Chapter 11: Chapter Eight – Lit With a Long Match

Chapter Eight - Lit With a Long Match

Crystal checked out the room as she entered it. It was rather plain, just a space with a few desks pointing to a blackboard at the back. There was a single small window overlooking a courtyard, and a lamp hung by the door which the receptionist lady lit with a long match.

The lady placed a small stack of pages onto one of the desks, then she placed a pen next to that, then an inkwell. “This is the standard entrance test,” she said. “It’s twenty-four questions, please fill them out as clearly as you can, but if you don’t know an answer, just skip it.”

“Thanks,” Crystal said. She smiled, then plopped herself down behind the desk. At the front, the receptionist took out an hourglass and spun it around.

Little grains of sand hissed down from one bulb to the other, a gentle murmur in the background that was far louder than the distant thumps and talking in the building. They had pretty thick walls.

Crystal checked the pen, which looked like a calligraphy pen but without any little decorations on it, then she read the first lines on the exam.

FULL NAME.
PLACE OF BIRTH
AGE

Crystal smiled. Easy-peasy. She knew all of those, obviously. She hesitated over the name though. Was it better to use her real name, or her magical girl one? Her passport used her magical girl name, and it was good enough for a bunch of official things back on her Earth, so she went with that.

It was a little tricky to write with the pen, so she turned the test around and drew some lines, then a few circles, and then, for good measure, a squiggle or two.

Place of birth was easy, she came from Wellington in New Zealand. She didn’t know if anyone here would know where that was, but it didn’t really matter.

Age? She blushed as she wrote seventeen. She looked a bit younger than that though. She hoped she didn’t have to explain how magical girl biology worked, because she really didn’t know.

On to the next question.

DESCRIBE IN DETAIL HOW TO EXTRACT THE BRAIN FROM A HANIEL.

Crystal blinked. What the heck was a Haniel? Why would she want to extract its brain? Brains were icky and gross, she didn’t want to touch one if she could avoid it.

She moved to the next question.

WHAT KIND OF DAEMONS LIVE EXCLUSIVELY IN SHALLOW WATER?

She pouted most mightily at the paper. No one would explain to her was a daemon even was! How was she supposed to know?

WHAT SUPPLIES SHOULD A HUNTER PARTY OF FOUR BRING IF THEY ARE HUNTING A KERUBIEL?

Crystal huffed. She could kind of guess some of the things for this one. Food for four, tents, and camping equipment. She listed off the kinds of things she thought would be appropriate, then moved on to the next question.

UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES CAN A GUILD TEAM USE THEIR OWN HUNTED BOUNTY? WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR SUCH?

She had no idea.

Crystal flipped the page over, then went over all the questions. There were two more that she could guess at. One had to do with caring for horses, where all those horse movies she saw came in handy, and the other was about team composition, which she kinda knew a bit about from working with her friends so much.

“Um, I’m done,” she said. She felt a little ashamed at how much of her test was blank.

The receptionist looked up from a stack of papers of her own. “Oh,” she said as she stood up. The hourglass’ top bulb was very much still full. “I’ll take that, then.”

“Um, if I don’t do good, does that mean I’ve failed?” Crystal asked.

“Your written score will be tallied against your practical score, which is going to be tested tomorrow morning, an hour after sun-up. Please don’t be late.”

“Right!” Crystal said. She practically ran out of the room, face steaming-warm the entire time. She hadn’t done so poorly on a test since... forever.

As she went to the lobby to wait for Veronica to come back, she hoped that her new friend was having a better day than her.

Veronica, who was upstairs standing at attention before the guild master’s desk, was not having a good day.

The guild master was an old gentleman by the name of Lucas. She didn’t know his family name. She did know that the longsword hanging from a belt hooked to the guild master’s chair had a single golden ring around the pommel. The man might have been a few years her father’s elder, but he was wire-thin and looked like he could take on a dozen bronze and iron ring guild members all at once to teach them to respect their elders.

