Things about the female knight in black stockings

I encountered a similar situation when I was investigating an incident in Fran... Adventurers who were sucked into the domain of a monster lord simply vanished without a trace in the eyes of others!

"...So that's it."

Eresh seemed to have finally fully accepted Valensa's speculation. After a moment of realization, she murmured to herself, her eyes growing brighter and brighter:

"No wonder that bastard never left any trace when he committed the crime, and we never found the crime scene... because he possesses a domain, and all his actions are carried out within his own domain!"

The reasoning thus led to the conclusion.

The legendary psychopath hiding in Mosantina is likely not human and possesses a domain like a monster lord, but he also has human aesthetics, liking young women who wear short skirts and stockings like most human men.

It is a humanoid intelligent being that can perfectly hide in human society. Under normal circumstances, it is no different from ordinary humans, having ordinary jobs and even ordinary families.

But it is not a real human being after all, and has physical needs that are completely different from those of humans. Whenever these physical needs become uncontrollable, it will transform into a perverted killer, using its domain to make the chosen woman disappear at night, locking her in its domain to do things until its physical needs are satisfied before discarding the victim's legs.

It will only leave the victim's legs. Besides its own special XP preferences, it is more likely that its way of satisfying its physical needs is quite special and has very obvious racial characteristics. Once discovered, its identity will be immediately identified.

To better conceal its identity, it maintains a very unremarkable public persona, seemingly belonging to the lowest rungs of society. Its work is related to the clothing industry, but it lacks a stable income.

These are Valencia's general speculations about the psychopathic killer.

There's no solid evidence, just pure reasoning and speculation, but Valensa is confident the truth shouldn't be too far off.

"Let's contact the Sage's Tower."

Valensa mentally reviewed her calculations, writing all her predictions on the whiteboard in the room with a black pen. After thinking for a moment, she said to Ellie:

"Ask them if any accidents happened ten years ago... such as a researcher exploring another world on their own and introducing some dangerous otherworldly creature, or a researcher conducting biological experiments and creating a special monster."

The Sage's Tower certainly wouldn't easily tell outsiders about these shameful secrets, but if we go and inquire, they definitely won't be completely ignorant... Anyway, let's give it a try.

"You still suspect that the origin of that pervert is related to the Sage's Tower?"

Eresh immediately understood Valensa's meaning and guessed.

"Nine times out of ten."

Valensa nodded, and her black pen flew across the whiteboard again, sketching a rough map of the Frenoia continent with the simplest lines:

"Look... since that pervert went on a rampage targeting Ms. Diana's clients back then, it means he had a special fondness for Ms. Diana's work. So, when Ms. Diana left here for Fran, he should have followed her there to commit crimes, but he didn't."

Originally, I guessed it probably didn't have the strength of a Radiant Rank, since it didn't dare attack you, Ellie, who used herself as bait. And for someone without Radiant Rank strength to travel from America to Fran, they basically only have two options: take a ship from the western side of the continent by sea, or use a teleportation array directly.

Therefore, it can be inferred that its economic strength in human society is not good, and it is unable to afford the cost of cross-border travel or pass the entry inspection.

But that was just my initial speculation. Now that we know it's likely a Radiant-rank monster with a domain, like a Demon Lord, there are two more ways for it to reach Fran.

Valensa then pointed between America and Fran:

"The first route is to head south directly by land and forcibly cross the Desolate Ridge Land... Although this route is extremely difficult, it is still achievable for Moon Radiance experts... especially those whose strength is not suppressed by the environment of the Desolate Ridge Land."

However, it didn't choose that path, indicating that its strength hadn't reached the level of a Moon Radiant being, and it wasn't even particularly strong among Star Radiant beings. Furthermore, its living conditions were similar to those of humans, and it disliked the environment of the Desolate Ridges.

Seeing that Eresh nodded slightly in agreement, Valensa moved her hand to the right, tracing a line from top to bottom on the eastern side of the Frenoia continent:

"The other route is to go east across the Misty Mountains into the territory of the Sages' Council, then south into the Witch's Forest, and finally west from the Witch's Forest across the Misty Mountains, entering the Kingdom of Fran from its eastern border."

Although you will encounter various powerful monsters on this road, most of them live alone, except for a few that live in groups. You don't have to worry about being surrounded and attacked like you would when you encounter wild beasts in the Wasteland.

Furthermore, considering the presence of the Sages' Council and the Witch's Forest, two gathering places for top-tier cultivators, this route is actually the best choice for Radiant-rank cultivators traveling between America and Fran.

“That’s right. Once when I was on vacation, I traveled around from the east side of the continent to France, and finally returned from a small border town in eastern France... I think it was called Klara? I walked the sacred path from the cathedral there.” Eresh nodded again in agreement.

"So, since that pervert likes Ms. Dana's work so much, why doesn't he follow that path and commit crimes in Fran?"

