The story of the black silk female knight

Hearing Valensa say this, old Winston became even more worried. His facial muscles twitched slightly as he asked Valensa for more details about the battle.

Valensa frowned even more. She carefully observed old Winston's expression and, after confirming that he didn't intend to report her, briefly recounted the battle.

"That won't do."

After hearing Valensa's story, old Winston immediately shook his head:

"Judging from the battle traces you left at the scene, the intensity of the battle was not even at the Radiant rank, but the corpse of the Nether Ghost has completely disappeared... Isn't this obviously an attempt to cover up the crime? Any Icefield Hunter who discovers this place later, if they have even a little sense of responsibility, will definitely report it to the guild, and the guild will most likely inform the Sage Tower after learning about this situation."

The Sage's Tower takes the prohibition against private collection of Netherworld Clan body materials very seriously. If they suspect someone, one of the top ten sages might even come here to use time magic to recreate the past and investigate the truth.

"This……"

Valensa's expression changed slightly; she really hadn't expected that.

As a prospective inner paladin of the Church of the Sun, Valensa was not afraid of the Sage's Tower's prohibition. If she were discovered, the most that would happen was a war of words between the two sides... Although Valensa's actions were entirely personal, the Church of the Sun was very protective of its own people.

The problem is that Tia is also involved. As an apprentice of the Sage Tower, if Valensa and the Sage Tower have such a verbal dispute, Tia will definitely feel uncomfortable being caught between her lover and her teacher.

Therefore, it's best to keep this from the Sage Tower's discovery.

"Then what should I do?"

Valensa's tone softened considerably as she humbly sought advice from old Winston.

Old Winston remained silent for a full minute before turning around:

"If a squad has a Radiant-rank expert who uses a powerful attack in battle that is strong enough to destroy the entire Netherworld Ghost's hibernation hideout, then it is normal for the Netherworld Ghost to be completely annihilated... Experienced Icefield Hunters can deduce the approximate intensity of the battle from the battle traces, and ordinary people would not easily explore the secrets of Radiant-rank experts."

"...I understand what you mean."

Valensa breathed a sigh of relief, handed the Moon Kiss to Tia, and gestured for Tia and Winston and his son to stay further away. She then jumped back into the ice cave.

The ice cave is not small; its diameter is approximately 50 meters.

If Valensa wants to completely destroy this place and leave behind traces of a battle at the Radiant level, she currently only has one relatively reliable move.

She took a deep breath, simultaneously drawing upon the fire element from the outside world, the chaotic divine power within her body, and the holy light, gathering them in her hand in a certain proportion, while compressing and restraining them as much as possible.

Valensa, who once slew the Great Prophet of the Wild Beasts, is still unable to activate the [Blazing Evil Light Sword] without the aid of the cross-handled lightsaber. She cannot restrain this explosive energy into a stable blade shape; she can only compress it into an explosive sphere in front of her.

She named this ball "Blazing Evil Light Bomb". Although it explodes as soon as it leaves her hand, like the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, it is a skill that kills 1000 enemies but injures 950 of her own. However, its power is sufficient, roughly equivalent to a thermobaric bomb. Even a peak Moon Radiance level like the bald principal has suffered from this move.

It's more than enough to fake a battle scene between a Radiant-rank expert.

At this point, the Winston father and his two sons were about 2000 meters away from the ice cave, and they looked back at the ice cave with some doubt in their eyes.

They could all see that Valencia was much stronger than the average Lighthouse, the kind of genius who would be considered a genius at any time to break through to the Radiant Rank, and ordinary Lighthouses simply couldn't beat her.

Even so, it would be no easy task to fake a battle scene that could fool a professional Icefield Hunter... What should she do?

With doubt and curiosity in their eyes, Winston and his two sons secretly looked at Tia, hoping to find the answer from her.

Then they saw the Moon Kiss in Tia's hand flash with light, and Valensa, who should have been in the ice cave 2000 meters away, instantly appeared in front of them.

?

The three Winstons were all puzzled, but just as this thought arose in their minds, a loud noise suddenly came from the ice cave.

A massive pillar of fire shot into the sky, causing the ice layer within a radius of hundreds of meters to crack and collapse. Even 2000 meters away, one could feel a significant tremor underfoot, and even a few seconds later, one could feel a heat wave in the air.

"Phew, now no one should suspect anything at the scene, right?"

Seeing the shocked expressions on the faces of Winston and his two sons, Valensa stood tall and asked with a smug smile.

"...Of course not."

Old Winston's lips twitched, and when he looked at Valensa again, his gaze was much more respectful:

"Being an Icefield Hunter is just a job, everyone's just trying to make a living, and no one would casually pry into the secrets of a Radiant-rank expert."

