Perhaps due to the influence left by the Previous Era, even in medieval Europe, one could always spot some products that most people would associate with modern times.
For example, Yae Sakura's thigh-high stockings, or Kallen's white silk stockings, and now Vera's black ones.
Otto's handsome face was sour. "Stop staring. Your eyeballs are about to fall out."
"Don't misunderstand, brother. I'm just curious about the manufacturing process for these in this era."
Fuli, having entered the house, pointed to Vera's slender, black-stockinged legs, his gaze sincere and pure. "Besides, experts have studied it: the more outstanding a man is, the more he likes a woman's legs and feet. Brother, as the smartest person in the world designated by the Void Archives, you must be hopelessly in love with girls' feet, right?"
Otto: ...
How was he supposed to answer that?
"What kind of perverted expert is that?!" Kallen retorted. "As expected, that group hasn't done any proper work from ancient times to now!"
Fortunately, the little angel Vera came to the rescue in time. "Brother Otto, Sister Kallen, the basement for the interrogation has been tidied up."
Of course, to the tied-up Augustus, this sentence could be completely translated as, "Commander! The car is ready!"
Lord Otto, who had been slandered as a foot fetishist, quickly changed the subject. "Thank you for your trouble, Vera."
"It's no trouble at all."
The silver-haired girl shook her head, her eyes curving into a pair of beautiful crescents.
"This next part isn't for kids."
"Ehh? Ehh?"
Fuli ignored the pouting Vera and entered the basement along with the floating sack made of his trailing sword.
Kallen cracked her knuckles and quickly followed.
After Otto, the last to enter, closed the door, Fuli dispelled the sword, and Augustus fell directly to the floor.
Kallen picked up a prepared basin of cold water and splashed it on him. A few splashes later, the man, dazed from the fall, slowly came to.
He blinked dumbly at his surroundings, and with a jolt, remembered what had happened.
"You! You people! Despicable!"
His large nostrils flared and contracted with anger. Augustus glared hatefully at the three of them—or more accurately, at Kallen in her pure white nun's habit with gold trim. "I thought that even if a former hero had fallen, they'd at least have some guts. I didn't expect you to go three against one and even use a sneak attack!"
Kallen's voice was cold. "Hero? We only care about results!"
Augustus shouted again, "You claim to be on the side of justice, yet you bully an unarmed man!"
"That depends on whether you talk or not."
Fuli sat backward on a wooden chair, leisurely fiddling with various torture instruments created by his trailing sword.
"Talk," Otto said flatly. "As the commander of the execution troops, you definitely know who placed the curse on Kallen."
"Do you take me for an idiot?" the man looked at him as if he were a moron. "So what if I tell you? Are you really going to let me go?"
"We could," Kallen said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Why not?"
Her words stunned Augustus. Looking at her devastatingly beautiful face, he was at a loss for words.
The Saintess's reputation was indeed well-deserved. Even in this fatal situation, she could still shake his resolve to die.
Seeing this, Fuli decided to give his wavering resolve another push.
Clockwork Tricks, activate!
As the spell activated, a Roulette of Moods, visible only to him, appeared.
The center of the roulette was a slot, and around it, golden gears marked with Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Calmness gleamed.
The boy picked up the gear of Joy and embedded it into the slot on the roulette.
Click!
"Hahahahaha, MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!"
Augustus, who had been wavering just moments ago, suddenly burst into hearty laughter. "This knight knows what you're thinking. It's nothing more than killing the caster to lift the deadly curse and flying far away, right?"
"A beautiful fantasy, but it's a pity you three little brats will never achieve that goal!"
His gaze swept over the faces of those present, and he cackled coldly. "Because that curse... can't be lifted at all!"
"Nonsense!"
Otto, on the verge of snapping, slammed the table and stood up, materializing a replica of the Judgement of Shamash and pressing it to the man's forehead. "A spell can be lifted by killing its caster! You cast the curse, didn't you?! I'll kill you right now!"
"Who told you I was the one who cast the curse? Such a critical leash—do you think your meticulous father would tie it to a good-for-nothing drunkard like me?"
Augustus said gleefully, "A human swine. Ever heard of it?"
Fuli exchanged a glance with a confused Kallen and quietly explained the term's specific meaning:
A human swine was a cruel torture invented by Empress Lü of the Han Dynasty to deal with Consort Qi.
The method of punishment involved chopping off the person's four limbs, gouging out their eyes, pouring molten copper into their ears to deafen them, forcing a mute-inducing drug down their throat, cutting out their tongue, and destroying their vocal cords so they couldn't speak.
