"Ohhh! Sylvia!"
"Miss Sylvia!"
"Don't let it end like this!"
Below the stage, the fans were still shouting at the tops of their lungs. Some were beside themselves with excitement, because the final song of the night was bound to be the best one.
Others, however, were heartbroken because the concert was about to end.
"Miss Sylvia..."
A certain orange-haired student from Jie Long Seventh Institute was crying as he waved the glow stick in his hand.
At that moment, no one noticed the change in Sylvia's expression. Instead, it was her manager standing off to the side of the stage who sensed that something was wrong.
Sylvia's expression was simply too unusual. She looked as though she were about to cry...
It was just like what had happened during her global tour some time ago, only this time it was even worse. She had even fallen into a daze.
No. If this keeps up, the concert won't be able to continue.
As Sylvia's manager, Petra had to think of a solution immediately.
But the world-famous diva was currently onstage. Petra couldn't simply rush up there, nor could she call Sylvia on the phone.
And even if she tried making gestures to signal her now, Sylvia definitely wouldn't look in her direction.
Then I'll have to go to the sound control room.
Only the backstage sound control room could directly contact Sylvia through her earpiece. Otherwise, if this continued, it would definitely have a massive negative impact on Queenvail Girls' Academy. The other conglomerates might even take the opportunity to kick Queenvail while it was down!
After all, their development paths were different. Even though Queenvail had ranked at the bottom among the academies for years, it was difficult for that alone to cause them any substantial damage.
But reputation was another matter entirely!
If Sylvia, Queenvail Girls' Academy's most popular singer, suffered some kind of incident during a concert and caused the performance to grind to a halt, it would undoubtedly deal an unimaginable blow to the entire academy!
Even if they managed to recover from the incident, the next several years would still be extremely difficult.
Having already envisioned the terrible consequences that might occur, Petra immediately sprang into action.
No matter what problem Sylvia was facing, this concert had to end normally!
...
"Sylvia really does sing beautifully!"
Laetitia looked at Sylvia onstage with an incredibly radiant smile. The other girl had finally noticed their side.
"Mm. She is the number one diva in the world, after all. It's perfectly normal for her to be this good."
Elise nodded in agreement as well, but...
Why is Laetitia holding my arm tighter and tighter? Even if she's jealous, isn't this a little much?
"But I think that if it were you, Elise, you definitely wouldn't be much worse than Sylvia!"
Laetitia remembered it very clearly. Elise had once apparently reached some sort of agreement with Queenvail Girls' Academy because of certain Church activities, and Elise and Sylvia had performed together at a charity concert.
According to what she had heard, the venue had been absolutely packed at the time, and the broadcast ratings had even reached a new record high.
Elise's voice was also extremely beautiful, not inferior to Sylvia's in the slightest. After all, even Queenvail had once taken the initiative to invite her!
"I've only practiced occasionally. Compared to a professional singer, I'm still far behind..."
"But that doesn't matter!"
Before Elise could finish speaking, Laetitia immediately contradicted her.
"In my heart, your voice is the most beautiful voice in the entire world!"
Laetitia looked earnestly at Elise beside her while grabbing hold of her arm so that she couldn't escape...
"Then thank you... Laetitia?"
Elise had just been about to thank her, but Laetitia didn't give her the chance. The moment Elise turned her head, Laetitia leaned in and lightly pecked her cheek.
Although the movement was extremely quick, Sylvia happened to see the scene when she lowered her gaze, which was why she had been so shocked.
Why is Elise here?
More importantly, why is she here with someone else?
Ever since receiving the news from Fan Xinglou, Sylvia hadn't slept properly for several days.
Whenever she thought about how she was perfectly fine here while Elise had become someone else's puppet, Sylvia felt a deep sense of loss.
She had finally listened to Petra's advice and decided to return to Asterisk to hold a few concerts and change her mood, only to unexpectedly witness a scene like this.
Elise was sitting in the front row with the vice president of Saint Galahadworth Academy's student council, chatting and laughing with her, and they had even made such an intimate gesture...
