Chapter 52: Xiao Ai's Past

After entering the training ground, Violet cast her gaze around the perimeter.

The space was extremely vast, with the surrounding walls covered by a thin layer of golden magical light barrier—clearly the handiwork of a high-ranking magical girl. Thanks to this protective barrier, the magical girls did not need to worry about runaway magic causing the destruction of the library.

"Since today is our first time meeting, I won't go over anything too complicated, such as how to judge the strength gap between ourselves and disaster beasts. Now, open the comprehensive disaster beast compendium on your desks to page three..."

With a wave of Violet's small hand, a pitch-black blackboard materialized at the front of the training room. Simultaneously, three sets of student desks and chairs appeared where Xia Qing and the others were standing.

On the desks lay several books of varying sizes. The largest and heaviest among them was the comprehensive disaster beast compendium, which recorded the appearances, strengths, and weaknesses of various disaster beasts.

It also detailed which disaster beasts frequently appeared together, how to handle such situations, and whether one should continue fighting or run away immediately...

Watching Violet lecturing endlessly from the podium, Xia Qing and the others exchanged glances. This familiar feeling was just like attending a class at school.

In reality, Senior Violet's identity was definitely that of a teacher. This oppressive aura was simply too intense and far too familiar.

Before long, they were completely absorbed in the lecture. Senior Violet explained things in an extremely detailed and vivid manner.

Fearing that they might not pay close attention, she even shared many interesting anecdotes from her past days in a magical team, leaving them rolling with laughter and in high spirits.

Seeing her younger sister's notebook filled to the brim with notes, Violet wore a satisfied smile. It was well worth the trouble of airing out so many of her own dark historical moments.

Then, her gaze drifted to the side, where the magical sprite Ai, hiding behind a window and playing with her smartphone for two entire periods, caught her attention.

Ai was enveloped in a soft radiance, the tips of her hair a pale, tender green, and her pointy ears peeking out from her locks—looking both cute and mischievous.

However, the faint ghostly light radiating from her seemed somewhat dim.

Starting from her deep interior and fading toward the outside, it gave off a charming yet illusory vibe.

"Hey, magical sprite over there, have you become this degenerate ever since awakening from the World Tree?"

Caught red-handed loafing around, Ai reluctantly crawled out from behind the curtain and shielded the three girls behind her. "Hello, my name is Ai."

"Have we met before?"

Violet touched her chin, feeling that this sprite looked somewhat familiar. Last time she knocked the sprite unconscious, she hadn't looked closely.

"Not at all, not at all. This is our first time meeting," Ai shook her head and shrank back.

"Is that so? I suppose I remembered wrongly. I thought you were that coward who always hides behind Alus."

"Who are you calling a coward?!" Ai retorted angrily.

Violet folded her arms and stared coldly at her.

"As the guide of a magical girl, do you lack even the most basic common sense? During the battle at the wetland park last time, the disaster beast's trap was so obvious that even an elementary school student watching anime on the couch could spot it. Yet you walked right into it so easily? Were you trying to get her killed?!"

Pausing for a moment, Violet continued in an even harsher tone, "Or perhaps, you never even passed the World Tree's evaluation before coming out to act as a guide."

So fierce!

Xia Qing and Bai Youqing, sitting nearby, didn't even dare to draw a full breath.

The gentle and amiable loli teacher from a moment ago had suddenly transformed into a stern and ferocious head of the disciplinary committee. The speed of this transformation was simply too fast.

"I... I tried to warn her," Ai stammered, a few crystalline tears welling up in her eyes as she defended herself.

"Teacher Violet, it was my fault. It's all my own doing," Bai Youqing hurriedly stepped forward to explain.

"You, be quiet! I'll deal with you later," Violet swept her with a cold glance.

"Mm!" Bai Youqing didn't dare speak further.

"Four years have passed, Ai. Have you grown at all in these four years?"

Seeing Ai's reddening eyes, Violet's tone softened slightly. Yet to the magical sprite Ai, these words stung far more deeply than the previous reprimards, causing her immense pain.

"No... that's not true. There have been many magical girls who formed contracts with me over the past four years, and I've been guiding them to the very best of my ability..."

After falling silent for a moment, the magical sprite Ai suddenly shouted out loudly, "But... right when we're about to wait for them to nurture their magical armaments, wicked witches would suddenly appear and slaughter them right before my very eyes!

