Otto in the Eyes of Others

The other party said something like:

"a mere white-haired little girl is not worth mentioning,"

"even jumping up can only reach the knees,"

"cute but only knows how to squander money,"

and so on...

Theresa didn't care about the rest, she just wanted to ask, is the other party really that tall? It's not that she's bragging, she can jump at least two meters high, right? At this height... could it be that the other party is a giant?

Really, what kind of mockery is this? Who would care about something like height?

The little person in Theresa's heart roared, her face darkening.

-----

Before stepping into this conspiracy, perhaps with a premonition that this time it would definitely not be peaceful, Theresa and the others also started chatting idly, reminiscing about the past and their experiences on the ship.

Kiana chatted with her about their childhood, about the evil deeds Otto had done to her and her never-before-seen sister.

"At that time, it was her and Dad together who freed me from many shackles; even, in order to protect me..."

Kiana spoke quietly, no longer as boisterous as before, starting to resemble what people call mature, like a true warrior.

"Grandpa used to lie to me, saying that after that incident, your 'sister' has been receiving his specialized treatment at headquarters, but..."

Speaking of this, Theresa fell silent. This involved someone equally important in her life, and she didn't know what to say for a moment.

Although there has been no news of that 'Kiana', after so many years, the lack of any response also foreshadowed a tragedy.

So, the two fell silent. This man, who had deeply influenced the trajectory of both of their lives, brought them completely different emotions.

Afterwards, Theresa comforted Kiana and came to Fu Hua. She wanted to hear her opinion.

"Overseer Otto? You know, I've known him for over five hundred years."

Fu Hua relaxed a little, ceasing her fist practice. She pushed up the large red glasses on her face and sighed, saying, "I have witnessed his acts of kindness, witnessed his evil deeds, endured his betrayal, and accepted his kindness."

"Although these acts of gratitude and resentment cannot be compared, it's still complicated."

Regarding Otto, Fu Hua's understanding is obviously more comprehensive than Kiana's.

Her contact with him came from an earlier period, almost considered the person who has witnessed him for the longest time. She has personally experienced all of his actions, both good and evil, and his contradictions.

His evil deeds cannot be concealed, but the good he has done is also undeniable. She wouldn't deliberately focus only on one side of his human nature.

"I-Is that so... Grandpa, that's the kind of person he is, never caring what others think."

Theresa forced a smile, looking at the calm Fu Hua, and encouraged her, even though she didn't need it. After all, that's the duty of the principal!

[Is everyone assuming that the real Kiana is already dead?]

[Fu Hua: It's a life-and-death relationship. I almost killed him, and he directly killed me.]

[Is it starting, is it starting? Otto's criticism session.]

[Little Theresa must be feeling melancholy. Grandpa has hurt almost everyone around her, but he is her grandfather.]

[Comment]

-----

"Otto... is it? Many Valkyries in the game trusted him, but those close to him are the ones who can see through his facade."

"Theresa, Durandal, Welt... It was precisely because they truly understood Otto that their views of him changed... I still find it hard to agree with fighting the Honkai under him."

Kiana bit her lip and shook her head, saying, "Those hardships in the game, perhaps stemmed from my lack of resolve, always learning and growing only after loss..."

"But the biggest manipulator behind the scenes, in my eyes, is clearly the biggest villain, the root cause of all this. The suffering the Honkai inflicted on me might not even be as much as Otto's."

Thinking of this, she also understood a little about the reason for World Serpent's establishment in the game.

Schicksal, the largest force fighting the Honkai for humanity, yet their main focus is on other things.

How could this not be difficult to accept?

"But at least at that moment when he stood up for Kallen in the Schicksal expedition, he must have still yearned for the light."

"In the years that followed, he did many good deeds, saved countless lives, taught them the meaning of fighting... but it was all to commemorate the flame in his heart - Kallen."

"It's truly... lamentable." Fu Hua sighed, recalling Otto's part in the game, feeling a sense of pity.

Throughout history, she had heard and seen countless stories of kings who started wars or caused chaos for the sake of beauty. But most of them were kings who lost their kingdoms. Someone as capable as Otto, who still disregarded the entire world for the sake of one woman, is almost unheard of.

Wise people always see more and thus pursue more.

They won't be fixated on a single person.

Otto is an exception.

"About little Kiana, is she really dead?" Cecilia stroked Sirin head and asked Luo Mo curiously.

