February 10th, 9 AM, clear weather.
In the headquarters of the Magical Girls in Fangting City, Erald Sparrow was in her own room, making a final check of her luggage.
"Change of clothes, toiletries, city exit permit, driving license, mobile phone, keys, wallet..."
She went through each item, muttering under her breath, confirming over and over again that no key items were forgotten before she closed her suitcase.
"Yep, no problems."
She was certain of it.
The qualification assessnt in the kingdom was a matter that had been determined a long ti ago, and she had prepared for it long in advance. Next, all she needed to do was to follow the prearranged tasks.
Dragging the suitcase, she walked out of the room and proceeded to the staircase. After a glance at the narrow stairway and another at her suitcase, she paused for a mont, then lifted her finger and traced a few lines in the air, creating a simple zipline with her magic armor to lower the suitcase down.
After waiting alone in the living room for about ten minutes, a few juniors from the Fangting City team gradually ca down from upstairs. After waiting a bit longer until Asou Haruka also arrived at the ground floor, yawning and handed over so tasks with Erald Sparrow, they officially set off from the headquarters.
The Bai An City team had returned to their own city a week earlier. Now only Asou Haruka remained in Fangting, and unless unexpected, she would join up with Hong Siyu to ensure the city's safety after Erald Sparrow and others left Fangting City.
Driving the juniors out of the city area and heading steadily toward the land ship port, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Erald Sparrow found that her view seed to broaden. The buildings that gradually disappeared from the rearview mirror blurred like silhouettes, the air had less urban pollution and felt purer.
Heading towards the suburbs, farms gradually replaced buildings, and occasionally vast farmlands appeared, endless and seemingly unbounded. Looking towards the horizon, the wide sky was like a huge canvas painted with sunrise colors, compelling and hard to look away from.
The gentle golden light spread over the highway ahead. Occasionally, early spring birds flew by outside the car window, their calls lingering and fading away, adding a poetic touch to this early morning journey.
After driving on this countryside road for another dozen minutes, the outline of the port gradually ca into view for Erald Sparrow and the others.
As the city's outermost infrastructure, the land ship ports are generally built relying on the city's defense network—outside the port lies the wilderness; inside, the city. Thus, this area is considered a key defensive region. Although supported by national technologies, it's rare for a Remnant Beast to breach the nearby city defense grid in years, but if one does, it's usually a severe problem. Hence, cooperation between the port and the Abnormal Strategy Bureau is quite close.
Though the port is far from the city center, due to the massive flow of people, with nurous travelers coming and going daily, the surrounding area has a well-developed comrcial district, complete with food, accommodations, and entertainnt, virtually an independent small town.
Driving through the comrcial district, the juniors couldn't help but look around. Being young, their mories of leaving the city or experiences called land ships were scarce. Lin Xiaolu had left Fangting once for a family trip, and Bai Jingxuan had ridden a land ship when her parents moved to Fangting, but they were very young at the ti, so their mories were vague.
From the rearview mirror, Erald Sparrow saw the juniors peering out of the car windows and slightly curved the corners of her mouth upward, silently slowing down the car speed a bit.
A dozen minutes later, Erald Sparrow's car entered the port's parking lot, and the girls each took their luggage from the car, walking into the vast port area on foot.
The travel tickets had already been prepared by the Abnormal Strategy Bureau, and considering the Bureau's recent financial constraints, Lin Yun did not approve the application submitted by the subordinates for four first-class cabins but only approved two economy cabins.
With Erald Sparrow leading, the group easily completed the ticket collection, luggage check-in, and security processes. They only encountered a bit of resistance at the security check because the staff struggled to find their "guardian."
"Even though you've bought tickets, since intercity travel on land ships has risks, we can't let minors board the ship alone without an adult," said the staff mber at the ti.
"I am an adult," responded Erald Sparrow.
"You are... uh..." The staff mber originally wanted to confirm the truth of her statent, but when he realized the one claiming to be an "adult" was actually the youngest-looking among the group of little girls, he imdiately abandoned the thought of verification:
"Child, we are conducting a security check here, which is a very serious matter. Lying won't work here."
"...I really am an adult." Having anticipated such a situation, Erald Sparrow wasn't too surprised, only slightly frustrated as she pulled out her identity proof that she had prepared in advance.
This identity proof was genuine, backed by the Abnormal Strategy Bureau and fully effective. After several checks by the staff found no issues, they apologized while allowing Erald Sparrow and the others to enter the waiting area.
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