LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 140: Firwood Concert.
Enjoy the moment...breath in the air...listen to all the voices. They are waiting for you!
The sky was orange, slowly turning black. A crowd of people was gathered in the plaza where numerous food stalls were selling food to the festive residents of Firwood’s commoner district. I wasn’t among them. I was currently standing behind a huge construct — my concert stage.
It was the very same I used at my first concert, the one I held in Carine Village. You know, the one made with earth magic. Sure, we had the money to order some proper wooden pillars and maybe a metal truss and roof, but we didn’t have the time. This was kinda a concert scheduled out of nowhere, after all.
I wasn’t thinking much about another concert until now, since we had a money problem at first and then these problems with Kiiro and the alchemist guild. Practicing and keeping in shape was normal, but I never prepared extensively to perform this concert. I didn't focus on a song list nor how I should present myself during the dances. Time was an issue, so the earth stage had to come back.
The clean up for today will be so much of a hassle. Mana draining and the trash removal.
Four days of promotions. It took our party four days to promote this concert in addition to the help the High Bishop gave us by hiring criers to promote the newly planned festival. He didn’t even need a good reason to persuade the residents. It seemed like any reason to celebrate and drink until dawn was enough for people to accept it and join in.
The few people who knew about our restaurant and my singing wondered why we were doing it, but they were still excited about it nonetheless. As the roads to Firwood were free of snow now, traveling merchants, traders, and adventurers have been pouring into town. Merchants and traders especially were happy as festivals were effectively money bags ready to be earned.
Using the same idea during my first concert, we lured in people through food, booze, and fun. Concert tickets weren’t sold, as it just doesn't make sense to do it since normal workers, who would otherwise comprise the majority of my audience, simply cannot afford it. Our restaurant noticed the drop in customers belonging to this category even as more merchants and adventurers began visiting us.
This event was pure entertainment — it wasn’t necessary for survival. If we scare everybody away at the beginning, then we can’t make money. Saori thought of something to help us earn back the money we needed to prepare for today’s event, and it was pretty good.
Also, this was my chance to finally get some fucking followers for my [The Light] title. Like, after Rashan Village and the priestess duties I’ve been performing, I thought I would be able to get some people to increase my counter, but nobody has joined. None at all.
While I could understand Rashan Village, as they were in mourning, I thought the people I helped in town would be more likely. I guess they probably thought my duties were more dedicated to Aurena, so their faith in her was reinforced, not to me. Kinda awkward, right? She wants me to gather people for my title, but I can’t earn any since she’s in the way.
So, I’m gonna have to rely on the one thing that helped me earn a huge amount of followers in a single night. I will dazzle, I will impress, and then I will make all of them my “fans.” ‘Cause you know what? I want that dark weakness nullification that was my reward for my next milestone.
“Hestia, we will be going now,” Saori said to me as I was pumping myself up. “Mhmm, you look so cute in that outfit. So colorful and so many frills, hie hie.”
“Oh, I know...since you were the one who made them. Praising your own work, I see? Ha ha,” I remarked, finding it funny she would say that, but I guess it was part of Saori. She has always commented how good I looked in the clothes she made specifically for me.
The outfit for my first song was cutesy and colorful, filled with frills and string to make me look like a doll. It wasn’t my style, admittedly, but it fit the first song so perfectly that I couldn’t say no. An outfit is as important to the show as the special effects and sound quality. Everything an idol brings to the stage was important to give the audience a good experience.
As Saori and I were laughing, Tasianna peeked at the number of people gathered before the stage, commenting, “There are more than in Carine Village.”
“Of course. Comparing the population of a single village to a large town like Firwood would be foolish,” neither Saori nor I said that, but Manuela did. “Lady Hestia, Barathan, and I have given our instructions to the servants. They should be ready.”
While the stage was the old one, the crew and equipment weren’t. We weren’t a skeleton crew anymore, where I had to control most of the mana intensive jobs - I now had Ellaine’s support and that of her staff members.
Aside from the temperature regulator that we used last time, they also brought light and sound amplifying manatech. I mean, I could still use [Aerokinesis] to increase the volume of my voice, but it was surprising for me to see Peolynca already had something similar to a microphone.
The microphone was a long staff with an orb catalyst at its tip. Using wind magic and the mana battery inside the staff, my voice can be transmitted far-and-wide. However, since [Aerokinesis] was still more powerful than the manatech, instead I decided to use them like loudspeakers. Four were placed on the stage, and they would increase the volume at a lesser mana cost for me.
For the lighting, they were similar to the manatech Ellaine had in her mansion, but they couldn’t be used as spotlights, so we added them onto the sides of the stage for illumination. The colored and white spotlights were still controlled by my parallel minds, but I prefered it this way as I had full control of what I want.
