Rita: As Head Maid, My Authority Is Unlimited!

If she took off her mask now, you could definitely see Kallen's eye-roll.

Elinore and Vera not entirely trash?

If they were fully equipped and in top condition, and played recklessly, Kallen said she could tear those two apart in a heartbeat.

... Well, Vera was just an ordinary person who was there to make up the numbers.

As for Elinore... come on, what use was the Abyss Flower to her back then? She was just someone who could be used.

Kallen said that at her peak, she could wield both Skyfire and Judah, and if she couldn't kill Elinore in 30 seconds, she would give her the surname Kaslana.

Later, Kallen even acquired the Jizo Mitama and transformed into Pseudo-Herrscher.

That's why Kallen wanted Otto to defy Schicksal with her, Otto chickened out.

After she ran away, Otto started sleepwalking. After a while, his biological father died, and Otto, who was still sleepwalking, was tricked by his older sister into going into seclusion and doing nothing.

Otto only snapped out of his daze when he saw rebels holding up signs bearing her name, and then, along with Elinore, Vera, and a ragtag group of rebels, he tore Schicksal...

Kallen didn't want to talk about what happened back then—the more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

Are you fucking toxic? I've already gone all the way to the Far East to hang out with Inazuma, and now you remember what I told you?

Maximizing losses, right?

Am I interfering with your actions because I'm right here?

Oh, we're all on different wavelengths, so there's no point in trying to work together. She might have indeed affected Otto's gameplay—but you didn't help me when I was around, and then you go and help others who are using my name afterward, isn't that toxic?

... But whatever, Kallen has come to terms with what happened back then and doesn't care what Otto was thinking.

What she wants to do most right now is to find a chance to ride on Otto's head and poop.

Thanks to Otto's decision to defy Schicksal back then, she is now the head of the Far East Branch, not some "General of the Tenryou Commission".

Actually, if they don't have any business dealings, their private relationship is pretty good... However, the unfortunate thing is that they said everything they wanted to say about their private lives back then, so if they don't talk about business, they might just be speechless.

(Hmm... thinking about it this way, Liu Bai is actually quite nice...)

Kallen currently feels that Liu Bai's mind is just a little abstract—but Kallen thinks that their minds were all quite abstract back then—referring to the Purple Iris Phantom Thief and Green Lily Lady.

(But if Otto and I were sisters... I guess there wouldn't be so many problems?)

Elinore, listening to Kallen's words, became even angrier, but she was truly speechless.

It's not shameful to lose to Kallen.

"Alright, alright, you two calm down," Rita stepped in to smooth things over. "The most important thing right now is figuring out how to get out of here, isn't it?"

"...Too."

Elinore also felt that she was increasingly in the wrong, and immediately agreed with Rita's statement.

"So, Kallen, how did you get here?"

"Jump out the window," Kallen stretched. "That window."

"...It's not broken." Elinore looked up and frowned.

"It should be two separate spaces," Kallen said casually, yawning. "Rita, you understand, right?"

"This is a bit troublesome."

Chapter 349 Rita: My power as head maid is limitless!

Rita glanced up at the ceiling, feigning distress.

"So, breaking the outside window allows you to jump in, but it doesn't affect the inside windows?"

She explained the situation to Elinore in the simplest terms.

Upon hearing this, Elinore's expression immediately turned serious.

"... Let's go back first." After searching unsuccessfully, "Rita" sighed, "We might get ambushed here due to the terrain."

"... That makes sense."

Elinore and Kallen had no objection to Rita's judgment.

Back on the first floor, Elinore looked at Kallen, who was squatting next to "Rita," and suddenly thought of something.

"... Kallen, may I ask why you came here?"

"You asked a similar question before, didn't you?" Kallen replied casually after taking off her phantom thief mask. "I came for the same reason you came—and I was indeed invited here by a handsome guy."

"No, it's not the same..."

Elinore stared intently at Kallen.

"You dressed like a phantom thief, and you even jumped in through the window... it's just..."

"..."

Oh no! Elinore's mind is actually working!

"... You're not just here to annoy me, are you?"

Elinore's words, spoken with a dark expression, startled Kallen.

Well... the logic of this reasoning is quite sound—if Kallen really is petty.

"Hmm... I just wanted to see how you're doing."

Since Elinore had "correctly misunderstood," Kallen didn't mind continuing down that line.

According to Liu Bai's instructions, what she had to do was to reconcile with Elinore... or rather, "set aside past grievances".

(So... this is actually what young people call "lesbian sabotage," right?)

