kscans

Chapter 493 - A Rich Man's Hobby

It was revealed that Break, the leader of the clan Fight☆Club, was a member of a Foundation. Moreover, he was someone who held succession rights to the head of the Virgo Foundation.

While it was surprising, Parfait wasn't all that shocked. After all, Foundation members frequented her family's cafe, and she was good friends with Wilnel, the next head of the Gemini Foundation. For her, it was on the level of, "Oh, is that so."

Rick and Ginny, who had been friends with Parfait since childhood, felt the same way, but there was one member who had a problem. Cynthia.

Cynthia knew of Wilnel, whom she had recently met, but she didn't know she was the next head of the Foundation, nor did she know she was a Foundation member at all.

Perhaps because of this situation, a strange sound, like someone trying to inhale and exhale at the same time, came from behind Parfait. "Kahyu."

"Cynthia-san!?"

Then came Ginny's surprised cry and the sound of someone collapsing. Parfait turned around in shock.

Cynthia was lying face down on the floor. This time, she didn't have the presence of mind to leave a message in blood. She had simply collapsed. Furthermore, her body was gradually fading, and then she vanished completely.

The shock was so great that Parfait forgot to even panic. In the midst of it all, Rick spoke calmly.

"A forced logout. Ginny, I'm sure she's fine, but go back to the real world and check on Cynthia. Your houses are close, right? If you can, I'd like you to go to her house and check on her."

"O-okay! I'll contact you as soon as I've checked!"

With that, Ginny vanished in an instant.

Parfait had been too stunned to do anything, but she was grateful for Rick's calm response. The headgear used to log into AFO had many functions, and it was unlikely there was a problem even with a forced logout. Still, she respected Rick for his composed handling of the situation.

In the face of this, Break looked apologetic.

"Sorry, looks like I startled her. I'll have to apologize to the young lady Cynthia later."

"No, if anything, it was me revealing your identity that caused it, so I'll be the one to apologize. I'm sure she's fine, but could you wait until we hear back from them?"

"Yeah, of course. If it comes to it, just contact the Hospital under my name. The bill's on me, of course."

Break then called over a clan member, gave some instructions, and requested tea and snacks be prepared.

Even though she was sure Cynthia was fine, Parfait was fidgety and didn't touch the snacks that were brought out.

Just as she thought it was no use waiting here and was about to log out to check the situation herself, a message came from Ginny.

"Parfait-san, Cynthia-san is fine! Her heart rate just shot up and her breathing got a little rough, that's all. According to her, she's used to getting excited, so she's fine."

"Oh, thank goodness. But used to getting excited... Oh, right."

Cynthia tended to get excited when she saw beautiful girls, but she had never been forcibly logged out before. It made Parfait realize, belatedly, just how much of a problem it was for a regular person to suddenly encounter a Foundation member.

She was now certain that her family was strange. Not only could they invite Foundation members to their cafe, but they had them coming over for coffee on a regular basis. It was safe to say it was abnormal.

She felt proud of her father, Hayato, for a moment, but was brought back to reality by Ginny's voice saying, "So then."

"Cynthia-san says she needs a couple of days to prepare herself mentally, so she'd like to postpone today's presentation."

"Well, yeah, that makes sense... But she gave Break-san a presentation last time, right?"

"Apparently, that's why she collapsed. To think she had spoken so passionately to a Foundation member, and one so close to the head of the family with succession rights... She said it was too much, and it seems to have caused her considerable mental damage."

"So that's why."

If anything, Parfait was scared to think what would happen if she revealed Wilnel's identity. She made a mental note that she would need to prepare in advance before explaining.

"Please tell Break-san that Cynthia-san apologizes. She also said she's sorry to us if the deal falls through because of this..."

"I'll let Break-san know. And tell her it's okay if the deal doesn't work out. In that case, we'll just take over the world with our own video!"

"...Understood. Cynthia-san and I will prepare the best outfit for you, Parfait-san!"

"I think I'll pass on that..."

Parfait wasn't sure if their idea of the best would be her idea of the best. In fact, it might be closer to the worst, so she declined in advance. If anything, this made her even more determined to get Kazatoki and Lion involved.

It was decided that Ginny would stay at Cynthia's house for the day. Parfait explained all of this to Rick and Break.

"So the young lady Cynthia is safe. That's good to hear. And I understand about postponing the presentation. If I get to hear that passionate speech again, I'll wait as long as it takes."

"Thank you very much. Rick-kun, what should we do now?"

They had come here for the presentation in the first place. Ginny and Cynthia were in charge of the specific content, so she couldn't explain the details.

"Then we'll come back another time, and for today, we'll meet up with Natsu and the others—"

"Hold on a minute. I'm looking forward to the passionate presentation, but could you at least give me a little idea of what you were planning to talk about? I hear Kazatoki and the others are coming soon, and I'd like to hear about it beforehand."

Parfait and Rick exchanged glances.

They couldn't explain the specific outfits, as that was Ginny and Cynthia's department, but they could talk about wanting to form an alliance and aiming for a top prize by having Kazatoki and Lion wear the outfits.

Parfait figured Rick would be better at explaining this than she would, so she made her request with just a look.

Rick nodded and began to explain to Break politely and concisely. Break didn't interrupt and listened to the end before nodding.

"If they're okay with it, I'd be more than happy to. I won't be able to judge what kind of outfits they are until the two of them get here, so we'll have to wait until after the presentation for that."

It was a surprisingly positive response. Just as Parfait thought this would be easy, Break grinned.

"By the way, I have a proposal of my own. Is that alright?"

