Otto looked at the cake that had quietly “appeared” in front of him, pursed his lips, and raised his head once again.
He saw that the man had cheerfully seen the girl off without turning back, leaving only his silhouette and a remark:
“Don’t waste good things; if she won’t eat it, you eat it.
Off we go Time to go play”
“…” Otto watched the receding backs of Lucien and Kallen as they walked further away, then looked at the warm sun hanging in the blue sky outside the window, and laughed in spite of himself.
Though he usually disliked sweets, he stubbornly finished that piece of cake in three bites and then drank down the black tea in one go.
After pondering for a moment, he untied his single ponytail, letting his waist-length blonde hair cascade casually behind him, then slipped the hair tie onto his wrist, pulled a large book out of his bag, and began to read.
This reading session lasted an entire afternoon.
In the evening, the faint setting sun warmed the afterglow.
Lucien brought Kallen, who had changed into new clothes, back to the dessert shop and saw Otto holding a large book.
“What, are you possessed by reading?
Why is your hair all loose like that?” Lucien walked over to Otto, smoothed the latter’s loose hair, and said so.
“No,” Otto put away the book, tossed his hair quite naturally, and tied it back up again, “Always tying it up is so boring; I just wanted to let it down and try it out.”
Hearing this, Lucien didn’t reply.
Instead, he stealthily glanced at Kallen, who was still admiring her new clothes.
Oh no, Otto has more feminine charm than Kallen.
Kallen really doesn’t compare to Otto; it feels…
far inferior…
It couldn’t be my fault as her guide, right?
I am definitely not taking the blame, aw.
Thinking thus, Lucien gave two light coughs, reined in his thoughts, and said, “Ahem, let’s take a look at Kallen’s new clothes instead, shall we?”
Following Lucien’s gesture, Otto finally cast his proper gaze upon Kallen and her new outfit.
The girl’s hairstyle remained unchanged; she still had her white hair tied into braids hanging down to her waist.
The only change was probably using the blue-and-white-bordered mask as a hair accessory pinned to the side of her head;
The original nun’s outfit had long been replaced, replaced instead by a pure white slim-fit dress paired with a Klein blue lining, a sacred white flower pinned to her chest, a white pleated skirt, white tights, and white-and-blue short boots.
Fresh yet sacred, capable yet dashing.
“Very pretty.” Otto turned his head back to look at Lucien beside him, giving a concise and powerful evaluation.
However, Lucien didn’t buy it and even twisted Otto’s face back in the direction where Kallen was standing, “At least look at the person when you speak.
Am I prettier or is she prettier?”
This time, Otto looked at Kallen and said “pretty” once more, but no one knew who he was thinking of in his heart at that moment.
[Watching the visibly “absent-minded” Otto, you scratched your head, but didn’t say anything more, turning instead to appreciate your own masterpiece.] Visit g.com for the full chapter.
[Of course you could have taken a shortcut and designed Kallen’s attire based on that Valkyrie armor “Sixth Serenade” from your Remembrance.]
[But after careful consideration, you ultimately didn’t do that, and even further completely discarded the design element of “purple iris”.]
[Simply because—you hoped your Kallen could have a distinct difference from the “Kallen” in your vague Remembrance.]
[Just like how you personally dressed Otto in the Platinum Bishop attire.]
[You didn’t think much about it when you did that back then, but thinking about it now, this should be one of the few things you can easily change, and also one of the few traces you can leave behind.]
[Hoping that in the future, whenever Otto and Kallen see the clothes you made for them, they will be able to think of you.]
[…No, forget it…
You’d rather they no longer think of you by then.]
[On the very night she obtained the phantom thief attire specially crafted by you, Kallen began her plan of robbing the rich to help the poor.]
[At present, many priests were using Indulgences to pressure the people for Destiny and themselves, thereby amassing wealth.]
[Kallen secretly sneaked into the residence of “Viktor”, the most rampant priest among them, and stole all of his gold coins.]
[That’s all?
That’s all.]
[To be honest, you weren’t surprised by this.]
[After all, Kallen’s idea of robbing the rich to help the poor was fundamentally not very mature, just like when she used her own money to buy all the fruits from the struggling old couple back then and gave them to you and Otto.]
[It seemed to solve the problem, but the exact same problem would definitely appear again in the future.]
[It treats the symptoms, not the root cause.]
[And you didn’t have much to say about it.]
[After all, expecting Kallen to come up with actions more excessive than “exploding other people’s gold coins” wasn’t realistic to beginning with.]
[ What you cared about even more was the way Kallen, the “Pure White Phantom Thief”, handled crime scenes — — she didn’t handle them at all.
]
[ Basically, after infiltrating, she neither knocked people out nor killed everyone; she just grabbed the items and turned to leave.
]
[ That usually isn’t called a phantom thief, it’s called a robber.
]
[ It inexplicably had a kind of “innocent” beauty.
[ If you had known this earlier, why bother designing any outfits for Kallen?
You should have just slapped a black hood over her head and called it a day; it would have saved time and effort, and fit her actions perfectly.
]
[ However, that wasn’t really a big deal.
]
[ Your support for Kallen was never because she was mature or reliable, but simply because you wanted to accompany her and crazily join her in making a lively commotion for an “ideal”.
]
[ A piece of candy, in exchange for an idealist.
]
That night, the pure white phantom thief girl carried a large bag full of “spoils” as she vaulted over roofs and leaped across walls, departing in the moonlight.
Leaving everyone in the Viktor mansion stranded in place, either anxious or angrily cursing.
“Snap — —”
Suddenly, a crisp snapping sound rang out from the void.
As the sound fell, the panicked servants, the on-guard guards, and even the angrily cursing Viktor all fell silent together, their facial expressions turning eerily hollow.
Following closely, Lucien’s figure slowly emerged, yet it flickered turbulently a few times before stabilizing.
He panted as he looked in the direction Kallen had left, then glanced sideways at the motionless Viktor, speaking indifferently with his hands behind his back:
“You are still useful.
Nothing happened tonight; forget everything you saw.”
“…
Yes…”
Afterwards, Lucien placed certain suggestions on the rest of the people as well, and after ensuring nothing could go wrong, he finally departed along the direction Kallen had left.
About three seconds passed before the crowd, standing together in a daze, leisurely came back to their senses, yet they had forgotten everything that happened tonight completely.
Viktor also could not remember at all what had happened, yet his expression tightened as he hurriedly ran into the mansion.
On the other side, by the time Lucien found Kallen, this silly girl was happily tallying up her “MVP” battle achievements for the night with Otto.
The moment she saw Lucien, she hopped and plunged straight into his arms, acting just like a little girl acting coquettishly with an elder.
“I’m telling you, I distributed those gold coins to so many poor and suffering people; they will definitely live better lives now, right?”
Listening to Kallen’s wonderful vision, Lucien couldn’t help but secretly glance at Otto not far away, withdrawing his gaze upon seeing Otto’s expression of barely holding it together.
Oh you silly girl, poverty alleviation must first alleviate “will” and “wisdom”.
He opened his mouth wanting to say something, but in the end he only rubbed Kallen’s little head, uttering:
“It will, everything will get better.”