Chapter 58: How Did Guard Duty Turn into Chit-Chat?

“So, what are we supposed to do now?”

Ke Xin held her coffee cup, rhythmically tapping her fingers on the side of the cup. After thinking for a long time without coming to any conclusion, she gave up. If there was some strange person nearby, they could just come out and fight.

Right now, the most important thing was dealing with the Corpse Mother Monster. If they didn’t handle it properly, it could lead to thousands of casualties.

“Good question. After the fieldwork is done, we can head back together. Until then, just keep waiting,” Officer Guan said, taking a sip of her coffee, then turning to look at her busy colleagues.

Because there had been incidents in the past where magical girls cleared out anomalies, only for another anomaly to attack during the cleanup, causing heavy casualties, the Special Search Bureau now required that there be sufficient combat power nearby until the fieldwork was finished.

Having magical girls around was ideal, and the Mobile Response Team of the Special Search Bureau usually took on this task. However, there wasn’t a Mobile Response Team stationed in Mu Zhou City, so the job fell to Ke Xin and her team.

It wasn’t like they had to do much anyway, and Ke Xin wasn’t too opposed to it. At this point, even if they went back to the training base, she would probably still have to face that wicked woman who had been stationed in the Capital District for years.

Thinking of this, Ke Xin picked up the straw and poked it into her cup.

She took a sip of coffee, immediately frowning. As expected, she still couldn’t drink this stuff.

“Since there’s nothing else to do, why don’t we talk about something?” Blue Star’s eyes sparkled with a strange light. Hearing her voice, Hong Lian immediately knew she must have come up with some weird idea and wore an expression full of disdain.

“Talk about what?” Officer Guan was also curious.

“For example, does Sister Mengyao have a boyfriend?”

“Huh? No way,” Officer Guan was caught off guard by the question and almost spat out the coffee she had just sipped. But she forced herself to swallow.

“But I heard that Sister Mengyao is quite popular at the Bureau.”

“That’s not true. Besides, with the nature of my work, I’m not really in a position to be looking for a partner.” She said this, but when she heard that she was considered “popular,” a smile involuntarily appeared on Officer Guan’s face.

After all, she was a young woman who had only graduated from college not too long ago.

Sometimes, Ke Xin would overlook this aspect of Officer Guan because she seemed so reliable.

“Let’s not talk about me for now. By the way, Ke Xin, don’t you think your relationship with An Ying is developing a bit too quickly?”

After saying this, Officer Guan gave a small wink with her right eye, which no one else noticed. Clearly, she was deliberately steering the conversation in this direction.

Ke Xin was the only one in the group who knew about her past identity.

“Is my relationship with An Ying developing too quickly?” Ke Xin put on a surprised expression, seemingly caught off guard by the topic. Mainly, she couldn’t move too much or else she’d wake up Senior Luo, who was sleeping nearby.

“Yeah, yeah, I want to ask about that too,” Blue Star said eagerly.

“Hmm, this doesn’t seem right,” Hong Lian said in agreement. “Though I’m also curious. When I met Senior Luo, she was always alone. It’s surprising that you two became close so quickly after just knowing each other for a few days.”

Luo An Ying was one of the senior magical girls in Mu Zhou, having become a magical girl much earlier than most of the others who were still active. Yet, during all this time, very few people were familiar with her.

“If you’re asking me, I don’t know either,” Ke Xin said with a bitter smile, habitually scratching her forehead as she spoke.

When asked like this, she began to seriously think back on her interactions with Senior Luo.

They had only met because of a mission involving a spider monster. Ke Xin had managed to defeat the monster with all her strength but had overused her magical power and passed out afterward. She later learned that she had collapsed directly onto Senior Luo, who had arrived to assist, and was carried back to the apartment by someone.

Other than that, their meetings had mostly been related to Special Search Bureau tasks. Although both were students at New Moon High School, Ke Xin rarely saw Senior Luo at school.

So, thinking about it, nothing extraordinary had happened. There was nothing special that would explain why Senior Luo had developed such a close relationship with her.

From an outside perspective, it was indeed strange. Senior Luo, who was usually cold toward others, seemed unusually close to Ke Xin.

In fact, this closeness made Ke Xin feel somewhat uncomfortable. As someone who had only recently transitioned from being a male high school student, it was hard to say she was completely comfortable with the affection of a beautiful girl. At this stage, she occasionally daydreamed about a beautiful girl suddenly entering her life, sparking a new adventure.

But when this actually happened, she felt somewhat at a loss.

Growing up, the only girl who had ever actively appeared by her side was one particular person. Ke Xin didn’t know whether to marvel at the differences between people or be glad that at least that person was still willing to stay in touch with her.

“From your expression, it doesn’t seem like you’re lying,” Officer Guan observed Ke Xin’s reaction, then paused. She wanted to say something else but instead looked up at the sky. “Wow, has so much time passed already? Time really flies.”

Blue Star, not fully understanding what Officer Guan meant, also looked up at the sky. The sun was already in the southwest, but it hadn’t started to set yet.

“Time flies? It’s only a little past 4 PM. By the way, Sister Mengyao, what should we have for dinner?”

“If all goes well, we’ll go back and eat. Otherwise, we’ll have to settle for boxed meals,” Officer Guan shrugged helplessly at the second half of her sentence. It wasn’t up to her to decide.

“Do we really have to eat that?” Red Lotus immediately frowned at the mention of boxed meals, clearly disliking the idea.

This change in expression puzzled Ke Xin. It was just boxed meals; why the strong reaction? Back at Mu Zhou No. 1 High School, the food in the cafeteria was so bland and tasteless that it was more about just getting energy into your body quickly.

The food didn’t even require much chewing to swallow. The taste and texture were far worse than anything you’d find at a street-side diner. She didn’t even know what she was thinking when she had chosen to attend such a competitive school.

“Are the boxed meals really that bad?” Ke Xin asked, curious about why seasoned magical girls couldn’t stand them.

Officer Guan immediately waved her hand. “Not necessarily, but when the Special Search Bureau carries out missions far from a division, the logistics department just buys food nearby to make sure we can eat on time. The taste and variety are totally random, like a blind box. You never know what you’ll get until it’s in front of you.”

Even so, Ke Xin didn’t see what was so bad about it.

“Just make sure you don’t end up with bitter melon stir-fried with onions next time,” Officer Guan said with a knowing look.

“Ah? There’s such a thing as dark cuisine?” Ke Xin asked, shocked.

It seemed they had combined two things she didn’t like at all. Just hearing those words made her scrunch up her face in distaste.

“In that case, I’ll just pick out the stuff and eat plain rice,” Ke Xin said. If possible, she’d bring along some pickled mustard and chili paste when doing fieldwork next time—at least that way, she could mix it into the rice.

“So, you don’t like those things? Got it,” Blue Star said, pulling out a pen and paper from her pocket, looking ready to take notes.

“Is this really something worth recording?” Ke Xin said, a little speechless.

“Heh, I just didn’t expect the model student, Princess, to have such a childish side,” Blue Star teased.

“That’s just a rumor.”

As they continued chatting about random things, they finally got the notification from the field staff that the cleanup work had been completed according to the standard procedure, and they could wrap up.

It seemed that Senior Luo had heard the commotion around her and slowly opened her eyes. She was probably awake by now.