The academy guards’ standard gear required training; no newbie could handle a gun like that. This Frey was genuine.
“Yes, sir!”
The guards saluted and dashed into the woods the other way. Frey kept his stern face as he marched Xiliya in the opposite direction… until the sounds faded. Then he and Xiliya exchanged a glance, dropped the gun, and bolted!
“Whew, whew… that scared me…”
After some distance, they leaned against a tree to catch their breath. Frey panted as he pulled a necklace from his bosom. In a few breaths, the tall Frey transformed back into the petite Ximo.
Staring at the necklace, Ximo let out a long sigh of relief. Good thing she was cautious and brought everything—otherwise, that stunt might have failed!
And luckily, Frey was handsome and distinctive. Though she’d only seen him twice, Ximo remembered his tall build, rugged good looks, and security-like uniform well enough to impersonate him on the spot!
“You okay, Miss? Did I hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” Xiliya said, tidying her messy hair. “Their focus was on you—no one paid much attention to my face.”
Long hair had its advantages here. Xiliya’s tussle act, with disheveled hair and slumped posture, hid her features in the dark. With “Frey” escorting her and others chasing the “other” fugitive, no one checked closely.
“I didn’t expect you to handle that special weapon so smoothly. You have quite a few secrets I don’t know about, Ximo.”
“Ahaha…” Ximo laughed awkwardly. “You know us assassins—we pick up a bit of everything…”
She could only thank her countryman Gandalf for not magitech-altering these modern gadgets too much! She’d faked checking the safety with her movie-watching knowledge, though her hands shook taking it.
The thing only roughly resembled a modern gun; its core was surely a magic crystal. Fortunately, operation was straightforward, or she’d have been exposed.
“Let’s go. They’ll realize the mix-up and come back soon.”
Xiliya patted Ximo’s shoulder. The little maid still hadn’t recovered, hands on knees, gasping.
“Right away, Miss… cough cough…”
Ximo tried to stand but moved too fast; a sweet tang rose in her throat, making her cough violently.
“Ximo, you okay?!”
Xiliya steadied her. Ximo wobbled but stood, staring at the blood in her palm with a helpless shake of her head.
Without intense activity or meds daily, she’d almost forgotten her frail debuff. A chase was all it took to overwhelm her body.
This only strengthened her resolve to master magic. Her current physique sucked for assassination, but mages were mobile artillery—stand and blast, swing staff and fly.
“I’m fine now… Miss.”
Ximo took deep breaths and recovered. They slipped away under cover of night. By the time the Guard Station noticed the mistake, it was too late.
“Hey, where’d you two run off to? I swear I heard the downstairs guards mobilizing.”
To Xiliya’s surprise, the pampered Miss Mira wasn’t asleep but clutched her blanket, eyeing the late returnees worriedly.
“You didn’t sneak out for something bad, did you…? Whoa, Ximo, you’re so pale—are you okay?”
The sudden flare-up left Ximo weak; Xiliya supported her, and Mira spotted it instantly.
“Didn’t I tell you? We went on a date,” Xiliya reused the excuse. “Something happened outside, so we came back. Or do you think we did something shady?”
“I didn’t!” Mira flushed at the accusation, the tsundere miss bristling. “Do I look like the type to betray friends?!”
Like hell it was—Xiliya answered in her heart instantly, though she didn’t say it out loud.
No one knew Mira’s personality better than Xiliya did. This tsundere young lady’s brain didn’t always work at full capacity, so the excuse Xiliya had just used to brush her off was more than enough.
But given Mira’s habit of bullying others, there was no telling if she might run off and tattle to a teacher about it. Xiliya had already prepared some methods to shut her up if needed, but she never expected Mira’s reaction to be this intense.
In truth, from all their interactions in this life, Xiliya didn’t find this tsundere young lady all that hateful aside from her personality. So why had she always targeted Xiliya for no reason in her previous life?
Xiliya didn’t dwell on it. She helped Ximo toward the bed to rest, but this caught the sharp-eyed Mira’s attention once more.
“Xiliya, why is there blood on your sleeve?”
Xiliya glanced down and saw that her sleeve was indeed stained with a bit of blood—it must have gotten there when she helped Ximo up after she coughed up blood earlier.
“No, you’re seeing things,” Xiliya naturally lowered her arm to cover the small stain. “Anyway, you didn’t have to wait up for us—let’s get some sleep.”
Xiliya helped Ximo onto the bed and hastily ended the conversation. After lights out, in the silent night, the sounds of guards running and searching outside the building became even more pronounced.
Clearly, the people at the guard station had realized they’d been duped by that fake “Captain Frey.” The entire academy was probably on high alert and lockdown by now, but Ximo and Xiliya had already slipped back by avoiding all possible populated areas.
Of course, without Xiliya’s help, Ximo wouldn’t have known where the surveillance monitors were and where they weren’t. One could say that without Xiliya, she might have really gotten caught in Shasta’s basement tonight.
However, with the guard station now on such high alert, that mysterious person who had sneaked into Instructor Shasta’s basement earlier…
Lying in bed, Ximo couldn’t help but ponder. There was no way the world had coincidences this perfect. The principal had just left the academy on his front foot, and Shasta came under suspicion and got locked in the confinement room on her back foot. And no sooner had Shasta been jailed than someone sneaked into her basement—this couldn’t possibly be some ordinary thief, right?
Ximo was almost certain that the mysterious person was the mastermind behind the Mist Forest incident. But even with the guard station’s full lockdown, they probably wouldn’t catch him.
Since that mysterious person dared to make a move that alerted the guards, it proved he was absolutely confident in his escape. Otherwise, the lockdown would have swept him up too. And Ximo simply couldn’t figure out how he had vanished into thin air. Just based on that, he should be able to get away.
