Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

On the day of the qualification assessment, the morning in Luennolay was unusually lively.

Because the first exam was scheduled for the morning, all the candidates living in Luennolay got up early and rushed to the examination venue.

Fangting City's team was naturally no exception.

Compared to those teams residing in the Magic-free Zone, their transportation was slightly more convenient. Without the restriction on using magic, both flying and magic techniques were available, and naturally, they were among the first candidates to arrive at the examination site.

Emerald Sparrow was also among them.

However, at this moment, she was not here as a "parent of a candidate" but as a "candidate" herself.

In fact, when she first reached an agreement with the Magical Affairs Institute, she had intended not to participate in this so-called exam under the identity of "Long Dan." Unfortunately, she later found out that the identity of "Long Dan" had already been registered in the files, and even signed up for the exam and completed the pre-exam check-in. If she skipped the exam without reason while "not leaving the Kingdom," she might later be associated with the actions of Black Ash and Claw Mark, causing unnecessary trouble.

Apart from this, as she spent these days working day and night with the people from the Magical Affairs Institute crafting a new defense plan, her best standby position was to infiltrate the examination venue.

The considerations were multi-layered, but the primary factor was that among the personnel responsible for the defense mission this time, many were magical girls not belonging to the Green Faction. For Emerald Sparrow to openly participate in the defense mission, she had to use a false identity. However, there was no reason for "Long Dan," a "Newbie Magical Girl from the Material Realm," to appear in such a setting.

Creating another false identity was equally difficult because in tasks of this scale, personnel moved frequently; there were many people and stories, and everyone was on high alert for infiltrators. Thus, identity checks and verifications were exceptionally stringent, and even Emerald couldn't casually create an identity for Emerald Sparrow that would allow her free passage.

Hence, for Emerald Sparrow to move freely within the exam site and respond promptly to various crises, the most suitable identity was indeed that of a candidate. And as she hid as a candidate at the center of the examination site, she could quickly reach any location facing enemy incursion, more rapidly than if she were on the outside.

How did Emerald Sparrow know this would be faster?

Of course, because she had already tested every route.

The task of sending people to trace Claw Mark's whereabouts, as expected, yielded no results.

It was as though Mo He and others had suddenly left the city; despite the informants' efforts in inquiries, investigations, and tracking, they could find no trace of them anymore.

Since they couldn't be found and the problem couldn't be preemptively resolved through words, Emerald Sparrow and the others could only place their hopes on the defense plan, making it more complex.

During the half month of developing the defense plan, Emerald Sparrow tirelessly managed a myriad of tasks, with the most demanding being the various rehearsals. The complex terrain of the forest outside the city and the numerous potential enemy infiltration routes necessitated increased surveillance and required Emerald Sparrow to plan various action routes to ensure she could reach any designated location before other Flower Cards arrived. Additionally, how the outer defenses should patrol to avoid any slipping through, how to ensure the candidates' safety if the enemy used a desperate attack, and how the Flower Cards should support each other against unexpected powerful enemies all needed to be personally verified by Emerald Sparrow and the others for reassurance.

Fortunately, after such relentless efforts, they finally crafted a plan that satisfied most participants.

The plan needed to ensure the on-site candidates wouldn't be harmed, and the exam wouldn't be disrupted. It also had to ensure that any intruder did cause some economic loss so that stopping the incident would be seen as a "meritorious act." Moreover, they had to intercept Claw Mark's people as early as possible, giving Emerald Sparrow time to confront them.

This set of demands, which seemed nearly impossible, like a first client making difficult demands to a second party, was indeed accomplished by Emerald Sparrow and the others.

The price paid was that not only the people at the Magical Affairs Institute but also some members of the Research Institute worked to the point of exhaustion, with Emerald Sparrow herself nearly unable to distinguish between day and night.

After all, besides this matter, she still had to juggle pre-establishment tasks to liaise with the Yellow Faction, direct the search operations for Black Ash Dawn and Claw Mark, continue to fulfill duties regarding Fangting City's Abnormal Strategy Bureau, supervise the juniors' supplemental lessons, and teach Bai Jingxuan, who had just advanced to Leaf Level, in magic techniques...

This kind of high-intensity, continuous work had reached a point where even a Magical Girl's willpower was insufficient to support it. During this period, a huge mix-up occurred: one day, when the Magic Institute Branch ended work, Emerald Sparrow accidentally fell asleep inside a suitcase.

At the time, the main institute employee responsible for taking the suitcase out was called away in the middle to the archive room. Coincidentally, another returning employee en route to the archive room to index placed their suitcase at the door. Then, when the main institute employee came out, they mistakenly took the wrong suitcase due to exhaustion from days of overtime.

Thus, the sleeping Emerald Sparrow was dragged back home by another Branch employee.

When that Branch employee returned home to unpack, she found a sleeping girl in the suitcase and almost called the Sheriff… until she suddenly remembered she was a Magical Girl, and her security level was theoretically higher than that of a Sheriff, so she dismissed the idea.

Afterwards, a startled Emerald Sparrow, amidst the chaos, collaborated with the employee to fabricate some outrageous lies: she claimed to be the daughter of Zhe Helan, secretly visiting her mother at the Magic Institute for fun, hid in the suitcase to prank her mom, and fell asleep inside.

The reason she put the blame on Zhe Helan was that Emerald Sparrow had no idea who was responsible for taking out the suitcase that day, so it was safer to shift the problem up the hierarchy.

As for why Zhe Helan, who publicly claimed to be "unmarried," would have a daughter and why her luggage was with her subordinates — these were not issues for Emerald Sparrow to concern herself with.

After the incident, the Branch employee contacted Zhe Helan using a Magic Mirror, and Zhe Helan silently took Emerald Sparrow away from her house. A few days later, rumors spread within the Branch about "the Teaching Selection Department secretly keeping a paramour and having an illegitimate daughter."

"This was a failure of our subordinates, and it's only natural that I bear the consequences of their failure," Zhe Helan remarked on the incident.

As for how she secretly made it difficult for those spreading the rumors within the Branch, picking on their clerical work, that's another story.