The story of the black silk female knight

"This……"

Bill Bader frowned deeply, seemingly unable to understand Valensa's intentions at all.

He hesitated for a long time, then finally asked with a wry smile:

"Forgive my ignorance, but I truly cannot comprehend your brilliant plan, Miss. Could you please explain it to me in detail?"

"The principle is actually very simple."

Valensa clearly anticipated that Bill Bader wouldn't understand so quickly, and explained with a light laugh:

"I simply used a tactic that all monarchs love to employ—checks and balances."

"Checks and balances?"

Bill Bader frowned, seemingly understanding somewhat, but still not quite.

"Hmm, checks and balances... let's start with our Badr family."

Valensa continued:

"Although I don't understand politics and power struggles very well, I still know that there are factions among the nobles of our Fran... Not to mention the natural political differences between civil and military officials, even military families are divided into factions, mainly the Northern Border Army faction led by the Britannia family and the Navy faction led by the Pude family."

I have a close relationship with Tia, and my father and Tia's father were also comrades-in-arms, but that doesn't mean the Baldr family has always been part of the Northern Border Army faction. For example, my grandfather was a very good friend of the head of the Pudr family... Going back further, there were quite a few Baldr family heads who were close to the civil service faction as well.

Therefore, our Badr family should be considered neutral in the eyes of the royal family. It's just that if a certain patriarch has a good personal relationship with a certain faction, he will temporarily get closer to that faction.

In order to consolidate its power, the royal family must know how to maintain a balance of power, and use various means such as winning over, dividing and suppressing to ensure that no one noble family becomes particularly powerful.

"That's why I said before that I absolutely could no longer control the Baldr family. My position within the Church of the Sun and my marriage to Tia already made the royal family somewhat uneasy, but it was still within their tolerance... You understand all of this, cousin, right?"

"can."

Bill Bader nodded, with a hint of genuine admiration in his eyes:

"I never expected that you, Miss, would be so knowledgeable about the methods and thoughts of the royal family."

"It's nothing, I've just read a few books."

Valensa waved her hand and chuckled.

It wasn't that she was deliberately showing off, but rather that she genuinely thought these things weren't that impressive... After all, she had studied Chinese history in her previous life, and China's thousands of years of feudal history were full of intricate political schemes and power struggles. Liberal arts students were practically all experts in political commentary, so this really wasn't anything special.

After a light laugh, Valensa continued:

“If you can understand these things, then the rest is simple.”

Because my father and Tia's father were comrades-in-arms, most of the nobles who have had good relations with the Baldr family over the years are from the Northern Border Army faction... Think about it carefully, aren't those the families that are supporting those senile old fools behind the scenes?"

Seeing Bill Bader nod in understanding, Valensa continued:

"Although the Badr family is not powerful among the great nobles, it is still a genuine great noble family. If the strength of such a neutral great noble family is divided and absorbed by the Northern Border Army faction, it will undoubtedly greatly enhance the strength of the entire Northern Border Army faction."

The Britannia family is already very powerful, and it will become even more powerful after Tia officially inherits the family headship and we get married. Do you think the royal family wants to see the Northern Border Army faction devour the Baldr family?

However, the northern border families that targeted the Baldr family were all very clever. They all supported senile old men as puppets within the Baldr family. Even if the royal family and other nobles wanted to intervene, it would be difficult to commit large-scale forces. They could only try to get a piece of the pie from the sidelines.

So, if at this time, a relatively capable young man from Badr, who is also quite popular within the family, suddenly breaks ties with me and becomes my enemy… what do you think will happen, cousin?”

Chapter 13 Frostmourne complete.

"Oh! I understand what you mean, Miss!"

Bill Bader's eyes lit up as he listened, and in the end, his face was filled with admiration:

"The Badr family, who have a personal grudge against you but maintain their legitimacy, is exactly what the royal family and nobles want. So, as long as I cooperate with the play as the young lady instructs, I can gain the support of some nobles and even the royal family?"

"That's right, it seems my cousin is a smart guy, he gets it right away."

Valensa smiled and nodded:

"The reason why no external forces were willing to support my cousin in the past was because you are responsible and capable, and it is difficult for you to become a puppet that can be manipulated. The benefits of supporting you are too low."

But if you and I were to have a major personal conflict, then both the royal family, adept at maintaining balance, and other factions with political differences with the Northern Border Army faction, would have a reason to support you in taking control of the Baldr family.

"Young Miss is indeed wise!"

Bill Bader sighed with genuine emotion, yet also with a touch of regret:

"It's a pity that the young lady is unwilling to take over the family herself, otherwise the family's achievements under your leadership might have surpassed those of our ancestors... Sigh."

"Alright, there's no need to discuss this further. You should understand, cousin."

