I became a heart-stealing thief in Azure Files

[As the saying goes, "Break through destruction to find the wings of resistance."]

Here you are bathed in the light of hope and blessed. You have obtained a fragment of the ultimate mystery of "love"...

[To further propel us toward the future...]

……

[Coopetition restrictions have been lifted!]

【Tianyu Yazi (Upside Down) ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[Assistant's Profile: An administrative officer of the Disciplinary Committee. She also serves as the chairman's secretary. While she gives a kind and approachable impression, she is somewhat neurotic. Her proud personality and various other reasons have earned her the nicknames "loyal dog" and "pet." Perhaps I could try to get closer to her and alleviate her stress.]

'Another bond relationship has been created...'

After watching Ako leave the street, Amamiya put her hands behind her head and looked up at the distant view of Gehenna.

Today is over...

Let's start preparing for tomorrow's negotiations with the engineering department.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Tomorrow or an Accident – ​​Which Comes First?

'Beep beep beep beep... beep beep beep beep...'

The mechanical-electronic clock emitted a soft, yet crisp chime that broke the tranquility of dawn.

Outside the window, I could almost hear the distant calls of migratory birds flying across the sky, the natural sound of their wings flapping; the rustling of falling leaves; the swishing of someone sweeping the floor, and the particularly relaxing crisp sound of withered yellow leaves being trampled...

Rubbing her eyes and yawning, the girl sat up in bed and smoothed her messy purple hair that had become disheveled from sleep.

"Nine hours of sleep, perfect."

After glancing at the clock on the bedside table, the girl muttered to herself, picked up the 'Kongming lock' pendant next to the alarm clock, closed her eyes, and meditated for a moment.

After feeling that familiar sense of clarity that came from the strange pendant, Yuka began washing up and having breakfast as usual.

"Considering that today may involve some physical and mental labor, and helping Sensei handle various tasks, the calories needed should be slightly higher than normal..."

"Everything is within the calculation."

After changing into a seminar uniform and checking her makeup and other details in the mirror to make sure there were no problems, Yuka also unplugged her phone from the bedside table while she was out and about to check if there were any seminar plans for the day.

"Although there are some accounting and bookkeeping arrangements for today's seminar, since this is a new commission and there's still some time before the deadline, the accounting and reporting results don't need to be done immediately, so we can postpone it a little..."

Before leaving home, I grabbed my dual submachine guns, brought my usual calculator, and prepared for any potential dangers.

Yes, everything is so perfectly within the calculation.

The cheerful girl hummed a pixelated MIDI tune she had learned from the game club as she embarked on the optimal route to Xia Lai, which she had already calculated.

...Then, unexpectedly, he 'bumped into' Noah, who also didn't know what he was going to do and hadn't gone to the seminar either.

"Huh? Noah?"

Yuka was somewhat surprised to see her familiar best friend on the train.

"Hehe... What a coincidence, Yuka-chan."

The girl with snow-white hair chuckled and waved to Yuka, who looked slightly puzzled.

"...Noah, is there anything special planned for today?"

"Hmm. Today... there's something special going on; I need to go to 'Beritas'."

Is there something else that Beritas needs a seminar to resolve...?

Hearing her best friend's calm and natural answer, with a squinting smile, Yuka didn't notice anything strange.

Apart from Koyuki Kurosaki, the other students at the seminar were busy almost every day, and occasionally they had to make surprise visits to other clubs for 'surprise inspections' or other reasons.

I suppose Noah is probably preparing to conduct a surprise inspection or something...

"By the way..."

Noah's gaze lingered on the Kongming lock that Yuka had made into a very reasonable waist ornament and hung on the 'waist bag', and he seemed to understand what Yuka was going to do today.

Before Yuka could even begin to discuss accounting matters, Noah gave a gentle chuckle.

"Yuka-chan is going to Xia Lai today as the student on duty to help Sensei with Xia Lai's work, right?"

"Huh? Ah... no, that's right."

Just from Noah's words, Yuka, who felt she was all set, almost lost her composure, feeling inexplicably nervous as if she were being teased.

"Keep it up, Yuuka-chan~"

Yuka's nervousness gradually subsided after watching her 'best friend' who had left those words get off at the next stop.

It seems that not everything is within the 'perfect calculation'...

The world is unchanging; at least most of the established 'laws' are unlikely to change drastically overnight.

But while the world remains 'unchanging,' it is also full of unexpected events.

You never know... whether tomorrow or an accident will come first.

After calming herself down in the train carriage, Yuka got off at the designated stop.

Standing at the foot of the Xia Lai Building, which was right in front of her, and looking up at the building that had almost been taken over by delinquent girls not long ago, Yuka felt a strange feeling gradually growing in her heart.

Perhaps... this place will become a place I frequent in the future?

After such a thought flashed through her mind, Yuka went straight into the Xialai Building, which had almost no security and whose electronic doors could let in any humanoid intelligent being.

'Hmm...it seems like it's time to optimize and upgrade Xia Lai's security measures...'

'The lack of security guards can be excused by saying it's the duty of students on duty, but if even the most basic security for automatic doors is this poor, problems like theft and lost documents will soon arise, won't they?'

As Yuka followed the instructions toward Xia Lai's office, which also served as the "club activity room," she searched and analyzed everything within her sight.

Since it's still in its early stages, even though the Federal Student Association has allocated funds, the facilities here all feel rather 'temporary'...

