Karl offered Sera to be an idol. But of course, the answer would be.

“You call me that a lot but I still don’t know what that word means big brother,” Sera said.

“Think of it as someone people worship,” Karl answered.

“A god?” Talia asked.

“Close, but no cigar,” Karl smirked. “An idol is someone who uses their songs and dances to mesmerize the world, bringing the people a blessing called unification under the banner of being a fan. Sharing the joy of supporting one another to bring peace and harmony. Their fan or admirers worship the grounds the idols step on and become rabid mongrels whenever items created in their idols’ image are sold. In exchange for pulling the fan out of their monotone and dull world, the idol receives love, support, and worship.”

“…That’s a cult.” Sera stared at Karl.

“No, it’s a fan club. Like Aria’s fan club.”

The two young girls in front of Karl shivered, their hair stood on their end. It might be Karl’s imagination but they seemed to grow goosebumps all over their skin too.

“You want us to be the center of those perverts’ attention?” Sera hugged Talia and shielded her from Karl.

“Hey, I take offense in that,” Karl crossed his arms. “We might be perverts but that doesn’t mean we don’t genuinely wish the best for the idol we support. Some might be a bit extreme. But those are just some bad apples in a basket. Besides, it’s not like I can’t … never mind.”

“Anyway, if you don’t want to show your faces then you don’t have to.” Karl pointed at the unnamed item. "We already had that covered.”

The two girls looked at what appeared to be a faceless training doll, but palm-sized.

“Who’s we?” Sera asked. But Karl answered with a smirk.

“I see that you’re still confused. How about I show you what this does?” Karl stood up, picked up the item, and left. Sera and Talia looked at each other before following him.

“Hey, you three forget to pay for your drinks.”

It would have been a cool scene depicting the start of a new entertainment era in Eldoria. Sadly, the café shop owner ruined it just for some drinks. Bastard, no sense nor tack. Tch.

Karl led the two girls to Eldrin’s store.

“Welcome back Mr. Kanehiro.” Fixa still greeted him as formally as ever.

“Hey, Fixa. Is Eldrin and Nanok still working on the items and the spear?”

“Yes, but,” Fixa hesitated for a brief moment. “I don’t think you want to see Mr. Eldrin right now.”

Karl beamed, “That’s even better. I want to see how the old man is suffering.”

He charged into the crafting room under the wary eyes of his sister and her friend. The two of them looked at him as if he was a problem child who needed to be punished for his pranks and bad behaviors.

“Greetings, pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Sera lifted the hem of her skirt and greeted Fixa.

“Hello, nice to meet you.” So did Talia.

“Welcome to Forgrefire’s All Purpose Store,” Fixa bowed, “My name is Fixa, the clerk. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.”

“Miss Fixa,” Sera called out in a small voice.

“Fixa is fine Young Lady Kahehiro.”

“You know of me?”

“Yes, Mr. Kanehiro said he helped us and made all of this mostly to support your wish of being a famous singer.” Fixa recounted.

Feeling something warm welling up her heart, Sera smiled.

“He also said, he was doing this so that he could, I believe he used the word ‘fanboy’, all he wanted while making so much Tal he could build a swimming pool from all the paper and throw himself down and float on it.”

The warmth Sera felt was a lie. A bare face lie.

Talia looked at Sera, but her friend only had a cold smile on her face.

“What are you two standing there for? Come in. Nothing will bite you here.” Karl poked his head out of the crafting room and called the two young girls.

Ignoring them, Karl walked toward Eldrin who was mumbling while looking at the spear on his crafting table.

“How's everything going old man?” Tapped Eldrin's shoulder.

The old Dwarf looked at Karl with dead fish eyes. It was barely over three hours and his eyes already looked like he was defeated in the most heart-wrenching ways. “Almost know what I need to do. Just need to figure out the kink.”

“I like feet.” The spear said with its seductive voice.

“SHUT UP.” Eldrin roared at the spear.

After that, Eldrin kept hammering at the spear while moans and “Yes, harder daddy,” echoed inside the crafting room. Noticing it was his cue to run away, Karl walked out the door and closed it behind him. He had nothing to do with that.

“Why did someone yell at you to shut up?” Sera asked.

“Oh, he wasn’t yelling at me. But anyway, this way. Let Nanok show you what the items do.”

Karl led Sera and Talia toward the guest room. There, Aria was testing out the item with Nanok. When Karl came in, she looked up. “You’re back.” She also titled her head and greeted Sera and Talia. “Greetings, Lady Sera and the lady with blue hair.”

“Yeah, hey Aria.” Karl waved at her.

“Big sis Aria is here?” Sera jumped and sat next to Aria. “Are you here because of my brother?” She asked with starry eyes.

“That’s rude Sera.” Karl chopped Sera's head.

He turned toward Talia and introduced her to Aria, “This is Talia Starlight, she…”

“My best friend,” Sera jumped up and hugged Talia, making the girl blush up to her ears.

“Yeah, that. She is in Class A, the same class as Sera.”

“I see.” Aria stood up and greeted by holding the hem of her skirt. “That was rude of me. My name is Aria Leonheart. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Lady Starlight.”

“Ah…umm…Pleasure is mine Lady Leonheart.” Talia tried to bow but Sera was still locking her with a hug. “Um… Sera, can you let go of me so I can greet Lady Leonheart properly?”

“That would be unnecessary Lady Starlight. Please, have a sit.” Aria tapped the sit next to her.

Taking her chances, Sera dragged Talia onto the couch and sat next to Aria.

Seeing the three getting along was a nice sight to see. Karl thought.

“Young Master,” Nanok called out in whispers as if he didn’t want the three girls to notice him. “Can I know what your sister and her friend are doing here? Lady Leonheart and I were still testing out the last part of the item.”

