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The Chaos Bride.
An ancient Primogenitor who commanded twenty-seven familiars and had ruled the Chaos Zone in Central America for thousands of years.
Unlike the First Primogenitor, the Lost Warlord, who had agreed to a truce through the Holy Ground Treaty, her empire had never stopped fighting. The Chaos Zone remained locked in open war with the North American Union, crushing them and forcing them back behind the border lines.
At the same time, the Chaos Zone was also at war with the human kingdoms of South America.
A true battle-hardened Primogenitor, through and through.
So why was someone like her here?
Sayaka tensed up instinctively.
Then, a second later, she remembered how Giada had addressed Ryo earlier.
"Master?"
The Chaos Bride calling the Fourth Primogenitor, "master"?
'This…'
Sayaka's eyes went wide, a wave of despair washing over her.
'I know too much. I'm definitely going to be silenced.'
'My Yukina… from today on you'll be a widow. I don't know if you'll be able to endure such a lonely life.'
"What's wrong with her?" Giada poked Sayaka's cheek and turned to Ryo.
"She's overthinking again. Ignore her," Ryo replied casually, then asked, "Have you eaten?"
"You offering me blood?" Giada's eyes lit up, little fangs peeking out in anticipation.
"Forget I asked."
Ryo clicked his tongue in annoyance and patted the seat beside him.
Giada didn't mind at all and plopped down next to him.
"Heave-ho."
She leaned back against the sofa, bounced a couple of times, then let out a long breath.
"I've been holding it in for almost two years. When are you taking me with you?"
"Soon," Ryo said simply.
Giada turned her head to look at him. "You're not planning some 'two years later, then another two years' routine, are you?"
"You read too many undercover agent novels," Ryo said, a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"Maybe, but they do have some truth. And… I am kind of your mole, aren't I?" Giada said, swinging her legs lazily.
The Holy Ground Treaty Organization. An international governing body that regulates international treaties and laws, taking on a similar role as the United Nations in real life.
Most of the Dawn Empire's intelligence on it came from the Chaos Zone.
Calling her Ryo's planted agent there wasn't exactly wrong.
"To deal with a bunch of pests like that, do I really need a spy?" Ryo said, patting Giada's head and rubbing it hard.
The Third Primogenitor was infamous, yet surprisingly petite, barely over one and a half meters tall.
Visually speaking, though, she had all the right curves in all the right places, far better than Natsuki's. She fit Ryo's tastes perfectly.
After messing up the Third Primogenitor's hair, Ryo casually pulled out a stack of documents from his Gift Card.
"I met the Vampire King."
Giada raised an eyebrow, a hint of nostalgia in her voice. "Cain's adopted son? What a shame."
"I didn't kill him," Ryo said flatly.
"Huh?" Giada froze, clearly surprised. "You feeling merciful today?"
Given what she knew of the Vampire King, it was hard to imagine he hadn't provoked Ryo.
"Do I really seem that bloodthirsty to you?" Ryo rapped her head again.
Giada gave him a long, meaningful look, then said, "He's alive because he handed over what you wanted, right?"
"The legacy of the Cleansing. You've got it now?"
"More or less."
Ryo tapped the table, signaling her to look at the documents. "Check these. See if they're the core of the Cleansing and if anything's off."
"Oh?"
Giada picked up the translated material that Asagi had worked through and raised her brows.
"Not bad. Cracking the Deva language and translating it so precisely into Japanese… that girl's talented."
She flipped through the pages faster, then gathered them up and sighed.
"Based on what I know of the Cleansing, there's nothing wrong here. If anything, this goes into more detail than even I knew."
She paused, then shook her head.
"Cain's records are extremely complete. Looks like he knew from the start that once he turned us into demons, his own death was inevitable."
"No problems, then…"
The corners of Ryo's mouth lifted. His mood was visibly lighter.
With someone like Giada, a witness to the Deva's history, confirming it, he could finally let go of his remaining doubts.
"I need a god," Ryo said. "A real one. A genuine faith-born deity."
Giada stopped, then scratched her cheek awkwardly. "So you figured it out, huh?"
A year and a half ago, she'd lied, claiming the Devas were born gods and that killing her completely would require destroying the entire planet.
In truth, the Devas were merely special lifeforms that had invaded Earth and were worshiped as gods.
Compared to deities, they were closer to the vampires in novels who would die the moment they saw sunlight.
Giada sneaked a glance at Ryo, uncertain of his mood, and asked nervously, "You don't regret inviting me now, do you?"
She could more or less guess why Ryo had invited her to Little Garden, given the basic information she had received.
When an existence from another world first entered Little Garden, their spirit rank would be established.
Naturally born gods would be granted a divine spirit rank, gaining power equivalent to a Four-Digit.
In the lower layers of Little Garden, Four-Digits were absolute high-level existences.
Any community, upper or lower, would go out of its way to recruit one.
But… Giada wasn't a naturally born god.
Even though she had received human faith and been worshiped as a god by humans and demons alike for thousands of years, that fact didn't change.
Not being one meant not being one.
The spirit rank of a god was out of her reach. At best, she might qualify as a demi-god leaning toward the evil side.
The best she could reach was the Five-Digit level.
Five-Digits were still strong in the lower layers, but nowhere near as valued as Four-Digits.
Ryo looked at her, thought for a moment, then sighed. "Relax. If I said I'd take you to Little Garden, then I'll take you."
He wasn't the kind of man to go back on his word over something like this.
"That said, I ran into a snag with my experiments on the Cleansing. I need a large number of test subjects from different races…"
"Leave it to me!" Giada slapped her chest confidently.
"If I can't gather enough, I'll just drag that shut-in from the Middle East along."
The shut-in… the Second Primogenitor, Aswad-Guul Aziz? Known as the Fall Gazer, he was the ruler of the Dynasty of Destruction in the Middle East and had 19 beast vassals.
Ryo raised an eyebrow.
Giada hesitated, then added, "But finding a true god is tricky. Back in ancient times, the Devas monopolized almost all belief and resources. If we're looking for pure faith-born gods, it's basically down to luck…"
At that moment, Ryo said quietly, "Zazalamagiu."
"My intuition tells me that name has value."
"Zazalamagiu?" Giada froze for a moment before recalling him.
Zazalamagiu, the Deity of Darkness—a god of the underworld, slaughter, and destruction. He had been worshiped by a small city that was wiped out. The ruins of that territory now lay in the buffer zone between her forces and North America.
"I understand."
Giada caught on immediately, "I'll go there myself."
At that, a faint smile finally appeared on Ryo's face. "Good. Be careful on the way."
'So realistic… he only smiles once I agree to do the work…' Giada grumbled inwardly.
After that brief exchange, she left the café on her own.
Watching her figure disappear down the street, Ryo lifted his juice and took a sip.
"The god problem is mostly settled. What's left are a few special cases. Ancient weapons, alchemical lifeforms… and maybe I'll still need a Primogenitor…"
He narrowed his eyes, the corners of his lips slowly curling upward.
.
.
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