The story of the black silk female knight

Zero's words inspired Valensa. She tightened her legs, clamping the tip of Zero's succubus tail between them, while simultaneously raising her index finger and gently shaking it to gather her thoughts and make a deduction:

"That imposter might actually be a highly skilled thief whose ultimate goal is something in our Sun Church's treasury... but he or the forces behind him are wary of the Sun Church and don't want to clash with it after the incident."

Therefore, he needed a suitable person to take the blame for him, and so he chose his senior sister, the famous phantom thief.

To ensure a smooth deception, the imposter didn't directly attack the church. Instead, he first impersonated the senior sister and committed two heists on the Frenoia continent… Only after confirming that his impersonation went undetected did he finally come to the Divine Blessed Continent to make his move.

"Yes, that's a very reasonable guess."

Zero nodded, trying to pull its tail back from between Valensa's legs, but failed twice... It was too tight, so she could only shrug again.

"However, this is just speculation, and his motive is not important. What's important is to find the lost item and catch him!"

"makes sense."

Valensa agreed with Zero's opinion and finally released Zero's tail:

"Then I'll help Senior Sister look for the lost item... After all, Senior Sister's identity is special, and my actions might cause misunderstandings... By the way, after talking for so long, Sister Ling, you still haven't told me what we lost?"

"This……"

At the mention of lost items, Zero's expression suddenly turned strange, and the succubus tail that had just been retracted behind her began to playfully spin around again:

“I don’t know what the lost item is... It’s a box, but no one has opened it for over 300 years, and nobody knows what’s inside.”

“Uh…does nobody know how to open that box? Who put that box in the warehouse? And when was it put in the warehouse? Surely we know that?” Valensa asked again.

"Of course."

Zero nodded and answered Valensa's question:

"The box is from the church's treasury, which was acquired more than 300 years ago. It comes from the Tianxuan Continent... oh, which is what you call the Eastern Continent. It was brought back by the last Inner Temple Knight when he evacuated."

"The last Inner Templar Knight?"

Valensa frowned, quite bothered by this statement:

"Are there no more Inner Temple Knights on the Eastern Continent now? Even if the Central Continent Empire has swept across the world, destroyed all the other nations, and unified the continent, shouldn't the Central Continent Empire's Inner Temple Knights still be there?"

"not at all."

Zero shook his head regretfully:

"More than 300 years ago, the Central Continent Empire completely expelled the Church of the Sun from that continent, and that place also completely lost the protection of Her Majesty the Goddess."

"Expelled?"

Valensa was even more surprised:

"How dare the Central Continent Empire do such a thing? Isn't this a declaration of war against our church? Sister Zero, are you just going to swallow this insult?"

"Of course I want to teach that lunatic Dragon Emperor a lesson!"

Zero rolled her eyes in annoyance, gritting her teeth.

"Actually, we had already prepared an opportunity. As long as that Dragon Emperor dared to harm his believers first, we would directly bomb his palace from a distance and let him see the power of the artifacts that could be used in interstellar warfare... Unfortunately, he didn't give us that opportunity. He sent many civil officials to debate with us in a pedantic way, mainly focusing on the point that we should not interfere in the internal affairs of human countries, saying that humans have the right to choose their own beliefs, and that the solar faith is not suitable for the Central Continent Empire, forcing us to leave."

"Ah this..."

Valensa was stunned:

"So, Sister Zero, you just agreed to it back then?"

"What can we do if we don't agree? Our religious rules do stipulate that we must not interfere in the internal affairs of mankind in any way, even if human regimes choose to abandon divine grace, that is their freedom."

Zero shrugged with a wry smile:

"Fortunately... the Dragon Emperor didn't dare to offend us too much. After some wrangling between the Inner Palace Knights and his civil officials, the two sides finally reached a consensus... our Sun Church's forces can withdraw completely from the Tianxuan Continent, but the Central Continent Empire cannot forcibly retain believers who are willing to come with us to live on the Divine Favor Continent under any pretext, nor can it secretly persecute them. They should also take the initiative to escort believers from some remote areas to the port cities."

As a result, more than 40 believers from Tianxuan Continent came to Shenjuan Continent and settled in several coastal areas in the west of Shenjuan Continent. Now the total number seems to have exceeded one million.

The wooden box stolen by the imposter thief was brought back by a Central Continent Empire inner palace knight who had returned with them during the evacuation. It had been kept in the treasury, and she had never told any of us what was inside.

"Why don't we just ask her about the box now? Hmm..."

Valensa noticed the problem as soon as she asked the question.

The Central Continent Empire's inner paladin that Zero mentioned was her, while the church's two current vice-commanders of the Holy Knights are both men.

"Has that senior Inner Templar Knight passed away? Perhaps her descendants know something?"

Valensa asked again.

"No, she is not dead, and she has no descendants... She can certainly tell us the answer, but it would be very difficult to contact her now."

Zero sighed and shrugged:

"That girl is a restless person. After she returned from Tianxuan Continent, she didn't settle down and retire like the other inner temple knights who returned. Instead, she went to your Frenoia Continent... She said she wanted to spread her faith in the Witch Forest, establish a new parish in the Witch Forest, and become an inner temple knight of the Witch Forest."

