Chapter 70: The Creator: Vike, go kill Musachi (Patreon)

"Astra, if you'd come any later, the show would've been over," Cecilia said, watching Astra Yao come rushing in with a helpless smile.

"Ahh, I can't help it, okay? I'm super busy these days. Just carving out the time to come was hard enough."

Astra Yao sighed and grumbled.

Ever since her career had exploded, her schedule had been packed solid. If she wasn't preparing for a variety show, she was preparing for a drama or a press conference or something else. It was nonstop.

"Okay, okay, enough of that. Leaving this gentleman standing there is rude, you know. Ceci, you haven't introduced us yet. Who is this?"

"I'm Musachi. As for what I do... I run a bookstore. I'm also a friend of Cecilia's."

Musachi nodded at Astra Yao, smiling.

"Ohh~ So just a friend~"

Astra Yao nodded, her tone pointed.

"Astra!"

Cecilia shot her a glare, which successfully got Astra to stick out her tongue.

Only the four of them were backstage right now. Remielle had already run downstairs a while ago to cheer on the three little ones.

"Hehe, okay, okay, I won't pry. But you don't mind if we watch the show from here, right? If Eve and I go out there, we'd be recognized in no time."

Astra Yao was talking to Cecilia, but her eyes were fixed on Musachi.

"Sharing a room with a big star? I'm already prepared to brag to my friends about it when I get home."

Musachi nodded and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Oh, what's so special about being with me? Our Ceci was a Diva back in the day. She was unrivaled, way more famous than I am now. These days I'm not even worthy of carrying her shoes."

Astra Yao waved a hand, joking.

"Ah, you've never seen how our Ceci looked back then. She was so beautiful! I begged forever just to be allowed to look at her photo album. There are even pictures from her idol days when she was young. You can't find any of that material online anymore."

Astra Yao showed off in front of Musachi.

She was hoping to pique his interest, but all she saw on his face was a smile.

"True, Cecilia in a performance outfit looked great!"

Musachi nodded and gave a thumbs-up, earning himself a fierce glare from Cecilia.

Now it was Astra Yao's turn to be stunned.

Her little mouth fell open. Realizing that was rude, she quickly covered it with her hand.

"Wait, you've seen Ceci's photo album too?"

Astra Yao's eyes lit up. She stared at Musachi in excitement.

"I did. Is there a problem?"

Musachi asked, a little puzzled.

"Of course there's a problem! Even I had to pester Ceci for ages before she'd show me, and... Ceci once said, you know! That album—"

"Astra Yao! If you say one more word, I'll drag you to the bottom of the sea! You can go feed the fish!"

Cecilia clamped a hand over Astra Yao's mouth from behind, cutting off whatever she was about to say, and glowered at her.

"Mmph... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay?"

Astra struggled, laughing as she did.

"Hehe, I won't say it, I won't say it, promise!"

Once she'd escaped Cecilia's clutches, Astra Yao begged for mercy, grinning.

Then she mimed zipping her lips shut.

"What did she say back then?"

Musachi couldn't hold back his curiosity and looked over at Astra Yao.

But she only shook her head.

"Forget it, forget it. Ask Ceci yourself! If she won't tell you, I don't dare either! Ceci's a Mermaid Thiren, you know, a legendary Siren! If she ever invites me to the seaside, I'm done for!"

At that, Musachi turned to Cecilia, but she only shook her head, looking like she'd die before she told him.

Musachi could only sigh in disappointment.

Astra Yao, meanwhile, watched the two of them with growing curiosity.

When she'd visited Cecilia's home before, they had talked about that very album.

After a lot of coaxing and nagging, she had finally talked Cecilia into letting her see it. At the time, Astra had asked a question.

If it was this hard for even me to see this album, then would no man ever see it in her whole life?

Cecilia had hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

"Not necessarily. If it's a man I approve of, then of course he can see it."

Now that she thought about it, those words had come true in a way.

Cecilia had had plenty of suitors over the years, high officials and nobles, wealthy tycoons, big shots all of them in New Eridu, and she'd turned every last one of them down.

Astra hadn't expected that after she'd been busy for just a short while, things between Cecilia and this man would've progressed so fast.

And judging by how the two of them acted, they had probably already... done everything.

Astra Yao was really curious now.

What on earth did this Musachi have that could move Cecilia's heart?

Seeing Astra Yao like this, Cecilia sighed too, her head starting to ache. This was bad. Now that this girl had latched on, she was probably in for a rough time these next few days.

