Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Book 2: Chapter 95: Strange Competition

Vol 2 Chapter 95: Strange Competition

On the other side, opposite Bai Jingxuan, Xia Liang had also started her own private tutoring session.

As the only current Leaf-tier member of the team, Xia Liang's primary task during this period—besides continuing her training with her Magical Armor—was to undergo more systematic study of spells and rituals.

"Guiding Departure," her Magical Armor, had quite strong synergy with various spells. Aside from explosive-type rituals, it could produce a chemical reaction greater than the sum of its parts when combined with many others. Unfortunately, Veronica herself had limited knowledge when it came to spell theory. Her ideas were mostly limited to explosive combinations, and more intricate pairings were beyond her grasp—so giving Xia Liang proper guidance was simply out of her depth.

In the spirit of “those more capable take the lead,” Veronica decided to delegate the task. Ultimately, the one chosen to oversee this special training session was none other than Hong Siyu.

As the saying goes, there's always someone more experienced. When it came to spellcasting among the Magical Girls currently staying in Fangting City—setting aside that out-of-scope oddball Emerald—Hong Siyu probably had the deepest understanding. In fact, even when you widened the comparison to include the entire Magic Kingdom, the number of spells she had mastered still ranked in the upper echelon. So assigning her to teach this portion of training was the safest and soundest option.

"Alright then, starting today, I’ll be Little Xia Liang’s teacher!"

With a stack of notebooks and scratch paper in hand—and somehow having dug up a pair of black-rimmed glasses—Hong Siyu sat confidently in front of Xia Liang, fired up and ready to go. "I’ll start from the most basic spells and go through every one you need to know. If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to stop me at any time."

"Got it! Thanks a lot, I’ll do my best!"

Xia Liang responded with equal enthusiasm, but when she saw the pile of notebooks on the table, she couldn’t help but ask, "By the way, Sister Hong... these notebooks are…?"

"Oh, these?" Hong Siyu's eyes lit up at the question. She immediately spread out the notebooks in front of her and began pointing them out with familiarity. "This one’s my notes on introductory spellcasting for the energy-manipulation category. This one’s for transformation-type spells. This one is a collection of common mistakes in balance-type spells. This one covers the theoretical foundations of wave-guided spells. And over here, we’ve got complex variables. This one is thermodynamics and statistical physics..."

Xia Liang could still more or less guess what the first few were about, but as Hong Siyu went on, the content started to sound more and more off. And with the way she was introducing each notebook one by one like she wouldn’t stop until she finished them all, Xia Liang had to interrupt.

"Um, Sister Hong... are these all really related to spellcasting?"

"Hmm? Yep." Hong Siyu seemed confused, but still answered confidently.

"But... some of those sound like they have absolutely nothing to do with spells. They’re more like math and physics..." Xia Liang tried to slow her speech, carefully watching Hong Siyu’s expression as she spoke.

"They’re also part of what you’ll need to learn for spells," Hong Siyu nodded. "Sure, magic doesn’t follow the laws of physics in the material world, but the effects it produces in the external world can still be predicted. And math is the universal tool we use in research."

"...That’s not quite what I meant."

Cold sweat trickled down Xia Liang’s temple as she stammered, "It’s just that I’ve never even touched most of the stuff you’re talking about..."

"Yeah, a lot of it is high school or even college-level material. Some of it’s only taught to students in specific majors. In the Kingdom, it’s usually only the Magical Girls at the Court of Research who need to study this stuff."

She raised a finger like she was showing off. "But your Sister Hong here, even though I didn’t go into a science major or join the Court of Research, I still self-studied all of this in college since I specialize in spellcasting."

"I-I see..."

Xia Liang nodded and swallowed. "So, these notebooks..."

"All handpicked beginner-level material. If you manage to get through all of this in the next month, I guarantee you’ll have a rock-solid foundation in spells."

Seeing Xia Liang’s eyes widen, Hong Siyu nodded approvingly. "Getting excited? Shaking with anticipation? That’s good. A Magical Girl who specializes in spellcasting needs to have that kind of spirit. No time to waste—let’s get started!"

"Uh... yeah..."

Xia Liang opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words. She looked down at the notebooks spread across the entire table, then stiffly raised her head and forced a smile.

