Chapter 156
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: Finally Found Him
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After the commercial's contents were revealed.
KTB Broadcasting's phone lines were exploding.
Whether it was because of the 100 billion won prize money.
Or because of that utterly ridiculous ad.
People calling to ask questions or complain weren't few and far between.
But KTB's responses were all uniform.
"The prize money? We're giving it for real."
"Participation qualifications? Secret."
"Selection method? Secret."
"Why secret? Secret."
[Hey you XXXXXX!]
At this point, it was hard to tell if they planned to answer eventually or were just messing with everyone on purpose.
Because of that, people's curiosity didn't wane—in fact, it only grew stronger.
And so, amid the entire nation's interest, anticipation, and suspicious glares, the live broadcast of Music Challenge began.
"Viewers across the nation, hello. This is your national MC, Choi Jeongseok."
"Hello, everyone! This is your national idol, Lira!"
"Lots of people must have been looking forward to today's show. Whoa, look at the ratings shooting off the screen."
"Of course! With a whopping 100 billion won on the line? Honestly, I wanted to join as a challenger instead of hosting."
"Hahaha, good one. Everyone knows Lira's tone-deaf... Gahk!"
"Ahaha, Oppa Jeongseok's jokes are always on point."
Lira swung a light punch.
Choi Jeongseok coughed up blood from the hit.
Kim Seungjun swallowed dryly as he watched the two hosts—chosen for this Music Challenge—bicker.
It wasn't just the tension of a live broadcast.
The lineup of invited guests on one side of the stage was that dazzling.
Level 85 actress Han Jiseong, with ten million fans.
Level 78 male idol Levit.
Level 74 vocal trainer Kim Moon.
And beyond them, trot singers, rappers, musicians, and more.
All top-tier entertainment players in Korea, watching the proceedings with keen interest as judges and participants.
Even the seemingly clueless Lira and the neighborhood-uncle-like Choi Jeongseok were Level 60 and 70 players.
For a rookie PD like Kim Seungjun, this was a lineup that would keep even legendary PDs awake at night with nerves.
'Who knew it'd blow up this big...'
Of course, Korea's entertainment elite weren't blinded by a mere 100 billion won.
The issue was fame.
KTB's ad had gone mega-viral, turning Music Challenge into a hot topic, so top players had flooded them with appearance offers.
Thanks to that, he was dying inside.
'If the show turns out mediocre...'
Kim Seungjun shuddered.
With this much funding poured in, this much hype, and these guests assembled—for the program to flop?
KTB would go down in flames.
And he'd be writing a suicide note instead of a resignation.
'The dice are already cast!'
No backing out now.
Kim Seungjun kept his nerves on edge, legs trembling, praying nothing went wrong.
But unlike the PD's tension, the studio atmosphere was electric.
The program that had caused such a fuss while keeping everything shrouded in mystery was finally unveiling itself. The audience was buzzing with excitement.
Except for a few exceptions.
"Unexpected. More modest than I thought. Few people too."
Tata calmly replied to the blank-faced girl's mumble, Aynsha.
"It's a small country. Fewer people than the ad suggested is natural."
"Still too few. If I just showed my face on the street, I'd draw a bigger crowd."
"There's no comparing the honor of beholding the world's noblest princess to these commoners' entertainment."
"Tata flatters me too much."
"It's the truth!"
As Aynsha and Tata whispered.
The hosts' chit-chat, having warmed up the crowd just right, finally got to the point.
"Alright, enough chit-chat! Lots of folks are curious what this Music Challenge is about."
"The concept is simple: Clear the given mission, and you succeed!"
"The winner gets 100 billion won."
"Now, for the inaugural Music Challenge mission... It's..."
Dududududung!
"Sing on the spot!"
"Just sing along to the original composition playing now."
"Only first place gets the prize."
"Later singers might have an edge getting familiar with the song, but too late and you're going home empty-handed."
"Of course, it has to pass the judges' approval. Sorry, but no tone-deaf idol like Lira belting it out will cut it..."
Thwack!
"Oppa Jeongseok? My Side-Step★Punch triples in power each hit. You don't wanna get carted off to the hospital mid-broadcast, right?"
"Kuhk, kuhkuk. A-anyway, we'll reveal the challenge song shortly."
It was then.
The celebrities who were participants.
And the audience—their faces all twisted in confusion and dismay at once.
'Is this for real?'
'That's the challenge? Just that?'
'All that hype for this?'
They couldn't help it.
All high-level players were superhumans, especially entertainment ones who'd done every variety stunt imaginable.
Singing in fire or water, group dances on cliffs—even that was commonplace now.
And the challenge was just impromptu singing?
As betrayal sank in beyond mere disappointment at how flimsy it was compared to the prize.
Weeeeeeng.
"...!"
All sounds of the world vanished.
The moment that melody flowed from the speakers.
