— — — — — —
Athena sat in silence for a while before finally frowning. "I don't get why you're so hung up on Ryo Yagami."
"Oh? I guessed wrong, huh?"
Shiroyasha actually looked surprised this time.
Curious now, Athena asked. "I want to know why you immediately locked onto Ryo Yagami as the culprit regardless of what I was about to say."
"Oh, probably just habit at this point."
She sighed with a weary tone. "If that brat goes three days without stirring up trouble, I'd light incense in celebration."
After saying that, she glanced at Athena and asked with interest, "By the way, what's with that stormy look on your face?"
Athena didn't answer. She just stared at Shiroyasha steadily.
Seeing that, Shiroyasha smacked her forehead and said, "Ohh~ come with me."
The two went into a reception room reserved for distinguished guests and sat down.
While preparing tea, Shiroyasha asked first. "So? What happened?"
"I'm looking for someone." Athena's words were short and to the point.
Talking to someone straightforward like Shiroyasha was honestly refreshing—no need to overthink every sentence.
"Oh? So it's business?"
Shiroyasha's eyes lit up. She quickly swapped the tea leaves for the premium guest batch, smiling as she did.
"Little Ath, who are we looking for? Out in the outside worlds I might hold back, but in Little Garden? There's no one Thousand Eyes can't find."
"Athena," Athena said calmly.
"Huh?" Shiroyasha paused mid-pour and stared, blinking.
Was she hiring Thousand Eyes to find herself?
Or... she wanted to fake her disappearance using Thousand Eyes? Pay to have herself 'go missing,' lure her enemies out, and then ambush them?
Who pissed her off recently?
The more Shiroyasha thought about it, the more plausible it sounded.
But then Athena shook her head. "No. The one I'm looking for is Athena—yet not Athena."
She hesitated, then added. "She should currently possess Metis's divinity and authority."
Shiroyasha froze, stunned. "Your mom just crawled out of her coffin?!"
Athena's expression twitched.
Realizing she'd gone too far, Shiroyasha coughed a few times, then asked with a strange look. "Wait, no—Zeus sealed both her existence and her godhood ages ago. How is she alive again?"
"…It's someone else."
Athena gave a brief explanation, then decided Shiroyasha probably wouldn't get it without seeing it herself. So she released her divine aura fully.
On the way to [Thousand Eyes]'s domain, her divinity had already completed its transformation.
But during that process, an abnormal acceleration had occurred.
Which led Athena to a disturbing possibility—
That Trinity Athena… had already arrived in Little Garden.
That was one of the reasons she came seeking Thousand Eyes' intel.
"Wisdom, Mother Earth, the Queen of the Underworld…"
As the divine aura manifested, Shiroyasha stared, completely dumbfounded.
"Athena, Medusa, Metis… the ancient triple queen?! Who the hell is so vicious?"
Fusing Athena and Algol into one? That rumor alone was brutal—but dragging in her mother, forcing her to occupy her own mother's throne, adding another tragedy onto Metis, who wasn't even supposed to resurrect…
That was more than cruel. That was predatory.
Even Zeus wouldn't go this far!
Shiroyasha couldn't help it—she actually admired the precision. Whoever did this went straight for Athena's deepest sore spot. This wasn't just an attack. This was a kill shot.
Athena and Algol being the same person… just thinking it made her want to laugh—but she held it in. Getting warned by Athena wasn't on her to-do list today.
Trying not to grin, she asked, her expression strained:
"If there's something you can't say out loud, just spit it out anyway. You know me—I don't leak."
Athena paused, then said, "Actually… I don't know who's targeting me."
"Huh?" Shiroyasha blinked. "Seriously?"
Athena shook her head.
"There's no trace of related information in the Little Garden core system. Something is interfering."
"That's why I came to Thousand Eyes—to buy all information related to Metis. And while we're at it, check all new four-digit beings from the past century. I suspect someone is deliberately creating this disruption through observation of some unknown realm."
Shiroyasha gave her a cautious look. "You didn't consider Ryo Yagami?"
Shiroyasha kept witnessing that every time that bastard disappeared for a few days, a new Yagami-branded chaos would appear.
"I did," Athena answered honestly. "I already have contingencies in place to test him."
Hearing this, Shiroyasha asked very carefully, "And if it is him? What then?"
"Ahem... Athy, of course, from a faction standpoint, I'll absolutely support you," she added quickly, making a loyal-fan expression. "But, uh… you know, that brat technically works under me. If you two end up clashing, I'll be in a slightly awkward position."
Athena sighed. "I don't understand what you're so worried about."
"Uh…" Shiroyasha got stuck.
Then Athena said calmly: "If it is Ryo, that actually benefits me. At least it means it wasn't some unknown enemy from the two-digit domain."
"The One and Only True God, the Almighty, the Trinity Queen's divinity—whoever did this clearly has the potential of a two-digit being. I lost some faith, yes, but this also opened a new path to ascend."
"So from a profit standpoint, I didn't lose much."
Shiroyasha nodded, waiting. "So what if it was really him?"
Without a beat of hesitation, Athena replied, "If I hadn't promised to let him act freely and explicitly told him to cause as much chaos as he could, then just the whole 'Athena and Algol are the same person' bit alone…"
"I would've twisted his head off and used it as a chamber pot."
"Hsss~~"
Shiroyasha gaped. "A chamber pot?! That's an option?! As expected of Athena, you know how to humiliate even the dead."
"..."
Athena looked at her silently. Dangerously.
"Kidding! Just kidding, haha…"
Trying to smooth things over, Shiroyasha poured her a fresh cup of hot tea and said. "Well, hearing all this… yeah, I am kind of suspicious of Ryo."
"What's your reasoning?" Athena frowned.
Shiroyasha paused, then said with a complicated expression. "How do I put it… that brat is just really, really good at causing trouble. It's like his born divinity."
She added, "If we're talking the three biggest problem children in all of Little Garden, he definitely has a spot in the new ranking."
"When a mysterious disaster drops and no mastermind shows up? Just assume it was Ryo Yagami. Nine outta ten times, you won't be wrong."
Athena opened her mouth, expression twitching. "…Your trust in him is… impressive. Very impressive."
"So, before hunting down this Athena you're looking for—should we ask Ryo first?" Shiroyasha asked, hesitating. "Just to be clear, though, if it is him, you can scold or beat him a little, sure— but you can't kill him."
"You know I don't have many reliable people lately, and orders from above keep piling up. I'm still counting on that brat to help cover me. If he dies, all my early investment goes down the drain—I can't afford that."
"I won't," Athena sighed. She looked at her hand, slowly curling her fingers into a fist, her voice tight with restrained anger.
"…I did promise to let him do as he pleased. He... he made me swear on my name."
She fell silent for a couple of seconds, then exhaled. "Forget it. Let's find her first. If it really was him… we'll deal with it then."
"Got it. Don't stay mad," Shiroyasha said, flashing a pacifying grin. She called in a Thousand Eyes attendant, scribbled a request sheet, and handed it over. "Have the Mystic Eye Division move out. Rush priority."
"Yes, ma'am!" The staff member withdrew.
Only then did Shiroyasha turn back to Athena with a bright smile. "Results will come soon. We can settle the bill after. I'll even give you a fifty percent discount this time~"
At that moment, Athena's brow twitched slightly. Some vague insight stirred within her.
This feeling… Shiroyasha is giving a discount... wait. Could it actually be Ryo? But it's barely been two days…
Athena felt a flicker of doubt grow.
.
.
.