98. It Was All The Princess's Task After All
The bewildered little maid looked at Xia Yi, blinking her eyes.
"Your Highness, what are you talking about?" she asked.
"Elly, I have a question for you. If this matter were to be exposed, wouldn't you not only face death but also be stripped of your skin and then expelled from the Dragon Palace?" Xia Yi stated mercilessly.
Following Xia Yi's line of thought, Elly imagined the consequences.
Indeed, such a thing could happen.
Firstly, as a member of the Royal Maid Corps, she had not completed her tasks well.
Secondly, she had spilled water on Xia Yi, embarrassing the Silver Dragon Princess, which was an insult to the future heir of the dragon realm.
Thirdly, she had broken the portrait of the sovereign ruler of the dragon realm, the esteemed Silver Dragon Queen.
"Ah…!!" Elly's breathing became rapid.
"By the way, Elly, your first reaction was to run away, not to turn yourself in," Xia Yi reminded her.
Fourth, fleeing from justice!
Elly envisioned herself in court, with the dragon judge already handing down her sentence—death for all four crimes!
Under the angry gaze of the Queen and the disappointed eyes of Lucia, as well as the reproach of other dragons, she saw herself being led away to the guillotine—snap!
"No, don't!!" Elly screamed, clutching her head.
Xia Yi bent down and said, "So, you understand, Elly. I can help you. I'll take on all these charges. Whether it's Lucia or Mother, they won't do anything to me~"
"Is Your Highness really willing to help me?"
"Yes, you just need to obey."
"Mhm, mhm, mhm!! I'll obey, I'm the most obedient!!" Elly nodded vigorously.
"It's only right for me to repay Your Highness for sacrificing your dignity to help me!"
Why are you still talking about dignity!!
Xia Yi almost couldn't hold back.
Deep breaths, deep breaths, don't worry about that now.
It seemed that the naive Elly had completely believed these tall tales.
Her plan first required finding someone to draw fire. If she acted too conspicuously in the palace, it would easily leak out and reach Xia Lulu's ears.
A very, very, very important part of the plan was to ensure that Xia Lulu did not detect her covert actions.
Because under the current circumstances, any slight movement from her would surely raise Xia Lulu's vigilance.
She needed to control someone in the spotlight while she remained in the shadows, manipulating events as the mastermind. This way, Xia Lulu would be caught off guard!
In the Dragon Palace, the best target was Elly.
Because this foolish maid was just too easy to handle!
If it were Sera or Lucia, it wouldn't work at all. Most of the Royal Maid Corps were too savvy and wouldn't fall for her tricks.
And the guards were out of the question; they would definitely inform the captain of the guards, who would then tell Xia Lulu.
The same went for everyone else…
After much consideration, Elly, who had just entered the Dragon Palace and lacked experience in many areas, became an extremely easy target to manipulate.
With just simple manipulation, this little maid had already become putty in her hands.
"You're very good, Elly. You're so sensible, you've really helped me a lot~"
Xia Yi patted Elly's head.
"Go on, clean up, and I'll pretend nothing ever happened. If anyone asks, you can say it was me. If there's any problem, come straight to me, but—" Xia Yi glanced around, noticing no one else was present, then handed a magical crystal artifact to Elly.
"First, take this, and then complete the task I've assigned to you."
…
"Hey, hey, hey."
"I can hear you, Princess."
"Don't call me Princess, use my codename! Cabbage!"
"Alright, alright… Your Highness Rice Cake!" Elly responded helplessly to the magical device.
This was a communication device capable of transmitting sound over short distances.
The communication through this device was quite unstable, easily disrupted by other magical fluctuations, making it impractical in more complex environments.
However, its advantage was its concealment.
Elly's correspondent was Xia Yi.
Following Xia Yi's instructions, the two had taken codenames; Elly was Cabbage, and Xia Yi was Rice Cake.
"Your Highness Rice Cake, what should I do next?"
"Listen carefully, Cabbage, I need you to replace me and ask some questions to the guards in the Dragon Palace."
Xia Yi was hiding in a dark corner, watching Elly outside and giving orders.
She had just gone back to change her clothes and had come out again.
"Actually, this isn't difficult to do. As long as you get me the information I want, I'll solve your problem."
"Understood!"
"Good luck… Oh, someone's coming, go on, Cabbage!!"
"Alright, Your Highness Rice Cake, I'm going in!"
In front of Elly, a patrolling guard happened to pass by, and the little green dragon maid stepped forward to block his path.
"Oh, are you a member of the Royal Maid Corps?" the guard greeted Elly.
Although Elly was only a reserve member, the Royal Maid Corps was a special organization directly under the Silver Dragon Queen, and its members had a higher status than ordinary guards.
"May I help you with something?"
Elly was at a loss for a moment.
She was just following Xia Yi's orders and didn't yet know what she needed to do.
"Cabbage, pretend to fall, then while the other person is distracted, attack, knock them out, and stuff them into a sack and take them away!"
"What?!" Elly exclaimed in surprise, this was surely causing trouble!
The guard saw the maid in front of him suddenly shouting and was puzzled.
Elly quickly covered her mouth and whispered, "Your Highness Rice Cake, this, this can't be…"
"Stop wasting time, Cabbage, do you want to become a spicy cumin roasted cabbage?!"
"Wuwuwu…" Elly's face fell.
But she had no choice, once on the thief's ship, there was no turning back, she had to obey.
She ran a few steps, pretended to fall to the ground, and then lay still.
"Trainee maid, what's wrong with you?!"
The guard approached, crouched down, and noticed that Elly seemed breathless, which made him nervous.
Standing up, he called out, "Is there any other guard or royal maid here? There's been an emergency—uh!"
Before the guard could finish, Elly had already gotten up, pulled out a big stick from under her skirt, and knocked the guard unconscious on the ground.
"I'm so sorry, really sorry, I had no choice… this is all Your Highness Rice Cake’s mission!" Elly was dizzy and kept apologizing as she dragged the guard into the sack.
Xia Yi was quite surprised; Elly's strike just now was quite forceful. She indeed had strength in combat, stronger than the guard, no wonder such a clumsy person could be recruited into the Royal Maid Corps for training.
"Princess, what should we do next?" Elly inquired.
Xia Yi had already thought it through. Even if others noticed something amiss, the first person they would catch would be Elly. Letting her take the blame would buy Xia Yi some time.
"The next task is even more thrilling."
O no :( poor Elly.
ReplyDeletePunishment for the naughty dragon incoming
ReplyDeleteLol, yup 😆
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