6 September 2021

12:40, Singing Lizard Cafe

 

“It was obviously a scam, right?”

“Yeah.”

The answer comes from the girl sitting in front of me.

She was answering me while playing with a phone in one of her hand. She is my best friend from college who also pursue the career of Vtuber streamer. While she started around the same time as me, she had reached the level of those “hit” Vtuber already.

I went to her stream multiple times in the past. Only to almost got blinded by the number of viewers.

She was also the one that got me into this career in the first place. The streaming equipment that I used now was actually sold to me cheaply by her.

It seemed to be her old one when she used to stream before she debuts as a Vtuber.

Unlike me which only has an average face, she is actually quite a beauty. She has brown hair that was slightly curled complimenting her delicate face—currently, though, boredom could only be seen from her face. That is why she attracted a lot of guys came to her stream, she seems to dislike that and wants to start fresh as a Vtuber.

I asked her to come and meet me at the cafe near my apartment and ask for her opinion of the recent donation that I got.

“But then why would they give me that much money?”

“Yeah.”

“You aren’t listening are you…”

“Yeah.”

“…”

“Yeah.”

This *****.

“Stop playing with your phone and listen to me!” I roar. I want to shout for more but the glaring from the waitress is really intense so I have to stop myself.

“Hah…” The girl, Liza Palmer, sigh then slowly put down her phone. “For god sake, Vincent. This is like the thirtieth time I heard this in the last three days already. Just stop, okay? Whatever happens, happens.”

You are exaggerating, right?

There is no way I have complained to you that much.

Right?

 

So here is what was happen that night.

After getting the donation, everyone in the stream went into an uproar. Everyone was almost shocked to death seeing this number drop in front of their eyes. The most shocked—of course—would be me. The words I intended for ending the stream were cut short. I read the donation message over and over again to confirm myself.

But that was not the end of it.

The perpetrator—seemed to be only the one unaffected by it—sent multiple strings of messages next.

[LittleSnow: Sage Khun, I really appreciate your guidance for today. Thank to you, I have come to know my body like I never before.]

[LittleSnow: You have helped this girl graduated from being a powerless child.]

[LittleSnow: You have changed my life.]

[LittleSnow: From now on, I will forever be in your dept, great sage.]

Wait.

WHAT THE **** ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!

DON’T TALKED AS IF THERE WAS SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON!

The other will misunderstand, aren’t they?

[Mizao: @Sage Khun Ch. What actually happens during the “breakthrough”?]

[Animeboyforlife641: Officer! This guy right here!]

[EmperorOfYellowKingdom: a “breakthrough” indeed]

[Roboto_1291: Sage (loli)Khun...]

I WAS CHATTING THE WHOLE TIME WITH ALL OF YOU! HOW CAN I HAVE TIME TO DO ANYTHING!

[LittleSnow: As for the money, it was from my father for now but I will continue to work hard to be able to repay you myself in the future! Please wait for me, great sage.]

[Mizao: police called]

[Animeboyforlife641: police called]

[Roboto_1291: police called]

[Animeboyforlife641: police called]

DON’T CALLED THE POLICE! NOTHING HAPPENED!

…

That was the gist of it.

All in all, the misunderstanding was resolved and the stream was ending happily.

No police had come to my room, of course.

NO POLICE HAD COME.

It is very important. So, I repeat it twice.

But...

One problem still remained.

It was the money that I received.

It is still sitting in my account. I haven’t withdrawn it out.

I waited for the inevitable refund to come but it didn’t.

LittleSnow and her parents never refund it.

That is why I have consulted my friend, Lisa about the matter.

But I did not already talk about this thirty times like she said for sure.

I swear.

“But that stream was pretty funny I would say.” after some time, Liza says that. There is a slight smile on her face.

“Wait. You watched it?”

“Well, you ask about my opinion regarding the donation.” She says that, smirking slightly. “So, I have to watch it myself to judge. Otherwise, I would not know what to say about it, right?”

“Well…”

“The water-ice twin head dragon physique… supreme grade… Pfft!” Liza bursts out laughing loudly after she says that. “Oh my god, that was too much!”

