Chapter 61 - 2.22

The people were moved with Xu Jiaqi's charm and eloquence. She was a brilliant orator, and her words were believable. As if she truly experienced the events like the way she told it through her story.

"That.. is such a miserable encounter. Oh dear.. The Goddess must have a special reason for your troubles.. Young girl, you have done well coming here! Feel free to drop by my house, I will offer you up a room!" One old woman spoke up within the crowd, and this one voice started the spark of several others, which soon turned out to be a harmonized chorus of the people singing words of pity and sympathy towards Xu Jiaqi.

Indeed, she felt like she deserved the title of 'Best Actress'. If it didn't belong to her, who else could challenge her to the title?

She smirked and gloated internally, bickering with the System who criticized her overly confident and smug attitude. No one would be inside her head to hear it except for the System, however. They were all successfully impressed by Xu Jiaqi's act.

As she answered questions and received good words, one person came out of the crowd and approached her with happy steps.

"Miss noble lady! Please have this flower and cheer up. Lola doesn't know what you mean entirely, but she really likes your hair! It's shining and silky smooth.. Lola is learning how to braid her hair, could you let her braid yours sometime?" A little girl named Lola approached Xu Jiaqi and gave her a small bouquet of poppy flowers tied with a loose rubber.

The mother of this girl immediately panicked. The girl was innocent, so she probably didn't know the disparity within things like caste hierarchy and such. Speaking was one thing, but directly giving items was another thing. There could be danger in even the simplest of actions, and towards a noble, people without status like them had to act extremely carefully.

Of course, Xu Jiaqi was not someone who cared about such a thing, so she readily patted the child's head and accepted the flowers.

"Naturally. Hmm, that being said, big sister has to go to somewhere far first. She has an urgent task to do, so could you wait until one day.. this big sister meets you somewhere? Then, I will let you braid my hair. Is Lola patient? Could she do that?"

"Mmmm.. Okay! Lola understands, mommy also says that daddy is busy somewhere out there, but she says that he will always love Lola! No matter how old Lola gets, Lola likes styling people's hair a lot! Lola will style your hair!" Lola exclaimed, nodding as she skipped back to her mother who were furiously apologizing towards Xu Jiaqi and Zenith.

Xu Jiaqi shook her hands, stating that what Lola did was completely acceptable. Judging from the girl's words, Lola seemed to be a child raised by a single mother, with a missing father whose location or life was unknown. Or else, her mother wouldn't have spoken such abstract words.

After getting to know the people a bit more, and having a longer, more complete rest in the town, they were ready to continue their journey to Palla. They were now well fed, including the horse. They  probably only needed to stop one more time before their journey would be ceased.

By that time, Xu Jiaqi would have to face a much more unpleasant enemy- everyone involved in Palla's corrupted power.

In the end, for the night, Xu Jiaqi chose to stay over at Lola's house. Lola's mother was cautious, but soon warmed up after seeing Xu Jiaqi interact with her daughter as if the status barrier was nonexistent.

She gave Xu Jiaqi great hospitality. After communicating a bit more, Xu Jiaqi made the ultimate decision to also make this woman one of her pawns in this game.

The same task that she gave to the Captain was given to this mother, whose name was Lucy. Although at first, Lucy was a bit wary and unwilling, she soon gave in and promised to spread the word the way Xu Jiaqi wished for it to be.

With the correct seeds planted, Xu Jiaqi was ready to set off to Palla. She had earned enough trust from the town and would be able to garner sufficient vouches from them.

The day passed and turned into night. Since Lucy's house was not that large, she only had one spare room that she could lend to the pair of newcomers. There was also only one bed.

Xu Jiaqi's cheeky mind began to tease Zenith again.

"Zen~ why don't you share a bed with me? Treat me like I'm a rock, it's so that you can sleep in comfort!" Xu Jiaqi proclaimed.

However, unlike before, where the knight would succumb to her words after a few relentless pushing, Zenith stubbornly chose to sleep on the floor and even went as far as to sleep before her eyes. He did not wish to fall into her words and get swayed any further.

Thus, Xu Jiaqi could only click her tongue and wallow in failure!

The next morning, Xu Jiaqi and Zenith immediately packed up and wanted to continue their journey to the next stop. They parted ways with the townspeople after making sure that they were all well endowed with the story Xu Jiaqi wanted them to tell.

"Actually.. I think we should just scrap the carriage altogether. It would ease the horse's comfort a bit.. and I want to try riding a horse as well." Xu Jiaqi said, placing her hands on her hips as she removed the horse's straps to the carriage and set it free. "At least they gave us a healthy horse. We can get to Palla with him, no?"

"Yes, Lady Ariel." By this time, Zenith was already starting to get used to Xu Jiaqi's unabashed words and just silently agreed to her proposal.. Signs of trust was already starting to build up inside him.