"Okay, I've understood the situation, and we'll contact the branches in other cities to see if we can relay the situation to the Magic Kingdom through the other Seeders,"
Listening to the voice coming from the phone, Lin Yun gazed out of the window with lifeless eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed with a hint of helplessness, "Yeah, thank you, sorry to trouble you."
It was the morning of the following day, and Lin Yun was in his own office.
He was on a call with Hong Siyu.
The unexpected event from the previous evening had ultimately affected his sleep, so at the moment, he was groggy and not in the best condition.
However, he had many matters to deal with and couldn't rest. Setting aside the massive amount of work piled up at the company first thing in the morning, he had many questions to communicate with the Abnormal Strategy Bureau concerning the previous night's encounter at the wetland park.
In order to ensure his daughter's safety, he had participated in the battle under the alias of the Magical Girl "Emerald Sparrow" and repelled the enemy, but the incident was far from over. After all, from any perspective, it seemed as if a dark hand was controlling everything from behind the scenes.
In the end, he identified four main points of suspicion.
First was the fact that he couldn't contact Hong Siyu at the time when the Remnant Beasts appeared last night.
He had no official communication with the Abnormal Strategy Bureau; currently, he was basically exchanging information through his personal relationship with Hong Siyu. But the previous night, this link was severed.
According to the feedback from Hong Siyu, not only did she not receive his call, but there was also no trace of a missed call on her call history. It was as though Lin Yun had never made the call in the first place.
But that was impossible. Lin Yun clearly remembered contacting Hong Siyu after realizing his daughter was missing, but his call went unanswered.
Secondly, there was the mysterious phone call he received at noon on the day of the incident, which became unreachable thereafter, only returning a voice prompt stating "The number you have dialed is not within the service area."
The appearance of the caller was sudden and the purpose unclear, offering information then abruptly disappearing—why was this?
The third point concerned the abnormal magical barrier at the scene.
This was not technology that Remnant Beasts should possess, at least, an Inchworm-level Remnant Beast did not have this ability. And yet, Lin Xiaolu and he had only encountered one Remnant Beast at the scene, meaning there had to be at least one other enemy hidden in the shadows.
However, this enemy never made an appearance, even as they watched the Remnant Beast be defeated and made no move. What exactly was their goal?
Lastly, there was the huge question and threat concerning the Seeder called Mo Ke's claim that, before its arrival, there were no Seeders or Magical Girls in Fangting City.
Not to mention the lack of clues for this matter, there wasn't even a starting point for investigation—it was entirely a black box.
All these four points of doubt might be related to a conspiracy involving Lin Xiaolu, forcing him to pay close attention.
But the fragmented information was overwhelming, and with what he currently possessed, he couldn't piece together the truth, causing his already sleep-deprived brain to throb with pain.
"So, how does it feel to make a comeback?"
The question from Hong Siyu on the still ongoing call pulled Lin Yun back from his contemplation.
Gripping the phone, he lowered and then raised his hand again, contemplated the question briefly, and gave his response:
"Pretty bad."
It was very bad indeed: the decline in magic power, rusty skills, and the current state of Fangting City all worried him.
What was more important was that the outcome of this sortie went completely against his expectations.
Although his initial intent was simply to save his daughter, once he had successfully rescued her, he started to consider whether he could bluff the Seeder and perhaps deceive some information out of it. After gathering enough intelligence, he planned to reveal his identity to his daughter and have a happy ending.
But in the end, he got little useful information, didn't disclose his identity, and ended up impulsively agreeing to Mo Ke and Lin Xiaolu's requests. Now he had to conceal his identity while simultaneously guiding Lin Xiaolu through Magical Girl training.
While this could also fulfill his goal of "communicating with his daughter," it wasn't the way he wanted it to be.
But thinking of his daughter's confession to Emerald Sparrow the night before, he felt that revealing himself at this point might plunge both of them into an exceedingly awkward situation. So, he ended up not disclosing the truth.
Just thinking about continuing to play this awkward game of identities made him involuntarily massage his temples.
"Bad, huh... That's quite a personally characteristic answer,"
Hong Siyu seemed to chuckle over the line, "Senior, you shouldn't always push yourself so hard, when a man reaches middle age, there are times when he should admit it."
"May I hang up now?" Lin Yun responded with an indifferent attitude to the inappropriate joke that had suddenly popped up.
Hong Siyu this time laughed even louder, "Haha! Just a couple of jokes for fun, are you getting shy now?"
At that moment, the office door was pushed open, and a man with a scruffy beard walked in. Upon seeing Lin Yun on the call, he exaggeratedly gestured towards his mouth and then towards the door, using body language to ask, "Should I step out?"
Lin Yun quickly shook his head, saying into the phone, "Let's just leave it at that, we can talk about other things next time."
Then he completely ignored the protest on the other end from Hong Siyu and pressed the hang-up button.
With the call ended, he let out a sigh of relief as if a burden had been lifted.
"Look at you, can't blame me for trying."
A stack of documents was thrown onto the desk in front of him, and the man with the scruffy beard approached with a strange smirk, "I heard a woman's voice; have you finally decided to move on and find someone new?"
Lin Yun pulled a wry smile, helplessly looking at him, "Which ear of yours heard that I was flirting with someone?"
"The left one."
The man across didn't seem to care at all, "Anyway, sign here."
This man was named Liu Guanshan, the director of external affairs dispatch, and also someone who often interacted with Lin Yun at the same business level.
The two had become acquainted when they were both junior employees and had worked together for many years, maintaining a pretty good relationship, the kind where they'd occasionally have a drink or two together.
So their conversations were relatively unreserved, touching on topics like being a widower, which Lin Yun didn't mind discussing with him.
Taking a pen out of the holder, Lin Yun started signing the documents while explaining, "Not to say I'm not in the mood for it, I also don't dare, my child at home and I are already at odds, and if I really told her I wanted to find a stepmother for her, she would make a huge fuss."
Of course, these were just polite words. The real reason was that he didn't want to find someone; it was just that saying so outright would seem too pitiful, and he didn't want to leave that kind of impression in the workplace.
"Still fussing? Just give her some more pocket money to appease her," Liu Guanshan suggested carelessly, plopping down on the corner of the desk. "It's the same with my kids, quiet them down with a little something and all's good."
"I've told you before, it's not about pocket money," Lin Yun replied while continuing to sign, "If I had known what she was thinking before, it wouldn't have gotten to this point."
"Want one?" Liu Guanshan, sitting on the desk, pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket.
"I'll have it after I finish signing."
"Hengyun side said they're finishing up tonight, invited us for dinner, are you going?"
"No, I'm going home to be with my kid."
"Oh, so family-minded?" Liu Guanshan teased.
"Just think of me as family-minded," Lin Yun replied with a touch of melancholy.
Indeed, he had plans to spend the evening with his daughter, but unfortunately, it wouldn't be in the capacity of a father.
His daughter becoming a Magical Girl was an irreversible reality, and no matter how unwilling he was to accept it, he would now have to act based on this fact.
And first on the list of subsequent actions was undoubtedly teaching.
——He had to be a good senior Magical Girl, going to guide his own daughter on how to train in the evening.