Chapter 519: Screwing Up

Suddenly, Tina paused, wondering what she should say here.

Introducing herself as a princess from an enemy nation didn’t seem like a smart choice, but lying about her identity when she was trying to earn the girl’s trust also seemed like a bad idea.

In the end, Christina decided to skirt the issue for now, "I’m from the army. We spotted smoke coming from the shore while our ship was on patrol, so we came to investigate."

Christina thought she had explained herself fairly well, but was instantly surprised when the little girl’s eyes narrowed and she firmly declared, "You’re lying! I know the symbol the army wears!"

Crap, Christina cursed to herself, realizing she had already screwed up.

She had assumed that, like most of the commoners she had encountered over the past year or so, this little girl would be ignorant of the world outside her village, and that assumption had now come back to bite her in the ass.

Christina thought she was being smart, but in reality, she was just being condescending.

Knowing she maybe had once last chance to prove herself, Christina decided that honesty was her only option so she lowered her head an apologized, "I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m not from your kingdom’s army, I’m from the kingdom across the river."

"So you ARE a bad person!" The little girl recoiled even further.

Clearly, like most others in the Darr Kingdom, she had been taught since young that everyone from the Rockwell Kingdom was bad and evil.

Doing her best not to frown, Christina pursed her lips and replied as best she could, "It’s true that our are kingdom’s aren’t friends, but that doesn’t mean everyone from my kingdom is bad."

The little girl seemed to be taken aback by this sudden bought of logic, and for a moment, she didn’t know how to argue back.

Even in her own life, she had experienced something similar in her village. Most people were mean to her, but some were still nice.

"But... but..." the little girl struggled, eventually just muttering, "but everyone always said the people across the river always did bad things, and... and something bad just happened, then you showed up..."

.....

The back-and-forth exchange between Christina and the little village girl continued like this for some time, with the princess failing to make any real progress against her stubborn conversation partner, but that was hardly surprising.

The only piece of information Christina had learned so far was the girl’s name, Elly.

Well, at least she’s talking instead of just screaming and trying to hit me, Christina comforted herself.

As she was thinking so, a knock came at the door.

Thinking that perhaps after a hot meal, the little girl would be more cooperative, Christina got up, walked over, and opened the door.

Accepting the tray of soup, bread, and a small cup of fruit juice, something Lucas had insisted be supplied to all sailors the moment they landed in Misty City half-a-year ago for some reason, Christina thanked her subordinate before bringing the meal over and setting it down on the edge of the bed again.

She then took a step back and smiled, giving the Elly some space while encouraging her, "Eat up. You must be starving."

....

Elly was scared.

When she woke up from what she had been praying was all just a bad dream, she found herself in a dark, unfamiliar room.

The bed was comfy, much more so than the one she was used to, but that did little to alleviate her fears.

Before she could even get her bearings, a bright light appeared and the same bad older girl who had chased her through the woods revealed herself.

Elly screamed and tried to get away, but as her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized that there was only one door to this room, and the bad girl was between her and it.

Backing away hastily, Elly prepared to fight, even though she knew it was hopeless, but the bad girl didn’t attack her again, she just sat there, smiling at her, and tried to get her to talk.

The bad, silver-haired older girl really was pretty, her smile was kind, and her voice was gentle, but Elly wouldn’t be fooled so easily! She had seen people smile at her before, only to say mean things behind her back or snicker at her when they thought she wasn’t listening.

Surely, this bad girl was just trying to get her to lower her guard before... before... before doing something bad!

Elly immediately knew she was right when the bad girl tried to lie to her, saying she was a soldier.

Elly had seen soldiers come to the village before. In fact, soldiers came every year at the end of fall to collect something her papa called ’taxes’.

Elly assumed taxes were something bad, because everyone in the village was always sad or angry when the soldiers came to get them.

When Elly pointed this out, she actually expected the bad girl to get angry and hit her; that’s what bad people were supposed to do, but that’s not what happened at all.

The bad girl actually apologized! She then told her the truth, that she came from the bad kingdom across the water!

But... that only meant the bad girl really was bad, right?

On top of being scared and mad, Elly was now also confused.

That was when Elly’s stomach started complaining, which was really, really embarrassing.

The bad girl looked like she wanted to laugh, but rather than making fun of her, she asked if Elly was hungry.

Elly didn’t say anything, but her stomach was being very loud, so it was fairly obvious she was starving. She had been hungry before the bad people came last night, then ran around without eating anything for who knows how long.

When the bad girl got up and walked towards the door, Elly was hoping she would leave the room so she could find a way to escape, but the bad girl was too cunning for that and just ordered someone to bring food over.

Elly was disappointed, but she wouldn’t give up!

Once she was done at the door, the bad girl came back and took something out of her bag, something Elly had never seen before.

The bad woman offered it to her, saying it was sweet.

Elly hadn’t tasted many sweet things in her life, but she had liked all of them, so she was a bit tempted, but then she remembered that the bad girl had already lied to her once, so she refused!

Who knows what the bad girl had put in this thing? It might be dangerous!

After the bad girl ate half herself, though, Elly really didn’t know what to do.

If it was safe for the bad girl to eat... then... maybe it was okay for her to eat it too?

Elly still wanted to say no, but her tummy was really growling now, and before she knew it, she had already reached out, taken the brown sticky cube, and licked it.

Sweet!

So sweet!

Much sweeter than anything Elly had ever had before!

Immediately, she stuffed it into her mouth and began chewing, and it was delicious!

Only after a few seconds did Elly realize what she had done and regretted it! She had given in! She had let the bad girl manipulate her!

Although... if she was willing to give her something so sweet and precious, maybe she wasn’t so bad after all?

Elly wasn’t convinced yet, but she was willing to give the bad... the silver-haired girl, whose name was apparently Christina, a chance.