Karl patted Nanok’s shoulder, ignoring the confused look on his face. “Show time.”

He set the stage for Aria and Nanok as they demonstrated the items' new functions. Since they couldn’t put everything Karl wanted into an item or two, they spit the items into multiple parts and added different formations with different usages to each part.

The first part was the doll itself. The doll's appearance can change based on what the idol wanted. The idol could pour their Mana into the doll to select and confirm the appearance of their hologram.

The second part was the sound egg. It was a tennis-ball-sized egg-like device with a glowing formation in the middle. To make the sound coming from the hologram was… impossible. So instead, Nanok and Aria created a different item that will receive and transfer sound based on the crystal within the communication clock instead. They outdid themselves since this way, as long as a fan had a communication crystal, they could hear the idol.

The third part was a camera, aka image egg. Karl forgot to mention this part but Aria picked it up for him. With this item, infused with surveillance formation, the idol can see what the hologram was seeing through a floating screen that came from the crystal.

The last item to tie them all together was the stick-like item. The idol could pour their Mana into the stick and scan the doll, pour their Mana into the sound and image crystal to create a network that connected every item. And they are all set.

After Aria and Nanok’s demonstration, thundering applause came from Karl, Sera, and Talia.

The speed they built these new and never-before-seen inventions just through Karl mentioning the idea was scarily fast. It was like the hand of fate itself was pushing them in that direction. Another thought Karl didn’t want to dwell on.

“What do you two think, Lady Sera, Lady Starlight?” Aria asked Sera and Talia.

“I want to do it.” Sera slammed on the table and leaned forward with eyes filled with vitality.

It was a tool that forced her to control her Mana while focusing on singing and dancing. She could train both her Mana and singing at the same time while seeing and interacting with her audience directly and not being forced to wait until the performance was over like in a play. For Sera, it was perfect.

Maybe she was so excited that she misheard that part about the Mana part was only to register her Mana Signature into the device. No additional Mana from the idol was needed since each device had its own Mana source like every Magic Engineering item.

But it was just a minor detail.

“What about you, Miss Starlight?” Karl asked.

Closing her eyes, Talia kept in her heart the figure of these people. The people who were willing to help her without asking for anything in return. The people that were on her side. The people that showed her that she wasn’t alone. To them, her answer was.

“I will…”

-----

“…that is our answer, troupe leader,” Talia said as she sat alone in the troupe leader’s office.

“Ah, that’s such a shame. I thought I could have both of such wonderful talents like you two for myself. It was truly a shame, a shame indeed.” The troupe leader shook his head. “But you still decided to join us. And I’ll consider that a blessing on our part. I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

He reached out his hand and Talia shook it. “Welcome to my humble theatre troupe, Miss Talia Starlight.”

“It’s my honor to be a part of your theatre troupe,” Talia shook his hand. It felt cold, his hand.

The troupe leader’s hand wasn’t even one one-hundred times as warm as Sera’s. Nor was the troupe’s atmosphere nearly as warm as the one in that store, where her friend’s brother took them to.

But how could she shamelessly rely on them over and over again?

She was her own person, with her own goal, and her own will. She refused to be a leech that latched onto her friend.

It might have been because of her stubbornness. But it was her choice. Because she saw it, she saw how bittered and frustrated Sera looked the first time Sera heard her singing. It wasn’t the same angry look the Earl’s wife and children gave her. Yet, she understood the meaning behind that look all the same.

Sera helped her so much. How dare she take advantage of that kindness?

“You can go home and prepare, we’ll begin your first practice session in two days.”

“Yes, thank you for giving me this opportunity, troupe leader.” Talia bowed again before leaving.

With the door closed, the sneezy and not-so-well-hidden smile on the troupe leader’s face began to falter. Once he used Mana Sense and was sure Talia was out of range, she slammed on the table with twisted rage.

“These two bitches. How dare they reject my kindness like that. Who do you think will take the two of you into their troupe? Only me. Make it on her own? Ha. What an arrogant and ignorant little bitch. The whole theatre performance network is in my hands, you’ll never make it. Phew.”

The troupe leader let out a long breath before his face returned to its usual smiling mask.

“Since I can’t torment the both of them, I’ll just double the torment on that little blue hair.” He smirked.

That was when his communication clock blinked, signaling someone was contacting him. He took out his clock and saw that it was his master. He quickly connected the call and sang his praise.

“Oh majestic and powerful master, I’ve completed half of what you assign me to do.”

“Half?” The emotionless voice replied.

“Yes, of the two bi… girls, only one of them accepted while the other rejected my offer. They truly don’t know what is good for them. To reject an offer directedly made by the master, they don’t value their insignificant existence.”

“…I see. The plan remains unchanged. Do what you were told and I’ll reward you more than you asked for.”

The emotionless voice cut off the call. Once again, without the room with only the troupe leader, he licked his clock as he said. “Master, my dear master. Why are you so obsessed with those two bitches. Why aren’t you looking at me? But with this, you’ll finally look my way, right? Watch me, master. Watch how I break those bitches just like you ordered."

-----

In a study room blessed with dancing sunlight, bookcases stacked as high as the ceiling and filled with a ridiculous amount of books on magic, mana, and Runes. The emotionless shadow sat on its chair as it took out a notebook. The shadow used a complicated spell to unlock the book then wrote something down.

“Change: Sera Kanehiro didn’t accept the deal. Most likely variable: Karl Kanehiro.”

With that one sentence done, the shadow closed the book.

It stood up and walked toward the window. Down below, students were walking, playing, and smiling all around the schoolyard. Happy mundane moments that meant nothing to the shadow anymore. The only thing left within it was the mission.

“It seems that I need to intervene myself this time.”