Valensa shrugged:

"Whether it's Fran or America, they generally show a friendly attitude to Radiant-rank experts coming from the direction of the Misty Mountains, and the entry inspection is very lenient."

Theoretically speaking, as long as it didn't act recklessly upon entering the country, it should have had an easy time getting into Frankfurt via this route... but it didn't.

"Because it's afraid of being discovered by the Sage's Tower or the Witch's Forest! Its origin is most likely related to these two places, and it's even possible that it escaped from these two places!"

Ereshkigal finally understood Valensa's meaning.

She hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and nodded decisively:

"Alright... even though Valensa, none of your speculations have any evidence, I'll go crazy with you this once. At worst, in ten days... oh, it's nine days now, we'll both get a beating from Her Majesty the Goddess."

Valensa immediately felt her buttocks burning again, and that overwhelming sense of shame, which she couldn't resist, began to stir within her. She quickly squeezed her legs together, puffed out her cheeks, and shouted:

"I won't get beaten up! They'll definitely catch the culprit! I don't want to get beaten up again!"

"Of course I don't want to either... so I hope your reasoning is correct, Valencia."

Ai Lei blushed slightly, twisted her waist, and let out a long breath:

"I'll contact the Sage's Tower later. A sage owes me a favor, and he should be able to give me some useful information... Besides that, what else do we need to do?"

"Hmm...we can prepare for a battle with the murderer within the city."

Valensa thought for a moment and said:

"Just issue a notice to the public, saying that a fierce battle between Radiant Ranks is likely to break out in the city soon, so that the public can prepare."

The reason... well, let's just say it's to eliminate high-level fog demons that might be hiding in the city. Anyway, this matter caused quite a stir in Arant a few days ago, so the people shouldn't be too panicked or surprised.

New Discoveries (Chapters 100-102)

Even a battle between a Radiant-rank expert or just a Star-rank expert could cause massive damage to a town and result in the deaths and injuries of innocent civilians.

Like the time Valensa fought the Mist Girl in Arland a few days ago, the actual time they fought head-on was very short, only about a minute. The Mist Girl was focused on escaping, and Valensa deliberately held back to avoid accidentally injuring passersby.

Even so, more than 30 buildings across seven streets were damaged, and thousands of people were injured in the aftermath of the battle.

If it weren't for the low construction costs in this world, and the fact that the Church of the Sun paid for the damage to the buildings and the injuries to the people on Valensa's behalf, the aftermath of this fight would have been a huge financial drain on Valensa.

Considering that the psychopathic killer is hiding in Mosantina, and that there is a high probability of armed conflict when he is captured or killed, it would be best to issue a notice in advance to give the public time to prepare.

The Americans are quite capable of dealing with sudden disasters at home, much better than the Frans and the Four Islands Alliance.

The Americas faced their greatest natural calamity from the Netherworld race.

Every time the Netherworld Clan successfully infiltrates a human city to cause trouble, they manage to create a scene resembling Resident Evil, or even more terrifying.

While bio-viruses require zombies to bite people to spread, the Netherworld race's talent for transforming and controlling the undead is an aura effect.

When the Netherworld Clan activates their ability, any human within range who lacks sufficient resistance will be directly transformed into an undead, who will then indiscriminately attack those who have not been transformed.

To cope with this situation, the American people particularly liked to dig holes in their homes and build all kinds of underground shelters, where they would store food. If their city was attacked by the Phantom Clan, they could hide inside and live there for at least half a month, waiting for the rampaging Phantom Clan to be defeated or for them to leave before coming out to start a new life.

Although America is much better off now than it was hundreds of years ago, and is no longer subject to massacres and destruction by the Hades in a biohazard-like manner, the habit of building shelters has been preserved, and many families still have their own ancestral shelters.

However, since they haven't been used for a long time, those shelters may not have any food reserves, or they may not be well ventilated or cleaned, so using them hastily could cause a lot of discomfort.

Valencia's announcement to the public is to prepare the residents of Mosantina for the possibility of seeking temporary refuge in shelters.

This request was reasonable, and Ai Lei naturally wouldn't refuse.

After agreeing on the investigation plan, Valensa and Ereshkigal did not rush to take action, but chose to rest for another night... The punitive effects of the miracle still lingered on them, and their combat power was affected to some extent.

In this state, directly going to find the murderer could very well turn you into one of those defeated female paladins in strange comics who give the villain a perk.

Of course this is not possible.

After another night's rest, the burning sensation on Valensa and Ellie's buttocks finally subsided, and they were no longer overwhelmed by shame just by sitting down.

To avoid being severely punished by the Sun Goddess again, they split up after waking up.

Valensa, along with a group of paladins and the Merchant Alliance's law enforcement team, sealed off many blocks of Mosantina City, launching a search under the guise of hunting down lurking fog demons. She even had a petite female law enforcement team member dress up as a demon ninja in a Thousand Leaf Grass outfit.

In reality, Valencia focused her searches on places related to the clothing industry or areas where a large number of clothing industry workers lived.

