Chapter 40: Summer Night Study Session

In the eyes of ordinary people, a Magical Girl is synonymous with the extraordinary. Although some view them as a conspiracy or a scam, most are willing to believe that a Magical Girl must be mysterious, powerful, and radiant.

They drive away terrifying monsters for humanity and have never asked for reward; their existence is so pure and beautiful.

If one were to distribute questionnaires at any random primary or middle school and ask girls what their dreams are, "Magical Girl" would surely be a top choice.

Among these, feelings of admiration and longing are the main motivation, but there is actually another reason that has not been explicitly stated:

Becoming a Magical Girl provides a reason to persuade oneself not to study.

I am already a hero protecting humanity, engaged in such dangerous battles; is studying really necessary?

Holding this thought, there are not a few Magical Girls who abandon their studies.

And although those Magical Girls cannot publicly reveal their identities after retiring, some groundless rumors on the internet are enough to prove that the life of a normally retired Magical Girl, after returning to the ordinary, is quite comfortable.

Subduing Remnant Beasts can be exchanged for contribution points and rewards, and after normally completing a ten-year term and retiring, one can also receive a huge financial subsidy; this means that even if a retired Magical Girl does not work, she can live very richly.

Cuique's special experience prevented her from enjoying this welfare, but that does not mean she cannot imagine it.

The reason she hopes Lin Xiaolu studies hard is that she believes: when Lin Xiaolu returns to society in the future, she may not need to work, but she absolutely cannot lack the ability to work, let alone become a broadly defined illiterate person with no learning.

This is a simple expectation of parents.

She had seen the most decadent retired Magical Girl who was a shut-in; just how depraved could such a life be.

That was a senior retired Magical Girl she had once visited, living in a luxurious single-person apartment filled with a strange smell. It was piled high with all kinds of trash: takeout containers scattered on the floor, beer cans, and dirty clothes thrown everywhere.

Because her standards were too high, she could never find a suitable marriage partner; she spent her days addicted to video games, enjoying the feeling of being praised as a wealthy woman on the internet; she streamed with a virtual avatar resembling her past transformed appearance, which almost no one watched, and her entire life state was like rotting mud.

Just thinking of Lin Xiaolu becoming like that, recalling social news about shut-in youths treating their parents as servants, Cuique felt as if she were about to suffocate.

"Can't you find this angle?"

Sitting by Lin Xiaolu's desk, Cuique saw Lin Xiaolu pointing at a problem with a look of difficulty, so she leaned her face over.

During her student days, Lin Yun's grades were kept quite good; although she did not get into a prestigious school, she still completed a master's degree, and handling some middle-school level science knowledge was no difficulty.

She briefly reviewed the problem, thought for a moment, then put pen to paper to begin solving it, writing out every step carefully to avoid the logic being too jumpy and leaving the two children unable to understand.

As for the handwriting, she was not worried; it was just a slight variation from her usual style. Besides, Lin Xiaolu had never seen much of Lin Yun's own handwriting growing up, so she was hardly likely to make any associations through the handwriting.

The gel pen fell intermittently on the exercise book, making a "tap, tap" sound; Lin Xiaolu, sitting beside, propped her chin with both hands, while Xia Liang behind her held the back of the chair; the two maintained this posture, watching Cuique solve the problem together.

"Hmm... speaking of which, why are angle AOE and angle DOE equal here?" After watching for a long time, Xia Liang suddenly spoke up and asked.

Hearing this, Cuique paused her hand, picked up her pen, and traced a line along OE: "Because OE is the angle bisector of angle AOD."

"Why?" Xia Liang pressed on.

Looking up at her once, Cuique pointed her pen at a line of text in the problem: "Look, it is written here in the problem; this is a condition already given."

"But, the sizes of these two angles up and down are not the same, are they?" Pointing at the diagram on the test paper with her finger, Xia Liang still did not understand.

"... This is just a problem with the question setter's drawing; they are actually the same." Cuique explained patiently.

"They are clearly not the same?" Xia Liang looked confused, and this confusion was different from her usual playful act of pretending to be stupid; it was obviously genuine incomprehension.

Realizing this, Cuique could only say helplessly: "Yes, in such cases, the text takes precedence."

She finally understood how Xia Liang's math score in that digit range came about.

It was not intentional joking, nor did any accident occur; rather, she truly did not know it at all, and if she didn't know it, that was fine, but her head was full of particularly strange thoughts.

