Chapter 2 : Chapter 2
Chapter 02:The Lonely Prince of the Stage
Lianjian Leiya smiled as she took Chang Rong’s right hand and slowly lifted it toward her lips, preparing to seal a contract with the boy before her with a kiss.
And Chang Rong—
1.【Accept the contract】
2.【Refuse the contract】
——————
【Accept the contract】
“Lady Leiya—”
Looking at the girl kneeling on one knee before him—dashing as a knight, yet even more delicate than a princess—Chang Rong made his decision.
Become a galgame master? Save everyone and lead them all to a happy ending? Destroy—or rather, eliminate—those 【witch factors】 he had not even managed to grasp the shadow of?
All of those thoughts were too vague, too insubstantial. One could even say they were unrealistic.
If there was one thing Chang Rong could be certain of at this moment, it was this—the fervent hope shining in the eyes of the girl before him.
He had been thrown here for no reason, dragged into a deadly werewolf game for no reason, armed with no magic and no idea what he was capable of. For someone like him, perhaps taking her hand and meeting her gaze head-on was the truest promise that “Chang Rong” could make.
The white-haired boy reached out and clasped Lianjian Leiya’s slender hand.
“—”
“......”
Gray eyes met golden ones. Neither of them spoke. Their palms pressed together as they exchanged each other’s heartbeat and warmth.
At last, Lianjian Leiya rose from her kneeling position.
“Mm... Somehow, I had thought it would feel more ceremonial than this. Or perhaps more dramatic.”
A little embarrassed, Lianjian Leiya rubbed at her short hair and smiled at Chang Rong.
“Lady Leiya, you were far too deep in character... Listen carefully, all right? In the real world, you do not get those bizarre developments where two people simply shake hands, their hearts start pounding, they suddenly kiss each other senseless because they are on the same wavelength, then get married, slaughter everyone, and finally die hand in hand in serene peace.”
“Uh... Y-yes, I suppose you are right. It seems I really was overthinking things. Hahaha...”
Lianjian Leiya gave a wry laugh, then turned to leave the art room.
“—But since I have already signed the contract and become Lady Leiya’s ‘sacrifice,’ I ought to show some sincerity too.”
Chang Rong spoke again and walked over to her side.
“S-show some sincerity...!?” The moment she heard those words, Lianjian Leiya’s heart skipped a beat, and she swallowed involuntarily.
“Yes. As a super playwright armed with mysterious wisdom from the East, allow me to do my part and help improve Lady Leiya’s stage play.”
“......Eh?! Ah, r-right, the stage play!”
Lianjian Leiya suddenly looked enlightened, then hastily put away the expression she had just worn—that spring-struck, half-lidded look of bashful surrender, as though all that remained was for the little white rabbit before her to cast off its disguise, turn into a great gray wolf, and devour her completely.
—I even bent down for him on purpose! Is Chang Rong really a normal boy?
“......Lady Leiya?”
“Ahem, it is nothing, nothing at all. Come, then, my ‘lead idol.’ An’an’s progress on the script has been far slower than expected. I happen to be in need of your help.”
No matter what else she might be, Lianjian Leiya was still a qualified actress. She immediately swallowed down her shaken confusion over why Chang Rong had remained wholly unmoved—Was I simply not cute or pretty enough in his eyes?—and put on her usual composed, dashing air again.
The two of them left the art room one after the other. The spacious room did not become crowded again because of some actress’s livestream, and instead simply fell into silence.
Later that day, Chang Rong spent the entire afternoon with Lianjian Leiya in the library working on the script. From that afternoon of conversation, he came to understand three things.
First, Lianjian Leiya’s stage instincts were genuinely impressive.
She was not the sort of decorative pretty boy who lived off popularity and looks alone. She truly loved performance as an art, and she had put serious thought and study into it.
Whether she was playing a doomed cowboy on the run, a smuggler burdened with guilt in the apocalypse while carrying a child, or some mysterious twig-hearted figure who had accidentally fallen underground, Lianjian Leiya could always grasp the heart of the role precisely, then bring it to life through those extraordinary looks of hers.
