A girl's feet in stockings.
They weren't really any different from his own.
Otto held Bronya's feet in white stockings. The first thing he felt when they touched his hands was a slight chill.
Her toes rested against his palm. Bronya's feet were small. Otto's hand could wrap around them easily.
Very light. Even with her feet being held, they didn't move at all. Was that because she had no feeling in them?
Otto carefully examined Bronya's feet. Wrapped in stockings, they made him sigh at how smooth the material of stockings in this era really was.
He'd worn stockings himself back in his own time, but the fineness was nowhere near comparable.
Otto had only meant to take a casual look, then tell the gray-haired girl that Schicksal could heal her feet.
He didn't know medicine. He was only putting on a show right now. He'd just press around a bit and pretend he knew what he was doing.
As for whether they could really be healed — the one worrying about that later wouldn't be him anyway.
There was a smile on his face. His fingers lightly pressed against the sole of the girl's foot, but Bronya's face didn't change at all. Clearly, she had no feeling there.
But inside, Bronya didn't really feel anything about it, either. She was only using her crippled legs as bait.
This was a man. Bronya had a tiny bit of confidence in her own charm.
That should be about enough, Otto thought.
He'd been pretending to check the condition of Bronya's legs, estimating the timing, feeling that he could end the examination now.
His hands were just about to set down the girl's small feet when Bronya's voice came over.
"Big brother, should we take off the stockings and check?"
Bronya leaned forward. She stretched out both hands to the stockings, her fingers slipping into the gap where her thigh met the tight fabric.
The pure white stockings that had been wrapped around Bronya's legs slowly slid downward. Otto watched the snow-white skin revealed underneath, and swallowed.
Otto's real age wasn't that far from Bronya's. A boy at this age being interested in girls was a perfectly normal thing.
In the old days, girls like this could already have been bearing children.
The stocking on her right leg had already been rolled down to her calf, revealing the slender leg that had been hidden beneath.
Otto was a little dazed. He'd never experienced this feeling before. It was as if he'd stepped into a forbidden place. Even though he knew he shouldn't keep going, his eyes stayed fixed on Bronya's legs.
He took the bait more easily than expected.
Bronya, so close to Otto, could tell that the blond man's breathing had turned a little rushed. But getting caught just from taking off a stocking — wasn't that a little too easy? Where had this innocent boy come from?
Unless this man was pretending? Unless he'd seen through her and was only toying with his prey?
Anna, standing behind Otto and watching the other girls in the orphanage, didn't notice anything wrong. Her attention wasn't on Otto's side at all.
How could a little girl with crippled legs possibly have any bad intentions?
The stockings were off now, gathered in Bronya's hand, while Otto held Bronya's bare feet in both hands. Her small toes looked bright and translucent.
Without the barrier of the stockings, Otto felt an excellent touch — young and soft, but also springy.
He couldn't help himself. He squeezed one of Bronya's toes lightly, his thumb sliding across the smooth top of her foot.
Otto felt that he was being a little strange. Having never touched a girl before, this was the first time he'd come into such close contact with a girl's skin.
His chest felt a little hot.
But Otto didn't dislike the feeling. A restrained boy had stepped into an unknown world.
The puberty-aged Overseer looked at Bronya's smooth instep, lightly holding it, kneading that little foot that fit so neatly in one hand.
It was almost as if he were handling a piece of art. He was a little reluctant to let go.
But then he suddenly realized he'd been a little abrupt.
Playing with someone else's foot without their permission seemed a little inappropriate.
Otto lifted his head. He didn't stop what his hands were doing. He looked at Bronya, wanting to explain something — but what he saw was a pair of emotionless eyes.
His heart jolted.
A white blur flashed before his eyes. Bronya had already burst up from the wheelchair, and the stocking in her hand wrapped around Otto's neck.
Her sudden burst was so fast that even Anna, a B-rank Valkyrie, failed to react.
In that instant of eruption, she was no longer a disabled, harmless girl.
She had returned to the days when she was an assassin.
Her left arm hooked around Otto's neck, and the stocking wrapped around it too, as if putting a collar on him.
Otto was slammed down onto the floor, the girl's body pressing across his back.
In her right hand, Bronya pulled out a fountain pen. She hadn't dared carry a dagger, afraid it would be found in a search, so she'd only kept this pen.
The sharp pen tip was aimed at Otto's neck. Bronya pinned him down from above.
Only then did Anna react. The attack had come far too suddenly. A long spear appeared in her hands and she aimed it at Bronya.
The ceiling split open. One of the Valkyries had noticed the movement downstairs and jumped straight through after punching a hole with one blow.
"All of you, leave this building!"
"Or I'll kill him."
Bronya said it coldly to Anna and the Valkyrie. The sharp pen in her hand pressed against the part of Otto's neck not covered by the stocking.
Everything was going smoothly. It was all unfolding the way Bronya had expected.
Next, she only had to hold out until Cocolia came back with reinforcements.
Damn it! I was too careless! Anna gripped the shaft of her spear with both hands. Because of her failure, the Lord Overseer had actually been taken hostage.
"Hahahahaha."
But at that moment, laughter actually rang out in the room.
It was the only man in this house who was laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" Bronya asked. Like a wolf that had caught its prey, she didn't dare relax even a little.
"Thank you. You taught me not to underestimate anyone."
Otto said it lazily. In his mind, though, there was Void Archives' laughing face, and that made him laugh too.
But after laughing, he was no longer happy.
Because he felt like an idiot. He'd been thinking about how to heal her legs, only to be taken hostage by her instead.
The boy had forgotten that he was the one who came here leading a team to take these children away. Seen from these girls' side, he was an invader trespassing into their home.
This mission of his really deserved a zero. He'd almost been sniped to death, and now he'd been taken hostage too.
Otto smiled, and right in Bronya's stunned gaze, he rammed his own neck straight into the pen tip.
Bronya jerked backward. She sensed danger. With the stocking wrapped around this man's neck, his breathing should have already become labored.
But Otto's breathing was still perfectly steady.
"Crack."
The sound of the pen tip snapping. How could ordinary metal possibly compare to Soulium in hardness?
Bronya had lost because of an information gap. She had never imagined that the other side's skin would be this hard.
Neither blades nor joint locks worked on Otto.
Not good!
Project Bunny was about to manifest behind her, but without the exoskeleton armor on her legs, Bronya couldn't move them. She couldn't get off Otto's back.
But Project Bunny didn't manifest behind her. Instead, a large hand closed around Bronya's throat.
Otto's right hand was gripping Bronya's neck. He rose from the floor and lifted the girl up.
"What a pity."
There was regret in Otto's voice.
"I quite liked you."
As the words fell, his right hand tightened.