The story of the black silk female knight

"Not often... I've seen her no more than five times in total."

The waiter thought for a moment and said:

"It seems like she first came here more than a year ago... Unlike Mirror Island, which has a grand cathedral of the Church of the Sun, it's rare to see clergy here, so I have a strong impression of her."

That nun is very beautiful and seems very gentle... Every time she comes, she treats injured adventurers and talks to them, comforting them and helping them through their troubles... I've heard that quite a few young adventurers have fallen in love with her at first sight.

...She certainly doesn't sound like a bad person, but Ziye's initial behavior was also very gentle and polite, so we must not be easily deceived by appearances.

So Valensa asked again:

"Does the nun only treat adventurers when she comes to your village? Does she charge any fees for her treatments?"

All services provided by the Church of the Sun are free of charge; they do not charge any money, but only require people to pray devoutly or do some voluntary labor as payment.

This is a doctrine personally established by the Sun Goddess, and no clergy member may disobey it... If that nun charges adventurers for healing, she is definitely not a nun of the Church of the Sun.

However, the waiter's answer made Valensa frown once again:

"No, the nun has never charged any money for her treatments... Sometimes adventurers want to give the nun the materials they have obtained as a token of their gratitude, and the nun will insist on paying for them, at most slightly cheaper than the market price."

As for the nun's purpose in coming to the village this time... I'm not quite sure, but the owner of the alchemy shop might know, since she frequents there every time.

"...Understood, thank you for your cooperation. Your information is very important."

Valensa first took out three gold coins to tip the waiter, and then she and Tia set off again to inquire about the nun.

This inquiry took up most of the day... The two visited several villages, spent over a hundred gold coins, and asked more than ten people.

The information basically matches what the waiter said at the beginning.

The mysterious nun first appeared more than a year ago and should be living in the Snow Peak area in the center of Ruler Island, but no one knows exactly where she lives.

She appears on average every ten days to two weeks, buying various materials from alchemy shops in several villages near Snow Peak Mountain, and sometimes she also buys directly from adventurers.

The nun bought a wide variety of materials for all sorts of purposes, and it was difficult to guess her true purpose based solely on her purchase records.

In addition, Valensa was fortunate enough to find several adventurers who had been treated by the nun and learned detailed stories of their treatments from them.

Based on the adventurers' recollections and descriptions, Valensa was 80% certain that the nun had used a holy light-based healing spell.

Based on this information, apart from having contact with Ziye, the nun seems to have nothing suspicious about her... she's just a clergy member practicing and preaching in a remote area.

Such priests are not numerous but not uncommon either. Village priests like Asashi's mother actually belong to this type.

If the nun simply viewed Ziye as an adventurer buying certain materials from her, that would be a plausible explanation.

After all, based on the information we have so far, the nun is very likely to be a sister of Valensa from the same church... Valensa is very reluctant to believe that she would collude with the evil god's kin.

However, while gathering information from those adventurers, Valensa noticed something else.

When the nun was treating the adventurers and chatting with them to help them resolve their inner conflicts, she would always inquire about various information from the outside world... using a clever way of speaking that was hard to notice.

Valencia noticed this because she herself had used similar phrases quite often.

This made the nun seem suspicious again... Every 10 to 15 days, she would ask various adventurers for information about the outside world. It felt like she was a fugitive hiding her identity.

Moreover, no one in these villages actually knew the nun's real name; everyone simply called her "Nun."

The nun last appeared 7 days ago and hasn't shown her face since.

No one knew how to contact the nun; they could only wait for her to appear. Judging from her past behavior, it would be a few more days before they could see her.

Valensa and Tia had no better options for the time being, so they checked into an inn in a village near Snow Peak and waited for the nun to appear.

Waiting around is pointless, and there's not much to do on this island... There are monsters everywhere outside the village, but not much to eat or anything valuable, at least very little that Valensa and Tia would want.

So Valensa and Tia sat in the room drinking tea and summarizing the existing intelligence, trying to see if they could find any other clues.

Tia was the first to raise her doubts.

What puzzled Tia was that the two of them had already explored almost all the villages and towns on Ruler Island, yet they hadn't found any trace of cult members... She felt something was wrong, because cult activities should usually be more rampant in more remote places, like Fran.

