Things about the female knight in black stockings

After briefly explaining what kind of monsters and demons the radicals of the Blood God Society were, Seraya continued:

"So we usually monitor the daily behavior of those radicals. As long as their behavior is abnormal, we will take measures... Even if there is an occasional oversight, it can be remedied within three to five days at most... After all, most cults have relatively meticulous plans. There are very few madmen who make plans tonight and do things tomorrow. Generally, even if it is night, three to five days is enough."

"Three to five days..."

Valensa did some quick calculations in her mind and pondered for a moment:

"Princess Elsers's series of blind dates began seven days ago, and Cao Cao was conscripted to help her after her second match, which was about five days ago... It seems to have fallen right at the limit of the buffer period when your surveillance was lax?"

"No, we didn't make any mistakes this time."

Seraya immediately shook her head, her expression very serious:

“How could we dare to neglect such an important event as the visit of the French royal princess to America? From the days before the princess arrived in America, all of us paladins of America have been on high alert and have even taken preventative measures to eliminate some potential threats.”

"No oversights?"

Valensa frowned:

"So, the deceased from last night hadn't shown any unusual behavior in the past few days? Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

Seraya nodded without hesitation:

"Not just in the last few days, but in the last few months he has acted very normally... Oh, I mean very normally compared to other radical idiots. In the eyes of truly normal people, he is still a bizarre and stupid madman."

"This……"

Valensa frowned even more.

The deceased from last night had not shown any unusual behavior recently... Could it be that he wasn't colluding with the real killer, but was just an unlucky guy who was randomly chosen?

"Of course, I won't let you come here for nothing, sister."

Seraya chuckled at the sight, and even casually touched Valensa before standing up and walking to her wardrobe to open it.

She rummaged through the wardrobe for about ten seconds and found a bag with storage space. She then took out a stack of documents from the bag and handed them to Valensa.

"Here is the information on the deceased's whereabouts over the past ten days."

"Hey?"

Valensa seemed slightly puzzled, but she took the document first before asking:

"Didn't they say his behavior was normal?"

"No abnormalities" means that he has not been in contact with anyone suspected of being a real cult.

Seraya smiled and gave a hint:

"After all, our main targets are various cults, so we pay the most attention to this kind of intelligence when monitoring them."

But the person you're investigating is still a member of America's top family. Even if he has a shady background as a radical member of the Blood God Society, on the surface he's quite glamorous, with a busy schedule of business networking and connections... Understand?

"understood."

Valensa suddenly realized:

"The real culprit behind framing Cao Cao is likely not a cult member, but someone with a seemingly respectable identity who had a normal social relationship with the deceased. Therefore, their interactions were not considered abnormal and did not attract your attention in time!"

"Yes, it is like that."

Seraya smiled with satisfaction, a smile that seemed to reflect the appreciation of a senior for a junior.

"So, if you can analyze other reasons to come up with another list of suspicious people, then cross-compare that list with the recent social activities of the deceased that I gave you..."

"This can greatly narrow down the range of suspects, and even directly identify the real culprit!"

Valensa nodded excitedly.

Next, we'll see what Tia does. If she can get her hands on the list of potential dates arranged for Elseris by the Merchant Alliance, and compare it with the information Seraya has gathered, the case will likely be solved!

"Thank you, sister, this information is so important! If you ever have the chance to go to Fran, please be sure to come find me. Whether it's mission support or food and fun, no problem!"

It was clearly not a good time to stay at the Blood God Society's stronghold. After receiving the information, Valensa quickly bid farewell to Seraya and left.

She returned to Elser's place and reunited with Tia and Thousand Leaf Grass.

Tia successfully persuaded several noble ladies who had already hooked up with men from the America family to help her gather information, but it wouldn't be that quick; it would have to wait until at least tomorrow morning.

Because those noble ladies are basically the top socialites of their respective families, all their skills lie in their nighttime charm, which can make any man they meet at night talk. However, their abilities are greatly reduced during the day, so the earliest we can expect a result is tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, the drama on Chiba Grass's side was over. Under the supervision of the Chamber of Commerce's enforcement team, she boarded a ship belonging to the Nora Chamber of Commerce. The ship set sail back to Fran in the afternoon, and she took the opportunity to jump ship after the ship left the port and swam back on her own.

