As a veteran receptionist at the Magic Kingdom's Exam Institute, Receptionist No.7 has always been reputed as "competent" among her colleagues.
Indeed, being acknowledged or even praised in daily life is pleasant, but at work, Receptionist No.7 would rather not have this so-called "good reputation".
Thanks to this reputation, her supervisors always assign her some rather arduous tasks and come to her with content that is impossible or unknown how to finish. Overtime work also seems to mysteriously land on her lap.
Although the Exam Institute is a joint subsidiary of the Magical Affairs Institute and the Research Institute and thus is not short on overtime pay, the constant increase in workload would frustrate anyone who can't seem to finish tasks, no matter how hardworking and complaint-free they are.
Also, due to frequent overtime, her position at Window No.7 has almost become her personal workstation, which has earned her the uninspiring nickname "No.7". Today, a colleague who was supposed to be on rotating leave had an emergency, so naturally, she stepped in to handle the recent credential certification registration at the reception.
The reception is set up in the academy area of Luennolay, now serving the role of credential certification registration, the last checkpoint that Magical Girls must clear before joining the assessments.
"Sorry for the wait, everyone's personal information has been verified, and internal system entry is complete. Thank you all for your cooperation."
Pushing out the admission tickets through the window, No.7, fighting the drowsiness from days of overtime, strained her eyes wide as she tidied up the remaining documents at hand and gave the few Magical Girls in front of her a fairly standard business smile:
"Looking at the information on your admission tickets, you are all here for the White Card assessment, and I believe it's your first time participating in the certification, right? There's an unexpectedly large number of candidates this year, and the competition will be fierce, so good luck."
"A lot of candidates?" One of the Magical Girls in front of her took her admission ticket and distributed it back to her companions but showed a puzzled expression after understanding No.7's words:
No.7 paused, perhaps she didn't expect the candidate in front of her to ask such a question. But quickly, she realized why the girl was puzzled, and replied, "There are many reasons, but the main one… is probably because this year is the Queen's Year, and Her Majesty the Queen might personally visit the assessment site, right?"
She used the term "might" to avoid making a definitive statement. In reality, though, up until a century ago, almost every Queen's Year saw the Queen participating in all kinds of events across the Kingdom.
The exceptions being 40 years ago and 20 years ago during the Queen's Year.
According to official Royal Court statements, 40 years ago, war with the interworld had begun, and the severity of the conflict kept the Queen occupied and prevented her from appearing during that Queen's Year; 20 years ago, although the war had ended, the wounds still needed healing, and the outbreak of the Great Beast Disaster mid-year dealt a heavy blow to both the Kingdom and the Material Realm, leading to an abrupt conclusion to the celebrations.
So, in fact, ever since the establishment of the Magic Kingdom's qualification certification system, apart from two instances of unforeseen events, every Queen's Year examination has been graced by her presence.
Considering that this year is also the Queen's Year, and it has been 20 years since the war ended, in such a peaceful year, it seems unlikely that anything would disturb this grand celebration. Hence, "the Queen resuming her visits to events across the Kingdom" seemed like a given.
For the domestic Magical Girls of the Kingdom, just the chance to make an appearance in front of the Queen is a memorable event; those Magical Girls from the Material Realm harbor the dream of "being noticed by the Queen through their excellent performance and thus being taken under her wing." Given that it has been 60 years since the last Queen's visit, the number of Magical Girls coming to participate in this year's certification indeed exceeds expectations.
If the Magical Affairs Institute hadn't made regulations in advance, it's likely that some Magical Girls who already had their word plate would have cancelled and re-entered for the assessment, which would have really thrown things into chaos.
As for how this trend left the Exam Institute staff frazzled, and how the Magical Affairs Institute, the superior organization to the Exam Institute, had to make a series of adjustments, even rumors of them actively raising the difficulty to discourage candidates... those are entirely different topics.
—"So, if we perform well in this year's assessment, is it even possible to catch the Magic Kingdom Queen's attention?"
Sitting on a bench beside the registration entrance, Lin Xiaolu wore a look of concentrated thought, gazing into the void, slowly summarizing what seemed to her a logical conclusion: "Then, if I show off my specialty in shifting Magic Power during the practical examination, might it draw Her Majesty's special attention?"
The person who had just interacted with Receptionist No.7 at the reception and caused her to freeze momentarily with her question, was indeed Lin Xiaolu.
It must be said, although her question may seem odd to natives of the Kingdom, it did indeed help her small team acquire relatively useful information: the Queen's Year, and the war and disasters that occurred 20 years ago.