I became a heart-stealing thief in Azure Files

"I see... We've got it."

Amamiya nodded, then asked, "Do you have any other information about the 'Demon King's subordinates'?"

"You all know the Demon King's 'Three Heavenly Kings,' right?"

Shadow Nero gave a soft 'heh,' his tone filled with a self-deprecating tone: 'Anyway... be careful of those demon king's subordinates.'

"They are not actually on the same side as the Demon King; they only stand with him because of mutual interests and other reasons..."

"The Demon King's three generals..."

"'The Ruthless Calculator'—Yuka Hayase, also known as the Gravity Demon Queen, is said to possess extraordinary weight. Judging by your performance…"

Nero's gaze lingered briefly on Alice, then he said meaningfully, "Perhaps you could try to win her over with 'cuteness'."

"As for the remaining two... one of them is known as 'The Imprisoned Lucky One'—Kurosaki Koyuki. She's called the Lucky Demon Queen. Her attribute is luck... She excels at calculations and decryption... If you get her help, you can move freely within the Demon King's castle and obtain all the treasure chests..."

"The way to deal with her is to offer her benefits as bait..."

"at last……"

Shadow Nero paused to catch her breath, her gaze lingering on Amamiya.

"The last one is the 'cold scribe' - Noah the raw salt. Her weakness... I don't know yet."

"However... perhaps you could try using yourself as bait?"

Amamiya is in a bit of a predicament.

To expect him to sell his body to the shadows...? No way.

"I'll consider it. Do you have any other information?"

"...That's all."

The shadowy Nero looked up at the sky: "It's almost time... I need to make my escape."

Her figure transformed into a writhing shadow and slowly dissipated.

"May your journey to defeat the Demon King be successful..."

Chapter Twenty-Two: Rion: Alert.jpg

The real world – the fortress city of Elidune.

'Wow...'

The soft rustling of papers being turned over stopped briefly, accompanied by a mature, soft exclamation.

The long, straight black-haired girl, her narrow, crimson eyes slightly narrowed, frowned slightly as she felt a slight unease rising in her heart. She put down the document in her hand and gently placed her right hand on her breasts.

Strange... what is this inexplicable, uneasy feeling...?

Is there... a problem with the maid club?

Putting down the documents in her hand, she, an extreme rationalist, pondered deeply, but still couldn't find the source of her unease.

After pacing back and forth in the bright office room for a short while, a subtle but profound feeling called 'doubt' appeared on the girl's beautiful and mature face.

"hour."

Her high heels tapped lightly on the ground in a fixed rhythm. Her gaze was deep and thoughtful as she softly called out to her 'personal bodyguard'—who was also the 'fifth person' in the maid department.

With a 'click', the door was pushed open.

A girl with long, golden hair piled up and seemingly emotionless deep blue eyes deftly pushed open the door and entered. She then stood by the door, her hands clasped in front of her, giving a slight bow in greeting.

"Please do not hesitate to ask if you need anything."

Rion did not respond immediately.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, she reflected her slender, jade-like hand on the one-way glass, holding onto the exceptionally high level of security, feeling the slight warmth brought by the midday winter sun shining through the window.

The slight midday warmth from the glass, and its constant calm like the surface of water, calmed her turbulent emotions somewhat.

After remaining silent for a minute or two, she turned her back to the 'maid and bodyguard' standing at the door and waved, giving instructions to proceed.

"...Go and see what the maids' club is up to."

“I suspect… that Nero and the other members of the ‘maids’ club might be betraying us… Keep a close eye on them from the shadows. If they make any unusual moves, let me know immediately.”

The two brief commands seemed to further calm the sudden unease that rose in her heart, which was insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

"Yes."

After a brief response, the blonde girl in a knee-length maid dress left silently—not forgetting to close the door discreetly before leaving.

The room quickly returned to its empty and quiet state. Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Rion slightly opened the window and felt the increasingly biting cold and chill of the air hundreds of meters above.

"call……"

Her long, black hair, which was below her knees, was tossed about by the gust of wind, rippled slightly like waves, and facing the wind, Rion closed her eyes and tilted her head back slightly, further calming the barely perceptible emotions on her face.

'A strange feeling...'

Is it... "repentance"?

That's impossible... Clearly, she hasn't even had any contact with that Sensei yet... She's only seen his picture.

Does simply looking at photos fall within the realm of 'cognition' and mean one can be influenced by repentance?

...That's practically an "anomaly" on par with meme propagation.

If that's the case, then... wouldn't Sensei possess something even more advanced, more ancient, and more sublime than the "mystery" that Kiwatos currently knows?

Shaking her head slightly, Rion felt that her 'repentance' was baseless and impossible, so she temporarily abandoned this guess.

First of all, she was doing something righteous, so theoretically she shouldn't exist in the kind of hall that he (Amamiya) mentioned, where "only evil people exist."

...Secondly, she was almost certain...that her inner defenses were as solid as an iron wall, that all her actions were justified and reasonable, and that there should be no way to find a breakthrough.

Finally... she herself hadn't even met that Xia Lai's Sensei... Theoretically, even if he wanted to invade her inner world and make her change, it should be impossible.