"Okay. I’ll do my best."

“It’s your turn.”

In the underground training room of the base, Veronica spoke while reaching out to hand a strand of intricately woven Magic Threads to Lin Xiaolu.

The threads formed a symmetrical, complex, and beautifully patterned structure between her hands, hanging quietly in the space between them.

“Hmm...”

Staring at the design in front of her, Lin Xiaolu hesitated as she lifted her hands. But just as her fingers were about to touch the threads, she stopped again.

With a frown of concentration, she studied the structure closely for a while, and only then did she finally thread her fingers into the strands and carefully pull. After a bit of fumbling, she took the threads from Veronica’s hands.

The pattern instantly unraveled, collapsing into several plain strands.

Looking at the threads in her hands, Lin Xiaolu’s expression turned a little disappointed.

“...Ah. I messed up.”

“Yep. That’s a wrap.”

They both let out sighs at the same time.

As it appeared on the surface, the two had actually been playing a game of cat’s cradle.

An old traditional game from Donghua Province, cat’s cradle was a staple childhood memory for most kids growing up there.

There were generally two ways to play: one where a single person wove different patterns with the string, and the other, which was cooperative, played between two people. Naturally, what Veronica and Lin Xiaolu had been doing was the two-person version.

A looped piece of thread was used—one person would shape it into a basic pattern, and the other would then twist and transform it. Back and forth they’d go, until one person could no longer manipulate the threads into a stable form, or it got tangled and fell apart.

What they were doing was an advanced version of the childhood game. They didn’t follow preset shapes or forms, and didn’t even care about whether the next person could continue the pattern. The only rules were that it had to be “symmetrical” and not form a dead knot. The evolving designs were bewilderingly complex and completely unpredictable.

That was why, even after such long consideration, Lin Xiaolu still ended up failing.

She vividly remembered her mom playing this game with her when she was little. Back then, she had no concept of strategy or technique—most of the time, she was just messing things up for fun, pulling the threads in random ways to tangle up her mom’s hands. Her mom never scolded her for it and always let her play freely, so Lin Xiaolu never really learned how to play properly.

She never imagined that one day, this innocent childhood game would become the core of her training.

If she had known, she would've started practicing cat’s cradle from a young age—she even found herself regretting not doing so. But, of course, there were no do-overs.

This all began when she asked Veronica to teach her how to fight using threads.

At first, Veronica taught her step by step—basic combat techniques, slowing her own movements to spar with Lin Xiaolu, breaking things down into segments to show how to react in different scenarios, and how the threads could be adapted for combat.

After two days of training, Veronica finally explained the simplest concepts clearly and asked Lin Xiaolu to try using the threads in actual practice. That’s when things started going wrong.

Or maybe not “wrong,” exactly, since the outcome was perfectly predictable: Lin Xiaolu was a complete mess.

She’d trip over her own threads while walking. She’d accidentally bind herself while tightening the strands. She’d forget where her own thread ends were after setting up traps. She couldn’t control the thread thickness or positioning and kept slicing up clothes and skin—once, she even nearly sliced off one of Veronica’s fingers.

After that near-accident, Veronica immediately halted all combat training and introduced cat’s cradle as a substitute.

“We’re going back to basics. You need to understand spatial changes in the threads—at the very least, get a feel for how the threads shift through space when you pull on them.”

That was how Veronica explained the purpose of the cat’s cradle training. “When you’re in real combat, no enemy is going to give you time to plan out your thread strategies. And you won’t have the mental space to recall where you placed each thread. Without that sense for spatial positioning, you’ll end up hurting yourself before the enemy even makes a move.”

Lin Xiaolu didn’t argue—she knew better than anyone how embarrassing her earlier mishaps had been. And so, the “combat practice” portion of her special training was replaced with cat’s cradle.

Every day, aside from continuing her battle drills, Magical Armor training, and magic study, she also worked on mastering this deceptively simple game.

At first, she could only follow some basic preset patterns. But as time went on, she started to get the hang of it—enough to barely keep pace with Veronica and handle some very complicated patterns.

In the round they just played, even though she lost in the end, she had managed to last several turns against Veronica. Compared to her earlier self who couldn’t even make it through one, this was serious progress.

