When she realized she had been reborn, Xiliya felt dazed—of course, the Xiliya in question here was the true reborn version of Xiliya.
Looking at the familiar room around her, the Camberlan Family mansion—how long had it been since she last returned to this place?
Xiliya wasn’t sure, but in any case, after her stepmother had driven her out of the mansion in her previous life, she had never come back.
Her evaluation of her past self boiled down to one word: coward!
Xiliya had been frail and sickly since childhood, just like her mother who had passed away early, and her personality was timid as well. When her father, who only knew how to indulge in wine and women, died unexpectedly before she came of age, her scheming and vicious stepmother not only seized all of the Camberlan Family’s assets but also kicked her out of the house.
Her days at the Imperial Capital Magic Academy weren’t any better either. Perhaps due to her timid nature, Xiliya was always the one being bullied, and even after graduating from the academy, the situation… showed no improvement whatsoever.
After graduation, all Xiliya wanted was a normal, stable life, but fate always played little jokes on her whenever things started looking up a bit. She kept getting inexplicably dragged into all sorts of disasters and accidents—being hunted down, living rough, and fleeing for her life. For the Xiliya of her previous life, this was just everyday fare.
This kind of life continued until Xiliya got swept up in a massive conspiracy. She died in a city-wide slaughter-like attack, and even after rebirth, she still hadn’t figured out exactly how she had died.
But people change. Years of wandering the world in exile gradually transformed Xiliya’s temperament. She was no longer the weak and incompetent sickly young lady from her previous life. Since she now had the chance to be reborn, she naturally intended to make all those who had trampled over her in the past pay the price.
As she descended the stairs to the mansion’s basement, a flash of viciousness gleamed in Xiliya’s eyes.
Judging from the timing of her rebirth, her father’s unexpected death had only occurred a month ago. Her stepmother hadn’t yet had the chance to claim the entire family fortune.
Perfect. Then her revenge would start with taking back the Camberlan Family’s assets. As for the specifics of how to do it…
Xiliya knew full well that her insidious stepmother was cunning and full of schemes. She hadn’t yet figured out how to deal with that woman when she encountered the assassin who had come to kill her.
She even had a bit of an impression of this assassin miss—her name seemed to be Ximo. This Ximo had disguised herself as a maid and infiltrated the family mansion for some time before finally making her move to assassinate her yesterday.
In her previous life, Ximo hadn’t succeeded in the assassination, let alone this time around. Xiliya had originally planned to deal with this little assassin on the spot, but when she saw that face identical to her own, she suddenly changed her mind.
Her revenge plan might just benefit from an extra pawn.
Besides, a body double was a good thing to have.
The corners of Xiliya’s mouth curved up slightly. After confirming that no one was following her, she slowly pushed open the basement door and saw the assassin miss tied up in the corner, her face full of anger.
“Heh,” Xiliya chuckled lightly. “So spirited, huh? Looks like you’re not too convinced, Ximo.”
—
Time rewound to not long before.
Ximo slowly came to in the basement and quickly realized her current situation—she had been tied up!
The one who tied her up was undoubtedly that true reborn sickly young lady. Though she didn’t know why Xiliya hadn’t called people to deal with her, this little cannon-fodder villain, like she had in the previous life, Ximo couldn’t afford to dwell on it right now.
“System, System, System!”
Ximo frantically called out in her mind. She had fully grasped her predicament now. This damndamn system hadn’t only sent her transmigrating into the wrong identity—it was a doomed little cannon fodder who was supposed to get boxed right from the start!
Ximo admitted she had some resistance to the sickly young lady identity, but it was still better than this cannon-fodder villain role, right? Right now, she just wanted the system to roll her back and let her try again. If it didn’t, she might really get boxed soon!
“Dearie, I’m here.”
The system’s cold, mechanical voice paired with “dearie” felt somewhat discordant.
“I want to report you! There’s a problem with your workflow, right? I’m not the sickly young lady Xiliya anymore—I’m the assassin who came to kill her!”
“Scanning… Scan complete. Host Xiliya, identity: sickly young lady, age seventeen this year…”
The system repeated what it had said before, which made Ximo laugh out of sheer frustration.
She’d run into a pure AI bot, had she!
“Customer service! Is there customer service? I want to leave a bad review!”
“Eh, customer service is here, coming, dearie.”
It had only been a grumble like venting frustration, but to Ximo’s surprise, she actually got a response. The illusory figure of a little loli appeared out of thin air before her eyes.
“What’s up, dearie? Got a problem?”
The customer service loli’s sweet voice was worlds apart from the bot system’s earlier tone, and Ximo couldn’t help feeling delighted inside. She hurriedly repeated her issue from before.
“Transmigrated into the wrong body?” The little loli rubbed her chin and looked Ximo up and down. “Nope, everything’s fine. Aren’t you identical to that Xiliya?”
“Even if you failed your plot task due to a deviation and ended up tied up here, you can’t just make up excuses to call me out and make me clean up your mess, right?”
Ximo was stunned. She couldn’t see her own appearance right now, but she remembered that after Xiliya yanked the necklace off her neck last night, she had reverted to her original looks. Was the loli saying she looked like Xiliya because Xiliya had put the necklace back on her later? Why would Xiliya do that?
“No, this is the disguise effect from that assassin’s necklace. I don’t actually look like this…”
Ximo tried to explain further, but the loli’s figure before her grew even more illusory.
“Alright, alright, nothing else? I’m going back to dormancy then. I suggest you work hard to play out your plot task properly, oh. Failing tasks comes with punishment.”
“Wait…”
“And!” Ximo had barely started when the loli angrily cut her off. “Don’t keep calling people ‘system system system’—it’s so rude! I have a name, you know. Would you be happy if I kept calling you ‘person person person’?”
“I’m System. Dearie, don’t get it wrong next time, okay?”
With those final words, System’s figure vanished completely. No matter how Ximo called out, she didn’t reappear. Instead, the previous mechanical, bot-like voice returned.
【Newbie task detected: “Suffer assassin attack and get rescued (Failed)”. Failure penalty will be settled shortly.】
Ximo was so furious her teeth itched, and her anger meter hit its peak in that moment.
What you mean is, not only did I transmigrate into a little cannon fodder, but I still have to complete the sickly young lady’s roleplay task? Why don’t you have me split into two and attack aliens from both sides while you’re at it?
Moreover, even the system had its own name, but from transmigration until now, she didn’t even know what her own name was!
But immediately, Ximo’s question found its answer.
Xiliya’s voice suddenly rang out from the doorway: “Looks like you’re not too convinced, Ximo.”
