The story of the black silk female knight

After the chief student's speech, the banquet was essentially over.

A middle-aged male teacher with the demeanor of a host went on stage again, gave a brief summary, and then announced that everyone could enjoy the food freely.

"Tia! Valensa! Over here, over here..."

Just as the two women were about to look for an empty seat, they heard someone calling out to them loudly.

Following the sound, one could see Melody's radiant smile and her striking white silk bodysuit with rhinestone embellishments, which was still incredibly eye-catching in this setting.

Sitting next to Melody were Giru and Harry, as well as Asashi and Luca, and two other classmates she didn't recognize.

But more importantly, there were two empty seats at that table, clearly reserved for Valensa and Tia.

"Hi~~"

The two girls, of course, wouldn't refuse their friend's kindness. They quickly went over and sat down, greeted their teammates from the second round of the assessment with smiles, and even gave Melody a light hug.

"Come on, let's toast to our successful reunion here!"

Melody handed Valensa and Tia the fruit wine she had prepared beforehand, and then raised her glass to signal everyone to clink glasses in celebration.

This was something they had agreed upon long ago before parting ways in the third stage, so naturally no one would refuse.

"cheers!"

The group lightly clinked their glasses in the middle of the table and then drank them down in one gulp.

The two classmates Valensa didn't recognize also smiled. They didn't participate in the toasting, but simply raised their glasses slightly to offer their blessings.

"Wow, this is truly excellent wine. I've heard that the fruit used to brew this wine is harvested from a type of plant-based monster, most of which possess strength comparable to a lighthouse. The wine brewed from this fruit is not only sweet and mellow, but it also restores energy and temporarily boosts elemental resistance!"

After downing a glass of wine, Melody's face was quite radiant, and she gave Luca a mischievous look:

"You'd better take the opportunity to drink more, otherwise you'll have a zombie face again tomorrow morning... Be careful not to get caught again, mistaken for an undead creature that escaped from the laboratory."

"Pfft, hahahaha..."

Everyone at the table, including the two classmates Valensa didn't recognize, laughed. Even Asaki, the culprit, squinted her eyes, creating a joyful atmosphere.

"what? What?"

After laughing, Valensa finally couldn't resist her curiosity:

"How did Luca get captured as an undead creature? It seems quite a few things have happened while I was recuperating in the Sun Church's Sun Dew Holy Water these past few days."

"Hehe, that was indeed quite interesting~~"

Tia clearly knew the whole story. She covered her mouth and giggled twice, but instead of starting the story, she first pointed to the two classmates Valensa didn't recognize and introduced them to her:

"But it was because of that incident that we met Mead and Mitterrei, who came from the Crow family of Morgan City in the western part of the kingdom."

Valensa followed Tia's introduction and looked at the two classmates. The two looked like siblings, or even twins.

They both had short, light blonde hair that reached their ears, and their face shapes were almost identical. If it weren't for the obvious difference between the boys' and girls' school uniforms, it wouldn't be surprising to mistake them for brothers or sisters.

"Hello, I'm Valensa Bader, it's nice to meet you."

Valensa extended her hand with a friendly smile, but in her heart she was thinking—perhaps it would be more interesting to let the two siblings swap clothes?

"Hello, Valensa, I'm Mitte (Mead), it's an honor to meet you!"

The younger sister took the initiative to extend her hand and gently shake hands with Valensa, while her brother also greeted her with a friendly smile.

"Oh, no, no... I was just lucky, I'm not famous at all~~"

Valensa was polite in words, but she felt a little strange inside.

It's not surprising that twins can be very in sync, but when these two siblings greeted each other just now... their synchronization seemed a bit too high, didn't it?

Aside from the different names they gave, the two spoke in exactly the same way, with identical tone and content, as if one person were controlling two bodies...

Maybe I'm just overthinking it?

Valensa gently shook her head, banishing the random thoughts from her mind, and then smiled as she brought the topic back:

"So what happened? How come Luca was almost mistaken for an undead creature?"

"This one……"

Mitterrei blushed slightly and lowered her head somewhat embarrassed.

