Otto's Grand Discovery

Schicksal HQ, the Bishop's office.

"Oh? Is that so? Interesting..."

Otto, who was facing a map covering the entire city of London and its surrounding suburbs, remotely directing the search operation for the Second Divine Key, showed a slightly surprised expression when he heard Rita's report.

"That's the situation. Squad Member Yuno should have already met with the guest. I just don't know if they'll get along."

Rita stood respectfully to the side, reporting in detail the results of her work over the past few hours,

"If you have no further instructions, Overseer, Rita will take her leave."

She had actually come to Otto in person to report, instead of communicating remotely through a holographic image.

Now, after reporting her new discovery, she wanted to hurry back. On the one hand, it was to continue monitoring, or rather observing, Lin Wei, and on the other hand, it was also to prevent Yuno from causing any trouble...

In fact, the reason things were so troublesome was precisely because of Otto's request.

Although he had reached a temporary understanding with Lin Wei, because the Key of Corruption was still at Schicksal HQ, Otto's sense of insecurity was almost at its peak. Online communication was unreliable in his opinion, and only a face-to-face report could reassure him.

On the one hand, he was worried that someone might overhear something they shouldn't. On the other hand, Lin Wei had just used his image and name to issue orders right in front of him. How could he trust that the holographic projection he saw was really the real person?

Because of this, when Otto had Rita take Lin Wei away to be settled, he also hinted at his intention: Report back to me personally immediately if you find anything.

With Rita's intelligence and sharpness, coupled with their years of tacit understanding, she immediately understood and discreetly carried out the Overseer's latest instructions.

Earlier, when she took Yuno away from Lin Wei and Otto, she had noticed Yuno's obvious agitation and excitement.

But at that time, to avoid further stimulating Yuno, who was clearly not in a normal state, she didn't dare to do anything unnecessary, only assuring her that "Mr. Lin Wei" would be fine while trying to calm her down.

After barely managing to soothe the restless Yuno, before Rita could have a further conversation with her, the entire Schicksal HQ was thrown into chaos by the chain reaction caused by the missile launched without reason, targeting a densely populated city.

At that time, Otto, as the Overseer, was still "meeting with a guest," and Durandal was "shouldering a heavy responsibility" and couldn't be spared. The only person who could intervene and stop the chaos immediately was herself.

Therefore, Rita, who was too busy and couldn't attend to Yuno for the time being, to prevent her from adding fuel to the fire in the already chaotic Schicksal HQ, promised to take her to see Lin Wei as soon as he left the Overseer.

Yuno also noticed the commotion outside, and didn't want to add to the trouble at this time. Coupled with the fact that Rita's promise was in line with her wishes, after a little thought, she agreed.

Seeing that Yuno had no objections, Rita breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately rushed to the command center to fulfill her duties as an S-rank Valkyrie...

After everything was over, and after settling Lin Wei in his prepared quarters, Rita came to fulfill her promise, taking Yuno to see him.

On the way, Rita noticed that as they got closer, Yuno's emotions gradually shifted from "excited" to "nervous," which surprised her even more.

After all, whether excitement or nervousness, neither had appeared on Yuno in over a year.

In everyone's impression, she always alternated between "silence" and "irritability." Even when silent, she always had a dangerous aura, making people worry that she might explode in the next second, whipping everything around her to shreds with her vines.

It was precisely because of this that many people kept their distance from her...

"Yuno, why are you so eager to see Mr. Lin Wei?"

Seeing that Yuno now seemed quite well-behaved, Rita asked the question she was curious about.

"Because he's the one who brought me out of Nagazora City. I have something to ask him."

Yuno said honestly. After thinking for a moment, she added,

"I also promised Anna that I would take care of him for her, so I need to see him to be at ease."

Anna?

Rita was stunned for a moment, and quickly asked a few more questions, learning more about the inside story she had never heard from anyone before.

Just like that, they walked and talked, until they were almost at Lin Wei's residence. Rita suddenly stopped and looked at Yuno seriously, asking,

"This might sound presumptuous, but I want to confirm, you won't cause any conflict with Mr. Lin Wei, right?"

Yuno thought carefully, then nodded,

"Yes."

"Is that so? Understood."

Rita smiled, smoothed Yuno's slightly messy hair and the wrinkles on her clothes, took out a handkerchief to wipe the fine sweat from her forehead due to nervousness, then patted her back and said gently,

"In that case, I won't disturb your reunion. Go ahead."

"Eh?"

Yuno was stunned, not expecting Rita to say these words.

