Chapter 148: The Girl From the Song
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About an hour after Yura left, while in a state of cultivation, I finally remembered why Tsubasa looked a little down.
My eyes parted with an electric spark and I shot up from my crossed leg position.
"Oh shit," I walked out of the room and approached where I sensed Tsubasa.
Yesterday, she asked for my time for the night, and I agreed. But I forgot about it completely since I was busy with Yura all night long. It couldn't be helped, but the least I could have done was to notify her by letting her know.
Did she wait for me the entire night?
My Jade Perception allowed me to know that she wasn't in the living room, in fact, none of the girls were. In our recording studio, in one room of our house, all the girls were gathered. Tsubasa was there too.
I entered the room to encounter silence. Sound filled my ears, and many eyes turned to me and Ai pressed a finger over her lips to tell me to be silent.
I noticed Shoko singing in one part of the room, enclosed by glass and soundproof black cardboard walls. My ears bloomed in euphoria as her voice filled the room.
"Don't you notice how, I get quiet when there's no one else around? Me and you and awkward silence, Don't you dare look at me that way, I don't need reminders of how you don't feel the same…"
From the Start, by Laufey. I recognized the song, it suited Shoko's voice.
I paused for a moment to listen to her and noticed Ruby behind a large camera that recorded this, while Tsubasa was behind a table, working on a laptop to keep track of things.
I walked over to Tsubasa. The sweet girl acknowledged me with a thin smile even after my mess up as she returned to focus on the laptop.
'Well this isn't nice,' crossing my arms as I stood behind her, I frowned.
There are some girls whom I intentionally lead and ignore, such as Rias, but Tsubasa wasn't one of them. She's a sweet girl, who I like to treat the softest right after Shoko. I felt a pang of guilt as I noticed dark circles under her eyes, indicating that she'd been up all night long and then gone to school. She hadn't had a wink of sleep.
I didn't want to neglect my girls by going after new ones. Unlike in my ninth life, I genuinely cared for the women in my life.
I decided to wait for Shoko to finish her singing. Two minutes later, the singing ended and Yuzuru ran to Shoko to hand her a water bottle. Shoko received warm compliments from everyone, and I noticed her sheepish gaze toward me.
I was in a sour mood, sour at myself, and wanted to make it up to Tsubasa. But it'd ruin the whole point if I let my mood get the better of me and ignored Shoko.
"It was a great performance," I said, and it was a genuine compliment. She did sing really well. She smiled warmly, her cheeks a little flushed.
"You know, Aqua," Yuzuru turned to look at me. "You should sing with her. You sing well. How about another song by Camila? I heard your Havana last time, it was sooo good!"
"Erm…"
All eyes turned to me, curious why there was an incident where I sang and only she happened to hear it.
"What is she talking about?" Ai asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"Well," Yuzuru turned to her, and before I could stop her, she blurted out, "When you kicked him out two months ago, he was performing in the streets and begging for mone-"
"...Yuzuru, quiet," I commanded and the world listened. Her lips shut up and I felt a dozen eyes on me. A complicated mixture of emotions bubbled in Ai's eyes, and I had no interest in letting her guilt continue.
"It's not like that, I got 200k yen from just a few songs. My singing sells a lot, I was not 'begging' like she is saying."
I shouldn't have said that too as I saw Yuzuru's eyes sparkle.
I didn't wanna let go of her lips but I was curious what she had to say. After I let my command drop, her lips parted and she said, "That's why you need to do a duet! It will sell a lot! Our channel is growing so much, it'll help us! Come on, just one song will do!"
Ugh, this kid's persistent.
I looked at Tsubasa in the chair, she too was looking at me and wore a smile on her lips. She liked the banter that unfolded just now.
"Won't you sing?" She whispered to me, "I'll forgive you if you do." So she knew why I was here. "I wanna hear you sing."
I rubbed the back of my head and sighed. My eyes caught the laptop screen, and I blinked. It was the YouTube page that was under Shoko. It was on the creator page and I could see the earnings it was making.
'Whoa.' It's just been two months since the account was made, but it has earned quite a bit already.
I leaned down a little to whisper to her, "We're not taking anything from here right? It's her personal account."
"Of course. We're only taking 1% of it as a formality since it's still managed by our agency." Tsubasa let me know.
Great. With this much money, they must have even moved out of their old apartment. Or maybe not, Shoko would have told me if they had. Perhaps they took care of their debt with this. It's about $17,000, it's not bad money.
"Fine," I stood back straight and agreed. "What do you want me to sing?"
"Well, if it's a song by Camila as Yuzuru said, and one that's duet-worthy," Ai said, "There is only one that comes to mind.'
