The young boy's feeble attempt to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere, clearly taking pity on her and trying to make her feel better, was the final preverbal straw for Christina.
She had fled her home, flying through the night to a distant backwater town she had never heard of before, all while concealing her identity like it was something to be ashamed of.
Then, upon arriving, she learned that the woman who she admired more than any other besides her mothers had actually taken a Disciple, an honour Christina had been desperately trying to achieve for years now but had always been denied!
The young princess, who had always been hailed as the greatest genius in the history of the Rockwell Kingdom by everyone around her, simply couldn't accept this new reality and uncharacteristically lashed out in anger.
If that had been all, Christina might still have been able to regain her calm after venting her frustrations.
After so many lectures and lessons on royal etiquette, she had long ingrained into herself how to behave in public, even if she was dealing with particularly annoying people like this boy named Lucas. Unfortunately, before she could punch Lucas and demand he tell her how he made Celestina Balfour take him as her Disciple, he actually called out her real name!
Before she was sent away from the capital by her dearest mother and father, Christina had been repeatedly warned not to expose her identity, yet less than 5 minutes after landing at the first stop on her journey, some random brat who had likely never even left his rural hometown had figured out who she was!
Christina already felt like running away and hiding her face in embarrassment at that moment; but then, as if the Heavens were intent on teaching her that no matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse, her stomach just had to raise its voice in protest after not having eaten anything since yesterday morning.
Who could have thought that the advice her Aunt Vanessa had given her to not eat before taking an extremely long flight would now come back to bite her in the butt?
It was all too much for Christina.
The young girl had faced setbacks and embarrassments in her life before, like failing to comprehend part of her Cultivation Technique in one go, or forgetting the name of minor nobles she was meeting with despite them introducing themselves already, but never before had she shamed herself so thoroughly as she had today.
Lowering her gaze, something snapped inside Christina's head as she began to chant, "…get"
Lucas, who had looked away out of consideration, suddenly heard Christina mumble something and couldn't help turning back, perking up his ears as he politely asked, "Pardon me?"
With her stunning silver hair covering her face, making her look a bit eerie, Lucas heard Christina repeatedly muttering under her breath, "Forget… forget everything…"
"Um... I'd love to oblige, but that's…" Lucas was at a loss for words.
It was only natural that this princess wanted him to forget about this embarrassing episode, but how was he supposed to do that? As the young boy was trying to think up a solution, he slowly made out the rest of what Christina was saying and realized he had a fundamental misunderstanding of his situation.
"I'll make him forget everything…"
Christina wasn't asking him to forget, she was saying she would make him forget!
Lucas watched warily as Christina got to her feet, her head still lowered, still muttering to herself over and over again, "I'll make him forget… Mom said it only takes one good punch to the head… Mother Marianne also said that method worked well…"
Now starting to sweat, Lucas began backing away slowly, as if he was being eyed by a dangerous beast. He wanted nothing more than to start running right now, but he also didn't want to startle the predator before him.
The delicate balance finally broke when Christina abruptly lifted her head, all the embarrassment and shame from before being replaced by cold determination.
Clenching her fists tight, she called out in a commanding tone, "Hold still! I'll make this quick!"
Before she even finished speaking, Tina kicked off the ground, leaping forward with her arm outstretched as she sought to capture Lucas.
With only 5 or 6 metres separating them to begin with, Christina arrived in front of Lucas in the blink of an eye; but, contrary to her expectations, the only thing she managed to grab was air.
Lucas, having sensed the impending threat, had flared his Soul Sense, locking onto Christina's movements, anticipating the trajectory of her attack, and dodging at the last moment.
At the same time, knowing what this princess intended to do to him, Lucas instinctually fought back.
As he side-stepped to avoid the outstretched claw, Lucas swung his right arm forward, grabbing hold of the shoulder of Tina's cloak.
Simultaneously, Lucas used his left hand to seize Tina's overextended wrist and then, in one smooth movement, threw her over his shoulder, using her own momentum and off-balance stance to his advantage.
…..
The instant Lucas threw Christina, he knew he was in deep shit.
Everything had happened in less than the time it took to take a single breath, but so, so many things had gone wrong.
After sparing with his Big Sister Eris, and taking lessons from his mother, aunt, and Senior Farah, Lucas had long ago lost any hesitation when it came to fighting those of the 'supposed' fairer gender.
In fact, Lucas found it quite insulting to even think of women as being weak, seeing how basically all the strongest people he had met in his life so far were female.
As far as Lucas was concerned, throwing a girl who was attacking him to the ground was only natural; however, throwing a princess to the ground was definitely a big no no.
If word of this ever got out, not just Lucas' head, but the heads of everyone he knew and loved could quite possibly be at risk.
Unfortunately, there was absolutely no way Lucas could 'silence' Christina, and trying to do so would undoubtedly lead to even more heads being removed from bodies.
Then, of course, there was him releasing his Soul Sense.
His Master had told him concealing the unusual condition of his Soul Sea wasn't a matter of life-or-death, but she had also told him to not expose himself if he could help it. As such, Lucas was doing his best to keep a low profile in this regard, or at least his personal definition of 'low profile', but in the heat of the moment, he had exposed his secret.
Without using his Soul Sense, Lucas still might have been able to avoid Tina's attack, but the chances would definitely have been much lower.
It was a fight or flight response, with his combat instincts taking over, causing Lucas to use everything at his disposal to protect himself and strike back.
After the fact, however, things were definitely going to get complicated.
Christina was also in the Sea Establishment Realm, so even if her Soul Qi control was terrible, there was no way she wouldn't have felt Lucas locking onto her with his Soul Sense from point-blank range.
Summing everything up, Lucas was screwed, and he knew it.
Rapidly analysing his situation, Lucas swiftly determined that if he wanted to survive this ordeal, he only had one hope. He needed to escape from here, find his Master, and pray she could shelter him from the princess' inevitable wrath.
Understanding this, Lucas didn't delay for a second, putting all his strength into his legs as he took off, racing back towards town.
…..
As Christina Rockwell lay flat on her back, staring up at the blue sky, her right arm still outstretched, the only thought that went through her mind was, Huh?
One second, she was trying to employ the technique two of her three mothers had taught her was effective for erasing people's memories, the next she was down in the dirt.
It took a moment for Christina to realize what just happened, but even after she did, she found it difficult to accept.
Just now, she had 'gently' tried to capture the rural boy named Lucas in order to 'persuade' him to forget about her earlier faux-pas, only to fail miserably and instead suffer a counterattack.
In other words, she had picked a fight, then lost!
Christina was well aware of her own strength, and she had received some of the best training in combat the Rockwell Kingdom could offer, yet a 10-year-old boy from some hick-town had somehow beaten her.
It should've been impossible, but it happened anyways.
Given the huge disparity in their cultivations, Christina didn't suffer any kind of injury or feel any pain, but the mere fact that she had been bested caused her mind to go completely blank, as if she had suffered a serious blow to her head.
It wasn't until she heard the sound of hurried feet passing by her that Christina finally came to her senses.
Glancing over at the source of the sound, she saw the rapidly retreating back of the boy she had just tangled with.
Seeing Lucas scampering away, leaving her just lying there after thoroughly shaming her, Christina's face twitched visibly, You… You… YOU!!!
"HOW DARE YOU!?!" Shoving off the ground, Christina leapt to her feet and screamed, "STOP RIGHT THERE!!!"