The story of the black silk female knight

But in the final days of the campaign against the cult, Tia was able to easily deal with multiple cult members of the same level as her, and even unilaterally crush them.

Unlike Valencia, whose fighting style is mostly about killing enemies outright, Tia's magic is more focused on control... The cultists she defeats are not only unable to resist or escape, but they can't even commit suicide.

Within half a month, Valensa and Tia wiped out more than 20 cult dens. Combined with the achievements of other paladins, a total of nearly 100 cult dens and tens of thousands of cult members were defeated.

This number is already equivalent to the total number of cult incidents in the entire city of France in a normal year, but now it has all erupted in just half a month, which is absolutely abnormal.

The frequency of cult-related incidents is even higher now than it was a few months ago.

This is quite strange... Although France was a feudal dynasty, due to the existence of the Church of the Sun and its extremely abundant resources, the quality of life for most common people was actually not low. As long as they obeyed the law, they did not need to worry about food and clothing... Objectively speaking, they were more comfortable than some capitalist countries.

In such circumstances, there are very few fertile grounds for cults to develop... Apart from some particularly remote mountain villages that are difficult for even royal power and divine grace to favor, only places protected by ambitious nobles can develop cults.

However, the cult incidents that have erupted in the past six months have far exceeded the normal limit for the number of cults that may be hidden in various parts of Fran... According to the rate at which the Church of the Sun has been cracking down on cults in the past six months, all the cultists in Fran should have been wiped out long ago.

But the fact is that the frequency of cult incidents has not decreased, but has instead increased.

This situation was clearly no longer limited to the Church of the Sun alone, and the French government quickly took the phenomenon seriously... Under the royal command, local police forces fully cooperated with the paladins in investigating the roots of these cults.

The result was that... many of the cult members who were wiped out, as well as the nobles and wealthy merchants who protected cult activities, originally had nothing to do with cults.

They all encountered various accidents within that year... such as the death of a loved one, losing a lot of money in business, having a partner cheat on them, or having unfilial children, etc. In short, they all suffered tragedies.

Then, during what was considered the lowest point in their lives, they very 'coincidentally' came into contact with some cult knowledge and power, and became so addicted that they couldn't stop themselves. In just a month or even a few days, they became evil cult members who could wreak havoc on the local area.

It's obvious that someone is deliberately causing trouble, and the situation is quite egregious.

As for the mastermind behind it all, everyone had a fairly consistent guess... The only person on the entire continent of Frenoia with the ability and motive to do so is the Sin Angel.

Over the centuries, the Sin Angels have provided countless free assistance to various cults, thereby collecting a great deal of knowledge, technology and data about them.

With her abilities, she could easily lead anyone she sets her sights on into a life tragedy, then use a suitable cult to lure them into the abyss.

Her motivation for doing this was likely that one of her major plans had reached a critical stage and could not be interrupted, so she needed to keep the Church of the Sun busy and prevent them from contacting her.

The Church of the Sun had long ago formed a special Radiant Rank team to search for the Sin Angels, and they had been searching for their whereabouts for nearly a year, but unfortunately, they still had not made any valuable discoveries.

Someone who has been wanted for hundreds of years and is still at large, and who is very likely the former saintess of the Church of the Sun, can hide as much as possible and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Valensa was powerless to do anything about it, and besides, there were tall people to hold up the sky... There were so many experts on the continent, so even if the Sinful Angel really caused something big, it wasn't her place to worry about it.

So after their two-week cult hunt, Valensa and Tia returned to the War College to attend their graduation ceremony.

Logically speaking, students at the War Academy should take a graduation exam in order to graduate.

This graduation assessment is different from Valencia's graduation exam in her previous life. It's not just about taking a test at the end of the semester. Instead, it's a comprehensive evaluation by the tutors based on daily performance.

Given Valensa and Tia's pitiful attendance rates in their second and third years, they would definitely not have passed the teachers' comprehensive evaluation under normal circumstances. Therefore, they went through a special approval process and graduated directly with the principal's signature.

Valensa followed this procedure without any objection... After all, the Sunflower Duchess was now a legendary figure, whose achievements far surpassed those of most of the teachers in the academy.

However, Tia faced some skepticism... According to Tia's own speculation, it was probably the political enemies of the Britannia family who were behind the scenes.

Some students questioned Tia's abilities, arguing that her achievements could not compare to Valensa's, and therefore she should not be exempt from the assessment and graduate directly.

