Things about the female knight in black stockings

"So, you're planning to use a powerful first-meeting ability to win against her once?"

The next morning in the hotel restaurant, Tia ate small bites of cake while curiously watching Valensa's deep blue eyes:

"But what ability are you going to use? Your truly powerful killing moves are the kind that would result in an immediate defeat the moment they're used. And you've already used the pseudo-divine tricks that Sister Friggia taught you in previous matches... What are you planning to do?"

"...cold dish."

Valensa, somewhat unwilling, bit off a sausage and chewed it fiercely.

"Although I hate to admit it, I have to admit that, according to the current competition rules, my chances of beating Maisie are very small, even close to zero. Moreover, it is also very difficult for me to find a powerful first-round kill skill specifically for the competition."

"Hmm... I know it might hurt your feelings to say this, but that's what I think too."

Tia shrugged and took another sip of the milk from her glass.

"So what are you thinking?"

"...What else can I think? I have almost no chance of beating her in a serious match, so isn't there only one option left?"

Valensa quickly devoured the sausage she had just bitten off in a few bites, then picked up a long, hard bread roll that resembled a baguette, broke it in half, dipped it in the hot soup, and brought it to her mouth.

"That's cheating, of course."

"……Cheating?"

Tia was clearly quite surprised, and even accidentally spilled a drop of the fresh milk she had just drunk, which ran down the corner of her mouth and dripped onto her sapphire lace dress.

"That's cheating."

Seeing this, Valensa quickly took out a special absorbent cloth designed for such situations and helped Tia wipe the milk droplets off her body, shrugging with a smile:

"In a casino, cheating isn't considered cheating as long as you don't get caught; in a game, using cheats isn't considered cheating as long as you don't get detected and banned... Similarly, in a competition, as long as I cheat and am not caught first, it's not considered cheating."

"Cheating... Hmm, that does seem like a possible approach."

Tia did not stand on moral high ground to criticize Valensa's cheating declaration, because dueling is an entertainment competition, and there is no such thing as competitive spirit in this world.

Tia was just a little confused:

"But... how are you going to cheat? Bribing or pressuring the referee won't work. The organizers specially commissioned a duel barrier at a high price from the Sage's Tower to prevent this. Every match is judged by the duel barrier, so there's no way to interfere with it."

"But I intend to start with that dueling barrier!"

Valensa snorted, then devoured the entire half of the long, hard bread loaf she was holding, which was soaked in hot soup, before giving Tia a fawning look.

"Since the duel barrier for the duel arena is made by the Sage Tower, you should be able to get your hands on the blueprints for the duel barrier... or at least a rough design concept, right?"

I want to know the specific principles behind how the Duel Barrier judges power exceeding the limit, and then find a way to bypass or deceive this judgment so that I can use power that is essentially a foul during the match to fulfill the demands of that fat collector.

"This……"

Tia's expression immediately became visibly conflicted, but after hesitating for about half a minute, she rolled her eyes and gave Valensa a helpless look:

"Okay, then I'll give it a try for you."

Chapters 88-90: The XP Debate

After breakfast, Valensa and Tia split up for the time being.

Tia used teleportation to go to the Sage's Tower to inquire about the team that created the duel barrier for the duel arena organizers.

Valensa went to the local Sun Church in Mosantina to visit Ellie Winggris, whom she should have met long ago.

This is a rather cheerful female paladin, who looks to be only about thirty years old. She has a tall and well-proportioned figure, gray-gold hair, and a two-handed greatsword as her weapon.

She and Valensa hit it off immediately within 10 minutes of meeting, skipping the formalities of using their surnames and calling each other by their first names and "sisters."

Although Ereshkigal is old enough to be Valensa's grandmother, they can be sisters as long as they look similar.

Ereshkigal is the captain of the Paladin of Mosantina City, one of the two Radiant-rank powerhouses of the Sun Church of Mosantina City, the person directly in charge of the legendary murder case, and the Paladin who has encountered the Sin Angel the most times in the entire America.

Valensa was very concerned about the legendary psychopathic killer, and she would certainly do her duty to rid the people of this scourge if given the chance. However, she was more concerned about the Sin Angel—the super-evil woman who had harmed Suzuran and was likely the one who led Savart Langdon down the wrong path.

"I heard that you, Sister Ellie, have encountered the Sinful Angel four times?"

Sitting across from Irene's desk, Valensa added large chunks of rock sugar to her coffee with a spoon, and asked curiously:

"She's never fought you even once?"

"No, that woman is a coward. She runs away every time we meet."

Ai Lei was also holding a steaming cup of coffee, her expression somewhat complicated:

"However, her escape methods are indeed impressive. I couldn't catch up with her even if I wanted to, and it was even difficult to determine which direction she ran after she disappeared from the spot."

"Does she just disappear on the spot every time?"

Valensa quickly pressed for details, adding:

"When you disappeared, did you have any strange feelings? I also encountered the Sin Angel when I was in Fran. Perhaps it's because of my special bloodline, but I sensed a very strange phenomenon in her at that time."

"Yeah, she always disappears right there."

Irene nodded slightly and answered Valensa's question first:

"Although I encountered her four times, I only saw her from a distance three times, at least several hundred meters away. She also noticed me when I noticed her, and then disappeared without leaving any trace."

Only once did I encounter her by chance, running into her face in a corridor... After recognizing her, I launched an attack without hesitation, and with all my might.

Unfortunately, my sword missed its mark... Just a moment ago she was under my sword, but the next moment she vanished without a trace, as if she had stolen a few seconds of time.

"So, Sister Aileen, do you think the Sin Angel could be a time-manipulation user?"

