— — — — — —
Not seeing Mount Olympus for a while?
The moment Ryo heard that, he froze.
"She went that far? The Greek pantheon's base got wiped out?"
"Only the lower-level base," Shiroyasha corrected. Then she added, "And it wasn't exactly destroyed. It got ripped out and taken away. The entire Outer Gate where Greece was stationed, along with over a hundred million square kilometers connected to Mount Olympus, was dug up and hauled off. There's not even dirt left. That place is basically magma now."
Ryo sucked in a sharp breath.
He'd figured Algol might've stormed the gates and blown Olympus apart. But he hadn't expected her to pack up the whole damn headquarters and carry it off.
That was brutal.
'…I kind of like it.'
He clenched a fist to himself.
Then he quickly asked, "What about the Twelve Olympians? How many died?"
Seeing the obvious anticipation on his face, Shiroyasha rolled her eyes. "What do you mean, how many died? Are you hoping they all got wiped out?"
She grumbled for a moment, then muttered under her breath, "Though... some of them did get hit pretty hard."
At that point, there was no point hiding it.
"Greece got hit badly this time. The Light God Apollo, who was stationed in the lower layers, was gravely wounded and nearly died. He's still being treated."
"Artemis got off easier, but a few of her divine authority artifacts were stolen. And apparently someone wrote ugly woman across that cold little face of hers. Worse, it can't be removed."
Ryo almost spat out his tea.
That was absolutely Algol's style.
"As for Ares, he vanished completely. Nobody knows where he is, but he's probably alive. Most likely ran off somewhere. That little brat's always been good at escaping."
"And Hermes..." Shiroyasha paused, trying not to laugh. "This is honestly the first time I've seen Algol take revenge for someone else. For you, no less."
Ryo blinked, "Hermes died?"
Shiroyasha nodded. "Yeah, he killed himself."
Ryo stared.
Shiroyasha then explained, "The reports say Algol seemed to be planning to humiliate him. Nobody knows what exactly she did, but Hermes suddenly committed suicide. Right now he's probably in the middle of forced resurrection through the weight of history."
"Lucky bastard." Ryo clicked his tongue.
The most annoying thing about the gods of Little Garden was that absurd resurrection system. Even now, he still hadn't figured out a cheap way to bypass it.
Still, forcing Hermes into suicide... that made Ryo pretty sure Algol had used the power of Cleansing.
Nothing less would've driven him into that kind of despair.
Seeing his reaction, Shiroyasha couldn't help shedding a few crocodile tears for Hermes. "I really don't know if it's a good thing that you two petty revenge monsters ended up together."
"But whatever. Not my headache."
"So..." Ryo tapped the table lightly. "That's all Greece lost? What about Athena?
"She... she wasn't at Mount Olympus." Even Shiroyasha had to admit Athena was lucky.
"That woman's always impossible to track. Slippery as a rabbit. She's probably hiding in some other pantheon right now. The unlucky ones were the ones still on Olympus when it happened. And since Zeus got forced into the upper layers by you recently, most of the important ones had already moved up there."
Ryo frowned. "So Algol went after him in the upper layers, then?"
Shiroyasha glanced at him and nodded. "Pretty much. But it seems she ran into that one from the Buddhist faction halfway there."
Ryo's brows furrowed. "Oh, so they really fought."
"You're not surprised," Shiroyasha said, smiling strangely. The fact that Ryo was this calm about Algol fighting Shakyamuni Buddha told her plenty.
He clearly knew more than he was saying.
"A three-digit rule-breaker, huh?" she said with a snort. "That narcissistic idiot suffered for ages, and now she finally latched onto you. Guess her luck's turned around."
"I'm hardly some big support," Ryo said.
He really wasn't.
If anything, Algol was the real powerhouse now. He was just the guy occasionally caught between her legs.
"Quit pretending," Shiroyasha said, rolling her eyes. "Without you, she wouldn't have found that path in another thousand years."
She knew exactly what kind of mess Algol was.
Of the three great Problem Children in Little Garden, Algol had always been the most hopeless.
Her guts were sky-high.
Her actual strength? Not so much.
She'd challenged the Buddha. Made enemies of the Cross. And even ended up falling out with Greece, the same people who'd once given her shelter.
A walking disaster. And one who never knew when to shut up.
If she hadn't been locked up for so long, then later rescued by Ryo and calmed down a little, neither Shiroyasha nor Athena would've believed she could ever be controlled.
With the current state of things, that was the only reason she'd been allowed back into the world. Otherwise, she'd still be rotting in prison.
Hearing all that, Ryo looked away and pretended not to hear.
There was no way he'd ever admit out loud that he'd helped Algol ascend.
That wasn't the kind of thing you said openly.
At that point, Shiroyasha dropped the teasing. She leaned forward and asked seriously, "Boss sent me to ask you one thing."
Her eyes sharpened. "How much influence do you really have over Algol? This matters. I'm really hoping you can give us a pleasant surprise."
A deranged three-digit rule-breaker was not something anyone wanted.
Even if the Twin Goddesses wanted Little Garden's human history to keep moving forward, they didn't want a ticking bomb that could blow up the entire place.
What they needed to know was simple: Would Algol stay under control?
Ryo hesitated.
He understood their concern. Back in the day, even Shiroyasha herself had been taken down by the Twin Goddesses.
In those days, Shiroyasha had practically represented invincibility. And yet the Twin Goddesses had brought her down and turned her into the harmless-looking Shiroyasha sitting here now.
That alone said enough about how terrifying they were.
Thinking it over, Ryo went quiet.
After a while, he said awkwardly, "…Honestly, I'm not sure how to explain it. But it seems like Algol wants to have a child with me."
Shiroyasha's mouth slowly dropped open.
And kept dropping.
Wide enough that she looked like she could swallow the whole teapot in one bite.
.
.
.