Valensa waved her hand dismissively, her expression immediately showing displeasure:

"There's no way I'll go back to inherit the family business, because in my heart, family legacy is nowhere near as important as Tia! I've already shown you, cousin, a path to save the family. If you still have any unrealistic fantasies, don't blame me for getting really angry!"

"Yes, I understand."

Bill Bader gave a wry smile, then his expression turned serious and solemn:

"Please rest assured, Miss. I, Bill Bader, swear to Her Majesty the Sun Goddess that all my hostile actions toward you from now on are an act. I will never do anything to truly harm your interests, or may my soul be forever burned by holy flames!"

"Haha... Cousin, you really are something, why make such a terrible oath?"

Valensa smiled politely on the surface, but inwardly she was quite satisfied; her cousin was rather sensible.

After the general direction of the plan was set, Valensa discussed some details with Bill Bader and then began acting.

A thought-provoking piece of news quickly spread among the noble circles of the capital.

After secretly visiting Valensa Bader, Bill Bader left in a rage, cursing as he went out, and even drew his sword and chopped down a small tree in front of Valensa's house.

That night, Bill Bader got drunk again in a pub, muttering and cursing Valensa for most of the night, which many people heard.

The main criticism was that Valensa was too irresponsible. As the only eldest daughter, she ignored her family's precarious situation and only wanted to marry into the Britannia family to enjoy a life of luxury. She was unwilling to lend a helping hand to the family, which was on the verge of collapse, and even wanted to sever all ties with the family.

Those who heard this news were quite interested and didn't have much doubt about it.

When Valencia voluntarily announced that she would give up her family inheritance rights and fled overnight, it became a hot topic in the capital for a while.

At first, many people secretly mocked Valensa for her irresponsibility and cowardice, but now many admire her wit and decisiveness.

Judging from Valensa's current achievements, her decision to abandon her family, a burden, and focus on her spiritual practice was absolutely the right one. Otherwise, she would probably have been forced to marry by her elders long ago.

Valensa is now focused on being a good future matriarch of the Britannia family. In order not to provoke the core leadership of the kingdom, she certainly cannot have any more ideas about the Baldr family. It is reasonable for her to try to sever ties or even cut off contact with the Baldr family.

But that's all for now; those who are interested are still observing.

Judging from Bill Bader's personality and the things he said that night, it's not hard to tell that his anger towards Valensa is more like anger towards an irresponsible, scumbag woman, and far from hatred... As long as Valensa softens her stance and expresses a willingness to lend a helping hand to the Bader family, Bill Bader will definitely change his attitude.

Therefore, those who are interested are only observing for the time being.

The next few days were relatively calm.

Although Bill Bader complained about Valencia again in public and private, the intensity of his words was much milder than at the beginning, and it seemed that the matter was about to pass.

Just as many people were starting to feel a little disappointed and were about to look away, something that left many people speechless suddenly happened.

That day, Bill Bader received news from his informant at Valensa's residence that Valensa had left the capital via a teleportation array and was likely heading to her new home in Giran Town on the northern border, and would not be returning for some time.

So, while Melina was out shopping, he personally led a group to ambush her. Under the pretext of reclaiming an important talent from the Badr family, he tried to forcibly take Melina away, and even declared that irresponsible people like Valensa did not deserve to have Melina.

Unexpectedly, Melina carried spatial coordinates. Just as Bill Bader finished making his threats, Valencia arrived at the scene enveloped in lightning.

The results speak for themselves.

Although Bill Bader and Valensa are both Lighthouse-level practitioners on the surface, there are differences between Lighthouse-level practitioners.

Three Stars have died or been defeated by Valensa. Bill Bader couldn't even beat Valensa when she first entered the Pearl Sect two years ago, let alone now.

In a fit of rage, Valensa beat Bill Bader so badly that he was covered in bruises and broken several bones.

That wasn't the end of it. After beating up Bill Bader, Valencia did two more outrageous things.

Firstly, after Valencia beat Bill Bader to the point of being unable to get up, she stepped on Bill Bader's head with her boots and made a lot of sarcastic remarks.

The gist of it is... How dare a loser like you try to take advantage of my personal maid? The Badr family is so full of useless people like you that I have no respect for them.

In short, the words were extremely offensive and malicious. According to sources at the scene, Bill Bader was so angry that he fainted.

Another thing is that after Valensa beat Bill Bader up, she used her connections in the Church of the Sun to prevent the priests from using divine magic to heal Bill Bader, forcing him to rely on healing potions and rest to recover.

These things surprised many people, but after careful consideration, they found them to be logical.

Many people have diligently gathered intelligence on Valensa, the Sunflower Duchess who has achieved remarkable feats at a young age and is almost legendary.

