Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 374 The Lark's Worries

"nailed it."

At the same time, in another examination room in the Silver Corridor, a plump fairy doll suddenly made such a sound.

"What's done?" Lark, who was sitting idly next to the equipment, turned his head to look at the doll.

"About your child."

The fairy doll waved its claws, displaying the light screen in its hand to the larkspur: "Her test results should have been selected and sent to His Majesty, but I managed to fool her."

Unlike the previous maze assessment's spectator mechanism, the Examination Institute did not organize a group spectator session for the Magic Armor Assessment.

Firstly, the assessment process is not particularly entertaining, and secondly, the tests used many high-end instruments within the research institute, which the institute was reluctant to display as public information.

However, not being present at the ceremony does not mean the results will remain unseen. In fact, during this assessment, the data of all magical equipment that ultimately scored "Briza" or higher will be submitted in real time to the "Crown Faction" of the Magic Academy's Selection Division.

The Crown Faction's Selection Division would screen these results, selecting a portion of the magical equipment information they deemed promising and sending it to the Royal Court. The Royal Court's court secretaries would then conduct a further screening, presenting the most valuable information to the Queen.

Undoubtedly, the information presented to the Queen in this manner would leave an impression. If everything went smoothly, the "being given an important position" that Lin Xiaolu had once fantasized about wouldn't be impossible. But unfortunately, she never imagined that there was a villain blocking her path in her "career."

This "villain" is none other than the lark.

Lark did not want her daughter's test results to be presented to the Queen.

Lin Xiaolu's magical costume is very special, even unprecedented. She is well aware of this, so if Lin Xiaolu's information is sent to the royal court, she will definitely become a focus of attention.

She knew that because of her, Lin Xiaolu might have already come into the sights of certain people. Even the fact that Lin Xiaolu would become a magical girl—even though the key to it had been identified and it seemed to be just a coincidence—still held a sliver of doubt for Cuique.

Even so, she would not allow Lin Xiaolu's magical equipment data to flow into the royal court, because it was a written record that would give the other party an excuse to pay attention to Lin Xiaolu.

The larkspur did not want this to happen.

She believed that most of her magical girl colleagues in the world were still good people with a heart full of justice and kindness, and that there were still many upright magical girls in the kingdom. In fact, she could now try to believe in emeralds and the gem scepter that she had once doubted so much... But she could never believe in the royal court of this country.

Indeed, she has now made up her mind to set aside her reservations and find a way to access the Sapphire Scepter, to enter the heart of the nation's power, and to live alongside the Queen. But all of this stems from her distrust of the Royal Court; she wants to do her best to see if she can change it.

Until she can truly do all that, she won't let Lin Xiaolu be exposed to the gaze of Wang Ting and his ilk.

Perhaps she has her own prejudices, and perhaps this will cut off Lin Xiaolu's path to gaining national attention as a magical girl to some extent, but if doing so can make Lin Xiaolu's situation safer, Cuique is willing to be the villain.

"Thank you."

Emerald snapped out of her reverie, thanked Emerald sincerely, and then took the light screen: "But how can we do this? The Crown Faction doesn't have any of our people, right? Won't we be found out later?"

"Don't worry about that. I didn't use any illegal methods. It's actually quite simple: I intercepted some of the B-level assessment results in advance. Once your child's results came out, I released the information along with the intercepted results. As soon as the people on the Crown Faction accessed one file, ten files were already quietly entered into the database. By covering for each other, we could prevent your child's information from being seen immediately."

Emerald manipulated her clone to wave her claws: "After all, I am Her Majesty's jeweled scepter. I would not, and cannot, do anything to betray her."

"What if the Crown Faction wants to retrieve these entered data from the database later?" Lark frowned.

"Then they can only see information that is accessible to those with the authority of the Education and Selection Division."

The emerald clone spread its claws: "As for your child's information, it's now restricted to access only by those with at least the Gem Scepter level, and as everyone knows..."

“The Crown Faction doesn’t have a jeweled scepter behind them,” Delphinus said knowingly.

"That's how it is," Emerald said lazily. "The whole process was in accordance with regulations. The information backlog can be explained as accidental, and it was also accidental that they missed the S-level rating information at the first opportunity. This information was later upgraded to a level of confidentiality required by our research institute. It's just that only the Crown Faction was responsible for screening the assessment results, but they didn't have enough authority to see all the information, and thus missed it."

"Thank you," Lark said again, unusually refraining from commenting on these bureaucratic tactics.

In fact, it is precisely this bureaucratic approach that is more reassuring in this matter.

She is now entering this examination room as a candidate named Longdan.

However, because she and Emerald had communicated beforehand, Emerald had prepared a clone of herself in this examination room. At the same time, the two examiners here were also her close associates, which gave Lark and Emerald the opportunity to meet in secret.

She looked at the screen in front of her; Lin Xiaolu's assessment results and data were already recorded.
[Ability Specification: Level 4]

[Scope of application: Medium]

[Application areas: Wide range, suitable for most occasions other than support and logistics]

[Development Potential: Gem Scepter]

Stability: Extremely low

Overall rating: Soliflor+

[Note: This candidate's magical armor appears to be a novel type, unlike anything seen before. Current testing standards cannot fully measure all its data; therefore, it is rated S+ level, and we hope this will receive attention from higher authorities.]

Following that was a long string of highly technical descriptions and data, which Delphinus could only roughly understand with his theoretical knowledge.

