The story of the black silk female knight

In the Kingdom of Fran, if you randomly pick 100 people from the street, at least 99 of them will be able to successfully undergo the Holy Flame Baptism. The remaining one is either someone with dark thoughts who has disrespectful ideas towards the goddess, or a fugitive who has already done bad things.

Every year, many people voluntarily request to receive the holy flame baptism to prove their faith and to dispel strange illnesses and curses from their bodies.

These are all common sense; you can't possibly say you don't know that, can you?

"I……"

Rosa Capton's face was almost bloodless.

Because he was very familiar with the common knowledge about the Holy Flame Baptism, he understood how dangerous it would be for him to undergo the Holy Flame Baptism in his current mental state.

The process of being baptized by holy flames is actually not difficult.

The Sun Goddess doesn't care whether a person obeys the kingdom's laws or their moral standards; she only cares about faith and loyalty.

Even this belief and loyalty are quite lenient.

Whether you worship her omniscience and omnipotence, crave her protection and blessings, or are even infatuated with her beauty, it doesn't matter. As long as you believe in her and do not question her existence and divine pronouncements, the Holy Flame Baptism will not make things difficult for you.

Even if you have had disrespectful fantasies about the beauty of the sun goddess during the day, as long as you can hide those thoughts when receiving the baptism of holy flames and use self-hypnosis to temporarily become very devout, you can still pass the baptism of holy flames.

That's what Valencia did when she was a child.

At that time, Valensa, as a time traveler, still maintained a very materialistic mindset, and even in the Church of the Sun, she often had various disrespectful thoughts when looking at the statue of the Sun Goddess. She adopted this last-minute, cramming approach to receive the baptism of holy flame.

As she grew older and gained a deeper understanding of the sun goddess, Valensa developed a genuine reverence, worship, and faith in her.

After all, the fundamental reason why materialists do not believe in gods and ghosts is that the existence of gods and ghosts cannot be proven by scientific theories.

But the Sun Goddess is a true goddess who can see miracles and feel divine pronouncements; she can be observed and defined by science, and even materialism must acknowledge her existence.

Even a time traveler, if he has personally experienced the various blessings of the goddess and has grown up in a family with devout faith, will also sincerely believe in the Sun Goddess.

"So be it."

In stark contrast to the hesitant Rosa Capton, Valensa was confident in her faith and fearless in the trial of the Holy Flame.

"Although I am the presiding judge in this case, I am also the defendant. I will undergo the Holy Flame Trial with you. Every word and action I have taken has been the result of careful consideration, and I have a clear conscience regarding all the consequences!"

It is true that hitting you violated the laws of the kingdom. I am willing to apologize to you and arrange treatment. I am also willing to confess to the goddess my immature thinking. All of these are fine.

And what about you? Do you dare prove yourself in the baptism of holy flame?

"I... I'm awful!"

Rosa Capton suddenly gasped for breath and roared as if he were about to give up:

"What's there to be afraid of? It's just a baptism of holy flames, isn't it? Come on!"

"Good! That's straightforward... You've spent your whole life tattling and being disgusting behind people's backs, at least you've started to act like a man."

Valensa nodded emphatically and then gestured to Fran to get ready.

The preparations were completed quickly.

After all, the baptism of holy flame is a common ritual for the Church of the Sun, much like the sprinkling of holy water to bless Valensa in some religions in her previous life.

Two golden flames quickly ignited in front of the goddess statue, each a meter square, just high enough to engulf the kneeling worshippers up to their necks.

"I'll go first."

Valensa gave Rosa Capton a provocative look, then casually walked into a ball of holy flame and knelt down before the goddess statue in a prayerful gesture.

The golden holy flames engulfed Valensa until only her head was visible, but there was no sign of pain on Valensa's face. Instead, she quickly tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and showed a very comfortable expression, as if she were being gently stroked or soaking in a hot spring.

So the pressure fell on Rosa Capeton.

He nervously swallowed, glanced at the dozen or so paladins staring intently at him, but still didn't dare turn and run away. Instead, he gritted his teeth and slowly walked into another ball of holy flame.

At first, Rosa Capton was also unharmed by the Holy Flame. However, after kneeling in the Holy Flame for less than 10 seconds, his expression suddenly became extremely painful, and he stood up, trying to escape from the Holy Flame.

boom!

The gentle holy flames instantly exploded, and Rosa Capton had no chance of escaping. He was quickly and completely engulfed by the holy flames, leaving nothing behind.

Meanwhile, Valensa remained unchanged. She continued to kneel in the sacred flames for another half hour, bathing in them like a hot spring, before stretching and emerging from the flames.

"He really failed the baptism of the holy flame?"

Fran, who had been very curious about the outcome, quickly stepped forward and grabbed Valensa's arm:

"Why is this happening? Although I know you're plotting against him, I can also sense that this guy isn't that bad... People who are worse than him can pass the Holy Flame Baptism, so why can't he?"

