[First Stream] The Demon Lord Awakens — Behind The Scenes

In this era, which could well be called an age of content saturation, the company I—Taki Yuzuriha—worked for, Asteri Co., Ltd., operated Gem Production, an agency for “Virtual Ourtubers,” or “Vtubers,” streamers who used 2D and 3D characters to broadcast through the video-sharing service Ourtube.

Agencies like Gem Pro were sometimes called “groups,” and thanks to the hard work of the idols belonging to ours, it had grown into an agency that now competed for the top spot even among the industry giants.

At that very agency, I was waiting for a certain Vtuber’s debut stream.

The reason was that the girl about to debut was the daughter of my much older sister—in other words, my niece.

I was the one who had suggested that she become a Vtuber.

Of course, I couldn’t simply scout her out of nowhere and debut her through Gem Pro, one of the biggest agencies around, and in terms of both ability and accomplishments, she wasn’t ready for that either. Even if I could have used my connections to bypass all of that, I figured the burden would only have been heavier on her, so I suggested that she start out as an independent instead.

Since I was the one who had encouraged her, I pulled a few strings where I could and helped her choose her equipment, while my sister and I covered the expenses.

The thing was, biased aunt though I might be, that girl was beautiful.

With Nordic features, silver hair, and golden eyes—traits she normally hid—her beauty when she left them uncovered was enough to make even another woman like me catch my breath.

Perhaps because of her appearance, she had become painfully shy and something of a shut-in, and my sister and I, worried about her, desperately wanted to drag her out into the spotlight somehow.

That was when Vtuber activities caught our attention.

We thought that getting accustomed to speaking in front of people might help her build confidence.

Granted, when I’d spoken to her that morning, she’d been so nervous that her voice was trembling, and there was even a chance she might freeze up and fail to speak at all. Still, her character model(avatar) and setup were good, and she had a lovely voice herself, so I expected she’d gradually gain viewers as she became more comfortable.

Still… it wasn’t as though I had no concerns.

A Vtuber needed harmony and balance between the character’s appearance, voice, and behavior.

For example, if someone looked like a refined young lady but spoke in a harsh, gravelly voice, it would feel completely wrong, so generally, people created characters whose image matched the performer’s voice.

And yet, despite my explaining all of that to her, she had used the drawing and modeling skills she’d cultivated over the years to complete a character whose personality was completely different from her own.

—Verchera Merisis.

A Demon Lord who ruled the Demon Realm through overwhelming charisma, a queen with silver-white hair and golden eyes whose appearance embodied the boundary between girlhood and womanhood, somewhere in her mid-to-late teens.

Her hair color, eye color, and facial structure were exactly how my niece looked when she wasn’t hiding anything, only made slightly more mature and given an expression overflowing with confidence.

…I had found myself wondering whether the girl might secretly have a severe case of chuunibyou.

“So this is your niece?”

Kasumi-chan, my junior who was watching the screen with me and worked as the manager of one of Gem Pro’s second-generation talents, asked while looking at the waiting-screen illustration, and I nodded.

“Huh. What’s she like?”

“If you’re asking about the character setting, she’s an absolute Demon Lord from another world. In real life… I guess she’s an otaku girl. She isn’t much of a talker, though…”

“Wait, and she’s still playing a queen-type character?”

“She said she’d act the part… but who knows how it’ll go. It’d be nice if people teased her affectionately and she ended up becoming lovable that way…”

In the Vtuber world, when a character’s personality and that of the so-called person inside were complete opposites, that very contrast could become a running joke that endeared them to viewers.

I hoped the same would happen for her, but honestly, it was difficult for independents to grow, so I expected it would take quite some time before she became comfortable enough for that kind of affection to develop.

Still, both my sister and I were fine with that.

She wasn’t doing this for commercial success, after all. She was trying to confront the problems she carried, so there was no reason for her to rush anything.

I was thinking that it would be enough if she could steadily keep at it alongside a small but loyal fanbase and gradually become accustomed to streaming—when the screen suddenly changed and the opening animation began.

“Oh, that’s cute. Did you prepare this too?”

“She did it herself. She draws with a pen tablet, and my sister thought she might even be able to make a living as a creator someday, so at least she made sure to get her a good PC. Still, I never imagined she’d prepare an entire opening animation…”

The artwork itself wasn’t moving all that dramatically, so it probably hadn’t been impossibly difficult.

It looked like she’d simply taken the base illustration and edited it little by little to create the movement.

Still, impressive.

If she could draw chibi characters and make animations at this level, maybe we could even commission her to create opening animations for our own talents someday.

While I was thinking that, the screen faded to black.

The footage moved from the point of view of someone walking through a dark castle, footsteps clicking against the floor, until Verchera Merisis finally came into view.

The queen sat upon a throne at the top of several steps, legs crossed, cheek resting against one hand.

Her gaze stared directly at the visitor—the camera—and her narrowed left eye emitted a glow.

《—Hold your heads low. Kneel. Do you not know before whom you stand?》

—A shiver ran through me, raising goosebumps across my skin.

With nothing more than that short line, my body involuntarily tensed and my breath caught.

As though obeying her command, the camera lowered its gaze, hiding Verchera Merisis from view and showing only the viewer’s shoes, knees, and the carpet beneath them.

《Kukuku, We jest. You are forgiven. Raise your heads.》

As the viewpoint lifted again, Verchera Merisis appeared as a moving 2D model.

《Look Us straight in the eyes and listen well. We are the Empress of the Demon Realm and its one true sovereign, Verchera Merisis. Carve that name deep into your hearts.》

Brilliant silver hair and golden eyes.

