The Central Control Room was deathly silent, save for the hum of running machinery.
Faldeus slowly straightened his back.
"Olga Marie Animusphere..."
He murmured the name, his expression shifting rapidly.
"Why is she here? Why would the daughter of a Lord of the Clock Tower suddenly intervene in the Holy Grail War? No, it doesn't make sense..."
"I didn't receive any reports of her arriving in Snowfield City."
He looked up.
"Confirm her current location!"
"Scanning citywide Magical Energy Fluctuations... No matching targets found!"
"Thermal imaging?"
"The temperature at the center of the explosion is too high, causing severe interference... but no life signs have been detected!"
"Space Transfer traces?"
"None! Not a single one! It's as if she never appeared in the first place!"
Faldeus's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
Was it a disguise? A Puppet? Or a Servant using some kind of Illusion?
"Notify all observation points."
His voice regained its composure.
"Start monitoring all abnormal Magical Energy Fluctuations in Snowfield City 24 hours a day, without interruption. Report immediately."
"Additionally, pull all available surveillance footage, satellite imagery, and Familiar records. I want to know every movement within a fifty-kilometer radius ten minutes before that figure appeared and ten minutes after she vanished."
"Yes, sir!"
The staff responded in unison, and the orders were swiftly disseminated.
Faldeus walked back to the main console, propping his hands on the surface as he stared at the blurry face on the screen.
"Just who are you..."
Faldeus pulled out a phone and dialed a number.
The phone rang five times before it was picked up.
"Hello."
A low male voice came from the other end.
"Director Orlando..."
On the other side.
Orlando Reeve stood before a floor-to-ceiling window.
He held the now-disconnected phone in his hand, but he maintained the posture of listening for a full ten seconds without moving.
The night view of Snowfield City outside the window remained prosperous, with neon lights flowing through the darkness.
Everything was beautiful.
If one ignored the "WHAT THE FUCK" currently scrolling through his mind.
"Olga Marie Animusphere..."
He uttered the name.
Orlando turned around, walked to his desk, and picked up a document.
It was the list of participants for this "Holy Grail War."
It was confirmed that there were indeed personnel from the Clock Tower.
But Olga Marie Animusphere was not on that list.
What did it mean for a Lord's daughter to suddenly show up in a Holy Grail War?
It meant trouble.
And not just ordinary trouble.
But to suddenly intervene in a battle between two Heroic Spirits from the Age of Gods, right during the collision of their Noble Phantasms—it was unimaginable, incomprehensible.
"Is it a trap?"
Orlando sat down, his fingers unconsciously tapping the desk.
"Declaring her entry in such a way? No, that's too stupid. Was it an accident? But what kind of accident allows someone to teleport to a place like that?"
He recalled what Faldeus said on the phone: "She vanished without a trace."
Without a trace.
Either she was dead, reduced to ash and smoke.
Or she escaped, and she escaped extremely cleanly.
Orlando leaned toward the latter.
"So, Snowfield City has one more variable."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And an uncontrollable one at that."
Orlando picked up the internal phone and dialed a number.
"It's me."
"Target: Silver hair, female, suspected to be heavily injured. Features... has horns."
"Find her."
"I want her found, alive or dead."
...
Meanwhile, after hanging up the phone, Faldeus also began to probe for information inside the Clock Tower.
He utilized every connection and every informant at his disposal.
In less than thirty minutes, the intelligence was sent back.
[Olga Marie Animusphere has not left the Clock Tower.]
[Over the past seventy-two hours, multiple people have witnessed her active within the academy.]
[Identity confirmed as genuine.]
Faldeus let out a small sigh of relief as he stared at the report, then he tossed it into the shredder.
The shredder made a "whirring" sound as the paper was sliced into tiny fragments, which were subsequently turned to ash by fire.
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
An even greater doubt arose from this.
She hadn't left the Clock Tower.
Then who was that just now?
A clone? A Puppet? An illusion? Or something... even worse?
Faldeus didn't know.
But he knew one thing—
This Holy Grail War was much more troublesome than he had anticipated.
He opened his eyes and looked at the screen in the Central Control Room.
Faldeus shook his head, brushing away those stray thoughts.
Thinking about this now was useless.
The priority was to find her.
He stood up, straightened his coat, and walked toward the door.
Halfway there, he stopped and turned back to the female staff member:
"Continue monitoring. Notify me immediately if there are any abnormalities."
"Yes, sir."
Faldeus nodded and pushed the door open to leave.
The hallway was long, and the lights were bright.
The sound of his footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, one step after another.
Reaching the elevator, he pressed the button. While waiting for the elevator to arrive, he took out his phone and dialed another number.
The phone rang for a long time before being answered.
A lazy, yet inexplicably excited voice came from the other side:
"Hello~ Let me guess, you're looking for me at this hour because of that, right?"
Faldeus took a deep breath.
"Yes, I need your help with something..."