My Creations Followed Me to Another World-Chapter 25: The Raid Briefing

The title on the first page hit like a punch.

Asset Retrieval: The Sun-stone of the Regent.

Dante stared at it, dread crawling up his throat.

Hana stepped closer to the table, arms crossed, jaw tight.

"So?" she asked quietly. "What now? What impossible job does she want this time?"

Dante took a breath and turned the page.

It wasn’t a quest sheet. It was an elite intel file. Blueprints, maps, guard rotations, magical diagrams: page after page of hand-drawn precision.

Corva didn’t do anything halfway.

Hana leaned over his shoulder. One look at the sketches and she sucked in a breath.

"Where is this?"

"The Gilded Hand’s main vault," Dante said. "Sub-level three... under the Lord-Regent’s central bank."

Hana’s eyes went wide.

"That’s insane. That’s beyond insane. That’s suicide. The Spire’s right above that place!"

"It’s a power move," Dante murmured, flipping through the pages. "They want everyone to know they can get close to the Regent himself."

He found the section on the item.

"The Sun-stone of the Regent," Dante read. "Not a gem. A Primary Archival Keystone."

Hana blinked. "Meaning...?"

"It’s the master key to the Regent’s financial records," Dante said. "The Gilded Hand didn’t just steal money, they stole the keys to the money."

Hana whispered, "Gods. No wonder Corva wants it."

He moved on to the security section.

"Okay. Here’s why she can’t send normal thieves." Dante pointed. "The Gilded Hand hired a Spire-Adept. He built a perfect, layered trap."

He turned the ledger so both Hana and 47 could see.

"First: The Resonance Ward."

The diagram showed thin glowing lines over the vault hall.

"No magic," Dante explained. "Any spell, even a small buff, triggers lockdown and alerts the Adept."

Hana paled.

"So... nothing magical at all."

"Exactly."

He flipped to the next page.

"Second: The Aether-Sniffer. It’s not visual. It’s a presence detector. Reads energy beings, ghosts, invisibility fields... all that stuff."

He looked at 47.

"Could you get past this?"

47 studied the diagram, visor dark.

A moment later, her flat voice answered:

[Negative. My cloak uses low-level Aether. The Sniffer would detect me immediately. I can reach the vault but not enter it.]

Hana rubbed her face.

"So no magic, no cloaking, no infiltration. That leaves... what? A regular thief? Just a very quiet one?"

"Nope," Dante said, turning the page again.

"Third: The Rune of Judgment."

A seven-pointed star was drawn before the vault pedestal.

"This one’s the killer," Dante said. "It reads intent."

Hana frowned. "Intent?"

"It scans your motive. Malice. Greed. The thought of stealing. Any of that triggers a psychic blast and the Adept finds you drooling on the floor."

Hana sank down onto a stool.

"So... it’s impossible. Corva didn’t give us a job. She gave us an execution order. She knows we can’t do this."

Dante didn’t answer.

Three perfect walls.

But his mind wasn’t panicking, it was buzzing. This felt familiar.

Like a raid boss with a stupid, hidden trick.

He remembered Corva’s lock. The hum. The glitch. The click...

Hana frowned at his sudden expression. "Dear? What is it?"

"It’s a logic puzzle," Dante whispered. "This whole vault is a logic puzzle."

Hana blinked. "And...?"

"He built traps to stop thieves," Dante said, pacing now. "Mages. Assassins. Adults who know exactly what they’re doing."

He slapped the first ward.

"One: Resonance Ward. It detects magic. Shivvy’s [Pickpocket]? Not magic. It’s system logic. It doesn’t use mana."

He slapped the second.

"Two: Aether-Sniffer. It detects energy beings. Ghosts. Hard-light constructs. Not... a little girl who’s fully physical."

Hana shook her head. "But the rune. The intent trap. It’ll read her fear. Her nerves. Her—"

"No," Dante said sharply. "The rune looks for greed. Malice. The desire to steal."

He pointed toward the sleeping form on the cot.

"What was Shivvy thinking during Corva’s vault?"

Hana didn’t answer.

Dante answered for her.

"She wasn’t thinking, ’I’m stealing this.’ She was thinking, ’Dante told me to use my skill.’ Her mind doesn’t frame it as theft. It’s a command. A button press."

He tapped the rune diagram.

"The trap reads human intent. Adult logic. A thief’s mindset. But Shivvy’s action is game logic. A skill activation. No greed. No malice. No intent to steal."

His voice rose, breath quick:

"She can walk through all three traps. The level is designed for her."

Then he turned.

Shivvy slept curled around her [Gray Rabbit], tiny and frail under the blanket.

Hana saw where he was looking. Her face drained of color. Then hardened into pure, cold fire.

"No," she said. "Absolutely not."

"Hana--"

"No."

He held up the ledger helplessly.

"It has to be her. None of us can make it past those wards. Not one. The system isn’t built for us."

His voice cracked.

"It’s built for her."

Hana stood between Dante and the child like a wall.

And the truth lay open on the table between them.