"Anyway, just move at your own pace," Loki said. "Even if you don't realize it, once they've tasted the benefits, those kids will start protecting your information on their own."
With that kind of bond, Loki wouldn't even need to issue direct orders—the children would act of their own accord.
"Bete's been drinking less lately too. In his own way, that mutt's guarding your secret."
"As for Raul, the troublesome one, he now has a… tether. With an elf courtesan by his side, he's unlikely to run wild in the Pleasure District."
"Ishtar stationed the elf with Raul for one reason: to squeeze internal secrets about our Familia out of him."
"At least Raul isn't totally brainless. He knew not to buy a house in the Pleasure District. That would've been living under Ishtar's eyelids."
He did, at minimum, plan before acting—he placed the woman away from the Pleasure District. But that precaution was aimed only at Ishtar; and if Ishtar learned of it, she probably wouldn't care much. Confident as ever, she trusted her pawn to bring back something amusing.
"Raul isn't worth Ishtar moving personally," Loki snorted. "And she's weighing whether it's worth tearing off the mask with me."
"Ishtar won't care about Raul's little precautions. But she definitely won't go to war with me over a tidbit," Loki said coolly. "She knows if she tears it with me, I'll crush her outright."
Loki held no politeness for that woman. If the maniac pushed first, Loki would not hold back.
"So Ishtar-sama won't act, right?" Tsuna added. "And her feelings toward Freya-sama are envy and jealousy. She knows about you and Freya, so she won't risk a real fallout—she'll just try to score a few jabs in public?"
Loki clicked her tongue, annoyed but conceding with a nod. "She'll sicken me with jokes, sure. But a real fight? She couldn't take it."
"Raul's situation ends here," Loki concluded. "Every now and then, let a few harmless internal scraps leak out through him. Keep her feeling 'well-informed' and that courtesan becomes more valuable."
She might get barked at by that lunatic in the divine assembly, but Loki had no intention of uprooting this pawn. Keeping the piece beside Raul was far more useful—handy for throwing out decoys and unnecessary intel.
"How did your talk with Finn go?"
"I plan to gather everyone tonight," Tsuna said. "We'll run it for one week—just like you suggested. We have to let those who persevere see tangible results."
"But not everyone at once. Only a portion will do the one-week trial at first."
"Only when part of the成果 is right on the table can it sway the rest."
Over breakfast, he and Finn had laid out a lot: who would adapt first to that space, and how to retune the harsher settings.
"We don't need many testers," Tsuna continued. "Once results are obvious, more will volunteer and choose the path of an adventurer again."
"When the whole Familia is mobilized, the Combat Space opens too."
"Raise parameters in the Training Space, then polish body and technique in the Combat Space until they can face anything."
"After that refinement, we head into the Dungeon for the final step—heightening themselves through real battles."
"If all goes well, in less than half a year, low-level adventurers should vanish from our Familia."
In other words, the entire block stuck at Lv.1 would rise a tier—Lv.2 across the board.
"Pretty fast," Loki said, approving of the timeline. For most Familias, Lv.2 was still their main fighting force.
Elevating every Lv.1 by a whole level in half a year would sound impossible anywhere else.
"Pile up visible results," she said, "and let adventurers awaken on their own. That's a good path."
"They're not lazy. Their effort just hasn't yielded returns. Like many adventurers, the 'ceiling' never puts enough stress on them to trigger the body's response, so their parameters crawl."
Loki patted Tsuna's shoulder and smiled. "Whatever the case, since you've decided, give it your all."
"Mm." Tsuna paused. "By the way—after my level-up, I did sense my 'position' in the other world more clearly."
He hesitated, then thought of a way to let Loki feel it too.
"Loki-sama, I'll try to share the sensation with you."
"Oh? That sounds fun."
"Don't move."
Tsuna leaned his forehead to Loki's, using his attunement to the coordinates to transmit the feeling at close range.
The faint, elusive thread sharpened into clarity within Loki's senses. In her mind bloomed an image: a tent pitched on a mountain shoulder. Inside—traces of petrification. At the tent's center—a nearly invisible sigil.
Beyond the constructed picture, she felt it: a wall so thick it was near-unbreakable.
The World's Barrier.
A membrane that separates world from world—the world-bubble.
"The wall is even thicker than I imagined," Loki marveled internally. "But to perceive another world this clearly… that's a first."
One thing gnawed at her curiosity: the world-bubble should be an unnamed medium that shuts out everything—even the worlds themselves. So why didn't it shut out Tsuna?
The question only deepened her interest.
(End of Chapter)
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