Chapter 644: Sibling Dynamics

"Tina!" Louise cheered as she raced across the dock and gave her youngest sibling a big hug.

Caught a bit off-guard by the affection her eldest sister was showing her, Christina didn’t quite know how to respond immediately; however, she soon gave up thinking about it and just hugged Louise back, "It’s good to see you too, Big Sister."

"En en," Louise nodded, pulling back to get a good look at Christina before commenting, "You’ve grown up so much since I last saw you."

Shaking her head, Christina denied the charge, "I haven’t grown that much."

"Oh, stop being modest," Louise rolled her eyes, "You’re an adult now, and a Battalion Captain with real-life combat experience. You’re also much calmer and more confident. I’d say you’ve grown plenty."

Unable to stop a smile from forming on her face, Christina knew that arguing any more about this would be pointless, so she did the next best thing, "Thank you for your praise, Sister Louise."

The young girl swiftly followed up with a compliment of her own, "You’re also looking much more spirited compared to when I left."

"What can I say?" Louise shrugged, "That basta... that brat was simply no good for me."

Knowing full-well about her eldest sister’s terrible luck when it came to relationships, Christina decided to just nod and play along.

The last man Louise had dated was the son of a Count from the Western Province who seemed nice enough when Christina first met him.

What happened after that meeting a couple years ago to spoil the relationship, Tina didn’t really know, and she wasn’t about to go digging into her eldest sister’s painful past as that as a surefire way of getting a knock on her head.

Louise was the daughter of First Queen Marianne, and although she ’claimed’ to want nothing to do with the military, the Rockwell Kingdom’s First Princess was probably more like her mother than she wanted to admit, especially when it came to keeping up with both her training and cultivation.

In other words, Louise was strong, decisive, and had a good head for strategy, making her a dangerous opponent to face both in training and on the battlefield.

Christina had gotten more than a few bumps and bruises from sparring with her eldest sister over the years, so she wasn’t exactly eager to piss Louise off by making fun of her lacklustre love life.

Unfortunately for Christina, Louise had no such issue talking about romance.

Wrapping one arm around her little sister and leaning down next to her ear, Louise whispered in an almost conspiratorial manner, "So, how far have you gotten with him?"

When Louise asked her this out of the blue, Christina was totally confused at first, but when she saw the smirk on her sister’s face, and looked in the direction she was pointing with her thumb to see a certain young boy who was riding over on a Cloud Treading Colt, she quickly understood.

Blushing slightly, Christina thought about denying it, but figuring that would only embolden her sister, she just smiled wryly and sighed, "We’re still just fellow Disciples."

"Oh?" Louise, who was a bit surprised that Tina hadn’t immediately told her she was wrong, or bluntly told her to shut up and go away, took another hard look at her little sister before her grin grew even bigger, "Interesting."

Uh oh, Tina, who had seen this look on both her eldest sister and Mother Marianne’s face before, understood that trouble was incoming.

Sure enough, in the next instant, Louise called out, "Lucas! Over here!"

Now, there was no reason for Christina to feel nervous or anxious about meeting Lucas, but with her eldest sister’s arm tightly wrapped around her, not letting her escape, the young girl had plenty of reasons to be afraid.

Lucas, on the other hand, didn’t suspect a thing and swiftly hopped off the horse, jogging over quickly to his Junior Sister Disciple with a big smile, "Welcome back, Tina."

"En," Christina nodded faintly, her cheeks blushing slightly brighter than before.

Seeing this somewhat unexpected reaction, Lucas tilted his head and asked, "Are you feeling alright, Tina? Or is it just cold? You’re looking a bit flushed."

"Pft," Louise, who was clearly having too much fun with this, barely managed to contain her laughter as she watched her little sister fumble about awkwardly.

She hadn’t even done anything yet, but Christina was already falling apart.

Ah ah, this must be how Mom feels whenever she teases me about boys, Louise thought to herself, almost feeling a bit bad for Christina.

Almost.

Swiftly putting on an exaggerated look of concern, Louise stepped back, though she didn’t release Christina, and grabbed Lucas’ hand, "Oh dear! Is that true, Tina? Here, Lucas, you better check."

Pulling Lucas over so hard that he literally fell into Tina’s chest, Louise then placed the boy’s hand on Tina’s forehead, drawing their faces much closer together, causing the latter to blush even brighter.

By this point, if Lucas hadn’t figured out that Louise was up to something, he would truly have been an idiot.

He had worked with her quite frequently over the past few months, and during that time he had gotten a pretty good grasp of her personality.

Putting it bluntly, while she was very serious and driven when it came to work, or training, Louise also had a bit of a mean streak and liked stirring up trouble and having fun at other people’s expense.

Now, Lucas was faced with a difficult choice.

Feign ignorance and try to end this farce as quickly as possible, or openly chastise Tina’s older sister for being too immature, likely resulting in him getting pinched or punched.

Obviously, Lucas did the honourable thing...

"You do feel a bit hot, Tina!" Lucas said with as much concern as he could in his voice, "You should hurry back to the residence, have a nice hot shower, and get something good to eat!"

Knowing Lucas was putting on an act, and that he certainly knew what her big sister was trying to do here, Christina was caught between tears and laughter; however, despite him playing along with Louise’ scheme, Tina also understood that her Senior Brother was actually giving her a way out, so she swiftly seized it.

"You’re right, Lucas, I am feeling a bit hot," Tina nodded, putting more strength into her arm as she finally pried herself loose from Louise’s ’hug’.

Turning to her second-in-command, the young girl swiftly ordered, "Captain Cole, take over here, I’m heading out first!"

"Uh..." Justin Cole, who had been doing his best to count the number of clouds in the sky just now, knew his Battalion Captain was in a bind, so he simply nodded and acknowledged the order, "Got it."

And with that, before her eldest sister could re-capture her, Christina channeled her Internal Qi into her legs and dashed off, leaping over a few crates and dodging around some of the dockworkers as she made her escape, imitating her Senior Brother’s parkour-style running she had picked up over the past year or so.

Louise, as a Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate, could definitely have pursued, but she saw no need to; after all, she was living in Disciples House as well, so there would be plenty of time for her to play with her little sister in the coming days, months, and possibly even years.

Instead, the tall, blonde haired golden eyed woman set her sights on the boy whose hand she was still gripping tightly and grinned, "So, how was it?"