Chapter IV: The Passage of Time
If there was one thing that could be said for touring around the world with my mother, it was the chance at meeting from all over the world. WhatsApp was an international communications app, that incorporated messaging and calls. So it was easy to stay in touch with the few friends that I've made and my mother's bandmates.
I had toured with them for years and I had started to come to see them as something similar to older sisters. Most of my contacts were my mom's bandmates and the families they had started. All of them had significant others by 2020, with a few of them having children of their own. I was six years older than their oldest kid, but it was nice not having an empty contact list after all.
I kept waiting for something to happen. Athena visiting me in my dreams or appearing to me in real life. Virtual Reality to be announced and Primal Vale is to be its first release title. I was waiting for something related to my conversation with Athena, but nothing came up by the time I was seven.
In 2020, my life of touring and travel stopped when the Covid pandemic hit. Aphrodite had to cancel all its shows and the record label moved to more social distancing methods of recording and making music. It would take two years for things to calm down in France and even start to get back to normal, but for those two years, I hardly left our apartment. Food, equipment, practically everything we needed was delivered.
The only one who I got to see that wasn't my mother was Daliah. When the pandemic began, my mother offered her free room and board as part of the generous package she always paid the severe woman. Any books she needed, we ordered. My education continued uninterrupted. And in the lockdown, I had nothing better to do than study.
True to my mother's word, she got me a Japanese tutor and we continued our lessons on Zoom. When the pandemic started, I could hold basic conversations in Japan. Two years later when things calmed down, I was proficient in the language. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
At least my mom let me have some free time. I watched YouTube and Twitch. Even dipped my toe in Tiktoc, but short form content wasn't for me.
It was a hard time to live through and I felt sorry for the people who weren't as lucky to be as well off as my mother and I. In 2022, France started to lift some restrictions. By the time 2023 rolled around, life was getting back to normal. It was a hard winter for Europe, but we survived.
It was during this time that I was coming into myself. I always knew I was going to be a looker, I had inherited my mother'sgenes and she was beautiful, but I didn't realize how handsome I was going to be. I had a head of red hair, bottle-green eyes, and a face full of freckles. My jaw was defined and pronounced for my age, my mother made sure I kept in excellent shape, and that all made sure I was very good-looking this time around. In my first life, I had been average, so it was a nice change of pace. Well, after trapping myself in my apartment for years on end, I think I was below average.
It wasn't long before Aphrodite's record label decided that they were going to start touring again. It would be the first tour they had taken in three years and the band would play in cities all around the world. Maybe people were happy to be getting back to normal, but it felt like the crowd sizes were even bigger than pre-pandemic.
This time around, every member of the band brought along a lover or a child, so I didn't have to spend a lot of time alone. I still spent the most time with my mother, but it was nice to branch out.
I was ten when the tour first started and I spent my eleventh birthday in Seoul. Since I was older, I was given a little more freedom to explore by myself. Not too much, as a security guard followed me where ever I went, but my mom didn't insist on being my shadow. She still wanted to do things with me, but I wasn't treated like the complete child I was before.
We were in Paris for a concert when I met them. In the fullness of time, they would come to be my best friends. Two of them would come to be my lovers, but in 2024, they were a random group of kids.
Paris was the first stop in the Red Sky Concert or Concert Ciel Rogue as it was named in French. It was named after Mars, the war god in the ancient Roman religion. After sixteen active years as a band, it was Aphrodite's biggest event ever. The tour kicked off with a huge show in Paris, in the largest venue the city of love had to offer.
Being the lead singer's son, I had a full access pass backstage, so I could come and go as I wanted. I was outside the front of the venue a half hour before the show. The night was cool and the fresh air was helping my upset stomach. Most of the crowd was already inside, but three kids my age came running up to the bouncer.
The first girl had a head of black hair, grey eyes which were as bright as the sun, and she was hot enough that she sent my hormones raging. If there was one downside to being reborn, it was having to go through puberty again. I was constantly horny and it wasn't easy always being turned on. She was as white as I was.
The next girl was just as pretty with an North Eastern Asian complexion. She had the blackest hair I had ever seem. Her eyes were onyx brown, almost black like her hair. Her hair trailed in the window as she run, though she was slightly out of breath.
The last of the group was an Arab boy. His skin was the color of mocha, and he was handsome. Not as handsome as me, but that might just be my bias. He was trailing behind the girls, even more out of breath than the Asian girl.
