Things about the female knight in black stockings

"Although the seabed is extremely dangerous, even powerful individuals at the Radiant Rank can survive there. Many strong adventurers occasionally venture to the seabed to try their luck, and sometimes the sages in the Sage's Tower even form teams to search for this mineral."

Our family first got the idea to develop this project from the adventurers.

Although this project was very risky, after repeatedly calculating the expected returns, we decided to go ahead with it after some hesitation.

In the early stages, we invested a large sum of money to order various things from the Sage Tower and built a mining station on a mineral vein on the seabed.

The mining station was not only hidden in a secluded location, but it also used a magical barrier custom-made at the Sage's Tower, which allowed it to completely conceal itself.

Since its completion, the mining station has never been discovered by ocean monsters on the outside, except for a few unlucky occasions when it was accidentally bumped into by them.

Inside the mining station, there is a small teleportation array that can instantly transport the mined ore to a safe place and then sell it to the people coming from the Sage's Tower to buy it.

Although using small teleportation arrays to transport goods is a luxury, it's a drop in the ocean compared to the price of that ore, making it a worthwhile investment.

As for the safety of the mining personnel, we have of course taken that into consideration.

The mining station is not only guarded by two Star Glory level experts we have hired at high prices, but each mining worker also carries a teleportation scroll, so they can escape immediately if they encounter danger.

In fact, apart from the incident last year, our underwater mining station has never experienced any casualties; however, the station itself has undergone several major repairs.

"The incident last year?"

Valensa's heart skipped a beat. She, Tia, and Thousand Leaf Grass had encountered a high-level mist demon on the beach in the capital of Fran last year.

If the Fog Demons' plan to infiltrate the Frenoia continent is coordinated, then Bot Giss was most likely replaced last year.

"Miss Paladin probably suspects that Bot was killed and replaced by the Mist Demon back then, right? That's what I think too."

The bitter smile on the face of the head of the Gis family deepened:

"That was the worst loss we'd ever suffered since the establishment of our underwater mining station project. All the mining personnel and guards perished, including the two hired Star-level adventurers. Only Bot survived thanks to a life-saving item he bought from the Sage's Tower. At the time, I said it was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune."

But now that I think about it, Bot probably didn't escape it either, and was replaced by the Fog Demon who was disguised as him.

Bot, who survived at the time, told me that the mining station was destroyed when it was attacked by several extremely powerful sea monsters, but now it seems that it was all the work of the Mist Demon.

"Yes, this must be the truth."

Valensa nodded in agreement, then asked:

"After such a major incident, didn't you ever consider shutting down the seabed mining station completely?"

"Well..."

The head of the Gis family hesitated for a while before finally saying with a self-deprecating laugh:

"We are a merchant family... As long as there is enough profit, we might even agree to sell swords that could kill us to the enemy."

Last year's incident did cause us heavy losses, but compared to the benefits brought by the seabed mining projects in the previous two years, it was still insignificant.

Even if the mining station could be repaired and a new batch of people hired, it would still be extremely cost-effective to rebuild the project from scratch.

So after that incident last year, we not only did not stop the project, but also increased investment to quickly repair the mining station and adopted more safety measures to ensure the project's success.

As a result, less than a month after that incident, the seabed mining station resumed operations, and it hasn't had another accident since.

I thought the increased investment and added security measures were working, but I never expected... sigh.

The head of the Gis family sighed deeply as he spoke, tears welling up in his eyes.

But Valensa didn't seem to see much sadness about losing her son; rather, she seemed heartbroken at the loss of a great fortune.

...Businessmen, tsk.

Valensa sighed inwardly, then quickly asked:

"So, even after being replaced by Fog Demon, Bot Giese was still in charge of the seabed mining project?"

"Yes."

The head of the Gis family nodded:

"Botte's main job, besides managing the personnel at the seabed mining station, is to sell the special water-attribute ore he extracts to the Sage Tower."

"...Sell the ore to the Sage's Tower?"

A sudden thought flashed through Valensa's mind, and she was startled. She couldn't help but shout:

"Oh no! I see! The Sage's Tower is their real target!"

Afterwards, Valensa disregarded her somewhat impolite behavior, ignoring the head of the Giss family, and rushed to Tia, grabbing her arm:

"Quickly! Notify your teacher that a Mist Demon has likely infiltrated the Sage's Tower, and its target is probably the intact high-level Mist Demon core that the Morgan family sent to the Sage's Tower!"

Valensa calmed down after Tia agreed and quickly contacted her teacher, then sat down and sighed.

Although it is still mostly just reasoning and speculation, Valensa feels she understands everything.

Let's take a simple look.

Starting sometime last year, the Mist Demon, one of the three great natural disasters, stopped focusing on the Four Islands Alliance and began to try to send high-ranking humanoid Mist Demons to infiltrate the Frenoia continent.

