Seeing the guards who had surrounded him, Chariled’s fat face, which had a double chin, instantly turned deathly pale.
“Xi… Xiliya, Miss Xiliya, what is the meaning of this?”
Sifuke stepped forward in Xiliya’s place and flashed a pair of luxurious silver handcuffs in front of Chariled.
“Guild Leader Chariled, the Textile Merchant Guild is suspected of smuggling. Please come with me.”
“No, no, no…” Chariled shook his head like a rattle drum. “It’s a misunderstanding, Miss Xiliya. Give me a chance to explain. It’s all a misunderstanding…”
Chariled’s voice grew smaller as his hefty body was dragged away. Watching her subordinate take the man away, Sifuke straightened her hat and saluted Xiliya.
She had finally realized her wish to join the City Guard. If Masha had still been in power, Sifuke knew she would have spent her life as a cowardly captain who turned a blind eye.
Masha’s arrest was just the beginning. The scene that unfolded in the mansion’s reception room that day played out across the entirety of Camberlan City. Xiliya would not let a single guild involved in smuggling go.
Sifuke had been spinning like a top these past two days. Fortunately, the ledgers discovered at Hans’s place recorded all the guilds involved in smuggling, and the City Guard went door-to-door to settle accounts with them one by one.
Afterward, Xiliya took office as City Lord without any obstruction. But when this moment truly arrived, Xiliya remained unusually calm. She only went to the City Guard’s prison with Ximo after the inauguration ceremony ended.
The once-dominant Madam Masha of Camberlan City had been in jail for many days. Now, her eyes were dull, her clothes disheveled, and she had long lost her former elegance and luxury.
“I’m the City Lord now. Aren’t you going to cry and beg for mercy, Masha?”
Looking at the woman in the cell, Xiliya got straight to the point. A flash of unwillingness and anger passed through Masha’s eyes, but in the end, she said nothing sharp or biting.
“Is that so? Congratulations, Xiliya.”
“Now that things have come to this, do you regret it?”
“Regret?” Masha slowly shook her head. “Of course. I regret that I ever showed my hand and let a powerless young lady like you catch my weakness.”
“Xiliya, don’t you know what an incompetent man your father, Dos Camberlan, is? Without me stabilizing the Camberlan Family’s situation, this family might have collapsed long ago!”
Staring fixedly at Masha through the cell door, Xiliya said, “You’re just making excuses for your own greed.”
“Greed?” Masha suddenly laughed. “I admit I approached Dos for the position of Madam of the Camberlan Family.”
“But after Malisi was born, I realized that to gain a foothold in this family, I had to seize real power. Otherwise? I’d end up like your mother—discarded without mercy by your father after falling ill, remarried to a new wife, unable to even protect my own child.”
With a loud clang, Xiliya gripped the cell bars tightly. If not for the cell door blocking her, Ximo even thought Xiliya might tear Masha apart.
But Masha continued, her brows lowering as her voice suddenly softened.
“Because I didn’t want Malisi to end up like you someday. I had to protect her…”
“…But I truly didn’t expect you to topple me, or that you’d have the strength to defeat Samuer’s confidants.”
“There are many things you didn’t expect,” Xiliya replied casually. “For example, Ximo is actually the assassin you hired last month to kill me, but now she’s mine.”
Xiliya’s “mine” clearly had double meanings. Ximo blushed slightly beside her, but what neither expected was that Masha in the cell froze for a moment.
“Assassin? What assassin? I never hired anyone to assassinate you, Xiliya.”
Now the two outside the cell were stunned.
“It’s only been how long since your father passed away last month?” Masha’s expression turned ugly. “At that critical juncture, hiring someone to assassinate you would be throwing dirty water on myself. How could I do something so stupid?”
Masha didn’t know about the Appearance-Changing Magitool on Ximo?
Xiliya had originally thought Masha’s plan was to have Ximo assassinate her and take her place for a while, so no one outside would notice. But from Masha’s attitude now, she clearly knew nothing about the assassin.
Facing Xiliya’s gaze, Ximo looked equally baffled. She didn’t even know her own background now—who sent her to assassinate whom? How could she know?
However, since assassins never met their employers directly, Ximo had subconsciously assumed it was Masha who hired her to kill Xiliya.
“I… I don’t know either.”
Xiliya frowned. So the one who wanted to assassinate her back then wasn’t Masha, but someone else? But… at this point in time, she was just an obscure young lady from a border family. In her dozen-plus years of life, she’d hardly left the city. Besides Masha, who else would want to assassinate her and take her place?
Xiliya suddenly thought of something. She prepared to leave with Ximo to talk elsewhere, but as she took a step, Masha’s pleading voice came from behind.
“Xiliya, I beg you for one thing.”
Even during their face-to-face talk earlier, Masha had remained composed, but now her attitude turned subservient.
“…Please don’t make things hard for Malisi. These matters have nothing to do with her. You can torture me however you want. I beg you, Xiliya.”
It was hard to imagine those words coming from Masha’s mouth. Unlike those fawning guild leaders who bent with the wind, Masha had always been unyielding. No one had ever seen her like this.
Xiliya paused, but she didn’t turn back.
“Alright, I promise. Malisi is part of the Camberlan Family too. I won’t drive my own sister out of the Camberlan Family.”
Masha said nothing more. Ximo glanced back quietly and saw Masha kneeling on the ground. She suddenly looked aged, that plea shattering the pride of this strong woman.
Xiliya was a reasonable person. She knew Malisi was just a child— a bratty one, sure—but it was inseparable from Masha’s indulgence.
Moreover, Malisi did share half her blood… But Xiliya had to admit she’d agreed so quickly because, in that instant, Masha reminded her of her own mother.
