Chapter 395 - Club Advisor's Unconscious Deviant Activities
I circled around to the front of the magnificent Renaissance-style building and pushed open the equally grand doors to trespass inside.
They weren't locked, and there were no guards. I guess this is what you'd expect in a safe neighborhood in a safe city. It was essentially 'everyone is welcome.'
Entering the building, I was greeted by a spacious entrance with a high ceiling. Other than some sofas lined up in a corner, there was nothing in particular, and only one man was peering out from the small window of the security room on the right.
Perhaps because of my modest clothing and the side of my face without the eyepatch, he didn't seem to think I was suspicious and quickly looked away.
I’m sure it wasn't a calculated move, but it was a correct judgment. Even if he’d tried to block my way, he wouldn't have been able to stop me. It's good that neither of us wasted any effort.
There was no directory, but I’d already researched my destination.
I crossed the empty entrance, went up the stairs, and headed for the Magic Doll Federation headquarters.
My footsteps clicked as I went up to the second floor and proceeded down the hallway.
The room at the end was my destination, but it seemed no one was there. According to my mana sensing, there was someone in the room next door, but that wasn't my concern.
"Not in, huh? After I came all this way."
Although I was a bit disappointed that no one was there, I approached the door anyway. It would be a waste to go back empty-handed, so I’ll just drop in for a bit.
"...No traps."
Since it's not a dedicated building, even if it's locked, there are no offensive traps set up. The only problem would be an alarm sounding if I tried to force it open.
This grand building seems to be used mainly as a community center or for administrative work. Organizations that handle paperwork, like the Magic Doll Federation, or hobby groups founded by wealthy individuals, are gathered in this building.
It’s likely not a place where valuables or top-secret information are kept, so security is probably loose since they don't expect petty thieves. As for security, guards at the entrance, locks on each room's door, and then locked shelves or safes would be enough. There wouldn't be many people thinking of stealing documents from a non-profit organization, and even if they wanted to, they’d normally give up with the usual security in place.
"The mana authentication key is... one I haven't seen before. Oh, is it a new model?"
When there are no obvious valuables and a door that an ordinary thief can't open, security naturally gets lax.
This door seems to have a tiny amount of mana circulating through it, and it opens when mana with a registered waveform flows into it. Judging from the smooth flow of the mana, it likely judges the registered mana waveform quite strictly.
That said, once you know the answer waveform, a person with my level of mana control can easily break through.
"Let's see which mana is registered..."
If I can peek at the list of answers, it's no big deal. I’ll search for traces of it with mana sensing.
If I were pressed for time it would be one thing, but right now there’s no one around and I have plenty of time. If the person in the next room comes out into the hallway, I’ll sense it immediately.
"...What's this? Is it converted?"
I spent about two minutes and found something similar, but the waveform was something hard to imagine coming from human mana. It was questionable whether I could unlock it just by mimicking it as is, and without knowing the conversion pattern, there was no point in forcibly registering my own mana. It looked like it would be tough to find the legitimate registration method without any prior knowledge.
I guess I should consider it a state-of-the-art model; it's an unexpectedly advanced key.
Normally, if you don't know the answer, there are rough ways like flowing a burst of powerful mana to break the mechanism or using brute-force mana control to unlock it. Or, a method of flowing an ultra-fine amount of mana and gradually searching for the correct waveform... that would be tedious but possible if given enough time.
As for whether that would work on this latest authentication key, I couldn't tell for now. Without first finding the pattern for converting mana waveforms, it might be impossible to break through without setting off the alarm.
While I thought I might be able to do it if I took my time, any elegant way of opening it would require delicate mana control regardless.
Trying to perform that work while controlling my mana, which was disrupted by the curse—especially on a new model I was seeing for the first time—was quite a challenge.
"Tch... but breaking it is also..."
If I were to destroy it, I’d also have to neutralize the alarm, and I’d be leaving traces of a break-in.
