92. RISHELL

News spread like wildfire– obvious due to the presence of other-class students peeking at us  from outside the class. 

Haahh.. just because of one incident. 

Liliath was again, together with Saria and Wendy in the cafeteria, here I am accompanying no one while I revised my notes. But I couldn't– the stares.. It’s freaking annoying..

“Quite a commotion she caused huh?” Prune said to me from behind.

“Quite..”

“So what exactly happened? Did Liliath actually blow a hole in the ground?” nomming on a cookie, she asked.

“Yeah.. she wanted to just play around but.. ended up almost killing me.”

Prune blinked at me, twice. A moment later, I could see her visibly shuddering.

“She didn’t mean any harm though..”

“But that’s absolutely crazy.. she’s even more powerful than Gruan right.. opps..” Pune covered her mouth.

I raised my eyebrows suspiciously.

“I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright… not like anyone could do anything anyways..”

The time where Prune and every other unrelated spectator watched me from a distance as I was continuously beaten up by my past bully– Gruan. Oh well, if he ever tries anything like that.. I’m sure Liliath would turn him into swiss cheese– huh? I’m relying on Liliath too much now, aren’t I?

“I’m sorry..”

Prune hung her head.

‘Noel, could you please meet me at the art club.’

A silver bell-like voice rang in my head. In a daze, I dropped everything I was doing, and stood up.

“Where are you going?” Prune asked but..

HELP! HELP! MY BODY ISN'T RESPONDING TO ME!?

I walked out of class without replying, pushing past everyone who stood at the door way. Their stares were obnoxious– all landing on me. But I was too busy trying to regain control of myself, I couldn't be bothered.

“Noel!! Where’s Liliath! Did you almost actually die!! Was there actually a big mushroom cloud!?? Did you pee your pants!??”

“Absolutely not! Wait.. I’m back..”

“Really? It reeks of suspicion,” Nine placed both her arms on her hips and narrowed her eyes on me.

“Nine, just in case, if... I need you to prevent me from..”

Oh fuck, my head is scrambled.. the hELl Is ThIS?

‘Please meet me at the art club.’

“Noel?”

My body moved on it’s own again. 

“Hey, hey, stop it right there mister, what did you say?” Nine grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t let.. me.. go..” I squeezed those words out of my mouth in desperation.

“Okay, ew.. later..”

Nine let go of my wrist.

FUCKK!!???

Still putting up resistance to this oddly elating sensation, my body, in an unnatural way, continued to drag me towards the target location.

I’m 100 percent certain this is Rishell, I know this voice. What the hell does she want from me??!

I don't want to go. Please.. spare my chastity.. my sanity is dying.. help.. HELP!??!

Moving towards the club room block, I held onto the side rails of the stairs. With all the energy I could muster, I ground myself on the spot while I tried to get my breathing in order.

“The hell.. stop with this..”

Why the fuck is she in my head? I thought we were over already.. not in the relationship sense. 

My body is slowly regaining control.. but I don't know when the next attack would happen. Rishell has an ability to telepathically talk to people? That doesn’t make crap sense at all!!!

“Cafeteria is there.. Liliath.. status window open.”

ChibI Liliath happily drinking tea. Haahh.. calms me down every time.

Okay.. first order of action, I need to reach out to someone.

But it’s awkward… there were stares, no doubt about it. They were most probably wondering why I look so haggard, sweating bullets and panting.

“Are you alright?”

“No, I'm not.. help me keep my ground.”

A person I don't recognize, probably a senior student since he had a yellow tie called out to me. Those who have a yellow tie pretty much just means they have already graduated from senior high school and are now dealing with foundational courses to enter university or training courses to work for the government.

“What happened? Are you sick?”

“No.. it’s someone’s TALENT. Someone is trying to control me. I think..”

“Control you? What kind of command?”

“To the art club..”

“Art club? Do you need assistance?”

“Yeah, thanks. Wait.. what are you..”

“Rishell told me before-hand. You sure have quite the resistance against her TALENT. Not bad.”

“WHAT?!”

FUUCKKK you BETRAYED ME!>?!??

I wasn’t able to escape, the person called Nile. He had a tight hold of my arm and I couldn’t budge even if I tried.

I pretty much just gave up when I heard Nile’s explanation. In fact, he told me that he wasn’t under Rishell’s ‘spell’ and was doing this out of good-will. I would think otherwise.. this brute.. probably one of her many ‘admirers’.

