“Here, mine’s strawberries too. Eat this skewer of mine.”
Looking at the candied hawthorn skewer extended before her eyes, Ximo’s smile—three parts friendly, three parts triumphant from her plan succeeding, and three parts silly—froze on her face.
“What’s wrong? Mine’s strawberries too. No difference, right?”
Xiliya responded to Ximo with a smile as well, but this sunny and cheerful grin made Ximo’s heart crawl with unease.
“How about… never mind?”
Ximo probed tentatively. Xiliya’s smile on her face visibly threatened to turn stormy, so she hurriedly added, “I’ll try Luo Keke’s skewer instead. It’s just… her strawberries look a bit bigger…”
Ximo quickly snatched a strawberry from the skewer in Luo Keke’s hand to complete the task, thinking to end the topic as fast as possible.
Luo Keke blinked her eyes. Though she didn’t quite understand the situation… so Ximo was such a glutton?
A silly and gluttonous little maid—thinking of her that way, she seemed kinda cute?
“If you like eating so much, I can stuff you full properly when we get back.”
Xiliya patted Ximo’s shoulder, but Ximo only read one meaning from her tone—you’re done for.
Daring to flirt with another girl right in front of her, especially when it hadn’t even been two days since she’d said, “You’re my personal maid, all to myself.” Xiliya felt Ximo was absolutely doing it on purpose.
Since she was such a glutton, Xiliya didn’t mind feeding her until she was stuffed, so she’d have no energy left to sneak snacks later.
“It’s so lively over there! Come on, come on, let’s go check it out next~”
Only Luo Keke still hadn’t figured out the situation. The lively girl was quickly drawn by the sounds from afar again, pulling the two along to join the fun.
Until the end of their shopping trip, Ximo made no more strange moves. Just when Xiliya thought she’d finally settled down, at the moment of parting, Ximo unexpectedly pulled out two boxes.
“Right, these are gifts for you two…”
“Wow, really? Thanks, Ximo!”
Luo Keke happily accepted the boxes. Xiliya could tell the joy in her eyes was genuine; Luo Keke wasn’t just acting happy to humor Ximo.
Luo Keke was kind and truly valued bonds between people. In her past life, after being kicked out of the Camberlan Family, she never contacted Luo Keke again. She figured Masha wouldn’t let the Black Currant Chamber off easily after she left.
This life, she didn’t want to drag Luo Keke down because of herself anymore. At least regarding City Guard matters, she called the shots now.
Xiliya withdrew her gaze and opened the box. When she saw what was inside, she was slightly stunned.
A small ceramic doll lay quietly in the box—very similar to the one she had placed in her room.
“It was… I happened to see this at a stall earlier and thought it’d make a good gift for Miss.”
“Little green tea, such a sweet mouth.”
Xiliya pinched Ximo’s cheek, and the anger in her heart dissipated by more than half. She hadn’t expected Ximo to still remember that little ceramic doll from before.
[The plot task “Accept Luo Keke’s invitation to go out and complete the related plot (Completed)”—congratulations, dear!]
The system notification after completing the entire task process let Ximo breathe a sigh of relief. It was finally done.
She’d gotten smarter this time. The system’s final small task was “Luo Keke’s comfort moved you deeply. To thank her for inviting you out today, you gave her a small gift.” Giving to two people at once counted as giving, right!
On the way home at the end, Xiliya proactively took some of the large and small bags from Ximo’s hands. “By the way, buying so much stuff—do you still have any wages left?”
“Uh…” Ximo admitted Xiliya had poked right at her sore spot. Buying so many things today to complete tasks had left her wallet even more precarious.
She still hadn’t recovered from the massive hemorrhage of ten silver coins spent posting that commission earlier, and now most of this month’s wages were gone too…
“Heh.” Xiliya shook her head. “When we get back, I’ll have Annaer give you a raise.”
“After all, as you said yourself, being a personal maid is such hard work, right?”
“Really?” Ximo’s eyes lit up. “You’re such a good person, Master.”
Xiliya smiled without replying, merely looking up at the setting sun.
—
The next day, Xiliya brought Ximo to the City Guard.
The City Guard’s Captain Sifuke personally received them again. She now had a completely changed view of Xiliya. After successfully intercepting several Beastmen Clan attacks, the City Guard’s reputation in the city had improved quite a bit.
“I want to know one thing,” Xiliya cut straight to the point. “Since the Black Currant Chamber’s goods that were about to leave the city were unqualified, have your City Guard people explain specifically to me how they were unqualified.”
“This…” Sifuke looked troubled. “Miss Xiliya, the inspection for that cargo transport last time was handled by someone else. I can call him over to explain to you.”
Sifuke figured Xiliya should understand her meaning. That “someone else” naturally referred to Masha’s people.
Having climbed to this position in the City Guard, Sifuke knew full well there were some things she shouldn’t get involved in. She wasn’t unaware that some people in the City Guard sometimes tampered with inspections of goods entering or leaving the city, but she also knew those guards were Masha’s people. As this soldier captain, all she could do was turn a blind eye.
Sifuke gave Xiliya a deep look and called over the guard who had been responsible for inspecting the outgoing cargo at the time. Sure enough, when Xiliya asked that guard to explain, he hemmed and hawed, unable to say anything substantial, finally just vaguely claiming there might have been a mistake in the inspection at the time.
Xiliya smiled and said, “Then you know what to do now, right?” After that, she let the guard leave. Sifuke watched the whole thing.
She was no longer the hot-blooded little guard who’d first joined the City Guard. As a small fry, she shouldn’t speculate on what big shots were thinking, even if Miss Xiliya seemed a bit different…
She’d heard about some of Miss Xiliya’s recent actions and guessed that Xiliya wanted to deal with Masha—perhaps to fight for the heir position, or maybe for something else… It might be a good thing, but she knew she shouldn’t get involved.
With the matter settled, Xiliya didn’t hurry to leave. She noticed Sifuke seemed to have something to say, so she deliberately had Ximo go lock the door from the other side.
“You sit too, Captain Sifuke.” Xiliya leaned forward. “I’m a bit curious—can I ask why you wanted to become a City Guard soldier?”
“To earn money and support my family, Miss Xiliya. A City Guard job is steady work, after all.”
Sifuke smiled, her smile a bit tense. She didn’t understand why this young lady was suddenly asking her such a question.