Of course, from Veronica’s perspective, Lin Xiaolu was still far from being able to use threads in battle. But if she continued improving at this rate, it was realistic to hope she could learn the basics within a month.

Because of that, Lin Xiaolu didn’t raise any further demands.

The two kept practicing for several more rounds until Lin Xiaolu started showing signs of mental fatigue. Only then did Veronica finally call it off.

Right around that time, Bai Jingxuan knocked on the training room door.

“Teacher, Sister Xiaolu, dinner’s ready!”

She poked her head through the door first to check they were both there, then walked in.

During the New Year holiday, since the Bo’an City Squad had already been staying there for a while, it felt wrong to keep acting like guests. So the Fangting City base finally re-established a proper household chore rotation.

The three senior girls took turns cooking and washing dishes, and handled the more labor-intensive cleaning. The six juniors and one fairy took care of things like laundry, wiping tables, and taking out the trash.

Today’s cook was Hong Siyu, with Bai Jingxuan helping out in the kitchen, which is why she came to call everyone for dinner.

That said, even when it came to the same task repeated over and over, her approach varied depending on whom she was dealing with. Normally, she'd just notify people and leave. But when it was Veronica and Lin Xiaolu, she would wait quietly at the door until they came out, then walk upstairs together—always on the opposite side of Lin Xiaolu.

The three of them going up the stairs side by side looked like a three-legged race. Even though the stairs were wide enough to walk comfortably, Veronica felt completely suffocated in the middle.

Whether it was physically uncomfortable or mentally, Veronica suspected it was more of the latter.

She could sense it clearly—these two on either side of her, even though they weren’t speaking, were exuding a subtle but palpable sense of mutual hostility in their silence. The atmosphere was stifling.

This tension had only arisen in the past few days.

At first, Lin Xiaolu had started clinging to Veronica more often, especially after receiving her approval. She’d grown more affectionate, even a little clingy. And that had a ripple effect—Bai Jingxuan, who had always liked to stay close to Veronica, suddenly found herself feeling out of place.

Still, Bai Jingxuan was a sensible girl. She didn’t throw tantrums just because Lin Xiaolu had taken “her spot.” If she had any feelings about it, she managed them quietly on her own.

After all, Lin Xiaolu couldn’t be glued to Veronica all day; she still had her own responsibilities. So Bai Jingxuan figured she could still spend time with Veronica during those moments.

But then the special training started, and the balance was shattered.

Bai Jingxuan began studying Corruption with Asou Madoka and spent most of her time on the Bo’an City side. Meanwhile, Lin Xiaolu had to stay with Veronica almost every day to train in thread-based combat. Naturally, she was with Veronica constantly, while Bai Jingxuan barely got to see her at all.

A day or two of this might have been fine—but after three, four days, things started to go sideways.

At first, it was just Bai Jingxuan showing up during break times or housework hours to seek out Veronica. And whenever Veronica was on cleaning duty—even on days when it wasn’t Bai Jingxuan’s turn to work—she would still come over to help.

This kind of thing wasn’t unusual. Bai Jingxuan had always liked helping Veronica with miscellaneous tasks. Lin Xiaolu had seen it before and never reacted.

But after the New Year, the nature of it all quietly began to change. Lin Xiaolu started actively helping Veronica too.

What started as a helpful gesture slowly turned into competition.

They began competing over chores, then over spots to sit near Veronica, then over her attention. Before long, the whole thing escalated into what could only be described as a fight for favor.

Of course, it wasn’t like this all sprang up overnight. Truthfully, some of the tension between Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu had always been there under the surface.

That’s not to say they were mortal enemies—not at all. In fact, if you set aside anything involving Veronica, their relationship was actually pretty good.

From Lin Xiaolu’s perspective, Bai Jingxuan was a sweet and sensible junior, a very lovable little sister. She admired Bai Jingxuan’s unyielding spirit in the face of her physical disability and had no problem making small sacrifices for her.

To Bai Jingxuan, Lin Xiaolu was a senior who had a bit of a temper on the outside but was gentle and kind underneath. After a string of previous misunderstandings, Bai Jingxuan had already come to view her as something like a real older sister. Naturally, she didn’t want to have any conflict with her.

So yes, they both wanted to get along. But once Veronica entered the picture, things just weren’t that simple anymore.