“Rishell, you’re going to get a second warning if you continue to abuse your TALENT like this, you know?”

“I understand, it was worth the risk. I don't think I harmed anyone either, so could you just leave it at that?”

“Fine..”

Nile let go of my wrist and patted me on the shoulder, flashing me a motherfucking grin that wished me ‘break a leg’ before leaving the art club.

“So?” Standing close to the doorway, facing Rishell whose silhouette was enhanced because her back was facing the window.

“Join the art club.”

“Why?”

“JOIN THE ART CLUB,” she stressed, visibly shaken.

“Blah, blah, blah. Why exactly should I join the art club? It’s not like doing art anyways?”

Hah, let’s see if you can get through that. Hm.. Isn’t she using her TALENT or something? Wait, is it just me or does her voice sound mechanical.. creepy.. what in the world is going on?
“How.. “ Rishell, hugging a sketchbook, furrowed her brows. 

“I would like to ask the same.”Liliath’s voice rang. 

I turned to look and low and behold, Liliath was standing right next to me. Huh? When did she get here? Teleportation? Oh whatever, my chastity is safe, yay~

“Liliath?”

“Status window.”

Ah, right. Liliath was watching me the whole time huh? I’m glad she was… that sounds wrong for some reason. So Liliath has been keeping an eye out on me like this these past few days? Oh boy..

“Your motive being?” Liliath asked in a chilly tone, Rishell took a deep breath, arranging her glasses.

“The art club is lacking members. That’s why.”

Blunt reason. Okay, but why go to the extent of a ‘kidnap’ act. Hypnotizing me and hypnotizing someone else to drag me to this creepy place known as the art room full of nude and half-nude paintings.

“I’m not an artist?”

A white lie.. not really a white lie but it’s more convenient. Haha.

“It doesn’t matter, us club members can teach you the fundamentals. The club is going to close at this rate.”
“Hm.. not buying it. Isn’t it a bit too old-school to ‘force’ someone to join a club?”

I know this sounds kinda rude but.. what if, just what if the problem isn’t with the club but with the members? Note to self: Rishell is dangerous.

Ah, speaking of which.

I gave Liliath a side glance and sure enough, it seemed it was Liliath who interfered with Rishell’s TALENT. Must be through voice distortion? Things sound weird. Though, I wonder how Liliath found out such a countermeasure?

“Not to mention.. why ME of all people?”

“You’re right? Why though.”

“Haahh??”

Rishell placed a finger to her chin.

“Thank you Liliath.”

“I came since I felt that there was something dangerous happening after all.”

Wheeh. If not for Liliath, I'm sure I'd be dragged along by Rishell’s ‘whatever-it-may-be’.

“Hold it, you have a proper Arthub account dont you! Dont think you could lie your way out of this.”

“Arthub? I do use it occasionally, but I'm not an artist.”

“Could you be.. interfering with my TALENT?”

Liliath gave a curt nod to Rishell’s question, a bright smile on her face. Oh, you know what that means..

Rishell placed her sketchbook on forehead and let loose a sigh.

“Aren’t you going to consider?”
“No, I'm sorry.. I’m not planning to join the art club.”

I remember seeing the art club member registration booth last year and here in school this morning too. I wonder if it didn't go well? Speaking of which, where are the other members? The art club doesn’t seem to be as active as the bakery club. Or maybe that club is an exception, I saw Prune eating cookies just now right? It’s probably freshly made. Me want one of em bad boys too someday.

I ain’t seeing any other clubs doing any sort of obvious activities though. Yep. The baking club must have been an exception.

Rishell gave a nod, still hiding behind the sketchbook.

I suppose that means it’s okay for us to leave. Great.

Ignoring her pitiful figure, we moved out of the clubroom block. I turned to Liliath who narrowed her eyes on me.

“Sorry.. and thanks..”
“How did it happen?”

“No idea.. I heard her voice in my head and got dragged over here..”
“It could happen again, do you have any conjectures over how it happened? She’s rather.. odd.”

“Unfortunately, I don't have a clue.. don't tell me that person also has a telepathic TALENT.. now that’s just ridiculous..”

Liliath flashed a pained expression. Hah.. my TALENT sure is troublesome. What a load of bull and drama. Half-dead cliffhangers. I wonder how this situation will develop? Will I or will I not join the art club? Stay tuned!

