The story of the black silk female knight

"My lords, please take a look at this."

"this is……?"

Valensa glanced at it curiously and saw that the maid was holding a wooden tube shaped like a sports water bottle. The workmanship was quite exquisite, and there was a magic circle engraved on the bottom of the tube with magic crystals inlaid.

Valensa didn't recognize it at first, but Yashilo, who had traveled with her merchant fleet several times on maritime routes, recognized it immediately. Her expression changed slightly, and she snatched the wooden tube away.

"let me see."

"……really."

After holding it in his hand and examining it carefully for more than ten seconds, Yashiro made a definitive judgment:

"This is a distress signal."

After saying that, she fumbled and twisted the wooden tube, and it opened up like a sports water bottle, roughly at the 2:8 ratio.

Valensa and Tia, who were seeing something like this for the first time, looked curiously into the tube and saw that it contained a magic scroll.

"Sure enough."

Yashiro nodded with an expression of 'not surprising,' then took out the magic scroll and explained it to Valensa and Tia:

"While most ships allow crew members to escape using teleportation scrolls when they encounter shipwrecks, there are also dire situations where escape is impossible."

In such situations, they would throw these pre-prepared distress tubes into the water, which contained magical scrolls that could locate them and display their physical condition.

The distress signal tube is small and moves very fast in water, allowing it to break through enemy encirclements in most situations and successfully send out distress signals.

The inscriptions and enchantments on the distress call canister allow it to sense the nearest large ship through ocean currents and head towards it.

Large ships that find distress signals will generally attempt a rescue... Even if a rescue operation is unsuccessful, the ship will receive a warning, knowing that the location of the shipwreck is dangerous, and can avoid it in advance.

"I see."

Valensa suddenly understood... After Yashilo's explanation, she immediately grasped the meaning.

Compared to the technological ships of her previous life, the magic ships of this world are much lighter due to the anti-gravity spells, so there is no need to worry too much about the waterline. There is another major difference.

Regardless of the power source used, from human power to steam to nuclear power, a technological ship always exerts a backward force on the water flow during navigation, allowing the entire ship to move forward under the action of the reaction force.

The magic ships in this world are the opposite. Whether they are fishing boats or warships, as long as they are powered by magic, they navigate by manipulating ocean currents with water magic, allowing the currents to propel the ship.

The larger the ship, the stronger the thrust of the ocean current, and the larger the area affected by the ocean current.

This is why there were so many fish around the Seravina after it entered deep water, which Valensa and her crew could catch... those fish were migrating by taking advantage of the ocean currents to save themselves energy.

Since it is driven by magic and can influence ocean currents over a wide area, it is quite normal that there would be magical items like distress flares that can automatically search for nearby large ships in the sea and approach them automatically.

At this moment, the magic scroll in Yashiro's hand had also been opened. She glanced at it, then smiled and raised an eyebrow:

"It seems the people who asked for help this time were lucky... They were in trouble not far from us, and they are still alive."

Chapter 31 The Fishman Who Can Drown

Valensa and Tia both glanced curiously at the magic scroll, which depicted a map of the sea and a flower, both of which were animated.

One prominent mark on the map indicates a location where the person seeking help encountered a rare sea situation, similar to satellite positioning in a technologically advanced civilization.

Although the flower in motion has lost many petals, it still looks pretty good overall and retains its flower shape, although the petals are still slowly falling off.

The flower reflects the life status of the person seeking help. They are still alive, but injured or cursed, and their physical condition is deteriorating... It's okay now, but if it's delayed any longer, it's hard to say what will happen.

Elserse was the nominal supreme commander of the fleet. Valensa, Tia, and Yashiro did not have the authority to make decisions on their own, so they sent a distress call to the command room of the Seravina. Whether or not to go to the rescue was up to Princess Yu and the navy.

There's really not much to decide. Most ships would try to save them in this situation, let alone the navy, which is responsible for escorting merchant ships.

