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Arcadia City, Municipal Center, the plaza in front of the main doors
This was the very heart of the city's commercial district.
Because of business considerations and restrictions left behind by the previous regional ruler, all the buildings here were only five or six stories tall, with the land leased out to various commercial alliances.
And right now, every restaurant, shop, and hotel around the plaza was packed to the brim.
People who hadn't joined the competition, or who had just been eliminated from the game field, flooded into the surrounding stores.
Even when prices were jacked up by tens of times overnight, it did nothing to slow their "enthusiasm."
Before long, anywhere with a clear view of the center of the plaza was crammed with dense clusters of "customers," turning the entire street into a buzzing carnival.
They all pretended to be chatting casually, leaning in close as if deep in conversation, yet every so often their eyes would drift toward the plaza, brimming with curiosity.
More precisely, they were staring at Ryo and Asura resting on a park bench, and at the two "corpses" lying on the ground nearby.
...
Inside a dim hotel with its curtains drawn tight, hushed whispers fluttered like mosquitoes:
"Is that the real one?"
"I don't think so."
"B-But he looks way too similar. That face is exactly like the statue I saw last time."
"Don't tell me the leader of Arcadia really made a move on those two from Greece?"
"Come on. Even Arcadia at its peak wouldn't do that."
"Then explain what's lying on the ground."
"…"
Those low murmurs naturally didn't escape the ears of the four people in the center of the plaza.
The instigator, Ryo Yagami, merely swept his gaze around once and said nothing.
Asura, who had been dragged here by Ryo as part of the plan, muttered irritably, "So noisy. Leader of Arcadia, are you sure this will actually make Indra show himself?"
"Just call me Ryo," Ryo replied, then explained calmly, "Whether it's Ares and Hermes breaking the rules by barging into my Gift Game, or the earlier attack I launched that exceeded Little Garden's central regulations, the Heavenly Army has every reason to send someone over for a routine investigation."
Asura's face went blank at that.
Seeing her expression, Ryo paused. Looking at this woman who technically counted as Kurousagi's grandmother generation, he added, "Indra himself might not come. But whether he moves or not, and who he sends if he doesn't, all of that is a signal. At the very least, it lets you figure out his current stance."
"Ohhh," Asura nodded with sudden understanding, and then her eyes promptly lost focus again.
Ryo had no idea what she had actually understood, but the situation was unfolding exactly as he'd hoped. So he stopped paying attention to Asura and quietly waited for Leticia and the others to arrive.
Meanwhile, Ares and Hermes lay on the ground, bound hand and foot with black ropes, stretched out flat. They were having a covert exchange.
Ares sneered, "Look at you, Hermes. What are you being such a coward for? It's just being put on display."
"Hmph! You're actually playing dead. Are you even a man?"
Hermes, already weak, heard that and nearly exploded with anger. He cracked his eyes open slightly, shot Ares a glare, and snapped, "Whether I'm a man or not, Aphrodite knows."
Ares fell silent instantly.
In Hermes' blurred vision, Ares' expression turned absolutely awful.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, ranked among the Twelve Olympians just like Ares.
She was the wife of Hephaestus but also Ares' lover. And, of course, Hermes' lover as well.
On the surface, it looked like everyone was evenly matched, with only Hephaestus suffering. But Aphrodite had insisted more than once that what she shared with Ares was true love.
Which made things awkward.
At the very least, Hermes sleeping with Aphrodite enraged Ares far more than it did poor Hephaestus.
'Heh. That shallow brute actually believed in her true love lie,' Hermes sneered inwardly.
Just then, Ares spoke again in a strangely calm voice, "Hermes, since you've treated me like this, I won't hold back either."
"Didn't you find yourself a little lover down in the lower layers last time? Didn't she give birth to three kids for you?"
Hermes' face turned white. A horrifying possibility flashed through his mind.
"I regret to inform you," Ares continued leisurely, "the second son is mine."
Hermes' eyes flew open. He stopped pretending altogether and shouted, "You're lying! I checked their bloodlines myself! She's a fox demon. There's no way she could fool me!"
Ares stopped pretending too. Ignoring the shocked looks from Ryo and Asura, he chuckled. "I asked Apate, the goddess of deceit, to help. Used her authority to hide it from you. Surprised?"
"How is that possible…" Hermes' face drained of all color.
Anyone who found out that the child born to their secret lover wasn't theirs would probably react no better than Hermes.
"She betrayed me. She actually betrayed me. No… there are still two. At least two of them are mine…"
Watching Hermes mutter in a daze, Ares let out a scornful laugh. "True, the other two aren't mine. But do you really think your eldest son is yours?"
Hermes' expression twisted in shock. "Zeus?!"
"No, not him." Ares curled his lip.
Hermes finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Ares grinned viciously. "The third child, your daughter, that one's Zeus'. Your eldest son belongs to Poseidon."
All the color drained from Hermes' face.
Still not satisfied, Ares added gleefully, "Honestly, he forced himself on your little lover. You know how Poseidon likes that kind of thing."
"After that, when I went to have some fun, she didn't resist anymore. In the end, Zeus found out and wanted a turn too. He had a nice long talk with your lover."
"And she agreed."
Hearing those words, Hermes' already badly damaged divinity finally collapsed. He suddenly spat out several mouthfuls of golden blood and passed out.
"Oh? That's all it took?" Ares sounded genuinely surprised, then started cursing, "What weak mental fortitude. And trash like you gets to stand alongside me as one of the Twelve Olympians? Pah."
He spat, then lifted his head and noticed Ryo staring at him. Unable to keep his mouth shut, he sneered, "What are you looking at? Never seen NTR before? With that face of yours, you're Japanese, right? Don't you know men share wives without being polite about it? Sharing is caring."
Ryo raised an eyebrow, clearly annoyed by the rape part. But before he could say anything, Asura grabbed his arm. "Forget it. He's not worth getting angry over. It'd just be embarrassing."
Ryo thought about it, then shot Hermes an odd look. After confirming he wasn't dead, he lifted his head and looked toward the doors of the municipal center.
Leticia, having received the news, was already dragging Kurousagi with her, rushing toward the entrance at full speed. She met his gaze just as she arrived.
.
.
.