A.N. I did end up releasing a chapter yesterday if you didn't end up seeing it because I deleted the announcement.
I was sitting on an examination table, feeling a bit dead inside.
"Hey Hey Hey! You can't just kidnap my students without informing me!"
Otto had stopped examining me to take a call from Theresa, who was visibly upset.
The conversation with Otto had gone on for another 2 hours, with Otto asking increasingly detailed questions about the Honkai: Star Rail universe, Aeons, Imaginary Energy, Path energy, the structure of the Imaginary Tree, and more.
Then, I was taken by Fu Hua to a Valkyrie assault craft, which had landed in the outskirts of St. Freya academy, filled with Valkyrie's who all had S rank labels.
I then had to spend an additional 2 hours sitting in a cramped Assault Craft on its way back to Schicksal HQ, surrounded by a bunch of people I didn't recognize while Otto continued to ask me questions. This time however they were much more mundane, presumably due to the presence of others.
By the time of my arrival to Schicksal HQ it was already very late, almost 9pm, and while Schicksal HQ was definitely very impressive, and much bigger then in the game, I was soon ushered into a dark all metal lab and came face to face with Otto. I had then been subjected to several hours of medical examinations and testing by various types of scanning and detection equipment while answering even more questions, this time going into so much detail that I had to repeatedly ask the system for help. However it soon got annoyed and its responses soon got shorter and shorter before they eventually stopped and said.
[System: I am supposed to be a romance system! Why should I have to answer all of these questions about Geometry Systems and Imaginary Space!]
It was definitely past midnight at this point and I was extremely tired, and Theresa, who had presumably taken quite a while to figure out what had happened to me, was currently yelling at Otto loud enough to cause me a headache.
"As far as I am aware, Miss Edelhart has not yet started her academic year, so she is not your student yet. As for the accusation of kidnapping, Miss Edelhart came willingly. In fact, they have even sought out my help." Otto explained.
"Oh please, like I believe that. I spoke with Kiana and the others, and they told me that Lee was the one who defeated the 3rd Herrscher in only one move! In addition, she seems to have some kind of ability similar to Oath of Judah, and can remove Honkai Energy from people!"
"That isn't really an explanation for why you believe I would forcefully kidnap her and bring her here against her will, but as it happens, Miss Edelhart is currently in the room with me."
Otto pressed a few buttons on the console, and the camera angle widened to show me currently sitting on the medical bed, rubbing the bridge of my nose looking extremely done with everything.
"Lee! If you are being held against your will, blink twice!" Theresa yelled.
I just sighed and said, "Can you please stop yelling? You're so loud it's giving me a headache. Yes I did agree to come here."
I then layed back down on the medical bed and promptly closed my eyes.
"That doesn't sound very confident!" Theresa said, causing me to sigh once again.
"Can I get some sleep soon?" I asked nobody in particular.
Otto pressed a button, and Amber walked in, wearing her iconic yellow heads up display.
"Amber, can you please get Miss Edelhart to her new accommodations? The highest quality available."
After that, I was then led by Amber to another rather high tech and futuristic looking 2 story building, the sliding metal doors at the entrance had a large S painted on each half.
Following Amber inside, I was brought down up a flight of stairs to an unmarked door, which upon opening, revealed a sci-fi looking apartment, complete with several display walls, RGB lighting, and a large glass window with a door that lead out to a balcony with a garden and what was presumably an amazing view, however it was currently extremely dark outside and I was unable to see very much.
The Apartment had a spacious living room at the front, with some raised steps that lead to a full kitchen with a proper dining table that looked out through the windows.
To the left after the raised stairs but before the kitchen there was a hallway, walking down it and looking through the open doors to the left I saw something that looked like a training room, something that looked almost like a mini armory with several slots for Valkyrie battle-suits and large weapons, although it was currently empty, and an office.
To the right there was a large open bedroom that overlooked the glass windows, what was presumably a guest bathroom, and another empty room.
Amber lead me into the bedroom, where there was already several copies of my St. Freya uniform and something that was probably sleepwear stacked up and sitting at the foot of the bed. In addition, my backpack which was in my dorm which now only contained the singular Alloy Dominator, and my St. Freya issued Tablet and Laptop.
Amber spoke up, "Otto would like to continue your discussion tomorrow morning at 8:30, you should try and get some sleep."
Pulling my Schicksal communicator out of my pocket, I saw that it was currently 2:24am, and that I had several hundred messages from Kiana, Bronya, Mei, Himeko, and surprisingly one from Fu Hua. Clicking on it, it read simply, "I hope you know what you are doing."
Well, I didn't really, but I think things had turned out rather well so far. I was currently being treated as an honored guest, rather than being locked up by Otto.
Turning back to the door, I saw that Amber was already gone. A soft electronic chime sounded as the front door was opened as she left.
Well, it was finally time to sleep, even if it was only for 6 hours. Luckily ever since becoming a pathstrider I required a lot less sleep.