"You actually boarded the ship under the supervision of the Commercial Federation's law enforcement team?"

Valensa's experience with the centaur was quite unexpected:

"How did you manage that? Even with the Church of the Sun vouching for you, you're still a murder suspect... Do you think the Chamber of Commerce's enforcement team will let you go?"

"Of course, this is all thanks to me."

Yashiro, who had also returned, quickly chimed in with a smile:

"Cao Cao is no longer a suspect, she's the murderer! She's already signed a confession with the Business Federation's enforcement team."

"……what?"

Valensa was a little confused again, and at the same time glared angrily at Thousand Leaf Grass.

Sister, I'm still working hard to find the real culprit for you, and you've already confessed?

"Of course it's not a real confession... it's just a formality to quell the impact of this matter as quickly as possible."

Yashilo smiled and continued to explain:

"Because only by hastily confessing as the murderer can a settlement be reached with the victim's family and the case be settled privately."

"Hey?"

Valensa paused for a moment, then suddenly realized and was overjoyed, with a hint of admiration. She couldn't help but grab Yashiro's arm and give it a gentle squeeze.

"You actually reached a settlement with the deceased's family? You're amazing!"

"The real power should be money; I merely borrowed the power of money."

Yashilo casually slapped Valensa's hand away, his tone tinged with smugness:

"Otherwise, what do you think I was busy with so early in the morning? This time, it was just that Cao Cao was lucky. The deceased's family had a lot of business cooperation with our Nora Chamber of Commerce."

I approached the head of their family and proposed several new collaborative projects that were essentially giving them money. They readily agreed to help persuade the deceased's family to drop the pursuit of accountability.

The process went fairly smoothly... After all, the deceased's death was discovered very early, and neither the body nor the soul was damaged... It couldn't even be considered a true death; it was more like the body had temporarily stopped functioning and the soul was in a state of separation.

After I agreed to cover the costs of resurrecting the deceased or transforming him into a higher-level undead creature, his family also agreed to a settlement.

"……sharp."

Even Valensa, now a powerful female paladin, can only admire the wealthy businessman's ability to solve all sorts of problems with money.

But in this case...

"Doesn't that mean Cao Cao owes you a lot of money now?"

"It's not much, about the same as the prize money for your Golden Iris Vanguard Award."

Yashilo appeared quite nonchalant:

"The Chiba family is the most powerful family among the four island alliances, so this amount of money is nothing to them. Even if Cao Cao is unwilling to ask her two older sisters, who treat her like a future rival, she can work for me and pay it back slowly in other ways... We've already signed the business contract, so there shouldn't be any problem."

"Business contract?"

Valensa asked curiously.

"It's those you signed on the ship last time, right? I had Cao Cao sign one too... Hmm, with your brain, you should have guessed it by now, right?"

Yashilo smiled and said:

"I find America's method of using signed idols to promote their own chamber of commerce's products quite interesting, and I'd like to promote it in Fran as well."

However, it's quite difficult to directly train newcomers at the beginning; it's best to use some already well-known figures.

"So you've set your sights on me and Cao Cao, right?"

Valensa rolled her eyes in annoyance and then ruffled Thousand Leaf Grass's head:

"Poor Cao Cao, she didn't kill anyone, yet she's inexplicably burdened with huge debts, and now she'll have to be exploited and used by heartless businessmen along with me..."

"They're not unscrupulous businessmen! This is called the wisdom of wealth!"

Yashilo rolled his eyes at him without any hesitation:

"Moreover, Cao Cao may not necessarily owe this money... Although I promised to cover the costs of resurrecting the dead or transforming them into high-level undead creatures, this is based on the premise that Cao Cao did indeed kill someone and is the real culprit."

"As long as you can catch the real culprit quickly and help Cao Cao overturn her case, I won't have to pay the victim's family this money, and Cao Cao won't owe me anything... This is all clearly stated in our contract."

"I understand... So we still need to find the real culprit and thwart their plot."

Valensa nodded, then looked at the thousand-leaf clover:

"Based on the existing clues, there is a very high possibility that the real culprit is hiding among the princess's many blind date partners! Although a cautious person is unlikely to act so quickly, it is best to be on high alert at the blind date dinner tonight."

