In front of a somewhat cramped dining table, a pink-haired girl held out both hands and breathed warm air onto her palms. She was clearly freezing.
After all, this place lay in the middle of ice and snow, and fuel had to be saved, so the fire in the stove wasn't burning strongly.
She was a cute girl with long pink hair, wearing a short skirt in white and pink. Even though it was cold, the chill hadn't frozen the smile off her face.
This child — Rozaliya Olenyeva — loved to smile, as if worries had nothing to do with her at all.
"Bronya, do you think Mama will come back?" Rozaliya turned her head and looked toward the girl standing by the window.
That was a girl wearing clothes with a slight military cut to them. She had pretty light-gray curls and eyes, a cute face, and a small frame.
If you looked carefully, you could tell the girl was floating in midair, because both her legs were disabled and she could only rely on the exoskeleton armor attached to them to stay aloft.
The gray-haired girl's name was Bronya Zaychik. She was more mature than others her age.
But with no expression on her face, she looked through the window at the world of ice and snow outside.
"Call her back." Bronya spoke flatly, her eyes never leaving the window.
"Eh?" Rozaliya found it a little strange, but asked carefully, "Wouldn't that disturb Mama's work?"
Even though Rozaliya very much wanted Mama Cocolia to come back, she still worried about whether it would affect her.
"And gather everyone in the main hall while you're at it. No running around, and no going outside."
Bronya said this, then left the window and floated off toward the stairs.
But when she reached the stairway, she stopped and turned to look at Rozaliya.
"Tell her to come back at once."
"Otherwise, she may lose us."
After saying that, Bronya didn't stop. Upstairs, in her room, there were weapons.
And at that very moment, Otto's eyes were shining as he stared at the huge thing lying on the ground. This giant robot was a Titan — made by Anti-Entropy.
As a boy who loved inventing things, Otto developed a strong interest in this Titan. So strong that he almost wanted to haul it back to Schicksal and study it properly.
It was just that this Titan had been sliced cleanly into two halves, casually cut apart by a Valkyrie moments ago.
Too weak. Other than being interested in it, that was Otto's impression of the Titan.
What he didn't know was that the A-rank Valkyrie who'd just made the cut was simply too strong, and that there were more than a dozen Valkyries just as strong around here.
Yes. Otto had brought more than a dozen veteran A-rank Valkyries to capture a group of children, and probably the weakest one here was little Anna, trotting along right behind him.
But even if they'd come to seize a bunch of children, this place was still one of Cocolia's important laboratories, and there were plenty of defensive facilities around it.
These Valkyries were simply too experienced, though. They'd already cleaned out the surrounding outposts and taken down the hidden Titan guards one by one.
At this moment, Cocolia Orphanage was like an isolated island in the snow. It could no longer stop Otto's advance.
"Sir, what are you looking at?"
Anna, who'd been sticking close to Otto the whole time, spoke up while Otto lightly tapped a finger against the Titan wreckage.
"Who was it that developed these things?"
Otto asked casually, only somewhat interested, but Anna answered even faster, because she thought the Lord Overseer was testing her on her basic knowledge.
Surely nobody actually thought the Lord Overseer didn't know this sort of common knowledge? No way, right? No way?
"They were developed by Dr. Tesla of Anti-Entropy." Anna answered, then stole a glance at Otto. The upper half of his face was hidden behind the goggles, but a smile curled at the corner of his mouth, as if he were scorning that traitor to Schicksal.
Anna felt her heartbeat speed up, but Otto had merely committed Tesla's name to memory. Even if Titans were weak now, that didn't mean they couldn't be improved later.
He really hoped he could invite that Dr. Tesla over to Schicksal as a guest. He liked tinkering with inventions too, and presumably the two of them would have plenty to talk about.
Thinking about that pleasant meeting that might happen one day, Otto couldn't help smiling.
"Sir." At that moment, a light-brown-haired Valkyrie with a short cut — not important enough to be given a name — stepped forward and said, "What are your orders next?"
Her tone was not friendly, and it scared the color out of Anna's face. This was Overseer Otto. If she made the Overseer unhappy, she'd be sent to rot on the bench.
But Otto didn't mind. He wasn't leading this team under the name of Overseer Otto.
He was wearing goggles, dressed in a man's uniform, with his long blond hair tied back in a low ponytail.
And he was using a fake name. Here, he was Sir Alpha.
In this Valkyrie's eyes, Otto was just some young master parachuted in to pad his record, with a maid following behind to take care of him.
Yes — Anna, who was only an ordinary B-rank Valkyrie, had been mistaken for Otto's maid, because she never left his side.
Otto hadn't planned to reveal his identity, either. He'd come to build up experience, not to bring a pack of bootlickers out on a sightseeing trip.
But he'd also now experienced the strength of Valkyries for himself. Power like this was probably even greater than his older sister's.
"Here." Otto spoke, pulling out his phone and handing it to the Valkyrie who'd just spoken. She looked baffled. Could it be that this pampered young master wanted her contact info?
No — her heart belonged to Lady Durandal.
But then she watched Otto jump straight onto the Titan wreckage, scramble up to the highest point in a few quick moves, and plop himself down on top.
"Come on, come on, take a picture of me."
Otto said it with a smile, and the Valkyrie's forehead almost burst with veins. She very nearly crushed his phone on the spot, but in the end she held back, because this was a mission handed down by Lady Amber.
But just as she raised the phone to take the picture, Otto lifted his right hand.
"Come up, come up."
Anna pointed at herself, a little uncertain. When she saw Otto nod, she carefully glanced at the Valkyrie, who already looked somewhat impatient.
She didn't climb up the way Otto had. Instead, she leapt straight up.
Her skirt fluttered slightly. Otto turned his eyes away, and Anna landed on top of the Titan wreckage several meters high.
"Sit here." Otto said it in a friendly way. Anna was the one assigned to protect him, and she was also someone who'd belong to his circle in the future, so he treated her well enough.
Anna didn't act coy about it. Being able to take a photograph with Overseer Otto was an honor.
Sitting down beside him, a smile appeared on her face without her even realizing it, while Otto turned his body slightly toward her, making the two of them look very close.
So he really was just some rich kid out here fooling around with women. The Valkyrie taking the photo looked at them with contempt, but she still took the picture.
Once he saw the signal that the photo was done, Otto stood up and looked out over the endless white snowfield. Far away, there was a building. That was the next target.
But then—
*Bang!*
Otto heard the sound of metal striking metal right beside his ear. He felt something small slam into his face.
A bullet fell into the Titan wreckage.
And then, in his mind, he heard Void Archives' voice, carrying a wicked laugh.
"Little Otto, if you still had a flesh-and-blood body, your head would've blown apart just now."
Otto couldn't help looking in one direction.
That was the direction of the orphanage.
Sniper fire from inside the orphanage.