I became a heart-stealing thief in Azure Files

I misunderstood...

"Ah ha ha……"

Hifumi pulled her mask down a little, smiling awkwardly to hide the 'strange' look that flashed through her mind.

"Speaking of which... is this the interior of the Tower of Babylon...? It looks like an exhibition hall..."

To change the subject and ease her embarrassment, Hifumi decisively turned her attention to the things around her.

After she said that, the girls on the countermeasures committee also began to observe their surroundings.

"Huh...? What is this...?"

Hifumi glanced around at the gazes around her, then suddenly stopped near a sculpted container.

After letting out a low gasp of disbelief, the girl instantly became serious and jogged over to the vicinity of the aquascape box.

"What's wrong, Hifumi-san?"

Noticing her unusual expression, Hoshino asked curiously.

"This is……"

Her response was a mixture of shock, disbelief, resentment, and anger from Hifumi, ultimately resulting in "dissatisfaction."

"Is this... a scene from a street in Trinity?"

Amamiya stood beside Hifumi, examining the landscape box that was clearly a street scene. Then she bent down slightly to read a display sign near the landscape box.

"The Holy Trinity District - Perolo Cultural Street, acquired on [Month] [Day] at sunset..."

Hifumi let out an indignant "woof".

"Ugh... I knew it... it's that street that was shut down not long ago..."

"All the shops on this street have suddenly closed down, and someone is saying they're going to turn it into a large high-end luxury shopping mall... Is it because of the 'Kaiser Group'...?"

Amamiya stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "If I understand correctly... since this is an 'exhibition hall,' and also a reflection and manifestation of the inner world of the hall's owner..."

“Hifumi saw the miniature landscape box of this street here, which means that in the real world, the Kaiser Group has completely taken control of this area…”

"Do you see the hand and eyes on the aquarium?"

"As for the eyes, I speculate it means 'this area is being observed.' The hands, then, mean 'this area is under control.' The threads on the hands, however, mean..."

Hifumi suppressed her anger and added to Amamiya's 'guess' in an unusually low voice.

"...The Caesar Group is extracting nutrients from this region."

The girls on the countermeasures committee, who had suffered greatly from this, understood perfectly what Hifumi meant by her relatively euphemistic "extracting nutrients."

To put it nicely, this is called extracting nutrients.

To put it bluntly, this is "sucking blood from students".

Looking at the large mechanical hand on the aquascape box, Serika muttered angrily under her breath, "Damn it..."

"...Look here."

Bai Zi's sudden outburst drew everyone's attention once again.

"A gun... no, I should say... a student's 'relics'?"

Chapter 48 What bad things has the Caesar Group done?

Bai Zi's emphasized tone drew everyone's attention.

Amamiya immediately approached the display case where Shiroko was and carefully examined the model of the display case.

This is a lifelike life-size human sculpture. The material appears to be a bone carving, made from the bones or teeth of some kind of creature.

The sculpture depicts a student dressed in a style somewhat reminiscent of the uniform of the Abydos Higher School.

This statue does not present a conventional standing posture, but rather a kneeling posture when life is like a candle flickering in the wind, collapsing in a corner when life is on the verge of death, or helplessly panting when severely injured.

It knelt against the inner wall of the glass case, its clothes tattered, with clear traces of what may have been artillery fire or explosives on its body, and orange-yellow shell casings and shrapnel of various calibers scattered all around it.

The blast shields used to protect against gunfire are pitted and riddled with holes.

The girl's body was covered in gruesome wounds, but the blood had long since dried and congealed, leaving dark red patches on her clothes.

The rifle in her hand had also become weathered and broken.

Such a horrific scene caused the girls who witnessed it to hold their breath.

In the silence, Amamiya bent down and began to read the contents of the display board next to the glass case in a low voice.

"A student council member of Abydos Higher Academy, a fool who would betray his comrades without hesitation for the slightest bit of profit... Ha, thinking he's so clever, trying to gain something from us..."

"Little girl, don't you know that the adult world is full of dangers... The moment you cooperated with us, it was no different from a lamb entering a tiger's den, or trying to get something from a tiger?"

"Collection time: two years ago."

"Having lost their usefulness... well, let's let you 'graduate'."

The so-called 'graduation' is undoubtedly just a 'method of handling'.

The way a student was allowed to "disappear" silently in Kivotos.

"This this……"

"It's too much..."

As Amamiya began his 'reading narration,' the girls on the countermeasures committee, who could already guess what was going on, became indignant one by one.

Only Hoshino remained relatively calm. After staring at the 'collectible weapon' in silence for a long time, he let out a soft sigh: "...Oh my, you just use it and then discard it without any mercy... That's really 'adult style'."

“However…” Hoshino’s gaze lingered on the face of the student sculpture for a moment, “a traitor… huh.”

As expected... 'traitors' are extremely, extremely detestable in both the adult world and the student world, and people can't help but want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

"This unknown senior from Abydos Academy... a traitor to Abydos... ultimately ended up being 'dealt with'..."

Ayane sighed softly, while simultaneously recording various pieces of information on an electronic device.

The Abydos Higher Institute has undergone several 'relocations,' and much of its documents and past content have been buried in the sand.

These 'lost stories' are now being recorded in other people's 'temples'... so there is still a need to record and pass them on.

Having witnessed the examples of Hifumi and the 'unknown Abydos student council senior,' the girls on the countermeasures committee clearly understood what this exhibition hall meant.

