The story of the black silk female knight

If you ask me... a shameless evil god like her should be sealed up at the foot of a mountain with her backside facing outwards! Let her taste what it's like to be bullied! Humph!

"Okay, okay...stop fooling around."

Lika, of course, chose to smooth things over. Seeing that Valensa seemed to still want to tease Fran, she pointed to the gold necklace that Valensa had already put on:

"You've already tried the inner sanctum's signature sword, why not try the signature armor as well?"

"oh oh……"

Valensa then let Fran go and looked at the necklace around her neck.

When Valensa was looking up information about lightsabers using the small golden rod, she also looked up information about this armor at the same time.

This is a type of armor within the Church of the Sun that is even more advanced than the Divine Armor, and it is entirely made of divine particles.

Divine particles are no longer materials that humans can collect; the only way to obtain them is through the grace of the Sun Goddess, and their quantity is extremely rare.

Within the entire Church of the Sun, only the Holy Maiden, the Grand Master and Vice Grand Master of the Holy Knights, and the Inner Templar Knights are qualified to use divine particle equipment.

In terms of performance, this armor is a superior version of the Divine Armor, with stronger physical and magical resistance, built-in mental protection and negative status dispelling, self-repair capability, and the ability to disguise itself as various formal attire for social occasions as needed.

It is very similar to the high-tech armor composed of countless nanobots in many science fiction works, but it is even better in terms of protective performance.

The only drawback is that this armor needs to absorb the wearer's holy light energy to activate. Once the holy light energy is exhausted, it will revert to its original necklace-like form.

Valensa had Fran cooperate in a simple test of the Divine Particle Armor's protective capabilities, and soon she was having a great time playing with its other ability.

She controlled the divine particles according to her will, constantly changing their form. One moment she transformed into a handsome paladin in silver armor, the next into a charming bunny girl, then into a socialite who was popular at a ball, and then into a female investigator wearing a tight-fitting latex suit.

Valensa also tried out various costumes, including magical girl, idol girl, and sports girl. She even conjured up a few ambiguous ship cannons and carrier-based aircraft, cosplaying as a ship girl.

Hehe... Now it will be much more convenient when I play role-playing games in the future.

Valensa was overjoyed to confirm that the divine particle armor could indeed change its appearance in any way... This kind of clothing that could change its appearance at will was every girl's dream.

"...I always felt that most of the clothes you just wore weren't very proper."

Fran didn't recognize those strange anime girls, but she knew Valensa, so she looked at Valensa with a very peculiar expression.

"You wouldn't... be planning to wear such sacred armor and do those shameless things, would you?"

"How could that be? Everyone says they're very proper!"

Valensa quickly retorted, her words righteous and indignant:

"You know the nature of the work of the Inner Templars... Many times, in order to obtain solid evidence, I have to deal with those nobles who are suspected."

In social situations, I can't exactly dress as a paladin, can I? But I also need the protective capabilities of my armor to safeguard myself, which is why I disguise my armor as various social attire.

"...I understand that the inner sanctuary knights often have to attend noble social events."

Fran rolled her eyes, utterly speechless.

"But don't treat me like an idiot! I'm almost 200 years old! And I'm a high-ranking vampire who values ​​etiquette and elegance... You probably don't know as much about social etiquette as I do!"

"I know a lot about ball gowns and such! And some of the outfits you just conjured up were clearly not for formal social occasions, were they?"

"Hey~~"

When Fran saw through her sweet talk, Valensa could only look away and start to act shamelessly:

"Anyway, they're all clothes I like~~"

"correct."

Seeing that Fran seemed ready to continue criticizing her, Valensa didn't give her the chance and turned to Rika to change the subject:

"Can I ask you for one more favor, Sister Lika? It's something related to the development of the church."

"Things related to church development?"

Lika raised an eyebrow, looking quite surprised.