"What kind of proposal would that be?"

Rick spoke before Parfait could say anything. Figuring he was trying to stop her from saying something unnecessary, Parfait decided to stay quiet and listen to their conversation.

"As you know, our clan mainly posts PvP videos. We're planning on doing that again this time, but—"

"You want Parfait to appear in them?"

Rick said before Break could finish, and Break grinned again.

"You catch on quick. Thankfully, I've had the chance to meet the famous Parfait of AFO. It'd be a waste not to take advantage of that, right?"

"We don't want to make Parfait stand out too much. This is also a request from the Foundation Overseer."

It wasn't that Lunaria had said so, but a request to that effect had apparently been issued from the Foundation Overseer. In reality, it was a request from Diite through Lunaria.

"I don't know what kind of connections you have with the Overseer, but that's a story that would surprise anyone in the Foundations. Well, considering the no-contact order for us, I guess it makes sense... Though Libra, Gemini, and maybe Pisces probably know the circumstances."

"...Are you trying to probe for information?"

"Like I said before, I won't do something that uncool. It's just that if Parfait appears in our videos, our views will go up. That'll get the name of our real-world company out there. I just want to seize this chance. Of course, I'm not talking about making it an exclusive thing. Just for this event."

Parfait herself was being left out of the loop a bit, but she figured she would cause problems if she interjected here, so she left everything to Rick.

Rick glanced at Parfait before looking at Break with a serious expression.

"Break-san, why are you running a video streaming company?"

"I don't get the point of that question."

"You're a Foundation member, Break-san, and you even have succession rights to the head of the family. Even if you're a rank-and-file member, your influence is significant. Couldn't you be running a much larger company than a video streaming one?"

Break said, "Ah, I see," thought for a moment, then said, "Hold on a sec," and stood up from his chair. He opened the door, went into the next room, and came back right away.

When he returned, Break was holding a guitar, which he strummed lightly.

It was shaped like an electric guitar, but it seemed to have no real-world elements to it. It made a loud sound without an amp, and it was a pretty rockin' tune. However, it seemed to be just the chorus, and the song ended in less than a minute.

"This is my partner, 'Big Rock'. Sounds good, right?"

It wasn't the cynical smile from before, but a genuine one. Whether he loved the guitar, the sound it made, the song, or maybe all of it, he looked so happy that he seemed younger than his actual age.

"I couldn't do it in the real world, but here, I can do what I love. Unlike in the old days, when resources were scarce, people are willing to pay a lot for entertainment now. I wanted to aim for the top with this thing."

"Aim for the top... You started a company to make money from streaming your performances?"

"I didn't think that far ahead at first, but a bunch of guys with similar ideas gathered in this virtual reality. If it was just me, I could do this for the rest of my life without selling a single thing, with just my personal assets. But the other guys aren't like that. So I thought I'd start a company and make a business out of it. Of course, it's not that easy."

Break said that much, then carefully returned the guitar to the next room. When he came back, he sat down in his chair, took a sip of coffee, and caught his breath.

"I didn't have the talent, but there are guys who have talent but no money. I like guys who are fighting to change their financial situation with what they can do. If you say it's just a rich man's hobby, then so be it, but you need patrons who are willing to put money into things like that, right?"

"I see."

"My rank in the line of succession dropped because I was having too much fun with my hobby, but I don't regret it. Still, you can't run a company without money. I pay my members a certain salary whether their videos get views or not, so we've been in the red since we started, and my assets are just dwindling. At this rate, I won't be able to support them anymore, so I want to start turning a profit soon. That's why I'd like your cooperation, Parfait."

Parfait knew nothing about running a company, but she understood that being in the red was a problem.

Rick was nodding with a serious expression. He had said he wanted to start his own company someday, so Parfait figured something had struck a chord with him.

She didn't know if Break's story was true, but he didn't seem to be lying. In that case, the answer was simple, and Parfait spoke up.

"I understand. I'll be in the PvP video."

"H-hey, Parfait—"

"It's fine, it's fine. It's not so much about helping Break-san, but if it helps Kazatoki-chan and Lion-chan, then I don't mind. And this has nothing to do with the Foundations, right?"

When Parfait asked, Break nodded.

"Of course. I don't have the slightest intention of using my connection with you to raise my rank in the line of succession. I just want to get more video views and increase the company's profits. After that, it's up to me and my clan members' efforts."

"Then it's okay."

Rick's eyebrows were furrowed into a V, and he had a look on his face that said, "I guess it can't be helped."

Even if Break didn't bring his AFO connections into the real world, how others would perceive it was a different matter. And a video stream would definitely make her stand out. She thought that was probably why he looked so worried, but Parfait figured she could just consult Diite-oneechan if things got out of hand.

"That's great news. I promise to properly return the profits to our clan members. As for your proposal, if they agree, we'll give our full permission, so please negotiate with them. Well, if you give them another one of those amazing, passionate presentations like before, I don't think there'll be any problem."

"I wonder what kind of presentation Cynthia-chan and the others gave...?"

She hadn't heard the details, but she imagined they had given a presentation, or rather, a persuasion, with great enthusiasm. A thought that she both wanted and didn't want to entertain swirled in her mind.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"I-it's Kazatoki! I heard Parfait-san and her group were here..."

"Alright, hold on a sec."

Break said, then lowered his voice.

"Keep it a secret that I'm a Foundation member, okay? In this clan, only the executives who support me know. I don't want a repeat of what happened with the young lady Cynthia."

Parfait and Rick nodded silently, and Break invited Kazatoki into the room.