Second, Lianjian Leiya’s scriptwriting ability was complete garbage.
“All that happened before... do you truly remember none of it? That day, you and I fought our way across that bridge again and again, scattering those who blocked our path—”
“Cut!”
“As long as it lives, even if it is a god, I will kill it for you to see—yes, I am the kami of this new world! If you disagree, then come out and check the damage!”
“Cut—!”
“What happened today is a secret between you and me. Keh-keh-keh... I know what class you are in, I know the last eight digits of your ID number, and I know that beneath that plain exterior, you have long been unable to restrain your feelings of adoration for me. Heh. Come, let me sweep aside your white hair, so that we may bare our truest selves before one another—”
“Cut!!! And stop rubbing up against me while you are acting, Lady Leiya!”
Who knew how many times he had thrown down the script by now? Chang Rong shouted his complaints as he pushed away the golden retriever-like girl who was currently burrowing into his arms.
“Hm? Was there something wrong with my performance just now, Chang Rong?”
Lianjian Leiya stopped nuzzling her little rabbit and tilted her head in confusion.
“There was everything wrong with it... Just now, you were supposed to be playing a handsome antihero transformation protagonist with a faint trace of roguishness, using that morally ambiguous charm to warn the heroine not to tell anyone about the scene where you transformed and fought the monster—not suddenly turning into some repressed, deranged blond deviant who wants to pounce on someone in broad daylight!”
Pointing at the script, veins standing out on his forehead, Chang Rong scolded her loudly.
“B-but I feel that a protagonist like that would be even more dazzling and handsome...?”
“I do not care what you feel!”
“Uwah... what is this...? Chang Rong, why have you become so fierce...?”
Being scolded to her face by her own “chief fan” dealt Lianjian Leiya a heavy blow. Her usual elegant, cool, composed manner vanished completely, leaving behind only a soft, adorable girl with twitching nostrils, desperately telling herself not to cry. But to Chang Rong, the idol before him had nothing whatsoever to do with the word “cute.” If anything, one glance at her was enough to give him a headache.
Lianjian Leiya possessed rare dedication, diligence, and talent.
But she loved rewriting scripts.
Even when a scene was meant to be restrained and understated, she always started adding extra bits in the middle of acting.
For a simple scene like, 【On a quiet street, they are suddenly intercepted by a luxurious black car. In order to protect a companion, they exchange gunfire with three assassins, are ultimately shot, and die on the roadside】, Lady Leiya somehow turned it into a performance where she screamed, “I am Lianjian Leiya! A few bullets are nothing to me—aaahhh!” then rose from the ground, drew a Western sword from her waist, and flourished it.
After that, she somehow dragged over a white plastic chair that looked as though it had come from a roadside food stall, sat on it without saying a word, and silently combed back her pomaded hair.
“Would you just die already!?”
“But a knight does not die empty-handed!”
“Are you trying to wander into a Holy Grail War? Do not go. Fuyuki is full of all kinds of horrifying things these days.”
...It was like that no matter what script she was given. Halfway through, she would start adding her own material without the slightest concern for anyone else.
At last, Chang Rong finally understood why Lianjian Leiya, despite possessing such a top-tier exterior, was only famous enough for “barely a handful out of a dozen girls to have heard of her.”
Judging from testimony he had heard from Zedu Keke, Lianjian Leiya’s bad habit of adding scenes to draw attention had become deeply entrenched long ago. Even back at the idol agency, it had frequently caused problems during center-position rotations on stage and ruined the overall effect of her performances.
—Though, when all was said and done, this stage play was not meant for an audience at all. It was just the witch candidates entertaining themselves to pass the time. Even if Leiya fooled around to her heart’s content, it probably would not matter. But... was that really all right?
After the script had been ruined yet again by Leiya’s insistence that “the protagonist still is not enough of a center,” Chang Rong stared at the pages in his hand and sighed.
