Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

"It's hard to explain in detail, but Maria who came this time is my dearest sister. Master Cat the Craftsman and my family are also old friends." Noah explained. When she talked about Maria, pride naturally filled her face. This kind of "my sister is so awesome" show-off behavior probably happens to every older sister.

Mostima glanced at Fiammetta beside him and said sarcastically, "Don't you think it's exactly the same as when Lemiaoan talked about her sister?"

"I agree." Fiammetta nodded in agreement. Remian was probably the only one in their team who had a younger sister. When talking about this younger sister who was far away in Longmen, Remian always had a look of showing off. And now Noah, who was also sitting in a wheelchair and had a similar expression, naturally reminded them of their sister-con teammate who loved to show off his younger sister.

Seeing such expressions, the two of them probably understood how important Maria was to Noah.

For Noah, an orphan, Lin Guang's family is her second home, and Maria is her sister. Even if Margaret comes, she will not give up her identity as Maria's sister.

You know, if we only talk about the time I spent taking care of Maria, I might have spent more time than Margaret.

"Don't underestimate Maria. She is very capable. Not only does she have solid swordsmanship, but she also made it to the main competition in the previous knight competition on her own. That was a knight competition. To make it to the top 16 in her first participation amidst competition from so many knights is an incredible achievement." Speaking of Maria, Noah also became interested and began to brag about his sister's prowess.

"And not only that, although she is an excellent knight, what's even more amazing is that what she really likes is craftsmanship. She has invented many things and has a very flexible mind. Even the craftsman cat master praised her for her high level of comprehension." Speaking of his sister, Noah obviously talked a lot more than before, but Mostima and others did not stop him.

After all, they are used to showing off their girls - on their teammates' side.

"Maybe many people haven't noticed Maria's strengths compared to Margaret right now, but I personally taught her. She will definitely achieve more than Margaret in the future."

This is not bragging, Noah really believes so. With Maria's talent, strength, and smart little brain, her future achievements are indeed limitless.

The future is promising, this statement is absolutely true for Maria!

She was still happily praising Maria when Mace patted her wheelchair.

"Noah."

"Ok?"

"I think praising someone like this in front of the person involved is a bit like a public execution."

"……what?"

When people get excited, they tend to ignore some things around them. As a blind person, Noya is even more so. When she calmed down, she suddenly felt an extremely shameful emotion. She raised her head stiffly, "Mace, why didn't you remind me earlier?"

"Who knows--" Jian was of course doing it on purpose, but she just liked to see Noah embarrassed, so she deliberately didn't remind him at the first time.

The most ashamed and conflicted person now is of course Maria, who is standing at the door, not knowing whether she should open it. She was originally very excited today to see her sister Noah, but as soon as she arrived at the door, she heard people talking about herself inside, so she couldn't help but eavesdrop. It would have been better if she hadn't listened, but when she heard Noah praising her, she felt more and more ashamed.

At this point, his face was already red, and he almost wanted to find a hole in the ground to crawl into.

Sister Noah, what on earth are you saying in front of others?

Covering her red cheeks, Maria squatted at the door. In order to relieve the joy and shame in her heart, she stood up straight again, took a deep breath, and finally calmed down. Then she heard the conference room suddenly become quiet, and then the door in front of her was opened.

Mace looked at Maria, and Maria's gaze shifted from Mace who opened the door to Noah's face, which was also flushed, and then fell on the faces of two unfamiliar horned men, Sakota and Liberi.

"...Did I come at the wrong time?"

She wanted to run away, but Noah immediately held out his hand and asked her to wait. "Since you're here, it's a good opportunity to meet first. This is Mostima and Miss Fiammetta. We're friends from Lateran and one of the main sponsors of this event."

"Hello--" Maria greeted the two people, then walked into the room silently and found a place to sit down.

Now, I really experienced what it means to be on pins and needles.

"...I don't think I need an introduction. This is Maria Linguang, the one I just mentioned. She's the representative of the Casimir Business Association and the young director of the Howling Guard." Noah coughed twice, trying to ease the awkwardness. "I thought she would arrive later, but she's here so early."

"Master Craftsman Cat was dissatisfied with the speed of the train, so he casually modified the engine. As a result... he arrived, but the train was a total loss," Maria explained. "Master Craftsman Cat is still lying in the infirmary due to motion sickness."

One advantage of the Linguang family's bloodline is that it has a high resistance to various abnormal conditions, including motion sickness... She just felt a little dizzy, not as much as the craftsman cat master's reaction.

"Is that so..." This fit Noya's usual impression of the Artisan Cat Master. After all, the Artisan Cat Master had boasted that he could push a cart and escape with a weak hunter under the flames of a black dragon. But from what Noya knew of him, he'd collapse after running a thousand meters... It was hard to believe his boast.

And she didn't know what the black dragon was.