It was no secret that Melina, Valensa's personal maid, was like an older sister to her.

It's normal for young people to act irrationally in a fit of rage when someone important to them is in danger, especially a capable young person like Valensa.

The things she said to Bill Bader when she stepped on his head with her boots were not a single word of boasting; they were quite fitting for her current achievements.

After figuring these things out, many interested people began to get their minds working.

If Bill Bader's anger towards Valensa was initially due to her irresponsibility, could this anger transform into hatred after being humiliated and bullied in this way?

Thus……

. . . . .

After finishing her act with her cousin, Valensa stopped interfering in the affairs of the Badr family, only maintaining intelligence coverage.

Counting the time, it has been seven days since Tia brought Fran's blood back.

With Frigia's abilities, she might have already finished forging Frostmourne. It's time to go back to Giran Town and check on the situation.

Without notifying Tia to come and pick her up, Valensa first traveled to Creek Ice City via the Holy Path of the Church of the Sun, and then ran at supersonic speed along the official road from Creek Ice City back to Jilan Town.

When they arrived at the gate of the mansion, Valensa frowned.

After not returning for several days, she discovered that the entire mansion had suddenly become eerie and gloomy, with a strong smell of blood emanating from behind the courtyard wall.

If Valensa hadn't known that this was her home and that nothing had happened, she would have definitely thought it was some kind of cult gathering place, where some kind of bloody cult ritual was being performed.

Suppressing the instinctive urge to draw her sword and use Holy Light to break down the door, Valensa pulled the brass ring on the door and knocked twice.

Soon, the door opened, and behind it was a female guard from the Britannia family, who immediately bowed to Valensa upon seeing her.

Valensa waved to the female guards who were bowing, indicating that they should not stand on ceremony, while looking towards the area in the front yard where the smell of blood was strongest. Then, she opened her mouth slightly in surprise.

The pond in the front yard, which was originally used to raise ornamental fish, has now been completely turned into a pool of blood, bubbling and gurgling, looking extremely sinister.

Meanwhile, Tia, Lily of the Valley, Lefred, Gina, Friggia, and even Velenkasa, the saintess of the Church of the Sun, all gathered around the blood pool, watching Princess Yu dance with great interest.

Princess Jing's attire was noticeably different from her usual style. Today, instead of wearing those gorgeous palace dresses, she wore a spellcaster's soft armor that looked somewhat ill-fitting, probably lent to her by Tia.

But what's even more eye-catching is the silver dagger in Princess Yu's hand.

The hilt of the short sword is a perfect replica of the hilt of Frostmourne, and even the blade is replicated. However, to reduce the weight of the sword, the blade has been proportionally reduced in size, with a length of only about 30 centimeters.

The combination of a greatsword hilt and a short sword blade looks rather strange, but it's also quite interesting. At least Princess Elserse seems to really like it and is playing with it with great enthusiasm.

As Princess Yi performed her chaotic Eight Swords Dance, the gurgling sound in the blood pool grew louder, and the entire pool of blood began to boil.

About ten seconds later, Princess Yi gave a soft shout and pointed her short sword at the blood pool. A strangely shaped hand with eight fingers also emerged from the blood pool.

The creature that quickly emerged from the pool of blood was a three-legged, one-armed monster covered in disgusting pustules, with murky eyes that showed no intelligence whatsoever.

"Sigh~~" xN

The onlookers sighed; it was just like a scene from a card-drawing fiasco.

Princess Jing, with a look of utter disgust, swung the Frostmourne short sword again, then controlled the monster to walk back into the blood pool, where it completely dissolved in a few seconds.

"What are you doing?"

Valensa then stepped forward to ask.

"Hey, you're back~~" xN

Everyone greeted Valensa cheerfully, an atmosphere completely at odds with the cult-like atmosphere of the scene.

Fortunately, they knew that the situation at the scene was easy to misunderstand, so they quickly explained the situation one after another, and soon clarified what had happened.

Just yesterday, Frigia completed the creation of Frostmourne, and Suzuran also made some progress in her research on Savat Landon's undead modification technology.

After exchanging a few words, the two were surprised to discover that the tests for Frostmourne and the research findings on Lily of the Valley could be conducted simultaneously.

Lily of the Valley's research resulted in this Blood Pool, which can essentially be considered a creative workshop for undead creatures. It can modify existing undead or create new undead according to the caster's wishes.

Unfortunately, the research data Valensa obtained was incomplete. Although Suzuran was able to reproduce Savat Landon's modified and innovative blood pool for the undead based on that data, it was difficult for her to continue experimenting... After all, Suzuran was not a necromancer like Savat Landon who had no bottom line. She couldn't possibly kill people and collect corpses as materials according to the formula in the data.

Frostmourne can solve this problem.