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"Again? Another War Game already?"
Hestia blinked in disbelief.
It was not that she was scared or backing down.
It just felt absurdly fast.
The Familia had barely been established, and now they were already heading into their second War Game.
"Hestia, this is just something every rising Familia has to go through. Once we beat a Familia at this level, the others beneath them will stop coming around looking for trouble. Understand?"
Anos reached out and gently patted Hestia on the head.
"As long as you're confident, Anos..."
Hestia shook her head hard.
What she was really worried about was not the War Game itself.
She was worried about Anos appearing in front of too many gods and someone noticing something they should not.
If that happened, then this would stop being a problem between Familias.
It would become a conflict between gods.
...
On Freya's side.
"Hm?"
Freya lifted an eyebrow as she looked at the report in her hand.
"Hestia Familia and Ishtar Familia are going to hold a War Game?"
She genuinely had not expected Anos to provoke a second War Game this quickly.
"Yes, Lady Freya, Goddess Ishtar, Goddess Hestia, and the captains of both sides have already all agreed."
Ottar answered in his usual calm, unreadable voice.
"If they want to fight, let them, The Holy Child's true limits are nowhere near what they think they are."
As a goddess who could see souls, Freya knew things others did not.
She could not see all the way through Anos's soul, but she could tell that it had grown far stronger than it had been before.
"Ottar, if you faced that boy, do you think you could win?"
It was the kind of question that would have left anyone else speechless.
Freya was directly comparing the Holy Child to Orario's strongest warrior, Ottar the Mighty.
If anything, her estimate was still too conservative.
From Anos's point of view, the outcome of a fight between him and Ottar would look much the same as the way the outside world imagined a fight between Ottar and him.
Only the positions would be reversed.
"I think... he would be a very interesting opponent And a very strong one."
Ottar answered after a pause, giving the most measured response he could.
"Can you beat him?"
Freya shook her head slightly.
She felt Ottar should understand that this vague kind of answer was not what she was asking for.
And certainly not what she wanted.
"That is not the kind of thing I can know without trying. But I would not say I have absolute confidence."
Even after being forced into a direct answer, Ottar still chose his words carefully.
"No, you are not his opponent."
Freya said it plainly.
From what she had seen, the quality of Anos's soul, and whatever terrifying thing lay hidden inside it, far surpassed Ottar's.
She had the power to see souls.
In general, the stronger the being, the tougher and more powerful the soul.
And if there was a soul she could not see through, then there were only two explanations she could accept.
Either it concealed strength far beyond even her own sight.
Or its owner was something even more terrifying than she was.
That was the conclusion she had reached after thinking it through for a long time.
"Why?"
The question escaped Ottar before he could stop it.
Only after asking did he realize how unlike himself that reaction had been.
But he truly did want Freya's answer.
In his eyes, no matter how talented the Holy Child was, he still should not have been his equal.
Judging from what Anos had shown in the War Game, most of the magic he used had only been around the power of Level 3 or Level 4 techniques.
Yes, he had used a lot of it.
But even so, if the Holy Child himself could already produce strength close to Level 5 or Level 6, that should have been impressive enough.
So how was it possible that he was not even Anos's match?
"Wait..."
Suddenly, Ottar remembered something important.
He had previously given Freya information about the Holy Child.
At that time, Freya had ordered him to seal off the matter completely and deal with anyone else who knew about it.
It had been the fight between the Holy Child and the Loki Familia wolf, Bete.
According to the information Ottar and Freya had gathered, the Holy Child had already possessed the strength to defeat Bete, a Level 5, when he had first arrived in Orario.
Back then, the Holy Child had not even been Level 2.
If a Level 2 could defeat a Level 5, then perhaps a Level 3 defeating a Level 7 was not impossible either.
At last, Ottar understood.
"So during the War Game, the magic he used was just for fun? Or maybe for testing? That is... terrifying."
Without thinking, Ottar swallowed.
His body had started trembling slightly.
Freya had just said he was not Anos's match.
And yet.
And yet he still wanted to find out for himself.
"Ottar, I have something I need you to do."
Seeing his reaction, Freya let out a quiet sigh.
"Yes, Lady Freya."
Ottar bowed slightly.
He assumed Freya was about to arrange a chance for him to fight the Holy Child.
He would have welcomed that with all his heart.
But Freya's answer was nothing like what he hoped.
"Ottar, go release that thing."
She did not mention combat at all.
"My lady... that thing?"
Ottar did not understand.
Was this not supposed to be about fighting the Holy Child?
"That floor only you have reached. That place is only for you to enter. Go there... and bring that thing back up."
Freya took a sip from the drink in her hand.
Its name was Holy Wine.
A drink said to have been crafted by Soma himself. A wine so potent that even gods could become lost in it.
With Freya's status, what she drank was naturally the purest form, the finest raw vintage of Holy Wine, nothing like the watered-down imitation Anos sold to everyone else.
Freya looked at the surface of the wine in her cup, and crimson light flickered in her eyes.
"Lady Freya, you mean..."
Ottar sharply drew in a breath.
He had, in fact, gone on long solo expeditions before. He had reached floors deep enough that almost no one else could.
And now he understood what Freya meant.
Which was exactly why it sounded so unbelievable.
Even to someone as battle-crazed as him, this was insane.
"Ottar, are you unwilling?"
Freya drained the rest of the Holy Wine in one swallow and smiled.
"No..."
Ottar closed his eyes.
A few seconds later, he opened them again, and all the emotion from before had vanished. He had returned to his usual cold, distant self.
"To serve Lady Freya is my honor."
In the end, Ottar accepted a decision that could shake the entire balance of Orario.
...
Meanwhile, on Anos's side.
He had no idea what kind of madness Freya was setting in motion.
At the moment, he was more focused on something else.
Ais's skin seemed to have improved lately.
It had already been pale and smooth enough to begin with, but during training today, when he happened to notice, it really did seem softer than before.
"Judgment. Has Ais's skin improved compared to before?"
Anos still used his ability every day for things that interested him.
Yes.
"Is it because of the training effect?"
For the moment, he chose that as the cause.
Yes.
"Oh?"
Anos raised an eyebrow.
So it really was because of that.
Just as he started wondering whether this training method ought to be promoted more widely.
"Anos..."
At that moment, Ais, who had been practicing the Secret Sword techniques, spoke up.
"Hm? Ais, is there something you do not understand?"
Anos asked.
A few days earlier, after finally finishing the work of correcting her physical condition and strengthening her fundamentals, Ais had at last begun formal Secret Sword training.
Since then, she had been asking far more questions than before.
Because her movements were now broader and more frequent than they used to be, Anos had stopped constantly pointing out every problem himself and instead let Ais ask when she needed something clarified.
After all, each day only gave him so much time for judgment.
If that time had truly been unlimited, and if his processing capacity were several orders of magnitude greater, he felt like he would already be ready to challenge the Great Red.
"Anos... I heard you are fighting another War Game."
Ais asked about the thing that had clearly been bothering her.
"Yeah, that is right. Why? Do you want to help me again this time too?"
Anos asked teasingly.
"No. I just heard something."
Ais instinctively looked away from him as she asked.
"What did you hear?"
Anos lifted an eyebrow.
There were endless rumors about him these days. He was probably one of the biggest names in Orario now.
"Anos... I heard you're fighting Ishtar Familia because you wanted a woman."
Ais tilted her head as she asked it.
The tone of it gave Anos the strange feeling that he was being questioned at home by a wife.
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