Then their nose was cut off, their head and eyebrows were shaved clean, and a medicine was applied to destroy the hair follicles so hair would never grow back. Finally, they were thrown into a toilet, left to be tormented in a hundred ways without dying.
Kallen's face grew colder as she faintly guessed the truth, but the euphoric Augustus was still gloating. "Bishop Nicholas already anticipated you might choose to escape, so he long ago turned that unlucky curse-caster into a human swine and threw him into the lowest level of Schicksal's headquarters."
"I admit, the three of you have some skill to be able to subdue me so easily. But even if you, Kallen Kaslana, were at the peak of your S-Rank Valkyrie strength, trying to force your way into the lowest level of the headquarters is an absolute death sentence!"
The "lowest level" the man spoke of was never a physical underground location, but the name of a bubble universe.
Few people knew that the reason Schicksal chose the obscure town of Kolosten as its headquarters back then was not only because it was less than thirteen kilometers from Vienna—the long-standing capital and economic heart of the Holy Roman Empire—but also because of the existence of a bubble universe that was partially aligned with reality there.
For a thousand years, the rulers of Schicksal had been continuously modifying this bubble universe, named the "Seventh Heaven," striving to turn it into a final fortress akin to Constantinople—no, Istanbul.
As for how perilous it was, one only had to look at the drastic change in Fuli's expression upon hearing this.
The boy, who had been calm and composed even when fighting the Herrscher of Thunder, now looked as if he had just opened a thirty-year-expired can of surströmming in a two-square-meter sealed room.
Huh? You really want me to attack Schicksal headquarters?
No way. Are you for real?
It wasn't that he was a coward, but Schicksal of this era was truly overpowered.
When all was said and done, being able to organize the Tenth Crusade and unprecedentedly crush their way to the Kipchak Steppe was in itself a testament to how heaven-defying the current Schicksal was.
The Horseman of War and the Horseman of Death from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Eleanor Schariac armed with Abyss Flower (who wasn't dead at the time of the crusade), plus Kallen the Saintess—just on the surface, there were a full four S-Rank powerhouses!
In addition, within the four legions under the Castle Council, the Unyielding One of the Unyielding Division, the Saint-Burner of the Enlightenment Division, the Deadzone Walker of the Deadzone Division, and the Great Extinguisher of the Extinction Division—these individuals and their adjutants were all solid A-Rank-plus powerhouses.
The Kaslana clan member who was assigned the Judgement of Shamash could even sacrifice himself to unleash a raging storm of fire capable of instantly killing an Emperor-class Honkai Beast and deterring a Herrscher of the Sequence!
The reason their crusade failed was definitely not a problem with Schicksal itself, but a problem with the Celestial Fu Hua.
The brilliance of a Great Sequence wielder was once again displayed before the world after a thousand years. The infinitely-firing Sword of Taixuan, wielded with casual ease, made the arrogant Schicksal realize for the first time what it meant to see not a single glimmer of hope for victory.
Why was the seat of Archbishop Nicholas, who was so powerful he was just one step away from ruling Europe, North Africa, and most of West Asia, so unstable? Wasn't it precisely because this one battle had completely broken him?
He even went so far as to have people research the black box that housed the Herrscher of Corruption to recreate the technology for making MANTISes, all to create an equivalent force to break the lingering inner demons haunting Schicksal from top to bottom!
The problem was, while the Celestial Fu Hua could single-handedly crush Schicksal at its peak, Fuli couldn't!
If he had capable teammates, that would be one thing. But asking him to attack Schicksal headquarters with a golden-haired boy who couldn't even truss a chicken and a good-for-nothing Saintess who was cursed and had less than one percent of her strength—wasn't that like Zhao Kuangyin wearing a wedding dress? A pure giveaway! (T/N: A pun on the emperor's name and the word "giveaway" in Chinese.)
If the historians heard about this, they'd at least exclaim with a sigh, "The suicide methods people come up with these days are truly varied."
"So I'm saying, instead of hesitating about this and that, you three little brats should just let me go. Then I'll take you to kowtow and apologize to His Eminence the Bishop."
Perhaps the joyous effect of the Clockwork Tricks was too good; the more Augustus spoke, the more excited he became.
His lecherous gaze fell upon the three individuals, all of whom had both looks and figures, and his spittle-spraying mouth opened, about to spew some foul words.
SPLAT!
The sound of flowing liquid was heard.
It was the sound of various fluids gushing out after a head was smashed like a watermelon.
"A bit disgusting."