"Because his last name is Capton."

Valensa chuckled and pinched Fran's cheekily, then waved for the paladins to clean up the scene of the holy flame baptism while explaining the situation to Fran and the other equally curious paladins:

"Everyone should know the Capton family well; they're a bunch of annoying bastards and lunatics who like to cause trouble and annoy people for no reason."

For every Capeton, it had become instinctive to think of everything as a conspiracy, to keep a close eye on the behavior of every official and nobleman, and to analyze their motives from the darkest possible angle.

Under normal circumstances, this Capton would certainly not be afraid of the Holy Flame Baptism... After all, the Capton family has produced paladins, and most Captons, though annoying, do not have faith issues.

As for this Rosa Capton... Hmph, he was severely beaten by me, a paladin, because of a personal grudge, and when he came to the church to report me, he watched helplessly as I, who should have been the defendant, walked step by step to the position of the presiding judge.

Actually, none of this really matters, because even if I were the presiding judge in front of the Sun Goddess, I couldn't do anything to her... In fact, if I really had a problem, I would have to judge myself.

If an ordinary devout believer encountered this situation, although they might feel surprised and doubtful, they certainly wouldn't easily question the goddess; they would only direct their dissatisfaction at me personally.

Unfortunately, he is Capton... a person who considers everything from a conspiracy theory perspective and tries to find the most dirty and suspicious aspects of all those in high positions. How could he not question Her Majesty the Goddess and the Church after encountering such an experience?

Even though Rosa Capton himself was well aware that his doubts were wrong, his long-standing habitual thinking still led him to wildly speculate about all sorts of conspiracy theories... Hmph, those wild thoughts in his head are not something that can be easily controlled by willpower alone.

As long as he still has those wild thoughts in his mind when he receives the baptism of the holy flame, the holy flame will burn him because he doubts the goddess.

Even if he were burned by the holy flames, there was still hope for him... because the initial burns from the holy flames were just a warning; if he calmed down, collected his thoughts, and continued to pray, he would be fine.

But as I said before... he's a Capton.

His long-standing conspiracy theory mindset meant that when he was burned by the holy flames, his first thought was not to admit his mistakes and repent, but rather to question His Majesty the Goddess even more.

For example, Her Majesty the Goddess really did wrong him, Her Majesty the Goddess really did protect me, and the Church of the Sun was indeed as dirty and full of shady dealings as the officialdom.

These doubts will intensify the burning of the holy flames on him, and after feeling the pain, his negative emotions will become even stronger due to habitual thinking... until he begins to resent the goddess and even has extremely disrespectful thoughts towards her.

In the end, he was completely reduced to ashes in the holy flames.

"Oh, I understand!"

Fran slapped her right fist against her upper left palm, then exclaimed in realization:

"So you're saying that you didn't actually use your power to scheme against him, and he died entirely because of his own dark side?"

"more or less."

Valensa shrugged:

"If he can firmly believe that the Church and Her Majesty the Goddess will make a fair judgment, then there's really nothing I can do about him... After all, it was indeed my fault for beating him up because of personal grudges, and even if I were the presiding judge, I couldn't possibly make a judgment that favors myself in front of Her Majesty the Goddess."

Unfortunately, he was a Capton... His long-standing mindset made him believe only in the justice in his own heart, and everyone else was a villain in his eyes, the higher the status of the person, the worse they were.

So he didn't die from my schemes; he died from his own suspicion and dark thinking.

The minor trouble is now completely over.

Rosa Capton's entire experience at the Church of the Sun was meticulously documented. He was not threatened or treated unfairly; he died from his own inappropriate thoughts during the Holy Flame Baptism. No one can say anything about this outcome.

Even other members of the Capton family, who were equally argumentative and troublesome, had no choice but to accept it.

Considering that Rosa Capton was, after all, a formally appointed officer of the kingdom, it was indeed wrong to beat him up because of a personal grudge. In order to avoid any controversy, Valensa also made a statement.

She wrote an apology letter to the deceased Rosa Capton, paid the Capton family 50 gold coins for medical expenses, and locked herself in the prayer room for two days to repent.

Admitting one's mistakes and correcting them is considered a virtue in this world, so neither the common people nor the nobility condemned Valensa; instead, they praised her for her nobility and selflessness.

The nobles, in particular, spoke highly of Valencia, and many even gave her gifts under the guise of encouraging her.

There was no way around it; the Capton family had offended far too many nobles. Whenever a Capton was in trouble, the nobles would throw a banquet to celebrate.

Especially since Valencia not only personally gave Capton a good beating, but also made Capton kill himself, it led more than one person to exclaim in private:

Valensa, you did a great job!