My goal is information. Since I’m not physically stealing anything, the best-case scenario is to break in without anyone realizing it.
Breaking through this mana authentication key seemed like a perfect difficulty level for training. I’d love to try it, but it would be a problem if the alarm went off and caused a commotion. I want to secure enough time for a thorough search.
"Oh well. It's a cheap trick, but not being caught is what matters."
Breaking through the door protected by the latest mana authentication key is difficult. But entering the room itself is child's play.
If the alarm sensors are only on the doors and windows, I just need to enter from somewhere else.
I permeated the stone wall next to the door with mana for complete control. I made a hole in the wall and successfully entered.
I can close it up as perfectly as I can open it. It's such a blunt way to break in that even I think it must be unbearable for the person on the receiving end.
After that, as long as I don't move anything, I won't be caught.
"Now then, where should I start?"
The room was fairly large. Document shelves were lined up against the walls except for the ones with windows, and they were packed so tightly with files that it was impossible to see everything.
Scanning the shelves behind glass doors, there seemed to be a wide variety of massive documents from over the years, such as competition-related papers, information on schools affiliated with the Federation, transaction documents, and financial statements. It gave the impression of a typical office.
For now, the information I want is the Knights' contact window for borrowing the training grounds.
Even though I say 'the Knights,' they don't have a convenient general contact point. If I inquire with the wrong department, I’ll just be ignored, so knowing the correct contact is essential. Once I have that, even if I’m ignored, I might be able to use my connections to get things moving.
It would also be good to know the circumstances behind why they decided to use the Knights' training grounds for the Magic Doll battles.
I couldn't tell just from a quick glance at the shelves.
As I thought, an outsider wouldn't have a clue what was where just by looking. This was going to be a struggle. That's why I tried to visit normally in the first place. Well, if they're out for the long summer break, there's no helping it.
However, it's a waste to just wait idly for someone to return, and even if they do, there's no guarantee they'll tell me. I really have to look for it myself.
"...Nnn, this is tough."
I spent twenty minutes looking through the shelves, but I couldn't find anything.
I didn't care about old materials, and I thought I’d easily find documents they must have made recently.
I gave up on the document shelves and decided to look elsewhere.
Other than the shelves, I was curious about the more than ten desk drawers and the safe. There was an old-style large safe behind the desk in the back.
If there are documents that shouldn't be seen, they’d be in a locked desk drawer or inside the safe.
Plus, if there’s any shady business, I planned to expose that too, so I decided to pick out some suspicious points and start rummaging through them.
Before the main event—the safe—I’ll start with the desks. By looking at the layout, I can generally tell which desks belong to the higher-ups.
I unlocked the simple physical locks using my ordinary lockpicking skills. The entrance door had an advanced mana authentication key, but once inside, it was just like this.
"Let's see... hmmm, there isn't much here."
It was mostly office supplies, books, and small personal items.
The only thing that caught my eye was a memo pad, but I couldn't see any important information just by flipping through it. Maybe a legendary investigator or a member of our Information Bureau could have found a scoop from a casual note, but I can't.
Since the desks I’d bet on were duds, I had no choice but to pin my hopes on the remaining safe.
Being an old model, the safe's mana authentication key was something I could easily disable. Feeling a bit better, I opened the safe door.
The large safe was packed with paper documents, just like the shelves. It would be a pain to look at everything, but I’ll take my time and look through them properly.
I carefully pulled them out from the edge so as not to disturb the arrangement of the documents.
"Financial statements? There were some of those on that shelf too."
If they have two sets of the exact same documents and keep one in the safe, it's unlikely. This is it—it's definitely the secret ledger.
I’d already predicted this much, so I wasn't surprised at all, but even if I were to expose their misdeeds and use it for leverage, a secret ledger alone is weak as evidence. Since I just came here to secretly look for information this time, I also have no intention of taking the documents for now.
Besides, villains are experts at playing dumb. To corner them based on evidence, you need solid proof. I have absolutely no desire to do such a troublesome thing.
