A Deceptive Encounter

Upon Amber’s sudden appearance, the girl’s body recoiled even more severely.

Yet, as she carefully scrutinized the blonde young woman before her, a flicker of hope ignited in her eyes, and she asked again, her voice barely a whisper, “You must be a Magical Girl, big sister… I’ve seen Magical Girls on TV, and they all dress like you.”

“Yes, I am a Magical Girl, a Magical Girl who protects the world.”

Amber nodded, crouching down beside the little girl, a gentle smile befitting a Magical Girl gracing her face. “So there’s no need to worry. You’re safe now.”

“Are you hurt? What happened here?”

While offering words of concern, Amber did not entirely lower her guard.

Even as the young girl cautiously observed her, Amber’s golden eyes ceaselessly swept over the girl.

Having witnessed the illusions of a Calamity Beast last night, Amber harbored a fear that this might be another trap set by some monster or Calamity Beast.

After all, encountering such a young girl in such an eerie place was inherently peculiar.

“So it’s true, big sister really is a Magical Girl…!” Hearing this, the girl’s drooping eyes brightened with a newfound luster, and her tone filled with a touch of delight.

‘Hmm… she doesn’t possess the unique magical fluctuations characteristic of monsters or Calamity Beasts, so she shouldn’t be a monster in disguise.’

Observing the glimmer of joy and relief in the girl’s eyes, and after repeatedly confirming that the little girl was indeed a living person, Amber quietly let go of the last vestiges of caution in her heart, and the light flowing within her golden eyes slowly faded.

“Um, Magical Girl big sister…?”

Noticing Amber’s sudden silence, the girl tentatively parted her lips, uttering a faint call.

“Mhm, it’s alright, it’s alright. I’m a Magical Girl, you know, and I’ll protect you.”

Snapped back to attention by the girl’s call, Amber carefully picked her up and settled her onto the bed.

“But, if I don’t know the full story, big sister won’t be able to defeat the bad guys.

So, could you tell me what happened here?”

Amber tried to keep her voice as gentle as possible, not wanting to frighten the girl before her. “Did monsters break into your home? What about the other residents in this building?”

At these words, the girl’s eyes instantly reddened, and her voice, which had just calmed, began to tremble once more, as if an boundless terror weighed upon her heart.

She clutched her own shoulders feebly, sobbing, “I, I don’t know. Mama and Papa said they had to work overtime, so they didn’t come back. These monsters suddenly rushed in, and then they started smashing things in the house…!”

“I had no idea what to do all by myself! I thought about going to the neighbors for help… but I was too scared to run out directly, so I just hid under the bed, waiting for them to leave…”

“I don’t know how long I hid, and then, I saw you, big sister, appear before my eyes…”

Seeing the girl curled up in the corner of the bed, her face a picture of bewilderment, Amber, who was never very good at comforting people, could only pat her head and softly reassure her, “So that’s what happened… But it’s alright now. With me here, those monsters can’t hurt you.”

‘If all of this before me were an illusion, it would be far too real.

After all, with the strength of that broken jellyfish last night, it could only create cheap illusions by extracting human memories…’

‘And this girl looks to be only eight or nine years old… it’s truly pitiful for her to suddenly experience something like this…’

‘But this is precisely why I chose to become a Magical Girl! I don’t want such tragedies to repeat!’

Amber nodded inwardly, then meticulously searched the room for a while, only after confirming there were no other vampires lurking within did she close the front door.

She then pulled a chair to sit before the girl and gently asked:

“When I came upstairs just now, I noticed all the other residents’ doors were tightly shut.

Are they not home?”

Currently, this little girl was the only one she could communicate with normally… perhaps she held the key to solving the incident, and Amber naturally wouldn’t let the opportunity slip away.

“They… shouldn’t be gone, right?” The girl’s expression turned troubled at the question. “But many of the uncles and aunties who live here work at the construction site, so they do come home a bit late.”

‘At a construction site? But it’s not as if the entire building would be empty, is it? Only this little girl left at home?’

