The story of the black silk female knight

This is incredibly reckless... Even someone as carefree as me wouldn't dare cause trouble for the church, but he's impersonating me. If he succeeds, I'll completely offend the Sun Church, and it will be difficult for me to be as carefree as before.

Fortunately, when I received the news, he had only sent a letter and hadn't taken any action yet. So I immediately rushed to the place where he sent the letter and sneaked into the church at the time mentioned in the letter, hoping to stop him.

As for the result... well, let's not talk about it, it's too embarrassing.

Miss Phantom Thief covered her face immediately, her voice suddenly becoming very dejected and frustrated.

Whether she says it or not, Valensa could easily deduce the answer based on the current situation.

It's certain that the Phantom Thief's infiltration of the church backfired, and she was caught red-handed by the clergy. Meanwhile, the imposter took the opportunity to escape with the stolen treasure, leaving the entire blame to the Phantom Thief.

This is indeed quite unlucky and embarrassing, so it's no wonder the Phantom Thief Lady reacted this way.

Just like in many strange comics from Valencia's past life, many female knights who had been invincible on the battlefield also couldn't withstand the psychological blow after their defeat and fell into depravity at lightning speed.

But.

Although my junior sister's dejected and frustrated appearance was heartbreaking, she gained a lot from this trip.

Zero didn't guess the reason correctly, but he guessed the result—the spell inside Chiba Grass's body sounded very similar to the spell of the fake phantom thief, and it was indeed related to Miss Phantom Thief.

The next step is to verify the hypothesis.

"It's like this, Senior Sister..."

So Valensa briefly told the Phantom Thief about Thousand Leaf Grass's ordeal, and then, holding the Phantom Thief's hand earnestly, said:

"Cooperate with the church, senior sister... As long as we can catch that imposter, your name can be cleared, and you can have a good reputation if you want to live a normal life."

"...Logically speaking, as a phantom thief, I should never cooperate with the person who captured me."

The phantom thief paused for a moment before taking Valensa's hand in hers:

"But who told you to be my lovely junior sister? I didn't cooperate with the Church of the Sun... I was just helping my junior sister out... and that bastard imposter absolutely cannot be let off the hook!"

"Yeah, senior sister, you're just helping each other out~"

Valensa didn't pay any attention to what the phantom thief said, and just smiled.

This was probably the last vestige of dignity the Phantom Thief had left. If he made a slight concession, the Church wouldn't mind, considering his own reputation... Valensa thought to herself.

Since the person who secretly implanted the spell into Chiba Grass was not an accomplice of the Phantom Thief, Valensa no longer needed to hide it.

She revealed her identity directly to the head nun of the Confessional in District 173, contacted Zero, and easily bailed the Phantom Thief out.

The two women didn't linger and immediately boarded their private light ship to return to the Sanctuary... The most important thing right now is to have Miss Phantom Thief examine Chiba's body to confirm that the magic in Chiba's body was indeed implanted by that imposter, and to find out exactly how the imposter did it.

When leaving the penitentiary and boarding the Ark of Light, Valensa suggested that, in order to prevent others from seeing the Phantom Thief's cracked face, they should retrieve the Phantom Thief's mask... which had been temporarily kept by the church after the Phantom Thief was captured.

However, the phantom thief refused... She had set a rule for herself: whoever caught her red-handed for the first time was entitled to her mask as a prize. Besides, she had already decided to retire from the business and wouldn't need the mask anymore.

But it would be better to cover up the cracks on her face, so Valensa rummaged through the storage space of her magical cloak and found a wide felt hat with a veil that she had bought at some point, dressing her senior sister up as a fairly common noble lady... or rather, a noblewoman.

Chiba, Ilana, and even the two saintesses were quite curious about the legendary phantom thief, Red Fox Mask. They had been waiting at the ancestral home of the Baldr family for a long time, and once they saw Valensa and the phantom thief, they immediately surrounded them.

Valensa quickly introduced the two parties, but suddenly froze when introducing the phantom thief.

Because Valensa suddenly remembered that she had always called the Phantom Thief "Senior Sister" and had never asked her name... How should she introduce her?

Fortunately, Miss Phantom Thief was prepared, and she generously took the initiative to shake hands with each of them in turn:

“You can just call me Red… I was adopted by my master when I was little, and I don’t have a formal name. My master has always called me Little Red. That’s one of the reasons why I chose Red Fox as my mask.”

"Then I'll call you Miss Hong."

Zero immediately made the decision on behalf of the others, tightly grasped the hand of the Phantom Thief, and the succubus's tail behind her also quietly stretched out, trying to poke the Phantom Thief's leg with the tip of the tail, but Valensa caught it with quick eyes and hands and even pinched it.

