Things about the female knight in black stockings

The dark figure quickly spotted Valensa and Ereshkigal, the two high-ranking paladins, but showed no sign of panic. Instead, it gestured with its upper body in mid-air and bowed slightly, giving the two a standard Sun Church worship gesture before continuing to fly towards the student dormitory.

"?"

"What does this person do?"

Even Eresh, a local, was clearly seeing this for the first time, let alone Valensa. Their curiosity was immediately piqued, and they quickly followed behind the man in black.

Valensa had already seen what the man in black looked like when she bowed to him.

He was a rather young man, probably under 20 years old. The black clothes he wore were the apprentice robes commonly seen in many magic academies. He was flying using the most basic wind-based levitation spell, which only required the strength of a candlelight-level spellcaster to activate, making it the lowest-cost way to fly.

The flight speed of this levitation technique is naturally not very fast, less than 30 kilometers per hour. Valensa and Ereshkigal simply quickened their pace slightly and easily kept up.

The man in black quickly realized he was being followed by two high-ranking paladins, but he only showed some curiosity and remained calm, continuing to fly until he reached the student dormitory.

Hovering in mid-air about three stories above the student dormitory, the man in black leisurely took out a small notebook and more than ten packages from his personal storage items. He opened the notebook and carried all the packages with his mage hands.

He looked at the small notebook for a while, then knocked on the windows of the student dormitories one by one, handed the packages to the students in the rooms, and then took the silver coins that were obviously prepared in advance from the students.

Throughout the entire process, the man in black was completely open and made no attempt to conceal anything.

While Aileen was still wondering, Valensa had already shown a look of sudden realization.

The job this man in black is doing is delivering food, right? It's just that compared to those lightning-fast yellow-clad riders in my previous life, this man in black can fly and has storage devices, so he can deliver many orders at once!

The man in black was clearly not doing this kind of work for the first time, and the students were also very familiar with the process. The exchange of money and goods was very fast, and more than a dozen orders were completed in less than five minutes.

After delivering all the goods, the man in black did not rush to leave.

He seemed quite curious about the two beautiful paladins, Valensa and Ereshkigal, following him. After hesitating for a moment in mid-air, he floated over to their side.

"Good afternoon, esteemed paladins."

Upon landing, the man in black bowed politely with a smile.

"Is there anything I can do to help you two? My name is Ras, and I am a devout follower of Her Majesty the Sun Goddess. I would be happy to serve you both."

Chapters 109-111: This money is enough for you to betray your friends, isn't it?

Who are you? What are you doing here?

Valensa, based on her past life experiences, immediately realized that Ras was probably a food deliveryman, but Ellie couldn't tell at a glance, so she questioned him sharply without any politeness.

"My name is Ras. I'm a student at the magic academy next door. Because my family isn't well-off, I'm working part-time to earn some pocket money."

Lars's reply remained unhurried:

"This is a boarding school, and students can only go out for two days each month, which is far from enough to meet their needs for purchasing daily necessities."

My job is to help them shop according to their requests, then deliver the items to them, earning some extra money for running errands.

"...How come I've never heard of anyone doing this kind of business?"

Aileen frowned:

"Are you doing this alone, or are there many other people doing this business together? Has your business been registered with the Federation of Industry and Commerce?"

"Of course not."

Lass was perfectly justified:

“Registering with the Federation of Commerce and filing records costs a lot of money. Most of us who do this are poor, so where would we get the money to register? Besides, we have to pay taxes after registration. We don’t want to use our hard-earned money to feed those administrative staff.”

"No registration or filing?"

Ai Lei raised an eyebrow and sneered:

"Discussing doing business without registering and filing is illegal. At best, you'll be fined heavily; at worst, you'll go to jail. Don't you know that?"

"I know... but who said we're doing business?"

Lars wasn't afraid at all; instead, he smiled slyly.

