controlled her boasting, a lie remained a lie; it could not become fact.

However, some useful information was mixed in; for instance, the other party occasionally blurted out secrets that ordinary magic girls would not know, some of which clearly pointed directly at the Claw Marks, making Lin Yun increasingly certain of her origins.

While continuing to urge her to drink, he tried to draw out more information. Just as the conversation reached a heated point, his expression suddenly grew solemn. A surge of magic power, uncontrollable, erupted from the Heart Gem and rapidly spread throughout his entire body.

—This was not an attack by an enemy; without a doubt, this was a precursor to transformation.

His frustrating aftereffect had struck again.

Although he had long prepared for this, he had not expected the aftereffect to strike at such a critical moment. If the magic girl beside him discovered it now, who knew what kind of trouble would arise.

Realizing this, Lin Yun quickly stood up, informed the other two at the table, and ran swiftly toward the door.

He needed to find a more secluded place to wait for the uncontrollable transformation to finish.

After Lin Yun left, the girl in the Dao robe, who had been drinking with a slightly tipsy air, suddenly lifted her head at a certain instant and stared straight toward a direction outside the door.

"... Semi, did you feel it?" she asked slowly.

"What?" the black cat spirit looked at her, puzzled.

"It is a fluctuation of magic power, a very strong fluctuation of magic power."

She raised her cup, drained the wine within in one gulp, and wiped her mouth:

"Of a magic girl."

I didn't check the notifications a few days ago; today I checked and found many tips I hadn't thanked... Thank you to readers "Wandering in the World of Imagination," "Buy Buy Buy Eat Eat Eat Eat Eat," "Born and Raised by Heaven and Earth," and the alliance leader "Reader" for their tips, as well as to readers "Yue Youmeng," "Stone Walks," "Reader," "Slowly Lazy Fish," "Turn Left Then Right," "Jing Zhi Ai Ming," "Ais," and "Onestone" for their alliance leader tips. There is also support from many more readers in the form of tips, monthly tickets, and comments. Thank you, meow, thank you very much, meow.

(End of this chapter)