"Waaah!"

Zero immediately emitted a suggestive nasal sound, rolled her eyes at Valensa, and then quickly regained her serious expression, saying nonchalantly to the phantom thief:

"Thank you, Miss Red, for your willingness to cooperate with us. Her Majesty the Sun Goddess always welcomes every child who has made a mistake and then repents... We hope that one day you can become our true sister. May the Sun Goddess's grace favor you."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

After giving Zero a graceful and proper bow of thanks, the phantom thief turned to Chiba:

"This little girl must be the one who was ambushed by the imposter, right?"

"Ah."

Valensa nodded in agreement.

"Whether it's a fake technique or not, you need to confirm it, senior sister. Anyway, Cao Cao was indeed implanted with a very strange technique."

"Let's go back inside."

Miss Phantom Thief is also a decisive person, stating frankly:

"I need to use my friend's props to give her a full body check-up. It will be more convenient for her to take off her clothes and lie on the bed."

"Okay, let's go."

The group immediately went to a guest room on the first floor, where Chiba took off her short kimono and lay on the bed wearing only fishnet stockings, to be inspected by the phantom thief.

The phantom thief then took out a magical artifact that looked like a compass, but the compass had three small dials on its surface, and together with the main dial, it could display four sets of data at the same time.

Then the phantom thief took out a flexible tube, one end of which was connected to a compass, and the other end was connected to a soft object that looked like a caterpillar.

Then, with Chiba looking on with a complicated expression, the phantom thief placed the caterpillar-like soft thing on Chiba's body and let it crawl around on her body, even crawling inside her several times.

Thousand-leaf grass quickly bit her lip, trembling slightly, as if she had been greatly stimulated.

However, thanks to her occasional intense sparring sessions with Valensa, Chiba managed to endure the whole ordeal without making any embarrassing mistakes... This seemed to cause a fleeting moment of disappointment in the eyes of both the phantom thief who made the move and Zero who was watching.

"How is it, Senior Sister?"

Seeing that the phantom thief had been staring at the compass for about ten minutes, Valensa couldn't help but ask.

"Ah."

In front of others, the phantom thief still maintains a very dashing demeanor:

"It was indeed that fake technique... This girl is really lucky. The technique was forcibly removed less than 3 days after it was implanted, and her body suffered almost no harm."

"It's only been less than 3 days since the implantation?"

Valensa rested her chin on her hand and pondered:

"So, it's true that Cao Cao had the technique implanted in the Divine Continent... But that's still unlikely, isn't it? Cao Cao has always been with us and has never had any contact with strangers alone. Could that imposter be so powerful that he could implant the technique just by brushing past someone on the street?"

"Of course he's not that good."

Miss Phantom Thief shook her head:

"According to my witch girlfriend's research, there are two methods for implanting this vicious spell."

One possibility is that the practitioner personally harmed the victim, but this is unlikely because the technique would take at least seven days to take effect within the victim's body. During this time, whether the practitioner imprisons the victim or releases them, they might expose themselves, so they are unlikely to do so.

So there must be another way... The imposter first inscribes the technique inside an object, and then finds a way to keep that object in contact with the victim for a long time, so that the technique can be implanted indirectly.

Think carefully, after arriving on the Divine Blessed Continent, has this little girl received any strange little gifts, and has she carried them with her for a long time or all of that time?

"A small gift that you always carry with you or for a long time..."

Valensa immediately exchanged glances with Ilana and Velenkasa, their eyes lighting up as they almost simultaneously exclaimed:

"It's that little ball!"

When Qianyecao first arrived on the continent of divine favor, she suffered a backlash from the divine grace because her faith was not devout enough, and she felt as sick as if she were experiencing morning sickness.

The nun in charge of guiding the intercontinental divine magic array gave Thousand Leaf Grass a small green jade ball and told her to hold it in her mouth, saying it could relieve the pain.

After trying it, Thousand Leaf Grass found that the green jade ball was really effective, so she kept it in her mouth for several hours... and that green jade ball was left by a stranger at the intercontinental divine magic array, which is very suspicious!

"The little ball is still there, wait for me!"

Valensa immediately returned to her room, found the storage bag containing her luggage, and took out the small green jade ball from it.

"This is it."

After obtaining the jade orb, the phantom thief used her compass to examine it briefly and made a confident judgment:

"This is what that imposter left behind... He sealed that vicious spell in this little ball using a transcription imprint. If anyone touches this little ball for more than two hours, the spell inside will be completely implanted into that person's body."

"What a despicable imposter!"

Valensa snorted angrily:

"I really thought it was a kind person who left behind an item that could alleviate the backlash of divine grace to help others relieve their pain. I never expected it to be so malicious!"

