The story of the black silk female knight

However, Valensa, Lasha, and most of the officers in the fleet's naval command believed that the information Rick had concealed was the key reason why Rick's ship was attacked by the new type of fog demon.

But the sailors and servants certainly wouldn't know this important information; they would have to ask Mr. Morgan, the middle-aged man who almost died.

However, for an ordinary person, encountering the Fog Demon and then the Wild Beast, and suffering serious injuries and excessive blood loss, is truly exhausting. Mr. Morgan fell asleep as soon as he entered the guest room, and it is estimated that he will need to rest well to recover his energy.

The Morgan siblings, who were relatively young and not seriously injured, quickly recovered their energy. Unfortunately, they were just accompanying their father on a trip to the Four Islands Alliance. They were very knowledgeable about food, drink, and entertainment, but when it came to serious matters, they were completely clueless and knew nothing.

Considering that Mr. Morgan was a big shot in America, the fleet command decided after a brief meeting not to disturb his rest and to ask him about everything after he woke up.

The attack of the new type of fog demon must be guarded against. The fleet command ordered all magic towers to enter a state of combat readiness and increase vigilance, maintaining the detection range at its maximum.

Meanwhile, the Wave Knights will be divided into three groups, taking turns patrolling and guarding the perimeter of the fleet at a distance of about 2000 meters, using human reconnaissance to guard against torpedo-like attacks that cannot be detected or sensed by magic towers.

While this method is effective, it is also quite arduous and dangerous for the Wave Knights, who are far from the fleet and could be attacked by sea monsters at any time.

In just over two hours, more than ten Wave Knights were injured while on patrol and sent to the medical station for treatment. One unfortunate girl even had her leg bitten off by a sea monster and had to be sent back to the capital to receive limb regeneration through high-level divine magic, or wait for the goddess's miracle on New Year's Eve every year.

Mr. Morgan slept for nearly seven hours before finally waking up. After a quick wash and a nutritious meal, he was invited to the command center of the Seravina, accompanied by his children.

This time, Valensa, Tia, and Yashiro, representing the merchants, also came to the command post to listen in.

Mr. Morgan was naturally extremely grateful for the assistance from the French Navy.

When the officers inquired about the purpose of the Morgan family's trip to the Four Islands Alliance, Mr. Morgan became hesitant and repeatedly tried to change the subject, seemingly reluctant to speak.

Finally, it was Elser's princess-like temper that finally got Mr. Morgan to open his mouth. She used a sarcastic tone to say a bunch of things that, while not using any profanity, were very unpleasant.

"...Actually, in this business deal, our Morgan family was just a middleman. Even I didn't know it would turn out like this until we met the client at the Four Islands Alliance."

Faced with pressure from Elseris as a royal princess, Mr. Morgan smiled wryly, seemingly with a hint of grievance:

“If it were just a business of our Morgan family, I certainly wouldn’t hide anything, but this time the real deal with the Four Islands Alliance is with the Council of Sages.”

"The Council of Sages?"

The others in the fleet's command room exchanged glances, their expressions somewhat grave.

The Church of the Sun, the Witch's Forest, and the Council of Sages are the three largest cultivation organizations on human civilization... or rather, on Planet Eve, apart from the Eastern Continent. They are similar to the cultivation sects in fantasy novels. Although they do not interfere with secular politics, their influence is no less than that of a country, and may even be greater.

The Church of the Sun needs no introduction. As a church that believes in the one and only creator God of the universe, the Church of the Sun can be considered a truly lawful and good organization. Throughout history, it has helped people fight against disasters on numerous occasions. It asks nothing of people other than faith, does not interfere in the internal affairs of countries, does not demand any money or property, and will even provide all necessities of life free of charge, unconditionally, and in unlimited quantities when people need them.

At the same time, the Church of the Sun is also the strongest of the three major organizations without any dispute... In name, the three major cultivator organizations are equal, but if the Church of the Sun gets serious, even if the Council of Sages and the Witch Forest join forces, they will be crushed.

While the Council of Sages often tries to present itself as being similar to the Church of the Sun in terms of pretentiousness, it is actually far inferior.

The Church of the Sun has a creator-level true god backing it up, and its resources are almost unlimited. It truly doesn't care about many worldly interests.

The Sages Council is different. As a group of materialistic spellcasters who pursue experience, technology, and efficient spellcasting, if they want to improve themselves, they can neither fawn over goddesses like priests nor lie at home pondering like witches. They must conduct extensive research through experiments.

