When the scenery before Flat's eyes became clear again, he found that he had not returned to the hotel.
Instead, he was in a coniferous forest quite common in the vicinity of Snowfield City.
"Huh?"
Flat blinked and looked left and right.
They were standing in a small, relatively open clearing within the forest, surrounded by an impenetrable wall of trees. In the distance, the faint sound of a stream could be heard, along with the chirping of unknown birds.
"Miss Olga Marie," he turned his head, his tone puzzled, "why are we here?"
Olga Marie stood with her back to him, her long silvery-white hair hanging behind her, the tips almost touching the ground. She didn't answer, merely tilting her head slightly to glance at him from the corner of her eye.
"Come out."
"Didn't you want to say something to me just now?"
Flat froze for a moment.
Say what? To whom?
Before he could follow up, a footstep sounded.
Flat turned his head toward the source of the sound.
A figure stepped out from between two thick spruces.
It was Hippolyta.
She led that red warhorse named Kyllion, her pace slow; her horse's hooves made almost no sound on the ground covered in pine needles.
Her face held no expression, but her golden pupils appeared exceptionally bright in the dim light of the woods.
She stopped about ten meters away from the pair, and Kyllion let out a snort.
"We meet again," Hippolyta spoke.
Flat looked at her, then at Olga Marie, his mind racing.
Before he could figure out what was what, he heard Hippolyta continue,
"My Master wishes to see you."
Flat pointed at his own nose. "Eh? See me?"
"To be precise, it is to see both of you." Hippolyta's gaze lingered for a split second on Olga Marie's back. "Those were the instructions from my Masters."
Masters.
Plural.
Flat caught the choice of words, and a lightbulb instantly flickered on in his head.
The words the Professor had said over the phone flashed into his mind—
'Those little brats didn't tell me a thing! Thirty people running off to act as the Master for a single Servant is just absurd!'
Could it be...
He turned to Olga Marie and asked tentatively, "Miss Olga Marie, what do you think?"
Olga Marie stood with her arms crossed, her silvery-white eyelashes lowered. She didn't answer immediately, only tilting her head as if seriously considering the question.
After about three seconds.
She spread her hands, her shoulders shrugging slightly, an expression appearing on her face that sat somewhere between 'indifferent' and 'somewhat interested'.
"It doesn't matter."
"However, if he—"
She glanced at Flat.
"—wants to go, I suppose I can accompany him."
The 'suppose' was said very softly, her tone rising slightly at the end, carrying a stubborn sense of being reluctantly yet secretly indulgent.
Flat's eyes lit up instantly.
He took a sudden step forward, clasping his hands in front of his chest, stars practically popping out of his eyes.
"Miss Olga Marie!"
"You're actually willing to go with me! You really are a good person! No, a good President! Long live the President of the Earth!"
As he shouted, he spread his arms and lunged forward like a giant golden retriever.
Then, he was blocked as Olga Marie pressed a palm firmly against his face.
"Stop lunging at me!"
Olga Marie roared, her palm against Flat's forehead, her fingers exerting force to push him back.
Her face turned bright red—it was unclear if it was from anger or something else—and even the tips of her ears were stained a faint pink.
"Are you a dog?! Keep your distance! Three meters! No, five meters! At least five meters!"
"Eh~ but I'm so touched~"
"If you're touched, be touched! Keep your hands to yourself!"
"Then how about my face?"
"The face is off-limits too!"
Hippolyta and Kyllion watched this farce quietly, taking it all in.
Her expression seemed unchanged, but upon close observation, one could see the corners of her lips curl upward ever so slightly for a fleeting moment.
'They are both... very lovely children,' she thought silently.
Though their strength was great enough to shake the terrain, summon tsunamis, and slap another Servant into a pig's head, they unexpectedly had a soft side within.
An arrogant and stubborn Servant who would nonetheless indulge her companion.
After witnessing this scene, her favorable impression of them couldn't help but go up, up, and up.
By the time Olga Marie finally pushed Flat away and resumed her 'I am very dignified' expression, a minute had passed.
She cleared her throat and turned to Hippolyta.
"Lead the way. However, walking there is too slow and would wound my dignity."
She lifted her chin.
Hippolyta blinked. "Then, what do you mean?"
"I'll borrow a bit of your magical energy." Olga Marie reached out her hand, palm up. "Just a sliver, to serve as coordinates. I will teleport us directly."
Hippolyta hesitated for about half a second.
For Servants to actively open a magical energy link, even just a sliver, meant exposing one's own information to the other. This was an extremely dangerous move, especially when the two parties were not allies.
But...
She looked at Olga Marie, then at Flat beside her, who had a face full of 'Wow, so cool'.
She eventually nodded.
In any case, her Master had instructed her to bring them there; exposing just a tiny bit would be fine!
"Very well."
A wisp of pale gold magical energy drifted from Hippolyta's fingertip and landed in Olga Marie's palm.
Olga Marie gripped that wisp of magical energy. "Found it."
In the next second, she grabbed the back of Flat's collar with her left hand and reached out toward Hippolyta with her right. Before the other could react, she had already caught her wrist.
"Wait—!"
Hippolyta only had time to utter a single word.
Space distorted.
It was not a teleportation circle in the sense of magecraft, nor was it the effect of a space-leap type Noble Phantasm.
It was... the world itself being folded, and then unfurled.