Chapter 350: Observation

Cui Que did not make a decision alone.

It was not because she could not make the call on this matter, but because she felt it was more appropriate to bring along "allies" from the Magic Affairs Bureau and the Research Institute to discuss it, so as to avoid any friction in their cooperative relationship.

The information provided by Mint was undoubtedly valuable, and her request for the Research Institute not to move in and close the net immediately was, in fact, perfectly acceptable.

Or rather, even if she hadn't made this request, the people from the Research Institute and the Magic Affairs Bureau had no intention of acting immediately.

After all, if they were to pull out the dark agents of Black Ember Dawn right now, who would be left to stir up trouble? Relying solely on those Claw Marks whose shadows had yet to be found? If no one caused trouble, where would the Research Institute's credit come from? And how would the Magic Affairs Bureau ever retrieve their Gem Scepter?

The previous state was that the enemy was in the dark while we were in the light, so the Research Institute naturally had to do everything possible to ferret out any potential dark agents. But with Mint's defection, the positions were reversed; the enemy was now in the light while we were in the dark, allowing them to take the initiative in controlling the tempo.

A list specifying the Beast Children of Black Ember Dawn was enough to significantly increase the stability of the upcoming security plan, and the Research Institute had gained a starting point from which they could trace back the personnel of Black Ember Dawn.

As long as the authenticity of this list and the reliability of Mint's defection could be verified, then keeping these people on the list was far more valuable than arresting them immediately.

As for the disposition of Mint herself, that would depend on the results of the investigation into her.

If the subsequent investigation revealed that she had committed heinous acts or harmed the innocent while colluding with Black Ember Dawn, the Magic Affairs Bureau would likely show no mercy and send her directly to the Investigation Bureau. At most, considering her voluntary surrender and attempt to atone for her crimes, they might grant her relatively lenient treatment.

But if what she said was true and she had indeed done nothing wrong, Cui Que and Emerald would naturally not make things difficult for a child. Providing a guarantee to allow her to continue her magical girl activities, offering security protection for her family in the material world, or even granting her certain rewards were all promises that could be fulfilled.

Of course, these were all things to consider after the assessment ended; for now, the Research Institute would not take any action against Mint.

She could, and it was necessary for her to, continue participating in the qualification certification; if things went well, her exam results could even be retained. The only thing she had to do was pretend that nothing had happened, take the exam as usual, and not alert the enemy.

It could be said that after Mint made contact with Cui Que, although many things behind the scenes had changed, on the surface, Mint had simply gone out for a meal with her teammates, and nothing had happened at all.

Except that she had asked Cui Que for the contact information of the Magic Mirror and had also gotten an autograph.

Cui Que did not pursue the matter of her making a strange shriek over the phone; although she muttered to herself that she didn't understand young people these days, she maintained the poise of a senior and an elder on the surface. Not only did she not criticize her, but she chose to praise her first, commending her spirit of "turning over a new leaf."

So much so that when Mint asked her for an autograph, she thought about it and gave it to her.

However, out of safety considerations, even for an autograph, when she channeled magic power through the Magic Mirror, she proactively eliminated her residual magic fluctuations. At the same time, the name she signed was Cui Que, not "Cornflower."

The former was to guard against special techniques that could locate a target based solely on a name and magic fluctuations, and the latter was to prevent the name "Cornflower" from being impersonated.

As for how to verify the authenticity of the list and how to adjust the plan with Emerald, those were not things that needed to be discussed with the children.

……

……

After a brief one-day rest, the second item of the practical assessment began as usual.

The Magic Equipment Test did not require team participation; candidates needed to enter in batches according to their exam numbers. Precisely because of this, Cui Que, who had a later exam number, could actually arrive at the exam venue a bit later without any issues.

But Cui Que still arrived very early.

After arriving at the exam venue, Cui Que did not immediately go to meet up with Dogtail Grass, Tu Dinggui, and the others, but instead pretended to be strolling through the Silver Corridor, blending into the crowd, and secretly observing a few specific magical girls.

