Chapter 511: On Patrol
"Time to change shifts," Christina declared formally as she saluted her fellow soldier.
"Ah, Princess, that’s not..." Lane tried to object.
"Don’t say it, Captain Lane," Christina interrupted the man before her.
Captain Lane was a familiar face to Christina as he had been deployed to the South-West Province during the explosion incident. He then traveled together with her on the way from Iron Rock to Misty City and was involved in the orphanage fire incident.
Although not young anymore, Lane also wasn’t old, but he was still twice Christina’s age. That, coupled with the fact that Christina was a genuine princess, caused the Scout Captain to treat her very respectfully despite them technically being the same rank.
Christina, however, wasn’t going to have any of that.
It had been half-a-month since her 16th birthday, and just as her Master had promised her, Christina was allowed to temporarily join the Raging River Legion as a Captain and was now participating in the river patrols.
Again, just as Celestina had ordered, Christina was treated as just another soldier, her last name carrying no more weight here than anyone else’s.
At least, that’s how it was supposed to be.
While the Spirit Initiate Commanders really did treat Christina as just another soldier, her fellow Captains were having a bit of a hard time doing the same, but that was understandable given her identity and how young she was.
That said, Christina never took advantage of this and insisted on fulfilling her duties just like everyone else.
Take tonight, for instance. Night-watch aboard a patrol ship was incredibly dull, especially given the fact that nothing of note had taken place since they left Misty City 5 days ago, but it was still a vital part of any combat patrol, and someone had to do it.
It was Christina’s turn today, and she had every intention of carrying out her orders, so she brushed aside Lane’s attempt to dissuade her and simply declared, "You’re relieved. Now go get something to eat and get some rest."
Sighing slightly, Lane nodded, gave his new colleague a formal salute, then headed to the mess-hall to grab whatever leftovers there were from dinner.
After seeing off Captain Lane, Christina assumed his position at the bow of the ship and began scanning the waters ahead.
Even though it was now late June, and the weather was quite hot during the day, at night, in the middle of the Lorren, the wind felt quite cold, especially with the water dampening her clothes.
Glancing down at the brand-new armour that Lucas and Braxton had forged for her, Christina couldn’t help smiling slightly.
Made from a mix of Peak-Rank 4 Mortal and Low-Rank 1 Spirit Grade metals, cloth, and leather, and etched with both a Temperature Control and Solidifying Spirit Array, this was a genuine Spirit Armour that not only fit perfectly, but could also protect her from a couple blows from a Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate.
(Illustration in Chapter Comments)
Then, of course, there was her weapons.
A longbow, a pair of daggers, and a two-handed great-sword, all Low-Rank Grade 1 Spirit Weapons.
The sword and daggers were freshly forged, just like her armour, while the longbow was actually a birthday gift from the First Queen.
Ordinarily, crafting a set of armour and weapons of this quality would have taken much, much longer than 10 days, but thanks to all the recent upgrades in the Balfour Family forge, a great many processes which used to take days could now be completed in hours or even minutes.
Certain materials which could previously only be worked with by Spirit Smiths could now be handled by those in the Mortal Realms.
All of this, combined with a huge dedicated effort from the smiths in the forge, had allowed Christina’s new equipment to be prepared in record time.
Even if it was a ’rush’ job, though, it was no exaggeration to say that Christina had the best armour and weapons aboard this ship. Not even the mission’s commanding officer was better equipped.
Speaking of the commanding officer, "I see you’re taking your role seriously, Tina."
Turning around, Christina smiled lightly before performing a proper salute, "Battalion Captain Gage, what brings you here tonight?"
Lana Gage was another familiar face to Christina, as she was the Sunchaser’s main pilot and had thus been amongst the first group Celestina brought to Redwood Town.
Over the past year or so, Christina had interacted numerous times with Lana both professionally and in private, so calling them friends wasn’t too much of an exaggeration despite the large age-gap between them.
Lana was also a veteran Tenth Step Sea Establishment soldier on the cusp of breaking through to the Initiate Realm and was one of Christina’s few non-Spirit Realm sparring partners.
The reason for this was simple; that fateful night, when the giant turtle had attacked Redwood Town, Lana had witnessed Christina using her full strength and thus understood that she was no mere Core Formation Junior, but rather an extremely talented Sea Establishment Practitioner.
In terms of raw strength and talent, especially in the field of Internal Qi control, Christina was superior by a long shot to Lana, but the sparring record between the two of them still favoured the latter as Lana had vastly more actual combat experience.
All that said, the current relationship between Christina and Lana was that of subordinate and superior, so while they remained mostly casual, while on duty, Christina made sure to observe the bare minimum of military protocol.
Saluting the young princess back, Lana walked over to the gunwale, tucking her hair back that had blown loose from the wind, "I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit; after all, we’ve been cooped up aboard the ship for 5 days straight with nothing to do."
Laughing lightly, Christina shook her head and quipped, "I suppose after getting used to flying around on the Sunchaser, taking a river ship must seem unbearably slow."
"Something like that," smiling wryly, Lana shook her head, "I just hope we can repair the Sunchaser soon."
During the incident with the giant turtle, Celestina’s prided Skyship had taken serious damage. The superstructure had basically been repaired already, but the Levitation Array was totally out of commission.
In order to fix that delicate piece of Spirit Engineering, a specialized Grade 3 Spirit Smith from the Rising Sun Empire would need to make the trip out to the Rockwell Kingdom.