Kallen, half of her delicate body splattered with blood and brain matter, retracted her small, elegant fist, shook her hand, and complained, "Little Vera's clothes will probably burst if I wear them. Sigh, I really hope to see the day she and I can swap clothes."
The buxom nun turned around and said with a grin, "There should be a change of clothes Otto prepared for me here, right? By the way, Little Brother needs a set too. He's been half-naked this whole time."
The bloody scene left Fuli stunned.
"Didn't you just promise to spare his life?"
"You're getting too attached, little brother. What kind of credibility is there with scum like this who's rotten to the core?"
Kallen wagged her slender index finger, still stained with blood. "A person like Augustus, every day he lives, he might harm another good person. Instead of letting him go for the sake of some meaningless reputation, it's better to deal with him directly and rid the world of a pest."
The Saintess had always followed one theory: kindness is right, but you can't spoil those who don't know what's good for them. Endless forgiveness is a breeding ground for stray dogs.
"Sister, you are my real sister."
With that clean and decisive act of smashing someone's head at the drop of a hat, Fuli realized he had underestimated the worldview of ancient people.
By now, Otto had brought down a change of clothes from upstairs. Kallen took the clothes to another room to change and wash up. Then, the stunningly beautiful white-haired woman returned, sparkling "bling-bling."
However, Fuli still thought the blood-splattered Sister Kallen from just now was cooler and better-looking, an opinion that received Otto's enthusiastic agreement.
"You guys..."
Kallen sat down cross-legged in exasperation, her fair, jade-like wrist propping up her chin. "So? Are you planning to give up?"
"I—"
Just as Fuli was about to say something, he was interrupted by a wave of her hand. "Think carefully before you speak, okay? It's true we suffered a crushing defeat against the Celestial Fu Hua back then, but we managed to preserve most of our high-end elites. Among the S-Ranks, only Eleanor is gone now. Zofia and Einmaid are still faithfully serving as their knight commanders. Although no one is particularly fond of Archbishop Nicholas, an attack on the headquarters is such a major event that even if there are conflicts between us, they will surely be put aside for the time being."
Bathed in the moonlight streaming down from the skylight, the silver-haired, ice-eyed Saintess smiled gently. "You don't have to face an enemy you can't possibly defeat, do you? I'm not entirely sure what an Artificial Intelligence is, but since it's artificial, it can surely be man-made in your future, right?"
"There's no need to get involved in this mess for my sake, a complete stranger. At least, that's what I think."
...
As the Great Khan Little Pigeon, Emperor of the Tongliao Khanate, once said: A good worldview is important, but three meals a day are more important.
To feed themselves and their loved ones, the only two good stay-at-home husbands in the house began to busy themselves in the kitchen.
Kallen was currently sitting cross-legged on a chair in the living room, swaying her body in anticipation. The braided ponytail behind her head swung back and forth, and her outstretched hands supported her ankles.
The silly ahoge on her head, driven by the Kaslana Piggy Sensor, was pointed firmly at the doorway from which fragrant smells were wafting, as if to say, "Even if I die, I, Kallen, will die on a full stomach!"
In fact, she had already expressed more than once that she could eat even unprocessed ingredients. A true Valkyrie is never a picky eater!
Fuli: Why does that sound so familiar?
To prevent the food from being completely devoured by Peppa Pig before it even left the kitchen, Otto had no choice but to appoint Vera as the Minister of Pets, temporarily leaving her in the living room to successfully appease the Saintess.
In front of the stove, Fuli held a kitchen knife mimicked by his trailing sword with solemn gravity. "The blade of a reverse-blade sword faces oneself. Every slice of a vegetable is repentance for one's past sins, and the pain in one's heart constantly punishes oneself. It can be said that this is a blade of atonement."
Otto sighed deeply. "A knife is a kitchen utensil. Knife skills are a culinary trick. No matter how many beautiful words are used to embellish it, this remains a fact."
"Hey, you followed that up nicely!"
Fuli, who had been stern-faced just a moment ago, pointed cheerfully. "You're much better now than with that bitter, vengeful look from before."
"Keeping up with your train of thought is quite an effort."
"Just need to be a little off-the-wall. Life is just a hundred years, why wear a long face all day?"
"From the way you talk, the 'me' outside has lived for over five hundred years."
"Then you have even less reason to be gloomy. How many people wish they could borrow another five hundred years from the heavens and don't get the chance? What's there to be unhappy about after living five lifetimes? If you're unhappy, just go die. Why linger in the mortal world?"
"...Brother, you seem a little too extreme."