The collection of the first spinal cord of the Netherworld Ghost Clan has now come to an end.

With this initial understanding established, subsequent hunting operations will naturally go more smoothly.

Perhaps they spent most of the past few days traveling, or perhaps the Winston father and sons needed some time to regain their ace hunter form.

In short, after the first ghoul was successfully hunted, the Winston father and sons became much more efficient at searching for ghoul hibernation hideouts.

It took the Winstons and their two sons six days to find the first ghoul, but the second and third ghouls together took them only five days.

Having gained experience from killing the first ghoul, Valensa became much more skilled at hunting the second and third ghouls, acquiring two more ghoul spinal cords.

As agreed beforehand, Valensa was to settle the first commission with Winston and his son when the third ghost was discovered.

Valensa, of course, had no reason to back down and readily paid the money when they set up camp that night.

The Winston father and his two sons beamed with joy upon receiving a small, heavy bag of gold coins; they hadn't seen so many gold coins in a long time.

The father and his two sons were already quite sensible, but they became even more sensible after receiving the money.

Each time they discovered a hiding place for the Netherworld Clan, the Winston father, sons, and sons would deliberately avoid it, leaving the battle entirely to Valensa. After the battle, they would offer various professional suggestions from the perspective of ace ice hunters, helping Valensa to fabricate the scene so that other hunters who discovered it later would not suspect anything.

Valensa naturally welcomed this.

She understood the principle of specialization in her past life. Some people may not be literate, but they can still outshine top scholars in their own professional fields.

As ace ice field hunters, the Winston father and his two sons offered valuable advice, which Valensa always humbly accepted.

The cooperation between the two parties was very pleasant.

During their collaboration, Valensa gradually uncovered some of the secrets of the Winston father and his two sons.

Her and Tia's previous guesses were probably correct; there was definitely something wrong with young Winston. The reason why this father and his two sons were far more efficient at searching for Hades than other hunters lay with young Winston.

Young Winston must have had some kind of connection with the ghouls. Whenever there were ghouls nearby, young Winston would get a feeling, and he would then tell his father about this feeling.

Then, based on his decades of experience as an ice hunter, old Winston would carefully search within young Winston's sensory range to find the hiding ghost.

As for Big Winston, he's a lower-spec version of Old Winston, currently training under his father to gain more experience.

Once older Winston has fully mastered older Winston's skills, older Winston will likely retire and hand over the work entirely to the two brothers.

This should have been old Winston's original plan, but unfortunately, because of what happened two years ago, none of the three of them could become Icefield Hunters.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it has been 22 days since Valensa and her group entered the ice field.

At this point, with the understanding cooperation of Winston and his two sons, Valensa had collected a total of six strands of bone marrow from the Hades.

Based on Friggia's statement that 3 sticks are enough to try and 5 sticks are safer, Valensa's mission to enter the ice field has been completed.

However, Valensa was more cautious. Considering the potential loss of materials due to a failed attempt, she planned to collect a few more strands of marrow from the Netherworld Clan.

We shouldn't waste such sensible and capable employees as the Winston father and his two sons.

However, just as Valensa was about to hunt the seventh ghost, they encountered an unexpected and formidable enemy.

To be precise, it was Valensa and Tia who were more surprised, but the Winston father and sons had clearly anticipated this situation.

It was afternoon, and after more than 20 days on the ice field, Valensa and Tia had adapted to the annoying light pollution.

Taking advantage of the clear weather and lack of storm, the two chatted casually.

Due to the harsh environment, the ice plains are not only uninhabited by humans, but also extremely rare in terms of monsters. At least, Valensa has been in the ice plains for more than 20 days and has not encountered a single monster.

So when Valensa saw a strange shadow approaching from afar on the ice, she was initially very curious.

Valensa's eyesight was much better than Winston's father and sons. She was the first to spot the shadow and even asked them what kind of monster it was.

When old Winston heard the words 'shadow on the ice,' his expression immediately changed, and he quickly took out a monocular telescope and looked in the direction Valensa was pointing.

Then old Winston's face darkened further. He took a deep breath, smiled wryly, and shrugged at Valensa, his expression utterly helpless.

"It seems our cooperation must come to an end, Your Excellency Paladin."

After that, old Winston offered no further explanation, simply apologized, and then turned and fled with his two sons.

Valensa and Tia were both completely bewildered.

Could that shadow on the ice be some kind of extremely dangerous ice monster?

However, they had consulted a lot of information before they came, but they did not find any known monster that matched that shadow.

With a mixture of curiosity and caution, Valensa and Tia neither stopped the father and his two sons from escaping nor recklessly approached the shadow on the ice.

