Honkai Impact 3rd: Don't Die For Me/ Book 1: Promise

Chapter 27 Advances

<Vienna>

A scorched hand reached shakily into a cool stream of calming water. The Holy Son of Schicksal of the Apocalypse house, the great doctor of people was nothing more than a house husband at the moment. A role he was admittedly happy to fulfill at the moment because it gave him some time to reflect on his actions, his relationship with Kallen, and what she needed.

He gently washed their clothes, lightly scrunching the folds back and forth, rinsing all dirt and dust that accumulated. His blonde hair had outstripped the length of his wig but he didn't cut it on Kallen's insistence.

"It looks better longer."

Kallen had regained her smile Otto hadn't seen in years and better yet it was his actions that made her smile so brightly. But while Otto felt tremendous joy for her flooding bright joy, he also couldn't help but feel uneasy, angry almost. At who? He didn't know but he could feel an unknown weight hanging on his body. Chains, invisible and intangible, seemed to have burrowed deep into his being and created this gravity that he had never felt before.

Perhaps the feeling stemmed from the entity within his head, the voice. It never identified itself and Otto could never tell what it was scheming beyond trying to take over his body. Yet for the past month, the voice had not uttered so much as a word to Otto. It had gone silent ever since Kallen woke up.

Otto finished washing the last article of clothing and walked back to their camp. It was a bit ways off the road in a small clearing surrounded by trees. The air was cool and the sky was cloudy. Otto had expected it to snow but other than extremely cold nights and the occasional harsh wind the climate in Austria didn't seem to match with its seasonal winter.

"Kallen, Kallen?"

There was no response, Otto sighed and quickly hung the clothes out to dry on a makeshift hanger he crafted the night before.

'She's probably by the river. Catching fish.'

He trudged through the forest, following Kallen's signs of movement. She moved more carefreely than before and as a rest, left heavy steps and snapped branches in her wake. Otto's hands trembled at the inconvenience of having to stitch up her clothes once more. The path Kallen carved deep into the forest gave way to a beautiful scene. A little oasis in the woods, a crystal clear pool laid under moderate shade as the sunlight peeked through the branches of the trees above. A small waterfall gurgled softly into the pool and jewel-like river stones filled its depths. But Otto's eyes did not feast upon the oasis before him but rather another more arguably divine scene. A nymph of the forest stood before him, her curves outlined in a light mist, her hair nourished by the spring's water. Otto was left speechless as he witnessed this forbidden scene and bit at this forbidden fruit.

Kallen didn't notice him yet for she was lost in happy thoughts. The hope of revolution and reform danced in her mind as she imagined a peaceful world where the citizens of Europe would live in. She would stand in front of them all shielding them from Honkai with her Great Inventor by her side to.....

'Why is Otto?!' Kallen thought.

She reacted instinctively; she covered herself with a towel that she had hung on a branch as heat rushed into her face.

"Otto you're the worst!"

"Wait, I can explain, Kallen."

Otto raised his hands in surrender, he wanted to gra-....

'Oh god, what am I thinking?'

A human urge that had long been suppressed resurfaced through an angry bulge. It's not as though he didn't wake up with morning wood like every healthy man. Rather scars within the psyche, untended to and forgotten, had suppressed his natural urges. Otto's eyes trailed down to the pain and Kallen's couldn't help but follow.