"It was the morning after I finished the enrollment procedures. I got up and did my morning exercise, but I saw a suspicious figure with a strange gait wandering around the school."

This is what happened in the Trial Maze, isn't it? I was worried that bad guys might cause trouble again, so I quietly followed that figure.

As a result, he appeared pale, stiff, and unsteady, almost exactly like the undead creatures described in the book.

Remembering that our school also has necromancy classes, I thought it was a zombie used for teaching that had escaped, so I went up and knocked it down, and even sent it back to where the zombies were kept..."

“It was still very early, and most students hadn’t gotten up yet, so nobody saw it.”

Melody, standing to the side, chuckled and picked up the conversation:

"It took Asashi a long time to realize that her boyfriend was missing, so she came to me crying for help... Of course, I dragged Gil and Harry along to help look for him."

But the necromancy classroom was very remote, and the room where the zombies were kept was underground. We searched for a long time but couldn't find it, so we had to go find Tia again.

In the end, it was Tia who used her secret technique, "Fate of Encounter," to learn that Luca's mysterious disappearance was likely related to Miterai and his sister, thus clearing up the misunderstanding and rescuing Luca.

"Ah this..."

Valensa was dumbfounded. Luca was really unlucky.

"I actually think it's alright..."

Seeing Valensa looking at him strangely, Luca just grinned and scratched his head:

"Mite's technique was so skillful, I fell asleep without feeling any pain at all... I haven't had such a comfortable sleep in ages..."

Chapter 6: The Finest Soup You'll Never Drink Again

Haven't had a good night's sleep in ages...?

The people at the table all had complicated expressions and were secretly glancing at Asaki out of the corner of their eyes.

As expected of a priest of Her Majesty the Sun Goddess, she is truly amazing!

"Okay, okay~~"

Finally, Tia ended the conversation by pointing to the dining table:

"We'll be classmates for the next three years, so there will be plenty of opportunities to chat... Let's enjoy this rare treat for now."

"it is good!"

In fact, many people had already been secretly drooling over the table full of delicious food, and now that Tia had spoken, everyone immediately picked up their spoons and knives and forks.

For a noble like Tia to call it a rare delicacy, the ingredients used in this welcome banquet for new students must be top-notch. Ordinary people might never even have heard of it, let alone tasted it.

"Here, try this first."

Tia scooped a small piece from a rainbow-colored cake with her spoon and placed it on Valensa's small plate.

"I highly recommend this one... It's the masterpiece of a diamond-level member of the Food Association. The whole cake is like a rainbow with seven colors, and each color's flavor is a blend of more than ten kinds of fruits, making it exceptionally sweet and soft~~"

"A cake that combines the flavors of various fruits..."

Valensa was clearly tempted as well. She picked up the small plate, brought it to her lips, opened her rosy lips, and first licked it lightly with her tongue before swallowing the whole spoonful of cake and savoring it slowly.

"Mmm~~"

Then her eyes immediately became dreamy, and a blush of happiness appeared on her face. She rested her chin on her hands like a fool completely in love.

"Sweet! So sweet... This feeling is just like making vows of eternal love with your sweetheart under the moonlit flowers, and then, when the atmosphere is perfect, naturally leading to a tender and joyful moment... In short, it's so sweet it touches the heart, filling one's mind with longing for a sweet romance... Tia."

Valensa seemed truly overwhelmed by that feeling of happiness, and as she spoke, she grabbed Tia's hand:

"Shall we go on a date tonight?"

A hint of shyness appeared in Tia's eyes, but it vanished in an instant. She even reached out and pinched the soft flesh on Valensa's waist.

"What nonsense are you talking about? You idiot... You're drunk after just one drink? What a useless, pretty-boy knight!"

"Haha, Tia, you're being tsundere again... While tsundere can be charming, it's a bit outdated now. If you keep this up, Valensa might get snatched away by a bad woman~~"

Melody laughed and joked from the side.

"So what if she's taken away... Who cares about her anyway... Besides, we're not in that kind of relationship!"

