"Um, that won't be necessary. I don't have much luggage, and I'll be finished soon. Besides, it wouldn't be proper for you to wait around for me," Takeyo said, meeting Jeanne's gaze directly.
His eyes held a warmth that made her heart skip, though he maintained an appropriate distance.
"Well, that makes sense."
Jeanne nodded thoughtfully, her blonde hair catching the evening light.
As expected, he truly is the man who caught my attention, she thought with growing satisfaction. His moral character and sense of propriety are impeccable.
A faint blush colored her cheeks as she considered the possibilities.
Perhaps... perhaps pursuing a relationship with him wouldn't be such a bad choice after all?
After finalizing their plans to meet later, Takeyo and Jeanne exchanged farewells in the darkening evening.
"Then I'll see you there! Make sure you wait for me!" Jeanne called out cheerfully, waving as she departed, practically bouncing as she walked away.
"Of course! I'll be there!" The sunny smile on Takeyo's face, belying the calculated thoughts beneath, made Jeanne flush once more.
A potential boyfriend and a powerful combat partner, all in one, she mused excitedly. What could be better?
As soon as Jeanne disappeared from sight, the familiar chime of the system echoed in Takeyo's mind.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for completing the plot sign-in! Sign-in rank: Silver!]
[Sign-in plot: Negotiating with the Naive Hero!]
[Sign-in plot: Successfully convinced Jeanne, the warrior maiden from another world who inherited the soul of Jeanne.]
[Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: Divine Tool, Sacred Beast Creation!]
[Sacred Beast Creation: The holy version of beast creation magic developed by the gods. This divine tool allows the host to create sacred beasts with various attributes according to their creativity and imagination. Even a single sacred beast capable of rivaling a High-Class Devil can be easily manifested.]
"Huh... So this kind of reward was developed based on her abilities?" Takeyo mused quietly. "I suppose it makes sense, given that her Sacred Gear was created through holy sword manipulation."
He felt quite satisfied with this particular divine tool. Given his scientific and analytical approach to power, this type of creation-based ability suited him perfectly. The possibilities for experimentation and optimization were extensive.
"She truly is naive, isn't she?" Yuuma Amano remarked once Jeanne had fully departed, breathing a sigh of relief.
The fallen angel had remained tense throughout the entire encounter, acutely aware of how close she'd come to danger.
"Well, she's endearingly innocent in her own way," Takeyo replied with an amused smile.
Jeanne ranked as the second most straightforward person he'd encountered since arriving in this world. Ophis still held the first place in that particular category, given the Infinite Dragon God's complete lack of guile or social complexity.
Comparing Jeanne to his relationship with Sona provided an interesting contrast. While things between him and the Sitri heiress had developed smoothly thus far, their initial meeting had been marked by Sona's cold, calculating demeanor. She'd been reserved and analytical, carefully measuring every interaction.
Jeanne, by comparison, wore her emotions and intentions openly.
"So, does Takeyo-san think I'm also endearingly naive?" Yuuma asked with a self-deprecating smile.
Her tone carried layers of mockery, both toward herself and the situation.
The thought that she'd believed she was manipulating her prey, only to discover she'd been the one being played, left a bitter taste. The irony wasn't lost on her.
"Let's discuss the specifics somewhere else," Takeyo said, extending his hand toward Yuuma.
[Fifth Incarnation! Vamana the Dwarf!]
Power rippled through the fabric of space itself.
Using this divine authority to traverse dimensions, Takeyo and Yuuma disappeared from Kuoh entirely.
In the next instant, they materialized in an entirely different realm, the so-called Dimensional Gap, the void between worlds. This was Ophis's home, the endless expanse where the Infinite Dragon God wandered eternally.
Within the Dimensional Gap, creatures lacking sufficient power would slowly disintegrate, their essence unraveling in the primordial chaos. Takeyo could guarantee his own survival through his powerful divine essence, but Yuuma was different. She was merely an ordinary fallen angel, vulnerable to the environment's corrosive nature.
"Takeyo-san... where is this?" Yuuma asked, extending her black fallen angel wings.
Now that her identity had been exposed, there was no point in maintaining her human disguise. The wings manifested naturally, instinctively seeking to protect her in this hostile environment.
"I brought you here to make you mine," Takeyo stated simply.
Golden light began gathering in his eyes, resonating with divine power.
[Ninth Incarnation!]
"What do you mean by 'make me yours'? Are you saying... tonight...?" Yuuma's voice trailed off, her eyes widening.
She hadn't expected Takeyo to be so direct, especially given that they'd only met for the first time today. The boldness caught her completely off-guard.
"Being Takeyo-san's... possession..." A hint of genuine shyness colored her expression, her cheeks flushing. "I don't hate the idea, you know. If it's tonight, right here... I'm not opposed. But afterward, could Takeyo-san perhaps come back with me to meet the fallen angels?"