Valensa pressed for more details, and then briefly recounted her own encounter with the angel of sin:

"I saw a very strange phenomenon at the time... Sister Sera's tentacles were about to attack the Sin Angel, but suddenly they stopped moving and let the Sin Angel leave... And it seemed that it wasn't just Sister Sera's tentacles that were still, but the whole world. In that world, only the Sin Angel could move freely."

Although I saw the Sin Angel's actions, I could only watch and think; my body was completely immobilized... Was this some kind of time magic?

"Well, judging from your feelings and the various things the Sin Angel has done throughout history, her ability does seem to be time magic, but it probably isn't."

Eresh gently shook her head:

"Whether it's magic, divine arts, or evil arts, manipulating time requires a great deal of energy. No matter how skillful the Sin Angel's spellcasting is, such energy fluctuations cannot be completely concealed... She must have left some clues after so many encounters with us."

But the truth is she left nothing behind. In the instant she vanished, she did indeed expend energy to activate some kind of special ability, but that energy was definitely not enough to affect time.

"The energy she expended when activating her ability was definitely not enough to affect time..."

Valensa nodded thoughtfully, which was taken as agreement.

But this makes the truth even stranger... What exactly is the Sin Angel's ability that has the same effect as stopping time but is not a time-related ability?

"Sister Ailei, you and your team have encountered the Sin Angel so many times, but have you never seen the Sin Angel fight? Not even once?"

Valensa asked again, unwilling to give up, and muttered:

"Even if she just killed a chicken casually...like when I met her, she reached out and pushed me."

"I just killed a chicken on a whim..."

Ai Lei smiled slightly, then frowned and recalled for a few seconds:

"But if you put it that way, the Sinful Angel did indeed make a move once... although I didn't witness it myself, I only heard about it from my subordinates."

"Hey?"

Valensa showed a hint of surprise and quickly asked:

"What was the situation at that time?"

"I don't know the specifics."

Ai Lei thought for a moment before saying:

"My subordinate mentioned in his report that the Sin Angel disappeared on the spot after casually defeating his pursuit with a wind magic spell."

"Pursuit? What kind of pursuit?"

Valensa's heart skipped a beat; her intuition told her that something very important was about to happen.

"Is your subordinate very strong, Sister Ellie? The Sinful Angel could even ignore your greatsword and disappear on the spot, so why did she choose to use wind magic to defeat that pursuit?"

"This……"

Irene was clearly unaware of the details either, but after Valensa's reminder, she quickly realized the key point and hurriedly said:

"Valenza, please wait a moment. I'll call that subordinate over and ask him about it."

Ereshkigal's order was quickly relayed. Valensa, after drinking a cup of hot coffee with lots of rock sugar for about three to five minutes, saw a man rush into the office, slightly out of breath, and say to Ereshkigal:

"Boss, you were looking for me?"

"It's Valensa who's looking for you. She's a sister from Farron and is very interested in the Sin Angel. She wants to ask you about the details of your encounter with the Sin Angel."

Irene first gave a brief introduction of Valensa, then gave orders to the men:

"Please tell us more about what happened back then."

"Huh? The time I encountered the Sin Angel?"

The man scratched his head, clearly somewhat surprised:

"That happened more than ten years ago..."

The man looked to be in his forties. He wasn't wearing paladin armor, but rather clothes that resembled those of a craftsman. He spoke in a manner that suggested he was a tech geek.

Although the man muttered a few words under his breath, he didn't refuse Ellie's order. After thinking for a moment, he spoke:

"That was more than ten years ago. At that time, Sister Ai Lei received information from an informant that a cult was planning to cause trouble, so she personally led a team to suppress it."

I was in the team at the time, but because I wasn't good at direct combat, I stayed outside to observe the situation.

"You're not good at head-on combat?"

Valensa raised an eyebrow and asked curiously.

How could someone who isn't good at direct combat force the Sin Angel to attack? Valensa increasingly felt that this clue might be very crucial.

"Well, I'm not very good at divine magic or martial arts. The reason I became a paladin of the goddess is not only because of my devout faith, but also because of my special talent."

The man chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head.

"I am a mechanical puppeteer, skilled in controlling a very agile mechanical bird. In battle, I am mainly responsible for forward reconnaissance and wartime observation, and I report the battle situation to the boss at any time so that she can order changes in tactics at any time."

"Controlling a mechanical bird?"

Valensa squinted thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled politely and said:

"I understand. Please continue telling me about what happened back then."

"OK, all right."

The man nodded, then smiled somewhat sheepishly:

"Actually, there's not much to say... I'm just a support character who's not good at direct combat. And I'm facing a notorious and dangerous figure like the Sin Angel. Even if I'm lucky enough to run into her head-on, there's nothing I can do."

"Didn't you do anything at the time? Did you just watch her run away?"

Valensa raised her voice slightly.

"No, that's not it... I did try my best, hehe."

The man seemed genuinely ashamed, and even looked away.

"I knew I was no match for the Sinful Angel. If I tried to stop her, I would most likely end up meeting Her Majesty the Goddess. So I was very cautious and didn't charge forward myself. Instead, I controlled the two scout birds beside me to rush forward, thinking that at least I could slow her down a bit."

The result was naturally useless. She casually struck down all my mechanical birds with two wind blades, glanced at me, and then vanished.

"So, when you mentioned in your report that she thwarted your pursuit, you meant she used a wind blade to shoot down your Machina?" Valensa asked, staring into the man's eyes.

"Yes, it is."

The man felt even more embarrassed under those deep blue eyes and explained somewhat awkwardly:

"I... I know I wasn't brave at all back then, and I wrote it that way on purpose to make the report look better... Actually, my two mechanical birds did nothing to chase her, they couldn't even slow her down for a moment."

"……I see."

Valensa made no comment on the man, but simply smiled at him again.

"Thank you, this message might be very helpful to me."

"It's nothing, it's good that I can help you, sister."