On Fran's side, Valensa and her friends encountered a high-ranking humanoid mist demon disguised as a fisherwoman while enjoying their day off. On America's side, the underwater mining station of Gis Mining should have been attacked.

Bote Geiss may not have been a particularly high-ranking person, but his position was quite delicate.

He was a direct descendant of the Giese family, one of America's most prestigious families. Even with four very capable older brothers, he could easily navigate America's elite social circles.

At the same time, he also had long-term contact with the Sage Tower in his work. Although he could not reach the upper management, he had at least become a familiar face in the Sage Tower's purchasing department, making him less likely to be guarded against.

Therefore, Bot Gith 'survived' after the attack on Gith Mining's underwater mining station, because once the Fog Demon replaced him, it could simultaneously infiltrate both the top of America and the Sage's Tower.

There are likely still high-ranking humanoid fog demons lurking in America's high society. We don't know what their conspiracy is for the time being, but it's not a big problem. The Merchant Alliance's law enforcement team is already investigating, and they also have Chiba, a professional anti-demon ninja, assisting them.

But things are different at the Sage's Tower.

Humans and the Mist Demons have been fighting for thousands of years, and this is the first time that a complete Mist Demon core has been obtained, especially a high-level Mist Demon core.

The Fog Demon is a creature that can only be killed by destroying its core, and it can never be captured, so obtaining the complete Fog Demon core was something people never even dared to dream of before.

Fortunately, talents emerge in every generation. Thousand Leaf Grass's second sister is a swordsmanship genius who successfully accomplished what was previously unimaginable, giving humanity the possibility of uncovering the secrets of the Mist Demon.

The Fog Demons must have known this, which is why the Morgan family encountered a new type of Fog Demon attack they had never seen before when they returned to America.

Although the Morgan family escaped by luck and happened to encounter the Fran's envoy fleet, successfully delivering the high-level Mist Demon core to the Sage's Tower, the Mist Demon would not give up easily. Even if the new type of Mist Demon was fooled by the Morgan family at the time, it would surely realize what was happening afterward.

The Sage's Tower is one of the three major human cultivator organizations on the continent, and its strength is extremely powerful. The Mist Demons are unlikely to be willing to launch a direct attack, but the high-level Mist Demon core that was stolen must be retrieved or destroyed. Therefore, the best way is to use an inside agent.

However, researching the core of a high-level mist demon is definitely an important project in the Sage's Tower, and the defenses must be very tight. It may not be possible to succeed by relying on just one or two humanoid high-level mist demons that are lurking.

So, it seems that Bot Giese is planning to create a big incident, such as doing something to Elserse in his capacity as Bot Giese, stirring up conflict between Farran and America, or even causing a military conflict between Farran's naval fleet still stationed in Gangia and America.

At that point, the Sage Tower, as a spiritual organization with intricate ties to America and a transcendent position in the entire human world, would most likely have to step in to mediate.

The Sage's Tower already has a group of elite forces hunting down Savat Landon. If another group is dispatched to mediate the dispute between the two countries, the tower will inevitably be weakened, giving the high-ranking fog demons lurking in the Sage's Tower an opportunity to destroy the core.

The Mist Demon, disguised as Bot Gis, never expected that among Elser's friends, there was actually Chiba Kusa, a Chiba clan anti-demon ninja.

Both sides are old rivals. The Mist Demon must know that its disguise cannot fool the Demon Ninja, so its plan to approach Elserse under the guise of a blind date and then create chaos has fallen through.

So after learning about the existence of Thousand Leaf Grass from the three eliminated suitors of the Geese family, namely Bot Geese's three older brothers, the Mist Demon devised a plan to frame Thousand Leaf Grass... Whether it was locking Thousand Leaf Grass in the law enforcement team or sending Thousand Leaf Grass back to the country, as long as Thousand Leaf Grass could leave Elser's side, it would be considered a success.

And that's how all these things happened.

Of course, most of these causes and consequences are still based on Valensa's reasoning and speculation, but she is confident that the truth should be about the same.

Verification is quite simple... This plan cannot rely solely on the identity of Bot Giss, so there must be at least one high-ranking Mist Demon lurking among America's top families or high-ranking members of the Chamber of Commerce, and it is highly likely that he is a diplomatic personnel or a family member of such personnel.

The Mist Demon spy at the Sage's Tower, upon learning that Bot Giss's side has been exposed, will most likely choose to take a risk and launch a suicide attack to destroy the high-level Mist Demon core.

So all they had to do was wait, and in the meantime, Valensa actually found herself with some free time.

She couldn't be of much help in investigating America's top families and the upper echelons of the Chamber of Commerce; having Chiba Grass assist the Chamber of Commerce's law enforcement team was enough.

On the other hand, the Sage's Tower arrogantly declared that it needed no outside assistance, nor did it need to seek experience and technical support from the Demon-Slaying Ninjas. The great sages had their own ways of finding the traitor.

