"Xio, are you hiding something from me?" After leaving the exquisite, bustling streets of the West Borough, Fors suddenly asked.
Xio, who had been thinking about the new task she had just received, jolted in surprise before forcing herself to remain calm.
"Nothing of the sort!"
"Is that so?" Fors scrutinized Xio's youthful, slightly baby-faced features suspiciously. Her usually lazy eyes were unexpectedly sharp at this moment.
Fors had long suspected that the debt Xio carried was no ordinary one. After all, she had asked about the Full Moon Whisper related to a great existence. Whether that question had merely been additional information attached to her inquiry about her father or not, it meant that Xio bore at least one debt involving the secrets of a great existence.
Xio felt a little guilty under Fors's gaze, but relying on the Sheriff's abilities, she forcibly maintained her authority and countered with a technique she had learned during her time as an Arbiter.
"I think you're the one hiding something from me, aren't you? The way you and Mr. Panredax spoke didn't sound like two people who had only met a few times. Do you often talk to Mr. Sno when I don't know about it?"
"How could that be?!" Fors's eyes widened, though panic inevitably rose in her heart. Today, she had originally planned to use "asking Sno about Mr. Fool's believers" as an excuse to find Sno alone and ask what she should do after drinking two bottles of Sequence Nine potion. Yet when Xio heard about it, she insisted on coming along. Fors had no way to explain Mr. Fool and the Abraham family to Xio, so when Xio asked her that, she could only force herself to look calm.
Unfortunately, the Apprentice pathway was not as "cunning" as