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Little Garden - South Area
Draco Greif Alliance. An Alliance that gathers all the Eudemon Communities in the South under one flag and symbol, uniting them against the Demon Lord invasions.
And today, inside the alliance's meeting room, Garol stared at the letter in his hand. The Arcadia emblem was stamped clearly on its seal.
"Who would have thought that in just half a year, Arcadia would rise again?"
Garol Gundark. A Kemono. He was the previous leader of Six Scars, a subordinate community of the Draco Greif Alliance, and one of the alliance's chief strategists and advisors.
As a veteran four-digit, Garol was both a founder and an elder of the Draco Greif. At the same time, he was also a former member of the Arcadia Grand Alliance and, technically speaking, had never withdrawn.
So in theory, he still held a seat within the Arcadia Alliance.
That was precisely why Arcadia's resurgence stirred such deep feelings in him.
"Senior Garol, what exactly happened over there in Arcadia?" At that moment, a woman with long red hair and wheat-toned skin frowned slightly as she asked.
Sala Doltrake, a beautiful Salamander woman. She wore a simple and revealing outfit that might easily make her look like a dancer, yet on her it felt refined rather than vulgar, enhancing her beauty instead of cheapening it.
Sala had once been the first-in-line successor of the North Area community Salamandra.
But for various reasons, she severed ties with Salamandra and came south, where she was recruited by the Draco Greif as the acting and future leader of the alliance.
Hiring an outsider as leader was hardly unusual in Little Garden. Of course, communities that did so usually imposed extremely strict criteria: strength, reputation, background, all of it had to measure up.
And Sala, a four-digit demi-dragon and former first heir of Salamandra, was renowned in both the North and South as a prodigious dragonkin talent of overwhelming power.
After her forced departure from her former community, the Draco Greif wasted no time snapping her up.
Salamandra, right now, was the community to which Mandora Doltrake and Sandora Doltrake belonged, and had once been part of the Arcadia Alliance.
So Sala had a decent understanding of Arcadia already. Naturally, she was curious about the reasons behind the revival of what had once been the strongest alliance in the lower layers.
Garol chuckled and took out another document.
This one was intelligence delivered by spies he had dispatched to the East Area.
Because he still harbored old feelings for Arcadia, Garol had planted a "mole" at the outer gate of Arcadia's headquarters, partly to stay informed, and partly to offer discreet assistance when needed.
Thanks to that preparation, the intelligence he held was far more complete than what other communities had access to.
After carefully reading through it, Garol burst out laughing.
"Canaria really struck gold this time."
"Who'd have guessed that the kid she took in half a year ago would bring us such a massive surprise."
As he spoke, Garol passed the confidential letter to Sala.
Sala glanced at it and frowned. "But there's nothing here."
"Other than counter-killing an illegal community called Great Shark, forcing the Serpent Water God of Tritonis Falls into submission, and advancing to Regional Ruler status, there's basically no useful information at all."
"No numbers on community members, no data on the leader's strength or combat style, no mention of core combatants, not even the type of Gifts involved. Nothing."
She didn't bother sugarcoating it.
"Senior Garol, your intelligence team is lacking. If I remember right, the mole you sent to Arcadia was your youngest daughter, the 24th child, wasn't it?"
Faced with that blunt criticism, Garol just laughed and slapped his thigh. "That's exactly why this is a surprise."
Then, a knowing smile crept across his face. "Think carefully. The name Ryo Yagami. Have you heard it before?"
Sala frowned in thought, then her eyes widened. "The one those trashy tabloids keep calling 'ShiroYoruMaou's secret lover'?"
Garol asked with a teasing tone, "And then what? Other than that gossip, have you ever seen any real information about Yagami? His strength, battle record, fighting style, personality. Did those so-called all-knowing tabloids print any of that?"
"…"
Sala's expression changed subtly.
"Information lockdown…"
In Little Garden, running a news outlet was no easy task, especially one that spanned all four areas and reached deep into the lower layers.
There were only a handful that could pull it off, and every single one had powerful god groups backing them.
With that level of influence, investigating a single individual should be trivial. Maybe not every word they'd ever spoken, but at least their approximate strength, achievements, and Gift categories.
And yet, every news community deliberately avoided Ryo's information, choosing instead to churn out gossip about him and Shiroyasha.
That alone was suspicious.
"Did Lady Shiroyasha step in? No… that doesn't quite fit. She's one of the targets of the rumors herself. With her personality, she might tolerate gossip with women, but there's no way she'd accept rumors involving men…"
Sala shook her head, but she no longer dared underestimate Ryo.
Anyone bold enough to fabricate rumors about the ShiroYoruMaou had to be confident they could withstand her retaliation.
And yet that same level of influence was being used to suppress all real information about Ryo.
Which meant that leaking Ryo's details was even more dangerous than offending Shiroyasha herself.
And from what little they knew, Ryo was also a subordinate god of Shiroyasha.
So she tolerated being slandered, but drew a hard line when it came to information about him.
The implications of that were enormous.
A secret trump card openly placed on the board by Thousand Eyes? The ShiroYoruMaou's proxy? Or, as the tabloids joked, someone she'd even be willing to bear a divine child for?
Whatever the truth was, one thing was certain: Ryo Yagami's intelligence mattered. And anyone guarded this tightly was definitely not weak.
"Heh. Sala, you're still young. You didn't live through the era when Canaria led Arcadia…"
Garol smiled faintly, his voice tinged with nostalgia.
"Back then, before Canaria founded the Arcadia Alliance, the news communities acted the same way. They spread rumors about her everywhere, but there was never any concrete information."
"Canaria…" Sala froze, her expression turning grave.
She had known Ryo was important, but not this important.
Canaria had once been regarded by the gods as the ultimate weapon to defeat the Last Embryo Demon Lord.
She was the hope Baron Samedi from the Vodou pantheon had searched for across nearly ten thousand years, among countless universes of humanity.
And now Ryo's worth was being placed on the same level as Canaria's?
If those words hadn't come from Garol, who had worked alongside Canaria for years and fought in many great wars, Sala would never have believed it.
But if that was truly the case, then the balance of the lower layers in Little Garden was about to shift once again.
With that thought, Sala hesitated before asking, "Senior Garol… what should we do next?"
She knew her role well. Within the Draco Greif, she was the muscle.
Matters involving grand strategy were for veterans like Garol to decide.
Let professionals handle what they're good at. That was a truth old communities had learned through countless years of survival.
"Let's meet him." Garol sighed, leaned back, and looked up at the stained-glass ceiling overhead.
"If Arcadia's new leader really is who we think he is, and if he intends to uphold the old ideals and maintain the friendships of the past, that wouldn't be a bad thing."
"And if he doesn't?" Sala asked calmly.
She wasn't skilled in schemes, but she understood the reality of shifting power. New rulers brought new rules.
Whether Ryo would continue Canaria's philosophy, whether Arcadia would remain the dream alliance for peace-seekers in the lower layers, none of that was guaranteed.
The Draco Greif already held their own territory. There was no need to bend over backward.
Garol smiled, a trace of fond remembrance in his eyes. "If not, then we part on good terms."
"I understand. I'll personally lead the team to the East Area for the meeting." Sala let out a quiet sigh, stood up, and said earnestly, "When the time comes, I'll need you to come with me."
"All right," Garol nodded, watching her leave.
...
Once the meeting room was empty, Garol scratched his chin, puzzled.
"Strange. Didn't Canaria say Ryo was someone Queen Halloween had fostered? So how did he end up under Shiroyasha?"
"What exactly went wrong here?"
Garol was left utterly confused.
.
.
.