Things about the female knight in black stockings

"here?"

When Irene saw Valensa frown slightly at the location she pointed to on the map, she thought for a moment and then said with certainty:

"Hmm...it can't be wrong. There used to be an illegal mine here. I even went there to rescue people."

"Illegal mining operations?"

Valensa frowned slightly:

Is that still an illegal mining site?

"It shouldn't be. That place was sealed off almost a year ago."

Ai Lei gently shook her head and continued:

"That place used to be an illegal mine that had been operating for about ten years... Although the mine owner didn't take many safety measures in order to save costs, nothing major had ever happened until a year ago."

It seems that the miners accidentally dug through an underground monster's lair while mining? In any case, many monsters suddenly appeared in the mine, causing multiple miners to be injured or killed, and many miners were trapped. Only the mine owner and a few overseers managed to escape using a teleportation scroll.

Fortunately, the mine owner still had some conscience; instead of hiding after the accident, he came to me immediately for help.

I personally led the attack and slew almost all the monsters in the mine, rescuing the miners trapped deep inside... Afterwards, it was tallied that, apart from a few unlucky miners who were killed by the monsters when they first appeared, the rest of the miners managed to defend themselves by sticking together in the narrow terrain and using their mining tools, and no further deaths occurred. It was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.”

"That was indeed a stroke of luck amidst misfortune."

Valensa nodded slightly, then asked:

"After that, the illegal mine was shut down? Sister Ailei, you did it yourself?"

"No."

Ai Lei shook her head gently again, her tone somewhat helpless:

"Our duty as paladins is only to save people and fight monsters. It is the business of the Merchant Alliance's law enforcement team to investigate and punish those involved in the black mine."

After rescuing the trapped miners, I handed the matter over to the Commercial Union's enforcement team, but I still kept an eye on it.

I heard that the mine owner paid a large fine afterward, but initially he had no intention of stopping and seemed to want to continue mining the mine.

However, it seems that the mine has really stirred up a monster's den. Even though I personally cleared it out once, monsters keep appearing, making it impossible to continue mining.

So the mine owner had no choice but to abandon the mine and search for other veins. Meanwhile, the Merchant Alliance's enforcement team sealed off the mine with magic to prevent the monsters inside from escaping and allowing merchants to leave.

Nothing else happened there after that, so I gradually stopped caring.

"I see... Well, thank you for the information, Ellie."

Valensa nodded thoughtfully and then thanked Alyssa.

"It's nothing... If I really want to say thank you, I should be thanking Valencia."

Eresh smiled:

"You helped me catch that serial killer Anesse, you could even be called a hero in the entire city of Mosantina... Well, I'm not good at saying nice things, but anyway, as long as you're in eastern America, Valensa, you can always come to me if you need any help."

"Okay, then I won't hesitate to ask if I need anything."

Valensa gave Ellie a gentle hug, then took her leave with Tia and headed towards the sealed, abandoned mine.

They were riding on Tia's magic carpet-like flying card. Tia was in front, controlling the card's flight direction, while Valensa sat behind her, her arms around Tia's waist, her chin resting on Tia's shoulder, and occasionally blowing a breath into Tia's ear.

"Stop fooling around... Hmph, didn't you have enough trouble last night?"

When Valensa blew air into Tia's ear for the sixth time, Tia, whose face was already slightly red, finally couldn't take it anymore and pinched Valensa, saying coquettishly, then seriously:

"Valenza, what do you think of what Ms. Arey just said?"

"Yes, I do have some guesses."

Valensa also became serious. Although she still had her arm around Tia's waist and her chin didn't leave Tia's shoulder, her tone was quite earnest:

"Lily's team is Savat Langdon's pursuit squad. They shouldn't be interested in an abandoned mine unless they've found some clues."

Based on my experience participating in those operations in Fran, I suspect that this abandoned mine was likely also Savat Langdon's testing ground.

A year ago, this dark mine was hit by a monster outbreak. It was most likely not bad luck, but rather that Savart Landon, who had his eye on the place, was up to no good, trying to scare away the miners so he could take over the mine.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

Tia nodded, looking somewhat worried:

“That Savat Langdon is an extremely dangerous person. He has been wanted and pursued by the three major forces for so long without being caught. We absolutely cannot let our guard down! We must be careful when we investigate later. It would be very bad if we happened to run into that guy in the abandoned mine.”

"Well... probably not."

Valensa thought for a moment and said:

"The abandoned mine was at most a testing ground for Savat Langdon; he himself is probably not here."

"I know what you're thinking."

Before Valensa could explain further, Tia stated Valensa's deduction:

"You believe that since Lily's pursuit team has a combat-type sage in charge, if something happened to them, there would definitely be some news about it. Therefore, this abandoned mine that they investigated shouldn't be too dangerous, right?"

"Uh... As expected of Tia, my darling."

Valensa paused for less than half a second before smiling and kissing Tia on the lips:

"We really are on the same wavelength."

"I'm talking to you about serious matters, you idiot!"

Tia pinched Valensa again in embarrassment and annoyance, even causing the flight card to shake a few times before it resumed its steady flight.

"Mmm, baby, go ahead and tell me, I'm listening~~"

Valensa didn't seem to mind at all and kissed Tia again.

"You...hey."

Tia knew Valensa's personality well, and knew that scolding or physically punishing her would only excite her more. She could only take a deep breath, ignoring Valensa's little antics, and focus intently on controlling the flying cards while earnestly saying:

"Your idea makes sense, but it's always better to be safe than sorry! I think you'd better prepare for the possibility that we might encounter a formidable enemy."

"Okay, I know... Don't worry, I'm contacting Wei and Wu right now."

Valensa tightened her grip on Tia's slender waist and rubbed her cheek against Tia's.

