Although Melrose hadn’t shown any malice just now and had even stepped in to help her, her attitude still put Ximo on alert.
She wasn’t sure if it was her assassin’s intuition, but Ximo always felt that the way Melrose had looked at her in the end was strange, giving her the sensation of being prey stared down by a hunter.
How should she put it? She just felt that Melrose’s gaze toward her carried some inexplicable longing. It was as if… she wanted to devour her.
This made Ximo even more suspicious that Melrose had taken advantage of her earlier. It wasn’t that she was so naive she couldn’t tell, but when it came to magic, she did have a certain untainted beauty unpolluted by knowledge. Besides, Melrose’s explanation had been so logical—what if that really was the normal process for teaching magic?
But no matter. The clever little maid naturally had her own ways of figuring things out.
…
Not long after, in the first-year student dormitory.
“…Miss, are you sure the magic circuit perception is like this?”
“Of course,” Xiliya said matter-of-factly as she slipped her hand further inside Ximo’s clothes. “How else am I supposed to confirm the state of your magic circuit?”
These past two days, Xiliya had been busy researching ancient texts in the library and had only given Ximo a simple rundown of basic magic knowledge. She hadn’t expected that just a few days later, Ximo would already be able to circulate mana within her body!
Xiliya was only briefly surprised before accepting the fact. She had unconditional trust in Ximo.
“Don’t move. Let me check your magic circuit for any issues again.”
“Mm…”
Ximo’s little face flushed bright red. Xiliya’s actions were much bolder and more direct than Melrose’s. So, did that mean close physical contact was normal during magic practice?
Was this right? It should be, right?
The poor little maid never even considered the possibility that both Melrose and Xiliya might have the exact same intentions.
Xiliya finally withdrew her hand from Ximo’s clothes with satisfaction and let out a long breath. “I can’t believe it. If you keep up this cultivation speed, you might catch up to the average first-year magic level in no time. When the class division exam comes around next semester, we might even end up in the same class.”
Though she didn’t understand why Ximo’s magic talent had suddenly become so high, it was ultimately a good thing. Xiliya rubbed her brow and sat on the edge of the bed. Ximo keenly noticed the flicker of fatigue on Xiliya’s face.
“Miss, is the recent investigation not going well?” Ximo gently massaged Xiliya’s shoulders.
“Not really,” Xiliya sighed. “I’ve gone through every detailed history book of the Roland Empire from the past century with a fine-tooth comb, and not a single one mentions the surname ‘Dekareya.'”
This meant that no one from the Dekareya Family had left any trace in the Roland Empire’s records for at least a hundred years—but based on the letter her mother had left, Xiliya didn’t believe the Dekareya Family was some utterly obscure ordinary surname. Otherwise, her mother wouldn’t have told her to seek them out.
At this point, aside from the earring her mother had left, Xiliya truly had no idea where to look for clues.
Ximo could see how invested Xiliya was in this matter. Lately, whenever Xiliya had free time, she headed straight to the academy library. Ximo had hardly seen her in the dormitory during downtime. Of course, she also knew how important her mother’s matters were to Xiliya.
“In that case, why not take a break for now, Miss? Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“…In that case, how about you help me relax a bit, Ximo?”
Xiliya suddenly grabbed the hand Ximo was using to massage her shoulders, her tone taking on an intriguing lilt.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve done any ‘relaxing’ together, hasn’t it?”
After all, both of them had been so busy lately… Xiliya pulled Ximo into her arms and whispered in her ear. Ximo bit her lower lip slightly as a long-absent burning sensation stirred in her lower abdomen.
“Th-this isn’t good, Miss…”
“It’s fine. Besides, isn’t relieving your master’s fatigue part of a maid’s duties?”
Xiliya’s hand slid from Ximo’s lower abdomen into her clothes again. Ximo didn’t struggle. Just as Xiliya was about to take it further… the dormitory door suddenly opened.
“I’m back… Huh? What are you two doing?”
“Nothing. I was just helping Ximo check her magic circuit.”
Xiliya calmly and swiftly pulled her hand out, acting as if nothing had happened.
Huh? Checking the magic circuit? Mira tilted her head… She hadn’t heard that checking a magic circuit required sticking your hand inside someone’s clothes.
Was this right? This didn’t seem right.
Mira vaguely sensed something off, and she didn’t think she’d said anything wrong just now. Why did it feel like Xiliya was angry?
“By the way, I heard our empire history class for the next two weeks is getting a substitute teacher,” Mira said casually while changing clothes. “Instructor Shasta has some business trip and won’t be at the academy for the next few weeks.”
Instructor Shasta was on a business trip? Ximo was a bit surprised. Hadn’t Principal Meier asked Instructor Shasta to keep an eye on the academy’s anomalies just a couple days ago? Why the sudden trip? And her crystal ball was still with Instructor Shasta.
It wasn’t until empire history class in Beginner Class the next afternoon that Ximo realized Mira hadn’t been wrong. The one who entered the classroom wasn’t Shasta, but their homeroom teacher, Shirley.
“Instructor Shasta has some matters for the next two weeks, so I’ll cover her two classes—where did we leave off last time? The Great Sage Gandalf, right?”
Well… whatever. She’d been hoping Instructor Shasta might figure something out with the crystal ball over these couple days, but since she was away, there was no helping it.
Ximo stopped overthinking and prepared to listen attentively. Melrose didn’t come to audit this class.
No matter how interested Melrose was in the little maid, she couldn’t attend every single class. As student council president, Melrose had a busy schedule every day.
…
“…And there’s one particularly interesting thing you all might have heard about: the diary of the Great Sage Gandalf.”
“The Great Sage Gandalf had a habit of keeping a diary his entire life. It’s said that it recorded all his greatest achievements, but no one knows the contents to this day. Does anyone know why?”
“Because Gandalf invented his own script to write his diary in, and to this day, historians from all countries haven’t been able to decipher it. We can only confirm now that it’s a highly complex system of hieroglyphs…”
Ximo listened intently to the lesson when her student terminal vibrated in her pocket. She glanced at the message, and her eyes widened in surprise.
“Come quickly.”
The message was very brief, but what shocked Ximo was that the sender was Shasta.
Instructor Shasta? Wasn’t she on a business trip? Why was she suddenly summoning her?
