Chapter 161 The Source of Claw Marks
"A long, long time ago, when the world was first created, the true source had not yet been born, life had not yet appeared, and magic had not yet been divided. The concept of 'world' had not yet been observed, and endless chaos was nurturing and gestating it like a cradle..."
A few minutes later, in the research institute that had resumed operation, Emerald's voice came out from the mouth of the fairy doll. The slightly distorted electronic sound seemed to have been processed, making Emerald's originally lazy voice sound a bit heavier.
Sitting beside the treatment bed, Delphinium was silent at first, folding her arms and glancing at it, but after waiting for a few minutes, she found that the other party had no intention of getting to the point, so she drooped her eyes and said:
——"Can I go now?"
"Wait, why are you leaving again? Why don't you young people have the patience to listen to your elders tell you a good story?"
The serious atmosphere that was forcibly created in the institute was immediately deflated. Emerald said somewhat dissatisfiedly: "What follows is a secret of the country that is completely unknown to the outside world. Even for someone of my status, it is risky to speak it out in person. Don't you think you should face this gift with sufficient knowledge and preparation?"
“…I only know that I am the one who holds the initiative.”
Kuizi held onto the edge of the bed. "You tricked me from my job and brought me here for some inexplicable reason. Now I really don't want to wait any longer."
"Hmm... that makes sense. Never mind. Let's make it short."
Emerald reluctantly stopped the original topic and started a new one: "You should still remember the great beast disaster nineteen years ago, right? The number of 'Source of Beasts' in your hand suddenly increased during that great beast disaster."
"'Surge'?" Delphinium keenly found the key words in this sentence.
"Yes, it increased, not appeared. In fact, this kind of crystal stone existed a long time ago, but there was only one at that time. It was excavated from the world and then kept in the treasury of the king's court."
The doll nodded and emphasized the word that Delphinium had grasped: "After the Great Beast Disaster, as many as five Beast Sources were discovered from the material world, bringing the total number to six."
"But unfortunately, because the country did not know at the beginning that this substance would be born in the Great Beast Disaster, and the main force of the magical girls was basically transferred to the front line. Among these newly born beast sources, three were taken away by the rebels from the middle world."
It reached out its hand and once again brought up the operating screen of the treatment bed: "As you know, relying on the existence of these three beast sources, they established an organization called 'Black Embers Dawn' and have been operating in the material world since then."
This is consistent with the information that Delphinium had previously obtained from Moss.
Although according to Moss, the predecessor of Black Dawn was a magician in the material world, and there was no one from the "inter-world" as Emerald said. But if you trace it back to its source, its real growth was all based on the "origin of beasts".
"There are five in total, and Black Dawn took three of them. Does that mean your country also got two?"
After confirming the consistency of the information, Kuizi continued to ask: "In addition to the initial one you mentioned, the country should have mastered three beast sources."
"What do you mean by 'your country'? Young man, don't let me emphasize the importance of unity. It should be 'our country'!"
The doll put his hands on his hips and said, "But you are right. Our country did get hold of three beast sources after the great beast disaster, and they are all kept in the royal court treasury. The Ministry of Finance is the main force to guard the treasury."
"so?"
Delphinium did not choose to argue with him about something boring, and continued to push the topic: "Since the kingdom has the source of beasts, why are you so obsessed with getting mine? Can't you just apply to the royal court directly? If the research institute wants to study it, the royal court should not refuse."
"I thought the same as you at the beginning, young man. But unfortunately, things are unpredictable." Emerald sighed.
"Did the royal court approve your application?" Cuiqiao wondered.
"My plan to bribe the Ministry of Finance to get all three Beast Origins has been exposed." The doll spread out its claws.
"We usually call things of this nature 'getting what you deserve'," said Delphinium coldly.
"Academic research is always a lonely road, young man. People who follow the rules and are bound by the rules find it difficult to freely display their talents."
The doll shook his head: "But anyway, because of this incident, I was forbidden by His Majesty to conduct research on the origin of beasts."
"Of course, everyone knows that Her Majesty's moods are only temporary, and time will change everything. Even if she chose to ban my research at the time, after a few years, this ban would only exist in name only."