Although Tia did indeed assist Valensa in killing the Great Prophet of the Wild Beasts and command the expeditionary force to establish a buffer zone west of the underground ruins in the Barren Ridge, those who questioned her did not acknowledge it.

They believed that these achievements were mainly due to Valensa and had little to do with Tia; Tia was merely benefiting from Valensa's success.

To quote one of the leading students among the skeptics:

With someone as capable as the Sunflower Duchess at our disposal, we could send a monkey up as commander and still win.

This argument left Tia speechless... Some people really will use any means to attack their political enemies. They would rather praise Valensa to the skies than kick Tia while she's down.

Of course, the school acknowledged Tia's achievements, and the mentors originally planned to personally explain and suppress the matter.

But Tia wasn't about to let the doubters off easily... She had just honed her combat skills against the cultists and hadn't had a chance to show them off yet.

So after negotiations, the school agreed to Tia's proposal.

"You're not convinced that I can graduate without passing the exam, right? Fine, if you think you're so great, then come and challenge me! Whether it's a one-on-one battle or a war game, it's all fine. As long as you can make me lose one game, I'll repeat a year and take the exam to graduate normally!"

Tia's words silenced the doubters and caused a great stir among the students.

For Tia, the top student in the third year of the conducting department, many students had only heard of her reputation but had never seen her. This time, her public acceptance of the challenge immediately attracted a lot of attention. Even many people who had no doubts about her were eager to try and find out the gap between themselves and the legendary genius.

As a result, the War Academy's graduation ceremony was forced to be postponed by a day so that Tia could be challenged in the academy's largest training ground.

As per Tia's request, those who question her must be the first to participate in the challenge, and they are not allowed to admit defeat.

Among these skeptics, there are indeed a few who are quite capable, but only compared to other students; they still can't compare to Tia.

Whether in one-on-one combat or strategy games, Tia won spectacularly... in one-on-one fights, she beat her opponents until they were covered in bumps, and in strategy games, she wiped out their entire army.

After being utterly crushed and brutally defeated, those who had questioned them no longer dared to utter a word... and even harbored some resentment towards their own families.

Why should I, a student, get involved in your official affairs?

If you can't even beat someone's father in officialdom, how could I possibly beat someone's daughter in school?

If you can't win, you can't win.

After defeating all the doubters, Tia faced challenges from other people.

She won her battle strategy simulations against the Command Department with relative ease... After all, she is the heir of the Britannia family. Even if she doesn't attend the Command Department's classes and only relies on her family's military strategies, these future commanders who are still just students are unlikely to beat her.

However, in the one-on-one combat challenge, Tia encountered a formidable opponent.

It was the swordsman's successor from Valensa's class... He originally didn't want to participate, but after witnessing Tia beat up the others, he couldn't resist the urge to fight and ended up joining in.

This successor of the Sword Saint is no mere figurehead. From the middle of his second year, he was basically the strongest among the elite soldiers of his year, second only to Valensa. Even Chiba Grass could only defeat him through assassination and sneak attacks; she would never win in a head-on fight.

Now that graduation is approaching, this successor of the Sword Saint's sword has become even sharper... He has reached a point of near perfection in his integration with the family's traditions, and could be promoted to the Radiant Rank at any time through the guaranteed admission mechanism.

Without the two weeks of continuous combat training against cultists, Tia would have been no match for this sword saint's successor... all those fancy spells would probably have been shattered with a single sword strike.

Even now, Tia is still having a very difficult time... The simple domain that once trapped Valensa for quite a while couldn't hold the Sword Saint's successor for long before being forcibly broken through by the opponent's charged sword that cleaved through space.

In the end, Tia had to resort to her newly acquired time-manipulation techniques to barely defeat the increasingly excited successor of the Sword Saint.

She used that time-related trick on a magic card that sealed a spell trap. As a result, the spell trap on the magic card was activated prematurely, breaking through the Sword Saint's intuition. This caused the Sword Saint's successor to lose his balance in a crucial move, and was then completely overwhelmed by Tia's more control spells.

After this battle, everyone was truly impressed by Tia. Many people who were originally quite arrogant immediately put away their contempt... They all realized that they were still far from being true geniuses, and their current achievements were nothing special.

Next came the War Academy's graduation ceremony... In terms of format, it wasn't much different from the graduation ceremonies of the schools Valensa had attended in her previous life.

