Lower layers of the East District.
Outer Gate 2105380.
Workshop 360, outside the residential area of the City of Ends.
This was where the fallen Arcadia — No Name — now made its home.
Ryo crouched down and scooped up a handful of soil, rubbing it between his fingers.
With just a few squeezes, it crumbled into sand and slipped through his grasp.
“Tch.
Whoever hit Arcadia really went for the kill.
They didn’t just destroy the community — they gutted the land itself.”
Ryo brushed the dirt from his hands.
The soil’s nutrients had been completely stripped.
Nothing would ever grow here again.
Beside him, Lamia sighed helplessly.
“Still no trace of Aunt Leticia.”
“Not surprising.
If Leticia wanted to stay hidden, do you think we’d find her that easily?”
Ryo wasn’t surprised in the least.
If she were that easy to track down, Laius wouldn’t have struggled so much.
As a former Little Garden Knight — the one who’d established the Floor Master system and fought alongside Arcadia’s members against Demon Lords — how could Leticia not be a master of concealment?
The knights who fought in the open died to ambushes long ago.
Ryo ruffled Lamia’s hair with a smile.
“Relax.
We hang around for a few days, and Leticia will show up.
There’s no way she won’t come to check on her old comrades’ children.”
“Or step in when they run into trouble.”
He glanced meaningfully into the distance and lowered his voice.
“The City of Ends isn’t exactly safe, you know.
Kuro Usagi can’t be everywhere at once.”
Lamia’s face softened into a smile.
“You’re right, master.
I was too impatient.”
Leticia was one of only two blood relatives Lamia had left in this world.
Her eagerness was understandable.
Ryo watched the small children gathering together, hauling buckets of water back from outside, and couldn’t help but feel moved.
“They’ve done well to hold on.”
Honestly, Arcadia’s education had been remarkable.
You could see it in those children.
They had to walk to the river outside the city just to fetch water every day, because the City of Ends’ water supply was monopolized.
If you wanted water, you paid.
And over these three years, there’d been plenty of people — old comrades of their parents, family elders — offering to take them in.
But they’d refused.
It was the dream of rebuilding their community that kept them going.
Arcadia had truly been an ideal place.
Even its children fought for the ideals of their elders.
“Lamia, let’s go.”
Sensing a warning gaze settling on him, Ryo waved dismissively.
“Eh?
Master, shouldn’t we observe a bit longer?”
Lamia blinked in surprise.
“Someone’s telling us to leave.”
Ryo said with a hint of grumbling.
What — I can’t even take a few looks at No Name?
Is that a crime?
Arcadia might have fallen, but its former allies were still very much alive.
Plenty of people were investigating who had attacked Arcadia.
And they weren’t about to let unfamiliar powerhouses get too close to No Name.
Clearly, in their eyes, Ryo qualified as an unfamiliar powerhouse.
The only reason he hadn’t been attacked on approach was Lamia’s connection to Leticia — plus the heads-up he’d given Shiroyasha beforehand.
Otherwise, he’d have been intercepted before even getting close.
Still, Ryo couldn’t help but grumble.
So stingy.
“I just wanted to see what a Moon Rabbit looks like.
Is that too much to ask?”
The moment those words left his mouth, the mysterious gaze gained a distinctly threatening edge.
And the distinct feeling of someone wanting to curse him out.
Forget the Moon Rabbit — get the hell out of here!!
“Guess I won’t be seeing Kuro Usagi today.”
Ryo dusted himself off and left with Lamia, resigned.
Just then, Ryo noticed something odd on the Dimensional Forum.
Someone had @’d him?
And it wasn’t the golden bastard who never stopped harassing people?
[Customer Service Saki-chan Is Very Unhappy to Serve You: @Old Man, your method doesn’t seem to be working.
What do I do?]
[Customer Service Saki-chan Is Very Unhappy to Serve You: I’ve waited several days.
I opened a sharing post, but no one’s sharing songs or light novels.]
[Old Man: Did you ever consider that maybe the Dimensional Forum doesn’t have many users yet?
And that people like you — living in peaceful worlds — are the minority of the minority?]
In the world of the MyGO band story, Togawa Sakiko stared at the reply, lost in thought.
That was…
a fair point.
Ryo then turned his attention to his blocked private messages.
Seeing the accumulated count of over a hundred thousand messages, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“The goddamn golden bastard is still harassing me.
Does he do nothing all day but spam me?”
“Thank god I had the foresight to block him.”
Without the block, Ryo could only imagine how bad the harassment would’ve gotten.
Honestly, he was almost afraid to look at whatever colorful language the golden bastard had sent his way.
The last message he’d left before blocking had been…
a bit provocative.
Still, curiosity got the better of him.
Even if it was garbage, he wanted to taste-test the garbage first.
[I Am Not A God: Dad, I was wrong, Dad!!]
[I Am Not A God: Dad, you can’t disown me!!]
[I Am Not A God: Dad, just say something!]
[I Am Not A God: Dad, I’m on my knees begging you!!
Please, tell me how to save humanity!!]
[I Am Not A God: Guh!
Humanity cannot live without a father!
The Imperium cannot live without a father, guh!]
…
“Fuck — this golden bastard is still trying to screw me over.
That cesspit of a world?
You think I can save it?”
Ryo spat.
The golden bastard was clearly still scheming to drag him into the cesspool.
But being constantly spammed wasn’t sustainable either.
After thinking it over, Ryo replied:
[Old Man: Give it up.
I can’t save that cesspool.
At least, not right now.]