Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Otherworld Cheat Harem.

Episode 63: Trauma (3)

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Gahee’s hand started to tremble. Clenching her fist tightly to stop the shaking, she exhaled lightly and asked Deokgu again.

“So… you’re saying I can perform starting this week?”

“Calling it a performance is a bit much. You know how singers are treated in this world, don’t you?”

“…Yeah, I know.”

Gahee, who once earned her living singing at taverns, knew well how singers were regarded in this world.

Beggar.

Or voice prostitute.

At best, a beggar child, too pathetic to sell their body, so they sell their voice instead.

That was the treatment singers received in this world.

However, Gahee was confident she could change that perception.

“I even ordered a microphone just for you. Don’t make a mistake. Practice well.”

“Don’t worry. Who do you think I am?”

Though often mistaken for a visual idol due to her stunning looks, she wasn’t just the visual.

“I’m the Diva of Muse.”

She was the vocalist.

“Why bother with security…?”

The sunlight blazed down directly from above. It had been a long time since I’d seen the sun so high in the sky.

Spending more time in dungeons than outside, I rarely got to see the sun hanging so high.

“Bother? Boss! Is that something you should say to your affiliated idol?”

“What’s with the formality…?”

“Oh, this? Deokgu told me to use it. Anyway, Boss, I’m counting on you, okay?”

She spoke with an excited expression and cleared her throat. But I sighed and glanced around.

‘In the first place… there’s no audience, so why bother with security.’

This world was not as bustling with a floating population as modern Earth. After all, even on Earth, there was no crazy person singing in the middle of the city at lunchtime.

However, Gahee grabbed the microphone without a moment’s hesitation. Hmmmm. The magic circle engraved inside the microphone spread her voice far and wide.

As her voice spread, people’s attention was focused… but only for a moment.

Busy people at work didn’t have the leisure or time to spare for her.

“Why don’t you just go back?”

“It’s noisy! If I don’t do this, people won’t pay attention to me…”

“Then why not do it on the weekend…?”

“I’ll do it on the weekend, too, Boss!”

In a mix of formal and informal speech, she slowly held the microphone. Then she took a strong breath.

[Everyone, listen to my song!]

If it were a microphone connected to an amp and speaker, the high pitch would have caused clipping noise, but the magic amplified her voice perfectly.

She screamed as if her throat would tear, but the listeners didn’t perceive it as noise. Her voice, her vocalization, was too good to be felt that way.

Phew. Gahee lightly exhaled as if nervous and grabbed the microphone again.

[I’m Gahee of the new idol, Muse! Please take care of me!]

Standing alone on stage without any audience.

Her pounding heart did not stop.

She was both hopeful and disappointed.

So now, all she could do was sing.

And thus, to make everyone present a fan.

[──♬]

The moment she made up her mind, a diva descended upon this land.

Rumors spread.

“Did you hear? At lunchtime…”

“I heard; it’s still ringing in my head…”

Rumors abound with praise for a certain singer.

“I heard she showed up again today.”

“Probably tomorrow, too…”

Her voice was so loud that it resonated throughout the entire city, and anyone living here had heard it at least once.

And once they heard her voice even once, they couldn’t escape from it.

They found themselves searching for the owner of the voice as if enchanted.

Even on a weekday morning, without an audience, she sang with sincerity, and eventually, the song came back to her like a boomerang.

“Muse! Muse!”

“When will she come out?”

“Sing for us quickly!”

Although it was the weekend, an overwhelming number of people were waiting for her.

A smile crept onto Gahee’s face as she casually checked the crowd. It wasn’t quite like her idol days on Earth.

But the fact that so many people gathered just to see her, just to hear her sing, was quite moving.

“I can do this. I can.”

“Nervous?”

“No?”

In response to Dojin’s question, she smiled lightly and stepped forward.

All eyes were on her.

An emotion akin to a drug surged within her.

[Everyone! My song–]

“We’re from the city guard.”

And all those emotions were washed away like water.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“Since you didn’t know, we’ll let it slide this time.”

Gahee kept bowing her head in front of the guards.

The guard, clearing his throat as he looked at her, handed out a piece of paper.

“Um, and since I’m a fan of yours… could I get an autograph?”

“Oh, really? Thank you!”

While Gahee quickly signed, I discussed legal matters with the guard.

“So… you’re saying not to influence people with magical tools, right?”

“Exactly. This time, we’ll let it go since no one was harmed… but if there had been any victims, you wouldn’t have avoided being detained.”

“Oh, yes. I understand.”

I left the guard post with Gahee. She exited with a gloomy expression.

The performance was halted. Due to the guards’ intervention, the charge was illegal use of magical tools, meaning the tools had an unauthorized impact on the city area.

‘This actually worked out well.’

In this world, paying to listen to a singer’s song was solely the listener’s choice.

Even if one heard a song so moving that they’d never forget it, they might not pay a single cent.

That was common sense, and until now, there wasn’t a justification to surpass it.

‘I gained a reason to build a concert hall with this.’

