The Empathetic Otto

If they knew that setting a trap for Kallen would make Otto lose his mind, why did Void Archives go to such lengths?

483

Chapter 483 Otto, who evokes empathy.

Otto sighed. At that moment, what other choice did he have but to close his eyes and believe Kallen?

Alternatively, if Void Archives had allowed him to freely use the full power of the Divine Key at that time, Otto would likely have been willing to pay any price and agree to any request in order to save Kallen.

"Tsk, so it's all my fault, huh? That's the real reason you've bound me for over 500 years?"

"Heh... who knows? Anyway, neither of us can take a back turn, can we?"

Otto's tone was extremely cold in the first half of his sentence, but inexplicably filled with regret in the second half.

Hearing the sincere remorse in Void Archives, for some reason, they, as the audience, found it inexplicably funny.

"The Void Archives is too ridiculous."

Little Knowledge couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Even though what was presented to them was a cube, what came to mind was the Void Archives in the shape of Otto, which appeared in the Post-Honkai Outer Book.

One of them only thinks about reviving Kallen.

One focused on Honkai.

"If the Void Archives had truly lent Otto its power back then, would it have been a good thing or a bad thing if the world had been spared the Fool?"

Fu Hua didn't know either.

"The answer has already been given."

Su Wen said gently.

"What?"

Fu Hua couldn't recall it for a moment and looked at Su with a puzzled expression.

Little Knowledge also looked completely bewildered.

"You've forgotten the World Bubble that Seele visited back then, Father Otto. If the Void Archives really lent Otto its power, and then the two of them flew away together to the Far East and opened a welfare home called Freya Orphanage."

Su smiled.

This connects to the storyline of Father Otto.

"Oh right, there's also the priest storyline!"

Little Knowledge clapped his hands.

"Otto is not unable to accept Kallen's death; what he cannot accept is that Kallen died because of her own stupidity."

Eden looked at Elysia, who was leaning on his shoulder.

"Eden, my good Eden, tell me, if Otto hadn't lived for 500 years, would it have been a good thing or a bad thing for human civilization?"

Elysia looked serious.

"I have no idea."

Eden shook his head.

Elysia's question was too pointed. Was Otto's existence as complex as he was?

If it's a bad thing, then without Otto's existence, human civilization, having lost Otto's Schicksal within five hundred years, will likely lose many people in the fight against the Honkai.

However, if we consider it a good thing, Otto's sins are unacceptable. Joyce, Reanna, Cecilia, Himeko, and many others died because of him, and Kiana's series of painful experiences are all inextricably linked to him.

But when Eden was asked to answer quickly, she couldn't.

"Um..."

Elysia heard this question, she didn't ask it again.

As Otto walks, the camera shows a tombstone amidst continuous rain and dark clouds, Kallen's short but stunning life (1453-1477).

A suffocating, world-ending melody began to play.

This made the audience feel even more frustrated.

"She's dead, and that's truly your end."

Even the voice of Void Archives, which had been so light and casual, became solemn at this moment.

"Five hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye... Now, you finally have the chance to change this moment. Or is it that time has never actually passed for you?"

"Ah... yes, she's dead."

Otto's long sigh carried boundless confusion, regret, resentment, and a profound sense of despair, which, combined with the world-ending melody, evoked a strong feeling of heartache and sorrow.

Kallen, in particular, had already rushed into Otto's arms.

It's fair to say that even a simulated AI simply couldn't capture the complex emotions conveyed in this voiceover.

Otto excitedly recorded the voiceover hundreds of times, until Shub broke down, and even Otto himself was exhausted. When the last few hundred voiceprints were transmitted to Yaqing was stunned.

Otto spoke slowly to himself.

The Void Archives were all bewildered as they listened to Otto begin to expound on the definition of death. He explained death from a philosophical perspective, and it could be said that this self-narration elevated Otto's definition of death to a level that was difficult to achieve philosophically.

Otto Apocalypse feared death more than anyone else.

But the death he feared was not his own.

"Whether it's K423, Durandal, Theresa, or Welt... you could say they all inherited Kallen's mantle from different angles."

Otto looked up at the overcast sky.

"Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs. For the world before us, it certainly doesn't need Kallen's brave heart to beat again from the grave."

Even the Void Archives couldn't help but offer its own assessment.