The order was quickly issued from the command room of the Seravina, and the two warships on the outer perimeter of the fleet temporarily broke away from the main force and sped toward the location of the distress call.

Valensa stood on the top deck of the Seravina and gazed into the distance for a while, but she couldn't resist her curiosity. She told Tia and then jumped into the sea.

After entering the water with a diver's posture, Valensa quickly leaped out of the water and ran after the two warships that were on a rescue mission.

There's no such thing as light-footed skill like walking on water; it's simply about speed, plus a little bit of magic manipulation, which makes it possible to ride the waves at breakneck speed.

The magic towers on the warships all have the ability to distinguish friend from foe, and passengers of high status like Valensa have long been marked.

So when Valensa charged in on the waves, she alerted the navy on the two rescue ships, but there was no misunderstanding, and the two sides successfully reunited.

"Miss Sunflower? I've heard so much about you."

The person who greeted Valensa on the rescue ship was a very tall woman, almost the size of a basketball player, and half a head taller than Valensa.

She wore a rather strange battle suit, which from a distance looked like a form-fitting soft armor, but that was actually just a paint job. Compared to armor, this suit would be more accurately described as a bodysuit, but it wasn't like the fun bodysuit Valensa wore in her previous life; it was more like a mecha pilot suit from a science fiction anime, only without the interfaces used for human-machine interaction.

"No, it's more like I've long admired your name, Vice Commander Lasha."

As Valensa dried the water droplets on her body with holy light, she shook hands amicably with the tall woman named Lasha.

"I've heard all sorts of stories about the Knights of the Waves since I was a child."

This wasn't Valensa's deliberate flattery; she had genuinely been very interested in the Wave Knights since she was very young.

This is because it is the only knightly order in Fran composed entirely of women, belonging to the Fran Navy, with 500 members at full strength, all of whom are elite.

Even the weakest member of the Knights is at the Pearl level, and the Lighthouse level is about one-tenth of that. The two captains, the captain and the vice captain, are both Star-level powerhouses. This vice captain, Lasha, is one of them... Although she looks like she could be Valensa's age, Valensa could actually call her Grandma Lasha.

Soldiers are generally not as talkative as politicians. Lasha and Valensa simply exchanged a few polite words, maintaining their aristocratic manners, before continuing their rescue mission.

According to the location indicated by the magic scroll in the distress call tube, the ship that encountered shipwreck was less than 30 kilometers away from the fleet, and the two warships, after accelerating, had reached a speed of over 60 knots, close to 120 kilometers per hour.

Within minutes of Valensa boarding the ship, the detection system of the magic tower on the warship had already located the person who had called for help.

Through the images projected by magic, Valensa saw about fifty or sixty people holding out among a pile of shipwrecks floating on the sea, facing an attack by wild beasts that outnumbered them by about five.

Most of them were dressed as guards or sailors and possessed a certain level of combat ability. The few people protected in the middle were ordinary people. Three others were injured to varying degrees, and one of them looked to be in critical condition and needed to receive effective treatment as soon as possible.

This is probably why these people didn't use teleportation scrolls to escape but instead chose to defend and call for help. The feeling of ordinary spatial teleportation is not as comfortable as the spatial linking secret technique of Britannia. Instead, it is like riding a speedboat in a big wave, which is fatal to the wounded.

The three injured ordinary people must all be of extraordinary status. The guards and sailors cannot retreat until they are beyond saving.

The beasts besieging the people seeking help are a group of fish-human beasts, the most common beast pirates in the Desolate Ridge Sea, and also a well-known joke.

Because these fish-human beasts only have fish heads, but their bodies are still humanoid, meaning they actually breathe with lungs and their ability to hold their breath underwater is not much stronger than that of humans... They are a kind of fish-human that can be drowned, which can be said to be a disgrace to fish-humans.

In fact, the real fish-men in the ocean are very hostile to these fish-men beasts. Although the fish-men often attack human merchant ships, if a human merchant ship is attacked by a fish-men beast, the fish-men will help the humans fight the fish-men beast!