It was not as though he could not simply wash his hands of it and walk away, or write a script from beginning to end that revolved around Leiya alone just to get through it.
And yet, for some reason, he felt that if he did, then he would have “lost.”
He had already made a “contract” with her. He was not only Lianjian Leiya’s chief fan, but the captive sacrifice of her gaze magic alone...
...Wait. Gaze?
Chang Rong caught hold of that word, and a bold plan slowly took shape in his mind.
“Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why must it be you? Why could you not have been Zhu Yingtai? Why not—”
“Lady Leiya... Leiya.”
Chang Rong dropped the honorific he had been using all this time to build affection and tossed the script aside. He undid his cuffs, loosened the tie at the collar of his white shirt, and walked straight toward Lianjian Leiya.
“Oh, are you calling cut again, Chang Rong? I thought the emotions in this part needed a little more richness—mmph!?”
Lianjian Leiya noticed him approaching and instinctively began to share her own unique—and utterly nonsensical—understanding of the script, but before she could finish, he cut her off.
More precisely, Chang Rong cupped both sides of her face with his hands, forcibly locking her gaze onto him, interrupting her by sandwiching her cheeks between his palms like cheese between two slices of bread.
Though Chang Rong was a little shorter than Lianjian Leiya, the force of the presence he radiated at that moment left her unable to say a word. All she could do was stare passively at the boy before her—as though he were the one who possessed the magic of 【Gaze Control】, a witch using that power upon her.
“Say it. What are you?”
“Uwaah!? I-I am a fool sandwich...!?”
“Lianjian Leiya! Are you joking with me?”
Chang Rong’s tone at that moment was rarer than rare. The white-haired boy who normally spoke either gently or pathetically was now speaking with nothing but anger and accusation.
“Eh? W-what do you mean, Chang Rong!? W-what did I do...?”
Sweat beaded instantly on Lianjian Leiya’s brow. She had never seen Chang Rong like this before. She did not know why she was being scolded, and she had no idea how she was supposed to answer his anger.
“【Number One Chief Fan】—was that not what you called me? 【As long as I can have your gaze】—was that not what you said too?”
“Eh...? Well, yes, I did say that—”
“Then stop using this wretched performance, this acting meant to attract everyone else’s attention!”
“Mm...!?”
Lianjian Leiya instinctively tried to shrink back and avoid his gaze after being shouted at, but Chang Rong’s hands still held her face tightly, refusing to let her look away.
“Am I not right here? Lady Leiya, did I not already make a ‘contract’ with you? Was I not already captured by the figure you cut before me? If so—why are you still playing the clown with such miserable acting, trying to draw everyone else’s eyes?”
“I... I...”
Chang Rong leaned in until he was right before her eyes, forcing this golden retriever of a girl to hold only his reflection in her own, rejecting everything else as though the world itself could be shoved aside.
“Choose... Lady Leiya. My gaze—or everyone else’s?”
“I... I—understand now, Chang Rong.”
When their noses were nearly touching, Lianjian Leiya let out a long, heavy sigh. Then her eyes sharpened with a firm resolve, as though she had decided to bring everything to an end.
“You are right, Chang Rong. I have no need for this twisted obsession anymore.”
She lifted one hand to the hair falling over her brow, then slicked it back in one smooth, dashing motion.
“From this day onward, my performances, my voice, my dancing—everything will exist only for you, Chang Rong.”
“Lady Leiya...!”
Looking at the girl before him—reborn as though bathed in the morning sun, leaving behind all that previous muddled, helpless self—Chang Rong could not help applauding.
Rejoice, people of Prison Island! The perfect and dashing king of the performing arts, who gathered into one body the powers of the simple spear, the little sickle, the hedge pistol, the ice-thorn rapier, the ritual blade, the dinosaur sniper, and the black hole—the glittering, heart-throbbing Phantom Lei-Nin, Lianjian Leiya, was born at this very moment!
“Please... never take your eyes off me again, all right?”