As Valensa had anticipated, the whole affair came to a close two days after Bot Giese's identity was exposed.

On Allant's side, the wife of a diplomat from the Chamber of Commerce mysteriously disappeared, never to return after going out shopping.

Upon receiving the news, Chiba personally inspected the diplomat's wife's residence and inquired about her behavior over the past year. She was fairly certain that the diplomat's wife had also been replaced by a high-ranking mist demon.

Unfortunately, it still got away.

Meanwhile, the Sage's Tower used a deceptive tactic to lure its inmates into a trap.

Valensa heard from Tia that the Sage's Tower actually didn't have a way to distinguish the Mist Demons in a short time, so they chose to fish for them. First, they claimed that they had made progress in cracking the core of the high-level Mist Demons, and then they laid a trap in the research facility.

The two high-level mist demons lurking in the Sage's Tower did indeed take the bait. Unfortunately, the sages were too arrogant and actually tried to capture the mist demons alive for research. As a result, they missed several opportunities to kill the mist demons, allowing the two high-level mist demons to self-destruct.

Although there were no casualties and the high-level fog demon core had been moved ahead of schedule, the experimental facility used as bait was almost completely destroyed, and many precious materials and equipment were lost, which made several sages extremely upset and unable to sleep because of the heartache.

Chapters 82-84: The Exhibition Begins

The Fog Demons lurking in America either died or escaped, and their accomplices who had cooperated with them certainly didn't fare well either.

For example, Chiba and the deceased had completely reversed positions.

Thousand-Leaf Grass went from being a murderer to a framed victim, while the deceased went from being a victim to a human traitor who colluded with the Mist Demon.

Now it's not that Chiba Grass has to pay for the deceased's resurrection or transformation; instead, the deceased's family has to compensate Chiba Grass for damage to its reputation.

The deceased was forcibly brought back to life by necromancy, but this time he was not to identify the murderer but to be interrogated.

Valensa was also involved in the interrogation; she was quite curious about something.

What reason did that high-ranking mist demon, disguised as Bot Gis, use to trick the deceased into framing Thousand Leaf Grass at the cost of his life?

Faced with the fact that Bot Giese had exposed his identity as the Mist Demon, the soul of the deceased was powerless to deny or lie, and soon told the truth during the interrogation.

"I knew he wasn't human, but some kind of demon in disguise, but I really didn't know he was the Mist Demon."

The voice of the deceased's soul as he confessed was filled with despair:

“Since you already know that I am a member of the Blood God Society, it should be easy to guess, right? His promise to me was that he could help me transform into a vampire. The death of a human body is a necessary step in the transformation, which is why I readily agreed to his request.”

"..."

The divine ability to detect lies showed that the deceased's soul was not lying, leaving those in the room who were participating in the interrogation speechless for a moment.

Valensa thought to herself, "Are the radicals of the Blood God Society really that easy to fool? No wonder Seraya said they were incredibly stupid."

Seemingly sensing the mockery in everyone's eyes, the deceased's soul agitatedly dropped from frame to frame and waved its arms a few times:

"I'm not stupid! Of course I know what he said sounds like a scam, but I checked the goods before I agreed to it!"

"Inspection?"

Valensa raised an eyebrow curiously:

"What goods are you inspecting?"

"A drop of ancient vampire blood essence."

The voice of the deceased's soul suddenly became somewhat frenzied again:

"I've always wanted to become a true Dark Noble, but to transform into a vampire, I need the essence of vampire blood as material. And nowadays, all the vampires have worshipped the Sun Goddess and become useless people who don't even dare to drink human blood! I don't want to use their blood to transform!"

However, it is extremely difficult to transform vampires without using their blood. So far, my fellow enthusiasts have tried various methods—black magic, evil sacrifice, blessings from evil gods, bio-modification, etc.—but the results have been far from ideal, and some have even offended paladins and suffered purification.

So after that fake Bot Gis produced a drop of genuine ancient vampire blood, I couldn't refuse any of his requests.

"How do you know that's the blood of an ancient vampire? Maybe he's lying to you with the blood of other monsters or ordinary vampires?" Valensa asked again.

"...I told you, I'm not an idiot!"

The soul of the dead roared, seemingly enraged:

"Perhaps you think my behavior is stupid, but I'm just pursuing my hobby, what's wrong with that?"

With my deep love for ancient vampire culture, how could I not distinguish between vampire blood and demon blood?

That drop of vampire blood essence contained not a trace of divine magical power, only pure and violent dark magic... What else could it be but the blood of an ancient vampire?

"That's it..."

Valensa frowned and exchanged glances with the others in the room.

The souls of the dead did not lie. Could it be that the Mist Demons truly possess the blood of the ancient vampires? Or perhaps they even have an accomplice among the ancient vampires?

This is intelligence that cannot be ignored.

"Where is the blood of those ancient vampires?"