The next morning, Xiliya summoned Ximo to her room and even instructed her to brew a pot of black tea along the way.
“Give me a back massage. Punishing you yesterday left my shoulders sore.”
After giving the order, Xiliya picked up the teacup and took a small sip, only to frown. “This is truly awful.”
Ximo, who was half-kneeling on the bed massaging Xiliya’s back, quietly pursed her lips. This was the first time in her life she’d ever brewed black tea—surely it was drinkable enough!
“Never mind. I didn’t spare your life just to have you do these chores anyway,” Xiliya set down the teacup. “Masha came looking for you yesterday, right? What did she want?”
“Madam… Madam just heard that you made me your personal maid,” Ximo mimicked Annaer’s form of address. “She called me over to ask about the situation. Nothing else, of course. And naturally, I didn’t say a word.”
Ximo wasn’t stupid; she could clearly see it was an obvious probe.
Xiliya thought that old fox Masha was cautious enough. She’d only indirectly sounded out the situation through Ximo and hadn’t even brought Malisi to confront her yesterday—Xiliya had waited all afternoon for that.
Was it because of her sudden show of strength that Masha had decided to temporarily step back and observe?
Xiliya smiled. She’d originally thought Masha wouldn’t take her seriously at all and would continue bullying her just as before.
But if Masha wasn’t going to come looking for trouble, then Xiliya would have to go stirring it up herself. As for how…
Masha might be cautious, but Xiliya knew full well that the old fox had handles to grab onto. She smuggled goods from the merchant guilds in secret and was very likely colluding with foreign clans.
The Camberlan Family’s fief was far up at the Empire’s northernmost tip: Camberlan City—a border city that shared its name with her family.
To the north of Camberlan City lay the territory of the Northern Border Beastmen Clan. Relations between the Empire and the Beastmen Clan were extremely tense, so there was no trade whatsoever between the two sides. Exporting any goods was strictly forbidden.
Unfortunately, the lure of profit often made people overlook the law. Resources were scarce in the Northern Border Beastmen Clan’s territory, so Empire goods could fetch top prices there. There were always those who got crooked ideas—like Masha.
Xiliya knew her own father was a good-for-nothing. Masha had probably been sneaking around with smuggling operations even while he was still alive.
She colluded with the various merchant guilds in the city on one side while coordinating exports with the Northern Border Beastmen Clan on the other. After all, as managers of the city’s imports and exports, the Camberlan Family made it all too easy for Masha to tamper with things.
“So how did you figure out that Madam… that she’s smuggling?”
Ximo asked casually. As the little maid, she now had a strong sense of her role as the straight man in the routine.
“It’s not a guess; it’s fact.” Xiliya shot Ximo a sideways glance. “Put some muscle into it. Did you skip breakfast or something?”
“Oh.” Ximo resentfully increased the force of her massage.
Xiliya was so adamant because there was a reason: in her previous life, not long after Xiliya had graduated, Masha’s smuggling came to light. The imperial army seized the Camberlan Family’s assets, and Masha fled north to the Northern Border Beastmen Clan’s territory with her daughter and a pile of embezzled funds.
“And it won’t be long before that old fox Masha uses the Beastmen Clan against me.”
Xiliya’s eyes flickered as events from her previous life flashed through her mind like a lantern show.
The Northern Border Beastmen Clan would occasionally harass Camberlan City with sneak attacks and thefts of goods. In her previous life, Xiliya had the bad luck to run into one such incident.
That time, Masha had called her to visit another merchant guild—supposedly to familiarize herself with the family head’s future duties and learn how to deal with the guilds. But that very night, the guild suffered a Beastmen Clan raid, and Xiliya was injured in the attack.
Back then, she hadn’t thought it suspicious, but now… Masha might have known about the raid in advance and lured her there to borrow a knife to kill, hoping the Beastmen Clan would take her out.
This was one of the reasons Xiliya suspected Masha of colluding with the Beastmen Clan.
“Why’d you stop?”
Feeling the little maid behind her halt, Xiliya turned her head for a glance.
“Ah… It’s nothing.”
Ximo shook her head. She’d gotten it: Xiliya planned to dig into Masha’s dirt starting from the Beastmen raids and smuggling, then gleefully send her off to do hard time.
Ximo had just been listening for fun at first, figuring it had nothing to do with her. But wouldn’t you know it—that damn System voice chimed in her mind again right then.
【As the unfortunate Sickly Young Lady, your life always seems full of hardships. While visiting the Black Currant Chamber, you unluckily encountered a Beastmen Clan raid and were injured.】
【Please complete the plot task: “Visit the chamber and get injured in the raid (Incomplete).” Failure will result in punishment.】
Great, now this broken System was forcing her into the muddy waters.
Ximo was stumped. Her current identity was just a little maid in the manor—how could she possibly get invited as a guest to a merchant guild? She couldn’t even complete the first step!
And from what Xiliya said, she planned to investigate during this opportunity. With the real young lady on the case, a fake like her had even less room to maneuver.
“Ximo, go handle something for me.”
“Mm… Huh? What is it?”
Xiliya’s sudden words startled Ximo out of her wandering thoughts.
“Gather information on all the major and minor merchant guilds in Camberlan City and bring it to me.”
“Huh?”
Ximo blinked, stunned that this task had landed on her head.
“The guilds are definitely involved in the smuggling, so they need investigating too. Is that hard to understand?”
“Besides, I spared your life precisely so you could work for me. Did you think I’d handle something this minor myself?”
Xiliya turned back with a cold stare at Ximo, who knelt behind her massaging her back. “Gathering intel should be child’s play for an assassin like you, right?”
“I…”
Hey, don’t get her started—it really wasn’t simple!
She couldn’t even brew tea properly, and now she was supposed to play assassin and collect intelligence?
Ximo hadn’t expected Xiliya to task her with this. In Xiliya’s mind, as an attempted assassin, the order made perfect sense. But Ximo knew the truth… She was no assassin!
When she’d transmigrated, the System had indeed introduced her role… but that was Xiliya’s role. What did it have to do with Ximo?
A maid who couldn’t assassinate wasn’t a proper Sickly Young Lady, okay?
Now, forget assassinating—she barely understood her own basic backstory. She could maybe try playing the Sickly Young Lady, but an assassin?
Better not push her luck.
