The story of the black silk female knight

"As rumored, Duchess Sunflower is indeed a woman of great virtue and integrity. With you working so hard for the Frenoia continent, perhaps the Central Empire will truly be defeated and sink."

Himiko was overjoyed. She first praised Valensa lavishly, then tapped her chin thoughtfully before tentatively asking:

"I heard that the Duchess is very close to Chiba Kusa, the third daughter of the Chiba family?"

"Oh? Yes, that's right."

Valensa was somewhat surprised that the topic suddenly shifted to Thousand Leaf Grass, but since Himiko had asked her, she readily admitted it:

"I met Cao Cao while I was studying abroad. We've gotten along very well over the past three years and have had many pleasant and interesting memories."

"Is that so...that's perfect."

Himika smiled knowingly:

"From today onwards, I officially appoint Chiba as her personal liaison officer, and she will stay by the Duchess's side for the long term, responsible for maintaining constant contact with Jade Island. What do you think?"

"That would be wonderful, thank you, Your Majesty!"

Valensa was overjoyed and readily agreed:

"To be honest, Your Majesty, the reason we chose to travel to the Four Islands Alliance this time is because we were a little reluctant to part ways too soon."

"Yes... After all, according to the Chiba family's rules, Chiba Kusa should have come to Jade Island to serve me like her older sister after she came of age. If that were the case, it would be very difficult for you two to meet again."

Himika spoke of these things frankly and without any reservations:

"But Miss Duchess should understand, right? This is not simply because of my personal preferences, but more for the sake of a balance of power... After all, the Chiba family's direct line consists only of women. If I don't protect them in this way, others will inevitably have some ideas about them... such as arranging marriages between men and them to gradually infiltrate or even annex the Chiba family."

"The Chiba family are descendants of my Holy Gate Wood Clan; how can our bloodline be allowed to fall into the wrong hands? But if it's you, Miss Duchess, then it's no problem. From now on, Chiba Grass will follow you. I hope you will treat her well."

...Why do I get this feeling of my mother-in-law entrusting her daughter to me?

Valensa thought to herself, but nodded seriously on the surface:

"Your Majesty, rest assured, Cao Cao is my good friend. I will never bully her, and I will teach those who try to bully her a lesson."

"just good friend?"

Himiko looked at Valensa meaningfully, then glanced at Tia a few times before revealing a look of sudden realization, and smiled faintly:

"Forget it, I won't interfere in your young people's affairs. Just be happy."

"Yes, thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty."

Valensa breathed a sigh of relief.

Although everyone knows some things, it's enough to keep them to yourself. No matter how many tricks they've played in private, Valensa's only official marriage partner is Tia. That's what aristocratic life is all about.

Himika took the opportunity to beckon with her finger, and Chiba Shin, who had been serving tea and water to the three of them, immediately came over obediently, waiting for orders like a maid.

"I'll give you two days to teach that communication ninjutsu to your sister, okay?"

"Of course, your majesty."

After giving Chiba Shin the order, Himika smiled at Valensa again:

"Let's leave business here. Now for personal matters... Regardless of the reason, you two have indirectly saved my life, and I must repay you. Do you two have any difficulties at the moment? If so, please feel free to speak up, and I, Himika, will do my utmost."

"This……"

Valensa had already gathered a lot of information about Himiko's personality, knowing that this Queen was more like a chivalrous knight-errant than a ruler, extremely free-spirited and unconventional. She would kill anyone who displeased her, but she would also go to great lengths to befriend anyone she could.

So after a brief moment of restraint, Valensa didn't hold back any longer:

"I do have two things I would like to ask Your Majesty for help with."

"speak!"

Himiko didn't show any displeasure at Valensa's opening statement of two things; instead, she raised her eyebrows in delight.

"The first thing I want to do is reserve some acorns for next year..."

Valensa briefly recounted her journey to find Acorn, and then added:

"This is the last missing ingredient in one of my key recipes. As long as I can complete that recipe, I am confident that I can completely eliminate the Wild Beast Calamity within a year."

"To repel external threats, we must first secure internal stability. With the Central Plains Empire posing an imminent threat, if we can first completely eliminate the wild beasts and free up the battle-hardened elite soldiers on the northern border of Fran, it will undoubtedly be of greater help in resisting the invasion from the eastern continent."