Research, in any era and any world, is the most expensive activity... Therefore, the Council of Sages is not as indifferent to worldly interests as it pretends to be, but rather cares about them very much.

Fran's relationship with the Church of the Sun is too close, and the Four Islands Alliance is the dictatorial territory of the super-powerful Demon Queen Himiko, so the Sage Council cannot interfere too much.

Therefore, America has many large merchant guilds and the Sage Council... especially the sages in the Sage Tower, with which it has countless connections.

The Morgan family is one of them.

Chapter 36 Your sister is really amazing

“At first, it was just a regular business shipping trip. I even took my son and daughter with me to the Four Islands Alliance.”

Mr. Morgan recalled:

"Two days before my ship was ready to set sail, a senior member of the Council of Sages contacted me and asked me to run a private job for him."

He made it sound so easy; he just told me to take the token, meet the client at a designated location, and then bring the things the client gave me back to America to give to him... I didn't think much of it at the time.

It wasn't until I met the client at the Shishima Alliance, carrying the token as instructed, that I realized this deal was a huge problem... But it was too late; from the moment I learned the client's identity, I was unable to extricate myself or refuse.

"...So, the client you met had a very special identity?"

Elserse asked, frowning.

"That's right, Your Highness."

Mr. Morgan nodded, but instead of revealing the client's identity, he suddenly brought up another matter:

"Have you heard about this? About half a year ago, Chiba Rui, the second daughter of the famous Chiba family, the Demon-Slaying Ninja Clan of the Four Islands Alliance, successfully killed a high-level Mist Demon with a humanoid form in a naval encounter."

Elseris clearly had no idea, and the naval officers in the room all frowned.

The fact that a demon ninja kills a mist demon is as natural as a paladin killing a cultist; intelligence agencies rarely pay special attention to it, and even naval officers are unaware of it.

Moreover, while the feat of slaying a high-level humanoid fog demon is indeed impressive, it's only comparable to a paladin slaying a Radiant-rank cultist, and even less impressive than Valensa's achievement.

When Valensa killed the Radiant cultist, she was only at the Pearl level, while Chiba Rui had been at the Radiant level for many years and was a swordsmanship genius of the Four Islands Alliance, known as the "Ninja Sword Saint." It's not surprising that such a person could kill a high-level Mist Demon, is it?

Valensa knew about this, but it was only when Chiba was having breakfast with her in the academy cafeteria that she casually mentioned, "Second sister has killed another high-level mist demon," and then everyone exclaimed a couple of times, "Your sister is really amazing," and that was the end of it.

“I know that it’s normal for demon ninjas to kill the Mist Demon, but this time is different.”

Mr. Morgan didn't try to be mysterious; he quickly revealed the answer himself:

"As everyone should know, the only way we usually kill the Fog Demons is to destroy their core, causing them to dissipate like fog in the wind."

But the Chiba family is a clan of demon-slaying ninjas specializing in exterminating Mist Demons, and Chiba Rui is an absolute prodigy within that family… I don’t know exactly how she did it, but in short, she killed that high-level Mist Demon without damaging its core, thus obtaining what can be considered the first intact Mist Demon core since the war between humans and Mist Demons began, and a high-level one at that.”

Everyone's expression changed, and they all understood what Mr. Morgan meant.

"...You mean, after obtaining this high-level Mist Demon Core, Chiba Rui wants to sell it to the Sage Council?" Elserse asked, frowning.

"no no……"

Mr. Morgan shook his head again:

"As everyone knows, Chiba Shin and Chiba Rui of the Chiba family are both favorite concubines of Lord Himika, the ruler of the Four Islands Alliance. How could Chiba Rui possibly do such a thing?"

However, Chiba Rui did keep the fact that she had obtained a high-level Mist Demon Core a secret. She wanted to make the core into a piece of jewelry and give it to Lady Himika as a New Year's gift, as a means for her to compete with her older sister for favor.

However, although Chiba Rui was a swordsmanship genius, she knew nothing about jewelry making. She could only entrust the task of making high-level Mist Demon cores into jewelry to a trusted craftsman.

Unfortunately, Chiba Rui misjudged the situation this time. The craftsman she entrusted was my client, someone who knew the Mist Demon very well. During the processing, he recognized the high-level Mist Demon core and painstakingly created a fake, switching the real one with the real one.

