Chapter 582: Life Carries On
"So, what exactly was it you wanted to show me?" Christina tilted her head funnily, wondering why Braxton and Lucas both had such dark circles around their eyes and such big grins on their faces.
Actually, when she looked around the room in The Lab, she noticed that all the other blacksmiths and researchers gathered together today had similarly exhausted appearances.
The fact that these eccentric explosion enthusiasts all seemed so pleased with themselves only made the princess more worried about what exactly they had done to her armour; after all, she would be deploying with the rest of the Third Battalion tomorrow.
If these maniacs had done something outrageous...
Oh, who was she kidding; of course they had done something outrageous. The question was how outrageous.
Letting out a tired sigh, Christina quickly understood that resistance was pointless, so she simply declared, "Alright, let’s get this over with."
.....
3 hours later, Christina left the top-secret research facility with a smile on her face.
It turned out that, despite not looking much different, her armour had been significantly upgraded.
Now a genuine Mid-Rank Grade 1 Spirit Armour, it significantly stronger and sturdier and also had a brand-new offensive feature.
Together with her upgraded greatsword, 4 new daggers, and 2 dozen mark-2 smoke grenades, Christina felt that her combat capabilities and survivability had gone up at least 50%.
Finished handing over responsibilities for Princess Bakeries to Jake, Jenny, Jessie, and Tess, all that was left to do was pack up a few things then head to the Raging River Legion’s base to join her unit.
Christina was a little depressed she couldn’t spend more time working on her hobby and improving her skills as an apprentice Spirit Chef, but such was the life of a soldier and princess.
Of course, other than work responsibilities, there was still the matter of saying goodbye to her family here.
In true Disciples House fashion, a send-off feast was being held tonight where all of Tina’s favourite dishes would be served and all the residents would be in attendance, including Elly.
A couple days after Eris’ breakthrough to the Vein Opening Realm, Elly had decided to commit to the path of seeking strength.
This didn’t come as a surprise to Christina, but despite the little girl’s firm determination, Elly was still a bit too young to begin formally cultivating, even using Lucas’ new method.
That said, Elly wasn’t too young to start learning, or to start conditioning her body, resulting in her once free schedule now being packed with lessons and lectures, as well as workout and combat instruction from a whole host of masters.
She was still shy and withdrawn, but Elly was making an effort to overcome that weakness and her old trauma. This wouldn’t be quick or easy, but everyone around her could see that she was doing her best, which only made them want to help her more.
Elly’s determination had also sparked something among the other kids her age, many of whom saw the new girl working so hard and felt like they too needed to put in more effort as well.
Overall, it was a good thing.
The idea of training young, innocent children to be soldiers or warriors wasn’t exactly admirable; however, in the chaotic world they lived, not having the bare minimum amount of strength to protect oneself was also unacceptable.
With the situation being what it was, Christina was confident that Elly would be just fine while she was away. Lonely, perhaps, and maybe a bit uncomfortable, but otherwise, fine.
It was a start, at least.
.....
After adjusting to her newfound First Step Vein Opening Realm strength, Eris quickly resumed her training and her activities with the Rising Phoenix Guild, and there was certainly a lot for her to do there.
Although the Rising Phoenix Guild wasn’t ’technically’ owned by the Balfour Family, anyone with half-a-brain could see that the two forces were basically one-and-the-same, but despite that being the case, its headquarters had been breached during a massive terrorism attack in the southern residential district.
The counter-terrorism raids which followed also caused more than a little discomfort among the locals as the City Guard and military had been quite aggressive in their approach.
Many innocents were swept up in the chaos and some were even hurt quite badly despite having done nothing wrong.
All of this should have led to a decrease, or at least tarnishing of the Balfour Family and the Rising Phoenix Guild’s reputation; at least, that was what everyone had anticipated would happen.
However, over the next month or so, almost the exact opposite scenario played out.
While it was true that the guild and the Balfour Family had failed to stop the attack before it happened and had cracked down harshly after it had, it was also true that an enormous amount of good-will had been built up by the Rising Phoenix Guild since it began operating.
Thousands of children and young adults had benefited from the free lessons, affordable meals, and numerous work opportunities the guild had provided, earning the gratitude of both these youths and their families, assuming they weren’t orphans.
Public security had also improved recently in much of the southern part of the city thanks to the presence of so many masters at the guild.
After the attack occurred, the guild had also engaged in a huge amount of charity work and had facilitated inexpensive or even free medical treatment and reconstruction assistance to the affected parties.
As for those who had been wrongfully accused of crimes, after their innocence was confirmed, generous compensation was paid out.
For the poor commoners who lived at the bottom of society, such treatment, even in the relatively benevolent Balfour March, was basically unheard of.
Coupled with the already positive image people had of Eris’ guild and the Balfour Family as a whole, most chose to simply believe that the attack was an unfortunate reality of life and not blame the higher-ups of the city.
Many even went so far as to praise the swift actions of the Balfour Family that helped resolve the crisis and then brought justice to the ones responsible for such heinous crimes.
It also helped that many of the underworld forces which had been lurking in the shadows of Misty City, and the other regions of the Balfour March for that matter, had been all-but dismantled as a side-effect of the counter-espionage operation.