Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Book 2: Chapter 34: New Member

Vol 2 Chapter 34 New Member

At the start of December, the cold had set in. A bleak winter wind brought a light snowfall, and Fangting City’s streets took on a much paler hue for the season.

The pale sky stretched vast and empty. Though sunlight shone down, it offered no warmth at all. The cold wind carried a faint, howling whistle, like nature itself was growling in protest.

It was the weekend, but the streets were nearly empty. The cold seeped into everything, and the few who ventured out bundled up in thick winter coats, trudging through the gray-and-white cityscape with chilled faces. The city’s usual clamor had been scattered by the wind, leaving behind only silence and desolation.

In weather like this, most people preferred to spend their rare weekends indoors with the heat cranked up high.

Outside was bleak and freezing—inside, the warmth was precious. A pane of glass divided the two worlds. Beads of condensation still clung to the windowpanes, like the cold outside was reluctant to leave.

“Hah...” Lin Xiaolu exhaled a puff of fog onto the window. Bored out of her mind, she drew a crude smiley face on the fogged glass. She peered out through the little gap in the drawing at the still-empty street, sighed, then glanced at Xia Liang, who was lying on the couch fiddling with her phone.

“Why isn’t Veronica back yet?”

“You say you’re asking about Veronica, but it sounds like there’s something else in there too,” Xia Liang replied lazily without even lifting her head.

“I’m not alone with you. We just happen to be in the same living room, that’s all.”

Xiaolu glanced again at her masterpiece, only to find it already warped and faded. She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. I really am just asking about Veronica.”

“You’ve already asked that at least three times, even if there’s nothing else behind it.”

Still tapping away on her screen, Xia Liang mumbled, “She’s not back yet. No point stressing about it. Don’t you have anything else to do?”

“Nope.”

Xiaolu wiped away her drawing with one palm and grumbled, “I’ve hit a bottleneck in my magic training, already finished all my homework, and there’s nothing fun on TV. I have absolutely nothing to do.”

“What about games? Your Magical Girl team?”

“Finished. I cleared every stage.”

She turned from the window and slumped back into the couch. “And I already got that character from Morning Bloom. Maxed out her level too. There’s nothing left to keep me playing.”

“Wasn’t there a new event? A new character too, what was it... Morning Glory, or something?”

“Not interested. I don’t like gloomy types. Magical Girls should sparkle and shine.”

At the mention of “Morning Glory,” Xiaolu scrunched her lips with clear disdain. “As for the new event, it’s the most generic villain debut template ever. Even the anime’s done that to death.”

“Then go fight other players! Doesn’t that game have a PvP mode?”

“Huh? You want me to send my carefully raised Magical Girls into battle just to get humiliated if I lose? That’s evil!”

“Blame the game devs, not me. I’m just stating facts.”

Xia Liang finally put down her phone. “If nothing else works, why not head downstairs and train with Xiaoxuan?”

“She already awakened her Magical Armor. I’d be useless.”

Xiaolu sulked. “And honestly, that kid’s gotten way stronger lately. I can’t get an edge over her at all anymore.”

“Well, yeah. That’s fair.”

Xia Liang nodded thoughtfully. “You can’t beat her anymore, and I’m about to reach Leaf-tier, but even I don’t have much advantage over her now. Our junior’s been spending way more one-on-one time training her. I feel like something’s changed with her, something we don’t know.”

“Really?”

Xiaolu rested her elbows on her knees, blinking curiously. “I didn’t notice anything.”

“You picked up on it though, right? That kid’s totally stopped calling her ‘Teacher.’ Now it’s just ‘Mom’ all the time.”

Xia Liang leaned her head back on the armrest, meeting Xiaolu’s gaze. “Doesn’t that strike you as... a little weird?”

“What’s wrong with that? I’m the one who told her to do it.”

Xiaolu tilted her head, totally unbothered. “Elementary school kids are just like that. Expressing affection this way isn’t a big deal.”

“Then why haven’t you said it in days?”

“I’m not a kid! And besides, Veronica clearly doesn’t know how to deal with that title!”

Xiaolu shot back defensively, then leaned into the sofa and struck a thoughtful pose. “Even if things do go that way someday... their relationship hasn’t actually reached that point yet. It’d be kinda selfish of me to jump the gun, wouldn’t it?”

“...Whatever makes you happy.”

Xia Liang gave her a cryptic smile that Xiaolu couldn’t make heads or tails of. Then, with a bounce, she sprang up from the couch. “Anyway, let’s clean the place up together?”

“Ugh, no way.”

Xiaolu immediately recoiled. “I just did it yesterday. It’s your turn today. Don’t try to drag me down with you.”

“You’ve got nothing better to do, right?”

Xia Liang gave her a sly smile. “Consider it team bonding.”

“Not interested.”

Xiaolu rolled her eyes and flopped even deeper into the couch, heels kicking up in refusal. “If I’m gonna waste time, I’d rather a Ravager pop up so I can go beat the s**t out of it.”

“A Ravager, huh?”

Xia Liang’s eyes lit up with innocent amusement. “Without white magic, even a slightly tough Caterpillar would flatten you. That’s a Seed-tier, remember?”

