Chapter 21: New Enemy Added?

Morning at Bai Qiuchen’s home, the little girls gathered in the spacious backyard, preparing to start today’s training.

“Little Nox, what are you looking at?”

Alice came over to Nox, who was holding a tablet and staring at it without blinking, and leaned her head in.

On the screen was Bai Qiu, sprawled on the bed and sleeping soundly.

She turned over, exposing her bare belly–not a single button on her pajamas was fastened.

She even scratched her belly.

“Teacher is really casual at home.”

Nox complained, tossing the tablet into the shadows.

“Well, he is Teacher.”

Alice shrugged helplessly.

“Teacher even blocked my alt account.”

Nox laughed here.

“Heh, he definitely didn’t expect me to have more than one alt.”

“By the way, did you see Teacher’s fight this morning?”

Nox laughed here.

“It was exactly the expected result.”

“Teacher is way too weak.”

“Completely~ no~ match~ at~ all~”

“Ha~~ meow.”

“What meow…”

Caili was lying on the small table in the gazebo, rubbing her eyes.

She clearly hadn’t woken up yet.

For Caili, the word “early rising” simply didn’t exist in her life, so naturally she couldn’t know about things that happened in the morning.

Even for morning training, someone had to wake her up, help her wash, and finally carry her out of the room.

And that wasn’t all.

To get her to the point where she could train, they still had to wait for her to wake up a bit on her own.

“Honestly, Teacher.”

“I’ve told him so many times, but he still pulls all-nighters.”

Zhen Hong puffed out her cheeks and silently vowed, “I’ll make Teacher’s sleep schedule healthy sooner or later.”

“This training plan Teacher made… why does it have us fight each other?”

He Xi sat on the steps connecting the living room and the backyard, looking at the training plan Bai Qiu had given them in confusion.

This was what Bai Qiu had handed to her, and then had her pass on to the others.

Although everyone had several pages, it boiled down to one useless sentence: discover your own shortcomings and your opponent’s through training.

It didn’t explain the reason for doing this, only stating the obvious.

What else could training be for if not to find your own shortcomings?

“I guess he planned it based on anime.”

Nox guessed it without mercy, hitting the mark.

That’s right.

It was exactly the plan Bai Qiuchen had come up with on a whim after staying up all night studying battle manga yesterday.

“Are we going to follow Teacher’s plan?”

“Or… do we do our own thing?”

He Xi looked at them.

“Let’s follow Teacher’s plan.”

“But first we need to reinforce this place.”

Alice took a gear off her dress and tossed it into the air.

The gear stopped in midair, let out a “click” as it locked into place, and slowly began to turn.

A faint tick-tock sound of clockwork began to flow.

“I’ll go first.”

“Afterward, I’ll be in charge of rewinding this place to before training.”

“Who wants to spar with me?”

Alice took the gear embedded with the Heart Stone from her dress.

It transformed, extended, and bent, becoming a mechanical scythe.

“Let me struggle a little longer, meow…”

Caili was still fighting a powerful sleep demon.

Against her like this, even an ordinary person could win easily.

“I’ll handle the recording.”

Nox jumped into the shadows and set up cameras all around, ensuring every frame of the training would be recorded.

“Uh… I…”

“Then I’ll do it.”

Zhen Hong stood opposite Alice.

She drew her right hand across the air, and the space she traced caught fire.

A magic book of red and gold appeared from within.

“This is our first spar, isn’t it.”

“Yeah.”

“I also want to see if I can ignite Alice’s ‘Time’.”

“The answer will definitely disappoint you.”

“That’s hard to say.”

The two faced each other, ready to move.

“Ring ring—“

As if it were the signal for the battle to begin, the doorbell rang clearly in everyone’s ears.

“Huh?”

“Wh… should we go…”

Jiu panicked for a moment.

Almost at the same time.

Alice accelerated her own time and vanished from where she stood in the blink of an eye.

With an elegant, confident smile on her face, Zhen Hong lightly traced her hand across the magic book.

Flying pages burst out from it and instantly covered the entire field.

“Ring ring—“

Alice kept accelerating and easily dodged every page.

A clock’s “click” sounded.

She applied a pause effect to Zhen Hong while raising her scythe and charging at her.

Just when she thought she could win easily, all the pages instantly ignited, forming a huge wall of fire that separated her from Zhen Hong.

“Ring ring—“

‘Can’t pause?’

Alice was startled, and her steps stopped as well.

The flames that should have stopped dancing still danced.

Her time pause had not taken effect.

“It seems the answer has already been revealed.”

Zhen Hong’s voice came from the other side of the fire wall.

At the same time, the scythe in Alice’s hand suddenly became unbearably hot, forcing her to throw it away and move away from the fire wall.

And only then did she realize that her own time acceleration was no longer working either.

“You’re kidding…”

Alice stared in shock at Zhen Hong walking out of the flames.

Her initial confidence had completely vanished.

“Just as I thought.”

“I can ignite little Alice’s ‘Time’.”

Zhen Hong closed the book, and the flames vanished in an instant, as if the sea of fire just now had been an illusion.

“Ring ring—“

“Ring ring ring—“

“Ring ring ring ring—“

The doorbell kept ringing nonstop, showing no sign of stopping.

“Teacher and Sister Xiao Mu still haven’t gone to answer the door?”

Nox glanced at the second floor.

The curtains of Bai Qiuchen’s room were still tightly closed.

“Teacher probably upgraded the Soundproofing Magic in his room and Sister Xiao Mu’s room.”

