Otto's feet stepped onto the snow, but he couldn't feel the cold.
Soulium could regulate temperature automatically, so Otto didn't really experience shifts of cold and warmth, which he found a little regrettable.
Sometimes, there still ought to be a little change.
He walked forward step by step. Anna followed on his right, and two Valkyries followed on his left. The rest had the building surrounded.
Everything was under control.
Looking at the quiet building in front of him, Otto let out a breath, which turned into white mist in the cold air.
A boy who had always seemed weak found that he rather liked this feeling now. The feeling that everything was in his grasp.
This feeling was power.
He understood his father a little better. No wonder that even with an old and failing body, he'd still refused to let go of the power in his hands.
And now he also understood what sort of experience Void Archives had wanted him to accumulate.
It wasn't battle experience she wanted him to gather. He was the Overseer. When would it ever be his turn to personally handle that kind of thing?
What Otto needed to learn was to understand clearly the power he held as Overseer. That was what Void Archives had wanted him to understand.
He was no longer that youngest son who'd had the least presence. He was now the Overseer — a man holding great power.
By using the power of the Overseer, he could make this squad of powerful Valkyries protect him and turn a mission into an outing.
At that moment, Otto also understood what the optimal solution to this operation had really been.
He shouldn't have come out at all. It would have been enough to let the Valkyrie squad bring those children back on their own. That was the true optimal solution for someone in the Overseer's position.
But Otto didn't dislike the feeling of coming out here. It gave him a sense of participation, or perhaps it was simply his own preference.
He didn't want to stay back at Headquarters and merely wait for a result. That was too dull.
So he'd come. As he looked at the door of the building, the Valkyries around him and Anna remained on guard against any danger that might appear.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Otto stepped forward and knocked on the door, almost like a neighbor dropping by for a visit, except he hadn't brought any gift.
"Merry Christmas!"
Otto said it with a smile. Even though this year's Christmas was still very far away, no sound came from inside.
Otto didn't hurry to open the door, either. He clasped his hands behind his back — a gesture his father often used.
He was in no hurry at all. He felt that as time passed, the ones growing anxious would be the people inside.
But then he thought again. He wanted to take these children away — children with promising futures — not frighten them.
There was no need to do this.
So he pointed at the door lock, and the Valkyrie understood, stepping forward to pry it open.
But then came the sound of the doorknob turning. Someone was opening the door from inside. Otto took half a step back. His own little life was still very important.
Very soon, the door opened. Otto looked straight ahead and didn't see anyone. He lowered his gaze and met a pair of light-gray eyes.
Very pretty eyes. But the girl with those pretty eyes was sitting in a wheelchair.
"Are you… Santa Claus?"
The soft voice came from Bronya's mouth. She'd lowered her pitch to hide the emotionless quality of her voice.
She widened her eyes, looking just like a little girl who longed for Santa Claus.
"I'm one of Santa's partners. I came to help him deliver gifts."
Otto had once longed for Santa Claus too, until he discovered that the one dressing up as Santa and bringing him gifts on Christmas Eve had been his sister.
But his gaze couldn't help falling to Bronya's legs in white stockings. Was this girl disabled?
His eyes moved past Bronya and looked at the room. At a glance, he could see that many little girls were gathered in the living room, and the oldest among them was only about the same age as his real age.
"Where are the adults here?"
Wearing a gentle smile, Otto pushed Bronya's wheelchair and walked into the room, while the Valkyries stayed on guard around them.
Looking at the girls in the living room, Otto's gaze swept over them. In their eyes he saw caution and fear, and most of the children lowered their heads, not daring to look at the man who had invaded their little world.
"Everyone is here."
Bronya said this, and Otto rather liked this little girl in the wheelchair, because she'd been the one to open the door herself. Very obedient.
Too bad she was lying.
Otto knew there was someone in this building capable of sniping him dead. Presumably an excellent soldier — maybe someone Cocolia had arranged to protect these girls.
But that wasn't certain, either. It was possible that person had been hiding in the dark to protect them, and the children themselves didn't know.
But since these children had gathered here, that meant they knew he was coming. And how had they known? The only answer was that someone had told them.
Otto turned his head and tipped his chin toward the Valkyries. Six more came in from outside, splitting into teams of two and starting to search upstairs and downstairs for enemies.
They weren't only here to take the children away. There was also a laboratory underground in the orphanage, and experiments had been carried out here before. Perhaps some data was still left behind. They were going to move out the data and any important equipment as well.
As people of Schicksal, it was only proper to make Anti-Entropy's already poor situation even worse.
Otto remained in the living room, with Anna standing guard at his side. Standing beside Bronya's wheelchair, he looked around once, then said to the girls:
"Next, you'll be going somewhere warm."
A few of the little girls shrank into themselves. Maybe it was because of the cold. This world of ice and snow really wasn't fit for so many girls to be living in.
"Ah-choo!"
As if helping Otto make his point for him, Rozaliya sneezed. Otto looked at the pink-haired girl with satisfaction and committed her appearance to memory.
That supportive little performance made Otto's favorability toward Rozaliya go up by one.
"No thanks…" Otto heard the muttered refusal. It came from a girl in androgynous clothes. Otto remembered Sin Mal too — though not in his heart. He wrote her down in his little black notebook instead.
"In the new place, you'll live a better life. What we can provide you there is far better than what you have here."
Just from the stove and from the girls who were all a little thin, Otto could tell the economic situation here wasn't good.
"And—" Otto's tone shifted. He came over in front of Bronya, crouched down, and brought his line of sight level with hers.
"We can heal your legs. We can let you walk again."
Schicksal's medical technology was number one in the world!
Otto said it like a prince proposing to a princess.
The chance had come. That thought flashed through Bronya's mind. She'd been acting weak this whole time precisely to numb these people and then seize a chance to take the leader hostage.
And based on her observations, the man in front of her wearing goggles should be the one in charge.
As long as she took him hostage, maybe she could hold out until Cocolia arrived. This was the only way for the children in the orphanage to survive.
"R-Really?" Bronya looked very happy. "Can my legs really be healed?"
She leaned forward, and the wheelchair rolled slightly ahead, as if she wanted to push her legs right into Otto's arms.
Her legs in white stockings swayed before Otto's eyes, and Bronya said softly,
"Big brother, can you take a closer look? See if they really can be healed?"
The atmosphere turned ambiguous.
"Of course."
He didn't refuse.
Otto lifted Bronya's feet.