Warm water enveloped her body. With her chin submerged, Kiana blew bubbles in the water.
As her once-chilled body gradually warmed, the reality of Asakura Miyuki's death finally began to sink in.
She had truly lost a friend.
She only had two friends in the first place.
But she had to keep looking forward.
She had to carry the past and continue to advance.
Otto was right. As long as the Honkai existed, tragedies like this would play out countless more times.
"I want to... defeat the Honkai," Kiana said, opening her mouth.
In doing so, she accidentally swallowed a few mouthfuls of water.
She coughed sharply a few times, and the tears she had been holding back almost squeezed out.
After finally catching her breath, Kiana looked around the bathroom. She was alone.
But a fragrance that didn't belong to her lingered in the air.
It was Raiden Mei's.
It smells so nice.
Thinking back to the Raiden Mei she had just met, Kiana couldn't believe Otto had been keeping her in his room. All this time, they had only been separated by a single wall.
Why didn't he tell me anything about this?
But then she remembered that Otto had spent every night with her, which made her feel slightly better.
It's just...
She really is a beautiful young lady.
Fair-skinned and beautiful, with a dignified demeanor and a cool, aloof air.
Her chest is also big...
But Kiana instinctively patted her own shapely rear.
Otto seems to be a butt man.
Heh.
I win. This young lady has the invincible child-bearing hips!
Wait, wait, what am I thinking about!?
"Glug, glug, glug."
Kiana submerged her entire head and body, giving up on thinking and resorting to blowing bubbles in the bathtub.
---o---
Meanwhile, Otto sat on the bed Raiden Mei had slept in, his eyes on the Three-Year Sakura sachet that lay there. He didn't reach out to touch it.
"And that's what happened."
Otto had briefly explained the situation to Mei. Hearing that Kiana had been forced to kill her own friend, Mei fell into a thoughtful silence.
"This is the danger of the Honkai, and it is precisely why I, Otto Apocalypse, am determined to defeat it."
Otto casually burnished his own image, though his primary reason for fighting the Honkai was still the fact that it refused to let him live.
Damn it, I didn't ask to be transmigrated. It's bad enough they won't give me a household registration, but they also want to kill me, an undocumented resident.
This was the government forcing the people to rebel; the people had no choice but to rebel.
It was the classic "we'll die if we flee, and we'll die if we rebel, so should we just wait to die?" scenario.
No way. This was awesome!
"Will I... will I also become one of those monsters that doesn't recognize its own family?"
No, you'll just become a Miss Electric Eel who zaps people when she sticks out her tongue.
If not for his Soul Steel body, he probably wouldn't have been able to go through with that kiss. This made Otto a little concerned about his future nightlife.
"With me here, you'll be fine," Otto said gently. "I also hope you won't hold it against Kiana. She just lost control of her emotions for a moment. After all, she's only eight years old this year."
"It's alright, she didn't hit me," Mei said, though she took the "eight years old" comment as a joke from Otto.
With that slender waist, perky rear, and long legs, there was no way she was eight.
"I'm glad you don't mind. I don't want there to be any resentment between you two. After all, you'll be colleagues in the future."
"Colleagues?" Mei asked, puzzled.
Otto nodded.
"That's right. you will join my organization and become one of my Valkyries. You will dedicate yourself to me, save the world, and defeat the Honkai."
Otto extended a hand to Mei.
His words were not a question, but a statement of fact.
"I told you before, once you step onto my side, you can never return to an ordinary life."
"Although classes at Senba Academy are suspended for now, I imagine you wouldn't want to go back even if they resumed."
"So why not come to my side? Serve me, work for me," Otto said.
Mei looked at Otto's outstretched hand. She reached out and took it.
"Okay."
"I'll join."
Mei's answer was simple.
No further explanation was needed. This was the resolution she had made two days ago.
She had also resolved to fall in love with Mr. Otto and to hand him the remote control to her life.
However, she couldn't help but recall the image of Kiana and Otto holding hands.
He held my hand, he whispered sweet things to me, he even kissed me... he did so much with me, I'm practically unmarriageable now.
But Mr. Otto...
Could he be a playboy?
Mei felt an unfamiliar sourness in her heart, an emotion she had never experienced before.
Sensing Mei's feelings, Miss Herrscher of Thunder sighed silently.
My silly little deer.
With these girlish feelings of yours, I'm the one who's going to suffer in the end.
Oh well. I must endure. For now, I don't have the strength to resist.
"Welcome to Schicksal," Otto said with a smile. However, he noticed that the main mission to have a Herrscher in Schicksal's ranks had not been completed. He sighed internally.
Even though the Herrscher Core in Mei's body had undergone a preliminary awakening, it still didn't count. That meant he needed Mei to join Schicksal with Miss Herrscher of Thunder fully awakened and alive.
That was far too difficult.
She was a massive tsundere who would be stubborn with her words even if her body was compliant. Even if her attitude toward him improved, she would definitely refuse him forcefully with her words.
Trying to get the proud Thunder Queen to lower her head and kiss him willingly... the difficulty was on par with resurrecting Cecilia! Getting Cecilia to kiss him wouldn't even be this hard!
Honestly, if only Miss Herrscher's personality was as sweet as her lips.
Otto stood up and walked to the balcony with his hands behind his back, looking down upon Nagazora City.
A smile played on his lips.
Everything was going smoothly so far. Both Kiana and Mei were in his grasp, and his girls weren't even fighting. He was the only person they could rely on.
Furthermore, setting Mei aside for a moment, the Child of Destiny, Kiana, now had the will to fight the Honkai. Asakura Miyuki's death would propel her forward.
His victory over the Honkai was only a matter of time.
Once he defeated the Honkai, he could settle down and make little Overseers with his Valkyries.
Heh heh.
He almost laughed out loud.
(A different one every day.jpg)
[Host, are you aware? Right now, you're like an old general on a theater stage, completely covered in flags.]
And just like that, his useless System appeared to ruin his good mood.
[Things in Nagazora City are starting to get weird, you know.]
It was still the pleasant voice of Bronya, but Otto felt it sounded more like the mischievous Bronie.
(Bronya.jpg)
"What's happened?" Otto asked mentally, frowning.
[That is for you to explore yourself, Host. For you, there are no inaccessible areas.]
[But, with the Herrscher of the Void and the Herrscher of Thunder having met, the wheel of fate has begun to turn once more. You already hold the chips to fight back.]
"Speak human," Otto scowled. Who did this thing think it was, playing the Riddler in front of the Overseer?
Riddler, get out of my body!
[Fine~]
[OTTO System Upgrade Mission has officially begun!]
[As long as you complete the upgrade mission, this System can officially upgrade from the test version to the official 1.0 version!]
A test version?
Otto felt like he had just been screwed over by an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
So he had been using the trial version of this shoddy, unlicensed system all this time?
But if the test version was this much of a scam, then the official version...