— — — — — —
Hercules and Highness exchanged glances, each seeing the same awkward look in the other's eyes.
Everyone knew that Thousand Eyes was a massive intelligence syndicate—basically, a cartel of information brokers.
And with information brokers, everything had a price tag.
So the real question was: How much was intel on the King of End worth?
Or, say, the true identity of Gremlin—what kind of price would that fetch?
Information like that, involving multiple pantheons and carrying massive influence, could easily reach two-digit ranking on the secrecy scale. Which meant the cost would be astronomical.
'Zeus didn't exactly give me a generous budget,' Hercules thought grimly. 'I'm not paying out of pocket for this. If not me, then it's up to the Cross. I just hope their "bishop" brought enough…'
He cleared his throat and said aloud, in a level voice, "Greece forfeits its right of first purchase."
It wasn't that he didn't want the intel—he just knew better than to fight for first dibs. Firsthand and secondhand intel didn't go for the same price. Better to let the rich fools bid first.
He narrowed his eyes and looked over at Highness.
Highness's expression was… complicated.
"Damn it, I knocked out the real bishop and took his place—where the hell would I get money?"
The higher-ups in Ouroboros had only ordered him to "gather information." Nobody said anything about buying it. Those stingy bastards probably never even considered paying.
"Bishop…" Rin touched the gift card in her pocket, glancing worriedly at Highness.
They had some funds, sure—but that wasn't for extravagant spending.
And according to Thousand Eyes' price structure, any two-digit classified intel couldn't even be bought with money. You had to trade an actual Gift—a divine relic or, at the very least, a god-tier item.
Yeah, there was no way they could afford that.
They couldn't exactly sell off one of their own divine Gifts, could they?
"Hm?"
Uesugi Kenshin arched a brow at their reaction.
The Cross of Little Garden was… unique. It had countless factions, but when carrying out the will of their Biblical God, they spared no expense.
So hesitation like this? Very suspicious.
"Great. Now they're onto me…" Highness cursed inwardly, though his face stayed perfectly calm.
"The Angelic Thrones didn't allocate much funding," he said evenly.
"Oh?" Scathach's lips curved into a smirk.
"Even the holy scammers are broke now? Looks like you'll have to sell more indulgences next year."
In Little Garden, the Cross's territories had a long-standing tradition of mandatory indulgence purchases.
Officially, the logic was: "If your faith wavers, you can atone by purchasing indulgences to cleanse your sins."
It was an old trick—originally dreamed up by Judas, of all people—and the cross pantheon, for obvious reasons, kept it around.
Of course, other faiths weren't innocent either. The Buddhists had their "golden idols of offering," and the Chinese pantheons had "incense money."
They were all the same kind of scam—just that the Cross had more followers and raked in way more cash.
"Amen," Highness said smoothly, crossing himself with practiced ease before turning to Ryo Yagami.
"Setting aside the purchase issue," he said, "I'd like to verify the accuracy of Thousand Eyes' intelligence first. If it's confirmed to be worth buying, I wouldn't mind paying the full price."
Hercules frowned slightly. "This guy seems like one of Thousand Eyes' outer-circle members. Not much authority… but if Athena's involved…"
He hesitated. Sure, he was on Zeus's side, but Athena had helped him before. That favor still meant something.
"The Queen wanted us to mess with this arrogant kid a bit… maybe this is the time?" Scathach thought, amused.
Trust the Cross to bring out everyone's inner demons. Uesugi Kenshin could see the temptation flashing across both Hercules and Scathach's faces. They were dangerously close to acting on it.
And Ryo Yagami noticed it too—their eyes lit up like vultures spotting prey.
"Oh, great," he thought, lips twitching. "These bastards are thinking about freeloading…"
No doubt they were planning to strong-arm him while pinning it all on the Cross. Thousand Eyes would go after the Cross afterward anyway, not them.
With that in mind, Ryo kept his face perfectly blank and said,
"This is simple. One sentence will tell you whether the intel is accurate."
"Oh?" Uesugi blinked and stole a glance at Highness.
Highness quickly asked, "Could you elaborate?"
Ryo Yagami met his gaze, deadpan. "You just need to check your intel on this world."
A slow, thin smile crept across his lips. "I arrived here… a month ago."
"——!!"
Shock rippled through the group.
"Thousand Eyes' tech is that advanced now?" Scathach thought in disbelief. "They managed to bypass the Queen's schedule and arrive early?"
Damn it, Highness cursed internally. "If that's true, Thousand Eyes must've already collected most of the intel. Maybe even cracked the whole case. Those damned info brokers always move faster than anyone else…"
Hercules, meanwhile, frowned deeper. "Why does it feel like that man's focusing on the Cross's bishop the whole time? Something is wrong here."
"..."
Uesugi Kenshin's eyes narrowed. "Forgive the bluntness, but how exactly did you manage to arrive early, despite the gods' mutual interference?"
"And there it is," Ryo Yagami thought. "They're finally suspicious."
After all, every pantheon had sent representatives to the Campione World, and of course, they all tried to block and interfere with one another.
That interference resulted in everyone arriving at the same time—no one getting a head start.
So when Ryo said he arrived a month early, it instantly made him look like a Gremlin operative.
Someone who'd deliberately come ahead to spy on and stir up chaos.
And honestly, there was no easy way to deny it. His actions in this world were well-known locally. It wasn't something he could hide.
Hiding the King of End's true name didn't mean he'd erased everyone's memories—it just meant he'd blurred the details around that specific point.
But ironically, that gave him a perfect angle to play dumb.
So Ryo smiled faintly and said, "That's a trade secret."
"Oh?" Uesugi's eyes glittered. "What level of secret are we talking? A, B, C, or D?"
Ryo Yagami grinned. "D-class secret. Ten thousand gold. Thousand Eyes currency only."
Uesugi sighed and flicked a Gift Card his way, her expression full of disgust.
"You're as charming as Canaria."
"Thanks for the compliment," Ryo replied cheerfully. "Would you like the answer public or private?"
"Private." Uesugi glanced around the others.
Ryo nodded and sent the message directly to her mind: "It concerns the twin gods—the boss of Shiroyasha."
Then he fell silent, smiling faintly.
Uesugi froze. Then her face went red. Then twisted with rage.
"I've been scammed."
"Totally, utterly scammed."
In Thousand Eyes' pricing, two-digit-class intel starts at D-rank and ten thousand gold per statement.
But that single sentence he'd given her? It said absolutely nothing—just that a two-digit god cared about the King of End's intel. Which was obvious!
Every major faction—Buddhists, the Cross, the Greeks, Queen Halloween—had already sent people. Of course the twin goddesses would care!
It was the most useless intel imaginable.
The real information had to be much higher, maybe F or even G-rank—but this bastard deliberately labeled it as D-class just to trick her into buying it.
That was beyond shameless.
Grinding her teeth, Uesugi glared at Ryo.
"I take it back. You're worse than Canria."
"Thanks again," Ryo said brightly, still smiling. Then he looked around the group.
"So, anyone else want to buy some intel? I'm bleeding out here, so I'll do a clearance sale—thirty percent off."
.
.
.