Uh... I Don't Think That's It

Uh... I don't think that's it.

A spacious room in the real world — a world that had yet to open its doors to Deoen. The man caught in the camera mounted above his monitor turned his gaze between two screens.

One showed the chat window. The other played footage of the woman who had lately become the talk of the town — a clip of her taking down the Goblin King, and another of her turning the tables on the bandits who'd tried to ambush her, educating them in the most thorough way imaginable.

"Now I see why you all kept recommending her."

"Mm... she's excellent, no question. And we happen to be short-handed for the siege war, as it is."

Not bad at all. Vlack — guildmaster of Black Moon, a top-ten guild, an ordinary citizen, and a streamer with forty thousand devoted viewers — watched the footage and made no effort to hide his admiration.

The uncanny movements that slipped past attacks and turned them aside. The speed. The sheer finesse and power with which she handled her weapon. And finally, the battle-sense to parry an attack backed by Absolute ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Precision.

Her raw specs sat somewhere in the 40s to 50s — mid-tier among his own guild members — but her actual skill was good enough to trade blows with the very top of the ladder. If she fought on a balanced playing field, she'd give even the elites a serious match.

Yena. A name he knew well.

No — anyone who'd played Deoen since its earliest days couldn't not know the handle "Yena."

Back then she was an old guard who chased down top-ten rankings without hesitation.

Of course, as time passed and the scene flooded with prodigies and pros, her ranking had naturally slipped — but her skill itself had never faded. To be honest, if she'd simply run her guild well she'd have held a high rank to this day, but whether out of a lack of ambition or something else, she insisted on running a tiny elite roster, and the guild's ranking had slid and slid.

"Disparaging Tass is a bannable offense. And for now, I have no intention of butting in — Lily is doing collab content with Yena at the moment."

"I'll try, within reason — as long as neither of them ends up hurt by it. I can't be stepping on another streamer's toes."

Vlack moved the conversation along naturally. Of course, even saying that, he intended to approach her one way or another. Even at this very moment, every other guild and every corner of the pro scene was probably starving for the chance to put an offer in front of Lily.

People need sleep. Without it, fatigue accumulates; when fatigue accumulates, energy drains away; when energy drains away, strength fails. And when strength fails, everything in life becomes an exhausting chore and you simply don't want to move.

That's right. I did not want to move.

"Hoo... So this is what it's like to be a Heaven-Scented human now, huh."

Seven in the morning. I opened my eyes at the usual hour. Now, what time had I gone to sleep last night?

"I got up around two... went to bed around eight... slept right away, so..."

Hm. Eleven hours, then. I sat up. An ordinary person would shrug it off with a well, that was a bit much — but for me, someone who'd kept the exact same rhythm for thirty years straight, it was like sleeping an absurd, unforgivable stretch. Normally I slept five hours at most, or not at all.

Heaven-Scented humans, after all, hardly need sleep at all. For angels, sleep is little more than a pastime for killing time — or a form of hibernation to recover from a truly catastrophic wound.

Admittedly, I hadn't slept for fun so much as I'd slept the way one reboots a computer. A person's head clears when they sleep. "Mmgh... I was all over the place."

I thought back on my first stream. The first feeling I'd had was: this is fun. The viewers' reactions were entertaining, and rather than wanting anything from anyone, it felt like simply enjoying a good video. No expectations. No demands. Those feelings were so novel to me that I think that's why I enjoyed it even more.

And yet — for a while now, something had felt forgotten. A nagging sense that I'd left something undone. What was it?

The collab with Yena? No, that's tomorrow.

I picked up my phone. A fair number of KakaoTalk messages and missed calls had piled up.

...Don't tell me today was the collab.

Just as I was about to read all fifty-seven messages — from the one and only person who could have sent them — my absurdly expensive phone buzzed with an incoming call.

Yena.

"Hello?"

─Lily? Is that you?

"Yes. What's up?"

I asked as I tossed some bread I'd bought earlier onto a frying pan. Ah — I forgot to buy butter.

─...Uh. Don't tell me you actually forgot. Really?

"Sorry? Forgot what?"

Forgot what? The stream? Right — I'd told Yena I didn't stream, and then I went ahead and streamed anyway. As someone preparing a whole lineup of content, Yena had effectively had her material scooped — I'd shown her show's centerpiece on my own channel first. Naturally, the impact and the footage she should have owned were now diminished.

Hm. That's on me.

Sure, Yena had asked me more than once whether I had any interest in streaming — but her choosing to stream herself and me doing it unilaterally were two different things.

I cut the bread roughly into four pieces and admitted my fault.

"I'm sorry. I went ahead and streamed without asking. I'd killed about five hundred of them and got bored, so I turned it on for a moment as a lark — and it just... blew up."

─No. It's not that.

"I'll return the donations. That money was payment for the content, and I ran it on my own authority."

It stung to give up the money, but what could I do? Angels collect on debts and vengeance without fail — but that's an angel's business. I, the "Saintess" of the Small Village, had an obligation to repay kindness, too. A former Saintess, granted, but certain duties of decent human conduct still stood.

─Ha...

Silence stretched across the line. Hm. Was it really that shocking? Maybe I shouldn't have streamed after all.

Suddenly — HAHAHA! Yena burst out laughing. The laughter faded into the distance for a moment, and then, after one deep breath, she picked the phone back up.

─No, no. The stream itself doesn't matter at all. Honestly, I was hoping you would stream — I rewatched the VOD and you're genuinely, ridiculously good.

"...I'm sorry, what?"

Then what on earth is this about?

At my confusion, Yena spoke in a hushed voice, as though confessing some earth-shattering truth.

─The donations.

Thump. The bread fell out of my mouth.

Ah.

─You just left without reading them. All of them.

"Ah."

─I kept telling myself there was no way, but... you really did forget, didn't you.

I'm doomed.

"Hoo..."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Possibly not."

Eight in the evening. The hour when people start clocking out of work and viewer counts hit their daily peak. I logged into Deoen and met up with Yena — to turn on my stream and hold a public apology broadcast.

My original plan had been to go live immediately, but Yena insisted this was the hour when the most of my donors would be watching.

"Do you think they're really angry?"

"Mm... hard to say."

"......"

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. As a Saintess, I had lived beneath the weight of many people's expectations. The people of the Small Village loved me so dearly that they forgave me even when I fell short — but outsiders were another matter.

That gaze ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠steeped in disappointment when I failed to live up to the standard of having "angel" blood. That bone-deep helplessness the day they saw a true Saintess. Thirty years have passed since then, twenty since I laid the title down — and I still remember how that day felt.

Yena gave my tensed shoulder a squeeze.

"Geez, I can't even joke with you."

"...That was a joke?"

"It was."

Yena let out a small laugh. "So many people love you, Lily. One little slip-up? They'll laugh it off. I'm sure of it."

"You really think so?"

"Obviously."

Would they, though? Really?

With a somewhat steadier heart, I started the stream. In an instant, viewers flooded in like a bursting dam.

Uh... I don't think that's it.

They are angry.