In short, the merfolk are an extremely weak and pathetic tribe among the beasts. Normally, these beast pirates would never dare to directly rob human merchant ships. They would only dare to scavenge for scraps from the wreckage of shipwrecked merchant ships, much like hyenas on the plains.

Since most magic-powered ships have anti-gravity enchantments, even if a metal ship is smashed to pieces, it will not sink quickly. Instead, it will float on the water for days or even months until the magic in the ship's materials is exhausted before it sinks.

Survivors waiting for rescue in the wreckage after a shipwreck are often attacked by ravenous pirates.

However, in most cases, even if a powerful merchant ship encounters a shipwreck, it is not afraid of attacks from the savage beast pirates, because the savage beasts are too weak. The strength of ordinary individuals is not even as great as that of fireflies, and individuals above the Pearl level are extremely rare.

But this time is different... Perhaps due to the heavy losses in last autumn's war, the Wild Beasts seem to have increased their investment in maritime routes.

Among the savage beast pirates currently attacking humans, there is a particularly conspicuous lion-man savage beast with extremely powerful strength, a Star-level warrior!

Fortunately, among the survivors who were holding onto the shipwrecked wreckage was a Star-level warrior, who managed to hold off the attack of the beast pirates.

Chapter 32 Rescue

"These people seeking help... well, they should all be American."

Lasha, who was also observing the magical projection, quickly made the same judgment and pointed with a smile to the weapons used by the ordinary guards and sailors among the callers for help:

"See these magic nail guns? These are weapons that only the Americans would mass-produce. Our Fran's high-quality magic crystals can't support the mass production of these weapons."

"really."

Valensa nodded in agreement.

The magic nail guns used by the ordinary guards and sailors also looked somewhat like flintlock muskets, belonging to the same category of weapons as the ice crystal gun used by Serant.

However, Serant's Ice Crystal Gun is similar to a rapid-fire pistol or a submachine gun, while the Magic Nail Gun is more like a magical version of a single-shot rifle.

Although both use wind pressure to propel ammunition, the Magic Nail Gun is different from the Ice Crystal Gun, which uses high-quality water-attribute magic crystals to make ice needles as weapons. The Magic Nail Gun uses solid metal ammunition, which requires the user to manually reload after each shot.

This slowed down the rate of fire of the magic nail gun, but increased its power.

In addition to the basic kinetic energy damage from the wind pressure that propels the metal nails, the high-quality fire or lightning magic crystals on the magic nail gun can also enchant the metal nails, giving them both physical and magical damage.

When both are combined, the Magic Nail Gun is still far inferior to an anti-materiel sniper rifle in terms of penetration, but they are about the same in terms of lethality against living organisms.

Ordinary merfolk beasts simply cannot withstand the power of the magic nail gun. Several ordinary merfolk beasts can be taken down by a single shot, and even pearl-level individuals can only withstand three metal nails before dying.

Furthermore, there were Star-level experts among the guards. If it weren't for the fact that three of the ordinary people being protected were injured and became a burden, these people seeking help might not have needed rescue at all.

In response to this situation, Lasha, the vice-captain of the Wave Knights, immediately made arrangements.

She will personally deal with the Star-level Lionman Beast, while the other Wave Knights will eliminate the other Fishman Beasts with the firepower support of the warship.

As for the people who requested help, Lasha originally planned to send a medical team to the wreckage under the cover of the Wave Riders, but now she has a better option.

She smiled and looked at Valensa:

"I've heard that Duchess Sunflower is not only a woman of great martial virtue, but also an excellent paladin with superb divine magic. So, given that you were able to penetrate deep into the Wasteland to slay the Beast Commander, it shouldn't be difficult for you to rush to the aid seekers and provide them with healing as soon as the support begins, right?"

"...Yes, it's not difficult at all."

Valensa observed the magical projection for a while longer, then nodded confidently.

