— — — — — —
"Come in."
As soon as Ryo said that, the door swung open.
Indra walked in wearing a baseball cap, a face mask, oversized sunglasses, and a trench coat with the hood pulled up.
He was dressed with more paranoia than a celebrity trying to dodge paparazzi.
The moment he stepped inside, he demanded, "Brat, what the hell's going on? I asked Kurousagi to bring me in to see you, and she flat-out refused!"
Ryo answered calmly, "Nothing much. I just made the kind of mistake Indra would make."
Indra's eyes widened. "You slept with one of Zeus's mistresses too? Which one was it? The curvy one, or the short one with the big boobs?"
"..."
Ryo fell silent.
After a moment, he looked at Indra with genuine admiration.
"My apologies. I underestimated you." The corner of his mouth twitched as he continued, "I just meant Kurousagi found out about my relationships with several women in the community."
"That is strange." Indra frowned. "But Leticia went to the Divine War front, didn't she? How did Kurousagi find out?"
Ryo stared at him.
'...Wait. How do YOU know about me and Leticia?'
Seeing that expression, Indra casually slipped off his sunglasses and mask, a smug grin spreading across his face. "You seriously thought you could hide it? You two are complete rookies. The way you look at each other is enough to keep Mata busy gossiping for the next eight nights."
"Kurousagi's still young, so she didn't notice. If it'd been me, I'd have broken your legs several times over already."
Ryo sighed and immediately changed the subject. "So you came all this way just to gossip?"
"I wish..." Indra let out a long sigh as he walked toward him.
Then, without warning, he lifted a leg and kicked straight at Ryo.
"You little brat! So it really was you screwing me over!"
Boom!
The sofa exploded beneath the kick. Its stuffing burst into the air like a wave.
Meanwhile, Ryo's figure faded away from where he'd been sitting until it vanished completely.
Indra wasn't surprised.
He turned toward the opposite side of the U-shaped sofa. There sat Ryo, calmly crossing one leg over the other.
"You set me up, and then you made my great-granddaughter cry. One kick's fair, don't you think?"
"Yeah... as long as it doesn't land." Ryo casually switched which leg was crossed. "Though... are your wounds alright?"
Indra's blood pressure, which had only just gone down, shot straight back into orbit. "You've got the nerve to ask that? If Asura wants to go crazy, that's one thing. But why the hell were you helping her?"
Ryo answered with complete seriousness, "My apologies, Father-in-law. Your daughter is simply too beautiful."
The instant he finished speaking, he tilted his head aside.
A spear whistled past his face.
Thunk!
It buried itself deep in the wall, the wooden shaft vibrating violently.
Ryo glanced at the spear before looking back at Indra, whose smile had become unnervingly gentle.
"I'll overlook Kurousagi. But Asura is off limits." His smile remained warm and friendly. "Clear?"
"Crystal." Ryo nodded quickly.
Only then did Indra's smile disappear. "I can tolerate my idiot granddaughter. But my idiot daughter? You still had the nerve to flirt with her?"
Ryo answered with a straight face. "My apologies. I may have caught Indra's disease."
"In that case, your target shouldn't be Asura. It should be her mother..."
Indra stopped.
Something felt very wrong.
Two seconds later, he opened his mouth and uttered only one word, "...Damn."
Ryo immediately raised both hands. "You're the one who said it; you can't blame me."
"Get lost." Still grumbling, Indra restored the shattered sofa with a wave of his hand before sitting down and crossing his legs. "Now then. You had something to do with Algol's little operation, didn't you?"
"I've heard about it." Ryo lied without changing expression.
"Only... heard about it?" Indra eyed him suspiciously.
After a moment, he sighed, "Fine. Let's pretend that's all you know."
"Anyway, if you've heard about it, then you must also know about... thatIndra." Just saying the name made him grit his teeth. "You people really outdid yourselves. You actually observed that world. Were you trying to make my life miserable on purpose?"
"Um..." Ryo looked puzzled. "I don't follow. Who exactly is this 'Indra' you're talking about?"
"..."
Indra's lips twitched.
"Fine. I'll pretend you know nothing."
He fell silent for a moment before speaking again. "So. Name your price. That disaster of an Indra. How much are you planning to sell him for? Give me a fair number. And don't go easy on me just because I'm Kurousagi's great-grandfather."
Ryo couldn't resist. "Great-grandfathers don't get discounts. Fathers-in-law get ten percent off."
Indra glared at him. "Enough joking. I'm not in the mood today."
"Alright. I'll stop messing with you." Ryo leaned back into the sofa, then continued, "So. What are you planning to do with that Indra?"
"What else?" Indra rolled his eyes. "I'll let Shaka erase his existence."
Indra deliberately used the shortened name, "Shaka". After all, speaking the Buddha's true name was an invitation for unwanted attention.
Ryo immediately asked, "And then? Do you really think someone like him would believe your sincerity after just that? You expect him to believe you just happened to go down to the lower layers and find that troublesome Indra so quickly and so easily?"
"..."
"What are you getting at?" Indra frowned. "What scheme are you cooking up this time?"
"'Scheme' makes it sound so underhanded." Ryo smiled leisurely. "Let's call it careful planning."
The smile faded as he looked at Indra in earnest. "I'll get straight to the point. I'm planning to send that Indra to the biggest black-market auction in Little Garden. The kind that gets advertised everywhere."
"Wait... are you telling me I have to attend a black-market auction, spend an obscene amount of money bidding on the other Indra just to make it convincing..."
"Hand the money to you... Then drag the man before Shaka and execute him?"
'But what exactly am I getting out of this?' The words almost escaped his lips.
And yet... the more he thought about it... the more it actually sounded possible.
After all, sometimes the only way to convince people you're serious is to pay an absurd price first.
'Oh no... I think this little bastard has completely talked me into it.' Looking at Ryo, Indra couldn't help thinking exactly that.
.
.
.