At last, the lengthy opening ceremony came to an end amid a smattering of symbolic applause.
The new students poured out of the gymnasium like water bursting through a dam. The once-quiet grounds were instantly filled with the din of conversation and footsteps.
"Whew—finally, it's over!"
As soon as they left the gymnasium and reached the open area outside the classroom building, Chisato Nishikigi eagerly stretched, her short blond hair bouncing in the sunlight.
"Now we get to eat, right? My stomach's growling!"
She rubbed her flat stomach, her face full of longing for food.
"Chisato, mind your manners."
Takina Inoue furrowed her brow slightly and reminded her in a low voice, "Please maintain a basic level of decorum in public areas."
"I know, I know~"
Chisato stuck out her tongue, but quickly grew indignant again.
"But Takina, keeping up good manners takes energy too! How can we do it perfectly if we don't eat our fill? Right, young master? Walnut?"
She looked to Mazumi Mami and Walnut as if seeking allies.
"From the perspective of prioritizing physiological needs and maximizing efficiency, I agree with Chisato's proposal to replenish our energy first. Mealtime also gives us a relatively focused window to talk without interruption. Young master, we can use this time to go over our observations from the morning and plan our next steps."
Walnut replied in her characteristic even tone, with a faint electronic quality to it.
Mazumi nodded. He lightly tapped the ground with his solid wood cane, his gaze sweeping over the new students nearby, some excited, some bewildered, and others chatting in groups.
"Right, let's eat first. We can take the opportunity to sort through our thoughts. We've already come across quite a few clues and questions worth noting."
He looked at Walnut. "I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you with vetting the information and conducting a deeper investigation."
"It's my duty, young master."
Walnut accepted calmly, a glint of confidence from a top-tier technician in her blue eyes. "Leave it to me."
The four followed the crowd to the school's Student Cafeteria.
The cafeteria was vast, with bright, modern decor. Long lines had already formed at the counters serving different cuisines.
The air was filled with the aroma of food and the din of voices.
"Wow, it's crowded!"
Chisato rose onto her tiptoes to look around.
"Most of them seem to be second- and Third Year students... We new students got held up by the ceremony, so we're only here now. Is there somewhere a little quieter? It'd be hard to talk otherwise."
Takina quickly scanned the cafeteria layout, soon spotting an area in the corner.
"There are private rooms over there for a fee. They cost... 5,000 Personal Points per hour, or rather, per three-hour slot."
She recited the information precisely.
"Let's take a private room."
Mazumi didn't hesitate. Spending points wasn't his main concern; a private, secure place to talk mattered more.
"I'll take care of the reservation and payment."
Walnut said at once, preparing to head to the service counter.
"Then Takina and I will get the food!"
Chisato volunteered eagerly. "You and Walnut go on ahead and wait in the room, young master!"
Mazumi smiled and reminded her, "Don't order the wrong things."
"Don't worry!"
Chisato patted her chest, beaming.
"You don't like ingredients like scallions, ginger, and garlic; Walnut prefers high-calorie desserts and fizzy drinks to fuel her brain; Takina goes for balanced meals; and as for me... I want to try a bit of everything, of course! Mission guaranteed!"
Chisato declared.
At that moment, Walnut turned to Takina and spoke quietly.
"By the way, Takina, could you return my 'main equipment' before we go in? It's not very convenient to have it out in a public area..."
"Understood."
Takina nodded and walked over to Walnut. She lightly tapped Walnut's handbag in what looked like an idle gesture.
Walnut felt the bag grow several times heavier in her hand in an instant.
She adjusted her posture without drawing attention and nodded to Takina.
Takina's spatial storage ability had silently transferred Walnut's powerful custom-built laptop from her subspace into the handbag, which had been specially modified with a reinforced inner compartment.
With their roles clear, the four immediately got moving.
Walnut went to pay for the reservation, Mazumi followed the signs to the private rooms, and Chisato and Takina headed for the fragrant food counters.