The letter the murderer wrote to Ms. Dana contained a large number of professional terms related to clothing.

Valensa therefore concluded that the killer's daily disguise likely involved him in related work, but probably in a low-paying, marginal position.

During the visits and investigations, Valensa hardly slacked off, personally asking many people questions.

She hadn't studied real criminal investigation in her previous life, nor was she particularly fond of detective novels, but she had read some very classic similar works.

So when asking workers in clothing factories... especially hosiery workshops, Valencia referred to the characteristics of a classic serial killer in a certain anime and asked some questions.

Do you have any rather strange men around here?

At one of the three largest hosiery workshops in Mozambique, Valensa interviewed more than a dozen long-time employees who had worked there for over ten years.

"Strange? Isn't it strange that any man would come to work here?"

Before Valencia could even articulate the specific, strange criteria, more than a dozen middle-aged female workers began to chatter and answer at once:

"Exactly! Those men have gone mad. Take Yuk from the quality control team, for example. He's a tall, strong man, but he secretly wears women's stockings by himself. He's such a pervert!"

"Yes, yes, and... there's also our patrol team leader. Last time I needed to see him, and guess what I saw outside his office? He was actually making tea with stockings that young female workers had worn! It's absolutely disgusting!"

"And there's more..."

The female workers rattled off several stories of the perverted behavior of the male employees in the workshop. After they finished, they stared at Valensa with excitement, seemingly eager for the paladin to kidnap one of their perverted male colleagues.

But Valencia just gave a helpless, bitter smile and explained:

"Actually, these aren't really perverted... They might seem perverted to ordinary people, but they're just niche hobbies. Real perversion isn't like this."

"Ah?"xN

The older female workers in the stocking workshop were clearly surprised, but even if the Americans' faith in the sun goddess wasn't as fanatical as Farhan's, it was still quite devout. As ordinary people, they would never dare to question a paladin, especially one like Valensa who seemed to be of high status.

So after the accident, the older female workers all looked on with great curiosity:

"Then what kind of man would be considered a true pervert, Holy Knight?"

"Well... to put it simply, they are people who seem to have no flaws in life, but also find it difficult to get truly close to others."

Valensa thought for a moment, a strange smile appearing on her lips, and said:

"He is probably in his 30s, unmarried, has a fixed address, lives a very rhythmic life, gets up and goes to bed on time every day, and has no bad habits like those of ordinary men. People might even think he is very outstanding."

He will demonstrate great competence at work, letting people know he's not someone to be trifled with, but he will never be the most dazzling person; he'll probably be ranked 3rd or 4th out of 10.

He always had a smile on his face, seemed very easygoing, and could chat with anyone for a few minutes, but he didn't have any particularly close friends... especially outside of work hours, he was almost always alone.

"So, have you noticed any men like this around you?"

After giving a brief description based on the image of a well-known psychopathic killer, Valensa questioned the older female workers again.

"This……"

The female workers looked at each other, hesitated for a long time, and then shook their heads one after another:

"No... other characteristics are fine, but having a regular lifestyle and no bad habits is very difficult for a man."

Those male employees... from seventeen to seventy, almost every month as soon as they got paid, they'd head straight to the brothel district. If their salaries weren't so low, they'd definitely be living in the brothels every night!

A man who goes home and goes to bed on time every day... can he still be considered a man?

"That's it..."

Valensa was slightly disappointed, but not too surprised.

If information about a psychopathic killer were so easy to find through investigations, he wouldn't have been able to commit crimes in Mosantina for nine years and remain at large.

After leaving the hosiery workshop, Valensa visited several other hosiery workshops and garment factories, asking the veteran employees similar questions, but unfortunately, she received similar answers.

There are plenty of men who are just a bit odd with their XP system, but not a single one is a true pervert who appears normal on the surface but is actually abnormal.

It wasn't until dark, when most workshops had closed, that Valensa, who had spent the day searching but had found almost nothing, returned to the Church of the Sun, intending to check on Ereshkigal's progress.

As they approached Ereshkigal's office, the door opened from the inside, and a small old man dressed in a sage's robe stepped out, nearly bumping into Valensa.

At first, the old man's beard twitched, as if he wanted to get angry and scold Valensa.

However, the old man clearly knew the Church of the Sun better. He recognized that the silver paladin armor Valensa wore was not something an ordinary paladin could wear, so he immediately suppressed his anger, glanced at the office with a complicated expression, snorted, and left directly using teleportation, without even giving Valensa a chance to greet him or apologize.

...Some people really do get worse and worse as they get older, and they deserve to be skin and bones.

Valensa muttered a complaint in her heart before pushing open the door to Ellie's office. There she saw Ellie sitting behind her desk, her brows furrowed as she looked at some documents.

"This is?"

Valensa leaned closer, somewhat curious:

"You got it from that little old man? Is he a sage from the Sage's Tower?"

"puff."