"Ohh..." "Ohh..." "Ohh..."
The street, normally crowded with people coming and going, fell briefly silent.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
A young man walked past with platinum-blond hair falling over his shoulders, a pair of golden eyes that seemed to hold stars and seas within them, and a holy radiance shining from around his body. He had an aura that was both sacred and gentle, and a flawless smile rested on his face.
The passersby, whether entranced or simply admiring, stared at the beautiful white-haired, golden-eyed boy walking along the roadside. Shock filled their eyes, and as if they had been put under some kind of mental control, they could not help opening their mouths and letting out awestruck little cries of "Ohh..."
Only after the boy had gone did the street return to its usual bustling noise, but the people who had been chatting all shifted the topic in perfect unison to that very same boy.
...
Yes, keep talking, keep talking. I love hearing this.
Listening to the endless chorus of "Ohh..." from the surrounding bystanders, Cid was laughing like crazy inside, while outwardly still wearing an expression as warm and pleasant as a spring breeze.
Sure enough, in terms of spiritual presence, the current me, fully invested in the role of the Child of God, is perfect. Come to think of it, if I asked some rich lady to keep me in this form, how much could I get?
The bystanders around him, endlessly gasping in admiration, could never have imagined that the beautiful boy before them, with such astonishing looks and such a gentle, holy aura, had thoughts this filthy in his heart.
In truth, if someone who knew Cid looked carefully enough right now, they would notice that aside from changing the color of his hair and eyes, he had not altered anything else at all. His facial features and face shape were exactly the same as before. Not plain, perhaps, but definitely nowhere near beautiful.
And yet no one would think Cid looked much like the Child of God. Why was that?
The answer was beauty. Cid had added the concept of beauty to himself.
Its effect was roughly equivalent to changing the world's standards of beauty, a power that sounded unimpressive on the surface but was actually terrifying.
Of course, Cid was not that insane. He did not want to alter the aesthetic sense of normal people all over the world, so he exploited a little bug and made use of humanity's natural double standards.
He had not changed the world's sense of beauty itself, but he had forcefully anchored his current appearance as the most beautiful face in the world, so that whenever people encountered this version of him, they would uncontrollably start applying double standards.
For example, someone might hate white hair and think it looked ugly, but that would not stop them from thinking the Child of God's white hair was the most beautiful in the world.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cid noticed a little girl standing beneath a large tree by the roadside, holding a balloon and staring at him wide-eyed with admiration. A meaningful look flashed through his eyes, and the corner of his mouth curled up and dropped again so quickly that no ordinary person could have seen it.
Perfect location, perfect condition, perfect age. You'll be today's first good deed.
Within his sensory field, he activated the high-density magic mark he had left that morning on the Excalibur of Xenovia and the others before they woke up.
"Wind."
Magic began to flow through his body. With molecular-level control, he formed a magic core imprint inside himself and poured magic into it.
Inside the little girl's tightly clenched hand, within that tiny space that was practically sealed shut, a current of wind began to stir. The flow acted like a lubricant, successfully causing the balloon string to slip free from her grasp.
"Waaah..."
By the time the little girl realized what had happened, the red balloon was already caught in the tree. After jumping several times and still failing to reach the string, her eyes turned red, and she was just about to cry.
A figure leaped high into the air and effortlessly caught hold of the balloon string snagged in the tree.
After landing, Cid looked at the little girl sitting on the ground and staring up at him with wide, longing eyes. He smiled gently, crouched down, handed the string back to her, and pinched her cheek.
"Next time, make sure you hold on tight. If a face this cute gets all tear-streaked over something like this, that would be a real waste, wouldn't it?"
The little girl happily took the balloon back, her eyes wide as she broke into a bright smile.
"Thank you, big brother."
"No need to thank me."
After all, if it were not for me, your balloon would not have flown into the sky in the first place.
Waving with a sunny smile, Cid turned and headed off in another direction.
The first message point he had prepared for Xenovia and the others was already set. It was time to complete the second Child of God message point.
After yesterday's good cry atop the ruins of the treasure vault to vent his emotions, after dealing with all the questions from Asagi Aiba and the others, and after explaining everything to Natsuki-chan when he ran into her afterward and got back home, Cid's grief-stricken heart had finally calmed down after a night of physical training.
