After patiently waiting outside the changing room for fifteen minutes, Xiliya finally couldn’t hold back any longer and yanked open the curtain.
“Why are you taking so long?”
Then Xiliya saw Ximo in a flustered panic, her body twisted into an awkward pose as she struggled fiercely with the straps on her back.
The dress that Xiliya had picked out featured a hollow-back design with just a few straps that needed tying, and it was clear Ximo had gotten stuck at that step.
Looking at how Ximo had tied several dead knots into the otherwise elegant and stately dress at the back, Xiliya sighed helplessly.
“Let me do it. You’re all thumbs.”
Xiliya helped rearrange the clothes, smoothing out the long skirt so it no longer looked so wrinkled and rumpled on Ximo. As her palms smoothed the soft fabric, Xiliya couldn’t help but take a couple extra glances at Ximo.
She had to admit, this little maid had a great figure. She looked about the same age as Xiliya, yet the difference in certain areas was… so vast.
Xiliya pulled her gaze away from Ximo’s chest. “Having you disguise yourself as me is really putting you through it, huh.”
“Huh?” Ximo didn’t catch her meaning. “It’s no trouble at all. With that necklace, it’s just whoosh and done.”
Xiliya didn’t comment on Ximo’s weird sound effect, but she knew full well that necklace wasn’t some simple trinket.
It could perfectly mimic someone else’s appearance, figure, even voice—at the very least, it had to be an Advanced Magic Conductor.
If anything, handing a treasure like that to a klutz like Ximo… Was it that the assassin organization behind her had deep pockets? Or was the client so desperate to see her dead that they spared no expense?
“Heh, aside from that necklace, I really don’t see a shred of a proper assassin on you.”
“If you didn’t have that necklace, how would you even disguise yourself?”
“It’s not all about the necklace, you know. There are tons of ways to impersonate someone.”
Ximo subconsciously shot back, but the moment the words left her mouth, she felt something was off. She wasn’t an assassin—how would she even know disguise methods?
“Like what?” Xiliya asked casually as she continued fixing Ximo’s clothes.
“Like…”
Ximo opened her mouth, and for some reason, an image of a Handheld Suitcase stuffed full of assassination tools flashed in her mind. That familiar yet alien sensation welled up again, and the answer flowed out naturally, like water from a stream.
“Like makeup…” Makeup tools from the suitcase flickered through Ximo’s mind. “A person’s looks can be disguised with makeup—shadows, expressions, demeanor, all can be painted on…”
“Poise, figure, even gender can be faked, as long as the technique is good enough…”
Ximo slipped into a sort of monologue, unsure why this knowledge was popping into her head but just letting it spill out.
“Like binding cloth to disguise gender.” Ximo happened to glance at Xiliya’s chest. “Uh, wrap it a few extra layers, throw on some loose clothes over it, and no one will tell.”
“So it’s not like we have to rely on the necklace…”
Lost in her strange trance, Ximo didn’t notice how Xiliya’s face had darkened. She just kept sharing her disguise tips until a pair of hands reached in and cut her off.
“Mmph—” Ximo let out a little startled yelp and looked down at her own chest in surprise. “M-Mistress, why are your hands in there?”
“Helping you fix your clothes,” Xiliya said flatly. “Something this big obviously needs to be positioned just right.”
And so, in the tiny changing room, the sounds of a girl’s interrupted gasps echoed out.
“Don’t squirm. If you keep moving, I can’t get it straight.”
“D-Don’t rub there, Mistress…”
“Quit yapping!”
Ten minutes later, Xiliya finally emerged from the changing room with a blushing Ximo in tow.
“The dress is fine, just a bit small.”
“No problem, miss,” the shop assistant—who had been waiting outside—said with a smile as she approached. “We can customize it to your exact size.”
“Once both dresses are ready, we’ll have them delivered to you.”
“Both?” Ximo blinked her big eyes a few times. “You got one for yourself too, meow?”
“Ahem.” Xiliya coughed twice. “Let’s go. Before heading home, I need to stop by the City Guard.”
Xiliya planned to get a good grasp on the City Guard’s personnel numbers, work schedules, and such. This lifetime, she wouldn’t let Masha’s schemes come to pass again.
—
Sifuke, the captain of Camberlan City’s City Guard, was nearing forty this year. She had clawed her way up through the ranks over twenty years to reach this position, and life had long worn away the righteous ideals that once drove her to join.
“Miss Xiliya,” Sifuke’s voice sounded offhand, “if I may be frank, you don’t need to personally inspect the City Guard’s operations. We’ll handle everything ourselves—of course, it’s mostly just these minor matters not worth troubling you over.”
Sifuke mouthed the pleasantries, but deep down, she wished this Camberlan family heiress would just leave already. The complaint letters from West Street residents had her buried in headaches these past couple days, and yesterday she’d even led a team to break up a protest march. Right now, Sifuke had zero patience for playing house with the young lady.
Yes, though she’d gotten the notice that the Camberlan family’s eldest miss would be taking over City Guard management for a few days, to Sifuke, Xiliya’s “inspection” was nothing more than make-believe.
She’d held this post for years and heard all the rumors about the Camberlan family. Sifuke didn’t think much of this timid, overlooked eldest miss when it came to running the City Guard.
“No worries. I won’t interfere with the City Guard’s routine duties.”
Xiliya paid no mind to Sifuke’s attitude. Though the City Guard was nominally under Camberlan family oversight, in practice, the family only held “supreme supervisory authority.” The day-to-day operations remained in the Guard’s own hands—which was probably why Masha felt safe handing the role to her.
“I just need the City Guard to ensure that when I call on you, everyone obeys orders without question.”
“Y-Yes… Miss Xiliya.”
Sifuke’s instinctive reply came hesitant, as she caught the sharp glint in Xiliya’s eyes. Was that really the gaze of some mediocre heiress?
“Pull together all the files on beastman attacks on Camberlan City from recent years for me. I’ll review them in a couple days.”
With her final instruction given, Xiliya turned to Ximo, who sat obediently waiting off to the side. “Let’s go. Time to head home.”
“Ximo?”
“Oh, right…” Ximo, who had been lost in thought, jumped to her feet and stealthily twitched her lips.
She hadn’t been spacing out during Xiliya’s talk with Sifuke—she’d been listening to that damn System… It was dropping plot tasks way too frequently!