The private room was small but simply and comfortably furnished, and its soundproofing was clearly good. As soon as the door shut, the noise outside faded considerably.
Mazumi had just sat down when Walnut came in with her bag and locked the door behind her.
"Young master..."
Walnut lowered her voice.
"There's a built-in wide-angle camera beside the smoke detector on the ceiling. Standard security equipment. I need you to interfere with it for ten seconds. After that, it'll be 'invisible' to us."
Walnut explained.
"A piece of cake."
Mazumi's lips curled up. He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
There was no dazzling flash of light or intense surge of energy.
But at that very moment, the monitor showing this private room in one of the school's security rooms flickered without warning, then filled with dense static and distorted colors.
"Hm? What's going on?"
The security guard on duty frowned. He tapped the casing and checked the cable connections. "Signal failure?"
Just as he was about to pull up another camera feed or file a repair request, ten brief seconds passed, and the static suddenly vanished. The picture returned to normal.
In the private room, "Mazumi Mami" was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, while "Walnut" appeared to be fiddling with her phone. Everything looked normal.
The guard muttered, "Loose connection?" then dismissed the minor incident and continued monitoring the other areas.
Meanwhile, during those precious ten seconds in the real private room...
Walnut quickly opened her handbag and took out a slim, high-tech laptop with a faint blue indicator light.
As it powered on, her fingers were already blurring across the keyboard.
Complex streams of code cascaded across the secondary display beside her main screen.
When she pressed the final Enter key, multiple panes appeared on the laptop screen.
One showed the live surveillance feed, displaying the "normal" scene that was "supposed" to be recorded in the private room—a simulation generated by Walnut's program and overlaid on the real signal.
Another showed a complex network map and a list of permissions.
"Done."
Walnut let out a soft breath, her voice returning to its usual steady tone.
"I've taken over the surveillance feed and replaced it with a preset loop. The initial scan is complete; there are no additional listening or surveillance devices in the room. It's safe now."
"You're as reliable as ever, Walnut."
Mazumi smiled in approval, then reached out and habitually ruffled her flax-colored hair.
Walnut's cheeks flushed slightly, but this time she didn't pull away. Instead, she puffed out her nonexistent chest, her voice tinged with a hint of pride.
"Of course. Don't underestimate my skills, young master. I'm the world-class hacker publicly recognized as number one in the Imperial Intelligence Department's backup files, code-named 'Valkyrie.'"
"Then, Miss Valkyrie, who can do anything..."
Mazumi withdrew his hand, his expression growing a little more serious. "Could you help me investigate two people in depth?"
"Go ahead."
"The first is our classmate, Sakayanagi Arisu. We need to confirm whether she's related to Chairman Sakayanagi Narumori, but more importantly, I want you to gather as much information about her past as possible: her health, educational background, social connections, fields of particular expertise... Any unusual details."
"The second is a boy in Class D. All I know is that his surname is Ayanokouji, he has short brown hair and yellow eyes, and he's about 176 centimeters tall. His bearing is... unusual. I need his full name and as much detailed background information as you can find. I suspect there's more to his origins than meets the eye."
Walnut nodded, her fingers already back on the keyboard, her blue eyes fixed intently on the screen.
"Understood. I'll prioritize an in-depth investigation of Sakayanagi Arisu and the boy surnamed Ayanokouji in Class D. Leave it to me."
Her fingers began moving once more. Multiple encrypted connection windows popped up on the laptop screen as complex search commands and intrusion programs began to run.
Windows flashed and data streams scrolled by. Under her control, countless public and semi-public databases, potential entry points into the school's internal network, and even deeper interfaces into the shadow web were tested one by one, breached, or bypassed.
Meanwhile, on the security room's monitors, the expensive private room showed nothing but two new students quietly waiting for lunch and occasionally speaking in low voices about ordinary campus matters.
No one knew that a silent intelligence-gathering operation had just begun in the seemingly ordinary school cafeteria.