As a result… the spread of faith in the Witch's Forest didn't improve. Instead, she herself caused a lot of trouble in the most powerful elven tribe there, angering even the supposedly ascetic elves and almost sparking a full-scale war with the church.

"Uh... so it was her~~"

Valensa looked enlightened.

She had heard about this person and this incident when she was in the Moon Worship Tribe. It was that senior Inner Temple Knight who spread the belief in the sun extensively in the Moon Worship Tribe and even turned the pure and abstinent elves into lewd elves. It could be said that he did a great job... no, he was a troublemaker.

"And then what happened? Where did she go?" Valensa asked curiously.

"It went to wreak havoc on other planets."

Zero shrugged again, his tail wrapping around his leg several times before burrowing into his clothes, finally peeking out from his collar:

"Because many conservative elves hate her to the core, her continued presence on the continent of Frenoia will affect the relationship between the church and the elven race."

She could no longer return to the Tianxuan Continent, and she did not want to live a life of retirement on the Divine Favor Continent, so she volunteered to Her Majesty the Goddess to go to other planets to explore and spread divine grace and faith.

Now, more than 300 years have passed, and who knows where she is in the universe... Even if we had a faith circuit, contacting her would be extremely difficult.

"I see... Well then there's really no other way. We'll just have to try to find that box ourselves first."

Valensa did not demand that Zero use cosmic-level communication methods to contact that troublesome senior Inner Temple Knight.

She had already figured it out; the church didn't really care about the box or the phantom thief.

If Valencia hadn't been involved in this incident, the church would likely have simply locked up the phantom thief for two years for some ideological education, and then tried to find the box a few more times before calling it a day.

After all, compared to natural disasters, cults, and extraterrestrial threats, the fact that a strange box was lost from the treasure vault was really nothing, and not worth the Church of the Sun's attention... at least not worth the Saintess's personal concern.

Now that Zero and Valenkasa are both personally involved in this matter, it's clearly entirely because of Valenkasa.

But there's a limit to how much face people can save. It's already good enough that Zero and Velenkasa are willing to help; we can't make things difficult for them with something as complicated as intergalactic communication.

Moreover, what's actually in the box isn't the most important thing; finding the box itself and the imposter thief who stole it is what truly matters.

Valensa didn't ask any more questions. She just asked for a detailed record of when the box was put into storage, and then took Miss Thief, Chiba, and Ilana to the area where the treasure vault had been robbed to begin their treasure hunt.

On the Ark of Light, four people sat together, looking at and thinking about two documents.

One of the documents contains detailed information about the box when it was received into the warehouse, including some details about the box, and a magical projection of the box's appearance.

The box is about the same size and shape as the smallest suitcase. If placed upright on the ground, it should reach just the height of Valensa's skirt.

Whether you observe the projection with the naked eye or check the inventory information, you can tell that the main material used to make the box is brass, supplemented with a small amount of rare metals such as refined gold.

The box was exquisitely crafted, and it appeared to have been made using some kind of alchemical technique, rather than casting individual parts and then assembling them... This made the entire box look very tight, and it was difficult to explore the inside without opening the lid.

The box lid isn't easy to open either; a cleverly designed lock secures it tightly, requiring specific methods or conditions to open. Forcibly breaking the lock will likely destroy the contents, leaving the person opening it with nothing.

In addition to their strong confidentiality, the ingenious locks also generally have an anti-space mechanism, making them impossible to be put into storage space... This is mainly to prevent containers from being directly put into empty storage rooms and taken away, further enhancing the security of containers equipped with ingenious locks.

According to the records of the Sun Church, the people who loved to use this kind of ingenious and secret method of locking were practitioners of the Star Altar, one of the three major sects of the Eastern Continent.

Those who practice astrology are most skilled at observing celestial phenomena to predict the future. They then record the predicted future in some way and seal it in various containers equipped with ingenious and secret locks, setting them to automatically open when the right conditions are met.

Based on this information, the missing box likely contained a glimpse of the future seen by a celestial practitioner during nighttime astronomical observation, but it could also be something else. Some people simply used containers secured with ingenious locks as safes, which might contain only treasure or souvenirs.

Considering that the inner chaplain brought the box back more than 300 years ago and then threw it into the church's treasury without asking any questions or explanations, the probability that the contents inside were actually quite ordinary is not low.

But the value of the box itself is not important; what matters is that the box is related to the innocence of the Phantom Thief.

Valencia's willingness to believe Miss Thief doesn't mean others will believe her; she must find the lost item or catch the imposter to truly prove herself.

So the other document on the table was a very detailed projected map, containing all the geographical information of the area where the treasure vault was stolen.

If that imposter is imitating the Phantom Thief again this time, then the lost item should still be hidden somewhere in this area.

At this moment, the phantom thief focused all her attention on the projected map, occasionally marking a location with her magic pen... those were places where she, as a phantom thief, might hide the stolen treasures.

The area where the Sun Church, this treasure trove, is located, is 181. It has a small population but a large area, with a total of 23 streets running horizontally and vertically.