They stopped in front of the bouncer and tried to get in without tickets. The first girl said they each had one, but they lost them. When the bouncer asked for digital tickets, they said they only had the physical ones.
"No tickets, no getting in," the big man said. And that was that. The security company we worked with in Paris wasn't the kind that would let people in without a ticket, and no matter how much this group of friends begged and pleaded, he wasn't going to budge.
I felt sorry for them, so that's why I did what I did. I raised my arm and waved. "Hey, guys, what took you so long?"
The three of them looked at me like I was crazy, but the bouncer looked confused. "Are they with you?"
"Yeah, they're my friends. They're going to come backstage with me, okay?"
The bouncer nodded once. "If they're with you, that's fine."
I smiled at them. "Come on, the show is starting soon."
"Who are you?" the Asian girl asked once we were in the building.
"Calixte Lescheres."
"Lescheres?" the boy repeated. He spoke with a southern American accent. "As in Madeleine Lescheres? The lead singer?"
"She's my mom."
That seemed to awe the three of them. They stayed backstage with me for the show and afterward, they even got to meet the band. It was nice hanging out with kids my age for once, even if the girls distracted me, but there wasn't much I could do about biology.
By the time they were gone, I realized that I had forgotten to exchange contact information with them and I cursed myself. I hoped we would meet again, I liked hanging out with them.
On January 1st, 2025, Stardust Technologies started a live stream on YouTube, promising something that would revolutionize the gaming world. Sure enough, it was the sign I had been waiting for. It only took eleven years to find me, but there it was, my proof.
Stardust Technologies first announced the creation of Stardust Studios, a subsidiary company that would focus on gaming. The CEO would be Andrei Petrov, the son of Alexander Petrova.
Then came the second announcement.
Since being reborn, I had started to watch a lot of anime. I couldn't play games because of my mother, so anime gradually became my favored pastime. So when a picture of a chunky helmet appeared, it gave me NerveGear vibes. I can't say that I was a fan.
The helmet was called a Neural Sphere Series X. Next to the helmet was a huge pod machine, with the name Neural Sphere Series Z under it. The Neural Sphere X was the world's very first virtual reality gaming console, while the much bigger, more expensive Neural Sphere Series Z would be a general-purpose virtual reality machine.
I didn't pay much attention to the Neural Sphere Series Z, that wasn't going to be in my wheelhouse. I didn't know how much of what Athena or Minerva told me was true, but operating on the assumption that it all was, my fate was tied into Series X.
The announcer listed off a title of Neural Sphere X titles, but none of them was named Primal Vale. That meeting with the goddess was seared into my mind. I remembered it clear, even after eleven years, and I remember she said the game would be called Primal Vale.
So where was it? Why wasn't it announced here? When the live stream ended, I learned that both Neural Sphere series would be going on the market in 2025 and both were going to be expensive. There were twelve launch titles for the Neural Sphere and not one of them was Primal Vale.
My mother, because of her music career, had a lot of money. Sure, the Neural Sphere series X was 20,000 euros, but she could afford it. I needed it. I needed that system, and not just because it was the next evolution of video games. I needed it because of my deal with Athena.
So despite knowing that it was unlikely that my mother would approve, I asked her for it. My mother reminded me that we agreed I would continue with my private education. Despite how much she wanted me to attend high school in France or Lycée as the French called it, I had gotten her to agree to let me finish my lower education with Daliah.
Unlike America, high school in France only lasted three years. Middle School, or as the French say Collége, last four years. In that respect, it was closer to the Japanese school system. Being the huge anime nerd I was, I had watched more than my fair share of school-life anime, but that didn't mean I wanted to go back to school. I was going to attend university, but middle or high school? I'd rather not, given the option.
High school was where my mother meant my father. It was where she found her love of music. If she didn't attend high school, she wouldn't be the same person she was today. My mother valued her time in high school, it was an important milestone in her life.
It was a milestone that she didn't want me to miss. So she decided that I would be old enough to live by myself if I wanted to. I could live in our apartment for the school year, and she would make sure I had enough money to support myself. In return, I would go to school like a normal kid. I could still come tour with her during the summer, but she wanted me to attend high school. In exchange for agreeing to go to high school, she would buy me the Neural Sphere.
And I agreed.
She had bought me a stupidly expensive game console and all of the launch titles. I loved my mother and touring with the band, but it did take a toll on me. Staying in hotel rooms and eating at restaurants got old after a while. I didn't want to trade that for school, but as it stood I guess I would have to, so I settled for looking on the bright side.
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