After the cursing Charles was dragged away by the City Guard, the farce finally came to an end. Although before leaving, Charles had bellowed loudly with full vigor, shouting things like “I’m the young master of the Textile Merchant Guild” and “You can’t treat me like this”—utterly pathetic dog-like outbursts—anyone with eyes could see that Charles would at least get a layer of skin peeled off this time.
Falling into the hands of the City Guard was as good as falling into Xiliya’s hands, not to mention that he had also offended Selina. It wasn’t just Charles; the entire Textile Merchant Guild was probably going to suffer as well.
As she watched Charles being escorted away, Xiliya turned to Masha, who hadn’t said a word since earlier, and let out two cold laughs.
“I really didn’t expect Young Master Charles to be the culprit. You know people by their faces but not their hearts—don’t you agree, Aunt Masha?”
“Um… yeah, indeed…”
Masha nodded hesitantly. From the start, this ally of hers hadn’t uttered a single word to help Charles. She knew very well that no matter what she said in that situation, she couldn’t save him—and she herself might get dragged in too.
Masha wasn’t worried that Charles would rat her out. After all, the Textile Merchant Guild had plenty of dealings with her, and it was unlikely he’d hold a grudge over this and pull her down with him—it would only make things worse for the guild in Camberlan City afterward.
However, anyone could see that Xiliya had been prepared for their framing attempt this time. This once-timid Sickly Young Lady had unknowingly become an existence even she couldn’t suppress.
“Everything’s fine now, so disperse! What are you all still doing here? Go back to your duties!”
The first to react was Annaer. She sternly ordered all the servants present to leave. In fact, from the moment Charles had been taken away by the City Guard earlier, these servants shouldn’t have kept watching.
Some servants understood that seeing too much could bring disaster upon themselves, so they hurried away one after another. Only Ximo stood there foolishly without moving. Annaer glanced at her but had no intention of telling her to leave with the others.
Annaer tacitly accepted that as Xiliya’s personal maid, Ximo didn’t need to follow the rest. Naturally, her orders to leave didn’t include Ximo.
But unexpectedly, Xiliya suddenly glanced at the little maid still standing there motionless and said coldly, “Didn’t you hear Annaer’s words?”
“Eh?”
Not only Ximo, but even Annaer was stunned by Xiliya’s words. There was an unmistakable chill in Xiliya’s tone, but why was she angry at Ximo?
Anyone with eyes could see that Ximo had stepped forward earlier to take the blame for Xiliya. Without that Surveillance Monitor, Charles’s frame-up against Xiliya really would have been pinned on Ximo. For such a loyal little maid, Xiliya had no reason to be angry, right?
But Xiliya offered no explanation and simply returned to her room on her own. Seeing this, the others didn’t dare linger and slipped away as fast as they could.
Only Ximo, who trailed slowly behind Annaer as she left, felt puzzled. Ximo thought she had jumped out and nearly ruined Xiliya’s plans. Although it was to complete the System task and unavoidable, similar things had happened a few times before. Each time, Ximo would be locked in the room by Xiliya, and then… well.
She had already prepared herself to be taken back to the room and harshly punished by Xiliya, but instead, Xiliya had switched to cold violence?
Ximo took one last look at the tightly shut door and could only leave first.
Inside the room, after closing the door, Xiliya leaned against it and slowly slid to the floor as if she had lost all strength.
She gazed at the Ceramic Doll that Ximo had given her earlier, placed on the bookshelf, and let out a long breath.
She was indeed angry, but not at Ximo—she was angry at herself.
This was already the second time. The first had been at the dance, when Ximo had voluntarily stepped forward to take the blame for her. And now this.
Every time she saw Ximo, this usually timid little maid, stand up in such moments and accept the finger-pointing of thousands, it reminded her of her past life’s self.
It was so similar—whether the occasion, the events, or silently bearing grievances that didn’t belong to her. Ximo had more than once evoked memories of her previous life. Each time she thought of it, an uncontrollable blaze of anger rose in Xiliya’s heart.
Of course, she wasn’t so cold-blooded as to lack empathy for her past self. On the contrary, she was angry because she didn’t want to see Ximo suffer grievances like her past self had. She wanted to tell Ximo that in the future, when such situations arose, she should stand firm and not kneel.
Although their usual dynamic was something both had grown accustomed to—and normally, Ximo would get a proper “lesson” in these cases—Xiliya knew full well that Ximo stepping forward had helped her. Punishing Ximo under these circumstances would make her no different from those who had bullied her.
Thus, Xiliya felt a sense of powerlessness. She couldn’t help but reflect: Were her punishments of Ximo each time too excessive? Had she never considered Ximo’s feelings? Did Ximo actually… not want to do those things with her at all?
Xiliya shook her head, trying to shake these emotions and thoughts from her mind.
Forget it. She should find something to keep herself busy.
Although the goal of counter-killing Charles had been achieved, he had sneaked into her room after all. To be safe, she should review the Surveillance Monitor footage from that afternoon.
So Xiliya took out the Surveillance Monitor again and began checking what had happened in her room that afternoon.
But as she watched, an unexpected figure appeared on the screen, causing Xiliya to suddenly narrow her eyes.
This was…
—
At that moment, Ximo was in her own room, feeling at a loss as Selina earnestly bowed to her in apology.
“No, no, no, you don’t need to apologize to me. You didn’t do anything wrong… Besides, I was the one who stepped forward and misled you all. The mistake was mine…”
“You can’t say that, Miss Ximo,” Selina’s expression was very serious. “Falsely accusing someone is a very rude thing, especially since today’s incident was Charles’s fault. You don’t need to blame yourself.”
“Please let me express my apologies, or I won’t feel right…” As Selina spoke, she took out a business card and handed it to Ximo. “If Miss Ximo ever has the chance to come to the Imperial Capital and needs any help from me, I certainly won’t refuse.”
“Ah, oh…”
Ximo absentmindedly took the business card. As a modern person, she saw this handoff of a card with kind words as mere politeness, so she didn’t take it seriously. Refusing it would just be disrespectful to Selina.