By the time Miss Phantom Thief had marked all the places where she might have hidden her treasures on the projection map, the Ship of Light had almost arrived at its destination, and the projection map now had more than 400 places marked on it.

It looks complicated, but we have no choice but to proceed according to plan.

It took Valensa and her group more than three days to search all 400+ possible hiding places of the boxes.

Nothing was found... It's very likely that the previous guess was right, and that the imposter thief's real target was this box. The two cases he committed on the Frenoia continent were just practice.

Fortunately, Velenkasa and Zero sent back some decent news.

First, there's Velenkasa. She inquired about the details of the person who left the green jade orb at the intercontinental magic array in area 12. She was able to confirm that the victim discovered by the Phantom Thief was the same person, probably the imposter Phantom Thief in disguise.

After that person stepped out of the intercontinental divine magic array, he quickly experienced a backlash from the divine grace, feeling extremely uncomfortable as he wanted to vomit but couldn't vomit anything.

He then took out a small green jade ball and put it in his mouth, which quickly relieved his pain. This greatly surprised the nuns who had been working there for several years, so they took the initiative to talk to him and ask about the principle and origin of the green jade ball.

The man said that the green jade ball was something he had obtained by chance, and he gave a new green jade ball to the guiding nuns... Although he didn't say it explicitly, it seemed that he wanted the guiding nuns to use the green jade ball to help other people in need.

He guided the nuns to understand and act in this way, yet he almost became an accomplice to evil.

After learning that the kind man was actually a villain, the nuns were filled with righteous indignation and carefully recalled the details of the incident.

They provided an important clue.

That person loved using perfume, but it didn't seem like they were using the scent to enhance their charm, but rather like they had to do it to maintain some kind of ritual... The perfume didn't smell like an ordinary perfume either, but more like some kind of perfume-scented magic potion.

This gave Valensa and Miss Thief new ideas.

Perhaps the imposter's method of turning people into shells for disguise has some limitations.

For example, it might require special potions to maintain its form, or it might have a time limit... That's why he abandoned his original shell to hide his true form, while also urgently searching for a suitable new shell on the continent of divine favor.

In a society like the Divine Continent, where the level of civilization is even higher than Valensa's previous life, a person without an identity cannot hide for long. Once he runs out of the necessities for survival he carries, it will be very difficult for him to remain undetected unless he can obtain a new shell.

The message from Zero completely eliminated the possibility of the counterfeit product obtaining a new shell.

During the three days that Valensa and her companions were trying to find the lost box, Zero, in her capacity as a saint, organized two continent-wide mass prayers.

In a theocracy like the Divine Continent, such things are actually quite common, much like the Western Christmas and Eastern Spring Festival in Valensa's previous life, or even more grand and frenzied.

There's a saying that goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." In a place like the Divine Continent, even people who aren't particularly devout find it hard to refuse such a group activity... So for the past three days, all the residents of the Divine Continent have been quietly praying and feeling God's grace in the nearby church.

Sure enough, two tourists who were not particularly devout developed symptoms similar to those of the thousand-leaf grass shortly after participating in the group prayer.

After receiving the news, Zero personally treated and examined the two tourists, confirming that they had indeed been implanted with the extremely vicious technique of the fake phantom thief.

In other words, including the spell inside Chiba Grass's body, all three spells that the imposter thief implanted in other people's bodies have been removed, and he can no longer impersonate others.

Furthermore, the Sun Church officially issued a notice to all believers, accurately showing what the lost box looked like, so that believers could provide clues in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, Valensa and Zero, who had split up, reunited at the Sanctuary to discuss the next steps in their plan to capture the imposter phantom thief.

"Since the box wasn't in area 181, it means we were probably right before. This box was the imposter's real target, and he carried it with him."

Valensa first summarized her own findings and conclusions, then looked at her senior colleague:

"So, for a skilled thief, after obtaining the target treasure, the most important thing should be to leave the danger zone... that is, escape from the Divine Continent, right?"

"Yes, but he can't escape right now."

Miss Phantom Thief nodded:

"Because the only way to leave the Divine Continent right now is through the intercontinental divine magic array, but not just anyone can use that array... At the very least, one must have a legitimate identity and be a believer, and that imposter doesn't meet either of those requirements, which is why he's in a hurry to create a new shell to disguise his identity."

Chapter 26 Baiting the Fish (Happy New Year everyone!)

"He will no longer have the opportunity to create new shells."

Zero then spoke, the succubus's tail spinning rapidly behind her, beaming with smugness:

"I have made arrangements. For the next month, I will lead the believers across the continent in a collective prayer every two days. At the same time, the priests under the Midara sisters who are in charge of intelligence will cooperate with us to keep a close watch on those who do not participate in the collective prayer. If anything suspicious is found, they will be dispatched quickly to deal with it."

"A month... that should be enough time to catch him."

瓦伦莎看了看房间里包括她自己在内的2名圣女、1名内殿骑士、1名大神官和1名对魔忍、还有1名真正的传奇怪盗，耸了耸肩：

"If our team can't catch a single thief in a month, we might as well all quit and go home to do laundry, cook, and take care of the kids."