She only knew that there was a red dragon in Victoria, and she had seen two of them. One was extremely controlling, and the other admired her very much. It was said that it had gone to help the Tara refugees.

"Ms. Maria, although we weren't very familiar with each other before, I just heard about your deeds from your sister." Mastema, typically fearing nothing more than boredom, dealt the awkward two a fatal blow. "Your sister praised you to the skies, and now I see, you're indeed beautiful."

“…What Sister Noah said…is actually…not that impressive…” Maria scratched her head awkwardly. “Compared to Sister Noah…I’m really just an ordinary person.”

In her mind, the one who is truly omnipotent is Noah...

"Sister Nuoya is my hero and the person I admire the most."

Chapter 43: Meeting with Acquaintances

As one of the candidates for Casimir's future leader, Maria is indeed qualified to participate in the meeting. She represents Casimir's interests, or in other words, she is representing her sister. When Margaret Victoria was on a business trip, Maria finally felt how much pressure Noah and Margaret were under. It felt like they had to do everything and were so busy all day that they fell asleep as soon as they touched the pillow. It was hard to imagine how Margaret and Noah persisted.

However, Maria discovered that her Originium skills were actually effective in the aspect of hard work. Although it did not hurt her body, the good thing was that her Originium skills could even heal her spirit. She was simply a natural-born beast of burden. Her Originium skills had also grown during her long-term hard work. Now she was a true hard-working god of war!

It was precisely because of this that she had persisted until now, coming to Colombia as a representative of Casimir, and meeting Sister Noah whom she had not seen for a long time, and on an equal footing.

It’s not that there was inequality before, but in Maria’s view, she had always been in a position of being taken care of, so now being able to stand at the same height as Noah is a very novel experience for her.

She would occasionally peek at Sister Noya. Compared to the past, the Originium crystal clusters on Sister Noya's face had disappeared, and her complexion was much rosier, seemingly healthier. However, she also looked much more mature than when she was in Casimir and Rhodes Island. It seemed like only less than a year had passed, and yet she was already difficult to recognize.

Maybe it was because she was wearing a white coat, or maybe it was because she was now the chief executive of Rhine Life.

The change in temperament is difficult to conceal, but Maria can still feel that she is still Noah, the sister who is too gentle to her, the Noah who is willing to pay for her mistakes and then touches her head helplessly, and also... Noah Kyrielight who gave everything to protect them and left sadly.

Although she herself would not think so, the Linguang family owed her a great favor. Not only herself, but also her sister, uncle, and even her aunt owed her a great favor.

But she would definitely just smile and shake her head, and then say that she didn't do anything.

Sometimes, even Maria would complain about Sister Noah's tolerance. She was strict with herself, but tolerant of others, gentle and kind, and valued promises. She was simply a perfect superhero without any flaws.

What does such a person need to repay?

Oh...it would be nice if I could pledge my love to you...

Maria fantasized about this scene. Although she thought her sister and Noah were a couple, who said sisters couldn't like the same person!

Complex emotions, as complex as a nine-turn large intestine, were transmitted from Maria's direction. Noah felt as if he had entered a chat room where someone had opened a free microphone. Not to mention interpreting the emotions, such complex emotions were already considered a DDoS attack.

I never thought that one day I would be DDOSed. In the past, I always let others fill my emotions.

Fortunately, these complex emotions quickly faded, as Maria was approached by Mostima. Perhaps due to nervousness, the previous complex emotions suddenly disappeared. Mostima was obviously no pushover. After realizing that Maria might be a new toy, he immediately began to increase his intensity. Fiammetta looked at Maria with a look of pity, her eyes fixed on Noa.

Before coming here, Noah Kyrielet was highly praised by the Pope, who said she was a martyr, an ascetic, and a person who voluntarily took up the cross. Although she didn't understand much about religion, at least the Pope's meaning was very clear.

Noah Kyrielight might be the "Saint" they have been looking for for a long time, and this is the biggest reason why Lateran is so concerned about this matter.

The legendary saints, in the myths and legends of Lateran, saints are all supermen with three heads and six arms. But no matter how Fiammetta looks at it, Noa doesn't look like a person with three heads and six arms. First of all, excluding the exaggeration of the mythological records, there is only one answer - that is, the unawakened saints cannot have three heads and six arms.

Although Fiammetta was an adult, she had also been watching various Saint special effects since she was a child. Once upon a time, she was also the one who watched the super-giant special effects heroes fighting the Sarkaz with a terminal. Now seeing the existence of a possible Saint in human form, she was naturally a little curious. However, as a fan of special effects, Fiammetta still had some understanding that heroes' identities should not be revealed casually, so she did not ask directly.

But - I'm really curious.

