Chapter 500: An Idol’s Dream of a Music Video.

Chapter 500: An Idol’s Dream of a Music Video.

“Stop.”

However, just when I thought we could move forward, two people immediately raised their arms, putting an end to any hope of a quick resolution. I looked over, seeing both Uncle Guyul and Sieg displeased.

“Ignoring the economic value this invention will bring, I must inquire something—how are you expecting this to be made in Frozen Nest?” Sieg asked.

Ah, he’s asking for the budget. Naturally, I got too hyped up after only persuading one person.

“I know a talented runesmith-slash-blacksmith and two rising artificers, with one of them specialized in making system-based manatech. They’ve all worked with the recorder before and, if we give them the time and funding, they can probably reverse engineer it so we can produce more of it,” I replied, but Sieg’s look just told me to “go on,” so I did. “Once we have the blueprint, I’ll have them train our artificers and then we can start producing them.”

Uncle Guyul sighed as the dragonewts all looked at each other with awkward smiles. Confused with this reception despite how captivated they were by the video, I looked around the room, only to see Mom smiling like always.

“Princess Hestia, I believe you have heard me give you an update on our artificer situation, correct?” Sieg continued. “We lack natural arcanuit deposits, meaning we must import mana batteries, raising the price we would need to sell at to make a profit. Besides, why would any artificer wish to live here, when it is more beneficial for them to be in Ankor-Nazta? Not to mention, wouldn’t it be better for you to have these products made there, instead of here? We do not have the facilities for mass production.”

... Ah. No, this wasn’t to talk about the budget. He’s actually trying to kill the dream.

Well, it wasn’t like I hadn’t expected this. I did just hear everything and could read it in the reports, but I also felt this was such a lacking argument to say otherwise. Here was the thing—Frozen Nest’s only important industry was the fishing industry. Everybody knew this but it also was clear nobody was willing to branch out of it. It didn’t help that the closest thing to a second profitable industry was still exporting raw goods as well; there was next to no manufacturing industry in Frozen Nest.

They were all for improving on the existing fishing industry, but I guess it was different when it came to taking a risk on something different. Which was weird to me since Frozen Nest had more money than Aurora had ever earned! ... Which wasn’t saying much since I was comparing a small adventurer party to a whole country that has been alive for over 2000 years now with a thriving fishing industry.

Why am I thinking of fish all the time? Vifi would give me the eww face.

“Then you misunderstand me!” I replied. “My intention wasn’t to bring a manatech revolution. On the contrary, I’m not the best with tech anyways, so I leave those stuff to my friends who know how to bring those ideas into existence. I’m thinking about focusing on the tech’s usage.”

“What is the difference then?” Uncle Guyul asked, his brows softening a bit.

“Because it is my dream to become an idol that can bring smiles to people!” I said, baffling everybody but Pradreo ... and in a bad way at that. “Everybody knows my situation; I just learned everything during the visit with Father. I am here not only to learn how to be an imperial princess but also help out Mom, since Frozen Nest is now my home. I have to treat it and its citizens well, because I am the sort of person who wishes for people to smile.”

‘A bit cringe to say that in an official budgeting meeting, no?’ Hikari needled me with a slight giggle.

You’re me! You would do the same!

‘I’m not that bold!’

Shut it, let me speak!

Composing myself as I felt my chest tightening in pain from what I said, I continued confronting these old men stuck in their ways. “To me, music and dancing is everything. I know this might seem weird to hear from a dragon and a princess, but while the succession crisis is important to deal with, I intend on prioritizing myself and my dream right now. Mom asked me to help Frozen Nest progress, to keep up with the rest of the world, but I am also doing this purely for myself. This recording?”

I pulled up the recorder and replayed the video of me singing on stage, huffing loudly with a wide grin as I finished a song. With a beaming smile as I heard the crowd roar into a thunderous applause, I felt proud when I saw myself give them a massive bow. No haughtiness of a dragon princess to be seen, just the humble gratitude an idol had to give to her fans.

I could help myself from smiling. The muscles in my face couldn’t be controlled.

“I want this to spread to the entire world. I want people to see me everywhere, at any time, til the end of always. I want them to hear my voice when they have a bad time or when they need some peppy hype. I want them to consider what song to play for their current mood, but also just leave my playlist on auto-loop in the background while they work!”—I clapped my hands in excitement—“That’s right, I’m suggesting something only I and the people around me can do! A musical revolution through the power of videos!”