Seeing that Valensa looked quite serious and not like she was joking, she also became serious:

"That depends on the situation... After all, I'm just a paladin captain, and there are many things in operations that I have no authority to interfere with. I can only offer suggestions to the high priests."

"Of course, if you want to promote this as an inner priest, the high priest should agree to it as long as it's not too outrageous."

Lika added:

"After all, the power of the Inner Temple Knights is above that of me and the High Priests."

"Yes, I understand that too."

Valensa nodded:

“However, I don’t want to use my status as an Inner Templar Knight to intimidate people right away, so I wanted to discuss it with you, Rika and Fran… I plan to set up a new department within the church to recruit students from the Iris Girls’ Academy who have lost their school.”

Chapter 12 Is your idea serious?

Valensa disliked Iris Girls' Academy, a place that trained noble girls to be tools for arranged marriages, from the bottom of her heart.

This dislike was part of the reason she chose to plant a bomb at the school after hearing Sofia's speculations and developing doubts about the school.

If it were a nice place like Pink Rose, she might not be willing to leave.

Valensa wanted to help the girls whose fates were forcibly decided by their families because they lacked talent. There was no need for them to all betray their families, but she could give them a chance to choose their own destiny.

Valensa had this idea when she was still a military training instructor at Iris Girls' Academy, and she would think about it almost every night before going to bed, constantly refining it.

How can we help those noble girls?

Let's find an opportunity to blow up Iris Girls' Academy?

it's useless.

Even if one Iris Girls' Academy is destroyed, many more Iris Girls' Academyes will be built, because too many nobles need such a place to cultivate and groom their family's marriage partners.

The root of the problem lies in the traditions among the French nobility and the girls' own lack of talent.

To solve the problem, one must either change the existing order and aristocratic traditions of France, but this is impossible for Valensa, who is herself a high-ranking noble. Firstly, it is not in her own interest, and secondly, it is too troublesome. This option can be directly rejected.

Therefore, the best approach is to directly target the girls.

The most direct way to escape being a tool for arranged marriages in aristocratic families is to prove one's own worth.

If the girls can contribute more to their families in other ways than by becoming tools for arranged marriages, and if this method conflicts with becoming tools for arranged marriages, they can naturally escape the fate of becoming tools for arranged marriages.

As fewer and fewer girls become tools for arranged marriages, places like Iris Girls' Academy will naturally disappear due to a lack of market demand.

To address this, Valencia devised a new department within the Church of the Sun, recruiting noblewomen as officially employed clergy with specific regulations—for example, only women could hold this position, and they had to remain chaste.

The Church of the Sun is the most powerful organization in the entire human civilization. Becoming a formally employed clergy member of the Church of the Sun is far more useful than being a tool for marriage alliances.

This was true at least for most noble families, and in some lesser noble families, the status of a formal clergyman of the Church of the Sun might be even higher than that of the heir to the family headship.

Valensa is very confident about this idea, but putting it into practice will be quite difficult.

She originally planned to recruit a few people she was on good terms with internally first, and large-scale implementation would have to wait until she officially became an Inner Templar Knight.

Unexpectedly, the church headquarters was so generous with the reward this time, giving her the inner temple knight status that Valensa would have received years later.

This naturally gave Valencia even bolder ideas, such as bringing the plan forward and starting to create that new department right now.

The Iris Girls' Academy has just been bombed, and those girls should be out of school now, making this the perfect opportunity to recruit them.

After telling Rika and Fran all her thoughts with the utmost sincerity, Valensa found that the two women were looking at her with very strange eyes.

It's like watching a kid who tries to come up with a respectable excuse to do something bad.

That look undoubtedly annoyed Valensa.

So what if you're old?

"What do you mean by those looks?!"

Valensa puffed out her cheeks in protest:

"They really intend to do good deeds! Don't look at them like that, like you're judging a bad person, okay?"

Is it really a good thing?

Fran pouted:

"I have a feeling that you're just looking for an excuse to keep all the noble girls you like by your side to satisfy your own desires. Considering your crazy behavior in Klar City those few days, it's reasonable for me to have such suspicions, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh."

