"..."
Silence.
After hearing Shiro's words, Freya did not immediately argue back.
Her brows knitted tightly as she sat there in a daze.
At the same time, a suffocating pressure began spreading from her body.
The surrounding air seemed to solidify. Tables and chairs throughout the tavern trembled faintly, and even Wiene, still hiding behind the counter, noticed the sudden change in atmosphere and instinctively held her breath while peeking cautiously in their direction.
Freya had always believed no one could understand how she felt.
Of course, no one in the world could truly claim to understand another person with absolute certainty.
But the same event could also look completely different depending on the person observing it.
Freya had acted according to Idun's advice, yet somewhere along the way, she had inevitably twisted that advice into something more convenient for herself.
Freya was not stupid.
She simply never discussed these things with anyone.
In fact, had she not lost the War Game and become Shiro's subordinate goddess, she probably would never have spoken to him about any of it.
So when Shiro told her that she had never truly escaped the yoke of the Goddess of Beauty, Freya understood exactly what he meant almost immediately.
If what she sought was a form of "true love" unrelated to beauty...
Then she should not be judging whether someone possessed that love by looking at the beauty of their soul.
And precisely because Freya understood that point, her thoughts fell into chaos.
In The Truman Show, the protagonist gradually realizes that everything around him is false after encountering his supposedly dead father.
He discovers that he has spent his entire life trapped inside a lie created by other people.
So he chooses to escape.
And in the end, he succeeds in leaving the world built from those lies.
But what if, after the ending of the film, someone broke through the fourth wall and told him that he was merely a character inside a movie?
What if the "reality" he believed he had finally reached was itself another falsehood?
What if everything he had done amounted to nothing more than escaping one cage only to enter another?
Even the thought that first appeared in his mind when he discovered the truth, the desire to escape from the lie, and the truth itself...
What if all of it had been controlled by someone else from the beginning?
How would he feel then?
At this moment, Freya could probably understand him better than anyone.
"Ishtar will probably launch a surprise attack on your Familia within the next couple of days."
Seeing Freya sink into an internal struggle, Shiro chose not to push her any further.
He had never expected a few sentences to overturn beliefs Freya had carried for years.
If changing her were that easy, she would never have become the person she was today.
There would be plenty of time for that later.
For now, Ishtar was the more urgent problem.
"...I understand."
Freya was still a god.
In the span of a single blink, she adjusted her condition and withdrew the Divine Aura leaking from her body.
At first glance, she looked almost identical to when she arrived today.
As for what was actually happening inside her...
Only Freya herself knew.
'Still... Ishtar would make a pretty good punching bag.'
Within her heart, Freya silently handed Ishtar a death sentence.
"I heard from Loki that when Ais and the others were blocked by Ishtar Familia in the port town of Melen, Ishtar's side used some special magic."
Shiro gave her a warning.
"Apparently, it temporarily raised Phryne's combat ability to around Level 6."
Phryne was the captain of Ishtar Familia, a Level 5 Battle Prostitute.
Under normal circumstances, her combat ability was far below Ais, who had already reached Level 6 several weeks earlier.
But according to Loki, Ishtar Familia had applied some kind of enhancement spell during the battle.
Afterward, Phryne had actually begun showing signs of suppressing Ais.
In other words, under the worst possible scenario, Freya Familia might be facing an Ishtar Familia whose members could temporarily fight one level above their actual status.
"That can't be all."
Freya extended one hand and traced three circles across the tabletop with her fingertip.
"Without a third faction interfering, Ishtar wouldn't recklessly attack me no matter how much she hates me."
"She knows I'd destroy her."
Freya glanced toward Shiro.
"So is the third party Ganesha?"
"I wish it were."
Shiro shook his head.
"But this probably has nothing to do with him."
"Then Evilus."
"Other than people who have been hiding all this time, with no one knowing how much combat power they actually possess, who else would dare try filling a Level 7 gap?"
Even if Ishtar Familia could temporarily raise every member by one level, they still would not be a match for Freya Familia.
Their high-end combat power was simply on completely different scales.
At absolute best, Ishtar Familia might temporarily field one Level 6 supported by a group of Level 5s.
Freya Familia, on the other hand, already possessed three Level 6 adventurers.
And above them stood Ottar, a Level 7.
That was not a difference two or three Level 5 adventurers could compensate for.
The reason Freya had considered Ganesha Familia was precisely because Ganesha possessed more than ten Level 5 adventurers.
They might not defeat Ottar, but at least they could potentially keep him occupied.
If Ishtar truly intended to seize this opportunity and drag Freya from the stage, then she absolutely had some kind of hidden support.
Reaching the same conclusion, the two sitting at opposite ends of the table sighed at the same time.
"We got played."
"We did."
Shiro leaned back.
"Why does Ishtar think Evilus would lend her combat power capable of matching a Level 7 instead of keeping it for themselves?"
"If they can afford to lend something like that out, it means they still have even more strength in reserve."
"And if they possess that much power, why have they spent all these years hiding underground?"
"They could've just used it and tried to rule Orario directly."
"The jealousy of gods is more frightening than you think."
Freya gave a helpless sigh.
"Once you become accustomed to standing above everyone in Heaven, it becomes surprisingly easy to overlook small details that would normally be obvious."
"So Evilus lending Ishtar that combat force is probably meant to test it during her attack."
Shiro rubbed his chin.
"Or maybe they plan to do something else in the shadows while using Ishtar to draw everyone's attention."
He clicked his tongue.
"Tch. The more I think about it, the more it seems like Ishtar is screwed no matter what happens."
Shiro paused.
Then another memory surfaced.
"Wait."
"I just remembered something."
"Hermes mentioned during that meeting with Loki that he planned to probe Ishtar sometime in the next few days."
Freya's expression became subtle.
"...With Ishtar's personality, she probably won't be able to hide this from him."
She sighed.
"I only hope Hermes doesn't decide to do anything unnecessary this time."
"If we want to make absolutely sure nothing goes wrong, then we should prepare in advance."
Shiro began counting through the parties involved.
"If Hermes knows, then Dionysus, who's currently allied with him in this matter, can probably be considered informed as well."
"Besides that, Hermes and the Guild have apparently been discussing something lately."
"And Ganesha Familia has some strange connections with the Guild too."
"So if we calculate everything..."
Halfway through the sentence, Shiro suddenly stopped.
His expression slowly became strange.
Evilus was using Ishtar.
Among all the Familias in Orario that might become involved in this incident...
It seemed the only person who still had no idea was Ishtar herself.
…