Chapter 78: Cornflower and Sparrow

Is that a magical girl?

Upon seeing the silhouette outside the window, this thought immediately occurred to Lin Yun. After all, those capable of flying out of thin air and dressed so gaudily were generally only magical girls.

It was not to say that mages could not imitate a similar style of dress, but unfortunately, a mage whose total mana and spell proficiency could support stable hovering in the air had, in all likelihood, already passed the age of being a "girl."

Then, why would a magical girl appear there at this time?

Lin Yun was not familiar with the appearance of the black-dressed girl; he could be certain that she was not any of his "old acquaintances." She should not be a newcomer local to Fang Ting either, otherwise, there would be no reason for Lin Yun not to recognize her.

Is she a magical girl from out of town?

Numerous questions surfaced in his mind, and then, Lin Yun began to consider his next move.

Should he transform into a magical girl to ask her intentions? Or should he pretend not to see her and let her come and go as she pleased?

Transforming directly right now was clearly not feasible.

Being in the general manager's office at the moment, if he were to transform, he would inevitably be seen by Wang Tengfei, who was an ordinary person, which would count as an unnecessary leak of information.

Although he could have the Bureau of Extraordinary Strategy handle the aftermath later, sign confidentiality agreements, or even use spells to provide a degree of psychological suggestion so that he would not think about this matter, he still hoped to avoid transforming in front of others as much as possible.

Pretending not to see her was also impossible, because he could not allow a magical girl of unknown origin, whose status as friend or foe was unknown, to move about Fang Ting at will.

In any case, if nothing else, he at least could not continue to waste time in the general manager's office.

So he spoke, preparing to end the conversation with Wang Tengfei: "Mr. Wang, I'm sorry, I have some things to attend to next, so I won't take up any more of your time. Next..."

Again, halfway through his sentence, Lin Yun's pupils contracted sharply.

He saw the girl high in the sky, her long hair dancing in the wind, her black dress gilded with a layer of golden radiance under the sunlight.

He saw that in the girl's hand, an earthy-yellow mana light lit up, pointing straight toward the direction of this office building.

At this point, he could finally be certain that the visitor meant harm.

"Mr. Wang."

Lin Yun stopped wasting words, stood up abruptly, and prompted Wang Tengfei with extreme seriousness: "Get down."

This sentence was spoken too suddenly, so Wang Tengfei could not understand his meaning.

He was also destined to have no time to understand, because when he saw Lin Yun stand up, he did not say another word, but instead ran toward the direction behind him where there should only have been floor-to-ceiling windows.

Then, a deep blue light flashed at his side, and an instant later, the muffled sound of glass shattering came from behind.

The next second, a violent vibration came from outside the window, like an earthquake, making everyone in the entire office building feel an extremely intense shaking sensation.

"Huh? Did I miss?"

Not far away, the girl in the black dress looked at the office building, which had a large crater blasted into its edge: "Strange, I should have aimed correctly, right?"

"Forget it, if I missed, I'll just fire another one."

—"No matter how many times you try, you won't hit."

Such a voice suddenly came from not far away.

The girl looked in the direction of the voice and saw a petite girl in a navy blue long dress floating in the air just like her, her expression one of indifference.

Seeing the other party, the girl was stunned for a moment, but then the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, revealing a somewhat inexplicable smile: "Ah, so you really are here?"

"'So you really are here'? Did you come looking for me?"

Opposite her, Cornflower opened her hand, and mana condensed into a magic wand that appeared in her grasp: "Using bombardment-type spells to say hello is not a polite behavior. You have one more minute to first explain why you came here, and then explain your intentions."

"Ah, sorry, I really should have introduced myself first."

As if truly sorry for such "rudeness," the girl bowed slightly: "Hello, I am a character-card magical girl once registered in the Magic Kingdom, affiliated with the Ministry of Finance. My term of service was approximately fourteen years ago, codenamed 'Golden Bell'."

"However, that is a name of the past. As for now, you can call me 'Sparrow'."

"If you don't understand what this codename means, please allow me to introduce us to you—a group of magical girls who have truly attained freedom. We are 'Claw Mark'."

"I wonder if you are satisfied with my self-introduction?"

At this point, the girl who called herself "Sparrow" raised her head, the smile on her face gradually becoming somewhat flamboyant:

"—The same former Flower Card, Lady Cornflower?"

Almost at the same time as she said this, without warning, an extremely intense beam of mana had already been fired from her palm, shooting straight toward the direction where Cornflower was located.

Not far away, Cornflower, who was still stunned by her statement, reacted quickly. She widened her eyes, raised her hand, and amidst several floating runes, a simple mana barrier formed instantly, successfully blocking the sudden attack from the girl who called herself "Sparrow."

"It seems you know quite a lot."

The barrier resisted the mana beam, falling into a stalemate of mana intensity for a moment. Cornflower raised her eyes, and her expression toward Sparrow became increasingly icy: "Knowing it's me, you still dare to come to Fang Ting to provoke me like this? Or do you think you can succeed in a sneak attack by reporting a discarded name? Is your organization called Claw Mark all full of reckless idiots like you?"

Her words made the smile on Sparrow's face pause, and her eyebrows twitched, appearing very displeased, but such emotion was quickly covered up, leaving only a brilliant smile:

"Ah, of course not."

"Although I am only a former Flower Card, I was a Flower Card after all. I didn't expect to easily finish you off with a simple sneak attack; you old hags still have some real substance no matter what."

"But what if I said that my reliance is actually this?"

At the same time she said this, the mana beam, which was originally earthy-yellow, was suddenly enveloped by a purple-black mana.

And when the purple-black mana came into contact with Cornflower's mana barrier, the barrier, which had been standing firm, seemed to suddenly age, becoming incredibly thin and fragile, and then spiderweb-like cracks appeared on it one after another.

This process was so brief that Cornflower did not have time to make any repairs before the barrier shattered just like that, and then, in her sight, it suddenly exploded.

Boom!

There were no more obstacles on the path in front of the beam, and it blasted through the mana barrier, completely engulfing the position where she had originally been, and pierced straight through Cornflower.