After expressing her anger, Valensa frowned, looking somewhat puzzled:

"But... why would the imposter use this method to implant the technique? Shouldn't he have other options?"

"He was probably trying to find the most suitable identity to hide himself."

Miss Phantom Thief quickly figured out the imposter's motive... After all, she was the real Phantom Thief, and a little bit of putting herself in his shoes made the answer clear:

"Junior sister, didn't you just say that this little ball also has the effect of alleviating the backlash of divine grace? This means that the person who uses this little ball is not devout enough in their faith in Her Majesty the Sun Goddess."

Judging from the reason why this spell went out of control prematurely, it must be very afraid of divine grace... And a devout believer of the Sun Goddess must frequently pray and visit various churches on the continent of divine favor, which would greatly increase the probability of the spell within the body becoming ineffective.

Therefore, for that imposter, the new victim of the technique should ideally not be very devout, so that the technique can remain dormant for more than 7 days to maximize its success rate.

However, the faith in the Sun Goddess was already ingrained in every aspect of the inhabitants of the Divine Continent. If they wanted to find someone whose faith wasn't strong enough, the best target would naturally be an outsider… so it's quite normal that the intercontinental divine magic array would be targeted by him.”

“…Yeah, that makes sense.”

After a moment's thought, Valensa nodded in agreement:

"But that imposter never expected... Although her faith was indeed not devout enough, she received more divine grace from me than ordinary believers, which still made the spell ineffective."

Chapter 25 Strange Box

"Since the spell on Miss Chiba has failed, and the imposter's original disguise has disappeared, it means that the imposter is most likely in his original form and is still on the Divine Continent."

Zero gently twirled the succubus tail behind her, summarizing Valensa's speculations and the Phantom Thief's analysis, then looked at the Phantom Thief:

"By the way, can that imposter phantom thief's technique be implanted in multiple people at the same time? Could there be other victims with this vicious technique lurking in their bodies?"

"Well... I'm not sure either, but I can't rule out that possibility."

The phantom thief thought for a moment:

"After all, it's my enchanted girlfriend, not me, who truly understands this technique... However, each time this technique is implanted, it consumes a portion of the caster's soul. I don't think anyone can easily divide their own soul into many parts, right?"

"A technique that requires injecting a part of one's own soul... I do know a little about that."

The succubus's tail, which was spinning in circles, suddenly stopped, like a compass needle finally free of interference and able to point in the right direction. The tail's owner then raised her face:

"If that imposter thief were as powerful as I am, he might be able to split his soul into more than ten parts and create a spell to implant into the victim's body. But I don't think he could... After all, powerful individuals at my level can sense each other within a certain range."

Therefore, even if he could create multiple spells simultaneously, it definitely wouldn't be too many... Two would probably consume a lot of his energy, and three would be his limit.

"There is still a high possibility that there are other victims... A fake phantom thief is still a phantom thief. Having multiple escape routes is a basic skill for a phantom thief. He can't possibly only have the jade ball as a backup plan."

Valensa casually stroked Zero's tail, then hid behind her senior sister when Zero glared at her:

"We can start from this point to cut off the counterfeiters' escape route... We need to investigate the intercontinental teleportation array in District 12 again to see if the guiding nun group still has any of these green jade orbs. Also, it would be best to find a way to get the residents of the God-favored Continent to have a large-scale collective prayer to receive divine grace, which might also allow the spells in the bodies of other victims to be exposed prematurely, just like in the story."

"……snort."

Zero rolled her eyes at Valensa, then straightened her succubus tail and poked the black stockings on Valensa's legs several times with the heart-shaped tip of the tail like a spear, before continuing:

“Leave the collective prayer to me… This is my main job, and I often hold these kinds of events on an irregular basis. I’ll come up with a suitable reason to get everyone to go to the nearest church and pray attentively for half a day to fully bask in divine grace. That should be enough to stimulate the magic within the victims.”

"Leave the intercontinental divine magic array in District 12 to me."

Vilenkasa then took on another job:

"I'm quite familiar with the nuns guiding us there, and I'll ask them if they have any other clues about the person who left the green jade sphere."

"Then I'll go look for the lost item."

Miss Phantom Thief also volunteered:

"Since that imposter is impersonating me, he should still act according to my principles—the lost item might still be hidden somewhere near the treasure vault."

"Well... I don't think so this time."

Zero gently shook his head:

"It's been seven or eight days since we captured you, Miss Hong. During this time, our paladins have searched that area thoroughly four times, but found nothing... The lost item is very likely still on that imposter thief."

After all, he's just a fake phantom thief; he can't imitate you forever, Miss Red. Perhaps this stolen item is his real target, and imitating your style is just a way to shift the blame.

"Hmm... that's actually possible."