Meanwhile, many nobles carefully analyzed the causes and consequences of this incident and formulated plans on how to retaliate if Capton caused them trouble again in the future.

After two days of penitential prayers, Valensa used the excuse of accompanying Fran to train to secretly go to a tavern and have a drink with two beautiful young ladies, one on each side. Only then did she return to northwest France to find Tia the next morning via the Sacred Way.

The city closest to where Valensa and Tia bought land to build a new residence for the colorful giant chickens is Creek Ice, a city in northern France with a population of about 15.

About 90 kilometers west of this city is the port where Valensa and Tia disembarked when they returned from America. About 50 kilometers to the north is Fortress No. 3 of the Northern Frontier, and 130 kilometers to the northeast is Bizk, a military stronghold where Valensa and Tia were once stationed.

The place where Valensa and Tia bought the land is not far west of Fortress 3. It is a military town with a similar function to Bizk Town but much smaller in scale. The town is mainly inhabited by military families, and its name is Jilan Town.

When Valensa ran all the way from Creek Ice City to Giran Town, she saw Tia in town, sitting behind a square table with a basin of gold coins on it. Dozens of people dressed in different clothes were queuing up to receive money in front of the table.

Valensa walked over, quite surprised. She first greeted the people in line with a smile, then asked Tia curiously:

"Honey, why are you doing this yourself? Why don't you leave things like paying the workers' wages to the family maids?"

“My maids are still in the capital and I haven’t brought them over yet, and I’ve temporarily assigned Enori to do something more important… I don’t trust ordinary soldiers to handle large amounts of gold coins myself, so I have no choice but to do it myself?”

Tia sighed helplessly:

"Collecting special pheromone solvents to make materials, constructing experimental sites, and trading various magical items with Wei all cost money, and the expenses are quite high."

"The family funds I can manage are already running out... and your bounty from last year is almost gone, so we have to be very careful with our money now."

"This……"

Valensa frowned and fell into thought.

As she was already practically part of the Britannia family, Valensa was very familiar with the assets under Tia's name.

Besides the pink rose, which is a cash cow, Tia's other sources of income are two wineries near the capital.

The income from these industries is enough to support the luxurious lifestyle of top aristocratic ladies, even if they have to hold a banquet every two or three days.

But that's far from enough when it comes to buying top-quality ingredients that are priceless and unavailable, spending money on research for the Great Witch, and buying weapons from Wei to arm the undead army.

Even with Valencia's share of the patents from the Nora Chamber of Commerce and the king's gifts, it was still difficult to support such expenses.

We need to think of new ways to make money, preferably a stable, monopolistic method.

Continuing to cooperate with the Nora Chamber of Commerce and taking a share of the patent revenue is a good idea, and that was also Valensa and Tia's original plan.

However, to receive patent royalties, you must have new technologies.

Even if the Great Witch Friggia is incredibly powerful, creating a civilian gadget that can be widely used and mass-produced still requires numerous trials and adjustments, all of which cost money.

As she accumulates more patent projects, this path will naturally lead to greater wealth. However, currently, Valencia's patent royalties are insufficient to support research funding, so she must find another solution.

"I understand."

As Valensa sat down next to Tia to help her with the work, she pondered for a moment and said:

"Once we're done with the new house, let's bring Sister Friggia, the Saintess, and Suzuran from the ruins over for a few days."

I have an idea that could provide us with a very stable source of income, but we need to discuss the details carefully and, first of all, forge Her Highness's sword.

"Are you trying to make money by using Her Highness the Princess's name and the undead army?"

Tia immediately guessed Valensa's line of thought, but couldn't guess the specifics.

She really wanted to get to the bottom of it, but the occasion was clearly inappropriate, so she could only suppress her curiosity and continue paying the workers who had helped build their new home with Valencia.

Chapter 3 New Residence

Individual workers don't earn much; most workers work overtime for four days and earn between 5 and 20 gold coins.

Only a few workers who were responsible for key technologies earned more than 80 gold coins, and some even earned more than 100 gold coins.

Of course, the power of magic was indispensable in building a nobleman's residence in just a few days.

These workers are architects, carpenters, sculptors, painters, plumbers, and all sorts of other skilled workers, and most of them are also magicians of the Pearl level or above.

So this time, Tia paid the workers' wages, which cost thousands of gold coins, further shrinking their already meager wallets.

But there's no way around it, this money has to be spent.

As a nobleman, one can find ways to save money in other areas, but one must never skimp on things like clothing and housing, which are things that need to be seen by outsiders; they must be as luxurious as possible.

For traditional aristocrats, frugality was not a virtue, but rather a source of ridicule; vanity could even be considered a form of political correctness.

Since a new residence is to be built, there is no need to be afraid of extravagance and waste. The new residence must be built to be beautiful and grand, befitting the status of a great nobleman.