— — — — — —
"Wow. In a few days, if Arcadia starts issuing its coins, they'll probably be snatched up instantly."
Shiroyasha did a quick calculation in her head. If she remembered correctly, Kurousagi still owed her quite a bit of money.
If that debt were repaid in Arcadia's new coins… she'd make a killing.
Back when the old Arcadia was rising, Indra, Queen Halloween, and Sun Wukong had all invested in it and earned enormous returns. Shiroyasha had been extremely jealous at the time, kicking herself for not spotting the potential early enough.
But now?
Now she, Lady Shiroyasha, was Arcadia's only investor.
Even Indra couldn't compete with her!
With Ryo alone as her investment, the profit she stood to gain would probably surpass everything Halloween had earned over the past few thousand years.
This was a straight-up slap in the face.
And not just anyone's face. It would be slapping an old rival's.
Shiroyasha could already imagine Queen Halloween's expression when the time came.
"Maybe so," Ryo said, shaking his head slightly. He sipped his juice through a straw while talking. "But before that, we need to lay a solid foundation and prepare for the Divine War Gift Game."
"Games like that, where it's pure combat, are perfect for training fighters. I don't want to hand all those opportunities to the allies who show up to help."
Ryo hadn't cared much about money before. But now that he needed more Limit-Authorities, he hoped Arcadia would grow strong enough to help him gather the resources necessary for becoming stronger.
Right now, though, Arcadia was still in its investment phase. They had enough powerful individuals on paper, but only a handful were truly ready to be deployed.
Most of the strong fighters Ryo had recruited still needed time to adapt.
And a Divine War, the kind of war game fought between major pantheons, was the perfect environment for capable newcomers to grow rapidly.
As for who would actually take part in the battles, Ryo already had some ideas.
But he still needed the approval of the people in the community. After all, many of them were close friends, and some were women he shared... rather complicated relationships with.
Charging ahead without discussion wasn't an option.
"That makes sense," Shiroyasha said, nodding.
Then she tilted her head and added casually, "By the way, Ryo, if possible, why not send my subordinate god to join the battle too?"
'You're really a wonderful superior to Shirayuki,' Ryo thought dryly, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Divine Wars were typically fought with ordinary Four-Digit beings as generals and Five-Digit fighters as soldiers.
And if he counted carefully, the weakest Five-Digit member in Arcadia right now was Shirayuki-hime.
Great.
That was basically sending her straight to the Greek pantheon as a punching bag.
But faced with a suggestion that could easily lead to tragedy, Ryo simply shrugged.
"If you're okay with it, I have no problem."
The one suffering would be Shirayuki, not him. And besides, this was Shiroyasha's decision. What did it have to do with Ryo?
If Shirayuki, a water sub-dragon, got beaten up badly enough to cry blood and tears, that would actually be a nice source of income.
Dragon blood and dragon tears were really incredibly valuable.
So no matter how he looked at it, Ryo wasn't losing anything.
"We're here."
Shiroyasha, who had been walking ahead, spoke up quietly.
Ryo stopped and looked at the towering municipal center in front of them. On the massive television wall outside, the current progress of the Gift Game was still being broadcast.
The corner of his lips lifted slightly.
"The Bleach Game is still going on?"
The Gift Game called "Bleach", the one Arcadia had organized to advance to Five-Digit rank.
It had only started two days ago, but Ryo felt like far more time had passed.
After all, in those two days he had hunted members of Ouroboros, dealt with surprise attacks from Ares and Hermes, visited the Strike the Blood world for observation, and finally gone through the battle on Mount Olympus.
Thinking about everything that had happened, Ryo suddenly felt like taking a full week off just to sleep.
At that moment, having received word of Ryo's return, a figure rushed out of the community building.
"Ehehe~~!"
The moment Shiroyasha saw Kurousagi sprinting toward them, she immediately stepped in front of Ryo and spread her arms.
"Well now! How did you know we were back? Did you miss—ugh!"
Kurousagi charged forward like a battering ram.
With both hands braced in front of her, she shoved her head straight into Shiroyasha's forehead and slammed her body right into Ryo.
"Ahh!"
Shiroyasha, sandwiched in the middle like the filling of a pancake, let out a tragic scream.
Ryo looked at Kurousagi, who had wrapped her arms tightly around him, and laughed softly.
"I'm back, aren't I?"
Kurousagi didn't answer.
She simply held him tighter.
And tighter.
"Gaa—!"
Caught between the two of them, Shiroyasha felt herself being crushed into paste.
For the first time in her life, she developed a deep fear of girls' hugs.
"I take it back! I don't want hugs anymore! I swear I won't try to take advantage again! Ugh—!"
"Let me go already!!"
---
Arcadia Headquarters
As the Bleach Gift Game approached its final stage, many Arcadia members were not out maintaining order as expected.
Instead, they had gathered here.
Among them were Athena, Lancelot, and others from the Campione world.
There were also weaker women brought from the Bleach world, such as Retsu Unohana and Orihime Inoue.
And seated among them as observers were two newcomers from the Strike the Blood world: the Second Primogenitor, Aswad Guul Aziz, and the Third Primogenitor, Giada Kukulcan.
The two of them were studying documents about Little Garden while quietly attending the meeting.
"A Divine War…" Leticia sighed with a wry smile from her seat.
"And against the Greek pantheon, no less. That really is…"
Even at its peak, the old Arcadia had never been able to wage war against Greece.
Their overall strength had been impressive, but Greece's top-tier fighters were simply too terrifying. Even if Arcadia's mid-level forces had been stronger, the gap at the very top was enormous.
Even though Arcadia had once led the war against the Evil Dragon and defeated the three-headed demon lord Azi Dahaka.
But without counting Azi Dahaka's Another Cosmology and Conceptual Immortality, his actual combat power was roughly equivalent to Olympus's Big Three: the Sky King, the Underworld King, and the Sea King.
That was the terror of a single god-king-level powerhouse.
It was also the main reason beings like that were bound by the Alliance of Gods to remain in the upper layers.
...
"Lady Leticia, does it really matter?" the young Athena asked calmly.
Lately, Athena had returned to her loli appearance, as she had grown completely used to it for most of her life in the Campione world.
"Overall, the situation is actually favorable for us."
"Maybe overall," Kurousagi replied cautiously, "but the danger is still there…"
For Kurousagi, every member of Arcadia was precious. Losing even one would break her heart.
Participating in a Gift Game on the scale of a Divine War frightened her.
It was true that after the early chaotic era, Divine Wars had changed. They were no longer wars of extermination between pantheons.
Now they were controlled conflicts fought in the lower layers. A form of combat game meant to restrain casualties.
But even so, the number of people who ended up crippled was often far higher than those who walked away unharmed.
Just because killing was restricted didn't mean underhanded tactics were forbidden.
Major pantheons even had specialized gods whose job was to break opponents mentally without causing fatal damage.
It had practically become an industry.
And the current members of Arcadia were all prodigies who had risen from the lower worlds.
Kurousagi didn't want any of them destroyed by those professional tormentors.
But faced with her concerns, Athena only replied calmly, "Don't worry."
"There are people on the Greek side… who belong to me."
The room fell silent.
Everyone's expressions turned extremely strange.
.
.
.