Chapter 897: Ch 896: Just a Minor Character

The temptation lasted for only a fleeting moment before Ryo gave up on the idea.

There was a simple reason.

Shirayuki wasn't worth that kind of price.

Ouroboros wasn't stupid. What they wanted was an official Trickster member, because they clearly intended to follow the trail and catch whoever was really pulling the strings behind the organization.

Someone like Shirayuki obviously wouldn't be enough for that.

'Of course, if they knew that following Shirayuki really would lead them straight to me, the mastermind, they'd probably be very happy to name their price…'

Ryo grumbled inwardly before turning to Shirayasha. "Why is Ouroboros suddenly going after the Tricksters?"

"What else could it be?" Shirayasha rolled her eyes and opened her folding fan, covering half her face. "They probably caught a trace of them while investigating the damage Indra caused this time."

Ryo's face nearly turned black.

Well, damn.

So he was getting blamed for Indra's mess?

Ouroboros gets stabbed by the Heavenly Army, and then comes after my Tricksters because we're the easy target?

Just then, Shirayasha smiled brightly. "Speaking of which, why don't you consider turning yourself in? It is an Ultimate Authority, after all."

"Do I look like that kind of person?" Ryo rolled his eyes.

Shirayasha simply stared at him without saying a word.

Ryo fell silent awkwardly for a moment before suddenly saying, "I joined Ouroboros."

The implication was simple: reporting himself wouldn't accomplish anything because they already knew.

The deeper meaning, however, was something Shirayasha would have to figure out for herself.

When she heard this, Shirayasha looked surprised, but not particularly shocked.

After a moment, she quietly tried to comfort him. "Well… you've held out this long. It can't have been easy."

Shirayasha was aware of the blood feud between Arcadia and Ouroboros.

In fact, if Arcadia hadn't been destroyed, she probably wouldn't have been allowed to come down to the lower layers and take up the position of Overall Floor Master so easily.

And in her eyes, Ryo had done something remarkable by single-handedly holding Arcadia together and developing it into what it was today.

If she demanded that he go even further and crush Ouroboros to avenge Arcadia's fallen predecessors, that would simply be asking the impossible.

Thinking about this, Shirayasha couldn't help sighing. "Those guys won't openly move against you because of the respect they have for Algol and me, but you can never be too careful about the dirty tricks they might pull behind the scenes."

"Being brought under their umbrella like this might not exactly be defensible on principle, but at least it allows you to preserve everything Arcadia still has. You made the right choice."

As Shirayasha continued trying to comfort him, Ryo's expression grew stranger and stranger.

"Sorry to interrupt." Ryo cut off her attempt to console him and said with an odd expression, "I was just wondering. If there's a reward for reporting Trickster members to Ouroboros, then what happens if I report an Ouroboros member to Thousand Eyes?"

"Wh-what? What did you just say?"

Shirayasha was completely dumbfounded.

She had assumed Ryo was feeling guilty about joining Ouroboros and effectively betraying all the Arcadia predecessors who had sacrificed themselves.

Instead, this guy was worried about whether there was a reward for turning people in.

'What the hell?! I wasted all that sympathy on you!'

The corner of Shirayasha's mouth twitched violently several times before she said irritably, "There is a reward, but it's pretty small. Certainly nothing like an Authority. You'd be better off reporting them to the Heavenly Army. Their rewards are much more generous."

"Report someone to the Heavenly Army? Are you seriously saying that?" Ryo leisurely picked up the milk that had come with breakfast and took a sip. "I don't feel like getting stabbed six times in the back and then having a Heavenly Army coroner rule it a suicide."

Shirayasha was suddenly at a loss for words.

The fact that the Heavenly Army's internal security was full of holes wasn't exactly a secret in the upper layers.

Just look at Indra. The poor guy had it rough enough already. Other than the Twelve Devas, there wasn't a single person beneath him he could truly trust.

And now half of the Twelve Devas had been crippled by Azi Dahaka, while the remaining half were injured as well.

The only two in relatively decent condition were Kenshin and Shiva.

One was still far too inexperienced, while the other was an old hand who knew how to protect herself by staying out of trouble. In practice, neither was particularly easy to order around.

If the Twelve Devas were still at full strength, Indra wouldn't have needed to hide under the Buddha's protection. He could have simply gone all-out against Ouroboros.

The Devas of the Heavenly Army weren't famous for nothing. Their reputation had been carved out with actual blades.

With the twelve Devas and the Another Cosmology each one carried, they could basically run roughshod over anyone so long as the two-digit powerhouses didn't personally intervene.

Thinking about this, Shirayasha helplessly spread her hands. "The Heavenly Army isn't reliable right now, but there's nothing we can do about that. Thousand Eyes can't be given the authority to exercise military force. If we had that kind of power, a lot of people would start getting nervous…"

This was a matter of balancing the interests of different factions.

Naturally, Ryo understood.

If Thousand Eyes, the largest intelligence organization in Little Garden, were also given military authority…

Information, military force, and law enforcement would all be controlled by Thousand Eyes.

'How would that be any different from handing over all of Little Garden to the twin goddesses on a silver platter?'

Ryo raised an eyebrow. "So even if I report someone to Thousand Eyes, the information can only be passed on to the Heavenly Army?"

"More or less." Shirayasha deliberately kept her answer vague. "It just won't go to Indra's side."

Ryo understood immediately.

The Heavenly Army wasn't a single unified faction.

The current ruling force was Indra's Twelve Devas, backed by Buddhism.

Then there were the reserve forces: the Twelve Olympians supported by Thousand Eyes, the angelic armies backed by the Cross, and the Seven Great Demon Kings from the Journey to the West.

Only after these four powers were integrated could the people of Little Garden collectively refer to them as the Heavenly Army.

And when Thousand Eyes passed along intelligence, the obvious recipient would be the faction with which it had the closest ties: the Twelve Olympians.

"Is it Zeus' faction?" Ryo asked in surprise.

"Hephaestus," Shirayasha corrected him. "Oh, and one more thing. The people usually on duty in the Heavenly Army are basically all Roman gods."

Ryo was instantly speechless.

The Divine Smith is seriously something else.

He actually controlled a part of the Heavenly Army's system.

No wonder he'd once dared to hunt Zeus down.

Unfortunately, Zeus had turned out to be even stronger than he'd anticipated, and with the restrictions on how much power could be brought to bear in the lower layers, Hephaestus ultimately failed to kill him.

Seeing Ryo continue asking questions, Shirayasha couldn't help becoming curious. "Speaking of which, who are you planning to report to the Heavenly Army?"

Ryo answered with complete composure. "Nothing important. Just a minor character."

"Then that's fine. You can just…"

Shirayasha suddenly stopped.

Her instincts had begun screaming at her.

A terrible premonition came over her.

"Wait. Why do I suddenly have a really bad feeling about this?" She immediately pressed him for more information. "What was that minor character's name?"

Ryo realized there was no way around it anymore.

So he casually answered, "I think his name was Kalki?"

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A/N: I've spent the last few days prepping a mass drop, and it should go up tomorrow. Expect a good long read