—Wait, did I overdo it and accidentally bring out a yandere version of Leiya?
While applauding with a bright smile that plainly said there was nothing to criticize, Chang Rong muttered to himself in his heart.
In any case, after Chang Rong’s intervention, Lianjian Leiya completely severed herself from the demons of her past. Becoming wholly of one mind, she picked up the fallen script from the floor and once more began to play the prince of the story.
She was more elegant and composed than before, more radiant than before. This time, the girl named Lianjian Leiya had abandoned her magic, yet in exchange obtained something that far surpassed the effects of 【Gaze Control】.
She performed the passage from the script as though no one else existed, flawless, immaculate, precise, and graceful. It was like watching someone dance freely across an empty stage after finally removing the chains that had bound all four limbs.
But when the performance reached the final page of the script, Lianjian Leiya suddenly stopped.
Then she turned to look at the white-haired boy at the side, who was already too stunned to speak, and showed him the slightly awkward expression she usually wore.
“Chang Rong... about the last part of the script, there is actually something I do not understand.”
“Uh... eh? The last part?”
The white-haired boy, still sunk in the afterglow of her performance, only came back to himself after several seconds. Then he immediately picked up the script beside him and hurried over to her.
Could Leiya be one of those people who ran on having their spring wound and diesel poured in?
Had the “humanity” she had only just regained already burned itself out before she could even finish one play, leaving her about to return to one of those incomprehensible, world-shaking stunts of hers?
Worried, Chang Rong moved to her side and braced himself. If she now came out with something like, “The protagonist has not yet dominated the ages single-handedly, so why does the play already end?” what was he supposed to say?
Fortunately, Lianjian Leiya did not start scribbling extra scenes into the script on her own. She merely lifted one finger and pointed to the final sentence of the last paragraph:
【After everything ended, the prince cast off her disguise. The beautiful princess at last returned to her homeland, and it seemed that nothing had changed.】
“What about it?” Chang Rong frowned, unable to understand what exactly she found so confusing.
“I... have always stood on stage as the ‘prince.’ Whether in performances or in plays, it has always been that way.”
Lianjian Leiya looked at the boy standing so close before her, and her breathing gradually became hot and unsteady.
“So... I do not really understand... how a ‘princess’ is supposed to be played.”
“Leiya—”
Lianjian Leiya really was an extraordinary, extraordinary actress.
Her acting was so accomplished that everyone—including Chang Rong—had forgotten that she was not truly a “prince” at all, but only an innocent, rather foolish girl who did not even know what “love” was.
Earlier, it had been said that Chang Rong had come to understand three things in the course of spending time with her.
One, Leiya’s acting was excellent, and her professional standards were high.
Two, Leiya had terrible taste in scripts and a talent for adding scenes whenever she pleased.
Three—
Lianjian Leiya was truly, unbelievably beautiful.
“......Honestly, there is nothing to be done with you. I will only teach you this once.”
After a silence that was brief and yet somehow eternal, Chang Rong let out a helpless sigh.
“I will study it with care—”
Her words were cut off again, though this time it was by a shared silence.
Chang Rong kissed Lianjian Leiya and, with the motion, pressed the girl back beneath the cherry tree in the library.
Fallen petals drifted softly down, like flower girls at a wedding, endlessly scattering a pink dream blessed for the bride and groom.
————
——
After that day, Prison Island underwent a dramatic change.
With efficiency that was almost magical, Chang Rong organized the stage play at last. The only real alteration was that the lead role, originally meant for Lianjian Leiya, was given instead to Yingyu Emma, whose temperament suited it better.
When the others, astonished, asked Lianjian Leiya, “Are you really all right with this?” and all she did in response was glance at Chang Rong and smile as she shook her head, every witch candidate present began to harbor their own suspicions.
Whatever the case, the play began. Thanks to the girls’ full commitment and serious preparation, the performance was a triumph. Every one of them brought the full charm of her role to life.
The play even attracted the warden.