“…!”

I feel heat rising up on my face. I never feel so embarrassed this much in my life. If there was a hole right here, I would crawl in there without any hesitation. Although I did say it straight face while streaming, it was me that was playing the personality after all. Hearing it in person hit much differently.

“HA HA HA”

“You…”

“HA HA... Okay. Okay. I will stop now.” After sensing my resentment, Liza tries to suppress her laugh. “Pfft... My stomach hurts...”

“…”

This continues for another 5 minutes before she could finally calm down.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” Liza asks after straightens her posture.

She doesn’t ask about the money.

As of now, the money issue is currently put on hold. There is no way of resolving it now anyway.

The only way is to wait for the one who donated to refund it or to confirm that it was intentional.

So, she probably wants to ask if I will continue streaming or not?

I did want to quit before this after all.

“I will continue.” I answer shortly. It is enough for her though as she smiles to me as a response.

Yes.

I will continue.

LittleSnow and her parent let me know that there are still someones that appreciate my work. Not only them but all the viewers that have watched me so far too.

And for about the money, I will receive it as a donation from my zealous fan for now. If they do intend to refund it though, I would probably send it straight back to them.

“Hey, do you want to do a collab?”

“Why would sage Khun want to collab with a demon queen like you.”

I don’t know what will happen in the future yet.

But for now…

I will just continue to stream as per usual.

It is my dream after all.

 

---

5, Month Fall-Quatre, Year Elizabeth 402

22:50, Claude Mansion

 

As one with the Duke title, Claude mansion was always large. The building alone was probably at least 200,000 square meters. And that was not counting all other facilities. Despite it was that large, it never felt sparse at all as there would be people working everywhere in this mansion. As nightfall though, it became different. The mansion became silent and dark. There were only some light stones in the hallway that were on.

That would normally be the case, except today the light in the duke Ryan’s study room still lit. The light stone shone bright light across the room illuminated one man sitting on his chair. He was currently studying a page of letters in his hand. The only sound in the room was the rhythmic tapping of his finger against his study desk.

Suddenly he sighed and put the letter in his hand down. He turned his head to the dark corner of the room, his face cold.

“I already told you that you can’t sneak in like this, isn’t it?” he said as if there was someone in that corner. He knew that even if he couldn’t see anyone.

“Well, isn’t it more exciting this way.” answered his question came a playful voice from that corner. A person then slowly walked out of the shadow.

It was a girl in a black dress.

She looked no older than Alice but there was an air of maturity around her. Her pale face was so beautiful as if sculpted by the god himself. Her white hair was glistening mesmerizingly when shone with the light in the room. The only thing that was unexpected of her though, was her eyes. Her eyes were bright red as if they were made from fresh blood.

This was a girl that everyone in the kingdom had to commit her face into their memory so that they wouldn’t offend her carelessly.

She was Altea the timeless witch.

“What are you doing here, mother-in-law?” Ryan asked, his voice stiffed.

“Don’t be like that Ryan.” she replied, giggled lightheartedly as she did so. “Just call me mother like you used to.”

Ryan sighed, he looked at his—older than his great-great-great-great-grandfather—mother-in-law of his. He then repeated what he said.

“What are you doing here, mother?”

“Now that’s my Ryan.” Altea smiled lightly. “I come because I heard that there was a rather interesting event happened to my grand-daughter. Isn’t that right?”

“You… How could you…?” he was so baffled that his speech became a little broken. After what happened on that day, he tried to lock down all the information to ever go out. The area around the pond had become a restricted area—only him, Marine and Alice could go there. Even his sons and his other daughter could not enter either.

Altea didn’t reply instantly but chuckled lightly first. “As if your little news suppression tactic would work on me. You never learned, did you?”

Ryan sighed. He felt defeated. Altea smiled at her son-in-law. As a person with a time spell at her disposal, how could there be any information ever hidden from her? As long as she could access the area, she could always rewind the time and re-watch any event she wanted.

And with her power as the number one mage in the kingdom, there was no area she could not get to.

That was why she was the ruler of the Red Rose Garden, the one and only intelligent broker in the kingdom. As an organization that was even older than the kingdom itself, it held more power than even those of the royalty.

