"Snow? What are you doing here...?"
Murata Himeko whirled around, her face etched with surprise as she beheld the blonde girl materializing behind her.
"Wait, don't come any closer—is this another trick by the Herrscher?!"
Sensing something amiss, Murata Himeko eyed the suspicious blonde girl warily.
"That girl Snow isn't even at Schicksal Headquarters—she's not even in this world! Second Herrscher, your tiresome games end now—!"
The red-haired Valkyrie pointed her greatsword at the somewhat illusory figure before her.
"Is there any possibility—and I mean any—"
The blonde girl before her gave a helpless expression.
"—that the Second Herrscher is the Herrscher of the Void, not the Herrscher of Sentience?"
"...Proof?"
"There's no such thing. Did you drink too much? Are you making people pass a CAPTCHA just to recognize them now?" Snow rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"So, you're really Snow?" Murata Himeko still eyed the blonde girl's projection warily.
"Authentic, guaranteed."
"Then what's your relationship with Kyuusyou?!" Himeko demanded sharply.
"...Girlfriend," the blonde girl replied wearily.
"What about Ninti?!" Himeko pressed relentlessly.
"...My adopted daughter."
"And Theresa—what is she to you?!"
"Headmaster of St. Freya Academy, or my nominal niece?"
"How many steak dinners does Otto eat in a week?!"
"Comrade Murata Himeko—did you have a few too many before coming out to fight? You should ask Rita about that, not me."
"Tch, fine, let's try another one—what's hidden in Theresa's secret safe? And where is it?"
"...What else could be in there besides a mountain of limited-edition Homu plushies that make the Academy's budget vanish like snowflakes? As for its location, it's hidden beneath the Headmaster's desk and above the ceiling. It's no wonder you couldn't find it, Himeko; it's completely out of reach under normal circumstances."
Snow's projection twitched at the corner of its mouth, recalling the massive collection of rabbit dolls hidden beneath the floor of the Headmaster's office. She wore an expression of exasperation.
"What?! Theresa's been spending money on this behind my back?! ...Wait, next question—what color panties does Kyuusyou usually wear?!"
Abandoning any pretense of logging off, Himeko asked a question that made Snow's blood pressure skyrocket.
"I see now, Teacher Himeko—you're not drunk, you're just taking out your disappointment on me for fun, aren't you?"
"Well, I came here prepared to make a heroic sacrifice and deliver one final lesson to my students, only to find them not only alive and kicking but also claiming they were just faking it all along—that they could have reclaimed their bodies whenever they wanted."
"Teacher Himeko, rationally speaking, you probably want to beat Kiana to a pulp right now. But since you can't fly, you can't reach her. So, out of sheer frustration, you randomly grabbed a student to torment, and I just happened to be that unlucky sap."
Snow nodded thoughtfully, indicating she understood the situation perfectly.
"You little brat... Enough with the nonsense! Just tell me what color they are. If you're really Snow, you'll know—"
"As if you know what color Kyuusyou's panties are! I could just guess, and you wouldn't be able to verify it anyway. Kyuusyou isn't even here. And besides, would you really dare to lift her skirt?"
"Too sweet! Little girl, don't forget whose dormitory you're staying in! Cough, cough, cough—!"
Suddenly agitated, Murata Himeko erupted into a violent coughing fit.
"...You always hang your laundry on the windowsill. Only a few people live in my Teacher Dormitory, so it's easy to tell whose clothes are whose."
"...Fine. Kyuusyou's are black, black cotton panties—Teacher Himeko, if you ask any more ridiculous questions, I'm going to record them and broadcast them on Schicksal's official channel all day."
The Blonde Girl's expression gradually twisted into one of utter exasperation.
"Then for my final question: when you were still at the Academy, I took you to see Theresa, and you and Kyuusyou often went to that cafe. How many cats were there in total?!"
"What kind of trick question is that?!... Three, plus Ninti's foster cat, so four in total."
"Phew, so you really are Snow?"
"So... what exactly are you suspecting, Teacher Himeko?"
"Theresa mentioned that Siegfried once told her that during the Second Eruption, the Second Herrscher displayed the ability to pull humans into an Illusionary Realm and create hallucinations—"
"Oh, that? That's the ability of the divine key Fenghuang Down, not the Second Herrscher herself. She can't even use that thing."
"A divine key? Fenghuang Down?"
Himeko looked puzzled.
"Schicksal's armory does record several Divine Keys: the Schariac Family's Black Abyss White Flower, the Kaslana Family's Judgement of Shamash, the Apocalypse Family's Void Archives, and the Xuanyuan Sword we once sought. But I've never heard of Fenghuang Down."
"That's your star student's... the personal weapon of Azure Empyrea Fu Hua, who's over fifty thousand years old. Those Shenzhou-style gauntlets we often see? They're also a Divine Key."
Snow didn't hesitate to expose Fu Hua's secrets.
"Compared to Fenghuang Down, though, that Divine Key is unremarkable—just a standard weapon made from the cores of the thousand-person Herrscher of Domination from the previous era."
"...Wait a minute? Are you saying Fu Hua is a warrior from the previous era?"
"Exactly. She's a MANTIS (Fusion Warrior) from the previous era, though currently... her amnesia seems quite severe. During the Second Eruption, she burned away most of her memories to nearly kill the Second Herrscher with a single strike—"
"Burned away most of her memories... What a tremendous price to pay..."
"And what about you, Snow? Why do you know so much? Even as the eldest daughter of the Apocalypse family and the Young Sovereign of Schicksal, some of the knowledge you possess far exceeds what someone of your position should have access to."
"And as Otto's daughter... you wouldn't also be some old relic from at least 500 years ago, would you?"
"Are all my students ancient monsters in disguise?"
"There's no need to exaggerate my age, old one—I'm a genuine 18-year-old maiden, with no comparison to the other two old fossils in the Apocalypse family."
"As for why I know so much... if you've ever heard Schicksal's office workers and researchers gossiping in private, you'd already know about my other lineage: Kallen Kaslana."
"In the Sea of Quanta, I met two other MANTIS Fusion Warriors who have survived to this day: the Kaslana family's ancestor and the Apocalypse family's blessed one—Kevin Kaslana and Mr. Su, known as The Awakened One."
The blonde girl promptly shifted the blame onto the two ancestors still slurping noodles in the Sea of Quanta.