Sitting on the sofa in Rita's house with Bronya resting on his lap, Otto snapped several selfies of the two of them together.
This was acting on pure whim.
He just wanted to create a few mementos for himself.
It was like visiting a zoo; upon seeing a rare animal, one would naturally want to take a picture as a souvenir.
After finishing the photos, he gave her collar a light tug. Understanding Otto's intent, Bronya slipped out of his embrace and stood before him, gazing at him with silver-gray eyes utterly devoid of any ripples.
"I thought you were going to make me lie at your feet for the pictures," Bronya stated in her crisp, flat voice.
Like a dog resting at its master's feet.
Otto looked at Bronya in confusion before breaking into a smile.
Honestly, what kind of person does she think this Overseer is?
"You aren't a doggirl."
"You're human," Otto said with a chuckle.
Though, truthfully, compared to doggirls, Otto preferred catgirls.
However, raising a cat in the Honkai world made it virtually impossible to get a catgirl. At best, he might end up with a feline Honkai Beast that viewed its master as premium cat food.
He placed a hand on Bronya's head and affectionately rubbed it, completely messing up the beautifully draped long hair that Rita had helped her style. Seeing Bronya's ruffled appearance, he chuckled softly.
Disrupting harmony always provided a fleeting sense of joy.
Otto continued, "I said it before. As long as you don't betray me, I won't harm you or the people you care about."
"But absolutely do not betray me. My possessiveness is beyond your imagination."
"When the time comes, I wouldn't want to see you lying permanently on the ground."
He deliberately made his tone sound cold and sinister, yet Bronya's expression didn't shift in the slightest. She simply continued to stare at him blankly.
"Tch."
Otto couldn't help but click his tongue. How boring. If it were Anna, being teased like this by him would have definitely reduced her to tears.
"Are your emotional circuits still not repaired yet?"
Thinking this, he placed both hands on Bronya's head and vigorously ruffled her hair, messing up her silver-gray locks until they resembled a bird's nest even more chaotic than Einstein's signature bedhead.
Looking at his masterpiece, Otto clutched his stomach and laughed.
"They have been repaired," Bronya replied.
Schicksal's medical technology was second to none in the world.
"But, I am used to being like this."
Bronya had never been good at expressing her emotions. Before she met Seele, she had been a completely emotionless killer.
Otto was not the person destined to open her heart.
"Fair enough." Otto didn't pester her any further. "I'll be leaving now. I'll come visit you again soon."
He patted Bronya's head, didn't linger any longer, and decisively took his leave.
Truthfully, he didn't hold the same kind of affection for Bronya as he did for Kiana, Mei, and Fu Hua.
However, Otto was still quite keen on unlocking the 'Original Trio Collection' achievement.
Men in high positions were inherently greedy. Men in general were greedy. And Otto, a man wielding absolute supreme authority, was incomparably greedy.
Leaving through the back door of Rita's house and passing through the courtyard garden, Otto slipped through the blind spots of the patrolling Valkyries outside and headed toward his true destination.
Very quickly, he arrived at Mei's house.
He didn't feel the slightest pang of guilt over illegal trespassing. After all, wasn't Mei's home this Overseer's home too? He was merely returning to his own house.
Using his Schicksal Overseer privileges to unlock the door, Otto pushed it open and stepped inside. His and Mei's little love nest was a two-story, single-family building. However, the moment he stepped into the foyer, Otto frowned.
Because he smelled a distinct fragrance.
The scent of burning incense.
Puzzled, Otto walked into the living room, and his frown deepened significantly.
He seriously suspected he had walked into the wrong house.
The living room was decorated entirely in white tones, radiating a solemn and deeply mournful atmosphere. In the corners of the room stood massive white floral wreaths, with large characters for 'Mourning' plastered right in the center.
Instantly, Otto felt as though he hadn't walked into a sweet romantic nest, but into a funeral mourning hall.
His gaze then slowly drifted to the most prominent position in the room.
There, Otto saw himself.
More accurately, he saw a framed portrait of himself.
Except the photo was entirely in black and white.
And in the incense burner placed directly in front of the portrait, several sticks of incense were still burning, wafting trails of faint white smoke into the air.
Fuck! Isn't this way too ominous?!
Standing inside a mourning hall displaying his own funeral portrait, Otto felt a sudden chill, as if a ghoul from a freezer was dragging an icy tongue down his spine all the way to his tailbone. The biting cold made him involuntarily shudder.
He half-expected some horrific ghost to come crawling out from beneath the altar at any moment.
He really didn't want to see anything unholy.
However, looking around at the meticulous setup, Otto ultimately decided not to dismantle it.
Mei believed this Overseer had died in Nagazora, so setting up the house like this was actually quite normal.
This was all proof of her deep longing for him. It was best to just wait and let her clean it up herself.
But it really is a bit cold in here.
Which Herrscher's Authority specializes in exorcising ghosts again?
Otto shrank his neck and hastily retreated from the living room. Just looking at this setup, it was obvious Mei didn't have many friends. If she did, and they came over and saw this macabre display, they would likely be traumatized for life.
And as the 'deceased' in question, Otto felt even more creeped out. He headed straight up to the second floor and stopped in front of the only occupied room. This was Mei's bedroom.
Without knocking, Otto pushed the door open.
It wasn't like he had any nefarious intentions. He just wanted to check if she was sleeping on a single bed, so he could arrange to have it swapped for a double bed.
However, the moment the door swung open and he saw the interior decorating, Otto's expression completely froze.
The furniture in the room was quite sparse, likely because she had only moved in recently and hadn't had time to shop.
But...
The walls were plastered with Otto posters and framed photos.
On the bed lay a life-sized Otto dakimakura body pillow.
On the display cabinets stood custom Otto figurines.
Otto: ???
Otto silently closed the door. Then, he pushed it open a second time. He figured his posture when opening the door just now must have been slightly off.
But, seeing that the bizarre shrine inside hadn't changed in the slightest, Otto silently closed the door once again.
Forget it. How can a gentleman casually intrude upon a maiden's boudoir?
I didn't see a thing.
Otto decided it was best to pretend he hadn't seen anything in that room. Some mysteries were better left unexplored.
Thinking it over, Otto concluded it would be safer to go back to his mourning hall and wait for Mei there.
Pah, no, I mean go back to the living room to wait.
Heading straight downstairs, Otto had a sudden, terrifying realization: this girl Mei seemed to harbor some serious yandere tendencies.
In the original history, even though she was completely devoted to the Paramecium, during the 'Lament of the Fallen' in Nagazora, she had still beaten the Paramecium to an absolute pulp, viciously aiming all her strikes right at Kiana's face and stomach.
Wow, did I just accidentally flip some incredibly dangerous switch?
"System?" Otto hastily called out in his mind. "If I only have my head left, or if all my limbs get completely chopped off, can I still survive? Can I regrow my limbs?"
[...]
The System was momentarily rendered speechless, but it still provided an explanation to its scumbag Host.
[Host, even if your hands and feet were completely severed, you would still be able to regenerate them.]
[Even if your heart were to be ripped out of your chest, this body of yours would survive and fully recover.]
Wow, it's that overpowered!? Isn't this regenerative ability even stronger than my wife Fu Hua's?
Sitting inside his own funeral hall and staring at his black-and-white portrait, Otto nodded in profound satisfaction.
"In other words, I can confidently be a scumbag with absolute peace of mind?"
The bad man Otto said with a wide, radiant smile.
[...]
[Host, what you truly need to worry about is whether they will chop you into meat paste, and then merge you into their own bodies so you can be together forever.]
---o---