Chapter 646: Superfluous Worries

Back at Disciples House, Christina had also managed to recover from the storm that was her eldest sister, and after a hot shower and a quick bite to eat, she was now walking together with Eris towards their Master’s office.

Along the way, the two girls chatted happily about the adventures they had been on these past few months.

Christina talked about going out on raids against the mysterious enemy organization, as well as setting up a pseudo-restaurant in Amherst, while Eris mainly focused on her work at the Rising Phoenix Guild.

Recently, the Guild had started expanding its activities to include actual beast hunting and resource gathering missions, even going so far as to partner with some other adventurer guilds in the city to have their veterans show the Rising Phoenix youths the ropes.

Even Eris had gone out a few times, though always with an escort and never far from Misty City. Still, the experience was good for the young red-head.

Of course, the most exciting topic of all was definitely Supreme Elder Elizabeth Carlson’s breakthrough, something both Christina and Eris were extremely happy about.

They weren’t nearly as involved in Project Ascension as Lucas was, but the two girls had still spent a lot of time together with the old woman and thought of her like family. Nothing would make them happier than for Elizabeth to continue being around with them for many more years to come.

"Where is Senior Elizabeth?" Christina asked, not having seen the dignified noblewoman anywhere at Disciples House.

"Oh, Grandma Elizabeth is in seclusion, stabilizing her foundation," Eris replied casually, "But she should be out in time for the New Years celebrations."

"I see, that makes sense after such a big breakthrough," Christina nodded before continuing, "Speaking of breakthroughs, I should also congratulate you, Senior Sister."

There was a slightly unstable aura fluctuation coming from Eris, indicating she had recently had a breakthrough of her own, and from the intensity of these fluctuations, Christina could tell that her Senior Sister was now in the Fourth Step Vein Opening Realm

Thinking about how Eris had actually advanced 3 minor Realms since they were last together, Tina couldn’t help letting out a sigh, "I haven’t had much of a chance to cultivate recently, so I only managed to break through once."

"You also broke through again?" Eris tilted her head before breaking out into a big smile, "Wow! Congratulations! There’s nothing for you to worry about, Tina, you’re still way stronger than me or Lucas."

Hearing this kind of encouragement from her always positive Senior Sister, Christina couldn’t help smiling back at Eris.

Reaching the Fifth Step Sea Establishment Realm while only 16 years old was already monstrous, but Christina still wasn’t satisfied, knowing that she could have broken through at least once more had it not been for all the running around she had to do with the Third Battalion.

That wasn’t to say she regretted her decision to join the Raging River Legion, or to go to Amherst for the past several months, but that didn’t mean there weren’t things she wasn’t frustrated about.

The simple fact that she needed a large, private space where she could use the new cultivation method was enough to annoy Christina. As such, she was very much looking forward to the new year when she could get back to cultivating regularly.

Speaking of Lucas, if Tina wasn’t mistaken, he had also advanced 3 minor Realms and reached the Ninth Step Body Tempering Realm.

While that made it sound like he was keeping pace with Eris, that wasn’t actually the case as Lucas was in a lower Realm to begin with.

Lucas is probably frustrated with his progress as well, Tina thought to herself.

However, there really wasn’t much Lucas could do about it; after all, for all his gifts, high Innate Talent wasn’t one of them. Even with the resources of the Balfour Family behind him, it would be difficult for him to rapidly enhance his cultivation unless he came up with some crazy new method to do that.

Now, Christina wouldn’t put such a possibly past Lucas, but for the moment, he was stuck cultivating at his current somewhat slow rate.

On top of that, Lucas had a lot of other things to take care of which ate into his spare time. Tina knew her Senior Brother Disciple was disciplined and diligent with his cultivation, but in the end, there were only so many hours in each day.

Speaking of Lucas, Christina’s mind started wandering a bit as she thought about the boy she had a crush on, perhaps influenced by the debacle that had happened down at the docks.

In turn, that made her wonder about what might have happened between her fellow Disciples while she was away.

As soon as this thought crossed her mind, Tina couldn’t get rid of it no matter how she struggled.

"Something on your mind, Tina?" Eris suddenly asked, causing Christina to blush slightly.

Eris’ natural instincts had always been sharp, so it was hardly surprising that Christina was caught just now, not that she was trying particularly hard to hide the fact that she was having stray thoughts.

Now that she had been caught, however, Christina decided to just take the plunge and ask, "Did... did anything happen between you and Lucas while I was away?"

"Hm?" Eris was initially confused, but after seeing the shy look on her Sworn Sister’s face, she quickly understood and also began blushing.

Eris was growing every day, both physically and mentally, so her na?ve childish notions of love were also starting to transform into something more complicated.

Still, the young red-head was never one to shy away from how she felt or what she thought, so after taking a second to collect herself, Eris shook her head decisively, "No. Nothing happened between us."

"If something did happen, I would have told you, Tina; after all, we promised each other," Eris smiled happily, a gesture Christina returned in kind.

After all the chaos revolving around the Sabre Point incident was temporarily resolved, Christina decided to be brave and tell Eris she was interested in Lucas.

At the time, she was worried Eris might react poorly, seeing how she and Lucas had grown up together and were essentially betrothed.

Of course, it was nothing so formal, just a mutual understanding between the pair’s parents, but that didn’t make it any less real in Christina’s mind. If anything, she felt it would be stranger for Lucas and Eris to not be married one day.

Even knowing and thinking that, however, Christina couldn’t help herself.

She admired Lucas greatly and looked up to him in many ways. On top of that, he had taught her so many precious things, helped her in so many ways, given her so many wonderful gifts, and even risked his life to save hers.

Lucas was a few years younger, which seemed like a big deal right now, but in a world where people could live centuries, or even millennia if they kept cultivating, a gap of 5 years really didn’t mean much.

Hell, her Mother Marianne was 22 years older than her father, so in Christina’s mind, there was nothing wrong with her one day marrying Lucas.

However, if Eris disagreed or rejected the idea, Christina was prepared to back down and try to squash these budding feelings of hers.

It was true that she was slowly falling in love with Lucas, but she also dearly loved Eris who was as close to her as any member of her blood-related family.

Fortunately, Christina’s fears and concerns proved superfluous as Eris’ exact response when she confessed to her were, "Great! If we both marry Lucas, that means we’ll be able to stay together forever as a real family!"

It was a very Eris-like answer.

On that day, the two young girls made a promise to share all their most inner thoughts regarding the silly little boy they had fallen for, something the two of them felt was only natural as Sworn Sisters and would be for the best if they were going to become Marital Sisters in the future.

As for whether Lucas would agree to marry them both... well, the two girls didn’t think he would refuse.