"Your client can actually recognize a high-level Mist Demon core?"

With a reminder from a naval staff officer, Elserse grasped the key point:

"His identity must be extraordinary, right?"

"Yes."

Mr. Morgan nodded:

"You all probably know about the Tsuchimikado clan, who tried to control the Mist Demon through shikigami magic but ended up being turned into a sycophant by the Mist Demon and were eventually wiped out by the Oni Queen Himika, right?"

My client is a descendant of the Tsuchimikado clan… His ancestor was studying under a master at the Sage's Tower at the time, thus escaping the annihilation of his clan. Later, he returned to the Four Islands Alliance under an assumed name and has never given up all these years.”

“The survivors of the Tsuchimikado clan… No wonder. I remember that the arrest warrant for them has not been withdrawn by Lady Himika. If the Shishima Alliance finds out that you are secretly contacting the survivors of the Tsuchimikado clan, you may be stuck there forever.”

Elsers sighed, then asked:

"So what? That Tsuchimikado stole the high-level Mist Demon Core and sold it to the Council of Sages, could it be that he wanted to take revenge on Lady Himika?"

"No... quite the opposite."

Mr. Morgan shook his head and shrugged, seemingly finding it somewhat difficult to understand:

"The descendants of Tsuchimikado hope that the Sage Tower will help him study the core of the high-level Mist Demon in order to completely unravel the secret of this natural disaster, the Mist Demon, to prove that his ancestor did not make a mistake, and to allow Tsuchimikado to regain the favor of the Demon Queen... It must be admitted that the Demon Queen is indeed good at managing her subordinates, and her subordinates are quite loyal."

"So this is ah……"

Valensa and the other naval officers in Fran all nodded, making the cause and effect of the matter easier to understand.

The Morgan family's ship was attacked by a new type of high-level mist demon, never before seen in human records, precisely because of that high-level mist demon core. And there's a high probability that that high-level mist demon core is still with Mr. Morgan.

"You all guessed correctly, that high-level Mist Demon core is indeed still with me."

Faced with the questioning gazes of the crowd, Mr. Morgan nodded calmly and then said something that made everyone exclaim, "So that's how it is!"

"Actually, the reason I was seriously injured was because I did it on purpose... This high-level Mist Demon core cannot be teleported through space, nor can it be stored in a storage space. Unfortunately, I couldn't explain this to my children and Mr. Rick in detail, so I could only seriously injure myself and wait for rescue."

"Of course, I took this risk because I heard about your mission to America, and I figured you could arrive in time to rescue us, so I did it."

Chapter 37: A Divine Art Version of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile?

After explaining the whole story, Mr. Morgan stopped hiding anything and simply took out the high-level Mist Demon Core to satisfy everyone's curiosity.

It was a cube the size of an apple, almost transparent, and the material felt like crystal. Inside the crystal cube, in the center, there was a piece of silver metallic material the size of a fingernail.

No one else found anything strange about this high-level Mist Demon core. Although they couldn't understand it, the existence of the Mist Demon was a mystery, and it was only natural that they couldn't understand it.

If a group of naval officers who don't do research can see the secret of the high-level fog demon core at a glance, what's the point of having the Sage Tower?

Valensa and Tia, who had gained some understanding of technological civilization since playing video games, exchanged a rather strange look.

The two of them couldn't see anything wrong with the semi-transparent cube outside the high-level fog demon core, but the silver-white metal object the size of a fingernail inside looked so much like a chip.

This fog demon... could it actually be a product of technology? It looks even more fantastical than monsters...

While guessing in their hearts, Valensa and Tia remained silent, simply memorizing the appearance of the high-level mist demon core, intending to ask a certain knowledgeable witch older sister when they had the chance.

But Elsers and the naval officers soon ran into another problem.

Since the core of the high-level fog demon is still with Mr. Morgan, the new fog demons capable of destroying large warships are very likely to launch another attack.

Although the French navy was not afraid, they did not want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

Furthermore, Mr. Morgan's private dealings with the Tsuchimikado family clearly violated the laws of the Four Islands Alliance, so it would be perfectly reasonable to expel him from the fleet and leave him to fend for himself.

However, Frank and America are, after all, friendly nations of the same human political system, and Mr. Morgan has the transcendent power of the Sage's Tower behind him. It would be very bad to really kick Mr. Morgan out of the fleet.

But how to deal with this high-level fog demon core was a topic of much discussion among the crowd.