The two of them ascended into the air aboard Tia's flying card, maintaining a certain distance from the ground, and were ready to fight with all their might at any moment.

Soon, the shadow on the ice was close enough to be clearly seen, and the Winston father and his two sons had run several hundred meters back the way they came.

After seeing the shadow on the ice, Valensa and Tia's expressions became even stranger.

Moving at high speed on the ice is a pretty young girl with blue hair, wearing a white military-style uniform and holding a weapon that looks like a shotgun.

The girl has no physical form; she moves within the ice, appearing from above like a two-dimensional character running on a large screen.

...Is it some kind of ability to move beneath the ice? Like an ice-style earth-style technique?

This was Valensa's first thought, but at that moment the girl had already arrived directly below Valensa and Tia, yet she didn't even glance at them, continuing to chase after Winston and his two sons.

……I see.

This phenomenon caused Valensa and Tia to exchange a glance, and they had already guessed the answer to some of their doubts.

After spending more than 20 days together, Valensa and Tia had gained a considerable understanding of Winston and his son.

The father and his two sons were slightly greedy, but definitely not bad people. There was probably more to their story in abandoning their employer on the ice field two years ago.

Valensa and Tia had speculated that perhaps they had encountered some kind of danger that was directed at the father and his two sons, and that the three of them had fled in order to divert the danger away from their employer.

Based on the current situation, this guess is very likely correct.

"...Let's go, let's follow them and see."

Valensa hesitated for a moment, but still did not choose to leave directly.

She was curious about the truth of the matter and had a good impression of Winston and his two sons, so she decided to try to solve the problem.

If successful, they might also be able to uncover the secrets of young Winston.

Tia was also curious about the truth of the matter, and was quite confident in Valensa's abilities.

The Winston father and his two sons were clearly no match for the two women in terms of combat strength and mobility, yet they still managed to escape the ice field. Tia didn't think she and Valensa couldn't do the same.

So Tia controlled the flying card and followed behind the girl in military uniform.

Noticing that someone was following her, the girl in the military uniform looked up at the sky, her expression unchanged and her eyes calm and indifferent, completely detached from reality.

She only glanced at it before continuing to chase after Winston and his two sons.

As former ace ice hunters, Winston and his two sons were all very fast runners when they didn't need to act as guides.

However, the girl in military uniform was still faster, and the two were constantly closing the gap, soon reaching about 30 meters.

The girl in military uniform slowed down slightly, raised her shotgun, but instead of aiming at Winston and his two sons, she aimed at their reflections on the ice.

Big Winston, who kept glancing back every now and then, changed his expression slightly upon seeing this, and then threw a black ball at the girl in military uniform without hesitation.

Valensa initially thought the black sphere was some kind of bomb that could force the girl in military uniform hiding beneath the ice to come out.

Unexpectedly, the black sphere exploded, but without any explosive power. Instead, it exploded like a squid, releasing a large amount of ink that completely blackened the ice surface within a range of more than 10 meters.

The girl in military uniform in the ice, as if the road ahead had been blown off, had to put down the shotgun she had just raised, slow down and avoid the ice surface stained black with ink before continuing the pursuit.

The Winston father and his two sons took this opportunity to run again, once again widening the gap between themselves and the girl in military uniform by more than 100 meters.

Similar situations continued to occur repeatedly afterward.

Whenever the girl in military uniform gets close enough to raise her gun to fire, either Big Winston or Old Winston will turn around and throw an ink ball that explodes, turning the ice black and forcing the girl in military uniform to slow down and change direction, thus creating distance again.

Valensa and Tia, who were watching from the sky, were amazed.

"That blue-haired girl is interesting... She doesn't seem to be moving under the ice, but rather truly existing on the ice surface, just like a two-dimensional character on a screen."

After watching the girl in military uniform exchange blows with Winston and his two sons for several rounds, Valensa finally couldn't hold back any longer.

She handed the Moon Kiss to Tia as a safety net for teleporting away at any time, then jumped off the flying card, having calculated her landing point in advance so that she would land right above the girl in the military uniform.

Spiked feet!

The gravitational potential energy falling from the sky, the power enhanced by mental energy, and the two-stage force of the spike-like attack made Valensa's kick incredibly powerful.

It was a pair of beautiful legs that appeared out of nowhere, wearing boots and black stockings, and an aerial bomb that shattered the ice surface within a range of about 50 meters and drove its force deep into the ice layer.

If the girl in military uniform was really just using some kind of escape technique to move under the ice, then Valensa's attack should have forced her out.

Unfortunately, as the long, beautiful legs encased in boots and black stockings stomped down heavily, only ice shards and fragments flew up, and there was no sign of the girl in military uniform.

No, it cannot be said that there is none at all.