As the saying goes, the solutions of top students converge despite different paths, while the errors of poor students are bizarre and varied; every poor student has many unique understandings of things they do not know.

Fortunately, although Xia Liang was an outright poor student, under Cuique's supervision she at least retained some desire to learn, and her mind was quite clever; as long as Cuique explained the problem clearly, she could understand it very quickly.

As for Lin Xiaolu, her grades were originally better than Xia Liang's; although her mind was relatively not very sharp and her understanding speed was obviously a bit slower, relying on a slightly stronger foundation, studying with Cuique was not difficult.

Cuique sat by the desk, urging the two to start learning the knowledge of various subjects from the beginning; whenever a knowledge point was not understood, she personally explained it, and things went quite smoothly.

Her voice was cold and crisp, sounding like a nightingale singing lightly; even when explaining math problems that the two could not normally bring themselves to look at, it made people feel quite pleasant to the ear.

The moon hung in the blue sky; the girls listened to Cuique's voice, sometimes pondering, sometimes suddenly realizing. This nighttime study session gradually got on track.

Just like that, time passed past ten o'clock; noticing that Lin Xiaolu had started to feel sleepy and yawn, Cuique closed the textbook in her hand and said softly: "Alright, let's stop here for today."

"Ah, finally over..."

"So tired."

The words sounded as if saying "released after serving a sentence"; the two girls, who had just looked serious a moment ago, immediately groaned in unison.

Seeing both of them with gloomy faces, even though she knew there was a suspicion of deliberately playing the victim, Cuique could not help but sigh: "If you really had this efficiency every single night, you wouldn't need to study like this every day."

Just now, she had already gone through the two of their middle school textbooks once; if only listing the key and difficult points, finishing explaining all of this over one summer break would be more than enough.

Upon hearing this, the two girls who had just been full of worry became joyful again; the speed of their change of expression was fast enough to show they had absolutely no intention of hiding it.

But never mind; who could blame them, since they could all be considered her "juniors."

Cuique looked at them, thinking to herself, and her gaze softened a little.

The long night of teaching plus the study session ended; Lin Xiaolu also needed to wash up and rest, so it was time for everyone to part ways.

After bidding farewell to the two with a smile, Xia Liang walked out of the apartment where Lin Xiaolu lived, alone.

Gazing at the road where only a few dim yellow streetlights remained bright, the smile that had always hung on Xia Liang's face gradually faded, and she could not help but reveal a somewhat lost expression.

If there were no other matters, she should actually transform into a Magical Girl right now and fly directly back to her own home. She had always done so when leaving Lin Xiaolu's house in the past, but now she did not want to do that.

She wanted to walk along this night road.

The study session with Cuique and Lin Xiaolu, although it did not feel bad, made her perceive a subtle sense of irritation.

Having become a legendary Magical Girl like a dream, possessing like-minded companions, and having a senior who guided her with dedication; for her former self, this was already a happiness she dared not even dream of. Yet, over these days, she could feel the emptiness in her heart more and more.

The void in her heart remained unfilled, still craving something, and as time passed, it continued to expand, manifesting its existence to her, making it impossible for her to ignore.

What exactly is this sense of emptiness?

Xia Liang, on the night road, walked forward with her head down, constantly examining herself. As she moved forward step by step, the shadow under the lamp changed from long to short, and then repeated the cycle.

Walking silently through several intersections, just as she was about to enter another neighborhood, she suddenly sensed something, and then stopped her steps.

"Um... I've wanted to ask since a while ago."

She turned back with some confusion and smiled helplessly: "Little Senior, why have you been following behind me all this time?"

Under a streetlamp not far away, Senior Cuique stood there strutting boldly. In the darkness, bathed in the light, she was so conspicuous.

She, who should have left in another direction, was now following Xia Liang behind, not even intending to conceal her tracks.

And upon hearing Xia Liang's words, she took no offense, merely saying in a flat, unchanging tone: "I plan to go to your home."

"... Why?" Xia Liang was slightly startled upon hearing this.

"As for why, actually, there's nothing special," Senior Cuique said, one hand on her hip, her face devoid of extra expression, as if what she was about to say truly wasn't worth mentioning.

But when these words were truly spoken, Xia Liang's heart suddenly accelerated.

— "It's just that I suddenly want to run away from home too."