When he woke up, life still had to go on, so after giving himself a few minutes of mental encouragement, Cid continued with the original plan.
By manipulating the direction of Xenovia and the others' Excalibur, he disguised himself as the Child of God and left traces of the Child of God's passage all across Itogami Island, always departing one step ahead of Xenovia and the others before they could reach his location and leaving them with nothing.
Then, after a few more days, he would show up again to make Xenovia and the others aware of the Child of God's existence. After testing them for a few more days, he could finally make his official appearance before them.
Ah... while sending Xenovia and the others away, I'm also getting to do Eminence in Shadow play. In a way, this is another perfect case of killing two birds with one stone through Eminence in Shadow play!
Taking a bite of the cotton candy in his hand, Cid continued in the direction he had planned.
To leave clues about the Child of God for Xenovia and the others, while also matching the naturally "holy" style of the Child of God, he needed to spend the entire day doing good deeds without a single break.
After finishing the cotton candy, he tossed the stick into a trash can and began heading toward the major accident-prone locations across Itogami Island.
He rescued a kitten that had climbed a tree, then bought a lollipop...
He pulled back an office worker who had nearly been hit by a car, then bought a candied hawthorn skewer and ate it...
He saved a drowning tourist at the beach, then bought a few grilled skewers and ate them...
He used magic to make a little boy's unfinished homework accidentally fall out and go missing, then waited half an hour, tracked the boy by his aura, delivered it to his school, and bought a cup of bubble tea...
He took a newcomer who had collapsed on the street to the hospital, then bought a pork cutlet rice bowl...
He found a wallet and felt a bit reluctant to give it back, but with previous lessons in mind, and to maintain his image, he found the owner and then bought a box of takoyaki...
He found a three-month-old baby, tracked down the trash parents who had not gone far, slapped them, then took the baby to an orphanage and bought some oden...
He helped a lost old lady find her way, then bought... well...
He was out of money.
So he stopped being the Child of God, switched back to Cid's appearance, and bought a lollipop...
As the sun sank westward, the great glowing orb hung across the line where sea and sky met, painting a truly beautiful view.
Staring at the evening glow on the horizon and biting hard on the lollipop in his mouth, Cid let out a heartfelt sigh.
Then his expression suddenly twisted, and he slammed a heavy punch into the tree beside him.
"Are you kidding me? With Asia acting as the mole and guiding them, why haven't Xenovia and the others found the clues I left behind yet?"
Cid could not understand it. He had installed a real-time detection function on the Excalibur. The closer they got to him, the brighter it would shine.
With Asia acting as an insider, he had basically been leaving one clue after another while simultaneously reporting his previous location directly into her mind.
Even under those conditions, he was still leaving clues, so what exactly were Xenovia and the others doing? How had they still not shown up anywhere in this area?
He bit off the lollipop in one gulp and swallowed it, then let out a sigh. He was already planning to go back and ask Asia what exactly was going on. The clue had practically been shoved right in Xenovia's face, and they still had not shown up.
Walking dejectedly along the roadside, Cid casually glanced to one side, then froze in place.
A small girl in a black Gothic Lolita dress, with long straight black hair, was crouching by the roadside, blankly watching the cars speed past.
He looked around and, after confirming that there was no sign of anyone who looked like a guardian, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Another one. Can parents these days be even a little more responsible? I've already run into five lost kids today..."
Even as he grumbled, Cid still walked over to the girl in black Lolita clothes. He had already done this many good deeds today, so a few more minutes would not make any difference.
He crouched down and spoke as gently as he could.
"Hey, little one. Are you lost?"
Hearing the unfamiliar voice, the Lolita girl turned to look at Cid. Then her expression paused, and something strange flashed through her eyes as she stared fixedly at him.
"...Are you lost?"
Being looked at like that did not make Cid feel embarrassed. When she did not answer, he assumed she had not heard him clearly the first time and asked again.
"Lost?... Right. I'm lost."
As if she found the very concept of being lost difficult to understand, the Lolita girl thought about it for a moment. Then, as if giving up on thinking altogether, she simply admitted it.
"I knew it."