Kallen let her thoughts wander for a moment.

(But even Elinore and I are being forced into a yuri pairing to sabotage things...)

Well, if you look at the original target of the destruction, "Rita," she actually seems quite suitable.

... We can't just kidnap Otto, can we? Putting aside whether there's any way to do it, just the fact that he's male... this isn't yuri sabotage, it's more like a NTR situation!

No, even if it's a Cowboy/Cowboy storyline, it should be between her and Otto, although from her current perspective of having fun, she'd rather be the victim.

Hmm... so this matter is still quite abstract after all.

"..."

Elinore facepalmed.

As expected.

Even after five hundred years, this woman hasn't changed in some ways.

It's really... annoying.

"Kallen... I've always hated your self-centered way of doing things," Elinore said through gritted teeth, her voice tinged with helplessness.

(Ah... this is exactly the kind of dialogue that would happen between the protagonist and his nemesis in a shonen manga.)

Kallen continued to complain in her mind—she was no longer the single-minded person she used to be.

Now, thinking about things while arguing with her is no harder for her than eating and drinking... In a way, this is the price of growing up.

"I know."

"... So you mean you deliberately provoked me back then?" Elinore's face darkened even more.

"Ahem, what are you thinking? I'm over five hundred years old now." Kallen put her hands on her hips and looked down at Elinore.

Elinore paused.

Although she and Kallen were contemporaries, she was a "fake ancient person" frozen to this day by Otto, while Kallen was a true ancient person who has been active from that era to this one.

"I have reflected on my behavior back then to some extent... Well, I admit I was immature at the time."

"Nonsense."

"But Elinore, are you any better than me?"

"...?"

"One tumor, one brother... (Don't you know how serious the disagreements were between me and Orento during that time? You were doing your own thing back then, weren't you?)"

Elinore stood in her way time and time again. If this man hadn't been her adjutant and otherwise reliable, Kallen would have torn Elinore apart.

"..."

Elinore was speechless.

That's precisely why I want to disgust her...

After Kallen said that, Elinore fell silent.

Thinking about it that way, she was quite impulsive back then.

"Ah, but I have to say," Kallen continued, "Elinore, you were quite excellent when you were my adjutant."

"Th... thank you?"

Hearing these words from Kallen, Elinore's expression turned a little off, but she didn't know what to say.

After all, Kallen's tone was quite frank.

(I can't believe I'm having this conversation with Kallen...)

I never thought of that.

Fortunately, she has also grown up, and the matter with Kallen back then is actually a long time past for her.

After all, after Kallen left, she followed Otto out of seclusion to "purge the court of corrupt officials."

—Incidentally, since Kallen didn't die, and Otto had Elinore, who was still Valkyries, by his side, Otto's period of depression was not long, and he became a bishop much earlier than in the official history.

—When Otto became a bishop, he was already 39 years old. He wasn't old, but he wasn't young either. At that time, 15 years had passed since Kallen's death. In other words, Otto had been depressed for 15 years because of Kallen's death.

So now, because everything is happening ahead of schedule, Elinore is actually not even thirty years old yet, and is in a stage of just maturing but not yet fully mature.

There is no systematic summary of what happened back then.

It's easy to be fooled by a seasoned veteran like Kallen, whose appearance is highly deceptive—even if Kallen has already mentioned her experience.

And so, a silence fell between Elinore and Kallen.

(... Does this mean I should reconcile with Kallen?)

(Ah... who would want to ruin a yuri relationship by pulling it up? The person who came up with this idea must be mentally twisted.)

The two are now "sitting at the same table but dreaming different dreams".

"Does anyone want some noodles?"

"... Are you still cooking noodles?"

Elinore looked at Rita, unsure of what to say for a moment.

Why are all the people she knows so self-centered?

"Never mind, just give me some."

Elinore didn't want to dwell on those trivial matters anymore.

Seeing this, Kallen and "Rita" exchanged a knowing glance.

"Then I'll have one too, thank you."

Soon, a bowl of noodles was placed in front of the two of them.

"Speaking of which, something suddenly came to mind."

While slurping her noodles, "Rita" suddenly spoke up, "The mastermind behind this hasn't made a move against us yet..."

"Didn't you say he was playing us for fools?"

"No, no, no... If we think about it carefully, if the other side were really so confident, they shouldn't have ganged up on La Signora. Kallen, right?"

"What are you talking about? We can't just let people in... wait, surround us?"

Elinore suddenly came to her senses.

The mastermind behind it all was clearly toying with the two of them, occasionally popping out one or two puppets to scare them.