I sighed at that. Really, Señorita again? I was playing it just last night too.
I had memories with that song, good ones that have turned bad at one point, but now it was all nostalgic all the same.
"I'll go get my guitar," I said and walked out of the room.
"But wasn't it going to be a duet? Aren't you going to sing?!" Yuzuru yelled from the back and I just waved at her.
"I'll do both,"
"Oh."
I returned with my guitar a minute later and stood beside Shoko. She looked a little nervous yet greatly excited. Ambient, soft music began to pulse in the area as I began to hit my guitar strings.
Last night I managed not to fall into a memory lane since my mind was sharp and ready to seduce a woman, but now it became harder to focus. My memories wanted to wander. So I let it be, allowing my fingers loose while memories flashed before my oldened eyes.
"I love it when you call me señorita, I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya, But every touch is ooh, la-la-la, It's true, la-la-la, Ooh, I should be running, Ooh, you keep me coming for ya…" Shoko said her verse, and then my lips moved.
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"Land in Miami, The air was hot from summer rain, Sweat dripping off me Before I even knew her name, la-la-la, It felt like ooh, la-la-la~"
Under a bright blue sky, with small puffs of cloud doing nothing to block the sun, the young Hero of the Empire, me, sat at the edge of a beachside house while the sea breeze ruffled my black hair.
The grand sea expanded before me, and it was a feeling of freedom I had never felt in my life. In my last world, my first life, the world wasn't this pretty. Nor did I have this incredible feeling of freedom.
It was a world where too many people had a revolver in their hands, and I could die if some stupid bastard was too drunk to think straight. Or if a stupid father came home drunk and tried to invade his own daughter's room if it wasn't me stopping him. I had to kill my own father, though I had died myself in the process, but at least the person I tried to protect remained safe.
That sounds sad on paper, but I'm over it.
I loved my new world, the new me. While I died by being stabbed by a broken bottle of alcohol, my body was so weak that I'd die if I were shot once, I could now slay dragons and giants.
And soon the Demon King too.
I think I will have a problem with that last task, however. More than a magical strife, I think it'll be an emotional one.
Because of the girl sitting beside me.
"Hmm, so the next line is…" she trailed off as she read the lyrics in the paper in her hand, where I wrote the lyrics of Señorita in the native tongue of the empire. She's been trying to learn the language, and I found singing practice to be a better method than others.
"Yeah, no. Sapphire moonlight," her soft voice boomed, sending shivers down my spine. She paused with a raised eyebrow, unsure how to continue, and then naturally proceeded, "We danced for hours in the sand, Tequila sunrise, Her body fit right in my hands, la-la-la, It felt like ooh, la-la-la, yeah…"
"Aha, you're getting a great hang of it," I turned off the Recording Mana Device that was recording our progress and gave two light pats on her shoulder.
She scowled at me in response. "Do not touch me, Hero."
"Yes, yes, whatever you say, little Demon Princess." I withdrew my hands.
"Do not call me little, either." She crossed her arms under her bustling red breasts and looked at me. "I am not little anywhere."
Her red skin was an incredible contrast in comparison to the blue sky, blue sea, and yellow sand. She stood out like a ruby gem amid this environment. Despite her horns that many of this world considered ugly, she was just… gorgeous.
[Image Here]
Seeing my gaze linger on her, she scoffed out a laugh, emphasizing her breasts by tightening her crossed arms. "Never seen a demon beauty, you dirty human? Alright, stare as much as you want."
I turned away, blushing a little seeing her mounds bounce, as I cleared my throat. "Keep in mind that you're still a hostage, don't tempt your tormentor like that. Who knows what I'll do if I lose my reasons?"
Indeed, we were not friends. She came for my head early in my journey, trying to kill me as I'm prophesied to kill her father, the Demon King, so she wanted to kill me before I could ever reach her father.
Although I wasn't quite powerful back then, the rest of my party were monsters. The Mage of my party, a thousand-year-old elf, easily took care of this little girl.
Ah, speaking of my party, they're not here on the beach right now. This is a Dungeon, a Pocket Dimension, a Thin Space, and the two of us are stuck here. The only way to escape this is to break us free from the outside or defeat the dungeon, but it's too whimsical to rely on the first possibility. Who knows how long that'll take? I am leaning toward the second option more, but I've already tried defeating the dungeon boss and failed. I can't defeat that monster without this demon's help.
But of course, this woman wasn't going to help me even if I got down to my knees.
The demon princess broke out laughing, "You? What will you do? You lack balls, hero." Somehow she made the word hero sound like an insult. "You can't even break out of a simple dungeon by yourself."