Rika nodded as well, this time clearly siding with Fran:

“I know that nobles like Valencia have some minor flaws... but everything should be done in moderation, you know? You’ve already passed the vetting process and are practically a Templar Knight, so you’d better pay attention to your lifestyle.”

"It's true that Her Majesty the Goddess dotes on you, but this pampering certainly doesn't have no limits... If you misbehave too much and damage Her Majesty's reputation, you might really be sealed up at the foot of a mountain with your backside facing outwards."

"No way!"

Valensa retorted loudly, somewhat exasperated:

"I admit I'm a little bit horny... but I'm not stupid! I wouldn't do so much just for my own desires... If I really want to have some fun, wouldn't it be better to go to Pink Rose?"

"Hmm...indeed, you are quite lazy, not the kind of person who would go to great lengths to satisfy a momentary craving."

Lika pondered for a moment, seemingly finding Valensa's explanation somewhat reasonable. Considering Valensa's own experiences a few years ago, she could understand why Valensa would have such thoughts.

"……All right."

Lika and Fran exchanged another glance before shrugging at Valensa:

"Tell me your specific ideas... Don't blame me for not warning you, adding a new type of official clergy to the church isn't something you can easily implement, even if you're a Knight of the Temple... You still need to apply to headquarters and get approval first."

If you can't even convince me and Fran, you'd better give up on this idea.

"Of course, if you can get our approval, I wouldn't mind going back to the Divine Continent to help you with the relevant application procedures."

"……I see."

Valensa nodded and took a deep breath.

She suddenly had a strange feeling that she had returned to her past life as a salesperson. To get customers to accept her sales pitch, the first point of entry when introducing the product is often very important.

Different people have different experiences and opinions on this, but in Valensa's view, the most important thing is to grasp the other party's needs.

Lika and Fran are currently acting as Valensa's inner paladins, and their main job is to deal with various cultists and nobles who collude with them.

So……

"For an excellent paladin like you, Sister Rika, cultists are often easy to deal with. What's difficult to deal with are the nobles who protect cultists, right?"

Valensa gave Lika a confident smile:

“Our Church of the Sun has strict rules against interfering in secular politics... So, without solid evidence, some of the social maneuvering of nobles can be even more troublesome than attacks by cultists... Is that right?”

Chapter 13 Using nobles to deal with nobles

"Did the nobles use social means to provide sanctuary for cults...? Indeed."

Lika pondered for a moment, a look of reminiscence on her face, then nodded gently:

“I’ve encountered similar situations many times—knowing that a certain nobleman is protecting a cult, but I can’t force a search because of a lack of evidence, and sometimes I even have to endure the sarcasm of those bastards. That feeling of wanting to stab the other person to death but not being able to is very painful.”

"Right? Actually, there's nothing we can do about it."

Valensa shrugged:

"Because Her Majesty the Goddess strictly forbids the church from interfering in the internal affairs of the country, we must act in accordance with the law and regulations when it comes to matters involving nobles."

And for most paladins, including Rika and Fran, their time is spent either training or praying. It's normal that they might not be able to win arguments in social situations against nobles who have been scheming and manipulating power since childhood.

"Hmm...that makes some sense. And we can't let the paladins be trained in scheming and power struggles just because of this; that would be putting the cart before the horse."

Lika nodded:

"So Valencia, you want to recruit those noble girls because you value their social skills?"

"Yes."

Valensa laughed:

"This is my idea... to defeat nobles with nobles. We can recruit those noble girls who are good at socializing to form a new department specifically to deal with this situation."

In verbal exchanges, they sought out and seized upon the opponent's weaknesses, providing the paladins with strong legal and public support for their investigation.

Even when there are no investigative operations, they can attend various social occasions to solidify the nobles' faith in Her Majesty the Goddess, deter those with ill intentions, and gather potentially useful intelligence.