Chapter 192 - Prima Donna (4)

4

Words of resolve—of a heart made firm.

I had been waiting for those words.

“Hmm.”

I circulated aura through my body. The intoxication gradually peeled away.

‘My head’s clearing.’

Our Tower has an unwritten rule that passes for common sense: [When everyone has gone to the trouble of drinking, using aura or some such to stay sober all by yourself is rude.]

Much as I loved this drinking etiquette, listening while drunk when Sonia had raised a serious subject would be even ruder.

‘My clothes... What? Why is my shirt such a mess?’

Just how drunk had I gotten last night? Was it because I hadn’t had a drink in so long?

“Sorry, Sonia. Would you mind if I washed up before we started talking? I’d like to be clean when I hear something like this.”

“Oh. Um, you don’t need to go that far...”

“I do.”

Anyone confiding a momentous decision to me deserved to be treated with respect.

“There should be a stream nearby. I’ll wash up quickly, so could you wait just a little?”

“... Yes.”

For some reason, Sonia answered in a small, subdued voice.

I went to wash in the stream. I had spotted it in passing while riding the flying bathtub last night. Sinking into the cool pool cleared all the dregs from my mind. After mentally reviewing the first through seventh forms of the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven, I stood up.

“Let’s sit down and talk.”

“Yes.”

I sat facing Sonia.

“You want to act for yourself in the next performance?”

Sonia nodded.

“So you mean you want to keep being a Cavefire-play actor instead of retiring.”

“Yes.”

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me why?”

Sonia considered the question. She was earnestly choosing words of her own.

Watching that intent face right in front of me, I suddenly thought of something entirely unrelated to the situation.

‘I’m just like the director.’

Whenever a child tried to confide something, the director would prepare carefully, first composing both body and mind. In the way I had driven off my drunkenness immediately after waking and washed myself before anything else, the director’s influence was already deeply ingrained.

“...”

Yes.

I waited calmly for Sonia.

“... It’s not that I hate the life I have now, being treated so well. Not at all.”

By the time the sunlight was drying my hair anew, though I had already dried it with aura, Sonia began to speak.

“On the contrary, I’m really happy to enjoy such a windfall without paying anything. Yes, neither my family nor my own people will be able to look down on me anymore. There’s an enormous pile of gold coins in my storehouse, too. Thanks to you, Lord Kekereukker, I could live happily for the rest of my life, but...”

Sonia turned her head slightly.

The Black Dragon leader and the Paladin were talking in their sleep in the flower field. The Black Dragon leader only mumbled incomprehensible things like “Ugh,” “Ah,” and “I’m starting to get the engine going...” The Paladin groaned things like “No,” “It’s a misunderstanding,” and “It isn’t.”

What engine was being started, and what was a misunderstanding? A mystery.

They were my companions, but they really were an entertaining pair...

“Yesterday, I became certain.”

Sonia looked at each of us in turn.

“When you were drinking and chatting and talking... When you danced, played music, and sang, I felt life. I thought, That’s what life is. No, I felt that I wanted life to be like that.”

The hand resting on Sonia’s knee clenched tightly.

“I don’t know why life seems to exist only in the breath of your chatter and laughter. But I want to be part of it, too. I’ll go up onstage myself. I, too... like all of you. I want to become beautiful.”

I nodded.

I had once been in exactly the same position as Sonia.

So I knew what words she most desperately needed at this moment.

“I’ll help you.”

I opened the Civilization Shop.

[Purchasing ‘Appear in a Dream.’]

[100 Race Points will be consumed!]

[You currently have 6602 Race Points.]

“All this time, you’ve watched me from closer than anyone else. The choreography, staging, and aura techniques I devised—you’ve effectively taken real-time lessons in all of them. There’s nothing more to teach you in theory. All that’s left is experience.”

“Yes!”

“But before I help, let me ask you one thing.”

I smiled benevolently.

As the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult and an inheritor of the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven, I had to observe what one might call proper form.

“Now, Sonia, what’s the longest you’ve ever gone hungry?”

Silence fell.

The member of the fairy race born into a wealthy merchant family tilted her head.

“... Huh?”

What a fine reaction.

