Li Jiangran leaned over the desk, continuously writing and drawing with a black gel pen on her book, documenting her thoughts and arguments in the book's margins. She kept writing without pause, stopping only to think, until she finally wrote the last line of notes neatly, enabling her to lift her head, pondering the knowledge she had just gained from the book as she closed it.
In front of her desk was an exquisite and elegant round window, through which she could see the deep purple night sky, with the cold moonlight spreading within the purple hue.
While thinking this, she reached for the desk lamp switch, adjusting the brightness to the lowest setting.
The night sky of the Magic Kingdom changes color as time passes. At nightfall, it's a very clear blue-violet, and as the night deepens, the blue diminishes while the purple intensifies. Therefore, the residents of the Kingdom can easily judge how long it has been since nightfall just by looking up at the night sky.
It was already late at night, and Li Jiangran, engrossed in her books earlier, was oblivious to the outside world. Now, closing the book, she felt a faint sense of drowsiness.
She covered her mouth with one hand, letting out a small yawn, wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes, and stood up in her slippers. Glancing around the room, her eyes passed over the elegant and quaint wall decor without lingering and didn't stop at the seemingly soft bed either, but instead looked towards another corner where a few fluffy soft cushions were piled up. A girl was lying among them, holding her phone aloft, fiddling with it.
"I'm going to sleep now," Li Jiangran said, her voice calm and serene, but with an unmistakable decisiveness, "Do you need me to leave the light on?"
The girl immersed in her phone world took a moment to realize Li Jiangran was talking to her. She reluctantly put down her phone and sat up from the pile of cushions: "What time is it? Why are you going to bed so early today?"
"It's getting late. If I'm not mistaken, it's nearly midnight."
Li Jiangran walked to her bedside, grabbed her personal toiletries from a basket by the bed, and selected bathing supplies from a pile of bottles and jars: "I don't think there's anything strange about going to bed at this time."
"But usually, you're still busy cramming around this time?"
The girl pointed to Li Jiangran's desk: "Not cramming today? Can't be that you're done cramming?"
"Because there's an exam tomorrow, I think it's necessary to get up early."
With a light sigh, Li Jiangran looked at the girl helplessly: "And, I don't like the term 'cramming' as you put it. I've emphasized it many times; please refer to my code name properly."
"Understood, understood, as you command, Miss Tu Dinggui."
The girl kept tapping on her phone screen, absentmindedly responding to Li Jiangran. Soon, however, as an animation flashed across her phone screen, her eyes widened immediately: "Oh my... what crazy damage is this? Did the stat planner add an extra zero?"
"... Still playing that weird Magical Girl mobile game of yours?"
Carrying her toiletries to the bathroom door, Li Jiangran, or rather Tu Dinggui, looked somewhat puzzled at her roommate sitting on the cushion: "Are you really not planning to review?"
"You said it yourself, the exam is tomorrow. It's too late to start reading now, isn't it?"
The girl playing on her phone replied nonchalantly: "Rather than reading and increasing my anxiety, I'd better farm some more game events and at least get you some accessories for your mentor."
"I must correct your way of speaking. Although that Magical Girl character in your game pays tribute to my mentor's magic clothing, borrows my mentor's abilities, and even alludes to her code name, that character is not my mentor."
Tu Dinggui frowned: "So please refrain from attributing 'your mentor' to such strange and unpleasant actions; it's really disrespectful."
"But your mentor posted saying that it's her."
The girl diverted her eyes a bit from the screen, looking at Tu Dinggui: "And in the game, I formed a supreme contract between a Magical Girl and a Fairy with your mentor, becoming each other's unique bond; can't I call her my wife?"
Tu Dinggui didn't respond to her.
She realized the girl was intentionally teasing her, so she chose to stay silent, carrying her toiletries into the bathroom and locking the door behind her.
This was inside the student dormitory of the Silver Corridor, Academy District, in Luennolay City.
As a Magical Girl from Central City here to take the qualification exam, Tu Dinggui enjoyed one of the unique privileges reserved for Central City Magical Girls: staying in the Silver Corridor, enjoying the same hygiene and meal services as Silver Corridor students without needing to find lodging like examinees from smaller cities.
Initially, Tu Dinggui wasn't inclined to accept this "special treatment," but after leaving Tiandu City alone and starting her journey to the Magic Kingdom, she learned a valuable lesson just from the Kingdom's special train.
—That is, too many fellow examinees wanted to approach her.
Before leaving home, she knew she was quite famous among her peers, but she didn't realize this fame would bring her so much trouble.
The reason she attracted so much attention was because, as a "newcomer" in a broad sense, she had two unique labels.
First: She had participated in several newcomer competitions jointly hosted by the Central City before and was last year's champion.
Second: Her team captain, or her mentor, was called Blue Star.
Blue Star, the one hailed as the strongest in the Material Realm, and by many, believed to be the strongest Magical Girl even in the Magic Kingdom.
These two identities meant she was destined to be a prominent figure in the current qualification exams. Moreover, since the practical exam involved temporary team formations among Magical Girls, many candidates inevitably sought to "cling to her leg."
This is perfectly understandable.
Understanding this reality, Tu Dinggui abandoned the idea of finding a place to stay in Luennolay City and followed her elders' arrangement to move into the student dormitory of the Silver Corridor.
The dorms of the Silver Corridor were all two-person rooms, so she was also assigned a roommate, who was the same girl playing with her phone earlier.
Before they became roommates, Tu Dinggui wasn't very familiar with the girl, only knowing that she was also a newcomer from Central City—Yue Wang City. During last year's joint newcomer competition, they had a brief encounter, leaving Tu Dinggui with the impression that the girl had "decent strength."
After they moved into the same dormitory, getting to know each other became an unavoidable process.
During this time, through mutual exchanges, Tu Dinggui learned about a particularly troublesome trait of her roommate: she was a fan of Blue Star.
Or rather, the girl wasn't just a fan of Blue Star, but a self-proclaimed "champion fan," holding an unhealthy fascination for Magical Girls with great fame in public opinion or universally acknowledged high strength.
Reaching this point, even though Tu Dinggui wanted to say, "Admiring strength is human nature," she felt at a loss because the girl would constantly hound her for information about her mentor.
From abilities, strength, hobbies, habits, to more private matters, the girl practically acted like a paparazzi, pestering Tu Dinggui with questions.
Initially, Tu Dinggui, out of politeness, would carefully answer a few questions, but as the questions became increasingly excessive and they grew more familiar, Tu Dinggui learned to remain silent.