"Hmm..." Luo Mo pondered for a moment, looking at the curious gazes directed at him, clearly also curious about this name that had only appeared in the past.

"Principal Theresa, I did not lie." He said with a smile.

The Herrscher of Sentience instinctively raised her hand to her head, feeling a sharp pain there. Then she reacted and glared at Luo Mo. It was a conditioned reflex, and the voice just now sounded a lot like Otto's in the video.

"Huh? What does it have to do with me--" Theresa shot him a sideways glance and complained, her cheeks puffed out, probably thinking that Luo Mo was teasing her again.

Cecilia and Kallen, on the other hand, had thoughtful expressions, speculating on the true meaning behind those words.

-----

But when asked about Tesla's opinion, her response was obviously more straightforward, or rather, blunt.

Otto, in her eyes, was clearly a scoundrel who deserved to be cut into a thousand pieces.

In her own words, it's like today she's mustered all her strength and plans to knock a few lumps on that pig head of Otto's!

He killed too many people around her; World Serpent has long hated him to the core.

"The blood debts of Joyce, Reanna, and Joachim's father - we haven't had a chance to settle the score with him yet!" She declared angrily and valiantly, waving her fist, as if she could already see that golden bastard getting beaten up.

But in her anger, she obviously overlooked Theresa in front of her.

After all, she was considered Otto's relative, an inseparable existence in her life.

Although she has a bad temper, she's not unreasonable. After realizing this, she quickly apologized to Theresa.

Theresa just shook her head and didn't continue talking about Otto, recalling the scenes she had seen at World Serpent. Grandpa had indeed done some terrible things to World Serpent...

As for Bronya and Seele, they haven't had much contact with Otto and haven't suffered much malice from him. So their views on Otto are more from the perspective of World Serpent and Kiana than their own.

Just before they were about to descend, Theresa suddenly remembered something and urged them to protect Kiana, after all, everything that had happened in the past indicated...

"From a certain perspective, the person Grandpa cares about most in this world is definitely her... and not any of us." Theresa had a rare moment of brilliance, a wise glint in her eyes as she spoke.

[What year is it today? Theresa is actually thinking?]

[Terrifying, is this the corruption of power? She hasn't even taken over yet, and she's already growing a brain?]

[Wrong answer. The one he cares about most is definitely Kallen!]

[Sigh, what a sinful man, entangled with so many people.]

[Comment]

-----

"Though I don't like this Otto fellow either, I wish to punch that Soulium face of his."

"But compared to those old moths from Fire Moth, they didn't even know how to hold back properly, their actions harmed others and themselves, simply stupid!"

Kalpas, with his arms crossed, spoke, his temper as fiery as ever. In terms of temperament, Tesla and him are probably alike? Both like to curse, and neither of them is stupid?

"Well... don't be so absolute, to be able to reach a high position, they can't be stupid."

"It's just that they didn't have the ability to get rid of others and become a dictator." Vill-V scoffed, teasing Kalpas's words.

"As for Otto... in the face of fighting the Honkai, other moral issues can be put aside, he's doing quite well in this regard."

"Moreover," she glanced at the Valkyries around her and said, "If he truly wanted to hide and deceive, surely even Theresa and Durandal wouldn't be able to know his true nature."

"He just wants to stand in opposition, to let those who possess righteousness and light become true heroes. Isn't this what he wants to see?"

Vill-V said a series of words with a playful smile, absurd yet reasonable, revealing a cruel truth. Then, she gently put on her top hat, retreating into the darkness behind the scenes.

"A dictator..." Kevin took a deep breath. "So... wasn't Mei forced to play such a role?"

The current era, however, doesn't have this worry.

He glanced at Kallen, who shared his features, with her white hair and blue eyes, a sliver of solace in his heart.

In the face of the Honkai, one less internal struggle among humans is always a good thing. It's imperative to maintain a united front.

-----

As the silver behemoth slowly descended upon the town, white air currents gushed and dissipated downwards.

A magnificent battleship slowly came to a stop in the timeworn town, an air of age emanating from every corner, arriving at... the stage he had prepared for five hundred years.

The one who greeted them was none other than Durandal.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Durandal frankly informed them that she was also unaware of the Overseer's plans and couldn't contact him.

If it were anyone else, Theresa and the others wouldn't believe them, but if it was Durandal... they were more inclined to believe her.