Back in Fangting City, Cuique had already consulted Emerald about Lin Xiaolu's magical costume. However, due to the limited hardware of the temporary laboratory in Fangting City, Emerald was unable to provide any specific insights at that time.

This trip to the country for the assessment was actually an opportunity for the two of them to evaluate Lin Xiaolu's costume in detail.

Even though she was mentally prepared, Cui Que's heart still sank when she saw Lin Xiaolu's magic outfit marked "S+". This was also an unprecedented rating, but anyone with discerning eyes knew what the examiner meant by giving this evaluation: the value embodied in Lin Xiaolu's magic outfit had exceeded the existing evaluation system.

Among the sub-data, the development potential marked as "Gemstone Scepter Grade" also made Delphin's eyelids twitch.

"...What level is the Gem Scepter?" she couldn't help but ask, looking up.

"It's a purely theoretical concept that I derived from theory a long time ago when I was leading a team to research the potential of magical equipment."

Emerald's tone remained languid, but her voice rose slightly, revealing a hint of smugness in Delphinus's voice: "At the time, my deputy and students felt that this theoretical concept was too treasonous, even an insult to the royal court, and advised me not to publish it. For the sake of these young people who were less courageous than laboratory mice, I agreed."

"And then? Why did it appear in this assessment result?" Lark lowered her eyelids.

"Of course, it's because I secretly changed the standards recorded in the system afterwards."

Emerald declared confidently, "No one can stop me from leaving the correct research results in this world. If anyone does, it's because that person has proven me wrong. And now, this report fully proves the correctness of my summary of magical armor potential. I am right!"

"Ah, that's it."

Lark hesitated for a moment, then simply nodded and calmly continued with what she considered the important topic: "So what is the specific significance of this rating?"

"That means that if your daughter can grow up and blossom smoothly, she may be able to become a magical girl on the same level as us without His Majesty bestowing her with powers."

The fairy doll opened its arms: "The magical kingdom will welcome its sixth member, who, though not endowed with predetermined powers and authority, will still possess the corresponding 'Gem Scepter'."

Hearing Emerald's slightly uplifting voice, Lark closed his eyes.

“You don’t seem very happy.” Emerald tilted the doll’s head.

"...I am very happy."

Cui Que took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and smiled slightly: "How could anyone be unhappy to hear others say that their child will be extraordinary in the future?"

“I’ll be kind enough to believe what you’re saying, but you don’t seem very surprised.” The doll looked at the larkspur.

"Surprised... Should I be surprised now?"

Lark's voice carried a hint of unspoken emotion: "But I can't deceive myself. I'm not surprised at all. I'm special as a magical girl, and Anya is special too. It would be abnormal if someone as special as us had an ordinary child."

"Yes, that's the abnormal thing."

Emerald affirmed: "We live in a world of magic, and everyone knows that magical talent and blood ties are never separate."

“I know what is right, what is normal, and what is destined to happen. I even thought I was already prepared.”

With her knees together and elbows resting on her thighs, Lark bent over and covered her mouth and nose with her interlaced hands. A hint of worry flickered across her usually calm face: "But when I actually saw the concrete results, I realized that I might still need to convince myself again."

"Are you very worried?"

"Yes, there's no way I can't help but worry."

"I always feel that the child is still so small in my eyes, as if she has only just stepped out of the swaddling clothes. She is still a little princess who is afraid of melting in my mouth and breaking in my hands, but in this moment, it is as if I can already see her walking to that place and facing the wind and rain?"

Emerald suddenly asked this question out of the blue.

The lark was stunned: "How did you..."

“Of course I know.” Emerald’s boastful expression remained unchanged. “I’ve said it before, I know far more than you can imagine.”

"You've been married?" The other person's surprising statement dispelled her worries, and at this moment, Cui Que only felt a little strange.

“No, and I’m not afraid to admit it, but I’ve never even held a man’s hand in my life,” Emerald said casually. But after thinking for a moment, she added, “Shaking hands with male colleagues or business partners doesn’t count.”

"How come you can describe something like this in such detail?"

“Sometimes, expectations and love for the younger generation don’t need to be tied by blood ties.” Emerald said with feigned profundity, “Like that child whose magic was diverted to the crippled beast, you’ve actually stopped resisting her treating you like family, haven’t you? After all, the first thing you did when you walked in wasn’t to ask me how my own daughter was doing, but whether that little girl had given herself away.”

The larkspur remained silent.

The three juniors had already told Cuique the order in which they would take the magic armor test, so she naturally knew that Bai Jingxuan was the first of the three to be tested.

Before entering the examination room, her three biggest worries were whether Bai Jingxuan would be exposed during the assessment, whether Lin Xiaolu's magical equipment information would be reported, and whether Xia Liang would be bullied in the upcoming battle.

Fortunately, the emerald had already brought her two good results: Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu both passed the test smoothly. While worrying about the more distant future, Cui Que was actually much more at ease about the present situation.

"Alright, I'll give you an answer to what you're most concerned about for now. I still have some guesses about your daughter's magic outfit, but we'll talk about that later."

Seeing that the larkspur seemed to have finished processing the information, Emerald changed the subject and said:

"Next, let's talk about what I'm most concerned about—you should have already observed those beast children, what are your thoughts or conclusions?"

　Happy National Day everyone! Have a great holiday! It's been a while since I posted a 4K chapter. Thank you all for your continued support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)