She wasn’t afraid that he would lash out physically though. A guild master had to be level-headed, and one who presided over a guild as strong as Kircken’s had to be especially smart.

You are reading story Magical Girl Crystal Genocide at novel35.com

“How many dead?” he asked.

“Just one, sir,” she said. “Michel. Three silver. He was a daemon-fed who could throw--”

“I know who he is,” he said. His hands came together, fingers interwoven before his mouth. “And after he died you abandoned your team?”

“No, sir, it was more complicated than that.”

“I’m sure it was,” he grumbled. “From what I understand, Frederick, your team leader, decided to capture a group of half-daemons, you objected, then somehow, Michel, a long-time member of the guild, died, and after that you were separated from the group. Am I understanding the facts correctly?”

“...That’s an oversimplification sir,” she said after a long moment's hesitation. “But the civilians.”

“But nothing, Miss Dotter. That would have been a matter to bring up to your team lead after the half-daemons were captured. You endangered yourself and the team by acting out of turn. Something which should be obvious seeing as how a member of your team died.”

Veronica took a deep breath, then focused on a point above the guild master’s head. She wanted to argue, but she understood how poorly things looked for her at the moment.

“I imagine I'll be receiving a report from Frederick sometime soon,” he said.

“That seems likely, sir,” she replied. Frederick should, if she were lucky, still be on his way over. Unless he decided to keep on the hunt even though he was two members short. That would have been irresponsible, but then if they only focused on the weakest of daemons, or perhaps assisted other teams out in the field, then they could still make a tidy profit without too much risk.

“That report will determine your fate in this matter,” Lucas said.

“Thank you, sir,” she said.

“Now, what’s this about a new member?” he asked.

“Her name is Crystal. She... is the one who had an altercation with Michel. He attacked first, she defended herself. I’m not sure what drove him to act.”

He hummed. “And you haven’t handed her over to the authorities yet because?” he let on, leadingly.

“Because she seemed innocent at the time. She’s... nice, I suppose. And she had expressed interest in joining the guild at the moment.”

Lucas leaned back in his seat. “Power, as you may well know from your background, absolves one of many sins in this world. To kill an silver-ringed member, I imagine she is powerful in her own way?”

“Um, yes sir, she is somewhat powerful, perhaps enough to reach gold, one day?” She couldn’t imagine it. Crystal was too much of a clutz to ever reach even iron, but by the time anyone realized that, it might be long enough that Veronica’s reputation was saved.

“We’ll see,” he said dismissively. He reached into his desk, drew out a few sheets with lines pressed into them already, and then made a few notes. “I’m writing to the city guard and demanding that you and Miss Crystal remain within the confines of Kircken until further notice.”

“How long, sir?” she asked.

“Until further notice,” he repeated. “I might allow you to leave the city on guild business if I receive Frederick’s report and it corroborates your own. Don’t expect me to be any more lenient than I already am. We have cells in this building for a reason, Miss Dotter.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

And then she was dismissed.

Crystal perked up when she saw Veronica coming down the stairs to meet her. “So, how’d it go?” she asked.

“Let’s just get an inn for the night,” Veronica said.

“Oh no, did things not go well?” Crystal asked.

Veronica debated what to say, then she sighed. “No, they didn’t. I’m getting raked over the coals for everything, I think. This might devolve into politics. And... yeah. What about you?”

Crystal winces. “I did bad,” she admitted. “I really don’t know what a daemon is, and all the questions were strange.”

Glancing at the smaller girl, Veronica closed her eyes and groaned. She’d messed that up too, hadn’t she? “Fine. Let’s get a room, and I’ll explain everything I can to you.”

***

You can find story with these keywords: Magical Girl Crystal Genocide, Read Magical Girl Crystal Genocide, Magical Girl Crystal Genocide novel, Magical Girl Crystal Genocide book, Magical Girl Crystal Genocide story, Magical Girl Crystal Genocide full, Magical Girl Crystal Genocide Latest Chapter