【Hoo... hoo... I had thought you girls were merely throwing together some farce because the pressure was too much, but I never imagined the final result would be this polished... Even adorable little Warden Me was deeply moved. By the way, perhaps we could record it and sell it. Ever since Lady Meruru died, the prison’s finances have been giving this owl quite a headache. If we only sold it in small quantities, we could at least earn enough to repair the underground freezer. Otherwise every time I go down there, I lose feathers from the cold. Hoo, hoo, hoo...】
—Why did it suddenly feel as though the warden was not exactly living an easy life either?
Chang Rong did not give much thought to the warden’s words. So far as he was concerned, as long as he could watch Lianjian Leiya shining on the stage with confidence, then the price of admission had already been repaid in full.
And yet, once the warden put the recording out, the stage play exploded across the internet.
“Over a dozen beautiful girls, each with a completely different appeal!” “The ultimate completed form of the idol genre!” “For some reason, I can feel the stirring force of girls growing strong in adversity!” “Why the hell is there a guy in this?” “Why the hell is this guy always kissing Lady Leiya?” “Forget it, let him kiss her. They are a perfect match. Who the hell am I to object?”
Praise of every kind broke like a flood, impossible to contain, and the matter even became an international topic.
Among the many voices, there was even one mysterious Eastern IP that claimed to be nothing more than a harmless moe-loving fanbase, yet proceeded to expose everything from the exact coordinates of Prison Island to the warden’s identity number to every alias Bingshang Meilulu had ever used online.
Before the situation could devolve into something even more chaotic and impossible to predict, the prison authorities had no choice but to release this batch of witch candidates back to their respective homes under the excuse, “Terribly sorry, we arrested the wrong people. This was actually a secret idol training project.”
And so, just like that, the girls escaped that nightmare prison. A cause for celebration indeed.
———Several months later———
“I am home.”
The brisk blonde girl tossed her shoulder bag aside and collapsed onto the sofa in one motion.
“Oh, welcome back.”
Chang Rong emerged from the kitchen, carrying freshly cooked fish fillets still steaming with heat, along with juice, and set them down on the table as he greeted Lianjian Leiya with practiced ease.
Though he had been thrown out of Prison Island in such an absurd fashion, Chang Rong had no home to return to on “this side,” so for the time being he was living at Leiya’s house.
At first, everyone had argued at length over what should become of him. It had almost escalated into a second round of werewolf-style conflict. In the end, only when Chang Rong himself decided to stay with Lianjian Leiya for a while did the dispute finally die out amid the others’ mournful wails.
Lianjian Leiya lived alone in a luxurious single-level residence in an upscale neighborhood. Her mother had long been hospitalized, while her brother and father were away on business in another city, so for now only Lianjian Leiya and Chang Rong were living there.
“You worked hard again today, Lady Leiya.”
“Uwah... doing two performances back-to-back really is a bit too much... Mm, thank you, Chang Rong. I always end up troubling you. But are you really all right? Would it not be better for you to get some rest?”
“It is fine. I suppose I must have caught it from milady—if I do not do a little housework, I somehow cannot settle down... cough, cough!”
As Lianjian Leiya shrugged off her coat, still complaining, she looked at the white-haired boy with concern.
Chang Rong, already thoroughly used to it, took the coat from her, hung it neatly on the rack, and began massaging her shoulders.
“Honestly, thinking back on it now, it all really does feel like a dream. The witch trials, the prison, all that killing...”
Lianjian Leiya sighed softly, her face relaxing into enjoyment and ease.
“If I had not met you, Chang Rong, then perhaps I—”
Thud.
“......Chang Rong? Chang Rong!?”
Her words were cut off by the heavy sound of a body collapsing. When Lianjian Leiya spun around in panic, all she saw was the white-haired boy lying unconscious on the floor.
In truth, ever since they had left Witch Island, that boy who had once always been pulling one prank after another had begun to seem perpetually listless.
At first, Lianjian Leiya had not thought much of it. She assumed Chang Rong simply had not yet adjusted to their new life. Or perhaps he had only relaxed mentally and was showing the aftereffects.
