If it were merely to send Shi Xiaolei and Bayonetta back to New York, opening a portal would suffice—the Ancient One didn't need to come along personally at all.
In fact, the reason she personally brought the two to the New York Sanctum was that the Ancient One had other purposes in mind.
First, it was to let Bayonetta familiarize herself with the location.
Speaking of which, on the day she met Shi Xiaolei the Ancient One had already given him the address of the New York Sanctum.
Since Shi Xiaolei wasn't a sorcerer and didn't seem particularly interested in magic, the Ancient One hadn't really expected him to frequently visit the New York Sanctum.
But after all these days had passed without a single visit, it was somewhat...
Well actually, the Ancient One herself had been too busy and forgotten that Shi Xiaolei had been traveling for the past dozen or so days, making it impossible for him to visit the New York Sanctum anyway.
Not realizing this point, and worried that Bayonetta might be like Shi Xiaolei—never coming around to visit—the Ancient One simply decided to personally bring them both over to familiarize them with the place first.
Whether it was because they hadn't thought of it, didn't have time, or felt that the first visit was too important to act casually—none of that mattered.
After experiencing the 'first time' the next visit would naturally be much more relaxed and casual.
Second, she wanted to give Bayonetta a Sling Ring.
The reason for this has already been mentioned, so there's no need to repeat it here.
In any case, with the Ancient One and Bayonetta reaching a cooperation agreement, both parties were now on the same side.
Since they were going to cooperate with Bayonetta and ask for her help in dealing with invaders from other dimensions, it was natural to equip her with a Sling Ring to improve her mobility.
After all, the appearance time and location of those invaders were unpredictable, and their numbers and strength varied greatly.
If the Ancient One were tied up by an enemy boss and couldn't break free, while the elite minions below were too powerful for ordinary sorcerers to handle—they might not even be able to protect themselves, let alone spare time to open a portal for help.
And in such emergency situations, expecting the Ancient One who couldn't spare a hand to open a portal for Bayonetta?
That obviously wasn't very reliable either.
Therefore, equipping Bayonetta with a Sling Ring and letting her have the ability to open portals herself was the most convenient and secure arrangement.
As for why they came to New York instead of directly giving her one at Kamar-Taj? the reason was simple.
Sling Rings might seem like common equipment—seemingly every sorcerer had one—but in reality, having one per person was only possible because the stock of Sling Rings exceeded the number of sorcerers.
A few hundred sorcerers, over a thousand Sling Rings—supply exceeded demand, which led to the misconception that these were common unremarkable items.
But what was the reality? With only over a thousand rings, were there really so many Sling Rings that they could be wasted carelessly?
The answer was obviously no.
To properly manage these precious resources, the Ancient One had established certain rules.
Sorcerers affiliated with the New York Sanctum needed to receive their Sling Rings from the New York Sanctum.
Similarly, sorcerers permanently stationed in London or Hong Kong had to register their Sling Rings at their local sanctums.
Kamar-Taj as the headquarters was responsible for safekeeping Sling Rings that hadn't yet found their owners.
For example, if Daniel Drumm were to die and a sorcerer originally stationed at the London Sanctum was assigned to come to New York to take Drumm place, that sorcerer would have to surrender the Sling Ring they received from the London Sanctum and replace it with the one Drumm left behind.
If they insisted on keeping their original ring, that wasn't impossible but they would need to update the registration information for the Sling Ring, and the one Drumm left behind would have to be returned to Kamar-Taj headquarters.
It sounded complicated when explained, but wasn't that troublesome in practice.
However, even if the procedures were simple, there were still established protocols.
Unless it was a special case like Strange.
Let's put it this way: if he hadn't been chosen by the Ancient One as her successor and didn't have the title of 'Kamar-Taj leader' he wouldn't have received his own Sling Ring at Kamar-Taj either.
According to the rules, he would have had to return to New York to be assigned one from the Sanctum.
As for Bayonetta, she wasn't the Ancient One chosen successor, nor did she have any possibility of becoming the next Sorcerer Supreme.
Combined with the fact that she would be staying with Shi Xiaolei in New York from now on, allocating her a Sling Ring from the New York Sanctum inventory was the most appropriate and manageable arrangement.
Getting a bit off track here—back to the main story.
Perhaps due to differences in the nature of her magical power compared to the sorcerers, after receiving the Sling Ring, Bayonetta didn't immediately learn how to use it.
After trying over a dozen times, stopping intermittently to listen to the Ancient One guidance and explanations... before they knew it, more than two hours had passed, and the sky outside the window had turned pitch black with the moon rising above the treetops.
Spectators, after all, were more easily distracted and thus found things boring.
Noticing it was getting late and having nothing else to do, Shi Xiaolei took advantage of Bayonetta taking a break to interrupt.
"It's getting late, Bayonetta. We should probably head back."
Pointing outside the window, Shi Xiaolei gently suggested: "I just returned to New York today, and when I went home earlier, I didn't even see Kanna and Silvia. How about we stop here for today and continue tomorrow during the day... You don't have to work anyway, so you can come anytime."
"Uh~."
Only after Shi Xiaolei reminder did she notice how much time had passed.
Looking outside, then at the gently smiling Ancient One before her, Bayonetta made her choice: "Alright then, I'll come back tomorrow?"
"You're welcome anytime."
The Ancient One nodded: "If I'm not here, you can ask Master Drumm for guidance. Portal creation is just an entry-level spell—with his abilities, he's more than qualified to teach you this spell."
Following the Ancient One words, Drumm stepped forward unobtrusively and nodded to Bayonetta: "You're always welcome. I happen to have nothing to do these days and have been stuck guarding the Sanctum, bored out of my mind."
"Haha, that works out perfectly then."
Seeing things developing in the direction he hoped, Shi Xiaolei was in great spirits: "Daniel, didn't you say you've been craving my cooking this whole time? Tomorrow I'll drive her over and bring you some food while I'm at it?"
"Free of charge?"
"Of course."
Pointing at Bayonetta, Shi Xiaolei shrugged: "I'm counting on you to put in extra effort teaching her. It's just some food—consider it tuition I'm paying for her lessons. What do you think?"
"Deal."
Reaching out to shake Shi Xiaolei hand, Drumm unconsciously licked the corner of his mouth: "If possible, I'd like some stir-fried noodles. Umm, with an extra egg pancake on top, the spicy kind."
"No problem, leave it to me. Hehe, come to think of it, this will be my first time personally delivering takeout..."
Speaking of takeout, a thought suddenly flashed through Shi Xiaolei mind, and he couldn't help but laugh: "Or you could just open a portal and come directly to my house to eat it fresh out of the pan. Hehe, looking at it this way, portals are pretty useful, aren't they?"
(T/N: Like the story fellow daoist?you can read 20 chapters ahead on my P@treon [[email protected]/DaoistRongyi] Thanks for your support! 😊)