Inside the teahouse, Freya removed her hood, revealing her breathtakingly beautiful face.
Her gaze passed over Loki and landed on Ryoji, her expression filled with amusement.
'Don't expose us in front of her, please!' Ryoji frantically tried to communicate with his eyes.
"Hoho, who would dare be angry with you, Loki?"
Whether she noticed his signals or not, Freya turned to respond to Loki's greeting.
"Haha, you flatter me!" Loki walked into the teahouse with her usual cheeky grin.
At the same time, she was frantically signaling Ryoji behind her back.
'Use your charm! Charm this old woman!'
Ryoji kept a perfectly calm expression on the outside, but inside, he was terrified.
'Damn it! Who cares about using charm right now?! If I'm not careful, Freya and I are going to be exposed!'
Inside the small room, Loki and Freya sat facing each other, both wearing perfectly friendly smiles.
Ryoji stood behind Loki.
Behind Freya stood a tall, powerfully built Boaz youth, it was none other than Orario's strongest, Ottar.
Ottar gave Ryoji a cold glare, clearly displeased with him.
Ryoji silently looked away, pretending he had absolutely nothing to do with either of them.
"Aiya, Freya. How did you think of charming Tammuz?" Loki was getting impatient.
She hadn't seen any sign that Ryoji had used his charm. Perhaps he hadn't expected the person she wanted him to charm to be a goddess, so he was hesitating.
She casually moved one hand behind her back, signaling desperately to Ryoji while continuing to chat with Freya with a smile.
"You invited me here just to talk about that?" Freya tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear, her smile never fading. "Nothing special. I noticed Ishtar's movements a month ago, so I deliberately charmed the person she trusted most and obtained information from him."
As she spoke, Freya's seductive gaze swept over Ryoji.
In fact, she had obtained quite a bit of information from Ryoji himself as well. Things like the Corrupted Spirit had been revealed while they were enjoying themselves together.
Pillow talk really was effective.
"'Whistle, whistle!'" Ryoji turned his head toward the sky outside the window. He tried to whistle twice, but not a sound came out.
"What are you doing?" Loki turned around and glared at him.
'I told you to use charm, and you're just standing there making weird noises. What the hell are you doing?'
Freya burst out laughing at the sight.
"Never mind. Let's stop beating around the bush, shall we? Loki, I believe this is what you want?"
She flipped her hand over and produced a red gem roughly the size of a fist.
"I heard that Loki Familia went into the artificial labyrinth last time and suffered a crushing defeat. Ever since you returned, you've been searching for this, haven't you?"
The letter 'D' was engraved in the center of the gem. It was precisely the key to the artificial labyrinth, Knossos!
"Ahem. Yes, this is exactly what I want!" Loki cleared her throat before suddenly shouting: "Ryoji, go!"
Since Freya had already seen through them, there was no point pretending anymore.
Ottar immediately gave Ryoji a sharp, predatory look.
Freya tilted her head, looking amused.
"Well… I've already used it."
"Huh?"
"Seriously. I'm not lying." Ryoji answered with complete sincerity.
He really had used his charm on Freya many times. In fact, the two of them had used their abilities on each other repeatedly; whenever they sang together and ran low on mental energy, they would use it again to recover completely.
"Could it be that I didn't notice?" Loki was completely dumbfounded.
But that didn't seem right. If Ryoji had really used his charm, why was there not even the slightest sign of it on Freya?
And even if Freya had resistance to charm, surely Ottar didn't.
So why did Ottar also look completely unaffected?
"Loki, I can give you the key. It isn't particularly useful to me anyway." Freya calmly interrupted the farce unfolding before her. "But I'm not giving it to you for free. I have a condition."
"What condition?"
"I want him."
Freya raised her hand, her slender index finger pointing directly at Ryoji.
'Goddammit,' Ryoji cursed inwardly.
He wasn't surprised in the slightest.
Freya had deliberately brought Tammuz to the Divine Council and completely cleared Ryoji of all charges. That guaranteed Loki Familia would discover the key was in her possession, and if they wanted to conquer the artificial labyrinth, they would have no choice but to negotiate with her.
That gave her exactly what she wanted.
And what did she want? There was no need to guess.
Freya had never asked Loki for anything. The only person she had ever truly set her sights on was Ryoji.
"…Let's go home." Loki's expression turned cold. She sighed and stood up. "I'll take what you said as a joke. But you should make jokes like that less often. You know perfectly well that I never use my children as bargaining chips."
She clearly didn't mean a word of it, that was Loki's assessment of Freya.
After dealing with her for so many years, Freya knew Loki's personality perfectly well, yet she had still proposed such a condition. That meant she had never seriously intended to exchange the key in the first place.
"Hehe. So that's how it is?" Freya suddenly laughed. "Don't worry. I was only joking too."
"Your expression says otherwise."
"Ara, does it?" Freya smiled softly.
She really had come with the intention of trading the key for Ryoji. But, as expected, things had turned out exactly as she anticipated.
"Loki, could you step outside for a moment? I'd like to speak with this child alone."
"Huh?" Loki's expression immediately darkened.
"Don't worry. I won't ask him to join my Familia." Freya gave a light laugh.
Loki frowned deeply. She absolutely did not want one of her children being alone with Freya, knowing better than anyone just how dangerous this woman was.
But when it came to Ryoji…
She looked at him questioningly.
Ryoji silently nodded.
"All right." Loki pouted before turning around and leaving the teahouse.
Ryoji's Skill, 'Brave Sword Heart', gave him extremely strong resistance against mental interference, a fact Loki knew very well as his Chief God. After what had happened with Ishtar Familia, she was even more certain that he could resist the Goddess of Beauty's charm.
At the very least, she was confident Freya wouldn't be able to take him away.
"Ottar, you too."
"But Freya-sama, your safety…"
"No one here will hurt me." Freya was completely certain.
"…Yes." Ottar was silent for a moment. He gave Ryoji another displeased look before following Loki out of the teahouse.
"Now it's just the two of us."
Freya stood and walked over to Ryoji. She raised her snow-white arms and gently wrapped them around his neck, her eyes gradually filling with amusement.
"This is the surprise I prepared for you. What do you think?"
"So this was the surprise? I thought you were trying to kill me." Ryoji glanced around.
The room's soundproofing really wasn't very good, so he lowered his voice.
"What exactly are you planning?"
(End of Chapter)
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