For once, her embarrassment was authentic rather than performed. The situation had spiraled well beyond her original mission parameters.
"I think you may have misunderstood what I meant by 'making you mine,'" Takeyo said with a knowing smile.
He genuinely hadn't anticipated that his words would trigger this particular interpretation. If he'd actually wanted to pursue Yuuma romantically with his accumulated knowledge and social engineering skills, he felt confident he could have succeeded even as an ordinary human. The outcome would have been merely a matter of time and proper application of technique.
Unfortunately for any such scenario, he had no intention of pursuing that particular path.
Brilliant golden radiance erupted from behind him, manifesting as a luminous aura that seemed to illuminate the very darkness of the Dimensional Gap.
Unlike the common depiction of Gautama Buddha, Takeyo's manifestation embodied a sense of sacred divinity that naturally drew others toward pilgrimage and absolute faith. The light carried an almost irresistible quality, simultaneously mysterious and trustworthy.
This sensation of the sacred comprised two seemingly contradictory emotions. The first was mystery, the unknown, the incomprehensible. The second was trust, absolute, unwavering conviction.
From a purely logical standpoint, these concepts appeared mutually exclusive. How could one trust what one didn't understand? How could mystery inspire confidence rather than fear?
Yet this paradoxical feeling had existed throughout human history, perfectly embodied in the concepts of religion and faith. These institutions demonstrated that mystery and trust could not only coexist but could intertwine to create something profoundly powerful.
"This light..." Yuuma whispered, a strange emotion rising unbidden in her heart.
I want to stay beside this person. I want to believe in this person. I want to become a devoted follower of this person. I want to be favored by him.
I want to become a part of this existence... even if that's impossible, just being able to gaze upon this great being would be honor enough for someone like me.
Yuuma recognized these emotions swelling within her consciousness with perfect clarity. She'd felt something similar once before, toward Azazel, the Governor General of the Fallen Angels. But now, that same profound devotion had transferred entirely to her new master standing before her.
[Reincarnation Holy Light!]
This was the unique power belonging to the [Ninth Incarnation: Gautama Buddha]. After Takeyo had advanced to become an intermediate-level devil, he'd unlocked this ability to attract and convert others to genuine belief.
He could sense that other incarnations possessed powers he hadn't yet fully developed or understood. For instance, the simplest undiscovered application would be directly transforming himself into a colossal avatar, turning the conceptual into the physical, using an incarnation larger than the world itself to wage battle.
Unfortunately, his current physical capabilities couldn't support such a manifestation. He would need at least the strength of an Ultimate-class devil, perhaps even a Transcendent-class devil, before attempting such a feat.
"My lord..." Yuuma breathed, her gaze now filled with fanatic devotion.
After the light dissipated, Takeyo observed Yuuma's transformed expression with mixed feelings.
"Mm... Well..."
He frowned slightly, uncomfortable with the intensity of her adoration.
It worked, but the application still isn't refined enough, he thought critically.
When this power reached higher levels of development, it should be able to directly distort the beliefs and loyalties of others. However, its current iteration required specific conditions to function effectively.
First, the target couldn't harbor excessive hostility toward him. Second, the target's hard power had to be substantially lower than his own demonstrated strength.
His apparent realm showed intermediate devil level, while his true combat capability had reached the apex of upper-level devils, though even that assessment applied only under normal circumstances.
Of course, when he employed his full arsenal of abilities, those power classifications became somewhat meaningless.
As the Holy Light illuminated Yuuma, the system's notification chimed once more.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for completing the plot sign-in! Sign-in rank: Gold!]
[Sign-in plot: The False Heroine's Surrender!]
[Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: Super Magic, Mass Burst!]
[Mass Burst is the ultimate decomposition magic. It possesses the ability to decompose matter directly into pure energy. Since mass is converted directly into energy without intermediate steps, there is no energy loss from neutrino generation that would occur in standard annihilation reactions. According to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence equation, mass multiplied by the speed of light squared equals the energy released. A single drop of water, with only fifty milligrams of mass decomposed, would release thermal energy equivalent to one kiloton of TNT!]
"Oh, it's essentially the magical version of Shiba Tatsuya's Material Burst from The Irregular at Magic High School," Takeyo mused with interest. "Not bad at all, though... the energy required for activation seems rather substantial."
He felt genuinely intrigued by this new magical knowledge that had yet to be fully integrated into his understanding. The more sophisticated and complex the magic, the more it captured his scientific curiosity.
Of course, his primary focus at this stage remained mastering the foundational spells of all magical systems in this world. After all, the stronger the foundation, the higher the structure that could be built upon it. Rushing to advanced techniques without proper fundamentals would only create weaknesses in his overall capabilities.