"Yes, I think so too."

Himiko's eyes lit up, and she looked at Valensa with a sense of mutual appreciation, as if they were kindred spirits:

"The reason I convened this summit with the leaders of various forces across the Frenoia continent was to first gather all our strength to quell the three major natural disasters, so that we wouldn't have to fight on multiple fronts when facing the threat from the Central Continent Empire! Now that you have a way to completely eliminate the wild beasts, I will naturally give you my full support!"

Himika sighed again after she finished speaking:

"Actually, if you had come two days earlier, you might have been able to get the Human Acorn directly... I quite like to eat this as a snack, so I stored some up, but unfortunately, I burned them all as energy to maintain the great formation during yesterday's battle with Xiao Yu."

"But don't worry, I will officially announce that I will take all the Human Acorns next year, prohibiting any adventurers from picking them without permission, and I will send Radiant-rank experts to guard the Human Acorn trees to ensure that this matter is handled flawlessly."

"Then I'll leave it to Your Majesty."

Valensa then brought up another matter:

"There is another item that is also very important for the development of our expeditionary force and the complete annihilation of the wild beasts. It is a special kind of ore, which we recently discovered in large quantities in North Blade Bay on Sword Island..."

"No problem, they're all yours."

Himika waved her hand again with great enthusiasm:

"Compared to the debt of saving my life, these things are really small matters... I will give the Sword Island Ninja Village a formal order later to fully cooperate with you in mining ore, so go ahead and do it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The first meeting with the Demon Queen Himika came to a successful end. Valensa and her companions did not leave Jade Island immediately, but stayed for another two days.

Chiba needs to learn a special ninjutsu for long-distance communication from her older sister, and Valensa also provides some help to the strong members of the Four Islands Alliance who are recovering from their injuries.

Valensa's healing magic couldn't heal all those internal injuries, hidden ailments, loss of vital energy, and backlash from excessive magic consumption in one go, but it was easy to heal all kinds of external injuries, and even those that couldn't be cured could be greatly relieved of pain.

Having become a newly recognized friend of Queen Himiko and personally treating and alleviating her injuries, Valensa's presence in the eyes of the core members of the Four Islands Alliance skyrocketed, and her reputation almost overflowed.

Two days later, many of the severely injured members of the Four Islands Alliance had barely recovered enough to return to their posts, and Chiba had also mastered the special communication ninjutsu. Valensa then officially bid farewell to Himika, with whom she had a very good chat, and left Jade Island.

The group returned to Sword Island and headed straight for North Blade Bay. After Tia made thorough preparations, she opened a long-range portal to summon the Great Witch Friggia, who was in the underground ruins of the Wasteland, to check on the situation of the radioactive ore.

After dealing a heavy blow to Valensa, the Great Witch was very efficient and quickly investigated the matter in Northblade Bay thoroughly.

Tia's previous speculation from the elven tribe's history books was basically correct. The elven mother tree had the function of absorbing magical elements in the radioactive ore, thus stabilizing the properties of the radioactive ore. The reason why the elven mother tree had been bearing less and less fruit in recent years, or even completely failing to produce any, was indeed due to the effects of radiation.

These were no problem for the Great Witch who had received her mana replenishment. Friggia quickly set up a magic circle in North Blade Bay that could mine automatically, and also eliminated the effects of radiation on the Elf Mother Tree, allowing the Mother Tree to continue bearing fruit and ensuring the continuation of the Chiba family's direct lineage.

Chapter 3 I never imagined becoming a dragon knight

"Phew, I'm home~~"

In the capital of France, the door to the Sunflower Duchess's mansion, which served as the spatial coordinate system, was pushed open. The first thing to step out was a pair of long legs in black stockings, followed by a hot figure wrapped in a lace shirt and short skirt. Several more people followed, including Valensa and her friends who had just finished their graduation trip.

With the ample magic provided by Valensa, the Great Witch Friggia was very efficient. She completed all the tests on Northblade Bay in less than a day and also mined and packed up all the usable radioactive ore there to bring back to the underground ruins.