For the first time, Sylvia was completely dumbfounded, because this was utterly different from the information she had received!
Hadn't Fan Xinglou said that Elise was highly likely to have been controlled by someone else?
Then why did she still have the time to come listen to a concert with another girl?
It simply didn't make sense unless... the person behind all of this isn't targeting only Elise, but me as well?
Sylvia understood her own abilities and weaknesses extremely well. The people capable of shaking her were either her teacher or her close friends.
And Elise just happened to be one of them.
If someone could break through Elise, then dealing with Sylvia naturally wouldn't be difficult either.
Sylvia could more or less conclude that the other party intended to use Elise to shake her resolve!
If they succeeded this time, then during the days to come, she would surely suffer even more unimaginable blows, wouldn't she?
No. I absolutely can't fall into those people's trap!
You have to stay strong!
Sylvia clenched her fists. The confusion that had still lingered in her eyes vanished without a trace.
"Then please join me in enjoying the final song of today!"
"'I Will Save You!'"
Unexpectedly, before Petra could even contact Sylvia, she had already pulled herself together and stepped forward on her own. It truly made Petra see her in a new light.
Not only that, but Sylvia's song seemed to be overflowing with extraordinarily intense emotion.
People always said that singing was the best way to express emotion. In Sylvia's case, as a Strega who used her voice as a medium, that was only even more pronounced!
At the very least, among all the songs Sylvia had sung recently, this was the best one!
There wasn't the slightest trace of hesitation. Every word she sang carried unwavering determination!
Having worked in the idol industry for years, Petra could tell that Sylvia was trying to express something...
Wasn't it obvious just from the title of the song?
But was this really going to be okay?
From the monitoring room, Petra had also seen the source of Sylvia's loss of composure. It was that woman!
"Although I don't know what happened, Sylvia..."
"No matter what it is, once that Lady Saintess becomes involved, it will absolutely never be anything ordinary!"
"If you really do something out of line, the academy won't protect you. It may even abandon you."
But speaking personally, if Sylvia ran into trouble, Petra would definitely help her, wouldn't she?
After all, their relationship wasn't as simple as merely manager and star!
With Sylvia pouring her emotions into her singing, the concert finally came to an end without any further problems.
Even after Sylvia disappeared from the stage, the audience below did not immediately leave.
The song just now had simply far exceeded anything they had imagined!
Even people who weren't professionals in the industry could hear the burning passion Sylvia had poured into that song.
Naturally, Elise could as well.
Or rather, because Elise had mastered the power of faith, she could sense many things that ordinary people couldn't perceive!
It's actually reached this point already...
As had been mentioned before, Sylvia held extremely unusual feelings toward Elise.
She loved her!
At first, Elise had thought this was merely a minor side effect of Freya's Divine Power. As long as Sylvia rested for a while, she would naturally return to her old self.
But to Elise's surprise, Sylvia's love had not faded with the passage of time. Instead, it had only grown more intense...
Especially during the performance just now, Elise had discovered that Sylvia's emotions had even begun directly influencing the people around her.
Normally, this should have been extremely dangerous, because someone controlled by emotion could end up doing terrible things without even realizing it.
Yet nothing like that seemed to be happening to Sylvia, which made the whole thing rather baffling.
This sudden change was simply far too drastic!
As expected, it's always you, Sylvia...
Elise murmured softly to herself, then looked toward the blonde girl pressed against her side.
Laetitia's face was brimming with a blissful smile. Even while hugging Elise's arm, she certainly wasn't using little strength.
But Elise also knew that Laetitia's feelings toward her were anything but small. Otherwise, she never would have gone to so much trouble.
What a pity!
Laetitia was obviously trying to use this opportunity to leave a deeper impression of herself in Elise's heart, but things had gone contrary to her wishes. The person who had ended up leaving the deepest impression was instead her rival, Sylvia... Fate truly loved playing tricks on people!
