“This crate of wine has more to it. There shouldn’t just be these stolen goods.”
Xiliya carefully examined the entire crate of wine. “These stolen funds alone wouldn’t be enough to pass any information. There must be some trick to these bottles.”
Xiliya casually picked up a bottle of red wine. From the outside, the bottle looked perfectly normal—the deep red liquid gently sloshed inside, and the Black Currant Chamber’s label was prominently affixed right at the cork.
“Can you open this bottle without damaging anything, Ximo?”
Xiliya had noticed the seal at the mouth of the bottle. There was a paper ring printed with the Black Currant Chamber’s logo between the bottle neck and the wooden cork. Opening it would definitely ruin the seal, and she didn’t want Masha to notice anything suspicious.
“Hmm, so it’s just stuck on like this,” Ximo examined it. “Leave it to me! Good thing it’s not sealed with wax; this won’t be hard to handle.”
Ximo deftly pulled out a small knife and meticulously scraped away the paper ring bit by bit, keeping it completely intact. Her hands were steady—no damage to the ring, and no traces left on the bottle mouth.
Xiliya quietly watched the little maidservant’s skilled movements. Ximo looked entirely different when she was focused on a task compared to her usual silly demeanor. If Ximo hadn’t had this skill, Xiliya figured their investigation would have ended right there that night—she certainly couldn’t have removed the cork without ruining the paper ring.
“All done!”
After about a quarter of an hour, Ximo finally had the paper ring off intact. With a soft pop, the wooden cork came out. Xiliya unceremoniously poured out all the red wine from inside.
“There’s nothing hidden in the bottle…”
Xiliya peered at the empty bottom, then had a sudden idea. She turned the bottle around and closely inspected the label through the glass.
Every bottle of Black Currant Chamber red wine had a rectangular label pasted on it. Rumor had it that Luo Keke’s father had put a lot of thought into designing it for anti-counterfeiting purposes.
Through the transparent glass, Xiliya spotted the issue—the back of the label had a line of tiny writing!
So that’s how it was… Ximo nodded in realization. This way, Masha wouldn’t even need to tear off the label after drinking; she could just rotate the bottle to read the message on the back.
And before the wine was finished, the dark liquid would completely obscure it. The bottle looked utterly normal from the outside.
Ximo took the bottle and sniffed at the label, coming to a conclusion. “This must be some kind of special ink that disappears when heated.”
“So Masha just has to hold a flame to the other side of the label after reading the message, and it’s gone.”
Seeing Ximo’s inexplicably dog-like sniffing motion, Xiliya couldn’t help but ruffle her hair.
“Good girl—you know quite a bit, don’t you, little pet?”
“Uh, this is just basic assassin knowledge… I think?”
Ximo shrank back a little awkwardly. Whether it was uncorking the bottle or sniffing the label just now, honestly, she hadn’t thought much about it. It was as if her brain naturally recalled this knowledge and guided her body through the motions.
“Why haven’t I seen you this clever before?”
Xiliya remarked coolly as she pulled out the Magical Camera she’d brought along and began taking photos for evidence.
Ximo’s attention was instantly drawn to the little gadget in Xiliya’s hand. “Eh? That’s…”
“A Magical Camera. I asked Luo Keke to pick it up for me from the neighboring city last time. You don’t know what this is?”
“A Magical Camera and a Recording Device are some of the most common civilian Magitools, right?”
Ximo wasn’t curious about what it was—in fact, the moment she saw it, she recognized it as a “Magical Camera.” The reason was simple: it looked almost exactly like the cameras from her past life’s world!
Sure, the materials were different from the ones in her previous world, but the shape was identical. It gave Ximo a strong sense of dissonance the instant Xiliya pulled it out.
Why was there something that looked so modern here?
“This thing is great for preserving evidence, and it doesn’t even require the user to know magic. It’s powered by the Magic Crystal inside—as long as you keep that charged, you’re good.”
Xiliya assumed Ximo was just curious, so she explained while snapping photos to document the evidence. But in her mind, these were all common knowledge. How could Ximo not know about something like this?
It reminded Xiliya of the time Ximo had posted a commission for ten silver coins. The little maidservant could pull off precise work like removing the paper ring flawlessly, yet she came off as so silly in the simplest matters.
Xiliya’s explanation made Ximo realize that while it looked like a modern camera, the principle was different—it ran on a Magic Crystal… Wait, didn’t that make a Magic Crystal basically the same as a battery from her previous life?
“So, Mistress, are there other Magitools similar to the Magical Camera… uh, meow?”
Ximo thought for a moment and narrowed it down to Magitools.
“Magitools similar to the Magical Camera?”
Xiliya found the question odd but answered patiently anyway.
“There are plenty, aren’t there? Why do you suddenly ask?”
“Like that row of Magic Crystal lamps in the mansion hallway, or the oven powered by fire-element Magic Crystals for heating—they’d all count as household Magitools, right?”
“Oh, oh…”
Hearing Xiliya’s response, Ximo had to swallow her questions. She’d seen both of those things, especially the oven—she’d even gotten scolded by Annaer once in the kitchen for not knowing how to operate the Magic Crystal-powered one.
The issue was, unlike the Magical Camera, those things blended seamlessly with the world’s style—or rather, the Western-style mansion. Ximo didn’t find anything off about them at first glance.
But soon she got it. In Xiliya’s eyes, the Magical Camera, the Magic Crystal lamps, and the oven were all equally commonplace civilian Magitools—no difference between them.
Only she, a reincarnator, could spot the stylistic discrepancy with the camera at a glance.
Xiliya’s voice snapped Ximo out of her thoughts. She watched as Xiliya poured the wine back into the bottle and restored the cork and paper ring to their original positions.
“Now we’ve got solid proof on Masha. Heh.”
Xiliya’s smile was ice-cold. This was the first step in cornering Masha completely.
“Let’s go. We should head back—don’t want to be gone too long.”
Ximo nodded and helped place the bottle back in its spot. They resealed the wooden crate, nailing it shut in the exact original positions.
Now, the entire crate looked like it had never been touched.