"Thank you all for coming out~ Today was the first informal performance of Angels of Delusion. We hope you enjoyed it! And of course, even if you didn't, that's fine, because Angels of Delusion will keep getting better!"

Outside, the show had reached its finale, and Nangong was addressing the audience below.

The crowd answered with waves of cheers.

Then Nangong's voice came again:

"Okay, there's one last thing. Sunna, you say it."

"Do I really have to?"

Sunna's reluctant voice drifted back.

"Of course. We agreed on this ages ago."

"F-fine then... Nangong, you big meanie."

Sunna took a deep breath, then stepped up to the front of the stage.

"Follow Angels of Delusion, meow! Please follow Angels of Delusion, thank you, meow~ Please keep supporting us~"

The girl said it to the audience in a shy little voice, and another wave of cheers rose.

A moment later the door opened. The three little ones walked in and froze at the sight of the people in the room.

"Hi~ Hello there, little angels."

Astra Yao blinked and waved at the three of them.

"A-Astra Yao!"

Sunna let out a startled cry and hurried over to stand in front of her.

"H-hello! My name is Sunna! I, I, I, I... You've always been my favorite! I'm your fan!"

Sunna held out her hand as she finished, but then Nangong and Aria burst out laughing beside her.

What did she mean, Astra Yao was her fan?

Sunna realized the slip too. Her face flushed with embarrassment, and she stood there at a loss.

"Hehe, I watched your whole show from backstage, you know. Ah, you girls are so full of energy! You won me over just now~ So I really am your fan~"

Astra Yao took Sunna's little hand and defused the situation in a few words, smiling at her.

"Mm, but Miss Cecilia, why didn't you ever tell us you knew her?... Sorry, it's my first time meeting you, Astra Yao, and I'm so nervous."

Sunna said, shooting Cecilia a reproachful look.

"You never asked," Cecilia said, smiling innocently.

She really had wanted to give the three little ones a surprise, which was why she'd kept quiet.

In fact, the trio's first performance wasn't supposed to be today. It had been planned for a little later. But with the event at Musachi's bookstore, Cecilia had gone along with it. The earlier they gained experience, the better it would be for their official debut.

It was all just coincidence.

"Oh, right, one more thing."

Musachi said, pulling a wrapped book out of the bag he carried.

"I'd been thinking I'd give you all a gift when you finally performed. So this book is for you."

Smiling, Musachi handed it to the three little ones.

It was a book on music theory. Since it dated from the Old City era, it was highly valuable to collectors.

"Thank you, Shopkeeper~"

After seeing the book, the three exchanged a glance and walked over to Cecilia.

"What's wrong?"

Cecilia asked, puzzled.

"We want to give this book to Miss Cecilia. You were planning to buy it before, right? And without your help, we couldn't have performed so smoothly. So we think the book should go to you. We can just come to your place when we want to read it."

"My little angels..."

Seeing the three of them beaming up at her, Cecilia was deeply touched.

…

That night, to celebrate the three little ones' successful first performance, everyone headed to Lumina Square and held a victory banquet.

Unfortunately, Astra Yao had other business halfway through the meal and left early with Evelyn.

"Nangong, Nangong! Our account, our account has followers now!"

On the way back, Sunna stared at the few dozen new followers on the account and, unable to contain her excitement, shook Nangong by the shoulders.

Even with these new followers, the total still hadn't passed a hundred. But there was no doubt about it. This was a big step forward for them.

"Honestly, Sunna, you make such a fuss over everything. This is nothing! It's only the first step for Angels of Delusion. Someday our followers will top a million, you know~ If you freak out every time the number goes up, you'll wear yourself out."

Nangong said with a grin, looking at Sunna beside her.

"Hmph, you wouldn't understand. I've been running this account for so long, and I finally have some decent results. Of course I'm happy."

Sunna huffed.

Before this, Sunna had posted promo content for Angels of Delusion, but with no promotion and no exposure, the follower count had stayed in the single digits. These new follows all came from people who'd seen today's show.

What they didn't know was that a recording of their performance had already been posted online by someone in the audience.

The title read: "These three little cuties are so adorable. Can they be a band for life?"

On the internet, going viral can happen in a single moment. The three little ones hadn't exactly gone viral, but their afternoon performance and all their funny interactions had racked up a decent number of views. Their original account started getting follows too, and soon it blew past the hundred mark.

Still, since the clip only reached a few hundred thousand views in the end, their account wouldn't draw much traffic.

Of course, compared to a superstar like Astra Yao, whose casual posts get millions or even tens of millions of views, their account was still very green. But for them, this was already a big step.

That night, back at home.

"So, how was today's performance?"