I followed Liliath to the cafeteria. Saria and Wendy, oh the rabbit too seated on one of the corner tables.

Luckily there wasn’t any odd sauce party going on. Everyone had classy tea cups of different designs filled to the brim with various tea, small confectionaries to the side.. What's up with this? A small banquet?

“Aren’t you taking a seat?”

What? This is awkward as heck? I’m the only male in this all-female tea party, don't you find that weird Liliath?

But it does make sense.. just in case I go out of control again, it’s better for me to stay by her side.. ahem.. er..

“Um.. yeah, alright.. your concealment barrier, uh..”

“What happened? Qui.” The rabbit asked, flapping its ears up and down.

“Yeah, you didn’t almost die again right Noel?” Saria asked.

Wendy gave me a quick glance.

“Well.. perhaps..”

I wouldn’t say ‘die’ but that might not apply to my chastity though.
And the rest of my recess was spent as a member of their private tea party. Of course, I didn't get any tea since I didn't bring my own cup. Thus I became a temporary butler. It was quite an odd experience actually.

93.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me..

Staring at my laptop with my mouth agape, Prune who was leaning against the balcony called out.

“Noel? Did something happen?”

“Y-yeah.. “

How the hell did she find out? It’s not like I'm using my real name, you know? It’s merely an alias, so how? How did she know ‘PuddinFest’– my alias– was me?

To brief you on this crazy shit that I can't for any reason wrap my head around this, I finally got my first art commission request. And the client being– Yuta. I don’t know if anyone remembers that person. I mentioned before that I did a collaborative illustration with her in the past– who I thought was a boy.. but the owner of the account was apparently Rishell!?

Talk about coincidence.. damn..

And here she’s requesting one of my commission packages and then adding ‘hush money’ by asking for the additional request of– JOIN THE ART CLUB.

What the hell.. like how..

“A commission.. and? Art club? Do you know him– her?” Prune casually came over, and read the text on screen.

“Y-yeah.. sorta..”

Now.. how should I approach this? In the first place, does she really know that she’s actually requesting a commission from me? I’m pretty sure she’s certain over the fact else I don't see a reason to send hush money to a random guy or gal.

I should probably discuss with Liliath about my next course of action.. She's probably my one and only safety net– capable of rendering Rishell’s TALENT to nothing.

“I think I’ll go ask Liliath..”

“Who’s Rishell? Hey?”

“Just think of her as a pushy senior that’s desperate for club members.. Was your baking club like that? Why the baking club? There’s a cooking club right?”

There are so many people out there. Why me of all people?

“Hm? I thought perhaps pastry could help increase the range of recipes I could create. Another reason being.. I was swamped back then and had no route of escape, so I was forced to choose the most ‘accommodating’ club..” Prune’s eyes looked dead.

“Too bad..”

Maybe I’m just imagining things, she really enjoyed the cookies the club made though? I wonder what cult-like activities were involved in making cookies. Staring into the oven while the cookies are baking is one way to increase tastiness.. perhaps there’s such a ritual.

In anycase, I headed over to Nine’s room. She’s borrowing Liliath today since her fans were eager to get Liliath to as Nine calls it, “Screw the world with jokes.”

I knocked on the door twice. I wonder why I even did that.. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t hear me in the first place since they’d be on headphones.

I grabbed onto the door knob, not locked. Oh well, I better do this carefully, you never know what’s on the other side of the door.

I twisted it and pushed it to a small gap and peered into the room. What I met however was a camera lens.

“And there ya have it BOIs. Onee-chan’s heart stolen by this guy with an atypical girl’s name that counds oddly asexual. Yo, Noel, introduce yourself,” in her squeaky cute voice Nine commented as she tossed the door open.

“Fuck?”

“Ahahaha. Hear that folks? Ah, Liliath, what did they say in chat?

“The chats are rollin’ fast, though I find most were nonsensical SPAM, I could infer that they are curious to learn more about our relationship,” Liliath who sat in an elegant demeanor on Nine’s large gaming chair tilted her head and spoke in a shaddy tone. A cool headphone sat on top of her head.

THE FUAQ? The hell is up with her narrator-like speaking and..

“Uh.. what exactly did you teach Liliath? Nine?”

