The story of the black silk female knight

When Valensa heard Chiba Rui say that, she decided not to be polite anymore.

However, she first gave a brief explanation:

"If your ninja squad acts too panicked, it's like telling everyone that something has happened to His Majesty... The strongmen of your Four Islands Alliance will definitely go to the rescue, and those great witches will most likely follow to watch the show."

Thus, the remaining people on Jade Island, besides the original maids and guards, are mainly from the Kingdom of Fran and the America Merchant Alliance… These people are fine now, but there's a high possibility that some of them are accomplices of the Tsuchimikado Avengers. If they seize this opportunity to cause trouble, they could potentially ruin this summit completely.”

"...I understand. That's why Jade Island absolutely cannot be in chaos right now, and we can't even show that something has happened to His Majesty, right?"

Chiba Rui took a deep breath:

"So, what should we do next? The banquet is about to begin, but His Majesty has yet to appear... This is bound to arouse suspicion, isn't it?"

"Just hold the banquet as planned, so that everyone can continue to enjoy the song and dance while eating and drinking."

Valensa has quickly devised a solution:

"If Senior Sister can impersonate me, she can naturally impersonate His Majesty Himiko... If Miss Rui and Miss Xin cooperate, I think no one will be able to see through it."

Many people know about my relationship with Tia. There are already hundreds of versions of the little stories about our nights told by the bards in the tavern... We might as well take advantage of that and spread rumors that Tia and I went to a secret rendezvous because we hadn't seen each other for a long time... That way, even if we don't show up at the banquet, everyone should just smile knowingly and not suspect anything else.

In addition, the Witch of Destruction, Elanfiel, should be trustworthy... I will have Tia give her a heads-up. If anything really happens on Jade Island, her strength should be enough to suppress those scoundrels with ulterior motives.

As for the most crucial task of rescuing Her Majesty Himiko… leave that to Tia and me.”

"it is good."

Valenza's analysis was thorough and the plan was feasible, so Chiba Rui naturally had no reason to care and immediately began to act as instructed.

With the Phantom Thief Sister disguised as Himika and in charge of the overall situation with the cooperation of the Chiba sisters, plus the Witch of Destruction Elanfiel secretly overseeing things, there should be no need to worry about Jade Island for the time being.

After all, the real summit won't start until tomorrow afternoon. Tonight is just a banquet and won't involve too many national affairs... Even if Himika is fake, it should be enough to handle it.

The next key task is to find Himika, who is likely in danger, and the three sages who have also disappeared.

After Valensa and Tia reunited, the two, who understood each other perfectly, didn't say much. They quietly left Jade Island and moved away from the range of the great array, allowing Tia to freely activate her spatial teleportation before starting the search and rescue operation for Himiko and the sages.

Himiko and the sages did indeed meet in Chuyun City, a fact witnessed by many members of the Imperial Family, so there's no doubt about it.

After they left Chuyun City, they probably wouldn't deliberately take a detour in other directions, so the accident must have happened somewhere along the way... somewhere in the sea area more than 800 kilometers from Mirror Island to Jade Island.

But this 800-kilometer stretch of sea is not small, after all, the ocean is very vast.

Even if Valensa could run at supersonic speeds on the sea, it would still take several hours to thoroughly search the entire area between Mirror Island and Jade Island... By then, Himika and the sages might already be dead.

While Tia could use detection magic for wide-area perception, using it in the ocean would be tantamount to inviting a mob attack, as she would be besieged by all the powerful monsters in the entire sea. Therefore, this method was also not feasible.

The best approach is one that allows for wide-area detection without overwhelming the monsters.

Is there such a way?

There really is.

The reason why Wide-Area Perception Magic is ridiculed by many is that powerful monsters also have strong magical perception abilities and can detect the magical fluctuations of Wide-Area Perception Magic.

That feeling is roughly equivalent to looking through a pair of X-ray glasses at a lady's clothes in front of her, which would naturally arouse anger.

Therefore, the best way to avoid being ridiculed is to prevent the monsters from sensing that detection.

For example... using technological means.

If even a genius swordsman like Chiba Rui can be caught off guard by a tiny listening device, then monsters, whose understanding of technology is far inferior to that of humans, will certainly have an even greater difficulty in detecting technological means.

For a cyberpunk-level technological civilization capable of exploring space, the wide-area exploration of an ocean area less than 1000 kilometers in length and width is still quite simple.

Valensa immediately contacted Vivi, who said she did have a solution, but there was a small problem.

During the previous corporate war, Arasaka Corporation mass-produced a number of spy satellites for intelligence warfare.

This type of spy satellite can operate at an altitude of about 15 meters, and wide-area detection with a diameter of about 800 kilometers is easy for it.

After the company war ended, the Arasaka Corporation did not use up all of these spy satellites, and several were still in storage. Given Wei's current status as the boss's wife at the Arasaka Corporation, she could get one out to use without even needing to ask Arasaka Miyuki.

