As an old friend who had spent five hundred years with the Celestial, Otto Apocalypse naturally knew that this woman, called a Celestial by others, was essentially not a high-and-mighty Celestial.
This woman was just not good at expressing her inner emotions, plus the gap between her power and ordinary people and other reasons made people feel she was really hard to approach at times.
But in reality, the woman named Fu Hua, in Otto's eyes... hmm, how to put it...
Was actually quite clumsy.
She wasn't a person good with words to begin with, and even her way of thinking didn't look like an old monster who had survived from fifty thousand years ago.
After being backstabbed by seven disciples, even if heavily injured, Fu Hua could have used some technology she mastered to trade with Otto in exchange for Otto's promise to protect Shenzhou.
Then she became Otto's subordinate.
Thinking of this result, sometimes Otto also felt caught between laughter and tears.
And for a Fu Hua of this personality, asking her to be a spy was actually quite hard on her.
Even after being betrayed by the disciples she taught swordsmanship to, Fu Hua still valued relationships and righteousness too much.
And for a spy, a spy who couldn't control their emotions was actually very unqualified.
But Otto sending Fu Hua over this time indeed didn't count on Fu Hua stealing any crucial intelligence.
He knew about the matter of Fu Hua fighting Aaron in Singapore.
And after that fight, Aaron also clearly understood that Fu Hua, a Valkyrie who could use special Valkyrie armor, had a direct connection with Otto.
In other words, in Aaron's eyes, Fu Hua was actually a surveillance camera dispatched by Otto to monitor him.
But this time, the role Fu Hua played wasn't stealing intelligence, but attracting the other party's attention.
Although he didn't expect Aaron to be stupid enough to think 'Ah, Otto sent this flat board over, she must be the only mole in the Oceania Branch,' having Fu Hua, an explicit monitor, appear in the Oceania Branch would definitely divert Aaron's attention because of her.
And the Oceania Branch was Schicksal's territory after all.
Schicksal's territory was naturally Otto's to command.
This was just like Otto dispatching Fu Hua to the Far East Branch to be a spy.
Fu Hua was a spy dispatched by Otto, but she wasn't the only spy dispatched by Otto.
As a grandfather who doted on his granddaughter, Otto arranged a large number of informants within St. Freya Academy, allowing him to pay attention to his granddaughter's movements at all times.
After all, Theresa intended to leave Schicksal back then.
If not for Otto using the real Kiana as leverage, she might have really done it.
And in these few years, because Theresa couldn't see the real Kiana, she increasingly suspected whether Kiana had died back then.
Under these circumstances, as long as his granddaughter's temper flared up, the probability of her leaving Schicksal directly again... to be honest, was really not small.
Otto dispatching Fu Hua over there also had this reason inside.
But now, Otto understood that his granddaughter didn't have thoughts in that regard for the time being.
Originally knowing K423 was in Nagazora City, Otto prepared to guide Theresa to meet K423, letting K423 complete the second stage of one of his plans within St. Freya Academy.
But now, K423 was abducted by Aaron.
Raiden Mei, the holder of the Gem of Conquest, was also abducted by Aaron.
Then in this situation, Otto naturally wouldn't forcefully try to make K423 come to Theresa's side anymore.
One of Otto's plans was to cultivate emotions between K423 and other humans, and then find an opportunity to let K423 turn back into the Herrscher of the Void.
In this situation, the Herrscher of the Void using K423's body to fight those people K423 valued—either the Herrscher of the Void is defeated, or K423 causes an accident by hitting too hard, finally reclaiming self-awareness.
In any case, a [human who can use the Herrscher of the Void's Authority] would appear in the world. At this step, Otto's plan would be mostly successful.
Currently, regarding cultivating feelings between K423 and others, Otto didn't need to worry too much anymore.
As for the Key of the Void and the Gem of Serenity... he could only take it one step at a time.
Otto's tone was so sincere just now because some words were serious.
In Otto's view, rather than the Gem of Serenity and the Key of the Void being in the hands of the mysterious World Serpent and Anti-Entropy who absolutely wouldn't reconcile with him, it was better to be in the hands of this young man who temporarily had no intense conflict with Schicksal.
His most valued treasures being within Schicksal's domain was better than being in other organizations.
The former, if not easily obtainable, at least offered opportunities to tamper with.
The latter... everyone understood.
This time, it wasn't that Aaron got the coordinates of the Key of the Void from somewhere unknown; Otto didn't even know where the Key of the Void was located.
Based on his hindsight deduction, he might have needed to investigate the documents in hand for a long time to obtain information regarding [Avalon].
By that time... who knew if World Serpent would still leave the Key of the Void hovering above the River Thames.
From this aspect, Otto really thanked Aaron.
In Singapore, although Aaron injured Fu Hua, he ensured the Gem wasn't taken by that group from Anti-Entropy.
In London, Aaron seized the Key of the Void, preventing World Serpent from transferring this treasure, which was crucial to Otto, to another place.
If not for worrying that this man possessed some even more special power, Otto really wanted to say thank you to the other party face to face.
However, although he invited the other party to join Schicksal, Otto didn't judge the other party as a lamb to be slaughtered at will.
Previously Otto thought Aaron might be from Anti-Entropy or World Serpent, but looking at it now, Aaron clearly didn't have a good relationship with these two organizations either.
In this situation, Aaron's identity changed from 'highly likely a member of a hostile organization' to 'a terrifying brat popping out of nowhere who is ridiculously strong.'
The former he could still think of ways to steal hostile organization intelligence to judge this man's strength.
But the latter... Heh, this kid obviously has other cards up his sleeve.
Although even if I'm punched to death by this person, I can immediately use my means to complete resurrection, no one can guarantee my resurrection means won't be countered by him.
