Chapter 59: There Shouldn’t Be Any Turmoil in My Heart

When the group returned to the training base, the other newcomers had just finished their training for the day and were heading back to the guest house. The restaurant on the first floor was naturally already full of people.

Many of them were excitedly discussing their first experience with live ammunition shooting, while some weren’t too fond of it. As magical girls, they thought it would be better to use weapons that felt more magical.

In short, from their conversation, one could tell that they were relaxed, in stark contrast to the atmosphere at the table where Ke Xin and the others were sitting.

“This is the adjusted training schedule. The progress has been moved up significantly, and more content has been added. I know it might be difficult to accept, but there’s no more time for leisurely days,” Agent Guan said, handing the new schedule to Ke Xin and Luo Anying. Ke Xin glanced at the file and couldn’t help but take a sharp breath. Was this really something they could finish in three days?

Moreover, there was even training for operating a glider jetpack. The requirement was to jump off a military transport plane, activate the jetpack to slow down without using flight magic, and then land precisely on a small flat area near a mountain reservoir.

Such a requirement made Ke Xin question whether this was really a magical girl training camp.

Ke Xin looked at the title of the document again, and there was no mistake; it was indeed the correct file.

“Let me see.” Luo Anying leaned closer to Ke Xin, so close that Ke Xin could feel her body heat. Looking at the screen in Ke Xin’s hands, Luo Anying nodded as if saying, “I see.”

“Is there a problem?” Agent Guan asked.

Luo Anying shook her head and then sat up straight, leisurely using a fork to pick up a piece of grilled chicken drumstick meat and put it in her mouth.

Agent Guan then turned her gaze back to Ke Xin, who was still reading the file word by word, seemingly trying to memorize everything. Although it wasn’t impossible to do, Agent Guan gave her a moment before packing up her terminal and putting it back in her bag.

“Since that’s settled, the rest of Team B will also receive this file later. If you happen to see anyone, it’s best to remind them verbally. The headquarters wants me to attend a meeting, so you can eat first,” she said, getting up and walking towards the restaurant exit. At that moment, Qi Si happened to walk in from the guest house and crossed paths with Agent Guan.

“Dream Yao, where did you go this afternoon?” Qi Si asked.

“You can ask them,” Agent Guan replied without stopping, glancing at Ke Xin and Luo Anying as she did. Qi Si followed her gaze and immediately spotted the two girls sitting together in the corner of the restaurant.

The two girls with pink and blue hair weren’t Red Lotus and Blue Star; it could only be Ke Xin and Luo Anying.

Besides, Red Lotus and Blue Star’s hair, when they weren’t transformed, was quite normal—just a bit of dye on their dark hair.

“Ke Xin—Hmm? Why are there only you two? Where’s Luo Fei and Ling Feng?” Qi Si called out to Ke Xin while jogging to the table. Upon noticing the absence of two people, she quickly looked around the restaurant but couldn’t find anyone who fit the description.

“They said they were tired and went back to their rooms to rest,” Ke Xin said, pointing upward with her index finger.

Qi Si looked up at the ceiling. “I see. Well, let’s not worry about them for now. Tell me what Dream Yao did with you guys this afternoon.”

Qi Si had wanted to follow Agent Guan when she went to find the others, but since she wasn’t called, she had no choice but to stay behind.

“Can we talk about it?” Ke Xin asked, glancing at Luo Anying for confirmation, as Luo Anying had been a magical girl for a longer time and likely had more experience.

“I don’t know,” Luo Anying answered decisively, taking another bite of grilled squid.

“Ah… Actually, it’s no big deal,” Ke Xin said as she observed the surroundings. Most of the others were either engaged in their own conversations or busy eating, so she felt comfortable continuing. “It’s just that when we intercepted Deputy Director Chen yesterday, there were two officers who came out of Yunqi Village. At the time, we didn’t sense anything unusual, but in reality, they had already turned into puppets controlled by the corpse mother.”

“Ah, I see,” Qi Si thought for a moment, resting her chin in her hand. “Could it be that the way the corpse mother controls puppets is beyond our detection spells?”

Ke Xin had thought about this possibility too. Normally, identifying whether something is an anomaly involves detecting unusual magical fluctuations.

However, like the zombies controlled by the corpse mother, these puppets didn’t have any autonomous consciousness. Based on the situation today, they didn’t even have the magical core that even most anomalies possessed, which made them very different.

Even anomalies like Alpha-level ones, which were considered less harmful to humans, still left behind a small magical core when cleared—though it would be in a dust-like form, barely detectable by a vacuum cleaner.

