[h2]𝙼𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚔𝚒 𝙷𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚖𝚒[/h2]"Apologies, I may have gone a little too far when I questioned the director's ability as a magus," Hifumi said, answering not to Orson's fit of rage but rather to the Church ape who perhaps was a more sensible person at some level. Nevertheless, even though she said so, she never [i]meant[/i] it, not that it would be evident from her usual neutral voice. This circus was more than proof enough that Orson was no doubt one of the many who bought his position at the Clock Tower, instead of earning it.

Either way, that didn't matter at the moment. Not when the others were finally coming in, or getting up, to leave.

While Hifumi couldn't agree more about the fact that this meeting had been nothing but a massive waste of time, she hadn't said everything she wanted to yet.

"I believe you have misunderstood my words. I said that the Greys are laughable. I never said, or meant to say, that I would be underestimating them. That they are hardly worth the title of magi and, nevertheless, spit in our face with their so-called 'superiority' is a major offense that any [i]real[/i] magus wouldn't take lightly."

"That said, I do question the purpose of this reunion in the first place. How are we supposed to build a strategy based on flawed——no, nearly non-existent information?" Hifumi said, looking at the files provided by Orson.

"If there's no information to be had about our opponents' abilities, what good is it to know that they are entrenched within a fortress protected by a powerful bounded field? That's only natural of any magi. Only a fool would rush into their territory without thinking ahead."

"Just knowing that their forest is 'impregnable', and 'hidden from commoner's eyes', without knowing anything specific about their individual abilities, and the identities of their Servants, tells us nothing. So, what kind of strategy are we even supposed to come up with?"

"However," Hifumi said while tracing her fingers over one of the photos of the dead scouts, "I do have a strategy—actually, two—that no one seem to have come up with yet. I can speak it if you are interested. Otherwise, I'll keep it to myself until you are willing to listen to it. That said, I too would like to move forward with the ritual. What I have to say can be explained in the journey to our destination. There's no point in remaining here if there's no actual information to be gained from these files."