"Plus, I had other research projects at the time, so I naturally put this matter behind me and planned to secretly carry out the operation ten years later. But the result was that my plan fell through just two years later."
"Your research on the origin of beasts has been completely banned?" Delphinium asked, holding her chin.
"I express my serious protest and criticism against your repeated slander against me, young man."
Emerald was somewhat dissatisfied: "During those two years, I didn't think about the Beast Origin at all. I just asked some people to enter the Finance Department from the outside to see if they could get into the guard system of the Royal Court Treasury. But my people failed to get in, and the Beast Origin in the treasury was stolen, and two were stolen at once."
"Stolen?"
This word made Delphinium a little stunned: "Royal Court?"
"I know what you want to say. The Royal Court has the most stringent inspection and guard in the country, and it also has the most advanced defense techniques and countless self-defense devices. Some of those techniques were even set up by me personally. It is impossible for any thief in this world to successfully break into there."
Emerald took over the conversation: "However, the probability of the Royal Court being stolen is very small, but it does exist. If I, who know the Royal Court well enough, were to make a theft plan, I would have at least three plans to steal the Beast Source without alerting others... Why are you looking at me like that? Think about it with your brain, young man, do I need to do such a sneaky thing?"
"Who just now said to send someone to infiltrate the guards?" Cuiqiao narrowed her eyes.
"I want to make it clear to you that the nature of these two things is different. Although I sent someone, I had not yet made it clear that I had the intention to steal. You cannot convict someone who has no subjective intention and no substantive behavior."
I don’t know if it was an illusion, but a slight clicking sound came from the doll’s vocal part: “But, in the end, someone stole the Beast Source before me… took it away.”
"You just said that it was impossible for anyone to successfully invade the royal court."
"I have no intention of reversing what I said earlier, young man. Of course, no one will succeed and invade the royal court."
The voice of the doll carried some special meaning: "Because, the truth of this matter is that the employee stole the property."
"…The Ministry of Finance?"
"That's right."
"who?"
"This is why you can't tell anyone about this, young man."
The doll raised its head slightly, and looked at Delphinium with its deep eyes: "Can you promise not to tell anyone after hearing the answer?"
When it asked this question, Delphinium clearly felt that the atmosphere in the research institute had become much more solemn.
It was not the false atmosphere that the other party had previously created with various conversation techniques and light and shadow; rather, it was a real atmosphere that became heavy because of the pressure exerted by the other party.
Emerald means business.
Delphinium realized this.
"…I don't have anyone else to disclose to you for now."
So she slowly said, "If there ever comes a day when I have to tell anyone, I will tell you in advance."
The doll nodded.
——“It’s a purple diamond.”
It said: "Purple Diamond took away two Beast Sources and defected from the kingdom."
"Purple...diamond?"
Delphinium certainly would not be unaware of the meaning of this name.
The jeweled scepter of the magic kingdom is named after all the gems on the Queen's scepter, namely, golden green cat's eye corresponding to cat's eye; pigeon blood red corresponding to ruby; emerald corresponding to emerald; cornflower corresponding to sapphire; and purple diamond corresponding to diamond.
Purple Diamond is the Diamond Scepter, a magical girl who controls the National Treasury.
When she learned the answer, Delphinium's first reaction was: Emerald is joking.
Because it sounds too unbelievable. The jewel scepter betrayed, and it would be a huge joke if the outside world knew about it.
The nature of this matter is no different from a company's CEO betraying the company, and the director of the Strategy Bureau betraying the Strategy Bureau himself... Although using such an example as a metaphor, it does not seem completely impossible. However, the relationship between the Gem Scepter and the Magic Kingdom is much closer than the former.
In addition, it was strange: because of the rebellion of the Gem Scepter and the absence of the Diamond Seat, this kind of thing should be considered a huge change in the magic kingdom, so why had she never heard of it from any channel?
Calculating the time, she should have retired by then, so it was normal for her to be unaware of this. However, the other members of Fangting City’s team were still fighting on the front line, so why didn’t they know about this?
Today, more than ten years later, the returning Delphinium has seen many magical girls and fairies, and has never heard from them about the "diamond vacancy".