“Me? I didn’t teach her anything. What? Scared ya girl is getting too carried away?”

Placing my hand to my forehead, I entered Nine’s room. 

It was truly a sight to behold. She had quad monitors, a fully decked out gaming station for two fleshed out with all the recording equipment and lighting set up in prim and proper state. Her gaming setup was A LOT cleaner than her chaotic bed furnished with various types of pink, cutesy plushies.

What the hell.. Nine’s a guy right?? What’s up with all the girly colours? This makes no sense. She.. I mean, he isn’t transgender right?

“Nine.. this really makes me question whether you’re really a girl at heart or a boy.. oh, we’re rolling live.. “

To this realization I shut my mouth.

We’re live. I’m actually LIVE. Nine holding a portable camera. Nine was a computer expert to be able to connect her camera to her stream. I know I might sound like a frog right now but I honestly have no clue how streaming works. 

Huh.. the comments area blowing up and there are.. AT LEAST A THOUSAND VIEWERS??

Ah.

HA.. hahahaha.. Did Nine literally just announce my relationship Liliath on live broadcast with a thousand people watching?!

THAT BITCH!!

“B..” I managed to hold it in. One thousand is nothing to scoff at. Nine was a professional streamer? And here I thought she was just moderately popular.. I didn’t think she'd have such a crazy large subscriber base..

“Okay.. so what are you here for? You distrubed our game of Genocide Killz.”

Genocide Killz.. a brutal 2d game with pixel graphics, thrid person view that involved quite literally, genocide. As the 2D alien you are, you are tasked to blow up innocent humans and infrastructure to acquire points that the game refers to as ‘guts’. And these guts can be used in exchange for buying more powerful– and disgusting looking weapons at shops riddled throughout the map.

An apocalyptic game. Apparently Liliath and Nine were having a local PVP match. Based on the battle records, it seemed Liliath was having trouble keeping up with Nine. 

Wow. This game suits Liliath’s nature very well. 

I took a deep breath to calm my head.

“Can I borrow Liliath for a bit?”

Liliath tilted her head at my words.. her head was bobbing up and down to some sort of rhythm, she was most probably listening to loud upbeat music. Then.. how in the world was she able to hear what I was saying though that? I’m pretty sure the volume is crazy high.

“Oh? Something good is going to happen eh?” Nine giggled.

I could see the chat blow up again with a bunch of whats-er-nots. Example being:

“OOOOOOHH?! HE’S THE MAN?! NO WAY?”

“MY MAN NOEL I HATE YOU!”

“SHIP THEM SHIP THEM<3.”

“FFUUCK I WANT A GIRL TOO!!”

“HE SUCKER GOT NINE TOO? LOLITA HAREM MAN~”

Unable to withstand the sheer cray-cray of it all, I lowered my head and just walked closer to Liliath. I took off her the head phone just dragged her out of the room.

“3 minute intermission. She’ll be back,” I yelled at Nine– or the camera and slammed the door shut.

I heaved a sigh. Well. That was fuck. I faced Liliath and she looked at me with a shrewd smile? What has gotten into her? This is the first time I’m seeing her like this.

“You had fun right?” I stuttered over my words in this suddenly awkward atmosphere. I was just about to talk about serious stuff when all the shit went done in Nine’s room.

“It was quite an interesting experience. I learnt many things too. I could now understand better when past heroes documented information regarding the brutality if em’ so called cold weapons,” Liliath smiled.

Ah fuck. What did you teach Liliath Nine?!! And of all things, this was the most noteworthy lesson for Liliath? Gosh, I don’t get her at all. Well, as long as she’s having fun.

“Ah.. where was I? Yeah, uh.. remember during recess? When you ‘saved’ me from Rishell?”

Liliath nodded and her eyes turned sharp.

“She.. contacted me.. and is sorta bribing me. Looks like she’s not letting me off that easily..”

Heck, what I’m I even supposed to ask Liliath for here? How should I reply to Rishell’s commission request? Maybe it’s good to just inform her about it? Hnng.. 

“Uh.. I guess that’s about it? I was wondering if I should just reject her request..”

“Could there be any reason to accept? I don’t quite understand your doubt?” 

True.. why I’m I doubting myself? I’m probably overthinking. The answer on how I should deal with this is obvious isn't it? Then again..

“The problem being.. it’s tied to a commission. She’s like adding hush money on top of the commission request.”

