— — — — — —
The Little Garden had a total of twenty-five Solar Authorities.
Twenty-four belonged to the ecliptic zodiac or the celestial equator—leaving only one left for Veyron to claim.
"Ophiuchus, huh…"
A faint look of nostalgia crossed Shiroyasha's face. "If only I had joined the chat group three months earlier."
"How so?"
With his knowledge of the story, Veyron had a pretty good guess about what had happened back then, but he still asked.
And sure enough—
"Unlike the Twelve Zodiac and the Twelve Celestial, the 25th Solar Authority, Ophiuchus, was specially created to honor the one who built the ruling system that protects the lower layers of Little Garden today."
Shiroyasha explained, "That's why the Ophiuchus Authority is, in a way, paired with the title of 'Overall Floor Master.' The first person to hold that title was awarded Ophiuchus… Leticia Draculea."
"But her community was wiped out in an attack three months ago. She went missing, and nobody outside even knows who was behind it."
She paused, then a bold idea popped into her head. "Given your relationship with the Core, maybe you could—"
"Uh...Shiroyasha, the Core says you're pushing your luck."
Sensing the will of the world, Veyron relayed the message—and threw in a jab for good measure. "Seriously, what's with using me as a messenger? I'm not even from this world."
"Ahem… forget it if it's inconvenient. Can't trouble the Core with everything anyway."
Realizing the Core was still that same inflexible bundle of rules, Shiroyasha backed down from her idea. "Finding the mastermind of the attack will be tricky.
"When Leticia's community was attacked, I refuse to believe no one on our level got involved—honestly, I suspect a three-digit made a move, both openly and from the shadows."
"And tracking down Leticia isn't that hard. She's still within Little Garden as far as the observers can tell…"
"In that case," Veyron said, "I'll trouble you to gather any intel you can on her whereabouts."
"No problem," Shiroyasha agreed without hesitation. "By the way—you said 'First of all' when you brought up the Sun Authority earlier. That means there's a second request, right?"
"Yeah. I also want you to collect any knowledge or techniques that could be used to forge artifacts, along with the necessary materials."
This was Veyron's second request.
The first request was about finding something that could maximize the effects of his Photosynthesis (Gold) skill—already boosted by Superhuman (Gold)—to push his base stats as high as possible.
This second one was to perfectly merge his Saint Cloth Forging Method with the Tenth Metal (Element X), getting the most out of both.
With Element X's capabilities and the Soul Light—his reality-bending willpower—he was confident he could forge a Saint Cloth that surpassed the originals, even without Cosmo or the authentic Saint Seiya materials.
Still, since he now had access to Little Garden—a gathering place of gods, buddhas, and all kinds of powerhouses—it would be foolish not to stock up on rare materials.
He had already decided that his own Saint Cloth would only use Element X… but if he happened to find something even better, well, he wasn't going to turn it down.
And besides, wouldn't it be nice to prepare a few for close friends like Kaguya and Eirin?
With that, he officially entrusted Shiroyasha with two tasks—finding Leticia, and collecting artifact-forging techniques and materials.
---
The Moon
Leaving Little Garden behind, Veyron returned to his main world.
The teleport naturally dropped him back in the Moon Palace.
To him, it had felt like months since he'd left. But thanks to the Space-Time Gap feature he'd activated during his missions in World-4 and World-5, only a handful of days had passed here.
Which was why, when he slipped his arms around her from behind, the princess's expression was… complicated.
"Daddy," Kaguya said, tilting her head slightly, "it's not that I'm upset, but… the first thing you do when you come back is this? Did something happen to you out there?"
"No," he replied casually, "but something's about to happen to you."
Lifting Kaguya, Veyron swept her into his arms and easily bypassed the ornate ceremonial robes of the new Moon Princess.
"More—don't stop! YES, that's the spot..."
...
Three hours later, with her body and mind thoroughly overwhelmed, the princess looked at him seriously. "Ok let's do another round."
"Why don't you focus on absorbing what you've already got before asking for more?" he said, half-amused at just how greedy she'd become. Clearly, she'd noticed his semen had changed—gotten so much stronger—and now she wanted even more.
"No matter what happens, you'll never be left out."
"...Nope, if you aren't doing it, I'm taking the lead."
With that another round began.
To be honest...
With the crimson cosmic essence from Cyttorak pushing him to a cosmological scale, then the "Will of Creator" from the DC world granting him a seed of DC's divine power, he'd already thought his Almighty Serum would be capable of creating a universe from a single drop now.
But after his latest transformation in Little Garden… the effect was downright absurd. He really couldn't tell how OP he was now.
...
"I really need to get going," Veyron said, glancing at Kaguya resting on the bed. She gave him a look that said, 'Wait just a minute—we're doing this again.'
But after seeing Veyron really wanted to leave—
"Fine," Kaguya said reluctantly, releasing her grip on him.
With a thought, the feathered robe covered her again.
She ran a hand over her slightly rounded stomach—full from the excess—and glanced toward a certain direction, smiling faintly. "Since I couldn't fully satisfy you… I suppose it's time for my 'substitute' to take over?"
Veyron blinked at her, choosing not to answer.
Truth be told, the one he planned to see next was Eirin Yagokoro.
He knew that Kaguya had already figured it out. Back when the Gene Lock trait had only just started boosting his output—and before the crimson essence from Cyttorak expanded to a cosmic scale—the Almighty Serum he produced wasn't as overpowered as it was now, but it was still nothing to scoff at.
And during that period, Kaguya slept with him a lot… yet she was always less powerful than Eirin.
There was no way someone as sharp as Kaguya wouldn't understand the unspoken game at play.
But since she'd never called him out on it—and Eirin, for her part, had always kept a "let's not tell the princess" stance—he was perfectly happy to keep up that quiet little understanding.
.
.
.