This year, in particular, has seen a high frequency of cult-related incidents.

Valensa was initially puzzled, but after contacting the clergy at the Cathedral of the Mirror Island, she quickly received an answer.

Originally, the Four Islands Alliance only had the Sun Church Cathedral on Mirror Island from the very beginning, and the number of clergy was far less than that of Fran and America, so they had always been short-handed.

In order to suppress various cults under these circumstances, the Inner Knights of the Four Islands Alliance relied on the intelligence capabilities of adventurers.

A bounty from the Church of the Sun is in effect indefinitely—any adventurer who discovers traces of the cult and reports them to the Church of the Sun in a timely manner will receive a very generous reward.

For adventurers of the Four Islands Alliance, the cultists are all known for their long legs and generous bounties.

The island of Chizhi is the most active place for adventurers of the Four Islands Alliance. The adventurers who dare to come to Chizhi Island to make a fortune are almost all very bold people. They are not afraid of any threats from the cult. As soon as they discover something, they will immediately take the information to exchange for the bounty.

In addition, Chizhi Island has a very small population, making it arguably the worst environment for cults to thrive. It's normal that there is almost no cult activity here.

Tia's question was thus answered.

Valensa soon found a new lead, or rather, she remembered it.

On their journey from the capital of Fran to the Island of Mirrors, Valensa and her companions caught a delicious little fish called the carp.

According to Chiba, the cartilaginous crucian carp should only live in the southern waters of Chino Island, but for some reason it migrated to the waters north of Mirror Island.

Moreover, it wasn't just the soft-boned carp; many of the sea monsters that later attacked the Teido family's merchant ships originally only operated in the southern waters of Chino Island, but they all appeared in the northern part of Mirror Island.

This is enough to show that some kind of anomaly has occurred in the southern waters of Chinojima... Could it be related to the incident currently under investigation?

Since I've got nothing else to do these past few days, I might as well try to follow this lead.

Valensa shared this idea with Tia, and she immediately agreed.

Without wasting any time, they hired several fishermen who were very familiar with the waters south of Chizhi Island that very evening, and set sail in a small boat to try to investigate the anomaly.

Chapter 71 Throwing Bombs to Ask for Directions

Those who sail out to sea in small boats are all locals from Chinoshima Island, who make a living by catching local seafood and are quite familiar with the waters south of Chinoshima Island.

They quickly took Valensa to a spot four or five kilometers south of the coast on Ruler Island, where they helped measure water temperature, ocean current speed, water composition, and the activity of elements in the water. Their skill was no less than Tia's, clearly indicating that this was not their first time doing this.

Do you conduct these kinds of surveys frequently?

Valensa was surprised.

Are you really local fishermen?

How can someone conduct anomaly investigations in waterways that seem more professional than me, a paladin?

"Oh, sir, don't you know?"

A fisherman who was collecting seawater samples for Tia looked up at Valensa, his sun-baked face revealing his surprise:

“In the past few days, quite a few people have come here to conduct some kind of water anomaly investigation... This is already the seventh job we’ve received.”

"The seventh business trip? So many?"

Valensa was even more surprised and quickly took out a gold coin and gave it to the fisherman:

"Come on, tell me in detail what happened?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty! May the glory of the Goddess forever favor you!"

The fisherman accepted the gold coins with a beaming smile, then made a gesture of devout prayer before readily answering the question:

"It seems like it was almost a month ago. I heard that a large merchant ship belonging to the Imperial family of Mirror Island was attacked at sea and almost lost... And many of the sea monsters that attacked that ship were active in this area, but they appeared on the shipping route between the north of Mirror Island and the Kingdom of Fran."

The Teitang family seemed to take this matter quite seriously; they immediately sent people to investigate, several groups working separately... My brothers and I were hired as guides on the first occasion, and these investigative skills were taught to us by the members of that investigation team.”

"So it's the Teitang family... It seems they are indeed quite responsible."

Valensa nodded slightly.