But later, he began having spells of unconsciousness. That was when Lianjian Leiya immediately took him to the hospital for an examination.
The hospital found nothing useful. The only thing they were able to determine was that, for some unknown reason, the boy was growing weaker and weaker.
Lianjian Leiya canceled every performance she had originally been scheduled to appear in.
Later, she simply terminated all her contracts with her agencies altogether, heedless of how enormous the penalty fees might be.
She tried to contact the witch candidates with whom they had once lived on Prison Island, hoping to ask for help, only to discover that some of them had already become impossible to reach.
Nikaidou Shiro had gone off to a remote mountain village and never sent another reply.
Yingyu Emma had still failed to make friends in high school, and had deleted everyone’s contact information.
Ju Xueli had returned to some orphanage.
Yuanye Hanna had vanished completely.
Ziteng Yalisha, Xiamu An’an, Heibu Naiyexiang, and Chengqi Nuoya all refused to leave Witch Island under any circumstances, and there was no way to learn how they were faring.
The mastermind behind everything, Bingshang Meilulu, remained frozen beneath that prison underground, together with Baosheng Mage Shaonü.
Although Zedu Keke and Zuobo Milia rushed over as soon as they heard the news, and Chang Rong’s condition improved somewhat for a time, he soon fell unconscious again.
Looking at the boy, Leiya felt a fury beyond measure. It was not the sort of anger that would merely make Chang Rong cry out in alarm. No—this was the kind of fury that would genuinely shock him, the kind that would make him want to comfort her and stroke her hair.
This could not be some “unknown illness.” It was a curse.
A curse from that prison island. A curse from the witches.
But... Why? Why was the one being cursed not me, the one who bore magic and sin, but Chang Rong?
Something had to have gone wrong somewhere...
As long as that mistake could be corrected, Chang Rong would recover, and everything would return to the proper order it had once had.
He would become once more the same seemingly unserious and unreliable boy who, in truth, quietly supported her, took care of everything for her, and even made supper to her exact tastes.
He would cough twice, rise on tiptoe to ruffle her hair, then avert his eyes in embarrassment as he said, “You worked hard again today. Here, let me pat your head.”
He would... would...
Lianjian Leiya felt as though something inside her body was nearing the point of shattering.
At last, on a certain night, the line on the heart monitor in the room at the far end of a hospital corridor became a single unbroken stroke.
By the time Lianjian Leiya arrived, all she found was a corpse—and in its hand, a phone with its memo app open:
“I feel as though I forgot something important, but that no longer matters.”
“Though the false testimony I made at the beginning was entirely improvised for the sake of staying alive, I never imagined that in the end it would sprout and bear such a beautiful fruit.”
“To witness Princess Leiya’s face flushing red with shyness beneath that cherry tree was, to me, the most precious treasure of all. I will cherish it well.”
“You can take your eyes off me now, Leiy—”
Looking at the phone, whose final letter had never been typed, Lianjian Leiya felt the world spin around her.
And then, she could no longer see any “gaze” at all.
The last thing left in her mind seemed to be the image of a cracked hand with twisted, overgrown nails accidentally crushing the phone to pieces.
Someone had died.
If someone died... what was one supposed to do again...?
That was right. A witch trial.
A witch trial had to be convened. The murderer—the 【witch】 behind everything—had to be found.
So then, where was the witch...?
After that day, every report concerning “Lianjian Leiya, the gifted rising star who vanished from the public eye without warning” disappeared.
In their place, there remained only an urban legend.
When night fell, people would occasionally hear a voice:
“Excuse me, have you seen my prince?”
And after that beautiful, dashing voice sounded out, no matter how you answered, no matter whether you tried to run or stand your ground, only one ending awaited you.
You would watch helplessly as your chest was ripped open and your organs torn apart, until even your “gaze” was swallowed at last by darkness.
Bad End 02 — “The Lonely Prince of the Stage”
#Return to the previous branch choice#