Tacca, Buddleja, Rhododendron, and Liatris.

These were the other four Beast Children participating in the assessment besides Mint. Interestingly, counting Mint, all five of these Beast Children were ranked on what she called the "Thigh List."

On some level, Mint was indeed completely unreserved when she made this list.

Furthermore, according to Mint, there might be some Sacrifice Children among the magical girls on-site, but the Sacrifice Children of Black Ember Dawn changed very quickly; after entering Black Ember Dawn, they only had a short training period of one or two years, after which they either survived the Food Sacrifice to become Beast Children or died for various reasons, so she did not recognize them all.

However, Cui Que did not need to look for those so-called Sacrifice Children.

For a high-risk mission like infiltrating the Kingdom Assessment to cause trouble, Black Ember Dawn could not possibly entrust it to immature Sacrifice Children. In the end, it should still be these few Beast Children leading the way, while the Sacrifice Children only needed to, and could only, follow the Beast Children to do some minor tasks. Therefore, just keeping an eye on these few Beast Children was enough to follow the vine to the melon and approach the full picture of the matter.

And these few Beast Children, judging from their appearance alone, really showed no signs of possessing the magic power of a Remnant Beast.

In this regard, like Mint and even Bai Jingxuan, if they did not use the magic power of a Remnant Beast, they looked just like ordinary magical girls in daily life. They were not like the people from Claw Marks, whose Remnant Beast magic fluctuations could never be hidden once they used their magic.

Perhaps it was precisely because they possessed such traits that Black Ember Dawn dared to let them infiltrate the exam venue as dark agents.

However, although they could hide their identities in terms of magic fluctuations, the personalities, or rather the manners, of these Beast Children were indeed different from ordinary magical girls. Although they were mixed among the many candidates, after observing them for a long time, one could still feel the difference in their temperament.

Not to mention Tacca, who looked like a crane in a flock of chickens, incredibly high-spirited and confident, as if she were the best in the world; or Buddleja, who was like a wolf in a flock of sheep, making other candidates retreat three feet away even when she sat there alone; even Rhododendron and Liatris, who looked less abnormal, had a faint, invisible barrier between them and the candidates next to them.

Specifically, although they stood in the crowd, they seemed to have no intention of blending into the crowd or communicating with them.

To be honest, this couldn't help but make Cui Que think of yesterday, when Lin Xiaolu told her about Mint saying that Lin Xiaolu was also a "Sacrifice Child."

If everyone in this world could treat this sentence as a joke, then Cui Que was the only one who could not laugh it off.

Because she remembered that last summer, during the incident where Black Ember Dawn launched an attack on the Fang Ting City Welfare Academy, there was an Ember Soldier who escaped from the welfare academy who had once said similar words.

Although that man was just talking to himself at the time, Cui Que, who was not far from him and was constantly moving forward, actually heard what he said—"two Sacrifice Children."

Cui Que had not told a third person about this.

At that time, she actually didn't know what the "Sacrifice Children" in the mouths of these lunatics meant, and she had always thought that the so-called Sacrifice Children were just a title similar to "Deviators." But now, she already knew that the so-called Sacrifice Children specifically referred to people who were "naturally more compatible with Remnant Beast magic power."

Cui Que had never thought of this matter in relation to Lin Xiaolu.

Or rather, although she had always remembered the saying of "two Sacrifice Children" and had even considered whether it might be referring to her subordinate at the Heterodox Bureau, Xiao Tian, she had never thought that the second "Sacrifice Child" could be referring to Lin Xiaolu.

Then, as her own daughter, could Lin Xiaolu really be a so-called "Sacrifice Child"?

Although she didn't want to think too deeply about it, Cui Que knew in her heart that this was actually possible.

It would not be surprising at all what kind of peculiar talents her child, or rather her and Anya's child, possessed on the magical side.

But she did not tell Lin Xiaolu about this; rather, she chose to play dumb on this matter.