—Without a doubt, this should be a temple of 'vanity'.

It displays outdated products created by its owner's dark and morbid thoughts.

The hall's owners viewed these exhibits as an achievement, but from the students' perspective, they were nothing more than chilling, bloody scenes.

Without any instructions from Amamiya, the girls decisively scattered and began recording and searching for the exhibits.

"This is... a street scene? It looks like the area of ​​Gehenna..."

"This statue must belong to a member of the Pandemonium, right?"

……

"Wait a minute?! This decorative box... isn't that the street near Chai Guan Ramen?!"

"There are also mechanical arms on this street, and threads extending out... If we judge Caesar's control by the number of threads, then even the street where General Chai's Chai Guan Ramen is located is almost under Caesar's control."

"...Some of the amphitheaters have eyes instead of arms. Does this mean that Caesar has his eye on this area and is determined to take it, but hasn't taken action yet for some reason?"

……

About an hour later, the girls who had finished sorting out the news on this floor were all filled with an indescribable sense of oppression.

In just one hour today, they witnessed more of the 'gray and black' of the adult world than they had in their entire lives combined.

The "exhibits" displayed here by the Kaiser Group can be summed up in just four words: too numerous to list.

While deeply shocked, they also developed a strong belief that "absolutely unforgivable".

Amamiya was not at all surprised by their increasingly firm belief.

"Palace" refers to the inner world of an individual or a small group (collective). Everyone keeps their mistakes and misdeeds hidden in their hearts... so in the inner world, these misdeeds become impossible to hide.

Furthermore, the "temple" is also the essence of memory. Things that even the owner of the temple may not remember may still appear in the temple.

The master of the hall enters the hall of his own inner world, and then looks through some memories that have become so blurred that he can no longer remember them, recalling the past, and even inviting others to enter and let them look through his memories. These are all theoretically feasible things.

The memories presented in one's inner world do not lie; they will present everything the master of the hall has done in various ways, through the way the master of the hall remembers it.

For example, if the owner of the temple believes that an 'exhibition hall' is more suitable for presenting information, then the format for presenting information in the temple will be more similar to that of an exhibition hall.

If the owner of the hall considers it a library, then the medium for presenting information is not these glass display cases, but books that need to be read.

While the girls on the countermeasures committee were strolling around the exhibition hall floor, Amamiya was also wandering around collecting information.

After circling around with his "third eye," he finally fixed his gaze on a hidden door in an inconspicuous corner.

With the intelligence support of the "Third Eye," the hidden door, which didn't appear to be completely airtight, was marked with a layer of blue halo, making it stand out conspicuously.

Amamiya walked over and tried to push the door open, which she did very easily.

The hidden door leads to a small room displaying various life-size statues.

Interestingly, Amamiya saw several familiar faces among these statues.

Hifumi, who was accompanying them, was also carefully observing the scene in the room. When she saw a familiar face, she blankly exclaimed "Eh!"

"Everyone on the countermeasures committee...?"

“If the statue signifies ‘becoming a manipulated entity under the Kaiser Group,’ then…”

Amamiya picked up where Hifumi left off, nodding slowly and heavily: "This should be a 'preparatory exhibition area'... As the name suggests, it's where exhibits for upcoming exhibitions are stored..."

"Mapped into the real world, that means... 'about to be controlled'..."

Hifumi couldn't continue speaking; she was already feeling an urge to "immediately, right now, bring the Caesars Group over and give them a good beating."

“That’s right… Everyone on the countermeasures committee is here too, which means the statues stored here must all be Abydos’s students…”

As Amamiya spoke, her gaze lingered on the statue that stood out relatively closely and bore a striking resemblance to Nomiya.

"Gardenia Dream...?"

Upon hearing that familiar name, Hoshino jolted and instinctively paused for a moment.

Then she heard the shadow's highly distinctive voice, with its reverberation and distortion.

"Who goes there? How dare they trespass into Lord Caesar's territory..."

Is a battle about to break out?

After exchanging a glance with his juniors, Hoshino made a tactical hand gesture toward the source of the sound.

Let's go take a look.

Chapter 49 Awaken, Serika's "Persona"!

"Who are you? Why are you trespassing on Lord Caesar's territory?!"

"Hey! What are you guys doing?!"

Hifumi, who was surrounded by several shadowy figures that looked like security personnel who suddenly appeared beside her, quickly regained her composure after a brief moment of surprise and slight fear. She let out a long breath and stood back to back with Amamiya.

"Sensei... Is it time to fight?"

Her response was Amamiya's slightly serious voice.

"Yes, we're surrounded this time... let's be a little more careful."

A cluster of eerie blue flames, centered on Hifumi and Amamiya, began to extend from the ground beneath their feet, burning and eventually spreading into a blue fire ring about one meter in diameter that enveloped them.

"Oh...so there were thieves too?!"

Upon hearing the sound, the security personnel in the shadows temporarily relaxed their offensive stance and turned their attention to Hoshino and his group standing at the entrance of the hidden door.

Meanwhile, Hoshino and his group were also taking in their surroundings.

Compared to the grandeur of the main exhibition hall, this room appears much smaller, resembling a side hall within the hall.

The sign above reads "Preparatory Exhibition Area," and the various "exhibits" stored there are all in preparation for the exhibition, including various... life-size humanoid sculptures.

"Th-that's...us?!"