Cid slapped a hand to his forehead, stood up, and pulled out his phone, planning to inform the Itogami Island Guard so they could help this child find her parents.
"Name?"
"Ophis."
While tapping on his phone screen, and feeling Ophis's gaze locked tightly onto him, Cid remembered he should ask her name first and tossed out the question casually.
"Ophis. That's actually a pretty nice name."
After complimenting her, Cid continued tapping at his phone screen, acting as though he did not notice Ophis staring at him without blinking.
But just as he was about to press the call button, he suddenly stopped.
He turned his head and looked at Ophis, meeting the gaze that had been fixed directly on him the whole time.
Earlier, he had been too wrapped up in his own thoughts and had missed a lot of details. Now that he was looking at Ophis properly, Cid finally realized this girl did not seem simple at all.
She looked about fourteen, like a larger-than-life doll, with exquisitely delicate features, waterfall-smooth black hair, and beautiful eyes shaded in violet and gray.
Her appearance was clearly youthful, and there did not seem to be anything especially complicated in her eyes, yet Cid still felt that something about the Ophis before him was strange. There was a sense of disharmony to her.
He glanced at his phone, then closed his eyes.
In the darkness, Cid could clearly sense a gaze coming from his left. Under normal circumstances, that would be perfectly ordinary. Any normal person had that level of awareness.
If one ignored the fact that, in the past several years, aside from when he had fought the Three Great Dragon Gods in the Dimensional Gap, this was the first time in the real world that Cid had actually felt someone else's gaze, then yes, it was perfectly normal.
To Cid's senses, the overwhelming majority of people in this world had a presence roughly on the level of ants. Unless he deliberately searched for them, they all felt the same.
Which meant, conversely, that Ophis, someone whose presence rose above that of an ant in Cid's perception and could even make him feel watched, was absolutely an extraordinary powerhouse.
Putting away his phone, Cid silently turned around and started walking home as though nothing had happened.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
"Pat, pat, pat..."
After walking a short distance, Cid finally could not take the scanning gaze from behind him anymore. He turned around, looked at Ophis trailing after him, and forced a smile onto his face.
"Excuse me... Ophis, do you need something else?"
Hearing Cid's question, Ophis lowered her head and thought for a moment, then looked back up.
"Do you want a snake?"
???
The smile on Cid's face twisted for a brief instant, but he still adjusted himself and asked in a warm, friendly tone,
"Ophis, may I ask what exactly this snake is?"
He no longer addressed Ophis as a child. Cid still had a certain respect for the strong.
"This. If you eat it, your magic increases. Do you want it? I'll give it to you. Will you become my subordinate?"
As if performing a magic trick, Ophis produced from her hand something shaped like two ouroboros joined together and held it out toward Cid.
Staring at the snake in Ophis's hand, Cid gave her an awkward but polite smile.
He could not tell what the thing actually did, but he was willing to bet that with how self-contained it was, and how utterly lacking it was in any trace of artificial construction, there was no way in hell it was harmless.
No one would go through the trouble of condensing their own power into something external for no reason. Unless they were deliberately trying to hurt themselves without benefiting anyone else, this thing definitely had something wrong with it.
"Well... Ophis, I'm personally very grateful that you think so highly of me, but asking me to become your subordinate the moment we meet is a little too hasty, don't you think? Could you at least tell me what I'd actually have to do if I joined your organization and became your subordinate?"
Hearing Cid's tone, which sounded as if he were coaxing a child, Ophis thought for a moment, nodded, and suddenly raised her voice.
"Defeat..."
"?"
"Great Red!"
"I won't bother you any longer, goodbye, excuse me!"
After firing off that rapid three-part refusal, Cid turned and immediately moved to leave. What a joke. If he went to fight Great Red as "Cid," then whether he won or lost, his background character disguise would be finished.
"Be careful..."
Ignoring the flat voice behind him, Cid strode into the alley in front of him.
The alley was dark, but actually very safe, so there was nothing to worry about. Cid had walked this route hundreds of times already. There was no way something would just happen to go wrong today of all days. That would be ridiculous.
Looking at the several figures crouching in the shadows ahead, their faces hidden in darkness, Cid fell silent.
Even though it was dark, his eyesight was sharp enough for him to recognize who they were.
They were all students from his school.