So, what did Ellaine’s servants and attendants do? Well, there were a ton of wires to manage and infuse mana into for the lighting and loudspeakers to continue working, I also needed somebody to help me change out of my outfits and into new ones, there was also a need for special effects using magic, and also a very special task. The one Saori planned. We also needed guards to keep everybody safe, in the case of ruffians, but we used Theodore’s authority to borrow soldiers for my audience and knights for the staff members.
I rejected Ellaine’s proposal to be guarded by knights, but at the end of the day, I still had to use them. Come to think about it, I haven’t had a lot of interactions with the Knight’s Order, huh?
“Thank you, Manuela,” I thanked her for helping me out this past week. The stage was well decorated with Saori’s and Manuela’s help, making it look too good considering its base appearance. It made me giddy like a little girl whenever I looked at it.
“It is no problem, Lady Hestia. As Lady Ellaine’s benefactor, I cannot allow anything but the highest quality. Miss Saori, Miss Tasianna. Svena, the other maids, and I are ready and have prepared the dresses for Lady Hestia,” Manuela informed the two. “We wish you luck. May the Goddess be with you as you bring justice to that abominable fiend.”
“We will, you can rely on us, Miss Manuela.” Growls could be heard from Saori’s shadow, as it contorted a bit in agitation.
“He will die.” Tasianna’s eyes flared up as a cold mist began to surround her clenched fist. The orb rotating around her was trembling in anger, ready to direct its powers at its mortal enemy.
“We managed to bribe everybody living close to the alchemy guild to come to my concert, so you should be fine to go wild,” I told them. “However, be careful. You won’t get a lot of reinforcements.”
The concert was a great excuse, as it didn’t create any suspicion. It was a noble girl who was willing to pay people to come to her concert to have them listen, giving them a good reason to not go to sleep to prepare for tomorrow’s work. As this festival was announced throughout the town, even the workshop owners and merchant bosses couldn’t chide their employees too much for enjoying themselves. Theodore might call it a waste of money since we weren’t selling tickets, but it solved the problem he wanted to avoid — leaks.
This was a sensitive topic, so we didn’t want people to know about it. Outside of specific people, nobody was allowed to join the raid to capture or kill Davison. Theodore should have secured House Chezaic’s mansion by now to confiscate more evidence, including Lord and Lady Chezaic at their fief. I also heard Duke Greenveil and the royal family were arresting Baron Teullon, the lord of Rashan Village, for questioning, as well as a few other nobles associated with Lord Chezaic.
But the political stuff wasn’t our concern. Party “Aurora” had our jobs to do and bring this shit to an end.
I gave Saori and Tasianna all my available buffs while they equipped themselves with potions, dragorades, and bombs. Once that was done, we wished each other luck and they departed. After I took in a deep breath, I slowly walked onto the stage.
How funny that my friends will be fighting for their lives while I am having fun here...However, aside from my flames, isn’t my music also a part of my repertoire? Time to make some fans and level [Idol] up!
It was dark on the concert stage. The curtains were down and no the lights weren’t on. I psyched my parallel minds up and calmed myself down. Barathan, who was looking at me from the stage, saw my thumbs up and began unrolling the curtains. As a sliver of light shined into my eyes, I activated [Aerokinesis], took in a deep breath, and sang.
.
“Se no ♫
Demo sonnan ja dame ♫
Mou sonnan ja hora ♫
Kokoro wa shinka suru yo ♫
Motto motto ♫”
.
As I could feel my mana draining from using my remote spotlights, created using [Delayed Cast], [Continous Cast], and [Trap Creation] on [Shine] spells, the stage was brightened with dazzling lights of various colors. The more colorful it was, the more it attracted the attention of the festival attendees.
As the instrumental part of the song began, I used this time to introduce myself, “Mina-san, konnichi wa! Atsuko Hestia-desu!” First my Japanese greeting, ‘cause I wanted to, and then came my Peolyncian greeting. “Good evening, everybody! My name is Hestia Atsuko, an aspiring Idol. You would also know me as the party leader of D-rank adventurer party ‘Aurora’ and co-owner of Restaurant ‘Aurora!’ Thank you very much for coming to celebrate today’s LightDay with me! Let’s all have FUN!”
.
