THE DEMONS STARTED STREAMING
Beelzebub came over to the house in the highlands that day.
Well, she came just about every day these days, so that wasn’t particularly noteworthy.
When she arrived, though, she was a little restless, as if she had come to deliver some bad news.
“I suppose I have some information I ought to bring to your attention. That is why I have come to tell you myself.”
“I feel like you didn’t need to tell us that you’re here to tell us yourself, but I guess you’re a minister.”
This minister, however, was being a bit too casual about her work.
“And what is it you want us to know? I think there’s about a forty percent chance that Pecora’s involved.”
Beelzebub nodded. “Yes, Her Majesty is indeed involved…”
What is she planning now?
I only knew that Pecora was the cause, but whatever it was, it would affect us. I had to calm my nerves.
“Well, why don’t you pour us some tea first? I shall explain as we drink.”
“…You’re kinda arrogant, you know that?”
Oh, might as well. I could make a good pot using the herbs I got on that desert (-ish) island.
I prepared the tea, and we decided to chat in the dining room.
“Ahhh, ’tis always so bitter and sharp. One must drink slowly, but I suppose something like this every once in a while may not be so bad.”
“I made this tea for you, so please just compliment me like a normal person… So what’s Pecora up to now? A national idol tour?”
Pecora did idol work every so often.
It was clearly supposed to be a joke at first, but then she ended up with enough fans that Pecora herself started taking it seriously. I guess you never know when a joke might turn into something bigger.
She was the demon king, so she could do whatever she wanted so long as she stayed in the demon world. If her antics spread to the human world, though, things might get a little complicated.
“Close. You almost got it. But not quite.”
Close, but no cigar… I had a bad feeling about this.
“She used the magic technology from those ghosts in the Thursa Thursa Kingdom again.”
“Geez, so Pecora herself is the one using it for evil deeds, huh…?”
I wasn’t sure what exactly she was up to, but she was going to use it on us somehow… Bet she was letting the other demons try it first so she could see how they fared with it.
Pondeli, for example, built her arcade using the ancient magic.
I’m glad the world was peaceful enough that they didn’t immediately use it to make weapons, but this place was unbelievably chill…
“Her Majesty discovered something most fascinating within the ancient magic… We predict she will use that to prank—er, to play with you.”
No, you definitely said prank.
“This is confidential, by the way, so I cannot say exactly what it is, but something will happen to make it seem like Her Majesty is here but at the same time not. Please do not start panicking.”
“Well, that’s awfully vague…”
I was sure I’d figure out what she meant eventually, but I really wanted the specifics now.
“It is harmless magic, so rest easy. Please know Her Majesty has acted arbitrarily and without consultation. We claim no responsibility for this, so please do not file any complaints to us, instead directing them to Her Majesty herself. That is all.”
I guess Beelzebub was here to cover her own butt…
She’d made an outright declaration that she bore no responsibility even though she hadn’t even really told me what Pecora was up to.
“And where are the girls?”
So that’s what she’s after.
“Probably running around in the nearby field. Falfa ran off with Sandra on her back.”
“Right. Then I suppose I shall go search for them.” Beelzebub stood up, letting me know the conversation was finished, then left the house. She sure was busy.
And there was still two-thirds of the herb tea left in her cup…
“Did she really not like it…?”
Couldn’t she at least pretend to accept my hospitality?
When Beelzebub found the girls, she apparently ran around the hills and fields with them. Falfa told me about it later.
“Miss Beelzebub played a lot with us~! ”
“I see, I see! That’s great~!”
Beelzebub wouldn’t be a bad influence on my daughters, so I had no complaints.
“And she talked about a new test that uses ancient magic.”
Oh, Shalsha’s testimony could be very valuable.
“What? But she didn’t tell you the details, did she?”
“She said they were planning on using phantasms. Ancient magic sometimes uses phantasms for communication. Replicating that ability became possible using the artifacts remaining in the Thursa Thursa Kingdom.”
