Chapter 581: Think Long And Hard
Christina froze, wondering how Elly found this particular bit of information out.
Probably sensing this, the young girl explained in a quiet voice, "I heard some people talking to Aunty Sasha and Aunty Celestina about how soldiers would be sent north soon, and recently, everyone has been even nicer to me than normal, so I thought..."
Letting out a sigh, Christina realized once more the perils of underestimating others.
Elly was young, shy, and didn’t have much contact with others, but her life-experiences had forced her to become smart, sensitive, and vigilant of her surroundings, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she had noticed something was up.
Leading the young girl up to their rooms, which were right next to each other for obvious reasons, Christina sat her down and then knelt in front of her, holding her hands gently, "You’re right. I’m leaving soon. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before now, Elly."
Elly’s expression visibly sank when she heard this.
Up until now, she had only vaguely sensed something was wrong, so she was able to keep up her spirits, but now that she had confirmation Christina was going away, it was impossible for her to continue acting ignorant.
Seeing this sad look on Elly’s face, Christina very much wanted to say she would withdraw from participating in the upcoming campaign, but her sense of duty prevented her from doing that.
If Christina had been just another soldier, requesting leave to take care of a young family member probably wouldn’t have been a problem; however, not only she an officer, thanks to her status and unique experiences, she was also one of the best-informed people in the kingdom about the enemy and their operations.
At Celestina’s command, Elliot Balfour had been spearheading the counter-espionage and counter-terrorism operations in the South-East Province.
Additionally, Christina’s father and all of her mothers were deeply involved in rooting out this unseen enemy.
If that weren’t enough, Lucas was one of the masterminds behind their current strategy and had been consulting heavily on this matter, providing critical advice from his seemingly endless fountain of knowledge.
Having grown very close to Lucas over the last year or so, Christina had recently asked her Senior Brother about this oddity, but both he and her Master had simply told her that they would explain everything later.
As for when ’later’ was, they had remained frustratingly vague.
In any case, due to her proximity to so many of the leading figures in this shadow war, Christina knew more about their enemy than most of the Spirit Initiate Commanders and heads of noble houses in the kingdom.
In other words, while her presence on the frontlines wasn’t crucial to mission success, it would certainly be extremely valuable.
Between staying here to support Elly and fighting to prevent more children from experiencing what Elly had gone through, Christina knew which choice she had to make.
Still, that didn’t make this any easier.
Gripping the young girl’s hands a bit tighter, Christina decided to bend the rules a little and said, "Not long after... Not long after that day, we found some important clues about how those bad people were sneaking into our kingdoms."
Elly’s head jerked up at those words, her expression a mix of both fear and anger as she asked, "Does that mean you’re going to fight those bad people? But... but last time you fought them, you got hurt really badly!"
At that moment, Elly wasn’t sure what she wanted more, to punish the bad people who had destroyed her home or for Christina to not put herself at risk.
It was a complicated feeling, as most feelings about seeing someone you cared about head off to war tended to be.
Feeling the little girl’s concern, Christina felt warm inside her heart, but also couldn’t resist the urge to tease a little bit and poked Elly on the nose, "Aren’t I one of those ’bad people’ as well? That’s what I remember you calling me, at least."
Reminded of their rather unpleasant first meeting, Elly blushed bright red. She had literally tried to stab, kick, punch, and bite the ’bad woman’ who chased her through the woods back then, which in retrospect, now seemed completely foolish of her.
Understanding she was being made fun of, however, Elly’s defiant side came out and she began pouting, snorting lightly as she looked away and mumbled under her breath, "Big Sister Tina really is bad."
"Hahaha," Christina laughed, having succeeded in lightening the mood a bit. She then reached out and patted Elly on the head, "Don’t worry, I won’t be fighting directly this time. I’m just going to help plan and prepare things."
"Promise?" Elly glanced back slightly.
"I..." Christina started, then stopped.
She had just made the mistake of treating Elly like an ordinary 7-year-old child and wound up in an awkward situation because of that. She wasn’t about to make the same mistake again so quickly.
Putting on a serious expression again, Christina declared firmly, "I’ll try my best, but if those bad people come after me, or anyone else, I will fight them."
Turning her head back to meet her new big sister, Elly couldn’t help remembering some of the stories her parents had told her about noble princes and heroes who risked their lives to fight evil.
Elly had always loved those kinds of stories, but perhaps because she had been forced to grow up so quickly, she had long ago stopped believing such people really existed.
Now, however, she had a real-life example in front of her.
Christina wasn’t so much a charming prince as she was a beautiful princess, but she certainly was heroic, so Elly figured she was close enough.
She was still sad to hear that her big sister was leaving, but even more than that, seeing the kind but also determined look on Tina’s face, something new stirred inside of Elly, a single thought, or perhaps emotion, that once emerged could not be contained.
Before she even knew what she was saying, Elly spoke aloud, "I want to be like you when I grow up, Big Sister."
"Hm?" Tilting her head, Christina was again caught off-guard a bit, confused as to what Elly meant, but seeing the fire in the little girl’s eyes, she soon understood.
It was the same fire she had seen so often in the eyes of her Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and even her own reflection in the past; it was the light of desire to grow stronger.
Strong enough to protect those she loved.
Strong enough to make a real difference in the world.
Christina understood that desire so well it hurt.
She had felt the same desire when she was Elly’s age, and she still felt it today, perhaps even more strongly than she had back then.
After everything she had witnessed this past year, and everything she had been through, Christina understood more than ever that the strength she sought was still far, far beyond her grasp, but that had done nothing to dampen her desire to attain it.
If anything, she was more determined than ever and was working hard every day to get one step, one millimeter closer to that goal.
Reflecting upon what Elly had just said, and upon her own life experiences, Christina made a decision, "If that’s really what you want, I can help you; or rather, we can help you. But I’ll warn you now, it won’t be easy, so think long and hard before you make a final decision, because once you step onto this path, there’s no way off of it."