During her two-week trip to Mirror Island, Valensa had already sensed that while the Imperial family, as the administrators of Mirror Island, weren't exactly associated with noble qualities like fairness and integrity, they did have a sense of responsibility. They were willing to solve problems and maintain order in a way that satisfied everyone as much as possible.

For an administrator under a feudal system, achieving this much would actually be quite impressive.

There's nothing wrong with using power for personal gain... For most people, why would they fight for power if it weren't for personal benefit?

People have different abilities, and equality itself is the greatest injustice... Those who are capable should do more work, and those who do more work should rightfully reap more rewards.

It's not a big deal for managers who can effectively solve problems and maintain order to seek some personal gain.

But those useless insects who only know how to abuse their power for personal gain and are good for nothing truly deserve to die.

From this perspective, Queen Himika of the Demons does possess some skill and courage, never hesitating when killing those giant rats and insects.

After a moment of reflection, Valensa asked again:

"And what about the next few times? Were they all people from the Di Tang family who came to investigate this area? Did they discover anything unusual?"

"They discovered it... It was precisely because they discovered the anomaly that they came to investigate multiple times."

The fisherman first answered Valensa's second question:

"According to the men in the investigation team, the water temperature in this area is higher than before, and there seem to be some additional substances in the water, and the elemental forces are more active."

That is why some aquatic creatures and monsters that feel uncomfortable with the changes leave this place and migrate to other seas.

Moreover, those survey team gentlemen came three times in total… They said that the data for this sea area seemed to be constantly changing, and the results of their three investigations were all different.”

"Have they found out the cause of the anomaly?" Valensa asked again.

"I don't think so."

The fisherman said uncertainly:

"After all, I'm just a hired guide, how would I know the final outcome... But I often hear those men arguing loudly, making all sorts of speculations, and no one can convince anyone else."

Some said it was the Mist Demon causing trouble in the sea, others said it was someone on Ruler Island conducting magical research and releasing large amounts of wastewater, still others said there was a problem under the sea… In short, every master's analysis sounded reasonable, but no one could produce conclusive evidence.

As Valencia listened, she asked Tia for paper and pen, wrote down all the speculations the fishermen had made about the Imperial Family investigation team, and then asked again:

"What about the other cases you took on later? They weren't investigation teams from the Teidang family, were they?"

"Yes, later on they were all adventurers."

The fisherman nodded:

"It's possible that the news from the Imperial Family's investigation team got out, and somehow it got to the adventurers and became the rumor that there might be rare treasures in this sea area, which is why the water conditions were changed and some aquatic products and monsters migrated."

After learning about this, many adventurers, hoping to try their luck, hired fishing boats like ours, which had been used by the Imperial Family's investigation team, to go out to sea and search for treasure in this area.

The gentlemen of the Imperial Family's investigation team gave us a long-term mission before they left: to collect and record data every time we went to sea, and to receive a reward every month.

"understood."

Valensa hesitated for a moment, then took out two more gold coins.

This time, however, she didn't simply hand it to the fisherman. Instead, she looked intently into his eyes, emanating the aura of a powerful expert at the Shining Rank, causing cold sweat to bead on the fisherman's forehead.

"Think carefully before you answer this last question... Did not all the adventurers who came to search for treasure return safely?"

"This this……"

The fisherman was soon drenched in cold sweat, not just on his forehead, but all over his body.

puff.

A few seconds later, unable to bear the pressure, the fisherman knelt down and cried out:

"Your Excellency Paladin, please understand... We were indeed blinded by greed for a moment, but we really didn't do anything to rob or kill them. They brought this upon themselves!"

Something definitely happened!

Valensa snorted inwardly with a hint of smugness.

When the fisherman was talking about adventurers, Valencia noticed a few flashes of panic and guilt in his eyes, which is why she used her powerful aura to intimidate him.

"...Tell me, what exactly happened?"

Tia stepped in just in time to play the bad cop:

"Her holy knights never wrong innocent people. Even if someone makes a mistake due to momentary lapse of judgment, they can be treated leniently if they repent in time."

"Yes, yes, I understand."

The fishermen nodded repeatedly, no longer daring to covet the two glittering gold coins in Valensa's hand.

"On one occasion, a small team of three adventurers came to us, also looking for treasure, so we brought them here by boat."