"You fool!"

*Whack!*

"Gah! What are you doing!? Uncle Randel!?" Lorne, cried out in protest.

When his uncle, the Treasurer and older brother of his mother, the current Matriarch of the Barnes Viscount Family, rushed into the lobby, Lorne and his friends had thought their saviour had arrived.

Finally, they would get their revenge on the bitch who had dared to attack them!

Instead, however, his only blood-related uncle berated them and assaulted them further!

The shame!

The indignity!

The pain!

After delivering swift smacks to the troublemaking trio’s faces, Lord Randel Barnes turned to a newly appeared woman and forced their heads down, "I sincerely apologize for my nephew’s misconduct today, Lady Crest! Once we return, I will ensure he and his friends are punished appropriately!"

Not stopping there, the old man reached into his Space Bag and pulled out a small pouch, his expression filled with remorse as he offered it to Tina, "Young Lady, please accept this token as a gesture of my Barnes Family’s sincerity."

Overwhelmed by the old man’s forcefulness, Christina accepted the bag on instinct, but the instant she felt its weight, her face twitched involuntarily.

Narrowing her eyes, Allina swept her gaze over Lucas, Eris, and Christina, before glancing over at Victoria, then back to this unscrupulous old acquaintance of her father’s.

Judging from the scene before her, Allina Crest was quickly able to put the pieces together. Unfortunately, the sly old fox had already managed to settle everything smoothly, leaving her no room to interfere.

Of course, being the aggrieved party, Allina could still escalate the situation. She could lobby for harsher punishment, insist on a more formal apology, or even demand higher compensation, but in a public place, with so many high-profile witnesses, she found it difficult to act so shamelessly.

Damn it, cursing to herself, Allina kept a cold indifference on her face and nodded, "Very well. We will consider this matter settled."

"Thank you for your benevolence, Lady Crest! I will be sure to mention your magnanimity to your father the next time I see him!" Lord Randel bowed his head again without any hesitation, forcing his nephew and the two other young masters to apologize once more before he dragged them out of the Radiant Gem Inn’s lobby.

.....

Watching the limping, retreating figures, Lucas narrowed his eyes slightly as he grumbled aloud, "Cunning old man..."

Typically, when privileged young masters run into trouble, their families back them up, regardless who was in the wrong. This wasn’t just a matter of pride, it was a matter of authority.

A local power could only remain powerful if they were able to suppress the general public; if such a power allowed some unknown person to bully their descendants or push their people around, it would damage their prestige.

Now, having troublemakers running around disrupting people’s lives was also not great for a force’s reputation, but in a world where the one with the biggest fist was right, if they couldn’t have both, most forces preferred to be feared, rather than respected.

That was why Lord Randel’s performance just now caught Lucas and Christina completely by surprise.

They had expected that after beating up 3 arrogant young masters, their backers would swiftly arrive and begin making even more trouble for them, at which point, they could have revealed their own backgrounds and extor... persuaded them to offer up a hefty sum to smooth the situation over.

With a public apology and a bag of ’compensation’ in Christina’s hand before they could even react, however, that was no longer an option, especially with Allina declaring the matter settled.

Turning to his Junior Sister, Lucas asked with a sigh, "How much did we get?"

Pursing her lips, Christina peeked into the bag and clicked her tongue, "Tch, 10 Gold Coins."

"Cheap old bastard..." Lucas couldn’t resist cursing out loud, his sentiment shared by Christina.

Watching the two young children grumble about how they were only able to extract 10 Gold from the Barnes Family, Allina and Victoria didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Lucas was one thing, he had been abnormal from the moment the two women met him, so they weren’t too surprised about him plotting to rip-off a minor noble family; after all, he had done many crazier things in the short time they had known him.

Christina, however, was a genuine princess who was brought up in a strict royal household where manners and etiquette were drilled into her every day.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Allina had known Christina since the day she was born, and she had witnessed how the kingdom’s youngest princess was raised to be a model of dignity and poise, yet after less than 2 months outside the palace, Christina had transformed completely.

The young princess was still bold, dutiful, and righteous, but she had also learned to freely express herself, act sly, and scheme when necessary.

Christina was also quicker to use her fists now, seemingly having grown a taste for settling issues ’directly’ rather than diplomatically.

Allina wasn’t sure whether this kind of rapid maturing, or rather this loss of innocence, was a good thing, but seeing how Christina also laughed and smiled much more than before, she figured it at least wasn’t a bad thing.

As for Victoria, she was still just having trouble processing how the famed Genius Royal Princess could actually be engaging in such trickery like a common bandit.

Shaking their heads, the two older women stepped closer, with Allina commenting, "Don’t feel bad. That old man has always been a slippery one. He saw you all walking together with me outside, so he knew we were related somehow. That’s why he didn’t hesitate to lower his head and apologize."

"But..." Christina tried to protest, still feeling somewhat disgruntled.

Whether she was upset because she hadn’t punched those 3 losers enough, or because she felt 10 Gold Coins as an apology for laying hands on her was insulting, no one knew.

"Leave it," Lucas sighed, "We got outplayed this time. That’s all."

There was a deep frown on Christina’s face, but eventually she nodded, "Fine."

Stuffing the bag of coins into her Space Bag, Christina turned around, her expression shifting from menacing to compassionate in a heartbeat, and walked over to her sister, "Are you alright, Eris?"

In response, Eris nodded, though from the way she was biting her lip, it was apparent she was still somewhat upset.

Although she did a good job of hiding it most of the time, Eris was still quite sensitive about her injury, especially the condition it left her in, unable to fight or even hold her sword properly.

So far, given her identity and the company she had always been around, no one had dared to insult her missing right arm, so this was the first time Eris had been faced with such naked malice.

Seeing how upset her Sworn Sister was, Christina’s expression darkened again as she began wondering if there was some way she could cause more trouble for those 3 bastards.

"Don’t worry," Lucas’ voice cut in, "We’ll make them pay for this. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I swear they will in the future."

Turning to her Senior Brother Disciple, Tina saw the frigid look on his face and felt the chill in his tone. It should have seemed out of place on such a young boy, but it somehow fit Lucas all too well.

She had always been raised to believe in honour and righteousness, so Christina should have felt repulsed by the idea of personal vengeance and vendettas, but rather than being discomforted, she actually felt her spirits lift somewhat hearing Lucas make such a vow.

Christina’s heart may have also fluttered a bit, thinking about just how far her Senior Brother would go to seek justice for her Sworn Sister and imagining he would do the same for her if she was ever slighted, but she quickly shook off such thoughts and focused on the last concerned party of this incident.

Bending down slightly, Christina gently reached out and patted the heads of their young guides, "What about you, Toby, Mabel? Are you two alright?"

Seeing the strong big sister, who had so easily taken care of the bad men who were picking on them, be so kind and caring towards them, caused the tightly wound strings of restraint in the young kid’s hearts to snap.

Their eyes watering up, both Toby and Mabel burst into tears and latched onto Christina, catching the princess by surprise.

At first, Christina was a bit overwhelmed, her eyes darting to Eris, then to Lucas, then to Allina and Victoria, silently crying out for help, but all of them just looked at her warmly, silently encouraging her to act on her own.

With no help coming from around her, Christina could only rely on herself.

Fortunately, Christina seemed to have a knack for dealing with younger children, so after only a moment of hesitation, she gently reached out and held both Toby and Mabel closer, softly whispering to them, "Don’t worry, it’s alright now."