Everyone forgot everything.
Their own confusion.
That this was a broadcast.
Even that they were watching TV.
Even how to breathe.
Filling their emptied minds was one melody.
A violin sound so beautiful it bordered on violent, exploding in their heads and erasing all else.
Weeng.
And surging up simultaneously: passion.
Profoundly deep, ethereal, majestic.
The flood of vivid emotions in the melody pounded hearts, squeezing out old pus-like feelings from soul-deep wounds.
'What... is this?'
Tata shuddered.
Having followed Aynsha and seen performances rivaling any insider's.
Even she lost herself this time.
The notes were that clear.
The timbre that intense.
But her total immersion made her shudder again.
Don't look at me―
The violin melody echoing in the air.
Tata froze at the song voice felt within it.
Not just Tata.
Audience, participants, even viewers beyond the TV—all who heard the performance wore ghost-struck faces.
Because they hadn't heard the song with their ears.
It simply surfaced in their hearts upon hearing the melody, etching into their minds.
Not heard, but felt.
Hearing the performance, but recalling the song.
Like an invisible ghost whispering at the ear.
Unsettlingly eerie, yet fantastically so—the song intertwined with the melody, stealing souls.
"Tata, I hear it."
"...Tata hears the song too."
"Wrong. Not a song. A person."
"Pardon?"
The moment Tata turned, puzzled by the cryptic words.
Her eyes nearly popped out.
"P-Princess?"
Aynsha, always expressionless.
Tears rolling down her cheeks made her forget the performance's shock entirely.
But Aynsha didn't care.
She just stared blankly into space with a blunt voice.
"The song holds a person. That's why we hear that person's voice."
Aynsha knew.
This wasn't mere performance.
Just memories, recollections, emotions of performing with someone—expressed in sound.
So vivid that listeners naturally recalled the 'someone' who should have sung alongside.
And what such a piece was called.
Aynsha knew.
"This is a requiem."
Add a song to this performance?
Impossible.
A song encapsulating one person's life.
Anyone else adding their voice would ruin the expression, botch the performance.
One exception.
The original singer.
But the dead can't sing, so this performance would echo alone forever.
In that sense, less a requiem, more a ghost song.
Not mourning the dead, but letting their voice be heard—a lonely ghost's performance rejecting all others.
That was why.
Even after the performance ended.
Everyone in the studio kept deathly silence, not even breathing.
"Uh... Th-that was an amazing performance. Right, Lira?"
"Huh? Oh, y-yes! Incredible!"
"Now, challengers, draw lots for order and sing along to this song with the given lyrics... B-but..."
"This song? Sing to it?"
Out of duty, perhaps.
The host forced through the silence to continue.
But his voice lacked punch.
The celebrity participants looked like rotten pollack too.
Hearts understood what Aynsha felt, even if minds didn't.
"Um... I forfeit."
"Sorry."
"Regrettably, me too..."
"Wait, hold on! Han Jiseong? Levit? This is live!"
The host panicked at the forfeits.
He argued to get them on stage, but they were resolute.
Not just failure—singing over that would haunt them forever. They all sensed it.
As chaos spread from stage to audience.
Aynsha ignored it entirely.
Just replaying the performance she'd heard, lost in thought.
'I don't know.'
How such a performance was possible.
Or how to capture such emotion.
No answers despite pondering, but that intrigued her.
Not knowing something—for the first time, mixed with the performance's感動, it excited her.
So.
The sudden premonition.
Even knowing the truth, she opened her mouth with expectation over disappointment.
"Tata."
"Yes, Princess."
"I think... I'm about to fall in love."
"...Pardon?"
And as Tata froze like a pubescent girl learning of her mom's remarriage from the out-of-nowhere declaration.
On the chaotic stage.
Han Jiseong swung her arm to shake off clinging Choi Jeongseok.
Her arm hit the camera behind.
A Level 85 player's fist sent the camera flying like a cannonball toward the audience.
"Gasp?!"
"Kyaaak!"
Staff in horrified shock at the accident.
Audience screaming in fright.
Tata still rigid from the prior shock.
But Aynsha neither startled nor panicked.
Just stared blankly at the camera hurtling straight at her.
Flutter!
Then.
Fierce wind grazed her cheek.
Vision spun.
Aynsha was no longer in the audience.
Just held in the arms of a black-haired young man who appeared from nowhere, soaring through the air.
His furrowed brow and fierce impression unnerved her instinctively.
But his embracing arms were firm.
The感動's afterglow still thumped her heart.
Until the young man dropped her unceremoniously, and Tata belatedly snapped out, fussing over her.
Aynsha said nothing.
Only after placing a hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat did she mutter lowly, face blank.
"—Finally found him."
White Dragon Princess Aynsha.
One of the Seven Dragon Society's seven princesses.
She, who had lived a dry life until now, had finally found her fated partner.