42: Travel

The joining and pill-bestowal ceremony had ended perfectly. There was still a banquet at the winery that evening, but some impatient guests had already made excuses to leave, eager to hurry home and report to their families.

From today onward, the Hirosue Family would surely return to the ranks of the top families, thanks to their early investment in the Holy Infant Society.

Most of the guests stayed. Gatherings that brought together so many influential people from all walks of life were rare. Getting to know more people to expand their networks couldn't hurt.

The five who had taken the pills today were undoubtedly the center of attention.

Their companions had escorted the two Special Affairs Bureau members away after they apologized to Nakai Hayato and left early. The other two were heads of major financial conglomerates, and only a handful of people could speak with them as equals.

At that moment, the group stood in the center of the banquet, speaking in low voices about something. Anyone without sufficient standing wouldn't dare approach, afraid that even the slightest annoyance might lead to their family's ruin.

That left everyone with little choice but to turn their attention to Jamie Walton, the second son and heir of the Walton Family.

No one knew how much the Walton Family had paid for this spot, but as long as he stepped into the supernatural world, every previous investment would be worth it.

People already knew that the Holy Son Pill's most basic effects were curing all illnesses and extending one's lifespan.

Beyond that, the ability most people awakened was Super-Density Defense, a defensive power. A little stronger were abilities like Toyokawa Jousei's special life-saving ability, or Nakai Hayato's formidable attack and defense.

These were not secrets to them, despite being beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Now, many were curious about what ability Walton had awakened.

In their eyes, an ordinary defensive ability didn't really count as entering the supernatural ranks. After all, almost everyone who took the pill gained it. It had no offensive power, and couldn't even protect against high-powered weapons like rifles and sniper rifles.

So people from several friendly families kept trying to wheedle the information out of him.

"Oh, thank the Holy Infant Lord. If I get the chance, I'll tell you. For now, please let me keep it confidential. My family secured this spot for me, so I'll need to discuss everything with them first."

Walton seemed not to care what anyone thought. He refused to budge, insisting he had to discuss it with his family after he returned.

The local red wine, which he had once dismissed as beneath him, seemed to have a unique and wonderful flavor as he swirled it and took a sip.

He had never received this much attention before, but he knew exactly where it all came from.

So he wasn't foolish enough to cast aside his powerful family support now.

But if he had the chance to truly ally himself with the Holy Infant Society and gain even greater supernatural powers, he would probably abandon his family without hesitation.

"President, perhaps we could recruit him."

Nobuo Hirosue glanced at Jamie Walton, who was the focus of everyone's attention, and spoke quietly to Nakai Hayato beside him.

"No need. The Holy Infant Lord doesn't care about that. The faithful will receive the blessings of the faithful, and the traitorous will suffer the hardships of the traitorous."

His dealings with the Holy Infant and the Ninth Guardian had taught him that the Holy Infant Lord regarded even the Holy Infant Society as something he could cast aside at any moment. If they wanted to keep serving him, they had to prove their worth.

Nakai Hayato suspected that the more people awakened abilities, the more the Holy Infant Lord would appreciate them.

So his next step was to organize all kinds of team-building activities that skirted the edge of life and death. After all, he had improved his own ability while fighting for his life amid a hail of gunfire.

As for those who had joined through exchanges of benefits, Nakai Hayato neither rejected nor welcomed them. If they wanted to become core members, they had to prove their loyalty to the Holy Infant.

Meanwhile, the Special Affairs Bureau had begun testing the abilities of its two colleagues.

"Besides Super-Density Defense, Takashima Yumi also has Super Strength. Her abilities are very similar to Sato Tomomi's back then. She's extremely strong in both offense and defense, like a super-soldier from a movie."

"Nishikido Jun's ability is quite interesting. In addition to his defensive power, his strength has doubled. Of course, that's a very small increase by supernatural standards, so I suspect it's the effect of another ability."

"For now, I'm calling it Sword Saint. In practice, it gives Nishikido Jun terrifying proficiency with bladed weapons. You could even say that once he grips a sword hilt, he becomes a different person. Both his attack and survival abilities improve dramatically, and he can even track bullets with his eyes."

"Truly the Sword Saint of our time!"

Both Special Affairs Bureau members who had taken the pills had awakened abilities with solid combat potential. This came as a great relief to Kuroki Niizumi, who had selected them and submitted their names.

After hearing about it, the Minister of Defense called her personally to praise her work. He also instructed her to officially form a Special Assault Force with the two of them and Toyokawa Jousei as soon as possible, and train them in combat awareness and teamwork to curb the increasingly frequent supernatural disturbances.

Toyokawa Jousei was once again headed for hellish training.

What they didn't know was that the source of all the supernatural chaos in Tokyo, the mastermind behind the Holy Infant Society, the ambidextrous combat master, and the loving father whom the Supreme Saintess could never forget—Shiraishi Wataru—was preparing to head off to America for a vacation.

Yes, his main purpose was sightseeing. His secondary purpose was to see whether New York City, a place said to be blessed with extraordinary people and natural wonders, had any hidden sages. And his least important purpose was to conduct a tiny, insignificant experiment.

Ever since he gained Demon Declaration, he had been eager to see what would happen if he used the ability on an inanimate object.

His experiments over the past few days had taught him that the larger an entity was, or the more energy it contained, the more malice it could bear—and the higher its threshold.

The moment he even thought about declaring the sun a demon, his temples began throbbing in warning, telling him not to do anything stupid.

If he actually made the declaration, the cost would probably come straight back to him—and there'd be no saving him.

Even if he took it down a notch and targeted another planet, his instincts would still warn him. The malice wouldn't exceed the threshold, and the declaration would certainly fail.

After testing these ideas, he found that the warnings he felt could tell him whether the "entity" he wanted to declare could become a demon, and whether it posed a "high threat" to him. That way, he wouldn't accidentally create an indestructible demon without realizing it.

As for energy phenomena like earthquakes and typhoons, there was very little malice before they caused any damage. By the time they did, the earthquake would already be over, while the typhoon would probably be close to dissipating.

So that wasn't very practical either. Shiraishi Wataru decided to focus on inanimate objects, and after thinking it over, concluded that it would be best to start with an object that formed a single whole.

And so, on a sunny morning in July, a Western-looking man from a small European country boarded a flight to New York after entering the country visa-free.

Sightseeing was something he wanted to enjoy in person, so Shiraishi Wataru used Alienation to transform his body into the person shown on his passport. The passport's owner, meanwhile, used parasitism to take Shiraishi Wataru's appearance and stay home.

Seated in economy class, he leafed through an American magazine with interest, like any pilgrim looking forward to visiting the world's beacon of freedom.

"Oh, this travel magazine is nice. It introduces a lot of attractions even the locals don't know about."

A woman's voice came from beside him. Shiraishi Wataru looked up and saw a beauty who strongly resembled Jennifer Connelly from his previous life. She looked to be in her early twenties, though Westerners tended to look more mature, so she was probably younger than he'd guessed.

"Hello, I'm Jennifer Miller, an exchange student."

"Hi, I'm Owen Garcia, a down-on-his-luck traveler from Western Europe."

"Haha, is there anywhere in particular you want to go? Maybe I can recommend somewhere. And, um, I won't charge you a tip."

"The place I most want to visit is actually pretty ordinary. It's right here."

Shiraishi Wataru closed the magazine and showed Jennifer the cover.

Jennifer looked at it and smiled in understanding. It made sense that a foreigner would want to see the place.

The cover showed America's irreplaceable, proud symbol, and a witness to history: the Statue of Liberty.