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Arcadia Headquarters—
Holding a cup of black tea in one hand and a report in the other, Ryo looked over the document. "So there are only two Four-Digit members..."
"Yes." Standing beside him with an armful of thick files, Jin Russell nodded nervously. "Other than Ophis and Great Red, everyone else's Spirit Rank seems to be around the Five-Digit level."
"Usagi-neesan said it looks like some kind of force is offsetting their achievements, which is why they ended up like this."
"I figured as much."
Ryo calmly continued reading.
Algol had already used her power to prevent the prisoners from the High School DxD from being absorbed by their counterparts in Little Garden.
That had always been part of the plan.
The same protection had also been placed on the angels and fallen angels who had willingly joined Arcadia.
Of course, the effect could gradually be lifted later, delaying the chance that the Cross Pantheon would notice anything unusual.
Assuming everything went smoothly, Arcadia would probably gain another dozen or so Four-Digit members over the next few years.
Then, when a divine war broke out, they could reveal them to the world as the community's public faces.
That was why Ryo remained perfectly calm.
Unfortunately, Jin mistook that calmness for disappointment.
"Um... Ryo-niisan..." Jin clutched the files tighter. "Even if there aren't many Four-Digits, we've got a lot of Five-Digits now. Usagi-neesan said that if everyone being held in the basement joins the community, we'd have close to a hundred Five-Digit members. That would already put us at around one-tenth of Arcadia's peak strength."
"And if you only count headquarters, without the allied communities, we'd already be back to a third of our former size. Getting this far in less than a year is already incredible."
"One-tenth of Arcadia's peak..." The corner of Ryo's mouth twitched.
Arcadia's "peak" really was an absurd benchmark.
Counting the allied communities, they had once possessed over a thousand Five-Digit members and nearly a hundred Four-Digit executives.
'Kid... you really didn't have to put actual numbers on it.'
He shot Jin a sideways glance before setting the report aside, rubbing his temples, and taking a sip of tea.
Only after putting the cup down did he notice Jin's nervous expression.
"Hm?" Ryo blinked. "What's with that face?"
"Well..."
Jin hugged the files awkwardly. "Usagi-neesan asked me to ask you... whether the people in the basement can officially be invited into the community."
Ryo narrowed his eyes, amusement creeping into his expression, "If it's something that important, why didn't she come herself?"
"Because... well..." Jin immediately started stammering.
There was no way he could admit that he'd asked the same question himself, only for Kurousagi's face to darken so much that he hadn't dared bring it up again.
'Did Ryo-nii make Usagi-nee angry? How am I supposed to help them make up...?
Seeing Jin tying himself into knots, Ryo chuckled and reached over to ruffle his hair. "Relax. Don't overthink it. I'll explain everything to Kurousagi myself. You don't need to worry about that. Instead... have you arranged housing for our new companions?"
"Yes!"
Jin immediately pulled another stack of documents from his coat and placed them on the table. "Usagi-neesan bought temporary housing from Thousand Eyes yesterday."
"It's on the eastern side of headquarters, out on the grasslands behind us. She had a small town built there. All the expenses are listed in this report."
Ryo picked up the paperwork and went straight to the final page.
Seeing the total, well over ten million gold coins, he simply nodded and signed his name without batting an eye.
Only after signing did he sigh, "It's kind of scary. At some point I stopped reacting to spending ten million."
Not that long ago, he'd gone to the gambling district just to scam eight hundred gold coins from some third-rate community because he was broke.
What had they been called? Great White Shark? Megalodon?
Shaking his head, Ryo handed the report back. "From now on, don't bring me expenses this small. Let Kurousagi handle them."
Given Kurousagi's character, embezzling community funds was the last thing she'd ever do.
If anything, Ryo was more worried that she'd be too frugal.
She'd spent more than half a year struggling to support two hundred children all by herself.
Being careful with money had become second nature.
Ryo himself had once been one of the people Kurousagi looked after. In fact, he had probably cost her more than a dozen children combined.
After all, he was still recovering from his injuries back then and required expensive medicine.
"Understood." Jin nodded. "Then I'll let Usagi-nee know."
"Go ahead." Ryo waved him off.
Once Jin left, he turned toward the sofa beside him.
Algol was lying there with a facial mask on.
"You're part of the community too. You don't really need to keep hiding from Jin and the others."
"Tch." Without even looking at him, Algol calmly placed a few cucumber slices over the face mask. "You think I care about this little community? If you hadn't insisted on staying its leader, I'd have gone back to being the Demon Progenitor already."
Ryo gave her a helpless look. "You say that like you haven't already started calling your old followers back."
Even after being sealed away for so many years, plenty of Algol's former demon subordinates still remained throughout Little Garden's lower layers.
Now they were steadily gathering in the South Area.
Clearly, she was already rebuilding her faction.
"Calling back my old followers isn't the same thing as returning as the Progenitor." Algol rolled her eyes.
After a pause, she added, "Besides, what's the point if you're not coming with me?"
"Hm?" Ryo raised an eyebrow.
Algol froze for a split second, apparently realizing how that had sounded.
She hurriedly corrected herself. "I mean... isn't that Hōgyoku basically part of you? It's not like you can just take it out yourself, right? If I went back on my own, how would I keep up my beauty treatments?"
Hearing her perfectly serious excuse, Ryo couldn't help laughing. "Well... as long as you're happy."
"Hmph." Algol snorted.
Then her expression suddenly changed.
She frowned and looked toward the east.
"Well, well. The fat sheep is almost here."
"The fat sheep?" Ryo blinked.
His expression immediately became rather strange.
The next instant, Algol vanished without a trace. Only her voice lingered in the room, "Don't tell him I'm here. I'll stay hidden and test him a little."
Ryo made no attempt to stop her.
Instead, he silently counted to ten.
Exactly ten seconds later...
Knock. Knock.
A smile spread across his face.
"Come in."
.
.
.