"If I were there, I'm afraid I would disturb your conversation."

Rita continued with a smile, as if she didn't see Yuno's surprise,

"But don't take too long, it will affect the guest's rest~"

Seeing that Rita seemed to really trust her to go alone, Yuno couldn't help but feel grateful. She nodded heavily, took a deep breath, mustered her courage, and walked towards the small building alone.

Rita smiled as she watched Yuno leave, and only after her figure disappeared into the night did she turn and walk in another direction, going straight to Overseer Otto to report her latest unexpected harvest.

...

"You did well, Rita. Wait a moment, let me think."

After hearing Rita's report, Otto was also quite surprised, and couldn't help but ponder,

"Anna… Anna Schariac..."

He wasn't unfamiliar with the name Anna; on the contrary, he had quite an impression of her.

This wasn't because he remembered the names of all the Valkyries—don't be ridiculous, he didn't have that kind of patience or interest—nor was it because of her surname, Schariac.

The reason Otto remembered Anna was simply because he had spent some time with her at close range when he was pretending to be "Yuno," and also because he had carefully read Anna's extremely simple resume to better disguise himself as "Anna's good friend."

Anna's resume was truly very simple, just a thin sheet of paper—all about her training experience at HQ, nothing more than what assessments she passed at what age, what excellent results she achieved.

And the last two lines of the entire page were "Successfully promoted to A-rank Valkyrie" and "Appointed as Vice-Captain of Squad Snow Lotus."

That was it.

It was precisely because of this that Otto was so surprised by the news Rita relayed to him!

Otto knew that the reason he had been repeatedly outmaneuvered by Lin Wei was that Lin Wei knew him very well, even his weaknesses, while he knew nothing about Lin Wei.

How could he not lose when the enemy knew him, but he didn't know the enemy?

His only understanding of Lin Wei was that he respected Kallen very much…

The reason Otto ultimately tolerated Lin Wei's rudeness, besides the threat of the Key of Corruption and the irresistible information about the Second Divine Key, was because he actually had common ground with Lin Wei on this issue.

"Kallen shouldn't have died, at least not like that..."

The reason Lin Wei was so hostile towards him, even mocking and showing off in front of him, seemed to be related to this as well. It was precisely because of this that Otto found himself liking this guy.

He even liked him more than Welt Joyce back then—As long as you also like Kallen and are equally indignant and angry about her fate, then we are best friends!

Well, at least soulmates…

But liking him and being "friends" didn't mean he would show mercy to Lin Wei.

After all, he had truly liked Welt Joyce back then, but hadn't he also been ruthless and unscrupulous when backstabbing and killing him?

Although he felt regretful like back then, Otto didn't intend to let Lin Wei go either—after all, the threat he posed was unprecedented!

The reason he hadn't acted was, on the one hand, because the Second Divine Key was within reach, and he didn't want any complications at this juncture. On the other hand, it was out of apprehension, not knowing how to deal with him.

Of course, there was the matter of the Key of Corruption, and many other complicated reasons that made him feel that Lin Wei was like a hedgehog he couldn't touch. At least the methods he was familiar with were all ineffective against him!

This was very annoying...

Having suffered repeated losses, Otto didn't want to act rashly anymore. He planned to take advantage of the current temporary "truce" to gather more information about him, to even out the awkward information asymmetry.

It was for this purpose that he once again assigned Rita to Lin Wei's side, hoping to use her keen observation skills to gain some insight.

He originally thought this would be a fruitless effort—after all, Lin Wei was a smart man, and his intentions might not be hidden from him. He even had to be careful not to be outmaneuvered.

But he never expected that Rita would so quickly get an unexpected surprise from another person—

Anna was actually related to Lin Wei?

And asked Yuno to take care of him at HQ?

Even went as far as to confront Durandal to stop her from taking him away?

This news was truly too unexpected!

Why was this happening? What had happened?

Otto keenly realized that this question might give him a new understanding of many things, and at the same time, allow him to have a more comprehensive understanding of Lin Wei, his most troublesome opponent ever…

Seeing Otto lost in thought, Rita, who hadn't received his approval and couldn't leave easily, reminded him after waiting for a moment,

"During the Manila Honkai eruption, both the Captain and Vice-Captain of Squad Snow Lotus went with Mr. Lin Wei to stop the tsunami, and were responsible for bringing him back from the dangerous front lines. It's not surprising that they would form a bond of comradeship."

Whether Rita really thought so or not, that's what she said, after all, it was a very reasonable explanation.

