Vol 2 Chapter 167: These Two Weeks at the Magical Affairs Court Branch

On the morning when the qualification certification exam began, Rune Norrey was unusually lively for once.

Since the first test was scheduled for early morning, all examinees residing in Rune Norrey had risen early and rushed to the examination site.

The Fangting City squad was no exception.

Compared to teams from non-magical zones, their transportation was slightly more convenient. Without restrictions on magic usage, they could freely employ flight or spells, naturally becoming one of the first groups to arrive at the exam venue.

Veronica was naturally among them.

However, she wasn't here as an "examinee's guardian" this time, but rather as an "examinee" herself.

Initially, after establishing cooperation with the Magical Affairs Court, she had considered abandoning her "Gentian" identity for this so-called exam. Unfortunately, she later learned that the "Gentian" identity had already been officially registered, even completing exam registration and pre-test check-ins. Unexcused absence while still "remaining in the nation" might link her to organizations like Black Ember Dawn and Claw Marks, causing unnecessary complications.

Moreover, in the new defense plan she had worked overtime with Magical Affairs Court staff to prepare these past days, her optimal standby position was covertly within the examination site.

There were multiple considerations, but the primary one was that many non-Green Faction Magical Girls were assigned to this security operation. For Veronica to openly participate, she would need a false identity. Yet as "Gentian," a "new Magical Girl from the material world," she had no legitimate reason to be present at such an event.

Creating another fake identity proved equally difficult. In large-scale operations like this with frequent personnel movements and heightened security against infiltrators, identity verification would be extremely strict. Even Emerald couldn't arbitrarily fabricate an unimpeded identity for Veronica.

After much deliberation, the most suitable cover for Veronica to move freely within the exam site and respond promptly to crises was actually being an examinee. Stationed at the exam center, she could reach any infiltration point faster than from outside positions.

How did Veronica know this would be faster?

Because she had already tested every possible route.

As expected, the search for Claw Marks yielded no results.

Mohe and others seemed to have vanished from the city overnight. Despite extensive investigations by informants, no traces could be found.

With no leads to resolve matters through dialogue, Veronica's team had to focus on complicating their defense plans instead.

During these two weeks of planning, the most grueling task among Veronica's daily dawn-to-dusk workload was conducting various drills. The forest terrain outside the city was too complex, and potential infiltration routes too numerous. While increasing surveillance, Veronica had to chart multiple action plans ensuring she could reach any point before other flower card members. Additionally, they needed to determine patrol routes to prevent breaches, contingency measures for suicide attacks, and coordination protocols among flower cards against unexpected strong enemies—all requiring hands-on verification before the team could rest assured.

Fortunately, through relentless effort, they finally produced a plan satisfactory to most participants.

The requirements seemed almost designed to torment: protecting examinees while allowing the exam to proceed undisturbed;

permitting enough property damage for intervention to count as "meritorious service";

and intercepting Claw Marks early enough for Veronica to confront them.

Miraculously, Veronica's team achieved all this.

The cost was extreme exhaustion—not just for Magical Affairs Court staff and some Research Court members, but Veronica herself nearly lost track of day and night.

Beyond this operation, she had to initiate contact with the Yellow Faction, oversee investigations into Black Ember Dawn and Claw Marks, manage Fangting City's Anomaly Policy Bureau duties, tutor juniors, and teach newly advanced Leaf-rank Bai Jingxuan new spells...

This relentless workload pushed even a Magical Girl's endurance to its limits, leading to a major incident: one evening at the branch office, Veronica crawled into a suitcase and fell asleep inside.

The staff member tasked with transporting the suitcase got distracted en route, visiting the archives, where another employee returning from a business trip also left their suitcase by the archive door. In his overtime-induced haze, the original staffer took the wrong suitcase.

Thus, Veronica was accidentally hauled home by another branch employee.

Upon discovering a sleeping girl in her luggage, the shocked employee nearly called public security officers—until remembering she was a Magical Girl with higher security clearance than regular officers.

Awakened amidst the chaos, Veronica collaborated on an outrageous cover story: she was Folding Crane Orchid's daughter, sneaking in to visit her mother, hiding in the suitcase as a prank before falling asleep.

They pinned this on Folding Crane Orchid because Veronica didn't even know who was supposed to transport the suitcase that day—blaming superiors was generally safer.

Questions like why the "officially single" Folding Crane Orchid had a daughter, or why her subordinate was handling her luggage, were beyond Veronica's capacity to address.

Later, the employee contacted Folding Crane Orchid via magic mirror, who wordlessly retrieved Veronica. Days after, rumors spread about the "Director of Permanent Education Selection secretly keeping a lover and having an illegitimate child."

"This was our subordinates' mistake. It's only right I bear the consequences," Folding Crane Orchid commented.

That she subsequently made life difficult for rumor-spreading staff through petty paperwork obstructions... well, that's another story entirely.