‘It’s too strange; all the residents had their doors tightly shut, except for the little girl in this apartment… Yet for some reason, those vampires didn’t harm her; they merely caused a huge ruckus in her home…’

Amber furrowed her delicate brows, but she also knew in her heart that even if she pressed further, the little girl likely wouldn’t know anything.

She let out a soft sigh and changed the subject:

“Is that so? Then what about your parents? You just said they were working overtime… What kind of work do they do?”

This was the question that concerned Amber the most.

Since those vampires had gone to such lengths to break into this little girl’s home… there must have been some documents they absolutely needed to destroy.

“What kind of work… I’m not really sure.

I only know that Mama and Papa both work at that mental hospital in Wangdu…”

“A mental hospital?” Amber’s eyes lit up, and she quickly interrupted the girl. “Are you talking about the Wangdu Emotional Disorder Sanatorium?”

“Y-yes, I think so? Mama and Papa both work at that mental hospital in the city outskirts, and they usually come home very late…”

The girl’s face paled, and she spoke cautiously with trembling lips, seemingly feeling guilty for not being able to provide more useful information.

Her voice grew increasingly softer, until she finally lowered her head completely.

“I’m sorry, big sister, I really only know this much. My mama and papa don’t tell me about their work…”

Seeing this, Amber quickly reached out again and stroked the girl’s head, saying softly, “Mhm, it’s alright. The fact that you could tell me this much is already enough.”

While this little girl certainly didn’t know much… considering the shredded documents left by those monsters, and the fact that her parents both worked at that mental hospital, the mental hospital in the city outskirts definitely had to be problematic!

‘Wait… the city outskirts?’

Amber’s pretty face froze for a moment, suddenly recalling another matter: the amusement park where that broken jellyfish had been entrenched yesterday was also in the city outskirts!

‘An amusement park… a mental hospital… Both are located in the city outskirts.

Is there a connection between them? Or is it merely a coincidence?’

‘Perhaps this series of events truly is connected… but I currently have too few clues to discern the link between them…’

Amber’s delicate brows furrowed as she pondered for a long time, yet she couldn’t come up with any definite conclusion.

She could only shake her head, then offered the girl a radiant smile:

“Never mind, thinking about this now is useless… In any case, I’ll take you out of here first.

The uncles and aunties at the Special Investigation Department will handle the rest.”

‘I’ve already dealt with all the vampires nearby… there shouldn’t be any stragglers.

The rest can only be left to those people at the Special Investigation Department to clean up…’

‘Although I’m a little uneasy, those guys at the Special Investigation Department wouldn’t be so incompetent as to botch even this, would they?’

‘I still have work tomorrow…’

Amber silently finalized her plans in her mind.

“Mhm, I’ll listen to big sister.”

The girl nodded obediently, but upon seeing Amber stand up, a hint of hesitation appeared on her face.

After much deliberation, she cautiously tugged at Amber’s sleeve:

“Um…”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just…”

The girl parted her lips, stammering for a long moment before speaking softly, “Tonight, I saw that purple Magical Girl who often appears on TV, outside the window…”

“That Magical Girl big sister seemed to be looking for something, but it looked like she didn’t find it… Not long after she left, those monsters appeared…”

A trace of fear surfaced in the girl’s eyes, and her body began to tremble slightly once more.

“Are you saying… Zijing also came to this place? And was looking for something?”

Hearing this, Amber looked at the girl with a hint of disbelief, then walked directly to the window, gazing out at the pitch-black night.

A flicker of astonishment crossed her pretty face.

‘Zijing arrived here just moments before… and then those monsters appeared right after?’

‘This…’

Yet, just as Amber gazed out the window, the look of fear on the girl’s face behind her vanished completely.

Then, the girl’s eyeball quietly slipped out, detaching from its socket.

In the darkness, she used her right hand to gently place the fallen eyeball back into its place, quietly revealing a twisted smile.

“Heh, these so-called Magical Girls are quite easy to fool, aren’t they… Hehehe…”