I then pointed at Uncle Kary. “That love can also become part of every industry in Frozen Nest! This is the power of videography that Earth possesses, and that I now want to bring to this world. I don’t need the factories of Ankor-Nazta to achieve something like this, I just need a focused crew to bring this ambition to life!”

Standing up, posing with my fist raised in the air, I was trying my best to sound as passionate as possible. Maybe a bit too much, but I wanted to hide the whole awkward succession crisis stuff and capture their imaginations with my reasoning.

I needed this to get greenlit. I meant it when I said this was a selfish idea I was only doing for myself. Music videos and song recordings were my next goal now. Seeing how I was stuck on Frozen Nest made me wish for a way to contact not only my friends but also my fans.

Entertainers going on hiatus was just part of showbiz, with many going out unannounced. At least in my case, my friends and allies notified my fans, but it also meant that for the next two years, I wouldn’t be able to sing to them. Such a long time without fanservice would make it easy for people to forget me, especially with their daily workload.

After seeing Neill and Yuilengreill meet, I really felt this fact drive home even further. Sure, with Tasianna around, the mother-daughter duo could continue speaking to each other, but what about when Tasianna returned to Frozen Nest? I felt bad for Yuilengreill, which made me wish we had a phone network in this world.

This idea then expanded into what I had now after I saw and heard the reports.

The world of Peolynca needed video streaming. I needed it!

“... So, instead of the manatech industry, you’re intending to expand on the cultural management and service industries?” Uncle Guyul asked as he leaned his chin on his hands, hiding his mouth in the process.

“That is the basic idea, yes, but, frankly speaking, we should do something to help our artificers. We don’t need to make it part of our main financial backbone, but we really do need to make sure they would want to stay here with their family. Doing the bare minimum won’t cut it with how the importance of manatech development is rising with every year,” I answered, thinking how obsessive Grimnir was as a Saint of Chihiro.

Uncle Guyul closed his eyes, tilting his head from one side to the other, taking his time before speaking, “This video recording would also help with education, no?”

“Yes. You can record people giving lectures; back on Earth, there was a wide collection of videos on just about every topic imaginable that you could learn from.”

“... Karydrinos, this would solve our issue with hibernating dragons.”

Huh?

“Elaborate,” Mom interjected.

“Yes, your majesty,” he stood up. “As we are quite aware, it is rare for the older dragonkin to attend certain meetings due to their need to sleep and rest their souls. In other cases, they might be watching over their children and grandchildren hunting to level up. Anything can happen, and that can disturb the senate assembly, forcing the different clans to send dragonewt representatives. As a republic, this is far from the ideal situation, since, for certain decisions, we will need the patriarchs and matriarchs to speak up.”

“You wish to record their words?” Mom asked, making the entire room realize where this was going.

“Correct. Video evidence of the person speaking would help us when we dragons must convene. It won’t help right now, but for the future, I can see a use for it. Not to mention, when one of us goes to our eternal slumber, leaving behind a piece of yourself like this sounds quite enticing,” Guyul argued, bringing up one of the things I hated hearing the most. “We can leave behind training advice for future generations, without needing them to rely on their memory or aging books. We can immortalize the beautiful sight of our country for everybody to see. The potential is massive.”

“... Of course, it would be.” Mom glanced at me with a quick smile, reminding me she was recording me when I was hunting my first mammoth. She probably wanted a recorder for her own selfish reason ...

“I agree with the proposal,” Guyul stated, followed by Uncle Kary and Pradreo. “I would like to suggest diverting the innovation funds into cultural management. How much can we afford?”

The dragonewts took a while discussing amongst themselves, crunching numbers with their abacus and [Mathematician] skills before finally coming to a number. “After calculating the wages for the necessary artificers, new hires, and also the potential needed material, this is what we can offer at a low risk to our treasury.”

Pradreo handed me the parchment.

Okay, let’s see, how many ... 50 large goldite coins!

50.000.000 Davi! That was about almost double the amount I had to spend for my [Crystal of the Divine System]. This was so much money!

“How would you rank me compared to when we fought for real?” I asked.

“Without your spell songs, you wouldn’t have beat me then, you know?” Vifi bluntly said while stretching. “You are strong for your rank, so don’t look so down, yeah? I’m far weaker than back then, so I can’t accurately give you a proper answer.”

