"Though we gods enjoy fooling around, you lot might really be the first to treat this kind of issue like a game."
Loki couldn't even muster anger for these fools. Did they seriously think they could outplay her?
She had never intended to wipe them out completely. If she pushed too hard, the remaining gods might choose mutual destruction, and that would be far more harmful to the situation she was trying to create.
Her main objective was simple: to buy Bell enough time to complete his ascension.
As for her "anger"? That was nothing but a tool to achieve her goal.
If she didn't put on a proper show to teach them a painful lesson, these idiots would certainly return for round two.
Of course, to prevent them from bouncing back too quickly—and to stop their obsessive curiosity about Bell from shortening the time she was buying—Loki figured she needed to tell these fools something about Bell.
"You idiots have been staring at that kid for so long, yet I bet you still know absolutely nothing about him."
Her words made the gods glance at each other, awkwardness spreading through their ranks.
This might have been their greatest humiliation: a group of gods spent over half a year searching for a mortal child, yet couldn't find even a trace.
It was the most ironic failure a god could suffer.
One look at their embarrassed faces told Loki enough—none of them had discovered anything meaningful about Bell.
"So? What next?"
"No solid leads. Any idea which familia the child belongs to? Surely you're not dumb enough to think he's in my familia."
Loki really wanted to see whether they were truly brainless.
"They did speculate about certain possibilities."
Apollo glanced at the group of fools behind him and spoke on their behalf.
"They believed the child's familia couldn't be a complex one. A medium or large familia is basically impossible. If he belonged to one, they wouldn't have spent six months without uncovering a single clue."
"And their guesses…?"
Apollo cautiously cast a look toward Freya-sama.
"Logically, Freya-sama seemed the most likely. Everyone in Orario knows Freya-sama loves outstanding children. Naturally, such a mysterious child would capture her attention."
Even Apollo himself had suspected Freya first. After all, in Orario, even a Familia God might not know their own members as well as Freya knew the excellence of children in the lower world.
"Well, suspecting that lovestruck woman isn't wrong. Her taste is excellent, after all. But these fools must have dismissed that theory, right?"
Loki didn't deny it—that was exactly the impression Freya gave. And in the past, she'd always acted that way.
But the gods weren't total idiots.
Apollo nodded. He too had originally assumed the child belonged to Freya. With a Mystery child appearing in Orario, who wouldn't suspect her first?
"But… they felt that if Freya-sama had actually recruited that child, she wouldn't have stayed so low-key."
Freya was a strong candidate, but her uncharacteristic silence over the past half-year made it obvious. The Goddess of Beauty hadn't found the child either. With her personality, it was impossible for her to keep completely quiet if she had.
"So they turned their attention to the smaller familias."
"Such as Miach, Demeter, Takemikazuchi, Soma…"
"But Miach lives in poverty, and with Dian Cecht confirming things, he was ruled out quickly.
"Demeter is a business familia, with no exceptional members. She's constantly in the public eye, so it was easy to confirm the child wasn't hers.
"Takemikazuchi was also possible. But his children are mostly adventurers from the Far East. The Mystery child didn't show any Far Eastern traits, so he was ruled out.
"As for Soma… after the commotion he caused, and since your familia straightened him out, he's been rebuilding. He's brewing less, training more. But given his familia's previous infamy, no gifted child would join him."
"Of course, another reason for their exclusion was the six-month stakeout. They posted their children outside the suspicious familias' territories for half a year and eventually confirmed none of them were the one."
Their conjectures and investigations combined led them to what they believed was the correct conclusion. Loki gave a slight nod. This was exactly the kind of "thorough stupidity" she expected from them.
But it also confirmed something important.
"…You idiots truly never guessed the right familia at all, did you?"
"Your reasoning was sound, but not a single target was correct. Miach, what do you think?"
Miach, whose name was suddenly called, looked utterly speechless. He hadn't even known he'd been considered a suspect.
"Anyone could see that child isn't mine, nor would he belong to any of us who were listed."
"Heh~ Then Miach, whose child do you think he is?"
"I think it's…"
Miach froze, caught off guard. He had wondered about it before, but honestly, the boy wasn't his concern. His familia wasn't combat-focused.
When asked who the child's Familia God could be, his own child had once posed a similar question—and had given a surprisingly perceptive answer:
'If someone like that had to choose a familia, it would be one that wouldn't expose them.'
That comment had been made casually, but Miach found the reasoning strangely compelling.
"I personally think his Familia God is someone no outsider would ever associate with a gifted child."
"My child once said that the boy would pick a familia that wouldn't reveal him. I imagine such a familia would have very few members—only then could information be tightly controlled, minimizing the risk of exposure."
The words hit every god like a bolt of lightning.
Miach's remark crashed down like thunder, opening a completely new perspective before their eyes.
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