However, not anymore. The justification for building a concert hall could be to prevent the influence of magical tools.

If a concert hall were built, entrance tickets could be sold.

Listening to songs wouldn’t be free anymore, but something that required money. People’s common sense could be changed.

“…Because of me.”

“Hmm?”

“Because of me, you got caught…”

Whether she knew the truth or not, Gahee was busy blaming herself just for being caught by the guards.

‘Has she never been to a police station?’

For someone like her, I thought she’d have frequented the police station as often as having meals, given the stereotype that celebrities are always causing trouble.

Watching her lower her head and tear up, I lightly flicked her forehead. With a cheerful “snap!” sound, a tear rolled down her cheek.

“Ouch! What are you doing?!”

“What are you saying?”

“…What do you mean? It’s true. If only I had sung more quietly.”

“Why would an idol worry about that?”

The thought of an idol worrying if their singing or voice was too loud was utterly ridiculous.

“What is our relationship?”

“R-relationship? What do you mean…”

“You’re an idol, and I’m your boss, right?”

“Oh, that relationship… Yes, that’s right.”

“Just sing, Idol. I’ll take care of everything else. This Boss will handle it all.”

Hearing that, Gahee pursed her lips and looked at me. She had a puzzled expression on her face.

“…Hey.”

“What?”

“It’s a bit awkward to ask now, but… why are you so good to me?”

“Huh?”

“I came here and did nothing, just leeching off you guys like a parasite. Why are you being so nice to me? Are you after my body or something?”

She rattled on like a machine gun. She stepped back slightly, covering her chest. Does she really think that’s my intention?

I looked at her. As she said, it was something incomprehensible from a common-sense perspective. She, who did nothing but leech, wanted to be an idol, and I just went along with it.

It was something even a fool would find hard to justify.

But.

“Because of your dream.”

“…What?”

She dreams of being an idol. She spent her whole life striving to become one, and that effort was shattered by an absurd catastrophe, the transmigration to another world.

“How important it is to do what you want to do.”

Despite everything, she didn’t give up. Even if the concept of an idol didn’t exist, or she was mocked for selling her body.

She didn’t give up on her shining dream.

I couldn’t do that.

So, I was living vicariously through her.

“Dream, Idol.”

And shine. More than anything.

“Mudokan!!”

Upon hearing that performing on the streets became legally impossible, Deokgu shouted frantically as if going mad.

Dojin and Gahee, who didn’t know what Mudokan was, tilted their heads and looked at the rampaging Deokgu as if he were insane.

“I can’t believe I ended up establishing Mudokan with my own hands…”

“What is Mudokan?”

“What?! You don’t know Mudokan?!”

“Nope.”

“…Well, Dojin, since you’re a regular person, I guess that’s understandable, but Gahee, you know, right?”

“What is that, you nerd?”

“How can an idol not know Mudokan?!?!”

Deokgu started yelling until his throat was about to fall out. Before Deokgu turned into a walking encyclopedia, Dojin plugged his ears and left the room.

Gahee carefully followed him out.

“Crazy otaku– Ah, that was a slip. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”

Since image management was crucial for idols, Gahee said this and headed to her room after parting with Dojin.

Click. She locked the door, threw off her clothes, and dived into the bed. The unpleasantly soft bed absorbed her impact and dispersed it.

Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, Gahee recalled the words Dojin had just spoken.

[Dream, Idol.]

“Dream, huh? Ugh, so cheesy…”

At the time she heard it, it was such a chilling statement that her hands and feet curled up. But when she pondered it alone in her room, it was the most reassuring thing.

‘Is that crazy guy really interested in my body?’

Gahee recalled Dojin’s face. His smile as he said that, and the solid physique she realized only after coming to this world, came to mind.

“Ugh…”

She grabbed a pillow and covered her face. Her face started to heat up for no reason. Trying to cool down, she began to wildly shake her legs and kick the bed and blanket.

“You crazy guy! Why do you keep being nice to me?!”

The bed rocked wildly. She tried hard to conjure negative thoughts. Then, the image of Dojin and Seoyoon entering the bathroom together came to mind.

His naked body appeared.

Whoosh.

“Argh! Annoying!”

Why was he so unnecessarily handsome? Why did he have to be so unnecessarily kind?

She continued to blame herself, venting her heat until she collapsed, exhausted, arms and legs limp.

As her strength waned, the negative thoughts she had tried so hard to recall belatedly scrambled her brain.

“Dream? Me?”

‘Do I even have the right?’

Memories of Earth came to mind.

Beautiful appearance.

In proportion, a stubborn pride.

But ambiguous talent.

In the idol industry, her innate talent was inadequate to make a living.

There were many idols prettier than her.

Many trainees sang better than her.

Many peers danced better than her.

In the end, she became an ambiguous existence.

Ambiguously pretty.

Ambiguously cute.

Ambiguously danced.

Ambiguously sang.

She resolved to become an idol in this other world, thinking that at least here, she would have skills superior to anyone else’s.

It wasn’t the result of a dream.

It was the result of compromising with reality.

“Do I have the right to do that?”