Back when Bai Jingxuan had first joined the team, Lin Xiaolu had already been a bit salty about “losing Veronica’s attention.”

That said, Veronica had been consciously keeping some emotional distance from the squad at the time, not letting herself get too close. So Lin Xiaolu had convinced herself not to compete with an elementary schooler over affection. At that point in her life, she was still figuring out what she wanted, still unsure of her own path. The thought that “I’m not getting enough love” had felt immature and childish.

So she bottled it up.

But that bottled-up feeling fermented over time—and truly began to resurface a month after the Moon Festival.

For some reason unknown to Lin Xiaolu, Veronica and Bai Jingxuan’s relationship had become visibly closer. At first, she’d justified their one-on-one time as tutoring—the younger girl had joined late and needed to catch up. But later, their alone time often had no educational purpose at all—it was just pure affection.

That made Lin Xiaolu burn with jealousy. So much so that her eyes actually turned red from it.

After the duels with Bo’an City, and the battle on New Year's Eve, everything finally pushed Lin Xiaolu to take action. She mustered her courage and made her move—determined to "win back the affection that should’ve been hers."

In her current mindset, she believed that Bai Jingxuan had already monopolized Veronica’s care for several months. Now that it was finally her turn, she was going to enjoy it to the fullest. That’s why she reacted to Bai Jingxuan with such a showy, almost vengeful sense of competition.

To Bai Jingxuan, it came across as naked provocation.

In truth, Bai Jingxuan could’ve chosen to ignore it. She could tell that Lin Xiaolu didn’t harbor much real malice. But it wasn’t that easy.

Because Lin Xiaolu had stolen the spot beside Veronica, and Bai Jingxuan hadn’t had any real one-on-one time with her in days.

Veronica wouldn’t let her call her “Mom” in front of others—only in private could she act spoiled and say it. That had always been their little arrangement. But now, because of Lin Xiaolu’s constant presence, that private space was gone.

For Bai Jingxuan, there weren’t many important people in her life. If she counted them on her fingers, it would only include her biological parents, Magical Girl Sakura who once saved her, Uncle Tian who now worked for the Countermeasure Bureau, Veronica, Uncle Lin, and her current teammates.

And if she had to pick the two most important ones, it would be Veronica and Lin Yun.

But the thing was, Uncle Lin—Lin Yun—though willing to be her “dad,” was still Lin Xiaolu’s real father. Bai Jingxuan knew that no matter what, she could never be as important to him as Lin Xiaolu was.

She didn’t want to fight her “Sister Xiaolu” for a “dad.” She knew that would make both of them sad. So she had turned to Veronica instead.

In her eyes, Veronica was the squad’s senior, everyone’s mentor. Everyone stood on equal footing before her. If she just worked a little harder, was a little more thoughtful, then even if she earned a little more love, that should be fine.

But she hadn’t expected Lin Xiaolu to start fighting for it too—and doing it so openly. Taking everything and leaving not a single space for her.

Bai Jingxuan was a very sensible child. Precisely because of that, she knew exactly what she wanted.

And the spot beside Veronica?

She wasn’t going to give it up.

So, a silent war broke out—one with no explosions or arguments, but with clear stakes nonetheless.

Veronica had been confused at first. But once she picked up on the strange rivalry between the two girls, she tried to intervene, hoping to defuse the tension before it grew worse.

Soon, she realized that this wasn’t something she could fix.

Why?

Because she herself was at the center of it all. And not just that—she was the de facto “judge” in this competition.

Trying to stop it was pointless. Forcing both sides to back down would only drive the rivalry underground.

And if she didn’t stop it—if she tried to convince just one of them to give up—then no matter what she said, no matter how kind her words, it would inevitably come off as favoritism.

And that would be the worst possible outcome.

In the end, frustrated and helpless, Veronica sought outside help.

She consulted Hong Siyu—who simply answered, “I want your love too, senpai.”

She consulted Asou Madoka—who, despite her good intentions and polite advice, was even more clueless about emotional matters than Veronica was.

With no other options, Veronica could only pretend she didn’t notice what was going on. She tried to maintain a balance between them, doing her best to make both girls feel loved.

And that… was how the bizarre sight of three girls squeezing up the stairs together came to be.