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Arcadia Headquarters
Standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, Athena gazed into the night sky. She watched the body drifting away on the wind, most of its head gone. After a moment, she let out a soft sigh.
"You shouldn't have gone that far. At the very least, once Hermes declared his surrender, you shouldn't have killed him."
Killing someone in the heat of battle and killing someone after they surrender were two completely different things.
The first could be blamed on the victim's lack of strength.
The second was a matter of attitude.
Executing a surrendered opponent had been considered inhumane in any era.
And this wasn't just anyone. It was Hermes, one of the Twelve Olympians of the Greek pantheon.
That crossed the line into open provocation. A provocation against the Twelve Olympians themselves.
Yet Ryo, the godslayer in question, was lounging on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, a faint smile on his face.
"Sorry. The persona I'm playing here isn't the scheming type. Just a brute with a bit of street smarts."
An excuse. A blatant one.
After humiliating Hermes and then killing him after his surrender, Ryo was very obviously rubbing salt in the wound.
Just as the Greek gods had hoped, Ryo had now completely broken with them. From this point on, the major top-tier pantheons would no longer see him as a peripheral member of Greece, but as an independent force worth courting.
Once again, the ever-conspicuous Greek pantheon had neatly sidestepped risk.
By all rights, their objective should have been achieved.
And yet, Athena knew better.
This wasn't an act. Ryo's break with Greece was real.
This man no longer needed the Greek pantheon's banner, even if he'd only worn it for less than half a month.
"I find it hard to understand your thinking," Athena said, still facing the window, her back to him.
"You're not a mindless brute. You understand the benefits of quietly aligning yourself with Greece. Isn't it good to have a major pantheon backing you in secret?"
Why truly burn the bridge? Athena found his behavior deeply puzzling.
Using the Greek pantheon's power to develop himself, avoiding hostility from other pantheons, gaining plenty of benefits along the way. Why would Ryo turn that down?
"It's nothing serious. I just didn't like Hermes. I'm a brute, remember? Acting on impulse is normal."
The corner of Ryo's mouth lifted slightly, his tone tinged with mockery.
"Besides, our cooperation hasn't stopped, has it, Lady Athena?"
"As for formally aligning with Greece, Arcadia has its own way of doing things. That's not something Greece needs to worry about."
Athena caught the subtext in his words.
She turned to look at him, a note of surprise in her voice.
"Cooperating with me, but not with Greece? Is that what you're saying?"
And not protection. Just cooperation.
There was a lot hidden beneath that distinction.
Ryo's sudden shift in attitude made Athena sense something intriguing beneath the surface.
"You can tell Zeus the recruitment failed," Ryo said, pulling out a nail clipper and calmly trimming his nails.
"I'm sure you won't mention my affairs to him. Since that's the case, how about cutting me some slack?"
Hermes sending a weak avatar for show, Athena paying a secret visit and even using the Loki alias.
If Ryo still didn't realize he'd once again been dragged into a power game between Zeus and Athena, he'd be an idiot.
His current actions were effectively him saying "no" to that game.
It was provocation, and a very clear declaration of his stance. After this, he wanted nothing more to do with the Greek pantheon's internal mess.
Looking at Ryo's smiling face, Athena fell into a rare silence.
After a long moment, she sighed. "Wouldn't it be better to join my side?"
She genuinely admired Ryo's abilities.
Not many could trigger massive shifts in Little Garden's human history multiple times and walk away unscathed.
Not many could, while still at Five Digits, use their own strength to make even Two-Digits place their bets.
And that was without mentioning how he'd exceeded expectations after she laid out the interference benchmarks for the Cross.
Even though the mythological upheaval caused by the Campione World had pushed her tolerance to its limits, it only made Athena value Ryo more.
This was a gem she could develop as a trusted confidant. Given enough time, he might even reach her level one day.
As a chief god of the Greek pantheon, with widespread faith in the lower layers, Athena believed she had more than enough capital to recruit him.
So why did he refuse?
"You want to know the reason?" Ryo raised an eyebrow, put away the nail clipper, and smiled at her.
"Yes," Athena replied with a gentle smile.
Ryo glanced at her, then spoke with disarming sincerity. "I don't want to work with someone who can't take the blame."
"And this is for your own good."
"Personally, I think it's better if our cooperation ends here. Otherwise, one day you'll end up as the enemy of every god in Little Garden."
Hearing these sharp words, Athena couldn't help but frown.
"That's not something that could happen to me."
She didn't believe her own capabilities would ever let things deteriorate that far.
"I'll help you then," Ryo said quietly.
Athena's previously composed expression shattered on the spot.
That… did not sound right at all.
She didn't want to become the enemy of all the gods in Little Garden, but Ryo would help her get there?
For once, Athena's expression actually twisted, a rare crack showing through her composure. "You…"
She was suddenly at a loss.
Why had Ryo suddenly decided that her "umbrella" wasn't good enough anymore?
What exactly had gone wrong?
They had only cooperated once.
How had Ryo already concluded that she, one of the Twelve Olympians, was unfit to be his superior?
How had it turned into Ryo unilaterally testing her stress tolerance and declaring her unqualified?
Athena took a deep breath and slowly regained her calm.
"Is it because of Loki?"
"Yes and no."
With a casual gesture, Ryo summoned a glassy, octagonal crystal into his hand.
It was the Divinity of that weak, wicked god from Norse myth. Absorb it, withstand the backlash, and one could potentially leap straight into the legendary Four-Digit realm. A true shortcut to level up.
Staring at the Divinity, Ryo sighed.
"Take this back with you. Of course, when it comes to dealing with Zeus, I'll still honor our cooperation to a certain extent. Consider it payment for all the care you've shown."
Then he looked at her seriously. "We really aren't a good fit."
.
.
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