Still, Elise did need to thank Laetitia. It was precisely because of all her complicated thoughts that these little incidents had occurred.
Perhaps this was what people meant when they said that a setback might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Until everything truly came to pass, no one could know whether it was good or bad.
However, during the final moments of the concert, Sylvia seemed to be planning to do something...
She stood onstage with a smile, continuously waving to the audience below, with even tears glimmering at the corners of her eyes.
Though calling them simply "the audience below" wasn't quite accurate, because her gaze had remained fixed on the seats in the front row.
It was none other than Elise, who was sitting beside Laetitia.
Coincidentally, Elise opened her eyes at that exact moment and met Sylvia's gaze.
Compared to Sylvia's gentle determination, Elise was somewhat hesitant. Sylvia's feelings for her were simply too deep, and Elise wasn't sure what those feelings might become in the future...
Then Sylvia opened her mouth, seemingly saying something...
Although Elise's row was the closest one to the stage, being close to the stage did not mean she was close to Sylvia herself.
An ordinary member of the Starpulse Generation would never have been able to hear what Sylvia was saying, but Elise certainly could!
Their eyes met for no more than five seconds before the stage lights went out, and Sylvia completely vanished into the darkness.
"That really was a wonderful concert!"
"Mm."
Laetitia was still immersed in the happiness of being in Elise's embrace, believing that the two of them had grown closer, but Elise's answer was perfunctory.
Fortunately, with all the noise around them providing cover, Laetitia failed to notice.
"Today really was such a wonderful day!"
At the concert venue's exit, Laetitia and Elise slipped away at high speed while no one was paying attention.
Because of how long the concert had lasted, it was already quite late. And since most of the people in this city were students who still had classes tomorrow, they naturally couldn't remain outside for too long.
Thus, the students who had attended the concert all returned to their dormitories and had no intention of going anywhere else.
Elise and Laetitia, however, headed toward a small park some distance away from the concert venue.
That was because Elise had just received a special message. Someone wanted to meet her there.
As for who that person was, everyone probably already had the answer in mind...
Isn't that right, Elliot?
Inside the park, Elise stared at the blond boy standing beneath a streetlamp in the distance, feeling somewhat speechless.
He came again?
To prevent any unexpected accidents, Elise had Laetitia hide in the nearby bushes so they could see exactly what Elliot intended to do.
She remembered that the last time she had seen Elliot was when he had called her "Little Peanut"...
What are you, Sasuke Uchiha?
Ever since then, she had never contacted Elliot again. All she knew was that Ernest, the student council president, had later gone to speak with Elliot.
Elise didn't know what had happened, but it was definitely related to her. And what Elliot was about to do now had probably also been taught to him by someone else.
Don't tell me he's going to confess again?
"You're here, Elise."
Looking at the familiar beauty before him, a faint blush appeared on Elliot's face. Has she gotten even prettier again?
But he quickly shook his head and threw those thoughts out of his mind.
"I asked you here today because I have something very important to say!"
Elliot's tone was filled with determination, which gave Elise a strange illusion. Did this guy talk to Sylvia just now or something? Why do their eyes look so similar?
"I've come to deeply understand my own shortcomings. I'm still far too naive."
"For someone like me to think I could be worthy of you really was nothing more than wishful thinking, so from now on, I'm going to work hard!"
Elliot had thought about many things and ultimately concluded that, as he was now, he was simply too weak. He had no right to pursue the person he loved!
In order to realize his ideals and ambitions, Elliot chose another path...
"Until I believe I'm worthy, I won't say anything about pursuing you again."
"I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble before."
Elliot bowed deeply to Elise, leaving his expression hidden from view.
"So in the future, would you be willing to give me a chance to pursue you?"
Elise had to admit that she now saw him in a new light.
Originally, Elise had thought he would continue confessing to her just like before.
But who could have expected him to say something like this?
It seemed that no matter who someone was, they could still grow.
And so...
In order not to crush his dream, Elise chose to tell a kind lie.
"If it's only a chance, then of course."
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