Chapter 628: Raids

It was a cold December day as a certain merchant ship sailed up the Lorren, just off the shore of the north-eastern tip of the Rockwell Kingdom.

From the outside, it looked just like any other merchant ship. It was a standard oar-and-sail vessel, roughly 50-metres in length and with a 15-metres wide beam; large for a cargo boat, but not to an exaggerated degree.

As a matter of fact, it was an ordinary merchant ship; however, it certainly wasn’t carrying ’ordinary’ cargo.

The crew of this ship wasn’t your typical gathering of low-wage sailors and labourers tasked with hauling grain, wood, or ingots up and down the kingdom’s waterways, it was a detachment of experienced soldiers, all of them wearing heavy cloaks to conceal the fact that they were fully armed and armoured.

Atop the ship’s tallest mast, a young woman with silver hair and purple eyes held up a telescope as she peered off into the distance, scanning the water’s surface for any signs of their target.

Christina had already been on watch duty for the past few hours, but she had yet to spot the specific ship they were searching for today.

Feeling the bitter winter winds whip around her, the princess shivered slightly and wrapped herself up a little tighter. She might have been wearing armour equipped with a Temperature Regulating Spirit Array, but using it to completely isolate herself from the elements would be a big waste of the World Qi from the installed Spirit Crystals.

Knowing that they could be plunged into combat at a moment’s notice, Christina preferred to save World Qi by instead using more conventional means, like a thick traveller’s cloak.

There was actually no need for Christina, as a Battalion Captain, to be the one on watch duty, especially given the current weather conditions, but the young girl had volunteered precisely because of the telescope her Senior Brother Disciple had given her.

With it, she could much more easily monitor a wide area without needing to draw on her limited supply of Soul Qi, giving her a somewhat unique ability among the crew.

As for simply passing the telescope to someone else, it wasn’t that Christina hadn’t thought of this, but rather that she had been ordered not to by her Master.

When Lucas had first presented his prototype telescope to Celestina, she had immediately understood its function and potential, so she banned him from allowing anyone other than those she deemed safe to even know of its existence.

Christina was naturally among those approved to use the new telescopes, but she was the only one in the current Third Battalion with that permission.

Captain Gage also had such permission, but Lana was still back in the South-East Province breaking through to the Spirit Realm.

Sighing slightly, Christina wiped a bit of condensation from the lenses of her telescope before lifting it again.

The chances that anything had changed since the last time she swept the river a couple minutes ago was slim, but with nothing better to do, Tina checked anyways.

Another hour or so passed like this, and a couple of ships actually did pass by.

One of them was a small fishing boat that seemed to belong to the Rockwell Kingdom, while the other was another large cargo ship from a major chamber of commerce based in the Zilon Kingdom.

Neither of these was the ship Christina was looking for, though.

Checking the position of the sun, Tina began to worry that the enemy had sensed something was amiss and decided to change their route or their schedule.

This wasn’t the first time they were conducting a raid on a suspected smuggling ship in this area. In fact, together with elements of the Piercing Sword Legion, Christina had actually been on 3 separate raids already since arriving in Amherst.

For the first month of her deployment, Tina had actually spent most of her time overseeing the construction of the Third Battalion’s new barracks, then running a kind of pop-up restaurant.

It was only after word came down from the Minister of War, her Mother Marianne, that Christina began seeing actual patrol and combat duties again.

That said, the missions she was assigned by General Roth were all deemed low-risk, so Christina hadn’t actually engaged in much fighting these past 3 months.

Christina didn’t enjoy combat, per-say, at least not as much as Eris seemed to, but doing nothing but standing back and watching others fight while she gave orders was getting boring even for Tina.

It also meant that she hadn’t really gotten a chance to test out the new features of her Spirit Armour in real-life combat, which was a bit of a disappointment to the girl.

"I hope today isn’t a bust," the princess sighed and grumbled to herself.

They had already been sailing for 3 days now, in near freezing cold weather at that, so if they had to return to Amherst without even encountering the enemy, this whole mission would truly be nothing but an unpleasant waste of time.

Just as she was thinking so, though, a certain flag on the northern horizon caught Christina’s eye.

Snapping back to attention, the princess channeled a bit of Soul Qi into her eyes to enhance her vision as she peered through her telescope, a minute later calling out, "Target spotted!"

Had this been a proper warship, a flurry of activity would surely have followed Christina’s warning, but since this was a stealth mission, all the soldiers down below simply carried on as if they hadn’t heard anything.

As for the lookout herself, Christina withdrew her Soul Qi again and focused on concealing her aura completely.

The Mirage Pendant she was wearing was an excellent Spirit Tool when it came to disguising her true cultivation aura, but it wasn’t foolproof. If she really wanted to appear as nothing more than another ordinary sailor aboard an innocent merchant ship, she had to take some extra precautions.

A couple minutes later, another young woman with light grey hair and soft blue eyes joined Christina in the crow’s nest and asked quietly, "Enemy status?"

"The target ship appears approximately 1o km out," Christina reported as she continued to peer through her telescope, "No indication they are aware of our identity yet."

"Good," Piercing Sword Legion Second Regiment Commander Charlotte Roth nodded, her eyes turning sharp, "We’ll proceed with Plan A, then."