Some people suggested that we should help Mr. Morgan continue to deliver the high-level Mist Demon cores to America, so that they could be placed in the Sage's Tower for research and to unravel the secrets of the Mist Demon.

Some people say that the high-level Mist Demon core should be returned to the Four Islands Alliance, so that the super strong Queen Himika of the Demons would owe them a favor.

Others believe that the high-level fog demon core should be kept and studied by Fran himself.

Mr. Morgan himself didn't care. He said that since he had chosen to tell the truth, he was prepared to accept any outcome. His only request was that if the fleet chose to return the high-level Mist Demon Core to the Four Islands Alliance or keep it for himself, he would not take the blame for the Sage's Tower.

The naval officers at the fleet command discussed the matter for quite some time before reaching a consensus:

This decision, involving the secret of the Mist Demon, one of the three great natural disasters, is far too important for the junior officers present to make, not even for Princess Elsers, the royal princess.

Since that's the case, we might as well report everything to those big shots and let them make the decisions and take the blame.

Ideally, there would be a powerful force that could persuade everyone to mediate and reach a consensus between the Demon Queen Himika and the Sage Tower to avoid conflict, which would make everyone happy.

There is clearly only one force in human civilization capable of doing this.

So ultimately, it was Valensa who first reported the cause and effect of the matter to the Church of the Sun through the Church of the Sun's magical communication methods, and requested the Church of the Sun to mediate.

After Valensa received feedback from the church headquarters that they agreed to mediate the matter, Elsers and Tia informed Himiko, the Queen of the Demons of the Four Islands Alliance, and the Seventh Sage of the Sage Tower, respectively, through the royal family's diplomatic communications and the Sage Tower's internal communications.

After that, it was just a matter of waiting for news. I don't know how those important figures communicated, but almost five more hours passed. Mr. Morgan, who was in poor health, had fallen asleep on the table when all three parties finally received the replies from the important figures.

The ending was fairly satisfactory... The important figures reached a consensus and agreed to send the high-level Mist Demon core to the Sage's Tower for research in order to unravel the secrets of the Mist Demon. The escort mission would be undertaken by Elser and the fleet that was on its way to America.

Considering that the Fog Demons might send their top forces to seize or destroy this core, which should be very important to them, the Sage Tower and the Church of the Sun provided additional combat support.

Tia provided the Sage Tower with spatial coordinates, so that if the fleet encountered a powerful fog demon, she could use teleportation magic to summon three sages, including her teacher, the Seventh Sage, to help.

The Church of the Sun granted Valensa a temporary authorization: if necessary, Valensa could use her divine magic to activate an artifact located at the Church of the Sun headquarters on the continent of Gods' Blessing to launch a long-range attack on a target that spanned one-third of the planet Eve.

The saintess who remotely granted Valensa divine authorization using divine magic spoke with great confidence when discussing the artifact:

"This is a divine artifact that can directly utilize a portion of the Goddess's power! As long as you, who are in charge of guiding it, can successfully lock onto the target, even the Moon's Radiance will be annihilated by the Goddess's divine might, and there's no need to worry about this powerful divine force accidentally harming your own people!"

Capable of conducting ultra-long-range strikes across continents, annihilating Moon Gods in a single blow, and avoiding friendly fire—that's the power of the Church of the Sun!

And this magical intercontinental ballistic missile-like weapon is just one of the trump cards that the Church of the Sun often uses openly... How powerful would its even stronger trump cards be?

No wonder this church has a creator god behind it... We must hold on tight to this powerful force!

As Valencia sighed inwardly, she also heard the saintess tell her some gossip through divine communication:

"This mediation actually went quite smoothly. Both the sages and the Queen of the Demons understood the importance of deciphering the secret of the Mist Demon. However, the Queen of the Demons seemed quite angry that her beloved concubine had obtained something so important but she hadn't been told... That Chiba Rui is probably going to be in big trouble. She'll probably be severely punished and bedridden for more than half a month... Hehe."

Valensa laughed along with it, but she had a different opinion.

Perhaps Chiba Rui's real purpose was to deliberately make a mistake and be severely punished? After all, she is Chiba Grass's second older sister...

In short, after the bigwigs reached a consensus, Elsers's fleet took on the escort mission of the high-level Mist Demon Core. They were extremely careful throughout the voyage, and all officers and soldiers were on standby to fight at any time. Valensa and Tia also stopped having fun and didn't even rest.