Rather, his proactive entry into Schicksal might itself harbor thoughts of 'finding a chance to meet Otto and kill him.'
Unknown powers are what I should guard against most.
That move by the Honkai God fourteen years ago almost crashed my brain.
As long as the opponent can attack my consciousness, even if I have data backups and Soulium bodies, I may not be able to guarantee the existence of 'Otto' can survive perfectly until the day I complete the plan.
It doesn't matter if I die.
But if I die, who else would want to save Kallen?
Guard against him for now.
Wait until the moles buried in the Oceania Branch steal the intelligence of the Key of the Void, then consider the next countermeasures.
"Otto, that person..."
Fu Hua, who intended to remind Otto that the man was very dangerous, found her body disobeying her commands the moment she wanted to speak.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Fu Hua's hesitant expression, Otto asked Fu Hua at this moment.
"Is there anything else to note about that man?"
His control over my body hasn't ended?!
Or is it that he controls my consciousness?!
The words Aaron said to Fu Hua back then were for Fu Hua to 'go back and report to Otto that you arrived late and the opponent ran away' after leaving the Empress Hotel.
But when Fu Hua arrived at Schicksal, she completed the report very normally and handed it to Otto, in which Fu Hua even briefly described the process of her fight with Aaron.
At that time, Fu Hua, discovering she didn't act according to the other party's orders, thought she had broken free from the other party's control.
But looking at it now, that sentence back then wasn't a 'command from the controller to the controlled' at all.
That was just a casual sentence from Aaron. He already knew Otto wasn't that easy to hoodwink, so he didn't plan to deceive Otto in this aspect at all.
But just as Fu Hua's words might affect Aaron's plan, she discovered only this time that she couldn't say that sentence.
And she finally understood.
This sentence was something Fu Hua [didn't want to say] herself.
In her personal consciousness, this sentence might threaten Aaron's safety, so she didn't say it.
Fu Hua, realizing this, truly felt a bit horrified.
She and the other party had only met once, and after meeting...
She invaded the other party's consciousness, and the other party beat her up in the consciousness space. This didn't look like a friendly exchange relationship no matter how you looked at it.
Fu Hua could be sure she wasn't a masochist who would develop a good impression of the enemy after being beaten up.
Then the problem was a bit serious.
Under circumstances where she absolutely wouldn't produce such thoughts, she actually subconsciously wanted to shield Aaron...
This... were even my emotions controlled by him?
"...Nothing. I just wanted to say, I don't want to see that man."
"Hi, understood, understood. Although you didn't suffer damage from attacks when you came back then, one could see you vomited blood yourself."
Recalling the pale-faced Fu Hua back then, Otto said very helplessly to Fu Hua.
"It can be seen that your Fenghuang Down seemed unable to trap him. Facing such a tricky opponent, it's too normal for you not to want to see him."
No, it's not like that.
"But old friend, I'm not asking you to fight him again by sending you there this time. Aaron is now a member of our Schicksal; everyone is on the same side."
"On the same side... still need to send spies?"
"Hi, this is just an insurance measure—look, I also sent you to St. Freya Academy. Guess if I dote on my dear granddaughter or not."
Toward Theresa... you indeed dote on her.
But doting and trusting are two different things.
Forget it, I can't be bothered to argue with this guy Otto in this aspect.
Taking a deep look at Otto, Fu Hua found she didn't seem to need to consider so much for Otto.
Although she had a cooperative relationship with Otto, she vaguely felt that the other party seemed to have pitted her severely once.
It's just that Fu Hua, having forgotten a massive amount of memories, couldn't remember exactly how Otto pitted her back then, so she didn't make trouble over this matter.
But now, recalling this feeling, Fu Hua suddenly felt that if someone could make Otto suffer a loss, it wouldn't be a bad thing.
She didn't like this man to begin with. Now if Aaron joined Schicksal and could constrain Otto's dark actions to a certain extent, Fu Hua wouldn't mind assisting Aaron...
Wait?!
Discovering her thinking was unconsciously leaning toward 'assisting Aaron,' Fu Hua found her thinking really had problems.
That man beat her up... fine, that counts as her asking for it.
But Fu Hua really didn't have Stockholm Syndrome. Even if she moved first back then, she couldn't possibly have a good impression of that man just because he beat her up.
At that time, Fu Hua felt her soul was dominated by the other party.
If it were just that, Fu Hua wouldn't be this terrified yet.
What truly terrified her was that she now unconsciously wanted to treat Aaron as someone close to her.
This forced shift in thinking was the most terrifying part for Fu Hua.
And even holding Fenghuang Down, she couldn't resist this erosion...
Then if others encountered this method, wouldn't they be taken down by him even more easily?
...............
After completing the seemingly cordial and friendly talk with Otto, Aaron very calmly bid farewell to the still-bewildered Phantom and Rita, taking Seele out of that small grove.
Dark Seele, who had been following behind Aaron, found she really didn't dare to mess around now.
As a member of the Cocolia Orphanage, Seele naturally knew a lot of intelligence regarding the Honkai that ordinary people couldn't know.
Schicksal, the world's largest anti-Honkai organization—of course, according to Mother Cocolia, Schicksal was unreliable precisely because their boss Otto Apocalypse didn't act like a human.
So in Seele and Dark Seele's subconscious, Otto Apocalypse should be the type who [commits all kinds of crimes], [has a fierce tone], [tyrannizes the weak]... In short, he absolutely couldn't be a good person or someone easy to talk to.
But now, after Aaron completed the negotiation with Otto, they found that things seemed a little different from what they knew...
Otto's conversation and attitude when negotiating with Aaron were clearly miles apart from what Seele imagined.
Is this because there's a problem with Mother Cocolia's intelligence...
Or is it because—this man is simply too powerful, making Otto proactively make concessions?
........................