"Heh, I'm afraid that might not be the case."

Otto chuckled,

"If it was comradeship formed on the battlefield, why would our Miss Anna suddenly object, even resist, when Durandal brought this seriously injured 'great hero' back to HQ for treatment?"

"...Are you saying that Anna betrayed Schicksal?"

Rita sighed inwardly, really not wanting things to go in this direction. This was why she had tried to be vague earlier.

"No, no, no, Anna is, of course, a loyal and brave Valkyrie of Schicksal. Her outstanding performance on the Manila battlefield, even just from your written reports after the battle, impressed and moved me deeply."

Otto said with a smile,

"But there must be something we overlooked that led to this unexpected event."

"Are you saying that Anna knew Mr. Lin Wei long ago?"

Rita asked doubtfully,

"But she has always lived at HQ. Her first mission was to go to Manila as Vice-Captain of a Valkyrie squad. After that, she was in a coma for a long time. It would have been very difficult for her to have the opportunity to meet outsiders..."

"Heh, that's precisely the problem."

Otto's smile didn't fade,

"According to the battle records of the Manila Honkai eruption, Valkyrie Anna performed bravely. But as far as I know, she was seriously injured and unconscious the day before the eruption. Why would she suddenly be so lively and vigorous?"

"This..."

Rita was stunned. She really didn't know about this—after all, it was Otto himself who had witnessed Anna's injury and had stayed by her bedside for a long time. This was exclusive information he possessed.

"Heh, it seems our Miss Schariac experienced some memorable events after going to Manila!"

Otto became even more certain of his guess and turned to Amber,

"Find me all the mission reports of Squad Snow Lotus since Valkyrie Anna joined. As for the deadline..."

Otto pondered for a moment and said,

"Set it to before 'Yuno' left for Manila."

"Yes."

Amber took the order and turned to leave. Ten minutes later, she returned with a stack of documents two to three centimeters thick, respectfully presenting them to Otto with both hands,

"Overseer, please take a look."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work, Amber."

Otto said casually, then took the stack of documents and began to read them carefully, page by page, as if he could see every scene, every conflict, every battle, every difficulty that happened at that time from the dry text descriptions.

The content of the Squad Snow Lotus mission reports that Amber found was very monotonous, nothing more than a Honkai eruption occurring somewhere, Squad Snow Lotus being dispatched urgently, then Durandal descending from the sky, and finally everyone returning home…

Otto read page after page, frowning more and more. This repetitive content was completely worthless.

"Hmm?"

Just when he was down to the last few reports, even starting to doubt whether the remaining pages were worth reading, the monotonous content suddenly changed.

"Vice-Captain Anna took the lead, fought bravely, was the first to break into the center of the Honkai disaster, and together with Lady Durandal, eliminated the Honkai beasts and Dead Men, saving the survivors. A three-day vacation was specially granted after the battle as a reward..."

The specific wording was much more detailed, but the general content was basically this.

"This is it!"

Otto's eyes lit up.

He wasn't interested in the vague wording in the report, whether it was a real vacation or something else, he wasn't interested either. He only knew that this "vacation" itself might be the key to the problem.

After a moment of thought, Otto put it aside and picked up the last report—the report on the Coral Island operation.

Otto had some impression of this operation report. He had skimmed through it at the time, finding clues about World Serpent, and keenly seeing the opportunity it contained, using it as an opportunity to formulate the "flushing out the snake" operation plan, confidently setting his net.

Then, just as he was about to succeed, an uninvited guest intervened, and ultimately, his efforts were in vain…

But this time, when Otto saw the report again, his heart stirred. He began to read it carefully, word by word, line by line, and began to construct in his mind every scene, every conflict, every battle, every difficulty that occurred at that time, following the text description.

"Heh, what a wonderful adventure story, and a brave and resourceful lone hero!"

After a long time, Otto placed the report on the table and looked at Rita with an almost delighted smile,

"Our Schicksal has truly produced another remarkable talent! It seems that the next S-rank Valkyrie must be this Miss 'Anna Schariac'!"

Otto tapped the report on the table with his knuckles, turned his face to the side, and said softly with a hint of mockery,

"Mr. Lin Wei, you've really given me another big surprise!"

"I never expected that the two girls in the valley back then were both your old acquaintances? This is truly surprising..."

"Heh... I'm afraid your true role back then might not be what you said it was..."

Otto paused, his smile widening,

"Otherwise, when we were being open and honest before, why did you hide half the truth?"