Free Web NovelChapter 262: Because!
"Guoh~"
Lucas coughed and doubled over, clutching his stomach as his eyes teared up.
Lifting his head, the young boy glared at the beautiful girl who had just punched him in the gut and cried out pitifully, "What was that for!?"
"Because!" Christina snorted before turning her head away, a faint blush still lingering on her cheeks.
Turning to his Master, Lucas hoped he could get an explanation from her, but all he saw was Celestina covering her mouth with her first, failing miserably at trying to hold back her laughter.
Eventually, Celestina pulled herself together and ordered, "Tina, greet your Senior Brother properly."
Quickly composing herself, Christina placed her right fist over her chest and bowed slightly, "I will be in your care from today onwards, Senior Brother Lucas."
Lifting himself up with some difficulty, Lucas performed a similar salute, "I look forward to spending many years learning and training together with you, Junior Sister Tina."
Straightening back up, Christina sighed as she muttered, "I figured you wouldn’t be surprised, Lucas."
Shaking his head, the young boy flashed a warm smile to his new Junior Disciple, "I didn’t know anything for sure, I just believed you could do it, Tina."
Seeing the genuine happiness on the face of the boy before her, and feeling the sincerity in his words, Christina lowered her head again and whispered under her breath, "That’s why I punched you, stupid Senior Brother."
"Hm? You say something?" Lucas tilted his head and asked, not having caught what she had been mumbling over the noise of the nearby crowds.
Hearing this, Tina shot Lucas a glare before punching him again and storming off to find Eris, leaving the boy sprawled out on the ground, rolling around in pain, wondering just what he had done wrong.
Needless to say, Celestina, Vanessa, Allina, and even Supreme Elder Elizabeth burst into laughter at the antics of the two children, finding the whole situation extremely amusing
.....
"Sister Tina, what happened to your hair!?" Eris cried out in surprise, running over to embrace her now black-haired Sworn Sister.
Hugging Eris back, Christina smiled and shook her head, "I just decided to change my look, that’s all."
Needless to say, the reason Christina had dyed her hair black was to disguise herself. Silver hair was extremely uncommon in the Rockwell Kingdom, and there was only one silver haired girl with purple eyes and extremely high cultivation around her age, making it fairly easy to identify the nation’s youngest princess.
In Redwood Town, the common folk naturally knew nothing about the Christina’s identity. Even in Herald City, most of the nobles and higher-ups of real power had already fled by the time Tina showed up, while the rest were too ill-informed or ignorant to have any real idea about what Christina looked like.
Iron Rock, however, was a different story.
As a major city in the South-West Province, with a powerful Count-rank family in charge, it wouldn’t be strange for a few people to be able to recognize Christina for who she really was.
Dying was a simple measure, and by no means a permanent one, but it changed her overall look quite a bit, so on her new Master’s suggestion, Christina had used a kind of ink to turn her silver hair black.
With this new look, only if someone had spent a significant amount of time with Christina recently and knew her face very well would they be able to recognize her.
And what were the odds of that?
"P-P-P-Prin... Prin... Princes..."
Peeking over Eris’ shoulder, beyond the sleeping fox kit that was resting there, Christina met eyes with a certain young girl and had the extreme urge to facepalm.
Of all the places for her to be, she just had to be here, Tina sighed internally before flashing a wry smile and calling out, "Young Lady Audrey, how lovely to see you again."
After landing in Iron Rock and punching Lucas for his... transgressions, Christina had learned that Eris was helping out at one of the nearby food distribution points, or ’soup kitchens’ as Lucas liked to call them, so the young princess decided to wander over and say hello, thinking she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew in such a place.
She had been wrong.
When Eris had arrived at the villa where Lucas had been staying yesterday, the boy had quickly introduced her to his new friend, Audrey Carlson.
Just as Lucas had anticipated, the girls immediately became fast friends, fitting together like two peas in a pod. The pair were so compatible they soon entered a world of their own, leaving Lucas out completely, much to the boy’s amusement. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Eris and Audrey spent the rest of that evening talking, laughing, and bonding over all manner of things, with Yuki also joining in on their fun, making for quite the boisterous scene.
By morning, the girls were practically inseparable, so when Eris declared she would be helping out in the city, Audrey insisted on tagging along.
Knowing Lucas was basically in charge of coordinating all the evacuation and relief efforts in Iron Rock, Eris and Audrey finally remembered he existed and asked him where they could volunteer.
