Crossover: The Problematic Human of Arcadia — Shaper of Anime Worlds Chapter 453: Unlucky Idiot?

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Taking 'this is a trap' as the answer and working backward, Ares' mind started racing.

It may have started with Hers' mistake at [Perseus]. A single failed delivery brought Ryo and Aishelia together. Athena would never waste an opportunity like that. She could have turned it into the cornerstone of this entire sche.

On one hand, she openly approached Ryo under the banner of "recruitnt," pulling him out into the open as her hidden piece on the board.

On the other, she used Zeus' wariness toward her to nudge him into sending Hers after Ryo. That move pushed the two into open hostility, forcing Hers to dispatch one of his important incarnations to deal with Ryo directly.

And once that happened, the conditions were perfect. Capture that incarnation. Control it.

Ares sucked in a sharp breath. He stared at Ryo, his gaze wavering, as if the face in front of him overlapped with another image. A beautiful, intelligent woman with radiant golden hair.

Was this really Athena's sche?

Very likely.

So, by the ti Ryo stepped onto the real stage of Little Garden, or even earlier, he might already have been Athena's man.

No. That's not right.

Soone with Ryo's level of power wouldn't swear loyalty so easily. Athena must have paid a price big enough to satisfy him, one that made it worth offending Zeus.

So what could possibly satisfy Ryo Yagami, even at the cost of challenging the Greeks?

Did Athena really have that kind of leverage?

…Wait.

What if she used herself as the bargaining chip?

Ares' scalp went cold.

Could it be that the intimacy between Athena and Ryo at the banquet wasn't an act at all?

What if it went even further? What if they'd already ford a bond as close as Zeus and Hera's, a true marital tie engraved into their Spirit Rank?

If that were the case, did Ryo even need a reason to work for Athena?

Helping his queen, or having the queen help her husband, didn't require justification.

A bond at the level of Spirit Rank ant shared positions, shared will. Two people, one stance.

That would explain everything. Even a domain capable of suppressing authority, Athena could share it with Ryo without hesitation.

Given her personality, if he were truly her husband, knowing most of her hidden cards would be natural.

She had always despised Zeus for marrying Hera while remaining unfaithful to both her mother and his wife. She loathed infidelity and swore she would never beco that kind of god.

So judging by Athena's character, sharing her secrets would be her way of proving loyalty to her marriage.

And with that honesty, she could very well have won over Ryo completely, even using herself, or even the Greek pantheon, as the final stake to secure a four-digit irregular (freak) of terrifying strength.

That alliance might have been ford long before the gods ever learned of Ryo's existence, back when he was still unknown.

Only after that, when the Trickster appeared, did Athena propose the plan to "send agents and observe other worlds."

Then she exploited the part of the plan involving Hers delivering ssages, setting up the first spark of conflict between Hers and Ryo.

The goal? Push Ryo into the spotlight. Make Zeus wary. Lay the groundwork.

After that, Athena kept stirring things up, guiding events so Ryo could restrain Hers' key incarnation, quietly placing Hers under control as a hidden blade planted right beside Zeus.

She and Ryo must have coordinated this in advance.

That would explain why, when Zeus first tried to recruit Ryo and ordered Hers to send out a weak incarnation as a gesture of goodwill, Ryo reacted so aggressively. He pushed Hers into a rage, forcing him to strike and locking in their enmity.

And then, just when Hers was furious and the apparently weaker "Ryo Yagami" seed about to suffer brutal retaliation, Athena suddenly revealed her intimacy with him.

Everyone knew Zeus' paranoid streak.

Ryo, who was already suspected of being Athena's subordinate, suddenly received her personal protection. And worse, it ca in a way that completely wrecked Athena's reputation as a virgin goddess.

Of course Zeus would sll sothing off.

So Zeus grew openly wary of Ryo and tacitly allowed Hers to issue a warning in his na as god-king. But Ares personally chose to strike first, attacking Ryo before Hers could arrive, hoping to humiliate Athena.

That decision sent the situation spiraling out of control, escalating at breakneck speed until it beca a one-on-one deathmatch.

After that, Hers appeared, and all Ryo had to do was seize him. Yes, Hers had always been the real target. Ares was sure of that. Because once Hers was in hand, Ryo could use soul-based thods to control him, planting a hidden dagger right at Zeus' side.

As for all that talk about selling them off, that was obviously nonsense.

Then the controlled Hers would probably go to Athena for help. At that point, Athena would personally step in and "persuade" Ryo, convincing him to hand Hers over at minimal cost.

Zeus might suspect that Hers' loyalty had tilted toward Athena, but he would never imagine that Hers had been outright soul-controlled.

And as long as Hers continued showing loyalty to Zeus, suspicion would slowly fade. The intelligence gap between Athena and Zeus would widen, laying the foundation for her eventual ascent to the throne of god-king.

And in all of this…

He, Ares, was what? A voluntary idiot who jumped in out of sheer hatred for Athena? A bonus catch born of dumb luck?

Athena's original plan probably never accounted for him. A sche designed for one target wouldn't normally include two. Yet in reality, he was the first one to step into the trap.

Her plan targeted Hers. Ryo just happened to turn it into a clean sweep, and Ares himself blundered in like a fool.

If that was true, then with Ares added to the pile, Zeus' suspicion would be split between two people instead of one. Wouldn't that raise Athena's chances of seizing power even higher?

Had he beco a walking gift?

Ares froze. His face flushed red in the next instant.

If that was really the case, no matter how you looked at it, he was a colossal idiot.

Soone who never needed to get caught, but walked straight into the trap out of pure hostility toward Athena.

The thought made him mutter in a daze, "That's not right… I'm not an idiot. No, no, Hers is the idiot! He's the one who fell into the trap!"

"…?" Hers was stunned.

'Brother, look at the state we're in right now. You still have the nerve to insult ? What the fuck is wrong with you?'

'Damn it. If I weren't preparing to secretly contact my main body, I'd swear at your ancestors and call myself your dad.'

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'So he's misunderstood sothing…' Ryo narrowed his eyes as he watched Ares.

Heh. Ares had clearly dumped the whole conspiracy onto Athena's head.

Which was normal enough. Athena was powerful, but she preferred solving problems with her brain. Since she'd openly declared her ambition to beco the fourth-generation god-king, of course she would be making preparations.

So Ares naturally assud that everything happening lately was Athena's plan from start to finish.

That ant if he sohow contacted his main body while Ryo was setting up the domain, the information he tried to pass on would focus on Athena, not on Ryo himself.

Well, throwing an ally under the bus was a bit shaless. But Ryo's next plan would benefit Athena quite a lot anyway, so he could treat it as compensation for her taking the bla.

Act first, explain later was a little heartless, but the plan ca first. Turning two Olympian gods into puppets was simply too valuable. Any pantheon would salivate over that, let alone dirt-poor Arcadia.

Once the domain was fully in place, he could start preparing that plan. The only question was the success rate. He'd need to check the forum later to be sure.

Thinking this, Ryo quietly reinforced the domain.

He intended to suppress both Ares and Hers down to five-digit strength, and then put his idea into action.

...

Before long, Hers realized Ryo was still strengthening the domain. His attempts to secretly contact his main body kept failing. He couldn't even confirm whether a few words had gone through.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.

"What exactly are you planning to do to us?"

Hearing that, Ryo, having completely finished the domain by steadily burning his microcosmos, smiled.

"Have you ever heard… 'The flesh is weak, but the machine is eternal'?"

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