After hearing Flandre's enthusiastic breakdown of Remilia's primary capability, Scout was genuinely shaken...
Causality Reversal. Guaranteed Hits.
That was, without a shadow of a doubt, an absolute, unsolvable technique.
Scout took a moment to mentally simulate a scenario: what would he even do if he found himself staring down a power like that on the field?
He ran through every combat application of Originium Arts he knew, only to come up completely empty. There was simply no countermeasure in his arsenal. How could an ordinary warrior interfere with the fundamental fabric of cause and effect?
Facing a strike that was pre-destined to hit its mark, what choice did a defender have except to accept the outcome?
"Your sister... is truly extraordinary," Scout remarked, his tone coming out distinctly dry.
Flandre, entirely missing the subtle, horrified weight behind his words, proudly planted both hands back on her hips. "That goes without saying! Big Sister has always been super, super amazing!"
Having successfully bragged about her sister, she casually continued down the list. "Patchy's situation is relatively straightforward. Her talent lies in being naturally gifted at manipulating all sorts of elemental forces, so she's spent her time studying tons of different fields of knowledge."
"She uses it to research the various Magical phenomena created by combining different elements together."
"As for Meiling, her primary strength lies in the perception and manipulation of Qi..."
"What is Qi? Well... Qi is just Qi!"
Flandre happily rattled off the "Originium Arts" of the other household members.
Compared to the overwhelming dread inspired by Remilia, the profiles Flandre gave for Patchouli and Hong Meiling sounded far less oppressive. Setting aside Hong Meiling for a moment—since a concept like "Qi" sounded far too abstract, leaving even a veteran like Scout unable to parse what Flandre actually meant—Patchouli's elemental mastery didn't sound like a single, fixed Originium Art at all. Rather, it sounded like an extraordinary innate talent for Arts manipulation, much like Senior Operator Pith, whose ability to dissect and emulate external Arts stemmed not from a unique bloodline trait, but from an immense library of accumulated academic knowledge.
Scout realized Flandre herself probably didn't have a structured, academic understanding of what Terra categorized as "Originium Arts." Still, picking up preliminary intel regarding the internal hierarchy of the Scarlet Devil Mansion straight from her was an unexpected bonus.
"What about Ms. Sakuya Izayoi?" Scout asked, recalling the silver-haired maid who stood like an immovable shadow behind Remilia, her eyes perpetually cold and observant. Even when she stood completely motionless, she radiated the razor-sharp presence of an apex combatant. "Didn't you mention earlier that every single member of your household commands a unique 'Originium Art'?"
"Sakuya?" Flandre's eyes lit up. "Her ability is super, super powerful! I've heard her mention before that she can manipulate the flow of her own Time!"
Scout let out a sharp, involuntary gasp. "Ah...?"
Manipulate the flow of time?! Is that a force a mortal can actually command?!
Flandre scratched her golden head, her face twisting into a puzzled expression as she tried to put it into words. "I'm not super clear on the technical details since I've never dug into it with Sakuya directly. But she mentioned that when she activates her power, she can drastically slow down the flow of Time for everything around her."
"In other words, the moment she uses her ability, everyone and everything except her enters a state of near-total stillness."
"She stays completely unaffected, free to walk around and do whatever she pleases."
"That's why whenever she moves, it looks like instantaneous teleportation to everyone else!" Flandre clapped her hands together with a bright smile. "Mhm~ it's an amazingly convenient ability! For instance, every single time Sakuya helps me clean my bedroom, the whole place is spotless before I can even react—and it doesn't interrupt my gaming or reading at all!"
Scout's eyes widened to the size of saucers, his breath catching in his throat.
No... hold on. Is there seriously an Originium Art like that in existence?!
Isn't a power like that functionally invincible?!
No matter how refined a veteran soldier's reaction time might be, human biology possessed hard, unbreakable limits. Yet this maid named Sakuya Izayoi was directly expanding—or outright ignoring—those baseline physical laws. Even if her temporal distortion only slowed the surrounding world by a factor of two or three, it still granted her two to three times the cognitive and physical reaction window of any opponent.
