Preparing For The Meet-and-Greet (2)

Yuzu-neesan went over various points I needed to keep in mind.

First was the relationship between Yuzu-neesan and me. Apparently, even before my debut, although she hadn’t mentioned my name, she’d already told people that her niece was going to debut as an independent Vtuber.

Then Ephir-san, who could practically be called a debut-stream talent scout, discovered me and posted about me on Monology. Between Yuzu-neesan acting strangely troubled whenever Ephir-san brought me up and the fact that she kept following an independent streamer’s broadcasts far more closely than usual, Ephir-san sensed something was off and recently worked backward from my debut timing to figure out that the niece in question was Verchera Merisis.

And so, even though Ephir-san had initially only said she wanted to collaborate with me through Yuzu-neesan in her capacity as a work manager, lately she’d apparently kept pestering Yuzu-neesan as though saying, “She’s your niece, so you’ve got connections, right?”

She’s pretty persistent—or rather, downright relentless….

“Still, Yuzu-neesan, are you okay? You haven’t accidentally leaked information about any of the agency’s talents or anything, have you?”

It was only natural that I wondered that, considering how easily she’d apparently been figured out.

Yuzu-neesan was a manager for an agency, so she should have been in a position where she had to be especially careful about that sort of thing.

《That’s rude. Of course I’m always careful when it comes to the agency’s talents. It’s just that you’re family, so I got worried and slipped out of work mode. You really did worry me back then.》

Yeah, well, before I remembered my previous life, I definitely had been the sort of person people worried about.

After all, I had been completely different from the way I was now.

I hid my appearance, hunched over to conceal my face, barely spoke, and wore my uniform rigidly according to every school rule.

I never went out to have fun with friends either, and always went straight home from school.

…Yeah, I could see why she’d been worried.

《Besides, I never imagined you’d suddenly become such a popular streamer….》

“That’s fair.”

《Rinne, don’t you think your personality changes way too much when you’re streaming? Though even now, compared to before, you seem much more carefree—or maybe strangely unflappable….》

“Even if you say that, I’m still me, you know?”

《Well, that’s true. If anything, it just made me realize all over again that you’re Nee-san’s daughter.》

Mom, huh.

Taki Kureha.

Ever since debuting as a child actress, she had continued to maintain her popularity in an entertainment industry where child stars were said to have a difficult time surviving into adulthood, thanks to both her acting talent and good looks. She had walked overseas red carpets and had even heard her name called before stepping up to receive trophies. That great actress was my mother.

Mom’s acting could probably be described as complete immersion: she deeply internalized her character’s life and background, thought through even the moments of that character’s existence outside the scenes shown in a drama or film, and completely became that person.

People often said actresses had a certain “color” to their performances and couldn’t convincingly act too far outside it, but Mom’s color eventually came to be described as “colorless.” Apparently, a film director renowned as a master had praised her using exactly that expression.

That director was apparently almost excessively serious and demanding when it came to his work, so the fact that someone like him had sincerely praised her caused quite a stir at the time, and ever since then Mom had been called the 『Colorless Actress』.

Around the time her ability received so much attention, she had happened to be playing a career woman in a Japanese television drama while portraying a mad scientist in a movie, and I remembered viewers who watched both saying things like, “This is breaking my brain,” and, “She’s literally a completely different person.”

Incidentally, when I sincerely praised Mom and told her how amazing that was, she merely smiled and said, “Being an actress is so much fun because you get to experience all kinds of different lives~.”

That was quite a way of putting it.

She sounded like she’d reincarnated more times than I had.

Apparently, precisely because I was the daughter of someone like that, Yuzu-neesan had eventually come to think that my duality—or rather, my transformation—was almost inevitable.

I didn’t think I could pull off acting like that, though.

Still, saying it was because of genetics rather than memories of a previous life would probably make more sense to people, so I wasn’t going to go out of my way to deny it.