After all, in order to get a dead body to move, some magic would be needed, or at least that’s how Ke Xin thought about it.

As long as there was magic, there should be some detectable magical fluctuations, right?

Thinking about it, Ke Xin could now truly appreciate why Agent Guan was so cautious. If the corpse mother entered a densely populated city and its puppet anomalies mingled with the crowd, it would be incredibly hard to identify them.

In comparison, zombies in movies that mutate quickly after a single bite would be much easier to deal with.

“By the way, Qi Si, you should have had close contact with the corpse mother before, right? Though you said you didn’t see it with your own eyes, during that intense battle, you must have felt the magical fluctuations from the anomaly, right?”

Ke Xin wondered if there was a way to hide even weak magical fluctuations. Just like how magical girls’ magic is channeled into their transformation devices, preventing others from sensing it, maybe the same could be done with the anomalies.

However, once transformed, the magical girl’s body itself would emit strong magical energy, making it very hard to hide one’s presence.

Similarly, anomalies likely had similar limitations.

“I don’t think so,” Qi Si replied, shaking her head. “But there were so many anomalies at the scene that the magical fluctuations mixed together, making it impossible to distinguish them. Actually, if we’re talking about this, Eri Ka should know more about it.”

“Eri Ka?” Ke Xin blinked in confusion, trying to recall who that was. After a moment, she remembered.

“Ah, you mean Hoshino Eri Ka? She’s the magical girl who has the deepest knowledge of magic in the whole Mu Zhou area. Actually, in the entire Federation, there’s probably no one else who understands magic better than her.”

“I think I’ve heard of her,” Ke Xin replied, though she only knew the name and didn’t have any detailed knowledge about her. She had only heard Agent Guan mention her when a barrier was needed at a scene.

“You just arrived, so it’s normal not to be familiar with her,” Qi Si said. Then she briefly described Hoshino Eri Ka, explaining that she wasn’t very good at combat, which is why she wouldn’t usually be seen on combat missions.

Her most notable skill was her ability to track magical fluctuations across the entire Mu Zhou area. Even if high-level anomalies appeared in regions without coverage by the alarm system, the Special Task Force would be notified immediately, thanks to her.

“But, she never reports to the Special Task Force, and she rarely uses electronic devices. If you want to find her, you’d have to visit her in person.”

“I wish I could see her archived files,” Ke Xin sighed, feeling frustrated. She had been chosen to deal with the corpse mother anomaly, but the Special Task Force still refused to release crucial information.

Was there something they didn’t want her to know?

Perhaps the magical fluctuations she had felt earlier were those of the corpse mother, but without any way to compare, Ke Xin couldn’t convince herself to believe it.

After a while, Qi Si stood up and said, “I’m getting hungry, I’m going to grab something.”

As Qi Si walked away, Ke Xin suddenly felt something poking her waist. Looking down, she realized it was Luo Anying’s finger.

“Senior?” Ke Xin looked at Luo Anying curiously, wondering if she wanted to say something.

“Let me out, I’ve already eaten,” Luo Anying said.

“Huh? Oh… okay…” Ke Xin was a little dazed, but her body instinctively stood up to give Luo Anying room to pass.

However, Luo Anying chose to gently move past Ke Xin’s leg, brushing against her. Luo Anying’s hair brushed against Ke Xin’s nose, and the faint scent immediately stimulated Ke Xin’s senses. The soft touch from the contact made Ke Xin’s breath catch, and her heart began to beat faster.

“Ah? Did Luo Senior leave?” Qi Si, who had returned with a full plate of food, noticed that only Ke Xin remained at the table. Upon hearing Qi Si’s voice, Ke Xin was pulled back into reality, realizing that Luo Anying had already gone.

“Yeah, she said she was full,” Ke Xin let out a long breath. Fortunately, Qi Si didn’t notice her earlier reaction.

It was all Agent Guan’s fault. If she hadn’t said anything, Ke Xin wouldn’t have been thinking about all that.

Maybe.

Ke Xin wasn’t sure what she really felt for Luo Anying anymore. If she were still the same boy from high school, maybe she’d be smitten by Luo Anying. But if that were the case, she would never have met Luo Anying in the first place.

Even if they had met, they would be two people from completely different worlds with no intersection.

“Well, that’s good,” Qi Si said softly.

“What?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to say, the food here is really good.”

Ke Xin stared at Qi Si suspiciously, certain that she had heard something else, but since she had been daydreaming, she wasn’t sure what exactly Qi Si had said.