Chapter 348: Temptation from the Dark
"Sorry, I'm late. Is it still too late to go in and watch the ceremony now?"
As the time gradually approached evening, at the south gate of the Silver Corridor, a fashionable blond girl was explaining to the guards at the gate: "Something urgent happened at home during the day, so I had to go and deal with it. But because my students took the exam, I still want to see the result. This is my invitation, can I invite you..."
"In principle, this is not allowed, ma'am, because your majesty has already entered the venue. It would be disrespectful to allow other guests to enter after your majesty."
The staff member of the Examination Yuan standing at the door took the invitation from the girl and carefully checked it. "However, I can understand your feelings. If you really just want to see your students' performance, as long as you do not enter the viewing seats after entering, it will not violate the rules if you take a look somewhere else."
"Really? That's great!"
The blonde girl raised her eyebrows when she heard that, and a look of joy appeared in her tired eyes with heavy dark circles under her eyes: "Thank you so much, I was just wondering what to do in this situation..."
"Haha, it's the Queen's Year after all, so the more accommodating the better."
The magical girl in charge of guarding waved her hand, with an attitude of "it's no big deal". "However, because our boss has made a request before, it is not enough to just check the invitation. We must also verify the authentication card and the person's magic fluctuations. Although I also think that there is a bit of excessive protection... But let's go through the process. Excuse me, did you bring your authentication card?"
"Ah... a certification card, right?"
The blonde girl was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head and began to search in her bag. However, as she searched deeper, her expression became a little unnatural, and it was obvious that the result was not as expected.
"Strange, I remember putting it in when I left..."
She muttered in distress, but her hands gradually slowed down until she finally gave up searching: "I'm sorry, I can't find it. Maybe I left it at home."
"Are you sure you forgot to bring it? Or did you lose it accidentally?"
The magical girl in charge of guarding the gate said in a serious tone, "If you accidentally lost it, it's best to sense your location as soon as possible and retrieve the authentication card. Things in the city have been a bit uneasy lately."
"Oh, no... I don't remember using it since I left the house, so..."
The blonde girl closed her eyes, as if she was carefully sensing something. After a moment, she opened her eyes and showed a helpless expression: "Well, judging from the direction and distance, I think I really left it at home."
"Really? That's good."
The guard relaxed his brows and nodded: "However, please understand our rules. Although you have an invitation, we still cannot let you in if you don't show your ID card."
"Oh, I see... But my home is far from the Silver Corridor. If I run back and forth, I might not be able to see the results of the test in time."
The blonde girl pleaded, "Are you really totally unacceptable?"
"I'm sorry, ma'am." The guard could only shake his head.
Obviously, the blonde girl was really reluctant to go home to get the certification card, so she begged for a while, until the guard said firmly, "You must have the certification card," and then she left with some disappointment.
The blonde girl flew away from the gate of the Silver Corridor with a sad face, stayed in the territory of the college area for a long time, and flew towards the Emerald District slowly, but then turned back to the magic-free area as if she regretted it, and entered the boundary of the magic-free area a few minutes later. After gathering all the magic power in her body and walking along the street for a while like an ordinary passerby, she lowered her head and suddenly went into an alley.
After that, no one saw the girl coming out of the alley again.
At the same time, in another alley several blocks away, a capable woman with long golden hair, wearing a gray-black windbreaker and sunglasses strode out, and then calmly walked into a cafe nearby.
She waved to the owner at the counter, then walked up the wooden stairs to the second floor and then turned sideways to enter a separate private room.
——"No, you can't get in with just an invitation. Their inspection is very strict. You must have a certification card, and they also need to check your magic fluctuations."
After she walked in and closed the door, she told him her experience without any extra explanation, then walked to the only empty seat and sat down, picking up a half-drunk but still warm cup of coffee from the table in front of her:
"To be honest, I feel that the inspections these days are too strong. Whether I leave or enter the Silver Corridor, I feel more than one hidden sense. Even when I left the Silver Corridor, someone followed me and observed me for a long time. I thought I had been exposed."
"Did you get rid of it?" asked the person sitting opposite her.
"Well, I threw out a few different magic baits, and the guy took the bait and didn't follow me."
The blonde girl put down her coffee and reached out to pull up her sunglasses, revealing her dead fish eyes that looked as if her soul had already rotted. "But this time it was because they didn't take me seriously enough. If it's a karuta next time, I'm afraid I won't be able to come back so smoothly."
"There's no need for a next time anyway, so just testing it once is enough."
The other girl sitting on her left spoke frivolously, poking the dessert in front of her with a fork and grinning, "But I never thought the people in the kingdom would put such a high level of security on an exam... Sister Cat, you might have been sold out by your old lover."
The person she called "Cat Sister" was the one sitting opposite the blonde girl and the first person to ask about the situation. At this time, this "Cat Sister" still seemed calm, just sitting there quietly, as if thinking about something.
"It may not be because of the problem with Black Cat. In my personal opinion, it may be because the royal court wants to show off their power, so they have increased the security force excessively."
The blonde girl argued: "Although this logic doesn't explain why someone would follow me. It's as if they were really looking for someone."
——"It doesn't matter. Their motivation for strengthening censorship is not important to us, because from the beginning, we have been prepared for the worst."
Just when the three girls had expressed their opinions to a certain extent, a fourth voice suddenly emerged in the small compartment.
After the voice came out, the three girls had different reactions. The blonde girl looked impatient, the girl eating cake beside her was very interested, and the girl called "Cat Sister" had no expression on her face, staring at the speaker with her eyes like a wild beast.
There is no doubt that these three people are the claw marks that the Demonic Affairs Institute has been searching for for nearly half a month, but they have not appeared again as if they have evaporated from the face of the earth. The girl called "Cat Sister" is Mo He, who has had many interactions with Cui Que.
As for the person who suddenly spoke and attracted their attention with his words, he was a person who seemed out of place at the scene.
It was a man in a grey suit and a mask.
He had neatly combed black short hair, and his hands outside his sleeves were slightly wrinkled, indicating that he was not young. However, his upright posture and magnetic voice, which did not sound old at all, proved that he was not that old.
There is no doubt that this is a middle-aged man, probably around fifty years old, who is gradually entering old age.
(End of this chapter)
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