— — — — — —
"New…" Kato and Shizuri both instinctively glanced at Ryo, trying to digest what that meant.
Still, no matter how surprised they were, neither spoke. They left the stage to the two who were staring each other down.
Ryo took a moment to size up the youth in front of him.
In terms of looks, he was almost identical to Avrora. The only real differences were body shape and hair length. Avrora was a long-haired girl. This one was a boy with golden hair to his shoulders—young enough to call a kid, honestly.
"A fake made from artificial intelligence, huh?"
After giving him a once-over, Ryo's tone turned mocking. "Knew it. A sewer rat is still a sewer rat."
Obviously, this wasn't the real Vampire King standing here. Just a tech-built construct running a primitive simulation of the Vampire King's thought patterns.
Probably a safety measure—send the AI to meet him, then collect the data later and judge the threat level.
Careful, sure. But it didn't stop Ryo from wanting to roast him.
"Not what I expected. You're a lot more aggressive than predicted," the simulated Vampire King said, unfazed by the insult. If anything, he seemed pleased.
Then he paused and looked genuinely confused. "But with that personality, I can't imagine why you spared my two little sisters."
Little sisters—he meant the other Kaleid Blood. Ryo frowned slightly and shot back with a warning edge in his voice.
"Don't go making up family ties. I don't have a brother-in-law like you."
"Brother-in-law?"
The Vampire King froze blankly, then finally processed it, let out a dry laugh, and said. "So that's the reason you refused to absorb them. I've been digging for so long and never expected something like that."
"And they are my little sisters, after all. I can be called the Zeroth Kaleid Blood. My name is Kenon, by the way, given to me by my dear father."
'Father? And wait… it seems he's been tracking me for a long time.'
"Interesting," Ryo murmured, narrowing his eyes in amusement. "So you at least spent a month on Itogami Island hunting down Avrora."
He might not have realized that one of his supposed little sisters was actually the original soul—the true personality of the Fourth Primogenitor—but the fact that he knew Ryo hadn't taken Avrora and Cyrora with him into the Little Garden, or at least hadn't absorbed them in his view, suggested he had been lurking around Itogami for some time.
Ryo's expression grew faintly puzzled.
"So tell me. What's your goal? Planning to steal my power and become a real Fourth Primogenitor?"
A failed experiment picking a fight with a complete one? If Ryo knew nothing else, that would be the first guess.
Maybe there was another reason, but he wasn't about to encourage this brat to realize how stupid he sounded.
"…"
Kenon fell silent for a few seconds. His face was complicated when he finally sighed.
"A human who turned into a Primogenitor like you can't understand."
He paused again, then spoke calmly. "An incomplete Fourth Primogenitor has no value. You're still missing two familiars. Against me, you have no chance of winning."
Ryo listened with an expression that clearly said: 'Keep talking, as if I gave a fuck.'
At that point he was certain—this Vampire King wasn't from the future. At least not from a future where Ryo existed. No time-traveler with sense would be ignorant of his basics.
"Heh."
Ryo let out a soft laugh, his gaze steady as he faced Kenon. "Whatever. I don't really care what you're scheming. It's just noise."
"For me, only one thing matters."
His voice turned serious. "The Cleansing magic Cain created. You have the complete data, don't you?"
Kenon froze. For a moment he just stared. Then a quiet laugh escaped him. "I see. So you deliberately made yourself visible all for that."
Clearly, he'd already seen through Ryo's sudden trip to Aldegyr Kingdom. No wonder he'd been so defensive.
Ryo didn't answer. He just kept watching him.
Kenon hesitated, then his mouth curled slightly. "Your guess is correct."
He continued with a distant, reflective tone. "When Demon Primogenitor Cain, my adoptive father, created the Cleansing magic, I witnessed it myself. When he died, I was the one who saw him off and protected the legacy he left behind."
"Maybe the Three Primogenitors also possess fragments of the Cleansing, but what they have isn't complete. In fact, aside from me, no one in this world has the full version."
"That includes Glenda, the dragon who protects Cain's Legacy on Itogami Island. What she guards lacks the original experimental data, and that data is the key to understanding the magic."
'Glenda?' Ryo's brows tightened.
Kenon smiled slightly.
"Glenda is the dragon egg you placed on Itogami's tenth underground level. She's Cain's familiar, the guardian of his legacy."
"Of course, what she knows combined with the Cain Priestess you control is already enough to activate the Cleansing."
"As long as you earn Glenda's recognition, that is."
He paused again, then reminded him with a teasing smile. "The real issue is whether she's willing to hand the Cleansing over to the Fourth Primogenitor who killed my father."
When he finished, Ryo just stared at him with a bizarre expression.
'Does this stupid kid really think I can't pry the magic formula out of Glenda's head?'
Forget Saint Seiya mind-control. In the Little Garden, mental invasion techniques are everywhere. A five-digit brat wouldn't last five seconds.
And besides—Glenda already has the Cleansing. What would I need "original data" for? In the end I'm going to mod it through the forum anyway. Data or no data, it makes zero difference.
Worst case, I bring the formula to the Little Garden and hand it to Thousand Eyes. Someone there will divine the original records for a few coins.
"You can try all you want. In the end you'll understand that to use the Cleansing, you'll have to come to me."
'You're so confident it almost feels rude to kill you,' Ryo thought, expression unreadable.
After those words, Kenon's figure began to fade, dissolving into static until he looked like a mosaic glitch on a broken TV screen.
"Farewell, incomplete Fourth Primogenitor."
"Yeah. Bye."
'Bye, you fool who just sold all your secrets…' Ryo finished silently.
.
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