After drying Seiun Sky's hair post-bath, Barbatos booted up her streaming software and embarked on tonight's journey through the rift.
The name "TheSky" she used in League of Legends was inspired by Seiun Sky—literally "Seiun Sky" in English—so she went with "TheSky."
It felt a little embarrassing, but since none of her fellow Uma Musume were watching her streams, who would ever catch on?
Using the name of the girl she liked while playing League… well, it's the kind of thing plenty of cringey teens do. Names like "I'll Reach Challenger for XX" were all the rage around 2015 or so.
But she wasn't as blatant as some—she'd only used "Sky," and besides, hitting Challenger wasn't exactly hard for her.
Watching as her stream chat gradually filled with familiar usernames, she announced, "Not boosting any viewer accounts tonight. Starting now, I'm making a push for Challenger. Maybe I'll even head to the Ranked Ladder top after that."
"Let's start with some solo queue."
Her main account had already been Challenger before, but it decayed after she spent time grinding Blue Essence on viewers' smurfs instead.
Queueing up, she set her primary role to Jungle, secondary to Mid—the two positions that most easily snowball games and climb the ladder.
But when the match finally popped, she was assigned Top lane instead.
Barbatos was caught off guard.
"Well, Top it is, then. Let's see if I can smash my lane."
"Honestly, I'm really good with three Top lane champs: Maokai, The Great Tree, and Twisted Treant. Too bad the current meta doesn't allow it, or I'd definitely pick one of those."
(T/N: I think mc is just choosing adjectives to describe maokai, so it's just maokai, maokai, maokai)
"An epithet as an Uma Musume? Why bring that up now?"
"You'd need to at least win a G2, maybe even a G1 race to earn one. Look at El Condor Pasa—she got hers thanks to Rigil's support and her unique running form."
Barbatos chatted back and forth with her viewers about titles. She'd had a few ideas herself—something like "Wind Archon" sounded pretty cool.
But given how trolls lurked everywhere, she strongly suspected that even in Japan, she'd probably end up stuck with something ridiculous like "The Bard" or "The Drunkard."
Then, by the time the Winter Dream Cup rolled around, while others would be introduced with majestic titles like "Empress," "Legend," or "Emperor," hers would go something like: "This is Barbatos—the drunkard who debuted with a legendary fanbase and a perfect 10-0 record!"
Weird. So weird.
Lost in thought, she snapped back to reality just as it was her turn to pick. Without thinking, she locked in a green-toned champion.
"All betrayers must die."
"Ah! I picked the wrong champ!!"
The champion on screen was Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance. It wasn't that she couldn't play Kalista—just not in Top lane. Having an ADC top made her uneasy; she preferred having a tank with crowd control up there. And yet, she'd gone and locked in Kalista.
"Ehe, I actually meant to pick Ryze next to her. Must've misclicked onto Kalista."
Even with her explanation, her viewers weren't buying it. A top-lane Kalista on your team? Instant anxiety. But watching your favorite streamer play it? Now that's content.
They'd be even more thrilled if Barbatos got completely stomped by the enemy Top. Don't get them wrong—her carrying games was cool and all, but she'd been dominating nonstop. A little struggle? Now that would be fun to watch.
Right then, some viewers noticed the summoner name above that Kalista.
--+--
"666, the bard changed her name to TheShy!"
"Can't wait for you to match up against the real Shy in solo queue—the battle of the Shys!"
--+--
"Are you guys blind? It's TheSky, not TheShy!"
--+--
"Sky is sky, Shy is shy."
"She changed her name and picked Kalista—she's gotta be a Shy fan."
--+--
A new wave of intense discussion erupted in chat over Barbatos' new name.
Barbatos froze. When she'd changed her name, TheShy hadn't even crossed her mind—it was all for Seiun Sky.
Not that she wasn't a fan of TheShy—who didn't love that legendary 1v5 moment?—but that wasn't why she'd renamed her account.
"I didn't change my name because of TheShy, and picking Kalista was a misclick. Stop reading into it, everyone."
While she was explaining, Kalista descended into Summoner's Rift.
--+--
Elsewhere, in a quiet room, Minamizaka was at his computer, organizing records on the current condition and upcoming races for all members of Team Canopus.
Since Barbatos and Seiun Sky had debuted, Twin Turbo and the others were growing restless.
He needed to design a stable, well-structured training plan to help them peak at the right time—so they could be ready for their own debut races.
Then there was the issue of Urara.
She wasn't as gifted as Barbatos or Seiun Sky—not even compared to Twin Turbo and the others. But that endlessly cheerful spirit of hers… Minamizaka let out a soft sigh.
Even if Urara hadn't voiced any desire to debut just yet, he saw how hard she trained every day alongside Matikanetannhauser.
As their trainer, he had to do something for her.
Just then, a live stream notification popped up—Barbatos' channel, where he'd quietly become a member and lurked in her viewer group.
He clicked open the stream, planning to watch for a bit and gauge how one of his charges was doing lately.
TheSky?
"This name… it's not Seiun Sky's, is it?"
As her trainer, Minamizaka caught on instantly. So those rumors about Seiun Sky and Barbatos dating were true?
He took a silent sip of coffee and moved the cursor to close the window.
He couldn't watch. The thought that his Uma Musume were dating while he remained single was just…
Pulling his jacket tighter, he decided Barbatos' condition was definitely nothing to worry about.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.