Maria, standing nearby, noticed her intense gaze. She had no idea that Saints had been filmed as a special effects film in Lateran, nor that the person before her was a devoted Saints Superman fan. She simply felt that the look in his eyes as he looked at Sister Noah was a little off. No, she seemed to have seen that look somewhere before. It was exactly the same look Viviana gave Sister Noah. She immediately exploded.

No, didn't you arrive just two days earlier than me? Is Sister Nuoya's charm enough to gain a fan in just two days?

Although she admitted that Sister Nuoya was full of advantages, with almost no flaws, and was also beautiful, in short, perfect from head to toe—but was this really how people outside of the country used to be?! To have inappropriate thoughts about Sister Nuoya in just two days, this was no ordinary pervert! She had to strike hard.

She immediately developed a slight hostility towards the two envoys from Lateran. Fortunately, she was also representing Casimir, and her status was the same as theirs. She also had a deep bond with Sister Noah, so she wasn't afraid of them.

For Noah... no, for my sister, I must protect my sister Noah.

As she pondered these things, Maria deliberately ignored Jian's presence. After all… if we really wanted to discuss Jian, she'd always been by Noya's side, something even her sister couldn't do… Only with Jian did Maria lack any sense of competition. Sister Margaret and Sister Jian were probably her true equals. As for the others… it was best to stay out of the way when these two were vying for territory.

Noah, who felt the vague hostility, was about to say something when the door was opened again. This time, what surprised Noah was that it was another acquaintance.

"...My ally, how are you?" The man who had just arrived glanced around at everyone in the conference room before looking at the surprised Noah and saying, "Don't be surprised. I happened to be in Colombia for business and heard about your plan, so I decided to join on a whim."

"It's just a temporary decision..." Noya blinked. However, Kjerag was indeed on her list, so it was a good thing that he was willing to participate.

However, Enthiotis's judgment did not require her to make any suggestions, so she did not say much, but just asked Enthiotis to sit down first.

Representatives from Lateran, Shelag, and Casimir have already gathered here. If nothing unexpected happens, there will also be representatives from Letania, Iberia, and Dayan.

But apart from the Rutland representative... they all seemed to be acquaintances, and she suddenly felt a little uneasy.

Could it be that they are all acquaintances this time?

No, I haven't been to Dayan, and I only know a few people in Longmen, so this shouldn't happen...

Noah silently raised his teacup and took a sip to calm himself down.

The same goes for Iberia. It’s good enough that the other party agreed to participate in the exhibition. The representatives of Iberia... are probably not familiar to us.

At that moment, the conference room door opened again. This time, the envoy, who had been planning to come in to greet them, suddenly stopped in his tracks with a thud and uttered a cry. Noah instinctively turned her head and spoke. "I told you to go in through this little door sideways, right, Viviana?"

"Sorry... I didn't notice." Viviana turned sideways awkwardly before walking into the meeting room. "Long time no see, Noah."

"...Well, long time no see, Viviana. Are you okay, boss?" Noah sighed. Why didn't she think of this? Maria went back to Casimir and became the director of the Howling Guards, so Viviana would probably not stay there. Sure enough, the other party had returned to Leithania, and probably gained a certain status, so she could participate in this meeting. However, Viviana's arrival also explained one thing.

This time it was most likely a meeting of acquaintances... although I didn't know who would be the next to come.

Maria and Viviana have never had much in common. It would be better to say that they have a slight hostility towards each other. The two of them just exchanged a brief greeting. The conference table was round. After several people took their seats, Noah's side was occupied by Maria and Viviana. The emotions of the two people were like waves rushing towards Noah from both sides. Noah was helpless and speechless. After pulling the clothes of Jian beside him, he got a chuckle from Jian.

She really didn't care, and it was quite interesting for her to see Noah's troubled look.

She had been the one to compile the guest list, so she knew exactly who would be coming. Noya's current state could be said to be solely her fault. If anyone was to blame, it was Noya who didn't confirm the guest list. Now, Noya was like opening a blind box, and a terrifying one at that.

"The atmosphere seems a bit awkward?" Mostima noticed the subtle atmosphere in the meeting room. "How about we take a break? We really came too early anyway."

"...Ah." Noah sighed, "Nothing, I just didn't expect to run into so many acquaintances."

"Why don't we just chat about how you met before everyone arrives?" Mostima suggested, her eyes lighting up as she sensed a hint of gossip. "I actually prefer hearing about this stuff to meetings."

"...You idiot." Fiameta's face darkened. "This is a serious meeting. How can you say those things? Besides, those are Miss Saint... Noya's privacy!"

"What's the big deal? Miss Noah doesn't care," Mostima said with a smile. "I'm really curious about what special bond the three of you have with Miss Noah."

"Ms. Fiammetta, I don't mind." Noah nodded. "It would be nice to introduce each other so we can get to know each other better. You all know my story, so why don't you each introduce yourselves? Let's start...Maria first?"

