Before the people outside had even entered, Mata tilted her head slightly and said with a hint of amusement, "They actually delivered them this quickly? Was that your idea, or Ryo's?"
Leticia didn't look at her. "The Heavenly Army's affairs with Ouroboros have nothing to do with Arcadia."
"Looking out for yourselves, are you? Or should I say, use the Savior while he's useful, then throw him away? Sounds exactly like something that brat would do." Mata let out a soft laugh. Though her words sounded sarcastic, she was actually quite approving of Ryo's approach.
They were enemies, after all.
As long as you didn't cross the line, there was no such thing as going too far when dealing with them.
Ouroboros had even taken advantage of Arcadia's weakened state, when they had lost eighty percent of their manpower, to secretly launch a sneak attack.
So Ryo using Kalki for a little leverage and then turning around and handing him over to the Heavenly Army… was that really outrageous?
Not at all.
If anything, it was fairly mild. Everyone understood that even if Kalki were captured by the Heavenly Army, actually killing him would be impossible.
In a certain sense, it might even be good for Kalki.
At the very least, the Heavenly Army would be more than happy to keep the Savior well-fed and healthy, if only to use him to annoy those people in Ouroboros.
Of course, it was a little unfair to Kalki.
But what could you do? His very birth had been planned.
Faced with Mata's seemingly sarcastic but actually approving attitude, Leticia calmly explained, "First, the Heavenly Army needs to establish one thing. Ouroboros infiltrated the Arcadia Alliance and participated in this divine war against Greece. So the idea that we 'used' them is completely baseless."
Whatever dealings Arcadia might have with Ouroboros behind closed doors, there was absolutely no way they could admit to any of it publicly.
Leticia understood that perfectly well. She wasn't about to give anyone ammunition to use against them.
Hearing this, Shiva raised her head and gave Leticia a surprised look. "You've gotten quite a bit more slippery, haven't you~?"
Leticia had no idea that Shiva had always kept a close eye on the remnant of the Little Garden's Knights long ago.
Naturally, she knew Leticia's personality quite well, too.
That knightly sense of morality, which had always seemed utterly useless in her eyes, had once shone as brightly as the sun in Leticia during the Dawn Era.
Otherwise, the Gods of that time would never have been forced to grit their teeth and acknowledge her authority as the Overall Floor Master.
One had to understand that, despite not belonging to the Divine Species, Leticia had been the first Vampire ever granted a Four-Digit rank during the Dawn Era, when the other races were still incredibly weak.
Back then, only the Divine Species, Dragons, and Star Spirits dominated the Three- and Four-Digit realms. While two-Digit rank didn't even exist yet.
The first Four-Digit "outsider". The first to possess a Sun Authority. The first all-powerful ruler entrusted with overseeing order throughout the lower layers.
And most importantly, Leticia had been less than a hundred years old at the time. In the eyes of the Gods, she was practically an infant.
Back then, Leticia had even been widely regarded as the outsider most likely to become the first to step into the Three-Digit realm.
In the eyes of the Heavenly Army's higher-ups, she was also a woman who might one day receive the World Dragon's blessing, obtain Another Cosmology, and build her own pantheon.
Unfortunately... she was too upright. Too dazzling.
She had nowhere near enough experience dealing with schemes and intrigue.
In the end, Ouroboros took advantage of that. With the Gods standing by and doing nothing, she was manipulated into becoming a Demon Lord and ultimately sealed herself away.
If Canaria hadn't broken her seal in the modern era, that former number-one outsider might well have become nothing more than a "legend celebrated in history books."
As someone who had watched coldly from the sidelines back then, Shiva felt both regret and admiration toward the changes in Leticia.
Hearing these words, Leticia replied expressionlessly, "People change, Lord Shiva."
At that moment, Mata muttered under her breath, "What do you mean, 'people change'? You have just been influenced by Ryo too much. Spend enough time around someone, and you start picking up their bad habits."
Just as Leticia had once been recognized as the strongest vampire, Ryo was now publicly acknowledged as the strongest human as well.
For the moment, however, that understanding existed only among the upper layers.
What Mata found particularly amusing was the fact that, supposedly, Ryo had received guidance from Leticia back when he was still weak.
Although Mata strongly suspected that what Ryo had actually gone to her for was bedroom combat training, it seemed that the inheritance between these two "strongest" was even more complicated than she had imagined.
'Hmm. There's enough material here for me to write an entire gossip magazine feature…' Mata silently added that thought to herself.
Hearing her blunt remark, Leticia's face immediately flushed faintly red.
For a moment, she was completely speechless.
Seeing that, and fearing Mata might steer the conversation into dangerous territory, Shiva quickly interrupted, "So? How did the probing go?"
Mata paused, then slowly withdrew her perception from the two people outside the door.
"Yeah. Triple pay doesn't quite cut it anymore." She shook her head with considerable resignation.
Naturally, she and Shiva hadn't been casually chatting with Leticia just now. They had a purpose.
For one thing, they needed to determine Ryo's attitude.
For another, they needed to assess Kalki's current level.
The first result was encouraging. At least Ryo, who had yet to show himself, had already used Leticia to make his position clear: he had no intention of getting involved.
The second result, however, was considerably worse…
"If we make a move, how long would you need to deal with him?" Shiva rested her cheek against her hand, lying sideways on the sofa as she asked Mata.
"At least a minute, I'd say. Assuming the strength he's showing right now is his actual limit."
Mata estimated the time, though there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
Shiva paused.
Then she complained with a deeply troubled expression, "Why are the people from the lower layers so absurdly strong these days? They're all practically monsters."
The Kalki outside had genuinely startled her.
The Savior Spirit Rank had been completed to that extent?
Had Little Garden already entered the final stage?
But no, that didn't make sense.
Vishnu Spirit Rank was still at its peak. By all rights, Little Garden should still be stable, not approaching the end of the world.
Shiva was still trying to make sense of it when Mata asked, "Should we talk first?"
"I... I don't want to work overtime. Especially unpaid mandatory overtime."
"..."
Hearing that, Mata immediately understood that Shiva wasn't particularly eager to fight.
Neither of them had expected Kalki's Spirit Rank to have developed to this extent before coming here.
That kind of scale… it was already approaching a Four-Digit Rule-Breaker level, wasn't it?
"A Savior born by cutting off the source of vitality from the Central Core through a Destruction-Exploration Community…" Mata murmured thoughtfully, "Come to think of it, that brat probably didn't finally accumulate enough spiritual essence to be born until after Arcadia was destroyed, did he?"
"If that's the case, then Ryo, or rather Arcadia, must have a pretty complicated attitude toward him."
Shiva shot her a sideways glance. "If you have enough time to analyze all that, you'd be better off solving the problem sooner."
Mata stuck out her tongue and turned toward Leticia.
Seeing this, Leticia gave a faint sigh and pressed the button on the table.
Not long afterward, the doors opened.
Two short figures standing outside finally came into view.
At the very front stood a white-haired boy with a melancholy smile.
After exchanging a glance with the three people inside, he sighed. "I think I finally understand how Julius Caesar must have felt walking into the Senate that day."
The atmosphere instantly froze.
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