I became a heart-stealing thief in Azure Files

'Om...'

A gorgeous yet elegant velvet blue outfit quietly replaced her originally clean and tidy Abydos uniform skirt.

At this moment, 'Cognitive Existence·Gardenia Dream' thought of many things.

Various things about the Abydos Higher Institute.

About the impulse I had when I went deep into the desert.

Having absorbed an enormous amount of knowledge in an instant, it took her a while to process and understand what was going on.

she……

Or rather, the entity truly named 'Gardenia Dream Ling 22 Private 84', for whatever reason... in short, is already 'dead'.

She, on the other hand, is the cognitive existence formed by the two people before her, through some means, by gathering the traces left by the 'dream' (or rather, 'fragments of divinity'; 'impressions of the collective unconscious').

—Theoretically speaking, she was born from the sea of ​​human hearts…

Like the others, the assistants of the velvet room.

She was born from 'Gardenia Dream', possessing most of 'Gardenia Dream''s' memories, personality, and everything else...

But it cannot be entirely called a 'gardenia dream'—because the real gardenia dream is dead.

If I had to describe it...

The dream, drawing upon the vast knowledge and power it had gained through that drop of 'Crebi's divine blood,' offered a descriptive summary of its current state.

Just like the description in [Black Myth: Wukong]...

The difference between "Great Sage" and "Man of Heaven's Mandate".

She now possesses everything that her predecessor had: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind... but she cannot be considered a dream entirely.

...Simply put, it's like the Ship of Theseus.

"...I see...Is that so..."

After understanding what had happened, Meng sighed deeply.

She stood up and glanced down at her deep blue, elegant velvet dress.

"...In any case, now that a 'contract' has been signed..."

"I will work hard."

Chapter Twenty: The Episode Where Shengya Most Likely to Add Scenes for Herself

After signing a contract to make Yume an assistant in the "Velvet Room," Amamiya then informed her of various precautions regarding what she should do.

Amamiya only stopped, reluctantly, when the alarm sounded in Lavenda's velvet room, signifying the gradual sinking of the collective unconscious (the vast majority of people waking up from their dreams).

"Next... what you need to do is to decorate the velvet room according to the different 'unruly messengers' you will be receiving..."

"And, assist the Unruly Messenger, undertake tasks such as 'collecting the Complete Book of Demons'... Do you understand?"

The green-haired girl, who had been earnestly instructed by Amamiya, nodded repeatedly.

"Please rest assured... I will make sure the 'Velvet Room' is ready as soon as possible."

"Well then... see you next time..."

Feeling that the time was about right, Amamiya severed the connection between her consciousness and the velvet room.

The ethereal chanting of "The Soul of All People" drifted far into the sky.

As Amamiya's consciousness gradually sank and he was about to wake up, he felt as if a gentle hand was tugging at him.

Immediately afterward, Amamiya felt a slight dragging sensation.

After frowning slightly, Amamiya did not reject the feeling of being 'grabbed around the waist and dragged backward by a strange girl'.

The next moment, everything went black before his eyes.

'Squeak—'

'Snap, snap...'

When a kerosene lighter is lit, the slight sound of the flint and steel striking each other, along with the sparks that fly up, instantly illuminates the darkness.

The candle was lit by a delicate, white hand, as tender as white jade.

“…Sensei, we meet again.”

The girl's soft sigh was swallowed by the darkness, then reached Amamiya's ears.

"..."

Getting up from the noble bed, Amamiya shook her slightly drowsy head, sat on the edge of the bed, and observed her surroundings as she had done before.

The environment remains hazy and dreamlike, decorated in the style of a mystery scholar or fortune teller, exuding an ethereal and mysterious aura.

Amamiya stood up and turned her gaze toward the person who had spoken.

Under the flickering candlelight, the blonde girl, with her eyes lowered and closed, sat at the table as if she had been prepared all along.

Her long, golden hair seemed even more delicate and smooth than before. A pure white, split-sleeve dress clung to her petite and frail body, which exuded a unique maturity. Perhaps because of the flickering light, she appeared even more like a 'young wife'...

A unique sense of déjà vu, somewhere between 'mature' and 'pure white'.

Standing up in her slippers, Amamiya went to the table and sat opposite her, just like last time, staring intently at her through the dim candlelight.

Even in the dream world with its limited computing power, Saintia still took great care of herself and did not neglect her appearance due to the limited conditions.

However, it was precisely this meticulous attire that allowed Amamiya to see the fox-eared girl's almost imperceptible 'disarray' hidden beneath her near-perfect physique.

There were slight red marks and swelling on her cheeks, clearly indicating that she had been pinched hard.

In addition, the ears drooped listlessly. Although they were very well groomed, it was still possible to see from some minor details that, due to 'external intervention,' there were slight signs of hair loss compared to last time.

Amamiya glanced again at her previously long, floor-length blonde hair, and then noticed that it seemed to have inexplicably shortened.

Amamiya chuckled: "...You got a lesson from Ravenda?"

"……Um."

The aura was instantly shattered, and after a brief silence, the fox-eared girl gave a muffled "hmm".