"Ahem, my name is Maria Linguang, younger sister of Margaret Linguang and adopted sister of Noah Kirilet. I'm currently the spokesperson for the Chamber of Commerce, junior director of the Howling Guards, and an honorary member of the Knights' Association. I'm here to attend the conference on behalf of Casimir. New knight equipment and some specialized weapons will be on display." Maria stood up and introduced herself as Noah had instructed. "I hope to gain more experience and help at this exhibition, and... I'm really happy to meet Sister Noah."

"I'm happy too, Maria." Noah nodded with a smile, "And you said it well, you've made progress."

You know, she must have stumbled before when it came to speaking such official language, but now she's really improved, probably due to her frequent appearances during her time with the Howling Guard. It must be said that although she was forced to participate in the knight competitions, they did temper Maria's immaturity, making her look like a true knight now. Even in her spokesperson's attire, she looks fearless and heroic, just like her sister.

With admiration and excitement, Viviana beside Noah also stood up.

"My name is Viviana Droste, representing Leitania. By the Queen's grace, I now serve as the Queen's Voice, responsible for showcasing Leitania's magical creations at this Terra Expo. I met Miss Noya in Casimir. I was a competitive knight at the time, and Miss Noya was my investor. We have similar interests and a lot in common, so we can be considered good friends."

Viviana's voice was soft, like reciting poetry - when she spoke of Noah, her gaze gently moved and fell on Noah.

"I admire Miss Noya—she is the best knight I have ever seen, and the most powerful person I have ever met."

"...Oh~(*?ω?)" Mostima said with a playful tone, looking at Noa who looked like she was being confessed to in public.

"...Thank you, Viviana." Noah paused, "But in public...can we talk in private?"

"Yeah, okay." Viviana smiled and nodded. Having failed to see Noah panic, Mostima looked with some disappointment at Enthiotis, who seemed to be enjoying the same moment as him, hoping he could break Noah's composure.

Enthyotis was indeed eating the melon, but after noticing Mostima's gaze, he thought for a moment, stood up, and bowed immediately.

"Greetings to the Honorary Saint Lady."

"..."

"..."

"..."

It was as if a silence technique had been activated in the conference room, and the entire conference room fell silent.

Chapter 44: Uncertain Future

"...Honorary Saint, this is the first time I've heard of that title." Mostima was held captive for several seconds before coming to her senses. "The Saint of Kjerag has actually become the Governor of Rhine Life—amazing, amazing."

"..." Noah didn't say anything, just held her forehead. If there was any problem - she was indeed the genuine and canonized Honorary Saint of Kjerag, and even the genuine saints recognized her status. So even though Enthiotis was obviously squeezing her, it was difficult for her to deny it.

"...Sister Noah being a saint isn't that strange, is it?" Maria had heard about this from Margaret, but it felt a bit strange to bring it up in this situation. However, she was still a Noah-positive bot, so she immediately began to defend her sister. "My sister Noah is beautiful and kind-hearted, more than qualified to be a saint!"

"--I also think that Miss Noah has the temperament of a saint." Viviana on the side also nodded. Although it was the first time she heard of this, she did not find it abrupt.

The person who couldn't accept it the most wasn't the others present, but Fiammetta, who had long since recognized Noah as the human form of a saint. A saint turned into a saint of another religion? What kind of operation was this? Could the title of saint be shared?

Her hesitation wasn't a big deal. Ensiodius, who had caused the entire meeting room to fall silent, smiled a masterful smile. "Saintess, since it's your order, let me introduce myself. My name is Ensiodius Shivaash, patriarch of the Shivaash family and chairman of Kalan Trading. I'm currently collaborating closely with Casimir. I happened to hear of your proposal while on a business trip to Colombia, so I've agreed on behalf of Kjerag. This time, I plan to exhibit Kjerag's specialties and various texts on the Yelagund religion."

Turns out he was here to get free advertising space!

Noya understood immediately, but this was also a reason to launch the Terra Expo. She didn't mind helping Kjerag out. After all, what Kjerag lacked most right now was probably fame. Attracting more people to Kjerag to develop tourism and increase foreign exchange earnings would be beneficial.

Although she might be targeted by capital from other countries, she is not really worried because Ensiodis is there.

Enthyodis was not worried about threats, but about the lack of opportunities. He always welcomed the option that was full of dangers but also had the opportunity to break the deadlock.

The bigger the waves, the more valuable the fish. As a tightrope walker, he certainly had the confidence to do so. And what was wrong with getting free advertising space at the World Expo, which the Saint had personally organized?

Noah understood Enthiotis's thoughts clearly. The two of them were originally very good partners. Strictly speaking, Noah was also inevitably cheated by Enthiotis in the beginning, but with her ability, Enthiotis could not cheat her too much. As for small losses, it didn't matter to Noah.