After about three or four seconds of silence, Ryo sighed. "I think I'm going to need an explanation."
"An explanation for what?"
A youthful yet seductive female voice came from the direction of the stairs.
Ryo turned his head and immediately saw a purple-haired girl walking down the stairs.
She wore a pure-white restraint outfit, several straps tightly emphasizing the curves of her figure. The outfit was conservative enough to cover even her arms, yet somehow still looked extraordinarily provocative.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Algol planted her hands on her hips and said with an amused smile, "You really thought that after arranging something this dangerous for you, those snakes would be careless enough not to tell me? Weren't you afraid I'd storm their headquarters and force those rats hiding in the gutters to come out?"
Ryo could only sigh helplessly at that.
He was supposed to be the one keeping Algol around, so why did he always feel like everyone in Little Garden thought he was the one being kept by her?
They had actually been cautious enough to notify Algol first and obtain her approval before assigning him the mission.
There really was no helping these people.
"Not happy? Too bad." Algol, who was particularly good at sensing emotions, flashed a sly smile. "Everyone knows you're my man. Whether you admit it or not, I've already decided to claim you."
Hearing that bold declaration, Baphomet immediately lowered his head.
He stared at the smooth floor tiles with such solemn concentration that one might have thought they were the most fascinating things he had ever seen.
As for Nephthys, she acted as though she had heard and seen absolutely nothing. She simply stood there with her big eyes open, staring blankly into space.
Ignoring her two subordinates, Algol looked at the embarrassed Ryo with a teasing smile. "Don't tell me you thought that because I lost to Athena once, I'm incapable of dealing with those old fossils?"
Ryo immediately looked down at his nose, his nose at his heart, and decided to play dumb.
He really had thought Algol wasn't suited for playing mind games.
After all, the fact that Athena had tricked her badly enough to get her sealed away was right there in the history books. Ryo had naturally developed a certain amount of distrust toward Algol's intelligence.
That had been one of the main reasons he had not informed her of his plans this time.
And now she had taught him a very thorough lesson.
Baphomet and Nephthys were both on Algol's side.
That was practically unbelievable.
Baphomet was understandable. He was practically a natural subordinate of Algol, whose previous name had been Lilith, the primordial demoness. Defecting to her side was hardly surprising. For all Ryo knew, Baphomet might even have been one of her old subordinates.
But Nephthys was strange.
The Egyptian goddess certainly had no obvious connection to demons.
And then Algol spoke in a low voice, "Looking at your face, I can already guess what you're thinking. Tch. If it were anyone else, I'd have turned them to stone already."
Algol clicked her tongue unhappily.
Being looked down on by Ryo had left Algol with a bit of a chip on her shoulder.
So she decided to give him a little more information. "Oh, and one more thing. Shammash is an old colleague of mine. And you've been giving me quite a generous budget lately, so…"
She gave him a sly grin. "You get the idea."
Algol paused, then added cheerfully, "Of course, I didn't tell Shammash that you were disguised as Kalki. If you want to deceive people, you have to deceive your own side first."
The moment Ryo heard that, everything clicked.
Amun had never stood a chance.
Nephthys, his rival in the struggle over the Ra's Spirit Rank, was actually on Ryo's side.
Baphomet, whom he thought he had allied with, was also on Ryo's side.
And Shammash, whom he had assumed was stepping in to ensure fairness and impartiality, was one of Algol's people too.
Top lane, mid lane, jungle… They were all traitors.
Amun wanted to win?
With what?
Even if he had accurately estimated Ryo's strength, Baphomet and Shammash could still have stabbed him in the back, followed by another attack from Nephthys.
He would have been finished either way.
Thinking about it, Ryo could not help asking with some sympathy, "So you were plotting against Amun from the very beginning?"
"It wasn't me plotting."
Algol immediately denied it. Then she jerked her chin toward the stairs.
Ryo followed her gaze.
And then he saw a woman coming gracefully down the staircase.
Her beautiful golden hair was tied up neatly. She wore a black-and-white Gothic maid uniform, complete with white stockings, giving her an almost impossibly pure appearance.
The moment Ryo saw her face, his gaze froze.
"Athena… why are you wearing…" His face turned red. "Why are you wearing Kurousagi's clothes?"
Yes.
The woman wearing the maid outfit was none other than Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, who also bore titles such as Goddess of Victory and Goddess of War.
She was a legendary figure throughout Little Garden.
And the clothes she was wearing…
Ryo's expression grew complicated as his gaze settled on the tiny traces of stitching around the maid uniform's lower seam.
He remembered that night at the hotel.
He had made Kurousagi put on this very outfit.
And then he had torn it open at this exact spot.
But why was this outfit here? And why was Athena wearing it?
Hadn't Kurousagi blushed herself to death and gotten rid of the thing afterward?
Ryo looked at Algol, who was standing there with her chest puffed out and an unbearably smug expression on her face.
She looked exactly like someone waiting to be praised.
Ryo was speechless.
'You did this, didn't you?'
'You actually went and searched for this thing. Do you have nothing better to do?'
"Surprised? Didn't see that coming, did you?" Algol giggled.
Then she happily raised a hand and patted Athena on the shoulder.
Athena gave her a flat sideways glance before deliberately maintaining a calm expression. "Happy now?"
"Very. Extremely happy." Algol nodded enthusiastically.
Then she sighed with considerable regret. "It's just a shame you refused to wear the original. You only agreed to wear the washed version. The original would have been so much better."
Ryo resisted the urge to hit Algol.
The original?
Did she mean the maid outfit he had personally messed with?
And she wanted Athena to wear that?
Was she trying to embarrass him to death?
Still, Ryo was genuinely curious.
Exactly what price had Algol paid to convince Athena, who was famous for her purity, to put on clothes still carrying traces of his "existence"?
Thinking of this, Ryo could not help glancing toward Nephthys.
At that moment, Nephthys let out a soft sigh.
Under Ryo's expression of I knew it, she walked over to Athena.
Then the two figures overlapped.
Ryo's eyes widened.
So that was the trick.
.
.
.
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