"Only the Royal Court, the Jeweled Scepter, and a few magical girls at the core of power in the Ministry of Finance know about this matter."
As if seeing Delphinium's confusion, the doll explained calmly, "In order to fill the vacancy of the Diamond position, His Majesty has also made an exception and sent an order out of the palace to temporarily appoint a new Diamond. However, it is currently kept secret and the inauguration ceremony will be held in the next grand celebration year."
"So... the Gemstone Scepter just betrayed us? And no one is doing anything about it?"
Such an answer obviously could not completely dispel Delphinium's doubts. She first questioned, and then inexplicably fell into deep thought. She suddenly recalled: what exactly did Emerald want to say by laying out so much information?
——It’s “claw marks”.
"You mean, 'claw marks'?" Thinking of this, she couldn't help but whisper.
"It seems that you have figured it out yourself. Yes, that's it."
Emerald sighed, "The so-called Claw Mark is an organization established by the former Gem Scepter Purple Diamond to escape capture after he stole the Source of the Beast and defected from the kingdom."
"Purple Diamond, who escaped from the kingdom, took with her a number of magical girls who were willing to follow her, including quite a few karuta. After fleeing to the material world, this group of magical girls established a certain cooperative relationship with the Black Dawn. After several years of silence, they began to operate in their current form."
"The magical girls who joined Claw Mark would have experienced a decline in magic power due to exceeding their term of office. In order to deal with this, the alternative they chose was the power of the remaining beasts."
"All the magical girls of Claw Scar have abandoned their past code names and seem to have adopted the names of birds and beasts as their new code names. Their leader, the rebellious Purple Diamond, has also abandoned her title as a gem and adopted a new code name: White Wolf."
"This is the origin of the claw marks now."
The doll's paw gently pressed on the edge of the bed: "This is also why I started to pursue the origin of the beast and wanted to start studying it again."
"...To deal with the claw marks?" Delphinium looked at it.
"That's the case on the surface, but the deeper reason is that I don't allow magical girls to have techniques that I can't master."
Emerald's voice was still lazy, but when she said this, her tone seemed unshakable: "The magic power of the magic girl and the magic power of the remnant beast are mutually exclusive. To be more precise, they have a relationship of confrontation and corrosion."
"The magic of the magical girl will repel and hinder the magic of the remnant beast; the magic of the remnant beast will devour and assimilate the magic of the magical girl. The result of these two kinds of magic together is that they are incompatible and there is no possibility of coexistence at all."
"Why did White Wolf steal the Beast Source? And after stealing the Beast Source from the Kingdom, why did she develop the technology that allows magical girls to master the magic of beasts in just a few years? Obviously, she got something from the Beast Source."
"I don't want to brag, but my academic research ability is undoubtedly superior to that of a reckless person like her. If she can learn and master the technology, there is no reason why I can't master it."
"Then the gap between her and me is obviously the source of the beast."
"Her technique must be based on the source of beasts, and in those claw-marked magical girls, I saw an unprecedented phenomenon, that is, they became some kind of 'artificial deflectors'."
"They were all originally magical girls, but their magical base has shifted towards the residual beasts. It can be said that they have become beings with dual powers and identities."
The doll paused for a moment when he spoke here, and then changed the subject: "And, this is why I want to tell you about the child."
Delphinium was stunned at the turn of events in Emerald's words, and then began to ponder the meaning. After a moment, she realized something: "... Bo Xue?"
From Emerald's description of the claw marks, she did feel a hint of familiarity: because she had heard a similar theory not long ago.
Without having to recall, she immediately remembered that this was the description she had given to Bai Jingxuan on the way here.
Emerald said at the time that Bai Jingxuan's magic was naturally beast-oriented, and if she hadn't been chosen as a magical girl, she could be said to be a natural "beast". However, she took another path during the attack on the welfare home, and became a magical girl by coincidence.
So, after she became a magical girl, did that end? Obviously, the answer is no.
"She is a natural beastman, and after she became a magical girl, she was born with 'claw marks'."
Emerald read out the words in a gentle but calm voice, as if making a verdict: "Pureer than White Wolf, more complete, closer to perfection, the real 'claw mark'."
(End of this chapter)
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