When it came to food, all the people of the Middle Ages combined couldn't hold a candle to Fuli, a modern man.
The two house-husbands conferred and decided that rather than making unremarkable Western food, a table of modern cuisine with excellent color, aroma, and taste would be a better way to enjoy the pleasures of the palate.
This was mainly because Otto, who held the Key of Revelation, had a little hobby of concocting modern seasonings himself. Plus, Vera had a relatively abundant supply of ingredients here. Otherwise, even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice.
The noisy sounds of frying and stir-frying soon filled the air, adding a touch of human warmth to the two-story house under the night sky.
"Eggs."
"Here."
"Scallions."
"We don't have that."
"Mimic some with the Void Archives."
"Mimicked things don't last long."
"Just for the flavor. As long as it lasts until we've eaten it, it's fine."
"Done."
Otto handed over a bunch of scallions, hesitated, and then asked softly, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
"Even though you know you'll be facing all of Schicksal, why did you still choose to stay and help?"
The nights in medieval Europe were relatively dark, without many artificial light sources, only the stars and moon providing light.
The distant mountains were faintly visible in the night, and the croaking of frogs and chirping of insects intertwined, playing a natural symphony.
"Why stay and help?"
Fuli, busy with the ingredients, said nonchalantly, "Sunk costs."
It was that simple.
He had paid Alice a hefty price to infiltrate Schicksal's database. To back down just because of a few words would mean all his previous investment was wasted.
Not to mention, this was just a virtual space. He, a person from reality, wouldn't die.
Have you ever seen an online gamer who's afraid of their character respawning? Since we've already infiltrated, we might as well see it through to the end! (T/N: A pun on a Chinese saying about being in a toilet and seeing a clock/watch which sounds like "having history and a beginning/end.")
Oh, except for Aincrad.
"Won't die, huh..."
Otto muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing, his tone inexplicably thought-provoking.
"But speaking of which, Schicksal's database construction is really impressive. Turn up the heat."
Fuli, holding a trailing wok and stir-frying eggs, reminded him.
Seeing the mimicked Judgement of Shamash burst into fine flames, the boy nodded in satisfaction. "It's one thing for important characters like you and little Miss Vera, but I didn't expect even a mob NPC like Augustus to have such high intelligence."
"As long as the computing power is sufficient, it's not difficult to achieve."
A malicious smile appeared on the handsome face as Otto stir-fried the beef in the pan. "The 'me' outside is so idle as to maintain such a large virtual world and repeat the events of this period over and over again. Kallen's death must have been an unprecedented blow to him."
"You look quite pleased with his misfortune."
"Who's to blame but you for descending, brother?"
The man said optimistically, "The moment I learned you would take Kallen away, I truly felt that even if I were to die the next second, I wouldn't care at all."
"Brother, you must have someone you want to make happy too, right?"
His pupils reflecting the glow of the celestial fire, his gaze was burning. "The most important person, the one for whom you wouldn't care if you were eternally damned, as long as she could be safe and sound."
Upon hearing this, Fuli's mind subconsciously conjured up the image of a silly, goofy, white-haired idiot.
He was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "I used to."
Not anymore.
Yes, it seemed like Otto was all about "fulfill our marriage contract with me" when he visited Kallen in the dungeon, and Fuli had chased Kiana all the way from Shenzhou to the Far East.
In reality, from beginning to end, neither of them had ever cared about whether the marriage contract could be fulfilled.
Whether it was Fuli or Otto, they had long known that there was no such thing as "I like you, so you must like me."
Love is a multiplication; if one side is zero, the result is always zero.
All they wanted was for the person they loved, the person they made a promise with, to be happy.
Otto just wanted Kallen to live. He tried every means to keep her alive, and for that, he was willing to be hated by her, even to go against the beliefs she had always held.
And Fuli just wanted an answer. Even if that answer was, "Isn't this Little Li? Long time no see! I'm sorry, the marriage contract was just childish nonsense!" he would happily wave his hand and say he understood, then ask if they could still be friends.
Unfortunately, whether it was the historical Kallen or the real-life Kiana, neither of them was willing to even give them that chance.
The former, upholding her beliefs, dragged her heavily injured body back to the execution ground and ultimately died at the hands of a Honkai Beast released by Otto while protecting civilians.
The latter?
"Who are you? I don't know you! Don't try to get friendly with me!"
"...Heh."
Fuli gave a bitter smile, shook his head, and with the cooking skills he had honed over eight years specifically to feed the little glutton Kiana, he flipped the contents of the pan.
...