"Will you shut up?" I rested my weight on my sword and looked at her.
Her smirk grew more smug as she looked at the volcano located in the middle of this island, with lava glistening at the top. "I'll shut up if you go and defeat the monster on your own. Respect is earned, hero, stop relying on others for everything. Go defeat that thing if you're really a man."
I stared at her for a moment, trying not to let her get to my head, but in the end, I let out a grumble and turned to face the giant volcano. I raised my Holy Sword towards the thing, pointing at the glistening lava at the top.
"Sure," I said, leaping through the air. "I'll go slay that stupid-"
A beam of molten lava shot out from the volcano and toward me.
The air screamed as heat burned through it and rushed at me at a speed beyond which I could react. No, I could react and avoid it if I was on the ground, but in the air, I had no platform to help me change position.
'This isn't good-!' This could kill me.
Suddenly, a blur of red, a different shade from the beam of lava, shot from below me as it tackled me to the side. The beam passed through the spot I was a second ago and fell into the sea, causing sizzling steam to fill the air.
I fell on my back, rolling on the ground while my arms were wrapped around the red figure who had saved my life. Our rolling came to a stop with her on top of me, and me below her.
I was sweating, and the steam in the air made her sweat too. Our crashing caused the Recording Mana Device to fall to the ground, as it began to play the recording.
["Land in Miami, The air was hot from summer rain, Sweat dripping off me, Before I even knew her name, la-la-la, It felt like ooh, la-la-la~"]
["Yeah, no. Sapphire moonlight, We danced for hours in the sand, Tequila sunrise, Her body fit right in my hands, la-la-la, It felt like ooh, la-la-la, yeah…"]
The air hummed with music while the girl huffed above me, "Only…" she said, "I or my father is allowed to kill you, hero."
"Uh-huh," I panted too and smirked up at her, my hands moving behind her waist. "I don't know how much of that I should trust at this point, princess…"
Our faces hung near one another for a long moment, until she began to pull away. I pushed my head up, capturing her lips, while my hands pulled her chest into mine.
My future wife struggled into my arms for a moment, and then gave in.
….
That was a sweet time. I still feel giddy if I remember those times. With Señorita in the background, mixing with our kissing sounds, followed by the sound of her hard moans, it was a memorable day.
Our very last day, too, ended in the same way. She was in the same position too, and the same music played in the background.
["Locked in the hotel, There's just some things that never change, You say we're just friends, But friends don't know the way you taste, la-la-la…"]
In the dark red royal room, many years since that incident, I laid on my back with her on top of me. A dagger in her hand as it rested deep in my heart. Runic texts were spreading from the puncture point, spreading all over my body, leaving me paralyzed and unable to move.
There was nobody in the world who could defeat me in a one-on-one battle. But… even I wasn't immune to betrayals.
"W… why…" I rasped out in a voice that was barely audible, more so against the soft music in the background. It was a hard task to even move my lips.
Her cold golden eyes, runny with tears, gave me no answer. She gulped hard and met my eyes at my last breath.
"You shouldn't have… killed him…" she meant her father, whom I had slain. "I told you so many times… I begged you… yet you did it anyway."
He wasn't a good person, but he seemed to have been a great father if his daughter was ready to kill the love of her life for him even after his death.
It hurt, honestly.
Did she never see me worth more than her father?
Her betrayal hurt more than the dagger in my heart ever could.
I loved her, I stood against the world who wanted to execute her for being the daughter of the Demon King and protected her. I did so much for her, and we even had kids. Yet…
"Haaah."
I let out a deep sigh and looked away from her eyes. "F… flee," I said. "The other girls will be… here soon. They'll kill you… so… flee…"
"...."
My wife froze on her spot. The dagger in her hand trembled, her eyes widening. She looked at me in utter shock and confusion.
What, had she expected me to curse her at my last moments? Had she thought I was the same as her?
"Lilithra Shadowveil…" I called her and met her eyes for one last time. "I hope… you will survive…" I smiled, my lips bloody. "Haah, I… will… miss you," I let out my last breath and saw her hand let go of the dagger, her throat breaking with a cry of regret and confusion, but it was all too late for that.
[I love it when you call me señorita, I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya…]
I closed my eyes, my life slipping out of my body, and I wondered where I'd end up next. Valhalla? Or Heaven? Or perhaps the great Goddess will take me to her castle?
…None of that happened.
Instead, I reincarnated again.
As Genghis Khan, I was far from the bright and kind hero that my 2nd world had seen. And the one to be blamed for all that was my sweet and stupid Demonic Wife.
Haah, it's been a long time. Truly.
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