《Oh, looks like someone’s here.》

Hearing Yuzu-neesan, I looked at the 『Connect』 screen and saw the name Ephir Lunette clearly displayed there. At almost the exact moment I noticed it, a slightly discordant diloron sound effect played as Ephir-san entered the VC channel.

《Morning, Effie—》

《—Oooooohhh! Vel-chan, Your Majesty!? Is that really you!?》

Whoa, loud.

Actually, wasn’t that more the kind of reaction I should be having?

“—Kuku, it is our first meeting, Princess of the Elves, Ephir Lunette.”

《There it iiiiiis! That’s it! It’s the real thing! Manager-chan, nice one!》

…This wasn’t what I’d imagined.

According to Yuzu-neesan, they only needed to maintain their characters minimally when they weren’t streaming.

Actually, I was supposed to start by greeting everyone normally, then we’d decide how to address each other during streams and discuss those kinds of character-setting details.

But because she’d asked whether I was the real thing, I’d responded in character for the moment, only for her to get so wildly excited that it felt completely different from what I’d expected.

Shouldn’t this sort of thing be what an independent nobody like me did to someone much more famous like you??

《Effie, calm down. Verchera-san is probably recoiling in front of her screen right now.》

《Nweh!? Ah! Sorry, sorry, I got a little too excited.》

“I do not mind… but wouldst thou prefer that I remain like this?”

《You can drop the—》

《—Please stay exactly like that!》

This elf just talked right over Yuzu-neesan.

The elves from my previous life had generally been quiet and soft-spoken, with gentle voices that were pleasant to listen to, but this was making the image of elves in my head collapse into rubble.

《Effie…?》

《Sorry. But, you know, Rion-chan and Snow-chan both really love Vel-chan Your Majesty’s character, so I thought it’d be better if she stayed like that.》

《…Don’t tell me the reason you reacted early and jumped straight into the VC before the scheduled time was just so you could say that?》

《Mm, pretty much. Remember that stream where Vel-chan Your Majesty talked about antis? Rion was actually feeling pretty down because of some anti comments around then. But when I showed her a clip of Vel-chan Your Majesty, it cheered her right up. So for their sake, I want you to be Verchera Merisis. Snow-chan became a fan after I evangelized her too.》

《…Haah. Honestly, you leave me no choice…. Verchera-san, I’m sorry to ask this, but would that be all right with you?》

Yuzu-neesan probably wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea.

I could somehow hear that emotion in her tone.

She was probably caught in the middle right now.

She likely didn’t want to make me, as family, feel like I had to go out of my way for them, but at the same time, these were precious talents from her agency, so she wanted to grant their wishes too.

Come to think of it, Mom had told me about this.

Yuzu-neesan tended to take these sorts of things upon herself until she overloaded.

In that case, the answer was obvious.

“Mm. I have no objection. If that is the reason, then there is nothing for me to refuse. This(・・) is who I am, after all.”

《…Are you really okay with it?》

“Indeed. As I said moments ago, this is precisely who I am. I am not particularly forcing myself. If anything, my everyday self is the disguise. I could hardly interact with others while behaving entirely as my natural self, after all.”

It was quite literally the truth.

If anything, I’d be more troubled if they started worrying about me over something like that.

“Rather, I do not use polite speech at all. Is that acceptable?”

《Totally, totally. We’d feel awkward if you spoke formally to us anyway, and if you started using polite language during 『OFA』, it’d slow down communication! So we’ll drop the formal speech too, okay, Vel-chan Your Majesty!》

“Can something not be done about that peculiar form of address, ‘Vel-chan Your Majesty’…?”

《Then Vel-chan! Ah, is that disrespectful?》

“Kuku, forms of address are trivial matters. So long as no disrespect lies within thy heart, call me whatever thou please.”

《Ooh, that’s our Demon Lord! So generous!》

While we were talking, another diloron sounded, followed by Rion-san and Snow-san joining the channel.

I glanced at the clock and saw that it was exactly the scheduled time.

…Had they been sitting there with their cursors ready to click the instant the clock changed?