As Erald Sparrow rushed anxiously to the location last marked by the positioning spell techniques, the personnel at the scene had already been evacuated.
With their leader gone, the remaining robed figures were almost completely no match for the few magical girls. Realizing the tide had turned, they scattered like birds and beasts, and aside from a few bewildered youngsters, no one chose to resist – they either fled or surrendered.
Besides their leader, referred to as "Troop Touch Three" – the man in black robes, the rest of their mbers were just magicians. Everyone knew that magicians stood no chance against magical girls.
Most of the elderly and children in the orphanage had been rescued, but a few of the staff and security personnel had sacrificed themselves in the resistance, casting a somber mood over the scene.
Erald Sparrow descended from the sky to the entrance of the orphanage, focusing her attention on magical power perception, and quickly detected the remnants of the previous battle.
It was indeed not hard to find, after all, the ground was littered with broken walls and ruins, the cracked pavent was barely recognizable, and everywhere were traces of magical power blasts.
Then, she saw the three magical girls gathered together.
To be precise, it was Xia Liang who had undone her transformation and was lying on the ground, while another green-haired magical girl, whom she had not t before, was wrapping her own magic power around her; and Lin Xiaolu sat collapsed on the side, watching.
This scene made her heart tighten, and then she quickly descended and ran to the girls' side with small quick steps.
"I've co late, what happened?" she asked anxiously, looking towards Xia Liang on the ground, only to see Xia Liang enveloped in a green magical glow, eyes tightly closed, her face serene.
"Ah, Erald Sparrow, you're here, have you beaten your enemies over there?"
Lin Xiaolu, sitting on the ground, first brightened up with surprise upon her arrival. But then her head drooped sowhat despairingly, "Sorry, because of a mistake I made in the middle of the fight, Xia Liang... to protect ..."
She couldn't continue.
The injury Xia Liang sustained did indeed stem from her own carelessness; if it weren't for the white magic power she used later from an unknown source, the magical girls present might have all perished because of that mistake.
Although she was ntally prepared, she still didn't want to see the look of disappointnt in Erald Sparrow's eyes.
"How could this…"
On the other hand, upon hearing Lin Xiaolu's words, Erald Sparrow's eyes widened with difficulty accepting the news.
She hadn't expected that, even after dealing with the enemy as swiftly as possible upon receiving the news and hurrying to the scene, such an incident would still occur.
Xia Liang had just sacrificed herself like that.
Unsure of what to do, she could only gently kneel on the ground, sadly cradling Xia Liang's hand, looking down at Xia Liang's calm face without words for a mont.
She rembered this girl's usual smile, recalled the stories of her past, and rembered her once-expressed longing for love.
But now, she had died here, and all that she had once longed for had nothing to do with her anymore.
She had once accepted Xia Liang as a magical girl, seeing her talent, and she had confidently thought she could protect this gifted sapling, but it was just such a crisis marked by an accident.
"I'm sorry, if I had noticed sothing was wrong sooner, if I could have gotten here earlier..." she closed her eyes, her voice heavy with sorrow.
—— "Uh... Junior? What are you talking about?"
However, before she could finish her words, a familiar voice interrupted her, coming from the ground.
Erald Sparrow opened her eyes bewilderedly, only to see Xia Liang looking at her with confused eyes and a sowhat awkward smile, "Although I'm sorry to interrupt you, I need to clarify, I'm not dead, okay?"
Then Erald Sparrow froze.
She stared blankly at Xia Liang for a few seconds; then turned to Lin Xiaolu, who also had an embarrassed expression; and finally looked at the newcor who, due to the sudden event, had not yet grasped what was happening.
"...if I could have gotten here earlier, there wouldn't have been so many innocent sacrifices."
She repeated the words like reading from a textbook, emotionless, dryly finishing the sentence.
Having said that, she straightened her face, intending to stand up: "I will go check the orphanage area over there, tally up the victims and remaining injuries, and notify the Abnormal Strategy Bureau."
"We've already inford the Abnormal Strategy Bureau."
To their surprise, even that way was blocked. Xia Liang spoke with the calst and most frivolous tone, "The battle here has already ended, and the first we notified was the Abnormal Strategy Bureau. We couldn't get through to your cell phone, junior, and were planning to look for you in a bit."
"It's more like,"
She squinted her eyes with so teasing and curled her lips up: "Junior, did you think I was dead just now? Were you sad? Were you grieving for ?"
With these words, the scene instantly erupted into chaos.
"Eh? Erald Sparrow, you thought Xia Liang was dead?"
Lin Xiaolu, finally understanding the inexplicable conversation from earlier, exclaid in surprise. Then, seeing Erald Sparrow staring at her expressionlessly, she realized she had spoken out of turn, and hastily waved her hands in explanation:
"No, I didn't say that! I just ant that she got hurt protecting , and I'm reflecting on it!"
But she was completely unaware that by pushing off responsibility so cleanly, she had utterly dismantled the last step beneath Erald Sparrow's feet.
Bai Jingxuan, who was standing to the side, finally caught on after hearing her words. She looked at Erald Sparrow, who had just arrived at the scene, with her hair slightly disheveled and looking travel-worn, and her expression beca a bit subtle.
She wanted to laugh, but she rembered that the people before her should all be her seniors, and she shouldn't be so disrespectful.
Yet, in her eyes, the kid who seed younger than herself and had misunderstood the situation upon arrival, nearly mourning for her still-being-treated teammate, looked sowhat adorable.
Despite appearing sowhat aloof and seemingly difficult to get along with, the way she spoke told a different story.
She thought so in her heart.
"...I'm glad you're alright."
On the other hand, knowing that she couldn't wash away the embarrassnt of the blunder, Erald Sparrow could only nod her head in resignation and respond dryly.
And she couldn't help but glance at Lin Xiaolu again.
"That's not what you should be saying here, right?"
Lying on the ground, Xia Liang shook her head and looked at Erald Sparrow with clear eyes: "Junior, didn't you notice? In this battle, Xiaolu was the one who played a crucial role."
Those words awakened Erald Sparrow.
Only then did she realize that the battle had already ended before she had arrived.
Xia Liang was obviously incapacitated due to severe injuries; the green-haired newcor seed in a bad state as well; but Lin Xiaolu alone, apart from looking tired, was surprisingly unhard.
Without a doubt, what Xia Liang said was true—the three rookies had defeated an enemy whom Erald Sparrow thought was unbeatable, and key to that victory was her own daughter.
Looking around at the ssed-up terrain and guessing the intensity of the battle that had taken place, she then turned her head back to Lin Xiaolu.
Lin Xiaolu, hearing Xia Liang ntion her na and then seeing Erald Sparrow looking at her, realized that she had forgotten to take credit for their victory out of fear of being criticized.
She had wanted to say more, but recalling her thoughts and feelings during the battle, her ears began to burn with heat.
In the end, under Erald Sparrow's gaze, she rely nodded modestly: "Mhm, we won, against that enemy."
After hearing her daughter's affirmation, Erald Sparrow's gaze softened.
She had always been overly protective of the newcors, so she truly hadn't expected that they could defeat such an enemy without her.
Perhaps her thoughts had indeed been too conservative. But having this notion disproved in such a way, she only felt relief.
The earlier embarrassnt seed less significant; she rembered the Remnant Beasts she had casually dealt with on her way here and then looked at the three girls present, feeling sowhat enlightened:
"Well done, you did very well, I am proud of you!"
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