The only problem is that Valensa can't launch rockets, and Vi's rocket launcher is too big to fit into her storage space items, so they can't be brought over.

In other words, Valencia had to figure out a way to send the spy satellite 15 meters into the air herself.

Ideally, someone should be able to continuously protect the spy satellite at an altitude of 15 meters... because the natural environment at high altitudes in this world is more dangerous, and those high-concentration lightning or wind element clusters can easily destroy spy satellites in the air.

"no problem."

Valensa quickly and easily replied to Vivi, telling her to hurry to the warehouse and get the spy satellite to help.

To further motivate Vivi, Valensa specifically told her that the spy satellite was for rescuing a very generous Queen who had many beautiful court ladies-in-waiting to entertain guests. If they could rescue her, they could have as many beautiful court ladies-in-waiting as they wanted.

After Wei learned this, her work efficiency indeed increased by more than 30%.

Less than half an hour later, Wei replied to Valensa in the community of the Dimensional Hardware Store member terminal, saying that she had already set up the spy satellite and could come over at any time.

Valensa immediately activated her friend summoning.

"Hi, good evening, beauties~~"

Wei greeted everyone cheerfully as soon as she arrived.

Upon seeing Tia, Vi's eyes lit up. She quickly grabbed Tia's hand and kissed the back of it, seemingly wanting to hug Tia, but Valensa stopped her in time.

"Let's get down to business first!"

Valensa spat out a harsh rebuke to Vi, then, as if asserting ownership, wrapped her arms around Tia's waist and kissed her cheek:

"And another thing! This is my wife! If you make a move on her, I'll cut ties with you!"

"Break up? Breaking up is great! What exactly does breaking up mean? Even if I break my back a few times, I wouldn't lose out if I could break up with a great female knight like you... uh."

Seeing Valencia raise her fist to punch someone, Vivi, who didn't want her alloy prosthetic body to go back for major repairs, quickly shut up, then immediately changed her expression to be serious and took out a small storage pouch:

"Here you go, sister, the spy satellite you wanted is inside. It also comes with a tablet with a completely user-friendly interface. It should be enough for search and rescue... By the way, sister, how do you plan to send this thing to an altitude of 15 meters and provide continuous protection? With magic?"

"Hmph, more or less, it's a very powerful summoning magic!"

Seeing that Wei had finally become serious, Valensa lowered her fist, puffed out her chest with a rather smug look, and used the only summoning spell she knew:

"Contract summons... Help me, Dragon Sister!"

The moonlight on the sea instantly brightened, and as the moonlight shone, a magnificent pink-scaled dragon appeared out of thin air. Bathed in the bright moonlight, it lowered its head and affectionately rubbed against Valensa.

It was none other than Cinderella, the princess of the fairy dragon.

"Hum~~"

Valensa also opened her arms and hugged the dragon head, which was almost as big as her, before quickly introducing the two people who were meeting for the first time.

Tia and Dregran had already heard about each other from Valensa, and they quickly became acquainted after a few words. The formal titles they used to address each other changed to nicknames like Little Tia and Dragon Sister.

As for Wei and Dreigan, they had known each other since the Moon Worship Elf Tribe, so this time they just exchanged casual greetings.

Once Dreigan arrived, the rest was simple.

A height of 15 meters is challenging even for a Moon-level powerhouse, but it's no problem for a Moon-level dragon.

The dragon race is the absolute aerial overlord of the Frenoia continent. Without divine favor or advanced technology, only a very few exceptionally talented humans can engage in aerial combat with the dragons.

Before humans invented dragon-slaying weapons and tactics, during the war between humans and dragons, dragons even achieved a one-sided crushing victory by virtue of their aerial superiority.

In short, for sending spy satellites into space, a Luna-class Dragon is far more useful than any launch vehicle.

After getting the details about the spy satellite from Wei, Dreigan quickly placed the spy satellite on her back, spread her wings, and soared into the sky bathed in moonlight. In just a few minutes, she reached the spy satellite's working altitude.

At the same time, Valencia also turned on the tablet computer that came with the spy satellite and used a wide-area detection program to search for possible locations where Himiko and the sages had been attacked.

The three sages and Himiko are all Moon Radiance, so the battle that could hold them off for so long must have been quite large; it should have been visible directly from the spy satellites.

However, Valensa used the high-powered lens of the spy satellite to look back and forth over the target sea area several times, but she couldn't find a place that looked like a battle between Moon-level powerhouses, which made her frown.

"...There must be a magical barrier that has hidden the battlefield."

Tia, who was also staring at the tablet, immediately made a judgment:

“A sufficiently powerful magical barrier can completely conceal the battlefield, making it impossible for visual observation to detect anything unusual.”

"But that's a battle between Moon-level powerhouses!"

