Miracle

After a few quiet calls confirmed that the Holy Infant had fallen asleep, Nakai Hayato had his assistants carefully lay him back in the morgue drawer. Everyone stayed silent throughout the process, though their eyes kept drifting toward the two Holy Son Pills in Nakai Hayato's hand.

They were all wondering what they could offer in exchange for getting to take a Holy Son Pill first.

Although the Holy Infant had said that more Holy Son Pills would be bestowed on June 5, that was still a full half a month away. Now that they had seen a glimmer of hope, who would be willing to keep swallowing bitterness and despair?

Besides, the Holy Infant hadn't said how many pills there would be, and there were so many people. Even if core members had an advantage, some other member might prove more devout than them.

Though Nakai Hayato wanted to give both pills to his trusted subordinates, he knew those two didn't really count as members. They had only been Yakuza before, and not very successful ones at that. They knew perfectly well that they were deceiving everyone; they had only stayed by his side for the money. If he gave them power, they might turn on him one day.

But now that the Holy Infant was real, every core member could become one of his trusted subordinates. The Holy Infant Lord seemed to care only about the number of members.

Nakai Hayato looked over the seven core members and made up his mind.

"Everyone, you heard it too. More pills will be bestowed in half a month. And as you can see, I've already taken a Holy Son Pill. Its effects are extraordinary." Nakai Hayato confirmed what they had all suspected.

The pills could even make people younger!

The two old men were so excited they nearly grabbed Nakai Hayato by the trouser leg.

"Since we all belong to the Holy Infant Society, we're one family. I've decided to give these two Holy Son Pills to the youngest and oldest among us. The rest of you will have to wait another half a month. I promise that at the next ceremony, if I'm still the one distributing the pills, you'll be given priority." Nakai Hayato didn't dare make too bold a promise, but his words still carried considerable weight.

"I agree!" The oldest man sprang to his feet, his face flushed.

The couple also looked delighted. Whether they counted their son or the two of them, they were the youngest ones there.

The others exchanged glances but ultimately didn't object.

"Of course."

"I can wait for the next batch. President, don't forget about me!"

"President, will eating it make a child smarter and more obedient, too?"

Nakai Hayato answered each of them patiently, then solemnly placed the Holy Son Pills in the hands of the couple and the oldest man.

"Although the Holy Infant Lord didn't say so, I need to watch you take them here. And I'll go to the hospital with you, too." To be safe, Nakai Hayato wanted to witness them swallowing the pills.

"No problem. We can do that." The couple nodded. Then they watched as the old man held the rather large pill. Another old man handed him a thermos, and the two exchanged a smile. The old man swallowed the pill in one go.

Gulp.

Everyone stared intently at the old man who had just swallowed the pill, as though they were waiting to witness a miracle.

Five seconds, ten seconds, twenty seconds.

Under the fervent gaze of everyone present, a miracle descended.

The old man's aged, deeply wrinkled face seemed to be gently smoothed by an invisible hand. His complexion gradually took on a healthy flush, and even his scalp, shaved bare for chemotherapy, sprouted a layer of short, dark hair.

In just one day—or, more precisely, within an hour—the old man completed a three-stage transformation: from a skeptic, to someone who understood the fanatics, to a fanatic himself.

From that moment on, even if the Holy Infant told him that suicide would send him straight to heaven, where he would never suffer again, he would carry it out without hesitation—and take his family along to that wonderful heaven.

His hands trembled with excitement as he rubbed his face and hair again and again. Suddenly, the old man burst into tears and laughter. Only by repeatedly kneeling and kowtowing before the Holy Infant's coffin could he express even a fraction of his overwhelming emotions.

The onlookers were no less excited than the old man. The members were swept up in joy, and even the two assistants found their worldview shaken. It was as if the scientific world had collapsed in an instant.

Nakai Hayato glanced at the crowd, barely able to contain their excitement, and felt that only now did the Holy Infant Society finally look like what it was meant to be.

But Nakai Hayato was puzzled. After testing the old man, he found that he didn't seem to have been granted any strength.

Could it be that what he had taken wasn't a Holy Son Pill, but a higher-grade pill?

He thought it was possible. After all, he had been "chosen" as president by the Holy Infant, so it made sense that he might receive special treatment.

Amid the excitement, Nakai Hayato announced the end of the meeting. Next, he would accompany the couple and watch them give their son a Holy Son Pill, while also checking whether his guess was right.

In fact, Nakai Hayato's guess was only half right.

The pills Shiraishi Wataru had given them were all clumps of Parasites, but not everyone could directly gain his two current abilities—[Super Strength] and [Steel Body].

Some people were compatible with both abilities and could be granted them directly, while the old man was only compatible with Steel Body. Becoming younger and recovering from illness were both side effects of Steel Body.

As it happened, Shiraishi Wataru also wanted to collect experimental data and see how compatibility with [Super Strength] and [Steel Body] changed with a larger sample size. He wanted to find out whether the old man couldn't inherit Super Strength because of his age and frailty, or for some deeper reason.

He also wanted to see what would happen if someone inherited Super Strength alone.

Leaving aside Shiraishi Wataru's many thoughts, Nakai Hayato had by then followed the couple to a private hospital's single-patient room.

The husband stood by the door to keep anyone from disturbing them. The wife held the "pill" and, encouraged by Nakai Hayato's gaze, helped her son sit up. He was pale from years of poor health, and she gently urged him to swallow it.

The frail twelve-year-old boy had been ill for so long that he seemed more mature and sensible than most children his age. Though he didn't really believe in the strange thing his mother had brought him, he didn't want to disappoint her, so he drank some water and struggled to swallow the pill.

Watching her son change bit by bit, his mother covered her mouth in excitement. Tears burst forth without warning.

"Can he only adapt to Steel Body, too?" Shiraishi Wataru murmured, making a note of it.

Before long, the husband heard excited cries of joy from inside the room. Standing guard at the door, he smiled and prayed through his tears. "Holy Infant above, we thank you for granting him a new life." Then he wiped his eyes, turned, opened the door, and rushed inside.

As the other witnesses waited in mounting suspense, the ordinary day of June 5 finally arrived.