Two people had been released from the restraints.
One was a tall man with thick hair and a full beard. His bare, shaggy upper body made him look like a lion.
The other was smaller by comparison, though still over 170 centimeters. She was a blonde fox girl with long, slender legs, but even her loose shrine maiden robes couldn't hide her figure.
The moment they appeared, Leticia recognized them and called out their names. "Suraya, and Mae..."
Beside her, Kurousagi clapped a hand over her mouth.
But before either of them could say a word, both bodies shrank at an alarming speed, until they looked like twelve- or thirteen-year-old kids.
"What's happening?" Kurousagi stared in shock.
Ryo, who could taste a hint of time in the air, frowned. "Their ages were stolen?"
The girl in the oversized shrine maiden robes now looked like a tiny golden-haired fox-eared loli. She stared back at the three of them in surprise.
"Leticia? Usagi-chan... and you're, hold on, aren't you the frail one who was always stuck in the sickroom ?"
She looked them over and sighed. "Did Ouroboros grab all of you too? They really do thorough work, don't they."
"No, I doubt Ouroboros would be nice enough to haul our headquarters over here as well."
The now-young "Sun Lion of Suraya" glanced around the familiar base and muttered. Then he looked up at Leticia, at Kurousagi, who clearly had something she wanted to say, and finally at Ryo.
"I don't know what's going on, but last I knew, Leticia was sold to Perseus." The boy with the thick hair smiled, relieved. "You've done well for yourself, New Leader."
The fox-eared girl grumbled, "The useless sculptor who snuck in to save people and got caught instead should probably stay quiet. It's embarrassing."
The blond boy's face stiffened. He lowered his head and said in a small voice, "How was I supposed to know? Who puts that many Three-Digits in one outpost and that's the lower layers? The North District is insane. Even if I'd wanted to run, I couldn't have."
"Sculptor?" Kurousagi listened to the fox girl's complaint in confusion. "But didn't Lord Sun Lion hate sculpting? Only Koumei-sama had..."
She trailed off, speechless. All she could do was gape at the thick-haired blond boy, going "ah, ah."
Leticia had caught on too. She put her hands on her hips with a tired sigh. "So you got caught trying to rescue people, and then you disguised yourself as Suraya?"
"You really are something, Koumei Kasukabe."
The lion-like boy gave an awkward, sheepish laugh. Then his hair and body fur shrank rapidly and vanished. In its place stood a boy with short brown hair, bandages wrapped around his body, and a gloomy, slightly washed-out air about him.
Looking at the faint traces of his adult face, Ryo could just make out a hint of the old charm of Arcadia's former leader.
But compared to the tall, not exactly burly but undeniably handsome Koumei Kasukabe of the past, the listless boy in front of him made Ryo's mouth twitch.
Sure, his age had been stolen, but the gap in spirit rank was a bit much. It was so big that Ryo almost didn't recognize him.
Was this really the former leader of Arcadia, a legend among the four-digits?
That Spirit Rank was barely in five-digit territory, maybe lower. He was practically worse off than Shirayuki-hime.
"Eh?! Koumei-sama?!" Kurousagi's eyes went wide. She stared at him, totally lost. "Did you eat one of Lady Wukong's peaches and get your youth back?!"
Koumei almost tripped and fell flat on his face.
After he finally pulled himself together, he said glumly, "Sometimes I really don't get why you always see the bright side of weird situations, Kurousagi."
"In a way, it is a good thing. You'll live a few hundred years longer, at least." The fox-eared girl sighed, then looked at Leticia and narrowed her golden fox eyes. "Looks like something happened that I don't know about, Leticia."
"Yeah. It's a long story."
Leticia sighed, then glanced at Ryo, who was still quietly observing, and couldn't help smiling.
Unlike her and Kurousagi, Ryo hadn't had much contact with the previous generation of Arcadia members.
When he first arrived at Arcadia, he'd been hospitalized almost immediately after reaching the Little Garden. Apart from Canaria and Kurousagi, who dropped by now and then to pester him, the only people he really got to know were Leticia, whom Canaria had dragged along, and Koumei Kasukabe, who liked to hide out in the sickroom and slack off.
As for the others, especially the executives who rarely stayed with the Community, Ryo didn't have an impression of any of them.
And Ryo himself hadn't noticed his own habit. Whenever strangers were around, he'd hang back, stay quiet, and gather information so he wouldn't slip up.
Caution was a good thing, but he was the Leader now, and staying silent in front of his senpais wasn't exactly a good look.
Leticia gave a helpless smile and pulled him forward.
"Let me introduce you. This is the Herald of the great Inari deity Uka-no-Mitama. She's the ninth to inherit the name Tamamo-no-Mae."
"Oh, and I think you two met when you first arrived. You were unconscious at the time, though."
"Who?" Ryo froze, stunned.
Tamamo-no-Mae? The ninth? Arcadia had someone that famous?
Kurousagi, thinking he had no idea who Tamamo-no-Mae was, hurriedly lowered her voice and whispered behind her hand. "She's Lily's mom! Remember when we were chatting and you were shocked that Kitsunes reproduce on their own? That's her!"
Ryo's expression turned strange.
Lily. He remembered her clearly. She was one of the older kids at Arcadia, a very cute fox-eared loli.
As for her mother, the Community had only ever called her Mae, and Ryo had never thought to wonder about it.
Who could've guessed her full name was Tamamo-no-Mae?
But wait. The ninth Tamamo-no-Mae? A name passed down through generations? So she was a natural-born god, with Spirit Rank inherited from her predecessors?
That special kind of divine lineage that starts out at five digits and stays stable through single-parent reproduction and inherited Spirit Rank?
If she was the ninth, then Lily would be the tenth Tamamo-no-Mae?
'Wow. So I've had a Tamamo-no-Mae at home this whole time?'
Should I look for a Kiyohime too, while I'm at it?
"What's with that look? Even if you're the current Leader, show a little respect for your senpai!" The loli Mae huffed, annoyed.
"Don't mind Mae-chan, Second Leader," Koumei chimed in. "She's only your senpai by a hair, anyway."
"What does that mean?" Ryo turned to Kurousagi for answers.
Kurousagi started to say something, then got glared at by Mae and promptly clammed up.
Leticia, on the other hand, was biting back a laugh, and she decided to stir the pot.
"Because the seventh generation was the one who served alongside me and Koumei. She's actually a generation below Kurousagi in seniority."
.
.
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