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Inside a private booth of a dessert shop, Ryo sat by the window, gazing out at the scenery of Itogami Island.
"Things have really changed... You can't even see the sea from here anymore."
"Well, that's what happens when someone disappears for way too long."
Sitting across from him, Asagi Aiba poked at her kumquat lemon juice with the straw and rolled her eyes.
Despite the sarcasm in her tone, there was a hint of happiness on her face. Part of it was the joy of meeting again after a long separation. Part of it was the quiet pride of having her carefully crafted work acknowledged.
Faced with Asagi's "accusation," Ryo calmly picked up his drink and took a sip. "From my perspective, it was only half a month. Just a short trip, really."
Asagi froze for a second, then muttered under her breath, "The time ratio is that different…?"
So if she followed Ryo to Little Garden someday, one day over there would equal a whole month here?
This… she still had family here…
Ryo glanced at her, sensed her unease, and smiled. "That's exactly why I came back. To deal with that."
Asagi met his eyes for a moment, then looked away, stirring her drink. "Meh. Do whatever you want."
"Alright, that's enough flirting for now. We're also here."
Natsuki Minamiya, seated beside Asagi, suddenly clapped her hands.
"I-I'm not flirting with him!" Asagi shot back, her voice instantly rising.
Natsuki gave her a strange look. "Did I say any names?"
Asagi immediately fell silent, sipping her juice through the straw and turning her gaze aside, as if the view outside the window were infinitely fascinating.
Natsuki shifted her attention to the two sitting beside Ryo.
Avrora, in the middle of eating ice cream, instantly went on alert and subtly pulled her sundae away. Cyrora merely frowned slightly and continued eating in silence.
Natsuki sighed, then looked back at Ryo. "Someone like you wouldn't pick a moment like this to come back for no reason. This isn't something small, is it?"
"Guess I can't hide anything from you."
Ryo chuckled, leaned back against the soft sofa cushion, and let out a breath. "Calling it troublesome would be an understatement. If things go wrong, it could turn into full-on war."
In more ways than one, Ryo had already offended the Zeus faction within the Greek pantheon.
Unluckily for him, that faction held real power. On paper, they even had authority over the Twelve Olympians.
The saving grace was that the true powers behind the Greek gods were the Twin Goddesses lurking behind the scenes.
Because of that, Ryo would only have to deal with Zeus's faction, without worrying about interference from the Two-Digit authorities.
Add to that Athena's meddling from Little Garden, plus backing from Leticia, Kurousagi, …
All things considered, Ryo's side was only at a relative disadvantage in top-tier combat strength.
After all, the Zeus faction's real combat strength was limited: Zeus himself, Ares, Aphrodite, nominally Hera, and then Heracles and Hephaestus. That made six altogether.
In reality, though, Heracles owed Ryo a massive favor, so there was a good chance he wouldn't fight at all.
Hera and Zeus were already deeply at odds. As for Hephaestus, even if he didn't defect, Zeus would still worry that he might. A classic case of mutual distrust and bitterness.
When you actually ran the numbers, Ryo's side was more or less evenly matched with Zeus's faction at the highest level.
The real problem was the next tier down.
When it came to four- or five-digit combatants, Arcadia was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
The Greek pantheon wasn't just the Twelve Olympians. There were countless hero-gods who had ascended in myth and epic.
In terms of peak power, Ryo could compete with Zeus's faction. In terms of depth, he couldn't. Even adding all twelve familiars wouldn't be enough to make up the gap.
That was one reason Ryo had come down this time. He intended to bring the Three Primogenitors on board as allies.
Individually, they weren't especially strong. But there was a high chance that, as natural-born devas, they would gain Four-Digit spirit ranks the moment they entered Little Garden.
More importantly, they had numbers. A lot of familiars.
If those familiars' spirit ranks were also enhanced, that would mean a hundred or so solid fighters, enough to greatly ease Arcadia's lack of depth.
Of course, this was Ryo's worst-case plan.
In Little Garden, the quality of top-tier fighters mattered far more than sheer numbers.
That was also why he had his eye on The Cleansing, planning to turn Hermes and Ares into machine gods.
For Olympians whose authorities were housed in divine artifacts, replacing their bodies with mechanical ones wouldn't significantly weaken them. It might even strengthen them.
And if they became machine gods under Ryo's control, he would seize the initiative in any clash with Zeus's faction.
That was the real direction Ryo wanted things to go.
Just like modern warfare prioritizes air superiority, Ryo wanted to control the initiative in this conflict with the Greek pantheon.
Whether it ended in war or peace, the decision should be his.
"War… with gods…"
Asagi immediately felt her teeth ache at the thought, while Liana, sitting beside Natsuki, looked outright panicked.
"...A war, huh?"
Natsuki snapped open her folding fan and looked at Ryo with exasperation. "You really are a first-class troublemaker, no matter where you go."
"Maybe that's just the price of getting stronger," Ryo said with a smile, neither confirming nor denying it.
In a Little Garden ruled by Gods and Buddhas, climbing upward as a human was never going to be easy.
But abandoning his humanity and sinking into the same mire as the gods wasn't an option either.
Natsuki closed her fan and lightly tapped it against her head. "Alright, I get the situation. So you came here looking for something that can help ease the pressure on that front?"
Ryo smiled and answered directly. "The Cleansing, the legacy of Cain, Primogenitor of the demon race, the remaining Deva-class gods, and the Three Primogenitors. Those are my main objectives this time."
For The Cleansing and the Deva gods, he planned to use them as experimental material to create machine gods.
As for Cain's legacy, that was meant to let Algol "conceal" the disturbances caused by Ryo observing this world.
Since The Cleansing was also part of Cain's legacy, those two goals could be treated as one.
As for the Three Primogenitors, Ryo still wasn't certain how useful they would be.
And there was a backup plan— The Faux Angels —meant to reinforce their combat strength and deepen Arcadia's overall reserves if things ever spiraled into full-scale war.
Of course, Ryo had no intention of letting things reach the point where it came down to a brute-force comparison of foundations and numbers.
"Haaah…"
Natsuki let out a long sigh and spread her fan again, looking utterly helpless. "I never should've taken that snake bastard's job in the first place. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have run into you in the Fourth Primogenitor's tomb."
Ryo burst out laughing. "Then you really are unlucky."
Natsuki shot him a glare, then turned to Asagi. "Brace yourself. You're going to be helping this guy."
"Natsuki-chan, can I report you for illegally hiring child labor?"
Asagi scratched her head, at last realizing the special kind of pain reserved for capitalist laborers.
.
.
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