It took less than thirty minutes for Sonia’s adorable expression to crumple into screams.

5

After hellish training, the day of the performance finally arrived.

For me, it was the last performance I would direct in this world.

For Sonia, however, it would be her thrilling debut.

[The quest ‘Theater's Warring States Era: Classics in Crisis’ is progressing.]

[The current Heretical Encroachment Rate is 11%.]

This stage’s quest was progressing very smoothly, too. The Cavefire play I had created—the so-called dance drama—had already spread throughout the city.

Not just [Bullshit], but other theater troupes were quietly jumping on the trend as well.

Now, even if I left things alone, the quest would clear itself.

“Wow, this is my first time watching from the audience’s perspective.”

I smiled contentedly.

Below my feet, a throng of guests was filling the seats.

“It feels different from here. How about you, Black Dragon leader? Aren’t you nervous?”

“Nervous? Hardly...”

The Black Dragon leader brushed the hair at the side of her face back. She looked relaxed, but the fingers of her other hand were curled inward.

Despite appearances, she was nervous.

Holding back a smile, I turned my head.

“You look completely fine, Paladin.”

“Hmm. I’ve been onstage many times, and I used to run a jazz bar. I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to it. Not that I don’t feel nervous.”

“Oh? You even ran a jazz bar?”

“That’s an old story from my second year in the Tower.”

The Paladin smiled wryly.

“I once wanted to make my life playing jazz. Fortunately, people liked my music.”

“Huh.”

Incidentally, the Black Dragon leader was no longer a bloodsucking aristocrat, and the Paladin was no longer one of the Gillfin Folk. They were watching the stage in their original forms, floating gently in midair.

All three of us had left [Person Possession].

“I confidently opened the jazz bar that had remained only a dream in the outside world. It was a wonderful experience in many ways.”

The Black Dragon leader tilted her head.

“You told me not to bring up those days. Why are you suddenly telling the Death King?”

“I changed my mind.”

“Hmm. You really do have a way of quietly changing your mind back and forth... What was the jazz bar called again? I can’t remember.”

“Little Venice.”

“Oh, right. Venice. You went completely broke over that.”

The Black Dragon leader snickered.

“You borrowed money from some nasty people for no good reason and ended up buried in debt. I heard about it while drinking with the mafia back then. Something about an S-rank sucker walking right in and handing them a jackpot.”

“Managing money is exceedingly difficult for me...”

“Work on that. It’s because you’re like this that the neighborhood watch is always strapped for funds. Well, that whole affair did bring someone good into your life...”

“Ah.”

I pointed toward the stage.

“Shh, I think it’s starting.”

The Black Dragon leader and the Paladin immediately fell silent and looked at the stage. The Black Dragon leader had written the script, the Paladin had composed the music, and I had created the choreography. All of us had worked together on the direction.

The first work the three of us had created together.

The actors embroidered the dark stage with dance.

“...”

The Black Dragon leader was nervously shaking her foot.

She hadn’t trembled even when she climbed the Aegim Empire’s walls to address the troops. Was she surprisingly prone to nerves at times like this?

I gently took hold of her arm.

“... Death King.”

“Yes?”

“Why are you holding my elbow...?”

“Holding your hand would be the usual approach, but Raviel’s is the only hand I’m allowed to hold. Holding hands with a friend feels a little embarrassing, too. But putting a hand on your shoulder would feel kind of pretentious, wouldn’t it? So I compromised with your elbow.”

“Ha...”

The Black Dragon leader laughed softly.

“You’re a real lunatic.”

“I’m aware of that minority opinion, Black Dragon Queen.”

“Honestly...”

The Black Dragon leader sighed. Her profile as she watched the performance looked much more relaxed. Her foot had stopped shaking, too.

The dancing continued onstage.

“... Oh dear. I suppose they’re all still inexperienced with aura.”

“That’s quite skilled already. You can’t expect them to be at our level.”

“It seems playing music and dancing at the same time is difficult... No, but the music is better than I expected. It’s certainly not unlistenable.”

We whispered among ourselves.

Whispers also rose from the seats below.

“Ugor. Isn’t this somehow worse than usual?”

“Really? This is my first time, and I think it’s great.”