Those merfolk beasts were nothing but pathetic chickens and dogs. Even the Star-level lion-man beasts weren't that scary to Valensa, who was gradually gaining control of the evil god's power.

Winning in a direct confrontation would certainly be difficult, but if it's just about breaking through and protecting oneself, even a typical Star-level warrior would have a hard time stopping Valensa.

The tactics were thus formulated, and after about four or five minutes, the two warships on the rescue mission finally arrived near the person in need of help.

Because the seekers adopted a tactic of holding their positions on the shipwrecks and firing with magic nail guns, the battlefield was divided into two distinct groups of humans and wild beasts, except for two Star Warriors who were constantly moving and splashing water wherever they went.

There's no need to worry too much about area-of-effect damage accidentally injuring friendly units.

The magic towers on both warships immediately activated, and watermelon-sized fireballs rained down on the savage pirates, almost crushing the already weakened merman savage beasts.

Upon seeing the French navy's warships, the people who had been pleading for help were immediately invigorated, and their already stronghold became even more secure.

The guards and sailors wielded their magic nail guns with great steadiness; each shot of the metal nails was enough to take the life of at least one merman beast.

The Wild Beast Pirates were the complete opposite... The morale of the Fishman Wild Beasts collapsed instantly, and the Lionman Wild Beasts roared unwillingly, then used a heavy slash to temporarily repel the Star Warriors among the reinforcements, leading the Fishman Wild Beasts to flee towards the Wild Ridge.

Although these fish-men beasts are called a disgrace to fish because they cannot breathe underwater, they are still very fast swimmers, especially when escaping. Most of them quickly escape the range of the rescuers' magic nail guns.

If other merchant ships encountered this situation, they might just let it go, since it was just a rescue mission and there was no need to risk chasing down the enemy.

But this time the rescue team is the French Navy, and the French military and the Wild Beasts are old enemies; there have never been any prisoners of war between them.

Now that the pirates are trying to run away, how could the navy possibly allow it?

Warships are not suitable for pursuit under these circumstances, but the Wave Knights are still here!

Although there were only a little over 100 Wave Knights who came with Lasha this time, it was enough to chase down and annihilate the demoralized Wild Beast Pirates!

"Wave Knights, launch!"

Lasha quickly led more than 100 female knights, all dressed in tight-fitting combat suits, off the warship. Each of them wielded a trident as a weapon and rode on magical surfboards, allowing them to speed across the water and charge like a land-based knightly order.

"kill!"

More than a hundred beautiful and powerful female knights charged forward with shouts of delight, creating a spectacular scene that even made Valensa feel excited and eager to join in the hunt for the wild beasts.

However, Valensa still had a mission to complete, so she jumped off the warship and ran across the sea toward the people seeking help at the wreckage.

The kilometer distance was covered in an instant. When Valensa was very close to the wreckage, she was stopped by the Star-level warrior among the people who had asked for help, in a friendly but cautious manner.

He was a middle-aged man with a mostly white beard, his greatsword had many chips, and he was also badly injured... which made Valensa a little puzzled.

Is that Star-level Lion-man Beast Warrior really that powerful?

But now is not the time to think about these things, because the uncle has already asked his question:

"Are the visitors the French navy?"

Valensa immediately stopped running, and at the same time, the round shield on her right arm separated into floating blades that flew out, circled her body twice, and then re-condensed under her feet, allowing her to float on the sea surface while standing on the shield.

Valensa gave a very standard knightly salute before replying with a light laugh:

"Valenza Bader, the Sunflower Duchess of the Kingdom of Lower Fran, was traveling to America with Her Highness the Princess's fleet when she discovered your distress call tubes and came here to carry out a rescue mission."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness. I am Rick, a guard from America's Drago Security. I was on an escort mission when I unfortunately encountered a powerful enemy."

The uncle finally breathed a sigh of relief, quickly returned the greeting, introduced himself, and then said:

"We have a distinguished guest who has been injured and urgently needs medical assistance. We hope..."