"I'm good friends with the students here. When I buy some daily necessities for them, they give me extra money to buy some treats as a thank you. That's normal, isn't it?"

"you……"

"Okay."

Eresh seemed to want to scold Lars a bit more, but Valensa interrupted her with a light laugh.

"We do have something that requires your cooperation."

Valensa wore a warm and inviting smile as she gently placed a gleaming gold coin between her index finger and thumb into Lars's hand.

Ras immediately beamed with joy, his attitude becoming incredibly humble:

"Paladin, please ask me, and I will answer to the best of my knowledge."

"How long have you been doing this? How do you contact your customers? Do the teachers and school leaders know about you?"

Valensa asked several questions in quick succession, her face displaying just the right amount of curiosity, as if she were asking them purely out of curiosity.

Lars, completely unsuspecting, answered the questions in turn:

"I've been doing this for less than two years. I came here because a senior student recommended it. There's a small gap in the wall on the northeast corner of the school, and we set up a mailbox there. The students here put their orders and deposits in envelopes and drop them into the mailbox, and then we buy the goods and deliver them according to the orders."

The teachers and school leaders know about us, of course, but they don't interfere. They know that allowing students only two days a month to go out is far from enough. It's less risky for them to let us buy things for them than for the students to sneak out and buy things themselves. Besides, sometimes the teachers even place orders with us to help them shop.

"That's it..."

Valensa first nodded, feigning satisfaction, then asked:

"Do you have orders to fulfill every day? Do you know roughly when people first started this business?"

"Everyone says we're not doing business, we're just helping out a friend!"

Lars cautiously emphasized one point before answering again:

"We definitely get orders every day. We have a lot of orders. The mailbox used to receive orders needs to be cleaned at least three times a day. I often come here several times a day."

As for who first started doing this... well, I'm not entirely sure, but the senior who introduced me to this job told me that back when this school only admitted female students, there were already people secretly buying things for the girls and making a profit from the difference.

"Are you sure?"

Valensa's eyes lit up, and she quickly asked:

Do you have your senior's contact information? How many people are in your small team now? Where is your base located?

"Well... I can't just betray my friends."

Lars looked rather troubled, then suddenly chuckled:

"Unless, sir, you're giving me way too much money."

"Tch, you little money-grubber."

Valensa feigned disdain and snorted, casually pulling out a handful of gold coins—at least a dozen—and stuffing them all into Lars's hand.

"This money should be enough for you to betray your friends, right?"

As she spoke, Valensa looked into Lars's eyes again, her azure pupils turning dark in an instant, like an abyss capable of swallowing everything.

Just as he was about to mutter "not enough, more money needed," Ruston suddenly shuddered, feeling like a mouse being held down by a big cat's paws, unable to escape being played to death and eaten no matter how much he struggled or tricked.

"That's enough... thank you, Paladin."

Ras's teeth chattered as he quickly and carefully took the gold coins and put them away.

After that, he dared not have any more ulterior motives. He quickly found a notebook and a pen, scribbled a few lines, tore out that page from the notebook, and handed it to Valensa:

"This is the senior's name and address, as well as the names of our team members and the team's current work location. It's all here, Holy Knight."

"Alright, that's all for you. You can leave now."

Valensa snatched the paper and waved coldly at Lars.

Ras wasn't disappointed at all; on the contrary, he felt like he'd been granted a pardon. Like a little mouse that had finally escaped from the clutches of a big cat, he used his levitation spell to run away without looking back.

"You suspect... that the murderer used personal shopping services to get close to Ms. Dana and secretly loved her?"

After watching Ras fly away, Eresh quickly asked.

"Probably!"

Valensa waved the paper in her hand, very excited:

"Only strangers who are purely doing business could frequently appear around Ms. Diana without being remembered by her... Come on, let's go ask those old teachers again, and Sister Ai Lei, you should also arrange for someone to investigate this team."

"it is good."

The two took action immediately.