“Kotoba ni sureba kiechau kankei nara ♫
Kotoba wo keseba ii ya tte ♫
Omotteta? Osoreteta? ♫
Dakedo are? Nanka chigau kamo ♫
Senri no michi mo ippo kara! ♫
Ishi no you ni katai sonna ishi de ♫
Chiri mo tsumoreba Yamato Nadeshiko? ♫
"Shi" nuki de iya shinu ki de! ♫
Fuwa fuwari fuwa fuwaru ♫
Anata ga namae wo yobu ♫
Sore dake de chuu e ukabu ♫
Fuwa fuwaru fuwa fuwari ♫
Anata ga waratte iru ♫
Sore dake de egao ni naru ♫
Kami-sama, arigatou ♫
Unmei no itazura demo ♫
Meguriaeta koto ga ♫
Shiawase na no ♫
Demo sonnan ja dame ♫
Mou sonnan ja hora ♫
Kokoro wa shinka suru yo ♫
Motto motto ♫
Sou sonnan ja ya da ♫
Nee sonnan ja mada ♫
Watashi no koto mitete ne ♫
Zutto zutto ♫”
.
Blegh, this song is sooo fast… I hate rapping.
For the introduction of the concert, I wanted to use a song I knew from Earth. It was peppy and cheery and was in my opinion good as a show opening as it conveyed the energy the show was supposed to give people.
Looking at the audience, the song didn’t land too well with most of the older men, but the women and children seemed to like it a lot. Especially the kids, who were also enamored by the lights. It was as expected. Even if they couldn’t understand what I was singing, music didn’t care about language barriers, as rhythm and beat transcend it all. This song was catchy, so it was perfect.
That was on the people whose faces I never saw and probably never heard me sing before, but those who knew me already anticipated I would sing since I announced it to them. The bards and hunters who knew me since I sang at the hunter’s guild were already calling me out with stuff like, “Wooo, the Lady Priestess is singing again!” and “When are you coming back to the guild? I’ve had it with dudes singing, Lady Priestess!”
Oi, those guys can sing pretty well, so just be happy with them!
Once I’d had time to take a breather, I spoke once again, “I hope my first song was to your liking! It is in my own language, so I’m sorry if you couldn’t understand it. I promise the rest will be understandable so I ask everybody to be patient. Also, as this is the day of the Goddess, I thought it would be appropriate if we included another song into the mix, right? You should all know what I’m talking about.”
Prayer.
Once the spell materialized on my hand, I then sent the white magic circle into the air. As the circle grew larger and larger, my audience began to understand what was about to happen. Mothers hastily telling their small children to hold their hands together, young adults panicking and calling their inebriated friends to begin praying, and middle-aged men gathering around their families to pray together. To “cast” the custom spell [Prayer], a song was needed, and they all knew it.
“The Goddess watches over us ♫
In her name, we pray, we sing, we love ♫
For her merciful light, protects us all ♫
Purify the ground, wherever her feathers touches ♫” I sang.
At this point, the amount of mana I invested into this spell had made the magic circle large enough to encompass the whole plaza, no, I think it was even reaching those outside the plaza — those in the alleyways and streets. Those who were still praying had their eyes closed, so they couldn’t see the magnitude of the spell, but the few people who could were overwhelmed with religious fervor.
“I told you, brothers and sisters. I told you, she is a saintess!”
“We had the honor of receiving her blessing and sacred white grace, and now we are receiving it again. What an honor!”
“Is this the reason why the white-robed nobles wanted to speak to her this much? The High Bishop received a wondrous guest.”
“Isn’t another priest helping her with the cast? I-Is the Lady Shrine Maiden holding onto this spell all by her lonesome?! E-Everybody, we must support the Lady Shrine Maiden with our Mana now!”
Oh, aren’t those the white-robes I met at the hunter’s guild? They also brought more friends with themb although, weren't they there when I met the High Bishop at the temple? Huh?
3 humans have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 134
...Huh. It seems like making pious clergymen like them into my followers is the easiest.
While I was thrilled to see the number go up, I couldn’t stop the spell now. Once enough mana was infused into the magic circle, which was mostly mine, I activated the spell, “Oh, Goddess of Light, Aurena. I bid you, hear our prayers of gratitude and ardent worship so it may empower you evermore in your duties of overseeing us. I beg of you to hear us and grant upon us your blessing of light, Prayer!”
[Blessing of the Goddess of Light (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
“Urgh…,” I groaned before smiling again. “The next song will happen in just a second! Please wait for me!”
I quickly descended the stairs where Svena was waiting for me with a glass of dragorade. I thanked her and chugged it down my throat to begin regenerating my Mana. The sky was almost pitch black, so any solar energy I had now was all that would be left for the rest of the night.
“Lady Hestia, please be careful. While a major blessing is good to demonstrate your power, it will be problematic if you were to contract arcane corruption now,” Svena said with worry.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I went a bit overboard with all the excitement...” I admitted with a sigh. Once I had another glass of dragorade, Svena and the other maid quickly began undressing me to put me in the next outfit. This one was less girly and childish, as it gave me the professional idol look I wanted.