She told them so much!
“Beelzebub said she couldn’t tell us any more, but when Falfa begged her, she gave in instantly,” Sandra explained. Beelzebub was way too soft on the girls.
But what did she mean by “using phantasms for communication”?
We wouldn’t know until Pecora played her trick.
“I think she said they’re gonna do something called streeming~! ”
“Streeming”?
Does she mean streaming?
Hold on, that was impossible in a fantasy world…but after everything I’d seen here…
They’d even managed to make claw machines… I wouldn’t be surprised no matter what happened now.
Anyway…we just had to wait until Pecora made her move…
After Beelzebub’s warning, we heard nothing of Pecora’s trick for a good, long, peaceful while.
“Hey, Laika, do you have more meat than me?”
“Of course not. I cut them by measuring their weight properly.”
The greatest disturbance to the peace was Laika and Flatorte arguing over their meat portions for dinner.
“Azusa, here’s a souvenir from a trip I went on with some other spirits~ It’s a mask that gives you a funny face when you put it on.”
“Momma Yufufu, you’re really bad at picking out souvenirs…”
The only other thing worth mentioning was that Momma Yufufu dropped by to give me a souvenir.
Not so long ago, I had battled a god, so maybe this leisure was the world’s way of balancing out that extraordinary experience.
Finally, though, the shoe dropped in the midst of those extraordinarily ordinary days.
After warming myself up in the bath, I went into my room.
“Phew, that was nice~”
The only thing left to do today was sleep. Maybe I’d read a little before that.
—That was when a long, horizontal, video-like image appeared on the wall opposite my bed.
“What is this? It’s like watching a movie on a home projector…”
The video was showing someone’s room. There were stuffed animals everywhere, so it was probably safe to say it was a girl’s room. Was this a spell that showed illusions?
Something entered the shot—a face, very close-up.
“Right, is it working? Yes, it looks okay.”
I could hear a voice.
The face pulled back, until I could see exactly who it was.
“This is Pecora!”
“Hello everyone, greetings! I am the demon king, Provato Pecora Ariés! I’ve decided to start streaming from now on~! I hope you’ll stick around with me!”
Pecora stood in the middle of the screen, waving.
“She literally meant streaming!”
What was she, a YouTuber…?
“Now, some of you might find this a little startling~ I am using a certain kind of spell to show this phantasm to everyone~ Isn’t this incredible~? But I can’t share my trade secrets~!”
They were using ancient magic for the weirdest things again…
“See, I’m the demon king, right? It’s a very important job, but it’s hard to go out and see everyone when you’re important. That’s also why I believe I should be communicating with you all as much as possible. This is a government for the people, no?”
She said all that kind of stuff.
“Although, a government for the people can turn into a mobocracy.”
“Can she say that? I feel like she’s putting her foot in her mouth there.”
It wasn’t like the demons could kick her out of office anyway…
“And so starting today, I’m hoping to bring the real voice of the demon king, Pecora, straight to you! If you like my content, then please share and subscribe!”
Channel subscriptions…she really was like a YouTuber…
But then I realized something. I hadn’t clicked anything to play the video.
I didn’t even have a PC or phone, after all. There was nothing to click.
Basically, the phantasm was being forcibly broadcast in my room.
“How am I supposed to stop or turn this off…?”
Less importantly (but still annoying), it was so loud! My head was rattling!
“Turn it down! I can’t change the volume or mute you from my end, and it’s hurting my ears!”
Since the video was being broadcast by magic on her end, I had no way to turn it off.
“Oh, the volume might be a little loud~…”
Streamer seemed to be aware of it.
“This won’t take very long, so please just deal with it for now~”
“You want us to just endure this?!”
Turn it down! Think about the viewers! You won’t get any more subscribers!
“Now, then~ I’m hoping to try something out today that streamers of the ancient past once did. First—”
Streamer stepped back from the screen. The picture moved a bit, and a bowl appeared before my eyes.
