Chapter 515: Caught
"Stop!" Christina called out forcefully as she drew a dagger from her belt and put even more strength into her legs, even channeling some of her Internal Qi to boost her speed further.
Predictably, the figure didn’t stop and instead darted into the forest, obviously trying to escape, but Christina was much faster and quickly began closing the distance between them.
As she drew closer, Christina was better able to make out this figure’s appearance and was shocked to discover it was actually a child wrapped in what seemed to be a long black cape of sorts.
An Aura Concealing Cloak! Christina realized, now understanding why she hadn’t detected anything with her Soul Sense a moment ago.
Knowing it was actually just a young child she was chasing, Christina hurriedly put away her dagger and tried calling out again, this time in a softer tone, "Please wait! I’m here to help!"
If wasn’t clear if the figure heard her, but if they did, they certainly didn’t believe her and just kept running, frantically scrambling over roots, darting into bushes, and ducking behind trees. Obviously, whoever this child was, they were very familiar with this part of the woods and was desperately trying to get away.
In the process, the cloak’s hood came off, revealing two messily tied brown twin-tails.
Christina couldn’t see a face just yet, but she guessed that this child was a little girl, probably around 7 or 8 years old, and almost certainly from the local village. There was simply no other explanation for how such a young girl wound up out here all on her own.
The princess tried calling out again and again, doing her best to convince the girl that she really meant no harm, but the girl continued to ignore her.
This wasn’t all that surprising, though, considering what had just happened in the village.
Thinking back on what she had seen earlier, and imagining what this little girl must have witnessed...
Christina felt that under such circumstances, she wouldn’t trust anyone either, especially not someone dressed in armour and carrying weapons who was chasing her through the woods.
The pursuit lasted far longer than Christina had anticipated it would, with her almost losing the little girl several times in the process, but ultimately, no child that young was a match for her raw strength.
Finally catching up, Christina reached out to caught the little girl when, in what seemed like a final desperate act, the escaping child actually whipped around, drew a knife from her belt and tried to stab her.
Caught completely off-guard by this move, Christina was too late to defend herself and actually took the blade right to her chest plate.
Fortunately for the princess, her armour was vastly superior to what turned out to be a simple kitchen knife and so she suffered no damage.
Seizing the girl’s wrist, Christina disarmed her as gently as was possible and then pinned her to the ground.
That didn’t stop the girl from struggling, however, as she flailed, kicked, and even tried to bite her, all while screaming, "NO! LET GO! LET GO YOU BAD PERSON! I HATE YOU! HATE YOU! HATE YOU!!"
Christina certainly wasn’t suffering any physical damage, but hearing the desperate cries and seeing the raw anguish on the little girl’s face made it feel like that dagger from before had gone straight through her heart.
Despite being a princess and the youngest of all her siblings, Christina had a surprising knack for dealing with children, but she honestly had no idea what to do in this situation. She obviously couldn’t just let this little girl go for a variety of reasons, but restraining her like she was some Wild Beast or criminal also didn’t seem right.
Trying to imagine what her Master or Senior Brother would do also didn’t help much, as she felt those two would have found a better solution to this problem before it came to this point, quite possibly being able to talk the little girl down from the start.
When she thought about how her always positive Senior Sister would handle this issue, however, Christina suddenly felt enlightened.
Rolling over and leaning her back against a nearby tree, Christina drew the little girl into a tight embrace and began patting her head, "It’s alright... it’s alright, you’re safe now, you’re safe now..."
Despite Christina’s best efforts to be comforting, however, the little girl kept struggling fiercely, like her very life depended on it, which in her mind it probably did.
Eventually, however, the little girl seemed to grow exhausted and, while sobbing sorrowfully, rested her head against the hard metal armour of the strange older girl who had caught her.
It wasn’t long before the little girl passed out, though tears were still dripping from her eyes.
As for Christina, she just sat there, breathing heavily, trying to calm her own heartbeat.
Again, it wasn’t like she was physically tired from chasing down this girl, but she was still feeling extremely weary right now and need to take a moment to rest.
A minute or two later, Christina heard voices calling out her name and knew that the commotion she had kicked up had alerted the rest of the Third Battalion, so she carefully got to her feet while carrying the little girl and began making her way back out of the forest.
Not long after, a pair of soldiers approached her, but before they could say anything, Christina signaled for them to remain quiet as she pointed to her passenger.
Nodding in understanding, the two soldiers kept their mouths shut.
"How did you find me so quickly?" Christina asked as she got closer, feeling slightly curious.
It wasn’t like she was trying to be stealthy as she crashed through the forest, but even then, it couldn’t have been that easy to track her movements considering how erratic the chase had been.
Hearing this question, one of the soldiers, a much older man, scratched the back of his head awkwardly and replied, "I was a hunter before I became a soldier, so I just followed the tracks of your shoes, Captain. The imprints they leave are... unique."