Chapter 24: The end of a while

It was noon, the sun high in the sky.

Moya’s consciousness gradually awoke from slumber.

Her feet rubbed against the blanket folded beneath her plump thighs, reveling in the comfort it provided.

But just as Moya wanted to go back to sleep, the memories from late last night—of what she had done while sleepwalking—began to flood into her mind.

Skipping work, charging into the circus, being teased by Aide…

‘Wait, skipped work?’

Suddenly, an earth-shattering wail echoed through Moya’s mansion.

‘What does it mean to wake up and find all performance bonuses gone?’

Moya never expected that her normally responsible sleepwalking self would abandon her daily guardian angel duties to go solve the body-swapping incident.

Moya knew she would definitely complete the second commission Aide had entrusted to her, but she never imagined she would skip an entire day of work to resolve this incident, all because she wanted to prevent new victims from appearing as soon as possible.

‘Indeed, one shouldn’t be too diligent! My sleepwalking self is so inconsiderate! Doesn’t she understand the principle of eating one bite at a time!’

Immersed in the loss of her bonus, Moya didn’t even want to dwell on the fact that her sleepwalking self had been teased by Aide.

‘If I could get my lost wages back, I’d welcome being teased by Aide eight hundred times!’

‘My bonus is gone—what will I eat?’

This month, she’d definitely have to cut back on milkshakes and reduce her food delivery service.

Those were all money-draining habits—after all, this world’s delivery service wasn’t developed; Moya had burned real gold and silver to buy her comfort and enjoyment.

The moment she thought about her mansion being in the suburbs of the royal capital, and that even without going full speed, it would take over ten minutes to fly to the nearest restaurant, Moya felt like breaking down.

Of course, cooking was out of the question—she would never cook in this life.

But flying at top speed back and forth was way too tiring!

The chaotic wailing echoed through Moya’s mansion for a long time without fading, loud enough for Aide, who was still a few dozen meters away, to hear.

‘What’s going on?’

The corners of Aide’s mouth twitched.

He didn’t know what insanity this lazy bum had woken up to.

Knock knock knock!

Amidst Moya’s despairing wails, Aide knocked on the mansion door.

“Miss Moya, it’s me.”

The door opened to reveal Moya with a tearful expression.

“TAT The incident is already over, why are you still coming to me!”

“Miss Moya, a nobleman is forgetful. Wasn’t it you yourself last night at midnight who agreed to tell me the details of the incident today?”

Seeing Moya’s dejected look, Aide’s voice carried a hint of gentle curiosity.

“What’s wrong, Miss Moya? You look completely out of sorts since waking up.”

Hearing Aide’s reason for coming, Moya remembered that her sleepwalking self had asked for a postponement until tomorrow to quickly get rid of Aide without him noticing anything unusual.

Although not exposing her true form was indeed a good thing, having him show up when she was already annoyed made her feel even more irritable.

“Nothing, just lost some money.”

Moya’s feathered ears drooped as she waved her hand weakly.

“Come in first, so you won’t keep asking why I didn’t invite you in.”

“Miss Moya is indeed clever.”

“Is there a possibility that it’s not that I’m clever, but that you insist on shamelessly hanging around my doorstep even though you know I don’t want to invite you in?”

“Miss Moya is indeed clever.”

‘Damn! I have a vague sense of being treated like ⑨.’

Moya irritably left the door ajar, turned back into the mansion, and ignoring Aide’s reaction, shuffled inside in her slippers.

Aide initially followed the owner as a guest should, but he didn’t expect Moya to lead him toward the bathroom.

Just as Aide was wondering why she brought him there, Moya started washing her face and brushing her teeth right in front of him.

Aide didn’t know what to think for a moment.

With an awkward expression, he hurriedly left and sat in the living room, waiting for Moya to finish washing up.

He wondered whether this girl was simply carefree or oblivious to others—shouldn’t she have informed her guest first?

It seemed Moya was really in a bad mood.

After a while, Moya finished washing up and came out with a new milkshake.

‘Might as well enjoy it while there’s still some stock—live it up one more day at a time.’

“So what exactly happened last night? I sensed you made quite a commotion in the spiritual world.”

“Nothing much, just used a lot of the church’s holy light energy reserves for a ‘plow-style search’.”

Thinking of this, Moya sighed even more deeply.

“Used so much energy reserve—with this added, they’ll deduct even more from my salary.”

So it was the pay cut that was depressing her.

That was very in character for Moya.

“Then I searched the entire royal capital in the spiritual world, found the circus, caught the Cloaked Figure, and waited for you to make the arrest.”

It couldn’t be more brief.

Aide couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Miss Moya, I need these details for a report to the king. You expect me to pass this off to His Majesty?”

“Ah, what’s there to say? Just make something up. Why do you need to ask so many details about this kind of thing?”

Moya brushed it off casually—

She didn’t want to reveal too many details that might tip Aide off.

“Fine, fine. Let me ask a few more questions.”

“Ask.”

“One: Was the Cloaked Figure solely responsible for this incident?”

“…At least the body-swapping was. As for the dream circus… I’m not sure.”

Moya’s answer was hesitant—she really didn’t know.

“Alright, I’ll inform the royal capital to focus their interrogation on that. Two: Did you get hurt when you subdued the Cloaked Figure?”

“No, he’s just a piece of trash—how could he hurt me?”

Moya blurted out without a second thought.

“One last question: Are you really short on money?”

“…”

With that last question, the living room fell into silence for a while.

“Why are you asking that?”

Moya didn’t blurt out her urgent need for money;

Instead, she looked at Aide suspiciously.

‘This loan shark debt-collector hero must be up to no good again.’

“Well, I heard your wages got docked.”

Aide replied with a smile, not flustered at all.

“Thanks to your efforts, the Cloaked Figure was caught. Although he hasn’t confessed yet, this commission from the royal family is mostly complete, so the capital has pre-delivered half the reward.”

“But this incident was basically all your doing—I just made the final arrest. So I thought I’d give you two-thirds of that reward as thanks.”

“Really?!”

Light instantly sparkled in Moya’s eyes, but she hesitated.

“There are no other strings attached, right? Don’t tell me there are some hidden traps…”

“Relax. After a few days together, can’t you trust me just this once?”

Aide took out an exquisite card and placed it gently on the table.

The card was light gold, with delicate elven patterns inlaid on the edges and a World Tree totem with spreading branches in the center, glowing with a soft magical luster under the sunlight.

“This is a savings card from that elven trading company in the royal capital. There’s a five-figure balance inside. Use it as you wish.”

The moment Aide placed the card on the table, Moya snatched it away in a flash.

“Wow, thanks, Aide!”

Confirming the authenticity of the card in her hand, Moya almost wanted to kiss Aide on the cheek.

‘Now I can happily renew the food delivery service and milkshake freedom for another month.’

Watching Moya’s joy, the corners of Aide’s mouth unconsciously lifted.

‘Actually, there was no such thing as an early reward delivery.’

‘But Moya didn’t need to know that.’