"Hey, Your Grace, how come you're dead?"
At Schicksal Headquarters, the moment Otto opened his eyes, he heard Amber's deadpan remark.
"...Don't ask. Let's just say I ran into Lynelle."
"Oh, that's truly a shame."
Amber agreed without a hint of expression: "But rest assured, Your Grace, we're safe for now. Temporarily, at least."
"It's not quite that hopeless, but the situation is indeed serious."
Otto sat up, his face turning stern. "Amber, have Rita and Fu Hua returned yet?"
"Their ship has already reached the vicinity of Headquarters. They haven't docked yet, but it shouldn't be much longer."
"Good... The moment they return, have Fu Hua report to me immediately. Also, I have several orders. Take them down and relay them directly to Rita later."
Amber opened her terminal, all ears.
"First, for you. Later, retrieve those two items from the spare body I prepared earlier. Then, go to the Helheim Labs first, followed by the floating island of the Weapons Testing Facility. I've already explained the details of your role to you before. You remember the next steps, correct?"
"Yes. As long as Your Grace doesn't drop the ball, I won't have any problems on my end."
"...I've only slipped up a few times, and it was always with Lynelle."
Otto sighed. He had a feeling the grand, majestic image he held in Amber's mind was developing a few cracks.
"Next, what you need to tell Rita—To trigger Kiana's Herrscher transformation, we first need to inject her with a massive amount of Honkai energy."
"This will draw power from the Honkai reactors across several floating islands in the Schicksal system, and it will require time. Therefore, the ultimate objective of all your missions is to buy that time."
"To that end, I have made the following deployments: Concentrate all the Aesir Baldr and Aesir Heimdall forces at the Third Air Terminal. This terminal will be Anti-Entropy's landing site. We need to trade space for time. Cede the Third Air Terminal to them to slow down the landing speed of their main force."
"Simultaneously, the entire Immortal Blades squad will assemble at the Second Air Terminal. The newly authorized Glory Blades unit I established last year, led by Ana, will be responsible for guarding the First Air Terminal."
"Unlike the Third, these two terminals are positions you must hold. I have already preemptively severed most of the Rainbow Bridge system's connection points. So, your defense tasks essentially boil down to blocking just the two [Main Bridges]."
"Additionally, Durandal will serve as the mobile force, stationed at the central floating island of Schicksal. As for me, I will head to the Helheim Labs shortly. Send all battle reports there."
"That is all—"
"That is all of His Grace's arrangements."
Over ten minutes later, in the floating island zone of the Helheim Labs, Amber was relaying Otto's orders to Rita.
"...I understand."
Though a trace of confusion flickered across her face, Rita accepted the orders without hesitation.
The reason for her confusion was... previously, these tasks would have fallen under Amber's purview.
After all, while Rita had inherited Ragna's tradition of favoring maid outfits, she wasn't the Bishop's personal maid or secretary.
In terms of daily life, she was more like Durandal's personal attendant.
The reason she often received orders directly from Otto was solely due to her position within the intelligence department.
This time, however, most of the instructions Otto gave Rita actually fell within Amber's scope of authority.
For instance, the Immortal Blades and the Glory Blades were departments of equal rank.
Disregarding the private friendships between Ana, Rita, and Durandal, Rita theoretically had no authority to command the Glory Blades.
So, since the Bishop assigned all these tasks to me, what is Amber's mission then...?
Although she strongly suspected Otto was up to his usual tricks of layering plan within plan, Rita ultimately held her tongue.
After all, the conflict between Otto and Theresa could be considered a family matter in their eyes, but for an employee like Rita, being caught in the middle was an awkward position.
Since Otto hadn't assigned her any more core tasks, Rita was content to take it easier. It's just blocking bridges, after all. No big deal.
"Ah, by the way, Lady Amber, there is one more thing Rita is unclear about."
Seeing that Amber was about to leave to secure the unconscious Kiana, Rita quickly called out to her.
"Regarding Teacher Cheng Lixue and Teacher Salome... They aren't at Schicksal Headquarters right now, are they?"
"They are not."
Amber replied bluntly. "His Grace had plans in place. As early as the day before yesterday, he transferred them both away from Headquarters under appropriate pretexts, to avoid putting them in a difficult position during the upcoming... events."
"Phew... That's good."
Rita breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, if those two had also returned to Schicksal Headquarters... the situation would have been completely different.
So, had Cheng Lixue and Salome truly not returned?
--+--
"Something's wrong, Lixue. This feels very wrong."
"We're stuck between a rock and a hard place... Damn it, who on earth sent this message!"
A considerable distance away from Schicksal Headquarters, Lixue and Salome were huddled inside a small aircraft, staring anxiously at the terminal in front of them.
Just a day ago, Otto had transferred them away from Headquarters under the pretext of reinforcing the North African branch to deal with an impending Honkai beast tide.
But, a little over a day after their departure—or, more precisely, just a few hours ago—they had received a mysterious email from an unknown source.
[Return to Headquarters as soon as possible if you don't want something to happen to Kiana.]
This sudden message had given them quite a scare.
After thoroughly trying to trace the message's origin and finding it untraceable, they didn't dare take any chances.
They promptly 'acquired' a high-speed aircraft from a nearby Anti-Entropy branch and began their return to Schicksal Headquarters.
However, before they even reached Vienna, another message arrived on their private terminals. The content was largely the same, but this one's point of origin was St. Freya.
That left them in an awkward predicament.
Because, when they went to the North African branch to 'borrow' the Anti-Entropy aircraft, they had also tried to contact the Far East branch, but received no response.
Naturally, they assumed this message was Lynelle's doing.
After all, the untraceable nature, coupled with St. Freya's silence, fit perfectly with Lynelle's capabilities and the possibility that Kiana was in trouble. The problem was... they were almost back to Schicksal when they realized the first message hadn't come from St. Freya at all.
That made things very interesting... Who was the sender of the first message? Could it be Otto, luring them into a trap? If not, what was their goal?
For the moment, Lixue and Salome didn't dare make a move.
If this was Otto's scheme, returning to Schicksal Headquarters would be like walking right into a trap.
But if they didn't go... what would happen to Kiana?
Just then, another message arrived on their terminal.
[Proceed to the Helheim Labs within one to two hours from now.]
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.