However I refused to sleep without showering, and the large bedroom also had an equally enlarged master bathroom. It had both a tub and a shower, each with glass touchscreen controls that had about a million buttons on it. Opting for a shower I simply undressed, flung my uniform on the floor of my bedroom, and stepped into the large shower.
After fitting with the controls for about 5 minutes, I could finally relax and take a hot shower alone with my thoughts.
The smart apartment system promptly informed me about another incoming message, this time from Himeko, which was read out automatically. "Please call whenever you are available."
I asked the smart assistant to send a voice message to Kiana, Mei, Bronya, and Himeko, saying "I am fine, very very sleepy, will call tomorrow."
Almost immediately I received another 5 messages asking if I was okay.
Ignoring that, I finished up my shower. I exited the bathroom to see that my original dirty clothes were now gone. My first thought was that this was extremely creepy before I saw a small robot enter the bedroom.
It rolled towards me and held out both of its hands, its face, which consisted of a screen, was currently showing an image of a towel.
Handing my wet towel to the robot, it promptly rolled back out of the bedroom.
"Huh, neat." I said to nobody in particular, before taking out my tablet from my backpack and placing it on the bedside table, and picking up the clothes off of my bed and placing them into the room's dresser. Before collapsing into the bed without even putting on any clothing, and promptly falling asleep almost immediately.
>>> 5.5 Hours Later <<<
"Good morning, it is currently 8 am, you have one scheduled meeting at 8:30 am, you have 124 messages, you currently have one visitor. The weather is…" The soft voice of the apartment system spoke.
"Mute." Said Otto Apocalypse.
Turning in my bed I saw a holographic projection of Otto Apocalypse being projected from the little household robot I had seen last night, or technically this morning.
I soon remembered that I wasn't wearing any clothes, I looked down before remembering that I was covered up by a blanket and that Otto Apocalypse didn't care about anyone besides Kallen, and had already seen me in just my underwear as part of the comprehensive medical examination he had personally subjected me to.
"Good morning." I said simply, I didn't know why Otto was here but presumably he would explain shortly.
"Hello, Miss Edelhart, sorry to disturb you so early in the morning, however I require your assistance." He gestured to the tablet half hanging off the edge of the side table.
Picking the tablet up off the edge of the desk, I saw that the notification list was full of messages from Kiana and the gang. They apparently were not satisfied with my voice message last night and had continued to message me.
"Your friends are not satisfied with my explanations, and have demanded to speak with you personally." Otto explained.
"Can I put on some clothing first?" I asked.
"Of course," Otto said before the hologram disappeared.
The robot started to roll back out of the room, and I quickly stood up and got dressed in one of the uniforms I had placed in the dresser last night. I then quickly split apart each stack and separated each of the uniform components into its own drawer.
Lucky for me I didn't need to spend a long time on my morning routine, the power of the Abundance kept my hair looking naturally clean and luxurious, and it also kept my body from getting dirty and made me perpetually smell nice, according to Kiana who commented on it all the time.
Upon walking out of the bedroom and into the living room, I saw a small package with Schicksal labeling on the side sitting on the coffee table in the living room. Walking over and tearing it open, inside I saw the amulet I had custom ordered. The order was set to be completed in a couple of days, however one of the questions Otto had asked was about the order I had made, and I had responded that I needed something to help me focus my path energy. Presumably Otto had gotten one made as soon as possible, it was much nicer in artistry then the example sketches, however it was made of the same materials as the one I had ordered, including extremely transparent aventurine.
I heard the same door chime as last night, and I quickly wrapped the chain of the amulet around my wrist and shoved it in the little pocket I had requested added to the inside of my uniform sleeve. Before walking to the door. The door had a screen that displayed the outside of the door, where I saw Amber standing with an extremely tired looking Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Himeko, and Theresa.
Opening the door, Kiana quickly ran and jumped at me, grabbing me in a hug. Almost knocking me to the floor.
The others walked in, all looking both extremely concerned, and extremely tired.
Himeko was the first to speak, "You all right little guy?" before Theresa added "Yeah! My grandpa didn't do anything strange to you, right?"
"I said I was fine already." I had set it both to Theresa over the call with Otto and sent a voice message to the gang, but apparently Theresa had sown enough distrust in Otto's character that nobody had believed the voice message was genuine.
I pushed Kiana, who was currently rubbing her face into my stomach, off of me and onto the floor. She cooperated otherwise there was no way I could do that with my only slightly enhanced strength. She quickly shot back up and started looking around the apartment, "Whoa, this place is so fancy, nothing at all like Himeko's apartment."
Theresa made a face before saying, "The staff and student dorms at St. Freya is extremely nice, and it's a more traditional style!"
Which is to say, that it looked like a regular apartment, while this looked like a luxury apartment.
Amber, who had remained standing outside the door, finally spoke up, "I must leave to perform other duties, you have time to catch up." Before closing the door, leaving everything to me.