Liliath pondered for a bit before looking into my eyes.

“Yes?”

“I was pondering what actions I should take.. she does seem like an eyesore. You wouldn’t mind if she..”

“No killing.. no violence..”

Liliath is taking ‘that’ route? Now that’s scary..

“Then what do you propose I do? I believe you must have a reason to why you hesitate to decline her commission, however, it would be best to just deny it altogether wouldn’t it?”

“I don't think her main point is the commission.. yeah, that makes sense.”

I’m one hundred percent certain Rishell is after me in the art club and not my art. So I guess rejecting it is alright? I’m definitely NOT joining the art club.. not with someone like her around. 

“I think I got it. I’ll just reject the commission. Thanks Liliath,” I placed my head over her head and gave it a few pets.

“Glad I could be of help.” Liliath nodded with a smile.

I guess the answer is already there..sometimes I just needed to talk to someone until the answer becomes clear.

“3 minutes up!!” Nine threw the door open and yelled, “Liliath is mine now.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I’m pretty sure Liliath is mine though– opps, I can't believe I just thought of that. Yikes, that’s just embarrassing. “Thank you Liliath, have fun.. on second thought, you're not divulging anything important right?”

Liliath shook her head, “ I wouldn’t dare find trouble for ourselves.”

Yeah.. you being on screen is plenty troublesome already.

Liliath and Nine went back to their Genocide Killz match. Moving to the living room and proceeding to reject the commission from Rishell– sorry even though I did a collab you with once before but nay way I’m joining the art club, such a scary place with this sort of girl. 

“So your decision being?”

“I just rejected her commission.. I’m not going to take the risk.. “

“Who exactly is Rishell? Care to elaborate?” Prune showed me a curious glance. Her tail obviously gave away the fact that she wasn’t excited to know.

“Hm.. remember the first time we came to MondaI High? The emcee. You remember that voice that seemed to just seeps into your soul right?”

“Really? That girl? Of all girls?”

“What do you mean ‘of all girls’?” I glared at Prune with dead eyes.

“Nothing particular.”

“Hey..”

“And then?”

“Then she bumped into me one day and for some reason knew about me as an artist.. it’s not like I knew that she was an artist I got to know on Arthub you know? It’s creepy.. like.. how did she even find out?”

“Your email address?”

“...”

Wow. I can't believe it. My email obviously had my name ‘Noel’ as part of the address…

Fuck?

“There are a million different Noel’s in this world though?”

“Location?”

My Arthub account certainly says that I’m living in Gilgamesh..

“You sure know how to stalk people huh Prune? Say.. where did you learn all this from.”

“You! I’m not a stalker kay’?” Prune pouted with a slightly flushed expression, it looked kinda cute. Not to mention, her bushy tail was wagging too, bolstering her already deadly cuteness.

“Haha. Yeah, right.” I don’t believe that crap.

After that I opened up the streaming site and proceeded to find Nine’s stream. I kinda know how to find a stream but watching a stream is beyond me. But I guess this’ll be my first.

I learnt that little Nine had a whopping 300k subscriber base, HOLY COW MOTHER OF..

The match between her and Liliath wa equally intense despite the lack-thereof any propers conversations. Nine cursing more than necessary while Liliath remained cool headed as she mowed through the enemies– innocent humans with a.. how should I put it.. elegant smile?

“Brutal.. that’s Liliath?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know Nine was such a big shot.. I should really go find his other social media account and follow him.”

I nodded to Prune’s words, she started fiddling around with her phone.

The match was evenly matched but.. Liliath eventually made it out on top in the end. Nine cursed inceasably while the chat congratulated Liliath.

“I’m curious, what did Noel talk to you about just now? The chat is also curious,” Nine asked, a speaker quality voice through my laptop.

“Oh, there was a girl pestering him and he came and sought after my advice,” Liliath replied nonchalantly. Her voice was quite beautiful.

“Oh, he’s very loyal to you huh? I didn’t think someone else would dare steal him away from you.”

Prune spat air while I staggered to stand up. Cackling while wheezing, she held onto her stomach.

Ah fuck.. and I just told her not to divuldge anything important too..

My next course of action was obvious– barging into Nine’s room to stop the conversation from developing any further. Which was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made.

It became a viral stream highlight. I can't believe I became the joke material.. hey. I’m innocent.