Valensa still finds it hard to believe:

"To conceal a battle of that scale, the spellcaster who set up the magical barrier must be at least Moon-level... Could it be that the Central Continent Empire's vanguard fleet went all out? Are they so confident that they could kill the Great Sage and frame someone else?"

If anything were to happen to the three sages and His Majesty Himiko, it would indeed be a devastating loss for the continent of Frenoia, but it would also unite the entire continent like never before to confront the Central Continent Empire… This shouldn't be against the vanguard fleet's objectives, right? They have no reason to do this…”

"...Perhaps there are other factors that you haven't considered yet, which make the Central Continent Empire's vanguard fleet feel that they should do this even if it means exposing their identities and purposes."

Tia thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head:

"But it doesn't matter anymore... After all, what's done is done. Our top priority right now should be how to resolve this, not investigating the enemy's motives."

“But I think this motive is very important… Never mind, Tia, you’re right. Even if we’re going to investigate the motive, we should solve the problem first before we start investigating.”

Valensa sighed, bit her lip, and her slender fingers tentatively swiped back and forth on the tablet screen several times, but still to no avail. A look of frustration crept into her deep blue eyes.

"No... I can't see anything wrong... It seems that even the Sunflower Duchess, who can handle any situation smoothly, will fail this time."

"Stop embarrassing me here. It's not time to be discouraged yet!"

Tia pinched Valensa's butt through her black stockings without any hesitation, then snatched the tablet from Valensa's hand:

"let me see!"

Tia has been working with electronic devices alongside Valensa for several years, and she plays a lot of video games, so she is quite familiar with operating tablets.

She certainly didn't pick it up as quickly as Valensa, who grew up in a technologically advanced civilization, but with Wei's enthusiastic guidance, she quickly learned how to use it.

Thermal imaging? Life detection capabilities? Airflow prediction module?

Several features that Valensa hadn't used before quickly caught Tia's attention.

She brushed a strand of silver hair behind her ear, then pinched her chin between her index finger and thumb, her crimson eyes gradually brightening:

"A magical barrier that can completely conceal the sounds of a Moon-level battle must be just like the great array on Jade Island, completely isolating the inside and outside of the barrier... allowing all creatures and ships passing through that area to change direction and bypass it without them even noticing."

In that case... if we could observe schools of fish migrating underwater, flocks of seabirds flying overhead, and abnormal air currents... Emmm.

Muttering to herself, Tia rapidly operated the tablet with her fingers, occasionally activating the accessibility features to perform mathematical calculations... She seemed even more skilled than Valensa, the real transmigrator.

"...Are you even capable, sister?"

Seeing this, Vivi bumped Valensa's butt with her own and teased her in a low voice:

"Your world is basically a fantasy world, and your wife is a magician... So you must have taught her all her knowledge about technology and civilization, right? Why is she more proficient in using it than you are now? Could you understand those mathematical calculations she just did?"

"I...I don't understand."

Valensa remained unfazed, showing no shame whatsoever, and even gave a smug snort:

"How about that? Tia's pretty amazing, isn't she? She's my wife~~"

"you……"

"found it!"

Just as Wei was about to say another word against Valensa, Tia excitedly shouted, turned the tablet screen towards Valensa, and pointed to a point on the map:

"If my calculations are correct, the teachers are here!"

"Okay! Let's go!"

Valensa didn't ask any more questions and immediately got to work.

She believed in Tia's abilities, and even if she asked, she probably wouldn't understand the principles.

Wei's mechanical ascension is not yet fully complete, so she cannot participate in the Radiant Rank War and can only bid farewell and return to her own world.

Dreigan remained at an altitude of 15 meters to temporarily protect the spy satellite... In any case, Valensa could summon her to her side at any time through the Dragon Knight Contract.

So only Valensa and Tia rushed to the suspected battlefield.

Tia had never been to that place, so there were no spatial coordinates that prevented her from teleporting there; she could only travel there by moving across the sea.

Running at supersonic speeds on the sea surface could attract attacks from ocean monsters... Saving lives is the priority right now, and there's no time to fight the ocean monsters.

So Valensa came up with a new idea... She and Tia rode on Nana's back and waist, one in front of the other, like riding a motorcycle, and Nana carried them flying, which was much faster than Tia's flying card.

After all, Nana's divine body was created over two years using the blood of an evil god and numerous top-tier magical materials. Supersonic flight was just one of her instincts, much like a Kryptonian basking in the yellow sun.

Although this would still attract the hostility of some powerful sea monsters, it was much better than Valensa running on the water by herself.

The location that Tia calculated was about 600 kilometers away from Jade Island as the crow flies. The two of them arrived in about 10 minutes by riding Nana.

To avoid being discovered by the powerful enemy there in advance, Valensa controlled Nana to start slowing down 50 kilometers away from the target location... For the last 50 kilometers or so, they sneaked closer underwater.