As I stepped back onto the stage, I was greeted with people already looking my way and noticing me. They were as quiet as you could be during a festival, but it made me smile. At my first concert, I cried my heart out, but at my second, I couldn’t help but feel pride. I finally have the confidence to face this crowd with a wide smile.
And then the music began.
.
“If you asked me if I remembered that day ♫
I would say, yes, for it was the day that we met ♫
The hope and warmth that I felt, the memories that we made ♫
So I smiled. Together. ♫”
.
As the instrumentals continued, my eye wandered a bit to see a young woman in a fine dress guarded by multiple knights and attended by a single maid. They were sitting at a bench reserved only for them, where they could watch me sing without any problems.
So, the corners of my lips curved even more.
.
“With every day that passed, I just want to wonder ♫
Will this all last ♫
The peace we have is so fleeting ♫
I worry about what could happen, I don’t want all to be gone ♫
But you smiled. ♫
You say, “Don’t worry, so don’t stop moving” ♫
“Life is all about cherishing the present” ♫
So, I kept my head up and moved forward ♫
Even if you aren’t there ♫
I can’t stop now, stop now, I will grasp my chance ♫
Leaving behind my sad SELF now ♫
No way, no way, no way, I will not become that weak me again ♫
Stand proud, stand proud, to live my life to the fullest ♫
There is so much that I’ve given up ♫
No way, no way, no way, those memories give me strength ♫”
.
Thankfully, as I continued the song, the audience began to become addicted to the chorus. The energetic beat seemed to have fully captured people as some began humming the rhythm alongside me. Some, fitting for a festival, also used this chance to dance with their loved ones or those they fancy, bringing life to the dance floor.
Usually, the audience should be celebrating and maybe swinging fluorescent rods around in support of the idol, but that wasn’t the case for Peolynca. They had a different culture, and I wasn’t willing to correct them one bit. As the first idol on Peolynca, it was my job to spread the idol culture around while adapting it to inhabitants.
Besides, what is the most important part of being an idol? Bringing a smile to everybody! Although, I really should consider recreating fluorescent sticks. I do miss seeing them in the dark.
.
“I can’t stop now, stop now, I will grasp my chance ♫
Leaving behind my sad SELF now ♫
No way, no way, no way, I will not become that weak me again ♫
Stand proud, stand proud, to live my life to the fullest ♫
There is so much that I’ve given up ♫
No way, no way, no waaaaaaaaaaAAAaaaaaay ♫
I can’t stop now, stop now, I will grasp my chaaaaaaaAaaaaance ♫
Stand proud, stand proud, to live my life to the fulleeeeeeeeeeeeeest ♫
For blessed memories ♫”
.
“That was the song ‘Memories!’ I hope you all enjoyed it!”
Facing Ellaine’s direction once again, I gave her a short wink before excusing myself from the stage. She showed herself clapping and smiled at me, making me believe that she understood the intentions of the song. I hope it will help her grow and not go back to her past self.
While the first song didn’t get as many cheers and claps, I could feel my ears deafen from how intensely they were applauding me. It made it impossible to hear anything they were saying, even with my improved hearing.
As I drank another dragorade handed to me by Svena, a System message suddenly appeared.
1 human have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 135
Oh, I wonder who could that be?
Another follower in the bag. There was still a lot of people in the crowd to impress, so I couldn’t stop now. I had planned on singing more songs this time simply ‘cause I didn’t need to spend all my mana to manage everything myself. From my song list, I sang “Promise,” “Till Morning Arrives,” “Fireheart,” and “The Will to Fight and Survive.”
Each song was used to cater to a specific target group so I can fully pull everybody into my performance. Some disliked cutesy songs while others loved high-tempo ones. Everybody was different and, thankfully, I had some good songs to appease these people. And my efforts were rewarded.
9 humans have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 144
26 humans and beastmen have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 170
48 humans and beastmen have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 218
81 humans and beastmen have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 299
98 humans and beastmen have become your followers
Total follower count updated. Total follower of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 397
After each song, the number of “fans” I had increased. I needed 2500 followers to reach the next milestone, so we weren’t anywhere close yet, but I was hopeful with the progress I was making. Slow and steady, right? Not everybody will like my songs, so it was a given that I would just reach the next milestone just like so without a real hurdle. I needed to work harder and give more concerts.
As I was taking a break after finishing the last song, I couldn’t help but notice some smoke in the sky coming from the direction of the alchemy guild. I knew I should trust in them, but I couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Unable to hold in my curiosity, I looked at the party screen of my party bracelet. I then checked on the raiding party.