In her eyes, every strike, every projectile, and every enemy movement would unfold in agonizingly slow motion. Engaging her in direct combat—unless one could somehow pinpoint an absolute window of vulnerability in her casting sequence—meant fighting a target whose reaction speed and operational tempo were exponentially higher than normal. That wasn't a tactical engagement; that was sheer, unadulterated suicide.
"Uh... may I ask you a personal question?" Scout asked, staring at Flandre with an utterly speechless expression.
"What question?"
"If Ms. Sakuya Izayoi commands an Originium Art of such terrifying proportions... why on earth is she content serving as a personal maid for your household?"
In Scout's pragmatic view, anyone possessing an ability as absolute as time manipulation would be treated as an untouchable, honored guest by the grandest empires on Terra. Establishing her own sovereign power or mercenary faction would be as easy as breathing. Yet she willingly performed domestic chores in the Scarlet Devil Mansion—a reality that defied all conventional logic.
Flandre raised a small finger, her tone completely matter-of-fact. "Oh, I actually heard about that! Sakuya couldn't beat Big Sister in a duel, so she was completely won over by her!"
Ah... someone who can literally manipulate the flow of time still lost?
Oh... right. Her opponent is an entity whose capability grants Guaranteed Hits through Causality Reversal... never mind then.
Just a moment prior, Scout had been inwardly lamenting how absurdly broken Sakuya Izayoi's temporal control sounded. Flandre's casual throwaway line instantly reminded him that compared to Sakuya, Remilia Scarlet was the true, ultimate nightmare.
After all, no matter how much you slow down time, you are merely delaying an inevitable physical event. Once a Guaranteed Hit strike is unleashed, slowing time only forces you to watch your own inescapable defeat unfold in high definition.
Framed in that light, it was hardly surprising that Remilia had bested Sakuya.
Every single word of their casual dialogue on the lookout platform was being captured by Scout's concealed microphone and transmitted straight to Dr. Kal'tsit's desk.
Inside the command center, intelligence officers were busily updating the official threat dossiers for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, logging the new entries alongside their respective profiles. Naturally, the exact nature of Patchouli's and Hong Meiling's abilities remained marked with heavy question marks—Flandre's childish explanation of "Qi" was far too vague for analysts to parse, and as for Patchouli, they suspected even Flandre couldn't fully categorize the sheer scope of her academic Magic.
Even so, the three abilities that had been clarified sent shockwaves through Rhodes Island's upper hierarchy.
Instantaneous Destruction of any visible target. Guaranteed Hits via Causality Reversal. Temporal Deceleration.
Every single one of these capabilities could only be described as utterly insane.
It finally provided a clear, logical explanation as to why this small party possessed the sheer audacity to wander freely across Terra's most dangerous wildernesses without a care in the world, and why they held zero interest in returning to the political meat-grinder of Kazdel. With individual combat power of this magnitude, they could live in luxury wherever they pleased. Why would they ever choose to return to the ruined wastes of Kazdel just to suffer?
Furthermore, the completely offhand, effortless manner in which Flandre blurted out her family's most guarded "tactical secrets" made one thing abundantly clear: neither she nor anyone else in the Scarlet Devil Mansion felt the slightest pressure regarding their abilities being leaked to outsiders.
Then again, thinking it through, why would they?
Flandre's capability was somewhat manageable in terms of strategy—if a faction couldn't afford to provoke her, they could at least attempt to hide out of sight. But the powers wielded by the other two were structured in such a way that even if an enemy understood the underlying mechanics, devising a functional countermeasure was virtually impossible.
Back on the watchtower platform, Scout looked down at the relaxed blonde girl, still somewhat stunned by her absolute transparency. "Is it really alright for you to share your household's deepest secrets with me so casually?"
"What's wrong with that?" Flandre tilted her head, her bright red eyes filled with innocent confusion. "It's not a big deal anyway. Big Sister has never bothered hiding these things either. If you walked up and asked her yourself, she'd tell you the exact same thing."
Flandre implied that when your absolute strength reaches a certain threshold, secrecy becomes entirely irrelevant. After all, the overwhelming majority of opponents they encountered couldn't even survive long enough to force them to use their signature abilities in the first place.
Scout couldn't help but let out a helpless, wry smile.
Truth be told, he couldn't find a single flaw in the little girl's logic.