There are still many mineral reserves left in the vein, but the radiant ores have not yet had their magical elements drained by the Elf Mother Tree, so their properties are unstable and they will need to wait a while before they can be mined and used.

The Ninja Village has received official orders from Queen Himiko. They will regularly send people to North Blade Bay with proper protective measures to mine the radioactive ore that has had its magical elements drained by the Elf Mother Tree. The ore will be stored on-site and await Valensa's people to come and collect it in person.

Having completed all that could be done within the Four Islands Alliance, Valensa and her group embarked on their journey home, with Tia opening a portal to teleport them directly back to the capital of Fran.

Melina and Valensa cooked together, and with the help of several maids, prepared a sumptuous dinner for everyone. After eating and drinking their fill, Meludy and Giluhari declined Valensa's invitation to stay overnight, and planned to rush back to their home in Suri City that very night.

In nine days, Melody and the other two will be reporting to the Northern Frontier, where they will participate in the Autumn War to fight against the wild beasts that are raiding for food from the south... They really should go home and spend time with their families as soon as possible.

Melody and the others never spoke, but Valensa knew that Tia had already learned through family connections that Melody and the others would be assigned to Fortress 24 in the northeast of the kingdom, and had spoken to the supreme commander there, asking him to take care of her friends and not assign them overly dangerous combat missions.

Valensa had helped her friends in any way she could, and had already shared all the combat experience she could, so she didn't try to keep Melody and the others. She simply offered her blessings and saw them off.

Chiba is no longer an international student at the War Academy, but rather a personal liaison officer appointed by Queen Himiko. She can legitimately follow Valensa and naturally settled down there.

Tia was fine with it, but she didn't stay. Instead, she replenished her magic power from Valensa and then used teleportation again to go to the Sage's Tower.

Although Tia is destined to become a witch, the Seventh Sage is, after all, her teacher, and it is only right and proper that she should explain things to him. Moreover, the invitation from Himiko to the Sage Tower to attend the summit also needs to be delivered to the Sage Tower by Tia herself.

After all, Tia will be in seclusion for at least a month to advance her career, so it's better to complete the Sage's Tower delivery mission, which only she can handle, first.

Valensa was initially quite worried about this, after all, Tia had chosen to become a witch, which, according to Eastern culture, could be considered a heresy and a betrayal of her master and ancestors.

But Tia chose to believe her teacher and persuaded Valensa.

Fortunately, the Seventh Sage did not betray Tia's trust. She did not care whether Tia had fully inherited her mantle. As long as Tia could achieve something, she, as her teacher, would be just as proud of Tia.

The mission went smoothly, and Tia returned the next afternoon, bringing back many rare magical materials needed for advancing to the Radiant Rank, all given by the Seventh Sage.

Not only that, Tia also brought Valensa a weapon.

It was a very wide and long cleaver with a thick back, barbs at the tip, and black magic patterns and a special blood groove on the blade. The entire cleaver weighed over 100 kilograms, and it would probably be difficult for ordinary warriors below the Radiant rank to use.

Of course, Valensa is fine with any weapon; she's not picky about weapons... her best weapon is a one-handed sword, but she can also use other weapons effectively.

With a few swift swings of her large machete, Valensa sliced ​​the two large rocks in two as easily as tofu. She nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Tia with some confusion.

"This knife is quite sharp, but it's a bit bulky... But since you specifically borrowed it from the Sage's Tower for me, it must have some special properties, right?"

"Of course."

Tia smiled and nodded, then said seriously:

“Aren’t you going to the Witch Forest to find Princess Dregran? Then your trip will likely involve you in the dragon race’s conflicts, and you might even have to fight an adult black dragon again… That’s why I asked my teacher to lend you this sword. This sword is usually just a bit sharp and quite heavy, but it’s especially useful when facing dragons… It’s the famous Dragon Slayer Sword, forged from special materials and enchanted with special magic, which can ignore any dragon scales and most dragon magic defenses.”

"This is the Dragon-Slaying Saber..."

Valensa immediately became interested.

The Dragon Slayer Sword does exist in this world. It's not the kind that deals 999 damage in one hit like in the web game from my previous life, nor is it the one in martial arts novels that contains a top-tier military manual. It's one of a series of weapons, and it's a mass-produced one.