Just like I told you before, you should hide in the Princess's shadow during the banquet and keep in touch with Vice Commander Lasha at all times... Once you discover a high-level fog demon hiding in the crowd, don't hesitate to expose it and beat it to death.

"You're a demon ninja, you should know better than any of us... the idea of ​​trying to capture the Mist Demon alive and torture him for information is pointless."

"Yes, I understand. Don't worry about it, big sister!"

Thousand-leaf clover is rubbing its hands together, very confident:

"I guarantee that among those attending the banquet tonight, not a single Mist Demon can hide themselves!"

The plan was thus agreed upon and implemented.

That evening, at Elsers's matchmaking dinner, Thousand Leaf Grass was on high alert, determined to find the high-ranking Mist Demon hiding among the crowd who had framed her.

Unfortunately, the enemy that Chiba had imagined never appeared until the end of the banquet, so she couldn't use the several fog demon-killing tools she had secretly prepared.

Fortunately, on the morning of the second day, several noble ladies came to Tia with the spoils they had obtained from the men of America.

The list of potential dates arranged for Elseris by the Business Federation has been obtained.

According to the Business Alliance's plan, there are more than 400 young American men who are to go on blind dates with Elsers, all of whom come from top-tier families.

These men will be grouped into groups of about 15 and will take turns going on blind dates with Elsers at the dinner party. The entire blind date event is expected to last for a month.

During this month, Fran's affairs officer and America's business association members will also take advantage of Elser's matchmaking party to get closer and discuss various collaborations.

Only after all the men on the list have been visited, regardless of whether the blind date is successful, will Elsers lead her guards and part of the Wave Knights to participate in America's Icefield Hunt this year to hunt down the Netherworld race who are in a state of hibernation in their lairs.

Now this list has fallen into Valensa's hands, and since several noble ladies from France received the exact same list from different high-ranking men in the America Merchants Association, it is unlikely to be a forgery.

So Valensa and her team immediately began comparing and searching for people who appeared on both the blind date list and the deceased's social media records for the past ten days.

I thought there wouldn't be many suspects who met the criteria, but after the comparison, there were actually 22 suspects who met the criteria.

These 22 men are all young men from America's top families, and they will attend Elsers' matchmaking dinner as early as tonight or as late as 16 days later.

They also had social relationships with the deceased from the night before last, whether it was going to the theater together to see a musical, going to a bar together for drinks, going to a brothel together for entertainment, or having serious business discussions in the office.

In short, all 22 people had been in private contact with the deceased for more than half an hour over the past ten days, which was enough time for them to plot against Chiba.

All 22 people are suspects.

“…What should we do next?”

After narrowing down her suspicions to these 22 people, Elserse frowned, first taking a few sips of a glass of iced tea from Gina, then looking at Valensa and Tia:

"My guards and the Wave Knights are unable to move around easily, and there is a high probability that there are enemy spies in the Merchant Alliance's law enforcement team. If the law enforcement team takes any action, it will likely alert the enemy."

"Could you two try to borrow some manpower from the Sage's Tower or the Church of the Sun to investigate these 22 people as soon as possible?"

"This... I'm afraid it will be very difficult, Your Highness."

Tia immediately gave a wry smile:

“I’m just an apprentice in the Sage’s Tower, so I can’t mobilize many people. If I were in Fran, I could use my family to do this, but unfortunately this is America.”

"The Church of the Sun... probably has a hard time freeing up manpower as well."

Valensa shrugged, equally embarrassed.

"Currently, nearly a third of the paladins in America are hunting down that mad necromancer, Savat Langdon. The remaining paladins are also responsible for various daily guard duties to prevent any cults from causing trouble during Your Highness's blind date."

As everyone probably knows, whether it's Fran or America, the Holy Knights of the Church of the Sun have never had a shortage of manpower... All sorts of strange and monstrous things always emerge in this world, making it impossible for most of the order maintainers to even take a proper vacation.

Let's just leave this matter alone... Although our logical reasoning is sound so far, it's still just inference and speculation, without concrete evidence, so it's a very low-priority action.