The main content consisted of speeches by school leaders and speeches by students. However, after the ceremony, the War College hosted a very lavish banquet for the graduates, featuring almost entirely high-end ingredients, making it even more extravagant than the freshman welcome banquet.

After this graduation banquet, this year's third-year students will officially graduate.

As graduates who have received the highest quality military education from the King of France and paid all the tuition and fees, all graduates of the War College are guaranteed job placement after graduation... or rather, are forced to be assigned a job.

Depending on their individual strengths, each student at the War College must serve in the Northern Border Army or Navy for at least five years after graduation before they can retire or transfer to civilian work.

Of course, starting this year, graduates of the War Academy theoretically have a third destination: Princess Yu's expeditionary force.

In fact, more than two months ago, the bald man had personally approached Valencia to ask if she needed the college to arrange for some graduates to help the expeditionary force.

After careful consideration, Valensa declined.

After all, the headquarters of the expeditionary force was in an underground ruin, where there were too many secrets that Valensa didn't want others to know.

If it's just this year's graduates being assigned to the expeditionary force, that's fine. Valensa and Tia both have some close classmates who will keep it a secret once they join the expeditionary force.

But what about next year? And the year after?

Once this kind of thing starts, it's hard to stop it, so it's better to refuse other people from joining the expeditionary force from the beginning.

It was no secret that the main force of the expeditionary force was the undead legion, and ordinary graduates could not play a significant role in the expeditionary force. Valensa's polite refusal was reasonable, and the War Academy had not mentioned it again since then.

Therefore, this year's graduates will still be assigned to the Northern Border Army and the Navy, and their assigned locations were determined well before graduation.

Of course, the school is not so heartless as to force students to report to their respective military units immediately after graduation. As long as they arrive at their posts before the end of the last month of summer, students can still enjoy this last summer vacation.

It's normal for close classmates to travel together, and some couples even take advantage of this last summer vacation to go back to their hometowns to get married... After all, swords have no eyes on the battlefield, so it's best not to leave any regrets.

Valensa and her friends' decision to go on a graduation trip to the Four Islands Alliance did not cause much of a surprise.

The final group consisted of six people: Valensa, Tia, Chiba, and Melody.

They had originally planned to invite some more friends, but Valencia's decision was a bit rushed, and many people already had holiday plans, so they had to decline.

For example, the young couple Asashi and Luca finally tied the knot. They planned to go back to their hometown during the summer vacation to hold their wedding. They originally wanted to invite Valensa and the others to the wedding, but they had to give up after learning that there was a conflict in their plans.

Although they couldn't go in person, they still had to send gifts... Everyone gave Asashi a lot of beautiful clothes and jewelry, and Luca some medicine to help him recover.

Compared to when we first met, three years at the War Academy have made Luca much more confident. Now he is an excellent logistics soldier... capable of tasks such as gathering resources, cooking, building barracks, and repairing equipment.

But he also lost weight; he was nearly 1.8 meters tall but weighed less than 60 kilograms, and his eyes often had dark circles.

Unfortunately, for an ordinary rural boy, it's really difficult to satisfy a girlfriend like Asaki.

Valensa even suspected that Asaki might have succubus blood... but after the examination, it was found that Asaki was just a pure human, only with a stronger desire than ordinary humans.

To use a popular explanation from Valensa's past life stories: As a priestess, Asashi was very devout in her faith, but her body was simply born for sex... Unfortunately, Luca was not a person with much talent for cultivation, so he could only satisfy her with the energy and physique of an ordinary person, which was quite difficult for him.

In short, two days after the War Academy graduation ceremony, Valensa and her group of six gathered at the port of the capital of Fran and began their graduation trip to the Four Islands Alliance.

This graduation trip was purely private, so Valensa felt embarrassed to take anyone along the sacred path of the Church of the Sun and instead planned to go by boat.

Anyway, when it comes to tourism... taking a boat trip at sea is a kind of fun, and the Four Islands Alliance and the capital of Fran are much closer than America, it only takes two days to get there.

The ship was arranged by Chiba Kusa; it was a merchant ship of the Shishima Alliance and belonged to the Teido family.

Like the Chiba family, the Teido family is one of the three largest families in the Four Islands Alliance—the so-called three great families. It is a large commercial family that influences the economy and people's livelihood of the Four Islands Alliance, and is also the right-hand woman of the Demon Queen Himika.