She looked like a girl captured within that fleeting interval in her mid-to-late teens when girlhood emerged into womanhood, and even though it was merely a moving illustration, two contradictory sensations somehow existed at once—I couldn’t look away, yet I couldn’t bring myself to meet her eyes.

The way she gave a low, amused kukuku in her throat struck me as strangely seductive.

For some reason, hearing even a single word from her made my heart leap, as though simply knowing she was in a good mood made me happy.

I stared silently at the screen, instinctively craving her next words, while Verchera Merisis began speaking slowly, weaving them together almost like a melody rather than carelessly piling one phrase atop another.

《…Now, then. There is little need for this thing called a self-introduction. Even if We were to smoothly explain everything here, all of you are presently so overwhelmed by Us that you would likely grasp not even half Our words. Therefore, We shall graciously allow you to hear only what is necessary. Be grateful.》

She was arrogant and overbearing, showing absolutely no attempt to ingratiate herself with anyone, yet the comments weren’t turning hostile, nor was anyone complaining that she rubbed them the wrong way.

“…What… is this girl…? This feeling… like she’s pulling you in…”

Kasumi-chan forced those words out, and I couldn’t answer her.

Even I had never imagined that my niece would present such a flawless character and display this much charisma.

Normally, an attitude this extreme would be very divisive.

Characters who acted high and mighty certainly appealed strongly to some people, but plenty of others disliked that kind of domineering behavior. Usually, characters were softened to some degree so they could remain broadly inoffensive and lovable.

It would have been easy to dismiss this as impossible.

But if so, then what exactly was I looking at?

I didn’t even have enough mental room to think she was irritating; her entire manner simply existed as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and somehow, I found myself accepting it.

And that was despite already knowing what kind of character Verchera Merisis was supposed to be.

For someone who knew nothing about her beforehand, the impact was probably overwhelmingly greater than what I was feeling.

More importantly, Verchera Merisis showed absolutely no sign of wanting to flatter anyone or alter herself.

She carried herself as though saying, “Of course this is simply who I am,” going far beyond the level of mere roleplaying.

Whether that was exactly what she’d intended or not, the viewer count hadn’t dropped from eighty-three—in fact, it was suddenly climbing, prompting Kasumi-chan to hurriedly run a search.

“S-Senpai! Our Effie is spreading the word about Verchera-san on Monology!?”

“What…?”

Effie was one of Gem Pro’s first-generation members, and apparently she had used the social media platform Monology to post something supporting an independent Vtuber or a talent from another agency, as she occasionally did.

I absolutely had not told her about my niece, and Effie didn’t even know there was any connection between us.

Of course I supported that girl, but I had never intended to make her famous overnight or deliberately push her into going viral.

This was entirely a coincidence.

It was a coincidence, and yet… in another sense, it felt inevitable.

That girl had a habit of browsing debut streams.

Whenever she sensed something, she would post about it on Monology.

There was no way someone as sensitive as she was to that certain something people possessed could have failed to sense what I’d felt from that single line earlier.

Thanks to Effie’s post, the viewer count began rising all at once, and it seemed more and more people were joining who hadn’t been there from the beginning.

Perhaps because they hadn’t witnessed that first moment when Verchera Merisis had slammed the overwhelming force of her individuality directly into the audience, hostile comments—complaints, in other words—began appearing more frequently in chat.

“Looks like she’s going to attract a lot of haters…”

“…I wonder what she’s planning to do…”

As Kasumi-chan and I watched, Verchera Merisis seemed to notice the hostile comments as well.

But—she smiled from within the screen.

《—Kuhah! What impatient creatures you are. You deliberately watch Our stream merely to complain about Us, barking insults you do not even know will reach Us? Kukukuku, how delightful. Thanks to fools such as yourselves, it seems Our audience continues to grow. You have Our gratitude.》

“Whoa. She’s strong.”

Just like Kasumi-chan, I instinctively had exactly the same reaction.

No, ordinarily, she really shouldn’t have gone around picking fights for no reason.

And yet she declared it without hesitation.

It didn’t feel like she was picking a fight or trading insults at all; she sounded genuinely amused, and that somehow stripped the words of every trace of venom.

《Kukuku, there is only one thing We shall say. If you truly dislike the way We conduct Ourselves, then begone at once. We have no intention of changing either Our methods or Our opinions. You are free to choose as you please, are you not? Not once have We ever sought to curry favor with you. Nor do We desire every last person alive to watch Us. Do as you please.》

…Ahaha. What was this feeling?

Everything she said made perfect sense, and I could clearly tell that she wasn’t simply blurting things out on impulse; she was merely telling them to accept the facts for what they were.

That was precisely why it felt so exhilarating.

She truly believed every word of it from the bottom of her heart, and she truly meant it when she told them to do as they pleased.

And beneath it all was probably—an unwavering confidence in herself.

It wasn’t hollow, paper-thin bravado or misplaced self-assurance.

In only a few minutes of streaming, she had demonstrated so thoroughly that she possessed overwhelming charisma that there was no denying it.

That was exactly why even her arrogant, overbearing attitude—even the way she spoke as though casually discarding viewers—didn’t sound remotely unpleasant, and that was astonishing.

Precisely because I knew the person behind the character, a greater thrill ran through me.

A thought sent shivers through my body: perhaps this was actually her true self, the one she had kept hidden away inside herself all along.

That was her beginning.

The beginning of the existence known as a single Demon Lord who had descended upon the Vtuber industry.