——"The inspection is complete. All indicators are normal. Congratulations, young one. Your Heart's Gem is nearly healed, and you can use all your abilities normally again."
Her fingers slid across the light screen floating before her, and Erald gave this conclusion to Erald Sparrow: "Of course, I still hope you don't try blooming here in my lab. Please find a practice field to test it out yourself when you get back, or I can help you make an appointnt."
Her words made Erald Sparrow halt the intention to place her hands over her Heart's Gem.
It had been a week since Erald Sparrow arrived in the Kingdom and completed the healing. To ensure the treatnt had the desired effect, Erald had asked Erald Sparrow to co to the Research Institute for a final "re-examination."
With this inspection's conclusion, it ant that Erald Sparrow's Heart's Gem was fully repaired, and she would no longer need to frequently visit Erald's laboratory for further assessnts.
The other party didn't want her to attempt blooming here, and Erald Sparrow naturally didn't have any intention of pushing her luck. She slowly sat up from the treatnt bed, holding onto its edge as she jumped down to the floor, then grabbed her jacket draped nearby, shook it out, and put it on: "Thank you."
She rarely, and genuinely, expressed her gratitude to Erald.
Although to this day, Erald Sparrow still hadn't fully understood what the deal between them was truly about, Erald had indeed provided considerable assistance to her up until now.
As the current holder of the Gemstone Scepter, Erald's high rank and great power in the Magic Kingdom made her second only to one. Her attitude towards Erald Sparrow was already amicable enough, even humble. Given that the other party had done so much, Erald Sparrow indeed had no reason to withhold a word of thanks.
Hearing Erald Sparrow's gratitude, Erald couldn't help but show an expression as if she had heard sothing unbelievable. She opened her perpetually sleepy eyes slightly and examined Erald Sparrow as if seeing sothing rare. After a long while, she finally reclined back in her chair and gave her a slight bow:
"It's rare to hear you say 'thank you' voluntarily. This old woman has received it. However, as I said before, we are now grasshoppers tied together on the sa rope. Many tis, helping you is also helping myself, so it's not purely out of kindness."
"I know, after all, you are the Gemstone Scepter."
Buttoning her jacket and smoothing out the creases, Erald Sparrow replied earnestly: "This is not an insult, but a fact I recognize – those who hold power at the top rarely do anything that doesn't benefit them."
"Yes, yes, I am the Gemstone Scepter. After all, the scepter won't grow legs and run away just because people say sothing about it. You youngsters can say whatever you like."
If it had been during their first eting, Erald might have felt indignant about this description. But now she showed an attitude of resigned acceptance, even yawning: "Anything else you want to say? If not, I'm going to see you out."
Anything else to say?
This question made Erald Sparrow pause, then she began to ponder.
In truth, she indeed had sothing to say – or rather, sothing she should say. That was the sentence Mo He had told her a few nights ago: This assessnt, "there might be so dangerous things happening."
This sentence sounded like a simple riddle. So, when Erald Sparrow woke up the next day, her first reaction was to find Mo He again to see if she could get to the bottom of it. But the result was disappointing – the small room where Mo He lived was already empty.
It was only then that Erald Sparrow realized they hadn't even exchanged contacts on the Magic Mirror or phone, and when she asked the managent at Colorful Cloud Wetland, she didn't get any useful information.
It was as if they had only t at a crossroads in life, exchanged words, and when looking back, they could no longer see each other's figure.
But though Mo He had left, her "warning" stayed with Erald Sparrow, growing ever more concerning.
After that night, she continually reviewed her conversations with Mo He from those days, extracting information, and gradually noticing details she had initially overlooked or intentionally ignored.
Combining these details made it clear that Mo He's unwillingness to confront her further and sudden departure itself was an annotation to her words.
This suggested that what Mo He had warned about was highly likely to be true, and her involved "danger" might not position her in a favorable role.
If it had rely been a baseless rumor or an ordinary joke, Mo He wouldn't have taken such a secretive attitude and left right after leaving that remark, as if anticipating her actions.
If Mo He had been delivering information as an enforcer, it made even less sense for her to abandon a viable resource like Erald Sparrow, leaving only a strange riddle before evaporating.
And the chance to verify these assumptions was now right at Erald Sparrow's fingertips.
She just needed to ask one question to get all the answers.
But as the words ford on her lips, she remained silent.
"What's the matter? Is it sothing difficult to say?"
Seeing Erald Sparrow's state, Erald found it curious, extending her head from the reclining chair: "What is it? You're shorter by two centiters and want to settle the score?"
"...I hadn't intended to bring this up."
As Erald ntioned this, Erald Sparrow imdiately frowned, glaring at her. But this interruption seed to have slightly relaxed her tense emotions.
She knew she couldn't ignore the truth before her eyes.
Even if the truth wasn't always pleasant, it was necessary to take that step, know the truth, and make changes.
"Let's leave the height issue for later. Right now, I want to ask about sothing else."
She collected her emotions, restoring her expression to calmness, then asked in a neutral tone: "Chief, do you rember a Magical Girl with the codena 'Tulip'?"
She didn't ntion Mo He directly because the na "Tulip" had wider recognition, and also because she felt it wasn't appropriate to ntion Mo He's codena there.
She was facing Erald, who might be considered half an ally. However, once the information spread beyond this lab, entering the Kingdom and even the Royal Court... honestly, Erald Sparrow couldn't trust those people.
Mo He had concealed sothing from her, and the Royal Court wasn't trustworthy. Caught in this dilemma, Erald Sparrow chose only to ntion the na Tulip.
And in truth, she had a hunch about the kind of answer she would receive.
——"Tulip? Ah... oh, you an Stonegarlic's daughter?"
Erald repeated the codena Erald Sparrow ntioned carelessly, seeming unaware of the turmoil within her, lazily saying, "Why, have you seen her these days?"
"...She was my comrade-in-arms back in the army. A few days ago, I visited the morial Cetery and thought of her, so I wanted to ask about her."
"Oh, just rembered and wanted to ask? I see. Normally, you wouldn't have seen her, of course."
Erald returned to her reclining position, staring vacantly at the lab's ceiling:
"After all, that girl defected to Claw Mark, didn't she?"
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