This, however, left Lucas in a somewhat awkward position.
Eris was one thing; barely anyone knew who she was here, so as long as a few guards went with her, there was little to no chance of anything going wrong.
Audrey was an entirely different story.
Over the past 8 days, Lucas had learned that the talented young granddaughter of the local Count was something of a celebrity in Iron Rock, her face widely known amongst its populace for a number of reasons.
If Audrey were to suddenly show up and start serving porridge to the refugees, it would undoubtedly cause a huge stir. As for what happened after that, Lucas didn’t dare to guess.
As he wasn’t certain if this was a good idea or not, Lucas decided to consult with the higher-ups in the Carlson Family.
Surprisingly, Audrey’s mother Giselle, her grandfather Mathias, and even Supreme Elder Elizabeth all fully endorsed the idea of Audrey accompanying Eris, saying it would be a good experience for the young girl and would also boost the Carlson Family’s prestige amongst the common folk.
Of course, a significant number of powerful guards would need to accompany Audrey as the situation in Iron Rock was still a bit turbulent with all the new arrivals, but with nearly 50 Spirit Initiates now gathered in this city, assigning a couple of them to look after the girls for a day wasn’t much of an issue.
And that was how Christina, who had gone to meet Eris, ran into Audrey, the one and only girl around her age she was somewhat close to in all of Iron Rock.
As a noble daughter from the same generation, Audrey deeply admired Christina and had asked her grandfather to take her to the capital on several occasions in hopes of meeting the famous Genius Princess.
Last year, Audrey got her wish when she was invited to attend Christina’s 14th birthday party.
Christina wasn’t a fan of most of the noble sons and daughters her age as almost all of them approached her with foolish arrogance or opportunistic motives, but Audrey Carlson came across much more genuinely when they first met.
Perhaps because of her upbringing, with a commoner father and noble mother, Audrey was much friendlier and easy-going than other nobles her age, traits which endeared her to Christina, resulting in the two of them spending quite a bit of time in each others company during her birthday and in the days after.
If there was anyone in Iron Rock, outside the higher-ups, who could see through Christina’s disguise at a glance, it would be Audrey.
Upon confirming that the black-haired, purple eyed girl her new friend Eris was hugging was indeed the same Princess Christina she had met last year in the capital, Audrey was understandably dumbstruck.
Lucas and Eris had both mentioned to her about their ’Big Sister Tina’, with Eris even bragging quite a bit about how Tina was super strong and super pretty. At the time, Audrey hadn’t thought much about it, just imagining this Tina to also be a new potential friend.
Never, in her wildest dreams, did Audrey think that the ’Tina’ they were talking about was actually Christina Rockwell.
Snapping out of her daze, Audrey dropped the giant soup ladle in her hand and hurriedly tried to bow, as was customary when greeting a member of the Royal Family.
However, before she could lower her head, Audrey felt a gust of wind brush past her face and two strong hands tightly grip her shoulders, forcing her to remain upright.
Stunned that someone had invaded her personal space so easily, Audrey looked up abruptly and found herself face-to-face with Christina, the latter having swiftly moved to stop the former from doing something that would further complicate the situation.
Eris and Audrey’s initial reactions to her appearance had already started to draw too much attention, so Christina grabbed both the younger girls’ hands and dragged them away, hoping to speak to them in a more private setting.
The girls’ numerous escorts also followed along discreetly, with Commander Rachel of the Raging River Legion shaking her head in exasperation.
Rachel was one of the original 12 Spirit Initiates Celestina had brought with her aboard the Sunchaser to Redwood Town and had been there when Christina first arrived; thus, she was well aware of the princess’ presence and identity.
Early this morning, Rachel had won a rock-paper-scissors tournament, a game Lucas had introduced to everyone at some point, earning her the cushy job of escorting Audrey and Eris for the rest of the day.
This was supposed to be the easiest assignment in the city for any of the Spirit Initiates, but with Christina suddenly appearing and seemingly ’attacking’ Audrey, everything had been thrown out of whack.
Fortunately, Rachel was able to act fast enough to stop the other guards in her group from ’subduing’ the ’assassin’ targeting Young Lady Carlson, avoiding a minor catastrophe, but realizing she now had to watch over the daughter of a Baron, the daughter of a Count, and the daughter of the King, all while concealing the latter’s true identity, Rachel suddenly felt like this ’easy’ job wasn’t going to be so easy after all.