Long ago, there was a fierce conflict between humans and dragons... Although humans were more numerous and had more skilled warriors, dragons, with their great physical advantages, could often fight multiple opponents of the same level, causing humans to suffer greatly in the conflict. Some small cities were even completely destroyed by dragon calamities.

It wasn't until a series of dragon-slaying weapons, such as the Dragon-Slaying Blade, Dragon-Slaying Spear, and Dragon-Slaying Arrow, were invented that the dragon race was completely suppressed by humans, and they were forced to sign a friendly treaty with humans and acknowledge that humans were the masters of intelligent life on the continent of Frenoia.

After that, in order to show friendship between the two races, humans voluntarily destroyed many of the dragon-slaying weapons, with only a small number still preserved in the Sage's Tower as memorials and research materials.

Of course, humans have always had a complete inheritance of the forging technology for dragon-slaying weapons, so they are not afraid of the dragons turning against them. With sufficient materials, humans can mass-produce dragon-slaying weapons at any time.

However, given the current friendly relations between humans and dragons, dragon-slaying weapons are indeed extremely rare and hard to come by. This dragon-slaying sword is definitely a timely help for Valensa, who is likely to fight a black dragon in the future.

There's no need to say thank you to your wife. Valensa simply picked Tia up, spun her around, and kissed her deeply until she was breathless.

"Oh...right, there's one more thing...Waaah, let me go, you idiot!"

With a soft, panting breath, Tia pinched Valensa's waist hard, finally getting the somewhat excited Valensa to listen to her properly:

"Remember that old guy Vincent?"

"of course I remember."

Valensa nodded:

"Is that the old guy who always tried to trick me into participating in his human enhancement experiments, then suddenly lost interest in me, and then mysteriously disappeared... What happened to him this time?"

“After he disappeared, the Sage Tower never gave up investigating him, and they have made quite a few discoveries over the years. I heard about it from my teacher yesterday, and I think there are two things that are very suspicious, and I should tell you about them.”

Tia said seriously:

"Firstly, didn't Vincent take a large amount of magical materials with him when he ran away? The details of the missing materials have been tallied. The other materials are precious but not strange. There is only one material that is different—that old guy took all the Dragon Slayer Grass from the Sage's Tower."

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. After all, to the researchers of the Sage's Tower, Dragon Slayer Grass is just one of many rare materials, nothing special.

But if we add another point to consider, things change... There is evidence that Vincent, that old guy, may be a hidden veteran cultist, and may even have had multiple dealings with the Sin Angels.

Considering that guy's previous attempts to deceive you... I strongly suspect he's involved in some massive conspiracy involving an evil god, and might even be a remnant of the Abyss Spirit Society!

“Remnants of the Abyss Spirit Society… hiss.”

Valensa gritted her teeth:

"This is truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly... The crisis of the three great natural disasters is still ongoing, the Central Continent Empire will most likely launch an invasion in a few years, and now even the remnants of the Abyss Spirit Society are starting to stir... How could I, a newly appointed Inner Temple Knight, be so unlucky?"

"But these things always have to be resolved by someone... When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it; even if the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up... But without realizing it, we've become those tall people, so naturally we have to fulfill our corresponding responsibilities and obligations. That's the true glory of nobility."

Tia hugged Valensa again and said softly:

"Just take this seriously and make some preparations. There's no need to worry too much about it... Anyway, we can face whatever happens together. No matter what the outcome, I will be with you until the end."

"...Yes, it's so good to have you here...really."

Valensa and Tia touched foreheads lightly and quickly readjusted their mindset.

With a long road ahead and both confident in overcoming difficulties together, there was no need to hesitate and waste time. After a brief moment of affection, they each threw themselves into their own business.

Tia returned to the territory of the Britannia family and, under strict protection, officially went into seclusion to cultivate and advance to the Radiant Rank. Valensa, on the other hand, traveled along the Holy Path of the Church of the Sun with Thousand Leaf Grass to the city of Klar on the eastern border of Fran, preparing to cross the Misty Mountains and enter the Witch's Forest.