"They've already replied to me... Hmm, no problem, they'll all be ready for battle. I can call them over for help anytime I encounter trouble."

Although Wu Meimei has already used her friend summon this month, neither Wei nor I have used it yet. I can summon Wei first, and then Wei can summon Wu Meimei.

"Little Dancer said she'd been preparing for a long time to beat up Savat Langdon, and had even practiced several powerful spells specifically designed to counter undead."

"Those friends from another world that you know... well, that's fine too."

Tia thought for a moment, then took out a gold card, activated it, and stuffed it into her collar:

"This is a magic card my teacher gave me to save my life. It can teleport me directly to the Sage's Tower if I encounter mortal danger... So don't worry if I suddenly disappear during battle."

"Yeah, I understand."

Valensa nodded.

After discussing business, Valensa couldn't help but become a little distracted while holding Tia. Her hands, legs, and mouth became restless, and she would occasionally sneak up on Tia. Once, Tia almost crashed her flying card into a mountain.

"Do you know that what you're doing is very dangerous?"

Finally, Tia couldn't take it anymore. She took out the rope she had used the night before and tied Valensa up. She then stood on the top of a small hill and scolded her while stomping on it. Only then did Valensa finally behave.

Because of this little incident, the journey that should have taken Tia's magic card to reach its destination in just over an hour took Valensa and the others a whole morning.

However, as Valensa's paladin, the sun goddess, her divine magic is strongest at noon, when the sunlight is at its strongest. Conducting an investigation at noon gives her an advantage in terms of timing... at least that's how Valensa explained it when faced with Tia's anger.

The two finally arrived at the abandoned mine that had been sealed long ago. The seal at the entrance of the mine seemed to still be in operation, but Tia frowned slightly after taking a few glances at it.

"fake."

While making a decisive judgment, Tia also casually gestured with her index finger, and a stone was grabbed by the mage's hand and thrown towards the seal at the entrance of the mine.

Sure enough, the seal was just an illusion. The stone was thrown in without any hindrance, and it took two seconds to land before it hit the ground with a loud thud.

"Has the seal been broken?"

Valensa also examined the fake seal and pondered for a moment:

"Was it already broken, or was it done by Lily's pursuit team? Hmm... I think it was probably already broken and then disguised, because if it was done by Lily's pursuit team, they could have just openly broken the seal, there would be no need for them to disguise it like this... What do you think, Tia?"

"I think this seal never existed; it was a disguise from the beginning."

Tia then examined the fake magic seal carefully again, and snorted disdainfully:

"When we get back to Mosantina, we can check out the Merchant Alliance enforcement team that was in charge of sealing this place. They were most likely bribed, and the seal was just a charade from the beginning."

"Was the seal useless from the start?"

Valensa rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment:

"It seems our previous guess was correct. This place is most likely one of Savat Landon's testing grounds in America. Otherwise, according to what Sister Ellie said, with so many monsters in the mine, it's impossible that they never left the mine to harm people. There must be someone controlling those monsters in the mine."

"That should be it."

Tia nodded, then took out the short wand, the Reincarnation Wing, crafted from the battle-hardened crypt monster's one-eyed giant eye, with her left hand, and two magic cards with her right, tucking them between her fingers, ready for battle:

"Let's go in and see for ourselves."

"it is good."

Valensa also used divine particles to transform into silver armor to protect her vital parts, while holding the pseudo-noble artifact Moon Kiss in her left hand and an alloy shield in her right, and entered the mine first.

Tia followed closely behind.

For the first ten meters or so inside the mine, nothing seemed out of the ordinary; only some abandoned ore carts and mining tools remained on the walls, suggesting the miners had left in a hurry.

It wasn't until some darker black stones began to appear on the ground that Tia suddenly called out to Valensa:

"Wait a moment."

After saying that, Tia squatted down, picked up a black stone, examined it carefully, and even tried to infuse it with magic.

"This is not ordinary gravel."

Tia quickly came to a conclusion:

"These are the remains of earth elementals, essentially their corpses. Moreover, these earth elementals were likely controlled by the spellcaster and died recently, no more than 10 days ago."

"That must have been caused when Lily's pursuit team explored this area."

Valensa immediately realized this, and after carefully observing her surroundings, she frowned slightly:

"But something's not right... If these earth elemental creatures were monsters from the mine and were killed by Lily and the others, why are there almost no signs of battle here?"

Even if the Sage's Tower's pursuit team is powerful enough to kill these earth elemental creatures easily, it's impossible for them to leave no trace of the battle, right?

"...because there is another possibility."

Upon hearing these words, Tia's face suddenly turned ugly.

"What's possible?"

Valensa quickly pressed for more information.

"These earth elemental creatures are not controlled by Savat Landon, but by a spellcaster in the Sage Tower's hunting squad."

Tia sighed:

"They left summoned creatures behind to secure their escape route as they ventured deeper into the mine, but the spellcaster encountered an accident deep inside. All of his summoned creatures were instantly wiped out, so there were no signs of combat."

"..."

Valensa did not reply immediately, but her expression became even more serious.

An accident that could instantly wipe out all summoned creatures... Even if Tia didn't say it explicitly, Valensa knew that the spellcaster was most likely dead.

"Be more careful."

Valensa gripped the hilt of her sword tighter, took a deep breath, and her eyes flashed with a dark light, ready to fight with all her might at any moment.

"Ah."

Tia put down the black stone in her hand and silently followed Valensa, also very cautiously.

The two walked about 50 meters deeper into the mine and saw all sorts of corpses appearing on the ground, and a stench of decay filled the air.

"It's an undead creature."

Valensa made her judgment with just one glance. She had been a paladin for almost two years and had a wealth of combat experience. Moreover, she recognized many of the corpses on the ground.