Tia glared at Melody angrily, then pointed to the small bowl in front of her:

"Drink your soup... Can't even such a delicious soup shut you up?"

"Soup?"

Valensa, upon hearing this, also looked at Melody's small bowl and even twitched her nose:

"Actually, I've been wanting to ask this since earlier... Melody, what are you drinking? It smells so good~~"

Tia's recommended seven-colored cake can indeed make people feel so sweet that their minds are filled with happiness, but Valensa had eaten similar desserts when she was still a young lady in the capital, so it wasn't anything new.

The aroma wafting from the small bowl in front of Melody and the soup bowl in the center of the table was something Valensa had never smelled before in her life.

The aroma was not only enticing, but it also piqued Valencia's curiosity as a cook... She couldn't figure out how to season the soup to give it that aroma.

"Whoohoo~~"

Tia seemed to have seen through Valensa's thoughts and immediately began to show off with a touch of smugness:

"After being a village girl in a remote countryside for three years, you're probably out of touch with the times, aren't you? This isn't the kind of soup you make with all sorts of seasonings; it's a gift from Her Majesty the Sun Goddess!"

Truly top-quality ingredients often require only the simplest cooking methods, because their natural flavor and aroma surpass everything else; using spices would be a waste.

"A gift from Her Majesty the Sun Goddess?"

Valensa became even more curious:

"Why do you say that? Could it be that this soup comes from the Church of the Sun?"

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Asaki.

"Ugh... No, no, no, this soup actually has nothing to do with our church~~"

Asashi, who was also enjoying her food with her cheeks puffed out, quickly waved her hand, swallowed the food in her mouth, and looked at Tia with curiosity:

"I didn't feel any of Her Majesty the Goddess's power in the soup... so why would you say it's Her Majesty the Goddess's blessing?"

"Because its formation is very special, it is something that human chefs simply cannot do. Perhaps only the word 'miracle' can explain it."

Tia also scooped up a spoonful of soup and took a few sips, a look of blissful intoxication on her face:

"That was a year ago... A food hunting team from the Gourmet Association discovered a small, island-like ice floe in the sea to the west."

It's unclear where this ice floe came from... In any case, according to research, it seems that many powerful monsters were fighting each other for something somewhere, but when the battle reached its climax, they were instantly frozen by an extremely strong ice energy, and thus became that ice floe.

Valensa, didn't you also say that the stronger most monsters are, the better they are as food?

The powerful monsters in the ice floes had been frozen for an unknown amount of time; they seemed to have been stewed in a large pot, their flavor and essence absorbed by the ice floes.

The floating ice was extremely solid; even the fire spells of a Star-level mage had difficulty melting it, and it required the power of the Sun God's Fire to break it.

The ice water that was melted by the fire of the sun god, when heated, is the soup you are drinking now.

Although the ice floe wasn't small, it was practically impossible for it to regenerate. Every drop of this soup was consumed was a finite amount, and it had always been treasured by the Food Association, making it difficult to buy even with a lot of money.

Even I've only ever had it once, at a royal New Year's Eve dinner... I didn't expect our school to be so impressive, managing to get this kind of soup to welcome new students.

"Hahahaha... As expected of the eldest daughter of the Britannia family, a lot of information about this soup is top secret. Even the gold-level members of the Gourmet Association are not qualified to know it, yet you just casually revealed it."

Almost as soon as Tia finished speaking, a hearty laugh rang out.

Everyone is familiar with this voice; it's the one that gave that long speech before the banquet started.

"Headmaster!"

The people at Valencia's table, who were enjoying their meal, immediately put down their cutlery, stood up, and bowed to the newcomers.

"Hey, hey, hey... don't be so formal. I just wanted to have a drink with our heroine, but I happened to overhear someone recognize the origin of this soup."

This soup is indeed a case of "the less you drink, the less there is left," but it's not something to be treasured like that... Good food is meant to be enjoyed by everyone; keeping it as a hoard is a waste.

So everyone, don't be shy, drink as much as you like... hahahahaha.

Chapter 7 Meat That Can Cure You with Just One Bite