If there were more convenient and valuable documents for a blackmailer, that would be one thing, but I guess I can't expect that much.
"...Tch, it's nothing but money."
You can probably tell how much illicitly gained money they have by comparing the secret ledger with the official one. But if you don't know the flow of the gained money, you can't use it for blackmail.
Wait. These guys might have kept records of who they gave how much and when for their own protection. If I look through the documents in order, maybe something will turn up.
Wait... no, no, that's not what I came to expose.
Let's get back to the original goal. My only goal is to find out who to negotiate with to borrow the training grounds.
It would be a pain if I earned their grudge for nothing, so I can just skip the money-related documents.
However, if money did flow to the Knights, it would raise the possibility that the Knights were involved in the rule change for the Magic Doll battles. Maybe it's worth checking out for that reason.
Even though I had several things on my mind, there was no point in getting distracted by useless things.
In the process of searching, I’d like to find records of the circumstances behind the major rule change for the Magic Doll battles if they exist anywhere.
I spent some time engrossed in checking the documents.
Although there were many ledgers for long-standing slush fund creation, I couldn't find the target information.
There were no minutes of meetings or anything about the Knights, the training grounds, or the rule changes!
"Surely they didn't just never make any..."
They're the type to keep detailed secret ledgers. I can imagine they’d have compiled other suspicious dealings into documents and stored them as well.
I thought I’d easily find out who was in charge of the training grounds, at least.
As I put the last document I’d pulled out back into the safe, I reconsidered that it might be somewhere else.
If it's not at the desks, then maybe it's hidden somewhere on the document shelves. Or maybe they keep it at home or somewhere else entirely. If that's the case, searching any further will be useless unless I ask someone.
However, it's frustrating to leave empty-handed after coming this far.
As I closed the safe and wondered what to do, I sensed two people approaching down the empty hallway.
"They're not coming to this room, are they?"
It would be great if the people approaching stopped at a room along the way, but if this room is their destination, I’ll be in a bit of trouble.
If I go out into the hallway, I’ll run into them, and I can't escape through the window without turning off the alarm system. There’s someone in the next room, and it's out if anyone sees me breaking through the wall to the outside. There’s a carpet on the floor. The only thing left is to escape to the floor above, but there’s likely a carpet on that floor too.
I want to leave without leaving any suspicious traces, so I can't be seen in a suspicious state, and I can't go around ripping carpets.
While I was thinking, whoever it was was getting closer and closer to this room.
My prayer for them to go to the next room went unanswered, of course. The mysterious duo stopped in front of the door to the Magic Doll Federation headquarters.
"It's risky to knock them out too. Oh well, as for a place to hide..."
Even if I’m confident I can knock them out with a surprise attack, it will definitely cause an uproar later if I take down two people. It would be the same if I knocked them out with gas.
If it were just one person, I might have been able to bluff my way out. And it would be bad if they saw my face. I didn't bring my Skull Mask today...
A lecturer at the Saint Esmeralda Girls' Academy being caught breaking into the Magic Doll Federation headquarters without permission would jeopardize our participation in the tournament. On the other hand, it would be going way too far to silence them permanently.
I have to find a way to get through this.
However, scanning the room, there was no place to hide.
"Tch, this is a pain."
Just before the mana authentication key on the door was released, I activated the magic item on my wrist. I shot a transparent thread upward and stuck myself to the ceiling.
It’s a high ceiling with a needlessly high-end feel. If I stay directly above the heads of the people who enter, I’m a bit worried, but I probably won't be caught.
If I am caught... well, that's that.
She probably didn't intend to do anything evil, but she naturally moves toward thief-like actions without any hesitation. And she has absolutely no tension about 'what if I get caught.'
She's incredibly arrogant because of her mentality that 'what's wrong with that' and her ability to get through any situation.
Usually, someone like that would eventually learn their lesson, but she's already under a powerful curse, so she's actually learning her lesson right now!
But she doesn't learn at all.