If she said she didn't know, then she really didn't know.

As the host here, she briefly explained the situation to them, about the anomaly of the spacetime projection. Einstein and Tesla revealed looks of shock; they had also conducted similar theoretical research.

Temporal and spatial information from a certain historical period in the past was projected into the current spacetime... What an immense amount of energy would be required to support this?

Their calculations at the time were... that current human technology was incapable of achieving this, only the power of Honkai could do it. This wasn't some natural phenomenon that could appear in reality; generally, it would only appear on the side of the Imaginary Tree.

In other words... it could also be considered an Imaginary invasion phenomenon, and the singularity was naturally the core of the Herrscher of Domination. If not handled properly, a Honkai eruption was very likely.

In response to this phenomenon, Theresa had to admit that they had to get involved and solve the core issue. But this time, she didn't want to put her students in danger, so she and Durandal would go investigate.

For some reason, with just a few words from Einstein, they successfully tricked Dr. Tesla into joining the exploration team.

It has to be said, they were indeed old friends who had known each other for many years; Einstein had a perfect grasp of this kind of thing.

Simply by using the excuse that they needed to stay behind and contact Otto, they managed to get Tesla to agree to go proactively.

Congratulations, congratulations.

…

In the quaint town, surrounded by ancient trees, moss-covered and broken stone paths, and clusters of antique buildings, every corner exuded an air of history.

Especially with the addition of those projections from five hundred years ago, the voices of people from the past echoed, ghost fires of unknown meaning and spacetime projections flickered; for a moment, it was difficult to tell whether one was in the past five hundred years ago or in the present.

In the center of Kolosten, near the Violet Iris Plaza, they followed the trail of Honkai energy intensity, step by step, and arrived here.

But after arriving, there wasn't anything particularly special, until... they heard cries for help coming from somewhere in the corner.

"Vera--!"

"--Damn it, what are these things?" The man's voice was anxious, but he was powerless.

They followed the sound and, after dealing with a large group of Honkai beasts, found a figure behind a broken wall, where layers of dust shook.

The figure coughed several times, covering their face, but still leaned against the wall, unwilling to waste a single second.

Here, they saw someone they never expected. This, this... their eyes widened.

Looking at the blond-haired, blue-eyed man emerging from the dust, dressed in the attire of a Schicksal Overseer, his face gradually aligning with the one in their memories, it was... hard to believe.

Although they didn't know what was going on, the person who appeared before them was undoubtedly Otto.

For a moment, they looked at each other in dismay, dumbfounded.

No one could have expected to run into Otto here.

"Ah, thank goodness, I've finally run into another living soul! Have you seen a girl?"

"She has silvery-gray curly hair, tied in a side ponytail, and wears a beret. She's about a head shorter than me..."

The blond man revealed a surprised expression, pleasantly surprised, and asked hurriedly.

[Otto? What is he up to again?]

[That description... it doesn't sound like Kallen, does it? Vera... who's that?]

[Kolosten... how particular. It seems to be the name of the town from the history textbooks five hundred years ago.]

[Mere Tesla was easily tricked into coming here... How tragic.]

[Comment]

-----

"Uh... why would he appear here?" Even Theresa outside the video was puzzled.

Having been paying close attention to the plot, she had already imagined Otto appearing at the end, stabbing her with a knife, then watching her granddaughter's body collapse with an indifferent expression.

Although it was just a fantasy, and she knew it was impossible, with the lesson of the knife from before, she couldn't help but picture that scene in her mind.

Or perhaps... she would pick up Judas's chains and pierce them through Otto's body, green liquid gushing out, her eyes closed, she would murmur - Goodbye, Grandpa, and goodbye to my cowardice.

Such words, thinking about it actually felt kind of cool.

As expected, she wasn't being influenced or led astray, right?

Theresa shook her head, dispelling those pointless fantasies.

"Aren't you the voice actress? Shouldn't you know?" Elysia looked over, asking with a puzzled expression.

"Ah? Oh~ right, well, how should I put it..." "The voice recording was intermittent. Except for the parts with strong emotions that needed to be done in one go, the rest were even recorded separately," Theresa scratched her head in distress and said helplessly.

"But, speaking of which, I just remembered... He shouldn't be the Otto of the present."

"Anyone with eyes can see that," Mobius said, giving Theresa a disgusted look.