Lying on the sofa in the second-floor living room, Remielle stretched luxuriously and glanced lazily at Musachi beside her.

"Pretty good. Looks like you really put in the effort these past few days. The three little ones danced quite well."

Musachi nodded in praise.

Hearing that, Remielle raised her eyebrows smugly.

"Of course! I'm really good at dancing, you know! I can't compare to the professionals, but teaching three kids at their level is easy enough. Once they get more advanced, there'll surely be more professional people to teach them."

Remielle said proudly.

"Can't you just keep teaching them? They like you so much."

Musachi pursed his lips, sat down beside Remielle, turned to look at her, and said lightly.

"There's no feast in the world that never ends... I can't teach them forever. Besides, maybe one day I'll have things of my own to take care of."

Remielle rolled her eyes, then said it quietly.

These days of ordinary life had started to feel familiar to her. But she had never forgotten that she still had a lot of unfinished business from back then, from before she slept. A holiday always ends, and one day Remielle would have to leave too.

"Are you hiding something from me?"

Seeing Remielle fall silent mid-sentence, Musachi narrowed his eyes and probed.

"Hiding something from you? No, I'm not."

Remielle blinked and turned her head toward him.

"What I mean is, if something's bothering you, you can tell me. Remielle, maybe if we think it over together, we can solve it."

Musachi looked at her and said lightly.

Remielle found his words a little funny.

She knew her own condition well. If it were that easy to fix, she'd have found a way long ago.

After that experiment years ago, Vike had died, but Remielle hadn't come out of it unscathed either.

She'd been corroded as well, and her body showed severe signs of transformation. It was fair to say she was only one step away from becoming an Ethereal, a monster with no will of her own.

The only reason she could control herself now was that she hardly ever used her power. If she were forced into a high-level fight, her body would quickly start to break down and show signs of turning into an Ethereal.

Even Sunbringer and the Helios Academy had been unable to do anything about it back then...

So what could Musachi, a mere little Proxy, possibly do?

In Remielle's eyes, Musachi was just an ordinary person with a few talents. Dragging him into a struggle that only Void Hunter-level people could enter... it was simply too hard.

"Mm, I will. A poor, weak girl like me, if I run into any trouble... I'll definitely come to you, dear Shopkeeper~"

Remielle said with a smile.

But at that moment she glanced at a message on her phone, and her fingers froze in place...

Above that post was an image.

A figure stood in shadow, her face impossible to make out. She was tall and slender, with a long ponytail hanging down behind her and a pair of horns on her head.

"Vike...?"

Remielle stared at the black silhouette and murmured in disbelief.

No, impossible. Vike was dead! But why...

Remielle stared at the figure, her face full of disbelief.

Why did this figure look so much like her?

The replies below the post were all discussion of the silhouette.

Some said she was a ghost that had appeared in the Hollow. Others said this Ethereal was terrifyingly strong and had cut an entire building in half with a single stroke of a long blade crackling with lightning...

Though she could hardly believe it, Remielle gritted her teeth and decided to investigate the Tartarus Hollow anyway.

Whatever it took, she had to find out who that figure was.

Even if someone was just putting on a show, even if it was a fake, she had to drag whoever was behind it into the light, and then... punish them severely!

No matter what, those who desecrate the dead are unforgivable.

"What's wrong?"

Musachi looked at Remielle, whose face had suddenly turned ugly, and leaned over, curious, trying to peek at her screen.

"Nothing. I just stumbled on something unpleasant while scrolling posts this late at night. It put me in a bad mood."

Remielle shook her head and quickly closed the post on her phone.

"Really nothing?"

Musachi eyed her doubtfully. It was the first time he'd ever seen that expression on Remielle's face.

"Oh, it's nothing! Don't worry, what could possibly be wrong with me? Good night, dear Shopkeeper~"

To head off any further questions, Remielle said impatiently, then kissed Musachi on the cheek and ran straight back to her room.

Leaving Musachi frozen in place.

…

The Tartarus Large Hollow had originally been a medium-sized Hollow branching off from Hollow Zero. But after the Fall of the Old City, it had swallowed part of Eridu's urban districts and successfully advanced to a large Hollow.

Now, deep inside the Hollow, a tall figure slowly stepped out of the shadows.

[Vike... my child, go and find him. Find my most rebellious child, bring him back, and take back the Authority that was stolen from me.]

Confusion clouded the tall figure's eyes. Then the pair of horns on her head slowly retracted, her eyes still clouded with confusion.

"Who... am I? Vike... Vike... is that my name? Then... who is Remielle?"