“Have you ever heard people tell you that you’re stronger than your age?” I said, prompting her to ask me the same question, prompting both of us to sigh. I pulled out some fragassa milkshakes and donuts for us to share. “For survival.”

“Heard it right, Donut! For survival, cheers!”

With a fine afternoon of training down, it was finally time for us to reunite with the rest of Aurora. To me, it had only been three weeks, but to my friends, an entire year had passed. Therefore, when the subspace portal opened and I saw the silhouette of a wolfkin woman, a dwarven man, and a human woman who was just a bit taller than I was used to, I almost jumped inside ... but didn’t, as the twins blocked the path.

“Saori!” I screamed, jumping around like an excited bunny, trying to find a gap in the twin’s defense to slip by, but against these defensive specialists, it was impossible ... Also, trying to force myself through would only hurt them. “Grimnir! Oh, and is that you, Ellaine?!”

“H-Hestia! You did grow!” Saori was the first to rush over, prompting the twins to step back for the both of us to see each other in the eyes.

Saori, despite the long time skip, hadn’t changed all too much aside from her skin looking drier than usual. Probably the cold air in northern Carmaniate. The same could be said about Grimnir, but Ellaine? She had the same growth spurt as me, as she was still only a bit taller.

Wait, that’s a buncha muscles!

However, the most prominent change was definitely how muscular Ellaine had gotten. Unlike Saori and me, where our [Humanize] also compressed our muscles to not compromise our ideal look, her body was starting to look very similar to the many female knight’s I’ve met in my life.

Arms that looked like they could carry full crates without becoming tired, pronounced abs showering through her casual wear, and legs fit for an Olympic runner. She wasn’t massive like a bodybuilder, though, as I wager she could perfectly fit in a dress without sacrificing too much femininity.

Although, what mattered was how she looked in her armor!

“Lass, wahaha—By Crustacia’s twin tails, just look at how much you’ve grown! Makes me regret we couldn’t come with you,” Grimnir said, stroking his, now, regrown beard! That orange luster shined under the manatech lights, reminding me it was the exact length when we first met! “Ha, get a good luck at this beauty! Back to normal, eh, lass? Mightier than ever, I say!”

“Yeah, sure as heck! At least, it’s not splattered in mead and ale, and I can’t see any soot in it. Great work keeping it tidy, Grimnir!” I praised, prompting him to shyly scratch his cheek. He probably was quite embarrassed of his past.

“Josine and Svena practically forced him, hehe,” Ellaine added. “‘As our Mistress’s master, you must look presentable whenever you meet with your clients!’ they said, before even invoking your name. As Aurora’s blacksmith, and so on.”

“I need not look good when I work!” Grimnir snorted. “Work’s hard; can’t always look like what you want, especially with those calluses.”

Grimnir pointed at Ellaine’s hand, causing her to giggle a bit, not out of embarrassment, but out of pride.

Seeing all of them here really made me want to hug them all, but it seemed they understood the situation, probably from Tasianna or somebody else. Knowing their problems as well, I told them we could skip the catching-up phase and directly jump into the “what you need” stage. Without a single complaint, my friends firmly agreed.

Therefore, I gave them a quick rundown of why I wanted to see them so urgently. As I retold what happened at the assembly, Saori noticed that I didn’t fit in my new clothes, reminding her how Svena had told her about it when she visited the subspace for the first time in two months.

“Do you remember Shizar? She’s the same leader of the beastmen slaves we freed. I thought she had returned to her home, but it seems that she faced some prejudice from being ‘enslaved by goblins and kobolds’ and was seen as a disgrace to a Carmaniate soldier. She didn’t even excuse herself, taking the discharge without a complaint,” Saori said. “So, now, she’s a simple mercenary alongside her former subordinates. We’ve hired them as guides, but I’ve been hiding our subspace from them, and we also didn’t want to go away for too long. A short visit was okay, but not long enough to sleep or take a long bath.”

Wait ... Saori is using abbreviations? In casual speech, when she’s not agitated or tired? What?

Apparently, something did change for Saori during the time skip.

In any case, as Saori ordered Beth to take my measurements, I continued speaking with Grimnir about my music video idea.