"Some people pretend to be confused when they know the truth, but you should perhaps be called 'pretending to be confused even when you know the truth'."

Otto smiled, but his laughter was tinged with bitterness.

"Hahaha, this is something you don't understand... the Void Archives."

"So-called human emotions are originally a desire to release them, even if it means harming others or oneself."

"It's just that, generally speaking, 'good people' are good at using reason to control their emotions, while 'bad people' are used to letting their emotions control their reason."

"As for the so-called 'rational evil people'... they have turned their lives into machines that only calculate interests, and they are not even worthy of being called 'human beings'."

Otto gradually released his suppressed emotions.

On this stage where only the Void Archives serves as the audience.

Otto didn't hold back in belittling himself.

"Really? I think you're quite the rational villain yourself now."

The tone of Void Archives is full of sarcasm and irony.

"I have never denied that I am not worthy of being called a human being. Rather, I am very clear that I am the epitome of this kind of dross."

Otto chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Didn't I say... that humans always have an emotional belief that those we love are immortal and eternal?"

"And I am nothing more than a fool who lets this emotion control his reason and constantly calculates the benefits for it, ha ha ha ha..."

Otto's laughter sounded worse than crying.

There was a sense of relief, a sense of liberation, a sense of pain, a sense of sorrow...

"—Look, the first person who wants to settle scores with me is already very close."

Durandal had already arrived behind Otto.

In the past, viewers would never have imagined that they would empathize with Otto, a villain. However, after hearing his inner monologue, they fell silent, and even the comments section went silent.

"If you were Otto, what would you do?"

A comment slowly floated by.

This instantly garnered a lot of responses.

"If you're not a genius, you simply can't do what he did. Actually, even though I call him Dog Otto' (a derogatory term for someone who's overrated), I know in my heart that I could never do what he did."

"If I were Otto, I would choose Kallen; if I were everyone, I would choose everyone."

"What would I do... is that even a question I can consider?!"

And inside the Golden Courtyard.

"That's the charm of villains..."

Sakura sighed.

Otto always considered himself a rational villain, the epitome of rottenness, and hated his own actions more than anyone else in the world.

In his attempt to revive Kallen, he gradually drifted further and further away from Kallen's will.

In the end, she became the kind of person Kallen would hate.

No one knows the torment Otto has endured over the past 500 years, nor does anyone understand the emotions Otto has suppressed for so long.

The more he believed in the Saintess and worshipped Kallen, the more he hated his own actions.

In his heart, those he had deeply hurt— Welt, Kiana, Theresa, and others—were the true inheritors of Kallen's mantle.

They are the true heroes.

He was nothing more than a pathetic and hateful fool.

"Well..."

Elysia sighed.

She sincerely admired the screenwriter's ability to make a villain who had committed many sins relatable to most viewers, yet without giving the impression of him being redeemed in the slightest.

"A rational villain..."

Eden couldn't help but reminisce.

These five words made her feel a strange sense of rationality.

Far away in Central Europe, in Kallen and Otto's cozy villa.

Kallen threw herself into Otto's arms and sobbed.

It's often said that women are emotional creatures, and Kallen is a prime example. She can be brought to tears by soap operas, and when she saw this scene, she seemed to lose control of her tears.

"Otto... it's all my fault..."

Kallen cried her eyes out.

Kallen is neither a fool nor Brainless Idiot.

With her intelligence, she would quickly realize that Otto never intended to live. If time really went back 500 years, Otto would never allow him, covered in sin and stained with the blood of innocent people, to meet the Saintess in his heart.

He knew perfectly well that if Kallen knew the sins he had committed in order to resurrect her, the innocent girl would take all the blame upon herself and atone for her sins with him.

"Otto ..."

Otto could feel the tears soaking his clothes at the chest, and he couldn't help but smile helplessly.

"Okay, Kallen, stop crying, you're going to ruin your makeup."

Otto reached out and wiped away the tears from Kallen's eyes.

"Otto... I'm sorry."

Kallen hugged Otto tightly.

Otto was unsure whether to show sadness or happiness.

What's sad is everything he went through in the story.

He was overjoyed to see Kallen holding him tightly in her arms.

At that moment, Otto gave his character in the story a grateful look.

I wonder if Otto, who considers himself a rational villain, would be furious if he saw this scene.