It was a cheerful voice, but it cut off abruptly.
Because Kiana had opened the door and walked right in without waiting for an answer.
Then she saw her adoptive father lying on the bed with the blanket over him.
On the bed, only Otto could be seen.
But Otto's blanket was bulging slightly.
Kiana's gaze fell on the raised blanket, as if something underneath were propping it up.
Otto's expression didn't change, but under the blanket his hand had already clenched tight on the bedsheet.
He was a little flustered, but he didn't know why he was this flustered.
The instant Kiana pushed the door open, Otto had reacted on reflex — pressed himself down over Bronya, pinned her between his legs, yanked the blanket over them both.
Why was he panicking like this?
Even if she saw it, it should be fine, right?
But judging from what Void Archives had said, his future self rarely had intimate interactions with girls, so if Kiana discovered there was a Bronya in his bed, she might grow suspicious.
Otto used that reason to explain away his reflexive action.
But his face still looked perfectly normal, and following Kiana's gaze, he looked toward the slightly raised blanket. Under it was Bronya's head.
"What is it, Kiana? This is perfectly normal."
Otto said this with a smile. It could be explained as the blanket naturally bulging, or as his knees being bent.
As long as Kiana didn't lift the blanket.
So in order to stop Kiana from lifting it, Otto decided to take the initiative. Smiling, he said,
"Little Kiana, want to sleep with me too? My bed is pretty big."
Otto's hand was gripping the blanket as if he were about to lift it, but he noticed Kiana was just standing there a little blankly.
She looked a little dazed.
Her red lips slightly parted, Kiana stared at the bulge under Otto's blanket. Otto had said it was a perfectly normal phenomenon.
But unlike the still-innocent young Otto, Kiana had long since been steeped in the great dye vat of the internet, and this young lady immediately thought of something.
It was morning. So what was the normal phenomenon a man might have in the morning?
Obviously, it was raising the flagpole and pitching the tent.
A trace of embarrassed annoyance spread over Kiana's pretty face. She was embarrassed because Otto had actually raised the flag in front of her.
And she was annoyed because this man was still this unserious, actually saying something like that to her.
It was the same sort of discomfort as when a daughter had to wash her father's underwear.
She could only stamp her foot. Otto's invitation to crawl into bed with him went straight out of her head. After all, Otto was covered up tightly under that blanket, and Kiana didn't even know if he was wearing clothes under it.
In that situation, how was she supposed to climb under the covers?
Besides, she'd already grown up. She wasn't a child anymore.
Kiana snorted softly, pouted, turned around, and her long white hair whipped through the air. Then she headed for the door without looking back.
She'd originally wanted to eat breakfast with Otto, but now her whole face was red, so how could she possibly still be in the mood for breakfast?
She left Otto's room and even shut the door behind her on the way out.
Seeing Kiana leave, Otto let out a breath he couldn't quite explain, then lifted the blanket.
Bronya, in her rabbit-like sleepwear, was lying face-down across his thighs. Her gray hair was in disarray, and she was still wearing the eye mask, but her cheeks were a little red.
That was because she'd been smothered under the blanket. Not because her face had been pressed the whole time against his inner thighs.
She'd been very obedient just now. The moment Otto pressed himself over her, she'd immediately woken up.
But she hadn't moved at all, simply letting Otto tuck her under the blanket.
Looking at Bronya, who seemed almost like a doll, Otto reached out and ruffled her hair. He didn't do anything else, just rolled out of bed and stretched.
"If you want to sleep a little more, you can." Otto said it gently. He wasn't violent by temperament. If anything, he was fairly mild.
Leaving Bronya there with the eye mask still on, Otto walked over to the desk.
There was a stack of files sitting on the desktop. These were the materials he'd had Bronya crack open yesterday.
Otto didn't know the account name and password he was supposed to be using, so he'd had to find another way around it—using Bronya's intrusion as cover for what he was doing himself.
He'd actually come up with such a clever method.
Smiling, Otto started flipping through the files. He needed to deepen his grasp of Schicksal. Once he was through this batch, he'd have Bronya break into Schicksal's database again.
His fingers drifted across the desk. He was in a good mood. And right at that moment, noise started up inside his head.
Void Archives had started yapping again.
Even though he didn't want to listen, this kind of direct communication straight into the mind was just too damn annoying.
And what Void Archives said next had Otto itching to punch something.
"Little Otto, if you wanted the account and password, you could've just come to me, you know."
"Because I know everything about Otto."
Void Archives said it lazily, and Otto could tell she'd absolutely done this on purpose. Otherwise, back when Bronya first started breaking into the database, she would've said something then.
It was only after Otto had already finished going through all that trouble that she finally came out with it. What twisted tastes she had.
"Then what's the price?" Still, if there was a shortcut, there was no reason not to take it. Otto also knew that Void Archives would never just hand over the account and password for free.
You had to give something to get something. Otto needed to hear Void Archives' terms before he could decide whether to take the deal.
But Void Archives very quickly rattled off two strings of letters and numbers.
These were the account and password Otto used.
"What do you mean?" Otto only heard them once and had both the account and password memorized. His fingers flew across the keyboard, entering the two strings.
[Account and password correct]
[Welcome to the database]
[Lord Otto]
Looking at the message that popped up on the screen—that meant the account and password were right.
"It works out for me too if I help you settle more smoothly into your current identity," Void Archives said. "If you get found out because something about you seems off, that's troublesome for me too."
He'd gotten the account and password just like that, but after thinking it over, Otto still decided to keep having Bronya break into Schicksal's database.
A few more times should do it. Otherwise, ending it too suddenly would feel abrupt.
With that in mind, Otto started going through the database materials. He started from the ten years before the Second Eruption, because he'd noticed that aside from Amber, the people around him were all young women.
They wouldn't necessarily know about the past.
Otto worked through the materials, while Bronya, lying on the bed, had taken off her eye mask too. But she didn't get out of bed—she just sat there on the bed.
She might as well have been a doll.
Knock, knock, knock. The sound of knocking came again.
"Lord Overseer, it's me." Amber's voice came from outside the door. After getting Otto's reply, Amber went ahead and opened the door and came in.
"Lord Overseer, I just ran into Lady Kiana on the way over. She seemed to have run off with her face all red."
Run off with her face all red? Otto had no idea what had happened to Kiana. Maybe she'd just been running too fast and the blood had rushed up to her face?
"Is something the matter?"
Otto asked. Although Amber was an excellent secretary, the fact that she'd come looking for him meant something must have come up.
And Amber, looking at Otto sitting there at his ease, let out a small sigh. Her gaze swept past Bronya on the bed.
Even though Lord Overseer had finally started opening up to that side of things, she still had to offer her admonition.
"Lord Overseer, you need to work."