Thousands of miles away, Zeus was completely stunned.
And it wasn't just him. Even Hera, sitting beside him, wondered if she'd misheard.
Zeus felt a pounding headache. He shook his head sharply, trying to shake off the awful feeling, then turned to Hera in a near-desperate attempt to escape reality.
"Hera… did I just hear that brat say he planned the conflict between Loki and Freya?"
"Mhm. I heard it."
Hera found it just as unbelievable. The child claimed to be timid, yet what he'd done was utterly explosive.
"I've caused Freya trouble plenty of times before, but I don't think I ever plotted something this direct."
Hera briefly recalled her days in Orario. Back then, during the "incident," she'd made plenty of enemies, yet she'd never used such schemes against any god.
She wasn't the type to hold overnight grudges.
If someone caused trouble, she dealt with it on the spot. She never used underhanded tricks to stab people in the back.
"…Since when did you ever tolerate being bullied?" Zeus muttered.
Hera didn't get angry. That was indeed how she'd always behaved.
But the current situation was clearly far more serious.
"Zeus, did Hermes's report mention anything about Freya and Loki?"
A conflicted look filled Zeus's face, but considering the situation, he couldn't hide it.
"Hermes did mention the two of them."
"Freya's situation is pretty much exactly what that brat suspected. To approach him, she's already openly aligned herself with Ouranos's side."
"!?"
Hera couldn't help but gape. She turned to look at the projection showing half of Bell's face.
"Hestia falling was still within what I can accept… but even Freya, that calculating woman, fell?"
Hera had always believed that woman would never find the "fated one" she talked about. Yet Freya had found him—and that "fated one" turned out to be Bell, the child she herself had watched grow up.
That had to be fate.
Knowing this, Hera felt a bit less worried about Bell.
"Since Freya has already moved, her attention toward Bell is definitely more than just 'a little.' She probably even knew what he was doing today."
"As for Loki, that flat-brained goddess isn't as slow as Hestia. She must've known about Bell's blatantly suspicious actions long ago."
"If she jumped in, it's because his actions benefited her."
"Thinking about it that way, Bell shouldn't be in too much danger."
Following that line of thought, Hera suddenly realized something—and it was serious.
"Zeus, this whole expedition was clearly planned by Bell. Doesn't he know how inappropriate it is to be talking this much here? And he deliberately separated himself from Hestia Familia… as if he knew gods would be watching."
"!?"
Zeus finally snapped awake. Remembering Bell's deliberate attempt to distance his identity from Hestia Familia, it suddenly made sense—this entire operation had probably been designed long before.
"If all of this was prearranged, then that brat really calculated every single one of us."
Ouranos was surely the mastermind, and Hermes the executor.
Which meant that from the very beginning, Bell had known the gods would be watching the entire strategy unfold. Every single thing he said was meant to be heard.
Wasn't he dragging Ouranos into his calculations too?
His courage was terrifying.
Even Zeus couldn't help but draw a sharp breath—this was far more dangerous than scheming against two goddesses.
'You little brat, didn't you say you were careful and cautious? Then why are all your actions this insane?'
Even Zeus couldn't stop himself from grumbling inwardly.
"I see."
Ais nodded, the pieces finally falling into place. She had already suspected something before.
That incident had been incredibly dangerous, yet afterward she couldn't shake the feeling that everything had gone too smoothly…
Riveria, Finn, and Gareth hadn't said anything—maybe they hadn't even realized it—but Ais had felt from the start that something wasn't right.
"No wonder the Spirit on the 59th Floor went so smoothly."
Yes. Much too smoothly.
Ais had fought a Floor Boss before. Udaeus had cost her both a hand and a foot before she managed to bring it down.
Yet against the Spirit, not a single person died on Floor 59. That simply didn't make sense.
Because Ais knew: even weakened, the Spirit shouldn't have dropped below an Lv.8 presence—yet it hadn't managed to kill anyone.
Bell lifted his shoulders in a helpless shrug.
"Well, before you all headed for Floor 59, he and I did a bit of preparation."
"Before the Spirit fully hatched, I started slicing pieces off its soul. Because of that, it doesn't dare face me directly. It's terrified I'll take action against the soul he projects."
Bell laughed at the memory.
"Honestly, back then I didn't even have the power to completely sever its soul. I just gave it a little scare, and it panicked so much that it tore its own soul apart."
"Even now, that guy's soul still hasn't fully recovered. That's why it doesn't dare appear in front of me."
He forced himself to rein in his smile—no point getting carried away.
Even if the Spirit didn't dare show itself, that was actually a good thing. It was one of the stepping stones Bell had prepared for his own advancement, and it was still too early for it to appear again.
"Of course, once the Spirit escaped, I didn't control its body. I let it act completely on instinct."
"So don't doubt the effort your group put in. Defeating the Spirit was entirely due to your own trump cards and hard work. I didn't interfere with that part at all."
...
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