“Sure, can do,” Grimnir replied to my elation. “Haruka actually did reverse engineer the thing, but we’ve slacked on making more since we’re kind of lacking in funds. Got a missive from Goddess Chihiro, most of her prototype inventions were made with her unique skill, but I can mostly emulate it with my own. Just gotta get some more dungeon core shards...”

Urgh! Thank goodness I’ve got 50 large goldite for this project. My lord ...

“Also, Daichi, the smart lad, knew you wanted this eventually, so we already finished the first prototype on how to sell your music!” Grimnir said before rushing into his forge, bringing back what looked like an ID card. “This here is the answer!”

“And ID card?”

“Exactly! However, instead of storing your Profile information, it stores the visual replication from the recorder. In other words, we’ve made a memory stick only for recordings!” Grimnir burst in laughter. “Just like a normal ID card, stick it on a party bracelet’s chain and you can play the video, with visuals and sound. Attach it to a crystal like the recorder’s memory, and you can stream things!”

I was honestly speechless, but also moved. My entire party had already started making my music video dream come true while I was asleep, probably since I did mention it when we first found the recorder. Still, to pull this off even if they had no incentive to do so? Sheesh, it made me wonder how I even deserved all of them in the first place.

Especially the students! Haruka and Daichi ... they weren’t our strongest members, but since they came from Earth just like me, they knew exactly what I would want. The students weren’t always powerhouses, but they brought their own value to our party that we couldn’t live without. Haruka with her ability to understand System-based manatech easily and Daichi’s cradle of ideas.

Seeing how this discussion wasn’t needed, I went to my idea—streaming these videos worldwide. Fortunately for my pride, Grimnir had no idea how that was supposed to work, so Daichi probably hadn’t told him anything about the internet, yet.

“I actually have a starting point. Maverina, you know, the guild master of Artorias’s mage’s guild—she once asked me to help her develop a method to send messages instantly to a faraway recipient. Even faster than manatech birds!” I said, intriguing Grimnir. “Thing is, I don’t know how far they’ve gotten with the development, but if they aren’t done with it yet, we could—”

“Monopolize the development method once we copy the foundations! Got it, lass!” Grimnir laughed, before patting Ellaine on the back. She understood she had to be the one to make contact for us.

With my part done, I was ready to help them. Their request though, was surprisingly convenient to fulfill!

“I need materials to make some ice resistant armor for our trip to find those flowers needed for the rhytilic alloy. Saori needs it to venture deep into a temple people built for Belzac. Ellaine needs it to retrieve the damn demon!”

Demon?

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t heard Klea’Hatma at all. When I asked Ellaine about it, she told me they actually were ambushed on their way through the snowfield of Carmaniate. The fur armor and runes Grimnir prepared for them weren’t enough to fend off a sudden blizzard, so strong that even the locals were surprised by its intensity.

In the skirmish, Ellaine lost the rings Klea’s mana lived in, sadly. Surprised by this, I wondered if Ellaine was okay with this, seeing as without those rings, she couldn’t access Klea’s power. However, instead of looking embarrassed by it, she shook her head and showed me a small smile, before showcasing she could still use stuff like [Musclemass] and [Blade.]

Fleshy growth happened on her arms despite the fact she needed demonic mana to create them. When I asked her about it, Ellaine told me it was a long story, one she was a bit too tired to tell. She told me she could tell me the story another time, once she has Klea back so she could explain the important parts.

In any case, my friends needed to acquire strong ice gear, but Grimnir was having some trouble making the armor, as he wanted to include some of my leftover dragon scales on it for protection. Supposedly, normal “ice” armor would melt in combination with my scales, while fur from ice-aligned monsters wasn’t enough of a defense. Even with his runes. Enchantments were too expensive, apparently.

Which was why this request was so convenient. On Frozen Nest, we had the more common evernight ice stones and the rare true ice created by the ice dragons here. I could ask Mom for some true ice, but I did remember I had to repay her with a favor of some kind. Therefore, for now, I decided to get some evernight ice stone, and to get some free ones, I had to visit a nearby mine.

However, for some reason, Vifi stopped me.

“Uhh, better send the twins to get it, or buy them, Donut,” she said, surprising me. “The only way you can get the stuff is by going deep under, so deep, you’ll have to face your first real Frozen Nest blizzard. You aren’t surviving it with just [Ice Resistance Lv. 1].”

It was a bloody challenge, then.