Let alone compared to a seminar, Yuka believes that even the core office space of any medium to large-sized college is far superior to Xia Lai in terms of 'professionalism'.

'It seems... we still need to discuss the security issues and equipment additions for Xia Lai with Sensei further, taking into account the actual situation...'

After keeping this plan in mind for the time being, Yuka pushed open the door to the "club activity room".

It was much tidier and cleaner than when she last came (Chapter 13 of Volume 1).

While security is indeed a concern, at least the most essential spaces used for office work and business processing are not compromised in any way.

'...Hmm? Sensei, hasn't he arrived yet?'

Yuka looked around the office but couldn't find anyone, and a slight doubt crept into her mind.

However, this doubt was quickly dispelled by the relaxing light jazz music that she heard playing on the screen.

"Oh, Yuka's here."

……

"Oh, Yuka's here."

Amamiya, who was preparing for the 'Shalai Equipment Replacement Plan', naturally waved to the purple-haired girl who entered the office.

"Now that Yuka is here... let's get started on today's 'planned topic'."

Amamiya waved the form in her hand as she spoke—it was a printout of the 'initial plan' that she had discussed with Yuka last time.

Amamiya certainly placed great importance on the renovation and addition of various facilities in Charlemagne.

After all, this place is not only my residence and workplace for a long time to come, but also a place where many students gather... In addition, I occasionally need to provide some help to some 'homeless students', so how can I not pay attention to it?

Yuka quickly realized what she needed to do and immediately put herself in her 'role's position'.

"Sensei, is today's 'main task' to plan the various equipment that needs to be added, replaced, or updated in Xia Lai?"

"When I arrived, I did a brief observation of the current Xia Lai Building and found some potential security and other vulnerabilities. I need to tell Sensei about these..."

Amamiya, who didn't know much about this field and had little say in it, listened silently to Yuka's opinions.

—The counter-surveillance measures in areas that require privacy and confidentiality, such as Xia Lai's 'club activity room' and Sensei's residential area, are far too weak.

It's so weak that if you set up a telescope not far from the Challey Building, you can observe everything that happens here.

In addition, security measures in areas such as windows and balconies are not adequate, allowing drones to easily fly in and place various eavesdropping devices.

The students are just setting up the listening devices out of curiosity, Sensei, but you can try to imagine... what if one of them had malicious intentions towards you and dropped a bomb using a drone?

In particular, for balconies, windows, and other areas that are prone to drone intrusion, security measures require a robust and reliable encryption scheme.

In addition, if possible, the glass in the club activity rooms, which are also office floors, should be replaced with special one-way glass with anti-peeping function to reduce the possibility of being spied on.

Also... it was observed that the monitoring equipment and some automated equipment inside the building were not particularly well-developed.

The automatic doors, in particular, lack even a slightly more advanced biometric system capable of accurately identifying individuals… This is extremely dangerous. If any student were to enter and steal crucial items, it could potentially lead to a crisis…

After saying a lot in one breath, Yuka crossed her arms and ruthlessly discarded the initial manuscript that Amamiya had printed out.

"Sensei... this initial document may not be applicable to the equipment replacement of the current Charlene Building."

Amamiya truly hadn't expected that Yuka could find so many security-related vulnerabilities from what she had seen, heard, and felt.

This perfectly illustrates the saying – it's easy to be a thief, but difficult to guard against them.

Amamiya himself is a 'thief (phantom thief)', only knowing how to evade and sabotage security facilities...

However, he didn't know how to arrange the security facilities in a reasonable way.

"I see... Xia Lai had so many loopholes that I hadn't anticipated."

After stroking his chin thoughtfully for a moment, Amamiya smiled warmly and sincerely: "If it weren't for Yuka's help, these blind spots... would really be hard to notice."

【~???~】

The girl, who felt as if she were being relied upon, was quite pleased with Amamiya's not-so-complimentary 'acknowledgment'.

However, despite the three highest-level double eighth notes of favorability emanating from her, her cheeks flushed slightly as if she were a little upset.

After an abrupt pause, the girl crossed her arms and turned her head as if surveying the room, saying bluntly, "Sen, Sensi really is... For an adult, shouldn't he at least be more concerned about his personal safety?"

"Sorry, sorry~" Amamiya clasped her hands together, smiling bitterly, "I really don't know much about this... I'll have to trouble Yuka a bit more~"

【~???~】

"Since Sensei has said so..."

"Then let's make sweeping revisions and corrections to the 'initial plan' from the last plan."

After discussing the 'Xia Lai equipment addition plan' with Yuka until noon, the girl, still in a 'brainstorming' state, quickly pressed a few keys on the computer and filled the last column of the table with the results.

She then let out a long sigh.

"Finally finished..."

Yuka, leaning back in her ergonomic chair and gazing up at the ceiling, momentarily lost in thought.

Then she suddenly realized something—wait, did she not prepare a bento box in advance?

Although Angel 24 downstairs also sells them... I ended up paying more due to a momentary oversight...

"Sensei, what are the plans after this?"

Amamiya nodded.

"After dinner... I'd like to invite Yuka..."

"Come with me to the engineering department."

Chapter Forty: Giving Youth Fantasy and Love

"So...Sensei, you plan to go to the engineering department and discuss with them..."

Yuka paused for a long while, her words ambiguous, before continuing, "...to cooperate, and to have them help renovate and build some new facilities that Xia Lai can use...?"

The unease in the girl's eyes surprised Amamiya slightly.

"What's wrong, Yuka?"