“So, what do you want to know, mother?” Ryan asked, defeated.

“Oh. I don’t want to know anything.” Altea played with her hair playfully. “I already watched the whole thing after all. He is rather interesting, right? I kind of want to meet him too.”

Ryan did not answer, he only watched as the mage in front of him slowly walked forward until she came behind him. She then poked her head over his shoulder

“The intelligent report about sage Khun.” Altea read the headline in the letter on Ryan’s desk. “So, you still have not changed at all.”

Ryan face twitched. While he was indeed a cautious person as he never trusted someone carelessly, investigated about sage Khun was a different matter. This person claimed to be a sage and suddenly appeared in his mansion after all. Anybody would do the same as him.

Except of his naive daughter and his wife, of course, as they seemed to trust sage Khun completely.

Especially his daughter, she insisted to take the tablet back with her to her dormitory at the academy no matter what. Ryan’s head hurt just by thinking about the exchange he had with his daughter from two days before.

“So... How about it?” Altea asked, her face amused.

“…” Ryan didn’t answer. As she would probably know about the content already. This report came from her own organization after all.

“There was no sage with the name Khun before.” the witch continued all by herself after seeing that her son-in-law refused to answer. “While there were some individuals that had that name, there were all but insignificant figures and had disappeared in the river of time already.”

“So, you just come here to mock me?” Ryan’s face twitched slightly.

“Of course not, my dear son-in-law.” she chuckled. “I just came here because you suddenly bought such a strange report. That’s all. But it was very lucky, that I came, right? Or else I would miss such a piece of groundbreaking news already.”

“...”

The witch grinned. She ignored his awkward silence and walked toward the window. A silver moonlight, shone through the window, highlighted her beautiful face.

Altea, who faced toward the forest, was now expressionless as if all her cheerfulness before was just a dream.

“It was real, his word.” the witch finally opened her mouth again after some time had passed.

“What!? How did you know—” Ryan, flabbergasted, tried to ask back but his word was cut short by an object that was thrown toward his face. He raised his right hand and caught it firmly.

“You…” Ryan was speechless at his mother-in-law’s action. He then looked to the object in his hand.

It was a ring. It looked normal, like a ring that could be bought in any store. The only significant detail about it was the gem on the ring was in blue color.

“Give it to your daughter when she reaches the heptagon level.” Altea explained. “It was a gift from the founding ancestor of your family.”

“You couldn’t possibly mean that—”

“Yes, he had the same physique.” Altea replied curtly, but her face revealed a little smile. Talking about her old friend couldn’t help but made her reminisced about the past.

“I don’t know about the name of the physique and the drawback. But at least, I can confirm that all the benefits sage Khun listed are all correct.”

“So it was really the truth…”

“How else would a lowborn from a fisherman village like he could become the founding duke otherwise?”Altea shook her head and continued. “That is the artifact he asked me to safeguard it until his suitable successor appeared.”

Million of questions flashed through Ryan’s mind, he wanted to ask something but decided against it in the end.

Then, sensing the melancholy in his mother-in-law, he could not help but ask.

“Is there anything else you want to talk about, mother?”

This time, Altea no longer looked outside but slowly turned her face toward him.

“Malcolm is dead.”

“...You killed him?”

“Ha!” she spat out some air. “While I do hate his dark magic gibberish so much that I could kill him, it wasn’t me.”

“Then who...?”

“They are from a new group that I could not get a hold of yet.” Altea shook her head. “The only info I got so far is that they are all followers of a new demon lord and that they didn’t use any magic at all.”

“…!”

“They are all commoners.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense.” Ryan couldn’t help but be baffled.

While Malcolm did not have a unique physique, he was after all the number two on the top mage rank list. This meant that in this kingdom only Altea was stronger than him.

Altea looked out the window again, this time toward the sky. She thought about the mysterious sage Khun that suddenly appeared and the new demon lord. She didn’t know their relationship with each other yet but their action in the future would definitely change the kingdom forever. She then spoke again, her voice forlorn.

“Something is happening, Ryan. Something really big.”