Alice released her transformation as if deflating and headed toward the living room.

“Let’s go take a look.”

The others also released their transformations one after another and followed behind Alice.

They crossed the living room, opened the front door, and sneaked around to the wall.

The little girls poked their heads out from behind the wall and looked over.

Standing at the entrance was a girl a few years older than them, who looked about the same age as Bai Qiumu.

She had medium-length blue-green hair, wore a white beret, knee-high white socks, and carried a crossbody bag…

Her eyes were fixed on her phone as she kept pressing the doorbell, with no intention of stopping.

“Is she Teacher’s friend?”

Xilalite murmured.

“It could also be Sister Xiao Mu’s.”

Jiu guessed.

“Most likely.”

Alice agreed.

Everyone present knew that Bai Qiuchen’s social circle was small.

He kept most relationships at arm’s length.

There shouldn’t be anyone close enough to visit him at home.

They wanted to observe a little longer, or wait and see if Bai Qiuchen or Bai Qiumu would wake up.

But it seemed heaven didn’t want to give them that chance.

The girl who had been ringing the doorbell nonstop suddenly stopped and looked around, spotting them immediately.

“Hey, you—can you come over here for a moment?”

The girl was surprised for a moment, then smiled and waved them over.

“This is Teacher Bai–Bai Qiuchen’s home, right?”

“I saw the rental listing online and came, but no matter how many messages I sent, he didn’t reply, and I couldn’t get through when I called.”

“Are you his little sisters?”

As she spoke, the girl began guessing their identities on her own.

“I did know Teacher Bai has one little sister, but I never expected Teacher to have so many cute little sisters.”

“I never noticed before at all.”

“Are you relatives’ children?”

“As expected of Teacher, he really does have a special attraction for young girls.”

‘She knows Teacher too?’

Alice thought.

‘Is she really here for Teacher?’

Xilalite frowned slightly.

‘A-An-Another one?’

Jiu secretly observed from the back.

The girls exchanged glances.

They were all thinking the same thing–there was no mistake.

This person was also a Magical Girl from the Association, and she was also here for Teacher.

Even without speaking, they all understood what they had to do first–find out this person’s identity.

The girls moved from the wall to the front of the courtyard gate, facing each other across it.

“Um, can you open the door?”

“Or can you let me see Teacher?”

“I’m not a bad person, you know.”

The girl showed a gentle smile.

“It’s okay if you don’t open the door.”

“Just call Teacher over, and he can prove I’m not a bad person.”

“Ah, could it be that I came at a bad time and Teacher just isn’t here?”

“Then that would be a little troublesome…”

The girl smiled with a slightly troubled look, as if she had already decided that they would open the door.

“Uh…”

Her confident, almost arrogant attitude made them hesitant to step forward.

Clearly, whether from her tone or expression, she could undoubtedly be called a gentle person, but they just felt she had ill intentions.

There’s a saying: the gentler someone is when you first meet them, the more likely they are to harbor ill intentions.

Although they didn’t know who said it, the little girls remembering this line at this moment undoubtedly deepened their suspicion of the girl before them.

“We’re not Brother Qiuchen’s little sisters.”

“We’re tenants too.”

“May I ask who you are?”

Li Ai prepared to transform at any moment and mustered the courage to step forward and ask.

“Not little sisters?”

The girl was stunned.

Her originally bright blue eyes instantly turned cold.

Her formerly enthusiastic tone immediately changed into the kind one uses when facing someone they don’t like–a little polite, a little rude, and somewhat deliberately distant.

“My name is Zhuang Zhilian.”

“I suppose you could say I’m Teacher’s student.”

“You few…”

As she spoke, she secretly sized them up.

‘These guys… they’re not Teacher’s little sisters.’

‘Could they be “them”?’

‘That “magic” is such a pain.’

“Forget it.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are.”

Zhuang Zhilian shook her head impatiently, giving up on thinking about such a meaningless question to her.

“Hurry up and open the door.”

“I want to see Teacher.”

“For safety reasons, we can’t open the door for you.”

Alice stood together with Li Ai.

“Huh?”

“I’m…”

Just as the words left her mouth, Zhuang Zhilian remembered the Association’s rule–she could not expose her true identity, especially to unrelated ordinary people.

Unable to determine their identities, she could only force the words back down her throat.

“Then can you call Teacher over?”

“Teacher knows who I am.”

“He can prove I’m not a bad person.”

Zhuang Zhilian frowned and looked coldly at Alice and Li Ai.

“I’m sorry, he’s not home right now.”

Zhuang Zhilian’s frown deepened, and her tone became even more impatient.

“Then when will he be back?”

“We don’t know either.”

“He didn’t tell us where he went.”

Alice directly cut off Zhuang Zhilian’s next question.

“You…”

Zhuang Zhilian’s gaze swept over them, and she vaguely saw wisps of white mist emanating from around her.

“You’re not lying to me, are you.”

“No.”

Alice’s tone didn’t change in the slightest as she calmly met Zhuang Zhilian’s gaze.

“…I’ll come again later.”

“By then, I’ll contact Teacher in advance.”

Leaving those words behind, Zhuang Zhilian left without looking back.

“I don’t like that person.”

Xilalite showed a disgusted expression.

It was rare for her to find someone this detestable.

“That aggressive attitude… so scary.”

Jiu was very unhappy with her domineering manner.

“What happened, meow…?”

Only Shang Mengyou looked as if she had just woken up from a dream, still not understanding the situation.

“We’ll have to ask Teacher later.”

Li Ai silently calculated their next plan.