"Did Little Diana ever ask someone to buy things for her back then? Of course she did, quite often."

Faced with Valencia's new question, the veteran teachers were somewhat surprised, but quickly answered:

"Our school's sewing class only started receiving more investment after Little Diana became famous. Before that, we didn't have such well-equipped sewing workshops or such a complete range of sewing materials."

So when little Diana was studying tailoring techniques at school, she had to find someone to buy many of her sewing tools, threads, paints, and fabrics for her.

Shortly after Valensa confirmed with an old teacher at the school that Ms. Dana had also frequently ordered takeout services, Ereshkigal's subordinates also sent back the news.

Ras's senior and his delivery team were located, and the questioning went smoothly.

As Lass said, this small food delivery team was founded decades ago and has gone through more than a dozen generations of members. There is no boss; everyone is a partner.

Although the team takes orders together, everyone's earnings are their own. There are no intermediary platforms deducting handling fees, and no contractors taking a cut.

Not only the school Ms. Dana attended, but also three other full-boarding schools nearby are within the scope of this small team's business.

Unfortunately, the most senior member of this small team has only been working there for 5 years and knows nothing about what happened about 10 years ago.

"Keep checking!"

Ereshkigal, however, remained in high spirits and gave orders to her subordinates without hesitation:

"Since almost all the members of this small team joined through referrals from acquaintances, there must be connections between their generations! Continue investigating along their networks! Find out who was in charge of the school's operations during the years Ms. Diana was in school!"

"It's already been checked, boss."

Ereshkigal's subordinate was a rather thin young man with a somewhat aggrieved expression. Under Ereshkigal's imposing presence, he resembled a foal being run over by a cart.

"Back then, there was indeed someone specifically in charge of Ms. Diana's school, but it is said that even within the small team, that person did not have any particularly close relationships with anyone. In fact, after he left the team, no one was found to replace him; it was other team members who filled the position."

I found those people who used to buy things for others at the same time as him. They all said that apart from necessary work-related contact, he never had any personal social interactions, was very unsociable, and no one knew where he lived, only that his name was Mike.

"Mike?"

Ai Lei frowned, clearly displeased.

"This sounds like a pseudonym... There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of young men named Mike in the entire city of Mosantina. Is there any more detailed information? Like what he looks like?"

"That's...gone."

The young paladin, sweating profusely under Ereshkigal's glare, weakly said:

"I also asked about his appearance, but their job involves running around buying and delivering things almost all day. Even team members hardly have time to chat, and that person never participated in social activities outside of work. The team members at the time only remembered that he was quite handsome, but they couldn't describe exactly what he looked like..."

"I'll go ask Ms. Diana herself."

Valensa interjected at the opportune moment, and after receiving a grateful look from the young paladin, she thought for a moment and said:

"If that person really is the murderer, really is the half-brain-eating monster Anesse, it's normal for him to intentionally control his social life and not attract attention."

"Tsk, that's all we can do."

Eresh nodded, and she and Valensa rushed back to the Church of the Sun. Using the church's remote divine communication, they contacted Fran in Fran and asked Fran to go find Lady Dina.

Before long, Ms. Diana appeared in the divine communication. The two communicated across thousands of kilometers like a video call, and there was even a delay of about half a second when they spoke because of the long distance.

Chapters 112-114 Female Knight, immediately stop your illusions of defeat!

After Ms. Dana graduated from school, Anase most likely lived in the slums for a long time, and may even still be living there now!

This conclusion greatly excited Valensa and Ereshkigal. Despite the late hour, they had no intention of resting and immediately headed to the slums of Mosantina.

Similar to the slums of Gondia, there was also a Sun Church relief point outside the slums of Mosantina. Two nuns were dozing inside, embracing each other and looking half-asleep, very intimately.

Eresh's sudden arrival startled the two nuns, who blushed and stammered as if their secret relationship had been exposed.