The other of the three families was originally the powerful magic family, the Tsuchimikado family. Unfortunately, the Tsuchimikado family made a mistake while researching the Mist Demon, and all the core members of the family were controlled by the Mist Demon. In the end, the Queen of Demons, Himika, personally took action and led the Chiba family to eliminate them.

Therefore, the so-called three major families of the Four Islands Alliance are now only two... There are still several major families vying for the last position, but no result has been decided yet.

The Imperial family's merchant ship is quite large. Although it cannot compare with the main flagship of the French Navy, its displacement is still in the tens of thousands of tons. It has cargo holds with a large number of storage boxes, as well as luxurious guest rooms that are comparable to high-end hotels.

As the third young lady of the Chiba family, Chiba naturally had to stay in the most luxurious guest room by herself.

Although Valensa didn't have any direct connection with the Imperial family, she was a friend of Thousand Leaf Grass and the famous Sunflower Duchess and a Radiant-rank powerhouse. Therefore, she was assigned to the most luxurious room, and Tia stayed with her.

There are only four rooms of the highest standard on the entire ship. The other two rooms are occupied by the captain and another Radiant-rank expert who is responsible for guarding the ship.

So the three of them, including Melody, could only stay in a room of the next level, but it was still more spacious and comfortable than a regular room, and they didn't have any objections.

This is a purely merchant ship, and the passengers are mainly businessmen. Most passengers will wander around the ship when the sea is calm, hoping to meet new friends and find new business opportunities.

Melody's family sells jewelry, and since she had never been to sea before, she was very excited. She wandered around the ship with her two protectors, Gil and Harry, chatting with merchants she encountered, and actually found a few good business opportunities.

When Tia went to America last year, she spent almost a month and a half on a boat, so she was already tired of the novelty of boating.

Chiba, who grew up in the Shishima Alliance, was naturally not curious about taking a boat trip, nor did she care much about the sea scenery. She just stayed in the cabin playing cards.

Valensa was originally playing cards with Tia and Thousand Leaf Grass, but Valensa was too strong. Her fully evolved insight and reaction speed made it difficult for her to lose.

If she concentrates now, she can even clearly remember the order of each card, no matter how the cards are shuffled.

This puts Valensa in an awkward situation while playing cards... If she keeps winning, Tia and Thousand Leaf will be very unhappy, but if she deliberately throws the game and loses, Tia and Thousand Leaf will be even more unhappy.

With no other option, Valensa had to leave the game and let Tia and Thousand Leaf Grass play by themselves, while she wandered around the ship aimlessly.

Valensa was still dressed as a high-ranking paladin, which made her look like she couldn't possibly be a merchant. So, although many people greeted her, no one talked to her for long.

So, following her foodie instincts, Valensa eventually found the ship's kitchen and chatted with the chefs about cooking techniques and how to prepare all sorts of strange and unusual seafood to make it taste good.

This world also has livestock farming, so common meats such as chicken, pork, and beef are not much different from those in Valensa's previous life.

But aquatic products are a different story... There are very few farmed aquatic products in this world, and even if there are, most of them are freshwater aquatic products. Seafood is all wild, and most of them are monsters.

Valensa's seafood cooking experience from her previous life was almost completely useless in this world. At the very least, she didn't recognize many of the aquatic ingredients in the merchant ship's kitchen, and the ways of eating them were also beyond her expectations.

For example, there is a type of shellfish about the size of a washbasin that looks similar to a scallop. Valensa originally thought that it was also eaten by steaming or grilling.

Surprisingly, the first thing the ship's chef did when processing those shellfish was to scoop out the meat and throw it away. Instead, he sprinkled the shells with salt and a special sauce, then grilled them, turning them into a snack with a texture and taste similar to potato chips.

"Can't we eat the clam meat?"

Seeing the chef throw the clam meat directly into the fishing net after processing it, Valensa couldn't help but ask curiously.

"...At the very least, ordinary people shouldn't eat it; the clam meat is poisonous."

The chef was initially a little impatient, but upon realizing the question was being asked by a beautiful female knight in black stockings, he immediately smiled and patiently answered:

"Although it is not fatally toxic, it can cause all sorts of bizarre hallucinations and is highly addictive, so it is prohibited from being eaten as food."

"So we're just going to throw it away like that?" Valensa asked again.

"Not really."

The chef smiled and shook his head, then pointed to a box of freshly caught seafood in the distance:

"Although this clam meat is poisonous, it tastes great and monsters love to eat it. It is one of the baits we often use when catching aquatic products."