"The dream world... even one's own dream world, is theoretically not a lawless place..."

After a gentle 'admonition', Amamiya immediately became serious: "So... is there something you wanted to tell me?"

“Of course.” Saintia nodded gently. “Before our ‘bond’ has developed to a certain extent, my contact with you through dreams is not without purpose.”

Amamiya: ...

The way you're saying it makes it sound like, "I called you here now for a reason, but the future is another story"...

So, what exactly did you foresee?

After taking a sip of the black tea placed on her side, Amamiya put down the teacup and said seriously, "What do you want to say?"

“Sensei…you must have recently come to suspect the ‘dire situation’ of Trinity.”

Perhaps due to the 'painful lesson' from last time, this time Saintia did not presumptuously display the tarot cards used for divination.

With her elbows resting on the table, her hands supporting her chin, and her body slightly leaning forward, she stared at Amamiya for a short while before asking a fairly serious question.

“You are on the right track right now…that’s beyond doubt. What I can help with is not ‘correcting’ you, but rather ‘getting to the bottom of things’…so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.”

"—What questions would you like to ask about the 'Hall of Fame Strategy'?"

After considering it for a moment, Amamiya realized that she already knew most of the information about the Palace Strategy.

Even with her precognitive abilities, Saintia could only know some details that she didn't yet know...

Asking only about the details of the temple would be too much of a distraction from the rest of the exploration experience.

So, let's ask about things we can't be completely sure about right now.

“‘Eden’…is it the one without flowers, or the one with Nagisa?”

Saintia, who was half-closing her eyes, gave him a slightly surprised look.

"Heh... As expected, worthy of being called the 'unpredictable Trickst,' the questions asked were even beyond the scope of the dream's prediction..."

Noticing the change in Seiya's unique way of addressing her (*the 'My' is gone), Amamiya thought to herself that Seiya was really scared of Ravenda.

“Regarding this issue,” Saintia paused, “didn’t you already have a precise guess?”

Amamiya: ...

Judging from his interactions with the three people at the tea party, none of them, taken individually, actually possessed the qualities of the 'master of the hall' with his twisted desires.

Mika is like that, and so is Nagisa—one is 'too naive' and easily manipulated, while the other is simply overly suspicious.

Their desires were indeed distorted to varying degrees, showing signs of turning into seeds of desire... but to say that they developed into a temple would be a bit of an exaggeration.

If Eden were a personal sanctuary... that person would at least need to possess the kind of 'intense desire to distort reality' that Maruki Takuto had, along with a strange entity like 'Persona Azathoth (Arcane: The Fool)' to assist them...

Otherwise, it would be impossible to form a 'tree of desire,' let alone build the Garden of Eden at its top.

This might sound a bit complicated—simply put, if you take any one of the three—Mika, Seiya, or Nagisa—at a time, their desires aren't strong enough to create a complete temple.

Even a 'low-level small temple' is like this...

A palace as powerful and influential as the World Tree, capable of permeating the entire Impression Space, is even more remarkable—it's likely that even the combined might of Mika, Seiya, and Nagisa couldn't achieve that.

But the Garden of Eden was still formed.

What can this show?

—The Garden of Eden is not a 'personal palace' nor a 'palace for three people to have a tea party'.

In theory, it is the hall of worship for all students of Trinity...

As for Mika, Nagisa, and Seiya, as the core members of the tea party, they were naturally chosen as if they were being elected as the 'Holy Grail (Aldabait),' and became the masters of the hall in a semi-forced manner.

This situation is actually similar to that of the Phantom Thieves after the 'Godslayer' incident, when everyone regarded them as the hope of the group.

I have no choice in the matter, but I cannot resign.

Once we step down... that 'power' might be taken over by some other strange thing.

"……so."

After receiving the complete details about the 'World Tree' temple from Seraphim, Amamiya considered for a moment and asked her second question.

"Regarding the members of the tutoring department..."

"Sensei, you want to know... how to get close to them 'legitimately' for a long time, and a reasonable reason to form a 'phantom thief group' with them, right?"

Amamiya nodded.

This is indeed the most worrying thing right now.

After all, the 'tutoring club' was originally set up by Nagisa because of her suspicions... and those placed here were all 'suspicious members' she wanted to expel.

Under this premise, it's understandable that Amamiya, as a member of the Xialai Sensei, would occasionally visit these nominally poor students to help them improve their studies... but doing it every day might arouse suspicion.

"Hehe... As the saying goes in the Classic of Mountains and Seas: 'Where there's a will, there's a way; where there's a will, there's a way.'"

"If you're a little troubled by the current situation... Sensei, why don't you wait for tomorrow?"

Tomorrow is coming...?

Does this mean that Nagisa might take action against the tutoring club for various reasons... and even involve herself in it?

Amamiya was pondering when she suddenly heard the voice that added to her favorability.

【~???~】

"……?"

Distracted by the sound, Amamiya glanced in surprise at the fox-eared girl sitting opposite the candlestick.

Saintia didn't speak or make any unnecessary movements. She simply looked at Amamiya quietly with a gentle, expectant gaze.

[...I sensed a subtle expectation from Saintia.]

Coopation has been improved!