After attributing her change in mindset to what might just be a momentary emotional fluctuation, Rion sat back down in her chair and began searching through her research notes on the [Twilight Feather].

"Incredible..."

The exquisite experimental results before her eyes, and the various possibilities of 'machines developing minds', made her murmur softly to herself.

Is this the [special product] of that magnificent otherworld I've never seen before...?

Indeed, it possesses extraordinary, even ideal, properties... an ideal material that can only be produced in places like Utopia.

It is already an ultra-precise processing block, somewhere between the 'human brain' and a 'high-precision electronic chip'. If a larger, more complete one could be obtained, and then an AI with human emotions could be nurtured from scratch... then theoretically, it would be possible to mass-produce...

'A special legion composed of such androids, whose strength and capabilities are close to those of "students"...'

If we combine this with the various alloys derived from Eden Metal that the Engineering Department recently acquired, and extend the development of weapons and bionics in these areas...

Perhaps, besides the construction of "Eridu"... "Valhalla" could also be put on the agenda.

Unfortunately……

Putting down the documents in her hand, Rion looked out the window at the blue sky and white clouds.

That Sensei from Xia Lai is unlikely to be on her side...

Moreover, one should be extremely careful when contacting him... [Once contact is made, there is a possibility that he will repent].

'Should we take the risk and find an opportunity to express our feelings to him...?'

For no apparent reason, Rion had a premonition that... [the "trickster" who once took the world back from the gods could understand her intentions and had some common ground with her.]

She had already obtained and carefully analyzed the 'written record' (the script of the game department) summarized by Noah.

Although only one 'target of repentance' (Hiiragi Alice) is clearly documented, the rest is just a simple outline...

However, after careful analysis and a brief simulation, Rion is more inclined to believe that... such a "battle record" is completely real and not fabricated.

The Phantom Thieves have indeed defeated, and more than once, beings of godlike stature... wresting back the desires of all humanity and ownership of the world from their lofty hands.

'Shall we try making contact...?'

Rion felt somewhat uncertain.

'Observation is enough... perhaps a tentative, tentative approach is possible...'

……

That time and that moment.

……

"Wow... the Demon King's castle seems to have become quite lax in its defenses..."

Hiding in the shadows of the corner, Momoi noticed from afar that the shadows during the patrol had become noticeably more negative.

"Has some kind of special system, like dynamic difficulty balancing, been triggered?"

Momoi's confusion caused the girls to pause their search, all turning their attention to Amamiya, who was looking for the location of the 'Demon Lords'.

"You could say that..."

After glancing at the reactions of the shadowy automatons, Amamiya nodded in agreement with Momoi's 'guess': "The principle is based on psychological changes... but you can interpret it as 'dynamic difficulty balance' if you want."

There are absolutely no people in this world who are born without blood or tears.

In other words... even the most hard-hearted person will have inner turmoil and slight emotional changes.

It might not be obvious from the outside... but it will still affect their inner world. If they have a spiritual realm, this emotional change will also spread and affect that realm.

……found it.

Using the [Prometheus] search, Amamiya stopped her search and waved to the four members of the game club.

"The locations of all key targets have been confirmed..."

"Next, let's go find a 'Moqunjiu Qiliu IX & Yichanbalu King' and prepare to turn them against us."

Chapter Twenty-Three: Xiaoxue, Who Also Gets Confined in Another World

"Identity verification in progress..."

"This must be the... hundredth or so level verification already..."

Momoi, feeling helpless and bitter as the familiar rainbow light scanned her body, lowered her head and sighed. At the same time, she had no choice but to spread her hands out, making a gesture of 'waiting for verification'.

Momoi wasn't the only one feeling helpless about this 'verification process'.

Little Green, Alice, and Yuzu all experienced firsthand the "heavily guarded" nature of the Demon King's Castle.

Even with Amamiya's strategy of searching ahead and avoiding the enemy, they were able to almost completely avoid fighting the 'Demon King's Castle Guards'...

There's almost no fighting involved, but the tedious verification process is endless.

It's almost like walking down a corridor; you have to go through two special authentication processes...

Feeling her patience gradually wearing thin, Little Green sighed and complained, "It's like one of those so-called 'brain games' filled with inhumanly difficult puzzles..."

Amamiya took the keychain off her waist and displayed the 'key' transformed from the parchment emblem given to her by Himari in the shadows.

"...Identity verification successful."

"Welcome back, ████."

After receiving the familiar "verification successful" message, Amamiya put away the keychain used for verification, sighed, and then led the members of the game club forward.

'It seems... Rion has an unusually high level of defensiveness and wariness towards those around her...'

Even someone like Nero, who could be considered a "personal bodyguard," wouldn't be completely trusted by Rion. In other words... even someone like Nero couldn't easily bring an "outsider" to the Demon King's castle, a place like Elido...

Soon, Amamiya and his group found the location of the 'underground prison'.

After ascending a spiral staircase and opening the entrance using the shadowy [parcel emblem] of Himari, what greeted Amamiya, Sophia, and the four members of the game club was a scene whose art style instantly regressed to the Middle Ages…

It looked particularly damp and cold, like an underground prison.

"Is this... a prison cell...?"

"It feels like a region that imprisons various targets that pose a danger to the Demon King..."