RE.Femboy:Reborn as a VTuber

Four days had passed since the cosplay competition.

I raised my arm above my head and rolled my shoulder. The deep ache in my bones was gone, and touching my face no longer hurt. White Snake had finally erased every mark Ron had left on my body, and I had returned to training with Eris.

In a way, that meant I was getting knocked down regularly again, but at least I could get back up this time.

Staying at the mansion was much more comfortable than I had expected.

I went downstairs at mealtimes, had a training area ready whenever I wanted to practice, and spent my evenings with Eris. Whenever I asked to stay a little longer, Aunt Miranda acted as though there had never been any other option.

Sometimes I considered living here forever instead of returning to my apartment.

My trophy had found its place on the nightstand in the guest room too.

It was a pretty good life.

As long as I didn’t look at my phone.

Sitting on a bench at the edge of the indoor training room, I scrolled through my screen again.

After the competition, the name Noctis Evernight had spread much farther than I had expected. Clips of my performance, the moment I removed my costume, and my speech onstage were all being shared separately.

Especially the last one.

[The Evernight Family’s Hidden Child: Who Is Noctis Evernight?]

[NovaCon Winner’s Family Revelations Spark Controversy.]

I pressed my lips together as I looked at the headlines carrying my name.

People hadn’t found much when they started looking for information about me. Until I revealed my surname at the competition, they hadn’t even known that a famous Guardian family had a child like me.

Now everyone was curious.

Why had no one seen me before? Why wasn’t I living with my family? Was what I had said true?

I was sure my family wasn’t happy about it.

Thinking about that part still made me smile.

What actually bothered me were the comments beneath the articles.

Most people thought I was a girl.

A few official government documents showing that I was male had surfaced. I didn’t know how they had been leaked, but I had thought that would at least put an end to the debate.

Apparently, I had been far too optimistic...

[That document is definitely fake. You expect me to look at that face and believe she’s a guy?]

[Her family could have created a record like that to hide their daughter.]

I stared at the screen for a few seconds.

"Yes. Of course. The entire government is working to hide the fact that I’m a girl."

Even official identity records weren’t enough for these people.

The next comment claimed that my appearance at the end of the competition had been another costume too.

My thumb stopped.

Then I closed the comments.

Even the Great Noctis’s patience had its limits.

At least there was a good side to all of this.

I opened my streaming profile.

[Followers: 107,769]

Once again, I couldn’t say anything for several seconds as I looked at the number.

Before the competition, I had two thousand seven hundred followers.

Now I had more than a hundred thousand.

Whenever I checked every few hours, the number had changed again, and notifications kept piling up at the top of the screen. Sponsorship offers, advertising messages, requests from other streamers to stream together...

For now, I had ignored all of them.

I didn’t have much time to spare figuring out which were serious and which only wanted to use my name. Besides, two much more important things were occupying my mind.

The first was Yukie.

I opened my messages.

I had told her I would be busy for a few days and might not be able to reply.

And I really was busy.

But it wasn’t true that I didn’t have time to check my phone.

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to find out what she thought of me after seeing me at the competition, but at the same time, I was afraid to hear it.

My finger hovered over the text field.

I typed a few words, then deleted them.

Then I left the conversation.

Moving on to the second problem was easier.

Marven Voss.

At least my thoughts about him weren’t so complicated.

Over the past four days, I had gathered whatever information I could find about him. I had looked through news articles, photos shared on public accounts, and posts from the people he spent time with.

He liked expensive cars, nightclubs, and illegal Nexus arenas. He always wore the same grin in footage of someone weaker than him getting beaten up.

The people around him weren’t much different. Children of wealthy families, familiar faces who visited the arenas to place bets, and a few scumbags who had no problem being seen with him...

One of the places he visited most often was a nightclub called Crimson Hall. Another was an arena in the old industrial district. Even when the backgrounds in the photos changed, one man standing near Marven almost never did.

"Dorian Hale."

The Guardian protecting him.

He was a broad-shouldered man in his thirties. His short, dark hair was graying at the temples. A thin scar split his right eyebrow, standing out even more when you looked into his gray eyes.

While Marven smiled in the photos, Dorian usually stood a little behind him, looking elsewhere.

At the crowd.

At the doors.

At the people approaching Marven.

I had found information about his Nexus too.

Layer.

He could create transparent barriers stacked one over another in front of him or around someone he wanted to protect. In a recording from an Overlap, one of the stone spears flying toward him had broken through the first barrier, only to shatter against the second layer behind it.

Dorian hadn’t even stepped back.

I had watched the video several times.

Each time, I imagined what would happen if a weapon I made from Umbrella struck those barriers.

I didn’t like the answer.

I turned off my phone and placed it beside me on the bench.

Now I knew what Marven liked, who he spent time with, where he went, and who stayed by his side.

All that remained was to finish him off.

But how?

And when?

The system quest was still there. The penalty for failure hadn’t changed either.

Certain death.

I slowly let out a breath as I stood.

It would be a good start if I could beat this damn golem.