“Y–You!” Xiaolu’s feet hit the floor with a thud.

Just as their back-and-forth was about to spiral into yet another pointless bickering match, a sound from the entryway interrupted them.

Bang!

The sharp slam of the door caught both of their attention. Their gazes shot toward the entrance in unison.

If ears could perk up like a dog’s, Xiaolu’s would’ve. She knew exactly what that kind of door slam meant.

“Veronica, you’re ba—”

Xiaolu leapt to her feet and jogged over in slippers, clearly ready to pounce on the returnee. But as soon as she saw who was standing in the doorway, her excitement deflated, and she shut her mouth with a weird expression.

Because it wasn’t just Veronica standing there—someone else had come with her.

The new girl was dressed in deep magenta, her face vaguely familiar, but Xiaolu couldn’t quite place it. If she had seen someone like this before, it was probably in a mobile game.

But yelling out a game character’s name to someone you just met? That’s peak delusional fan behavior. So Xiaolu wisely stayed quiet.

Veronica caught the wary, slightly defensive look on Xiaolu’s face. She glanced at the girl beside her, lips parting like she wanted to explain—but then she paused, closed her eyes, and seemed to come to a decision.

“Call Bosetsu, Little Viola, and Moko. I need to introduce you all to our new team member.”

“...New member?”

Xiaolu took in the girl in the red dress and swallowed her instinctive thought: She looks way older than the rest of us. Instead, she just huffed softly and walked off, full of questions.

It wasn’t long before the whole Secret Base was gathered.

“Let me introduce you. This is a new Magical Girl who just arrived in Fangting City. She’ll be joining our squad as a non-resident member and will fight alongside us in certain battles.”

Veronica gestured toward the girl beside her, her face serious. “Compared to you, she’s technically a senior, so if you have any questions, you can ask her.”

The room fell quiet. Veronica glanced around, then continued.

“Any questions?”

Summer was the first to raise her hand, so Veronica nodded for her to speak.

“I don’t get it! What does ‘non-resident member’ mean?”

“She’ll stay in Fangting City, but not in the Secret Base. She won’t be on daily patrols either,” Veronica explained patiently. “She’ll help with important missions and training, but has other responsibilities the rest of the time.”

“Is she from The Kingdom?”

Bai Jingxuan asked, “She doesn’t seem like a local Magical Girl.”

Veronica hesitated. “Yes and no. She’s a lot like me. She was born here, but something happened later...”

“Mom’s friend?”

Bai Jingxuan mulled it over, then nodded obediently. “Then I don’t have any more questions.”

“I do! As the Seeder, I have a problem with this!” Moko suddenly shouted.

“This may be the Inspector’s call, but I’m in charge of Magical Girl personnel in this city! I’ve never sensed this girl before! Suddenly she shows up and says she’s joining our squad? That’s not how it’s supposed to work!”

“I get that it’s sudden. We’ll handle the paperwork later.”

Veronica crossed her arms. “Today’s just a quick intro. We’ll discuss the details another time.”

“We still deserve to know who she is, don’t we?”

Xiaolu was the last to speak, her tone sharp and blunt. “Even if Veronica brought her, even if she’s a senior... a stranger joining our squad just like that...”

Her voice trailed off, but everyone knew what she meant.

Even Summer and Bai Jingxuan had hinted at the same thing.

Veronica finally dropped her stiff posture and sighed, exchanging a glance with the girl beside her. Something passed between them—something the others couldn’t understand.

Then, the new girl spoke up awkwardly:

“Um... I used to be a Magical Girl in Fangting City. I only recently returned—well, I guess I should say I resumed duty?”

“You used to be here?” Summer frowned. “You’re the senior who left two years ago?”

“No, not exactly...”

“So you’re from even earlier? Then you must’ve retired already!”

Summer tilted her head. “So like our junior, you were born here but joined the Magic Kingdom and came back for a mission?”

“I didn’t join the Magic Kingdom, actually... I retired.”

“Retired?!”

Every single person—fairies included—gasped in shock.

Everyone knew retired Magical Girls lost their powers and couldn’t transform again. What the girl just said shattered that belief.

“You’re saying you retired, but now you’re back in action?”

Even Summer was stunned. “Is there a rule we haven’t learned about yet? Or does the Kingdom have privileges? Wait... this sounds kind of familiar...”

“Alright, enough guessing.”

Veronica finally cut in, exasperated. “You all do know her. She’s my junior. Magical Girl alias: Morning Glory.”

Silence fell.

And then it exploded into a new round of startled exclamations.

“Aunt Hong?!” Bai Jingxuan blurted out.

“Oh wow, it’s her...” Summer half-covered her mouth but still corrected her title.

“That weird woman?!” Moko said bluntly.

Voices overlapped, expressing various levels of disbelief.

But one person stayed silent.

Lin Xiaolu.

Not because she wasn’t shocked, or because she’d figured it out sooner—but because her mind had already wandered in an odd direction.

She’d caught that shy, emotional smile Hong Siyu gave Veronica... and the soft, helpless look Veronica returned.

What’s up with those two?

The mystery of Hong Siyu’s identity had been solved—but this new question had already hijacked Lin Xiaolu’s thoughts completely.