CH 67

“It’s way past the scheduled start time!”

“Where are Shiorin and the girls?!”

“Let me see my Mihorin!”

The crowd raised voices of discontent.

The end time of the concert is fixed.

In other words, the audience’s time to enjoy the show has already begun ticking down.

It was natural for the fans to be angry.

But still, why―

(No way…!)

I took a close look around.

Since I was behind the lights, I could see the entire venue.

Everybody had displeased looks on their faces, but there was one woman amongst them who had a wicked smile on her face.

(Hanami…! She must’ve done something!)

I launched Zely, the location-sharing app that I’d added Shiorin and the others on.

I should be able to use this to find out.

Where are the girls right now…?

Mihorin, the calmest and most collected of the three, made sure to adjust her settings so that her location wouldn’t be visible to me.

I guess she doesn’t want a pervert like me to know where she is.

However, Shiorin and Akarin hadn’t changed their settings yet, so I knew where they were.

The round dots representing the two of them―were moving towards this venue from a far away place.

(This is… Could it be…?!)

I ran out of the audience area and went backstage.

I had played at this venue when I made my debut, so I knew my way around.

From the end of the hallway next to the waiting room, I could hear the angry shouts of people.

“When will Synchronicity be arriving?!”

“I’m sorry, I’m new here…! I wasn’t told anything.”

“There isn’t even a single one of their members here! What on earth is going on?!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

There, I saw newbie staff members from the entertainment agency “Chaldea” being berated by the sound and lighting staff.

There, I immediately understood.

Synchronicity had been sabotaged.

Hanami rounded up and deceived the experienced, higher level staff at Chaldea.

She overrode Synchronicity’s previous arrangements.

Only the newcomers who weren’t familiar with the work were allocated to this location and allowed to open the doors.

Then, she had Shiorin and the others sent to another venue far away.

All to make it seem as if it were an “error on the staff’s part.”

(She’d go this far…? What a selfish person you are, Hanami!)

This couldn’t have been a mere accident.

In the first place, even if they returned to the venue now, they would only have enough time to perform one song.

And even if the girls weren’t responsible for the incident, the fans and the audience would vent their anger and displeasure towards Shiorin and her friends, one way or another.

Shiorin and her group aren’t like my group.

They perform their activities openly, with their faces known publicly.

Not only will they face slander and defamation, they might even face harassment in their personal lives out of spite.

Of course, something like this would be a serious blow to Chaldea Music.

If things continue as they are, the audience’s tickets will have to be refunded and they will be at a huge deficit.

But Hanami probably chose to lower the reputation of Synchronicity despite that.

She is the kind of person who would keep them from practicing out of envy, so she’s definitely capable of this kind of reckless behavior.

But, what pains me more than any of that―

―is the fact that I can’t even imagine how Shiorin and the others, who care about their fans more than anything, must be feeling right now.

―It should be fine, right?

If she’s going to be using her cheats, then I should be fine to use my “cheats” too.

I took out Shion’s phone from my pocket.