I wanted to save them too, I wanted to protect them too, but I couldn't. Those witches would just look at me from afar, with gazes full of mockery and disdain, as if looking at a mere bug. Eventually, no magical girl even dared to form a contract with me anymore. They said I was a calamity sprite who brings nothing but misfortune to magical girls."

As she spoke, the magical sprite Ai burst into loud, bitter tears.

Bai Youqing hurriedly pulled Ai into her embrace with a heart full of pity, gently soothing her.

Violet fell silent. No manner of wonder why, for a period of time, the overall strength of the wicked witches in Yeqiu City had surged dramatically, prompting the Abyss Security Bureau to rapidly issue various measures to protect the identity information of magical girls.

After a long while, the magical sprite Ai fluttered out of Bai Youqing's arms, wiping away her tear drops with her small hand while sobbing, "...But Xiaoqing is different. Even though I told her I was a 'calamity' sprite and would bring her misfortune in the future, she didn't mind at all and formed a contract with me.

At that moment, I made up my mind.

I must protect Xiaoqing well, even if it exhausts all of my vital life energy."

Violet recalled the slash she had delivered with her Butterfly-Transforming Scythe.

In that instant, the sprite's protection had manifested.

A sprite's protection was a magical barrier formed by a magical sprite condensing her own life energy onto a magical girl, capable of blocking one fatal blow.

This also explained why the fluorescent glow on Ai earlier had been noticeably dimmer than that of other magical sprites.

Violet gave a ninety-degree bow to the magical sprite Ai and apologized, "I apologize to you. Although your responsibilities as a guide were not fully met, I must also admit that you are no longer the coward hiding behind others that I remember."

When had the magical sprite Ai ever witnessed such a scene? In her impression, the magical envoy Violet was short in stature yet possessed extremely high status and authority, never one to easily lower her head to others. She had never expected the other party to actively apologize to her.

"It... it's nothing."

The little sprite hurriedly waved her hands and hid back inside Bai Youqing's embrace. Having never encountered this kind of situation before, she momentarily had no idea how to face the other person.

Violet glanced at Ai, whose fluorescent glow was somewhat dim as she hid in Bai Youqing's arms, a trace of guilt flashing through her heart.

At the same time, she began forming some new plans in her mind.

After Violet left the library, Xia Qing and the others surrounded the magical sprite Ai, chattering and firing off questions endlessly.

"Ai, why did Senior Xiaolan say you used to be a coward?"

"Ai, were you two partners in the past?"

"Ai, is Senior Xiaolan's status and background really that high? Tell us all about it."

"..."

Unable to escape even if she wanted to, the magical sprite Ai could only pick a few questions that didn't touch upon her dark past to answer.

"If you must say it, back then I was called the 'Calamity Sprite', while the magical envoy Violet was called the 'Grim Reaper'. Except my title applied to magical girls,

while the magical envoy Violet's title was built upon countless piles of remains left by disaster beasts and witches. Her traces didn't just linger in Yeqiu City; she frequently traveled to other urban areas and provinces to slaughter disaster beasts and witches. Wherever she went, death followed, striking terror into the hearts of numerous witch organizations.

Often, as soon as Violet arrived somewhere, all the witches in that area would vanish without a trace, and even disaster beasts with near-zero intelligence would rarely appear."

"Wow, is Senior Xiaolan really that amazing?!"

"Then what stage is her current strength at?"

"Unknown," the magical sprite Ai shook her head.

"Don't you all keep records evaluating the strength levels of every magical girl?" Bai Youqing asked, recalling that Ai had mentioned a psychic network among magical sprites last night.

"The magical envoy Violet likes to act alone, and many magical sprites wanted to form partnerships with her, but they were all rejected. We could only estimate her general strength based on the disaster beasts she executed.

The last disaster beast she killed should have been one of the subordinates of the Abyss Demon Princess Iris—the siren banshee, Crystal Wall. However, considering the special nature of siren banshees, her true strength should be at the Asura level. That was already a year ago, and no one knows what her specific strength is right now."

Being surrounded in the center like the stars flanking the moon made the magical sprite Ai feel immensely gratified.

......

Unfortunately, not long after, once Ai had shared everything she knew, Xia Qing and Han Xue departed, leaving only herself and Bai Youqing, who was diligently reviewing her notes, in the library.

This stark contrast inevitably brought a wave of a sense of loss.

Still, it didn't matter; her smartphone would comfort her wounded soul......