“I’m not sure, but the aura feels a little weak...”

“It’s underwhelming.”

Just as expected.

‘The audience notices right away.’

It was the effect of my absence from the performance.

Until now, I had coordinated the actors from the center of the stage. I filled in where their aura fell short, made the weaker parts burn fiercely, and conducted the music.

In this performance, however, every actor was taking part in the aura, choreography, and music.

The audience could feel my absence, too.

“Hah.”

“Hhh...!”

One-eyed Arika, one-armed Yumar, one-eared Sakum—all of them danced with everything they had, barely managing to release the melodies assigned to them.

Sonia, of course, did too.

I could see every single drop of sweat my kids shed.

‘It’s all right.’

I clenched my fist.

‘You’ll do well, my kids.’

You were ready to succeed.

‘Keep going.’

The audience’s murmuring grew louder and louder. The more fanatically devoted a regular had been to Theater Troupe Bullshit, the deeper their disappointment.

What is this? Something’s wrong.

Such comments were being voiced openly.

“...”

The three of us swallowed in silence.

Onstage, the climax approached.

“...”

All the actors abruptly stopped moving.

The music played through vibrating aura ceased as well.

Silence enveloped the dark theater, and the audience was bewildered by its sudden descent. Just before that bewilderment could spread further, Raviel Ivansia—Sonia, playing her role—parted her lips.

“Lascia, ch'io pianga...”

The song, imbued with red aura, rang out with stately grace.

The audience flinched the instant the first span of song escaped her lips.

Sonia sang as though coughing up blood—a song she had learned while truly coughing up blood.

“mia cruda, sorte...”

Teaching her to use aura at my level in so little time was impossible.

So the three of us had put our heads together and devised a small staging trick.

For the first time in our troupe, we had introduced [a scene in which an actor sings alone].

“Good.”

Watching the audience’s reactions, the Black Dragon leader whispered.

“It’s working! It’s working.”

Our troupe’s Cavefire plays were famous for having no dialogue whatsoever.

The actors occasionally made sounds as they danced, but those were meaningless cries like “Ooh!” or “Hah!” Or merely primitive utterances whose meaning had deliberately been blurred.

Not a single audience member had expected an operatic aria.

“la libertà...”

Sonia had the skill to turn that gap in their expectations into pleasure rather than displeasure.

It was thanks to the focused lessons and training she had received solely for this moment.

A lone elf sang in the quiet darkness.

“la libertà...”

The Hobgoblins watched the aria in a daze.

From their eyes, we instinctively knew we had succeeded.

“What a relief.”

“Yes. We did resort to a little trick, but...”

“It was a situation that called for a trick. Even if the overall standard is lower, a climax worthy of being the highlight can smooth things over somehow. We can breathe again...”

We watched contentedly as the performance continued.

[The current Heretical Encroachment Rate is 10%.]

[You have successfully lowered the Heretical Encroachment Rate to 10% or below.]

[Quest Clear!]

Just then, the Tower’s voice announced the completion of the quest.

Looking at Sonia and the actors, I rose.

“Shall we go?”

“Already?”

“I’ve seen the kids doing well without me, so I’m satisfied. If I stay and see the audience applauding, I think I’ll cry. Let’s go now.”

“You’re surprisingly quick to tears.”

“Not as much as the Black Dragon Queen who sobbed on the eleventh floor...”

“Do you really want me to hit you?”

The Black Dragon leader and the Paladin rose as well.

Though it was a little early, we applauded the actors, our clapping unheard by anyone.

Onstage, the aria had ended and the dancing had resumed.

‘You’ll do well.’

I watched Sonia pour herself into her performance, sweating.

‘Take care.’

And then.

“I declare the stage cleared.”

All three of us spoke at exactly the same time.

[The Black Dragon leader declares the stage cleared.]

[The Paladin declares the stage cleared.]

[Stage Clear!]

Just before my vision turned white, Sonia’s eyes swept through the air.

In the direction where I floated.

It was impossible, but I thought our eyes met.

[The floor 34 stage has been cleared.]

[Rewards will be calculated after you enter floor 35.]

[Consecutive floor progression in progress—you will be forcibly transported to floor 35!]

White light enveloped us.