“—I would like to try this super-spicy dish~!”
Her Majesty was putting her life on the line… Respect, man…
“This dish is especially hot, even among all the spicy foods of demon cuisine. When you eat this at the restaurant, they have you sign a waiver in case you die.”
“Is it okay for a restaurant to offer a dish like that…?”
“Oh no, the dolls behind the dish are starting to decay! I wonder if that’s an effect of the food?”
“I think the degree of spiciness is the least of your worries!”
“All right, here we go! Ugh, never mind the spice… This is nasty… It makes me want to vomit… A weaker demon might faint from this…”
If it’s so gross, then just let it die…
“If I were to liken these flavors to anything, then it’s like ditch water and muddy water were blended together, with gravel mixed in…”
“None of those things are food, so that actually doesn’t tell me how it tastes…”
“Ugh, this is awful… Truly awful… How does one create a flavor like this…? It’s so bad that I don’t even mind the spice. The spice is an improvement.”
“You’re already veering away the original concept! You’re not supposed to be eating bad food!”
“Okay. This is awful, so I’m going to stop eating now. Everyone, please be careful out there~ Good kids, don’t try this at home!”
I don’t think the bad kids would, either.
“All right, I believe that brings us to the end of our first stream! Those who want to subscribe to this channel, please apply at your nearest public office!”
Don’t bring bureaucracy into this!
“This livestream uses all our demons’ tax money~! ”
Do you want more subscribers for your channel, or do you want it to go up in flames? Make up your mind!
Pecora and this ancient civilization should never have made contact…
Pecora starting to stream in itself wasn’t a bad thing.
The biggest thing on my mind right now was—
“How am I supposed to unsubscribe to this channel?”
I definitely hadn’t signed up for anything.
“Additionally, for those watching this first projection, there is no way to unsubscribe, so we appreciate your understanding. ”
“No! I’m not understanding about this at all!”
I couldn’t believe there was a stream that forcibly showed itself to people!
“Well then, farewell~! Pecking at your heart and pecking at your eyes, this was Provato Pecora Ariés~!”
What are you, a vulture tearing apart your viewers?
The video cut off.
Well, this was a new headache…
All we’d gotten was a warning from Beelzebub ahead of time…
The next morning, I asked the rest of the family, and they all reported seeing Pecora’s stream.
“I was prepared for a fight when the phantasm suddenly appeared, but I sensed no malice. So I relaxed and watched.”
“That’s very like you, Laika.”
Dragons lived in a world of battle.
“I, Flatorte, was prepared to use my Cold Breath to freeze whoever was using the phantasm the second it appeared, but when I saw it was a familiar face, I kept myself in check.”
“The house could have been destroyed…”
Dragons also had very short tempers.
Guess the stream happened in every room of the house in the highlands. What a nuisance this was…
Three days later, another stream started in the evening.
“Good evening~! Pecking at your heart and pecking at your eyes, this is Provato Pecora Ariés~! This is our second stream!”
That’s really the motto we’re going with, huh?
“Today, I want to give a shot at a classic kind of stream from ancient times! We will be painting today!”
People in that ancient civilization did the weirdest things…
“All right, here is a piece of paper. I also have paints and a brush. Let’s get painting!”
After that, the video of Pecora painting went on and on for ages. She was better than I thought. Maybe painting was one of the things a demon king learned how to do.
That aside—this was long.
Paintings took time, so the stream just kept going and going.
“Watching the stream of a pro artist is always worth it, but it’s kind of boring if it’s just an amateur…”
I tried turning off the lamp in my room, but the image still shone too brightly to ignore, like a TV in a dark room…
“I think we should try putting some green here~ That isn’t bad, not bad at all~”
Pecora kept talking, too, so I couldn’t get to sleep!
What an annoying stream!
“I know the volume might be a little loud, but please bear with it~”
Oh yeah, the volume was way up, just like last time! Couldn’t she adjust that at least?
“I can barely get a good, restful sleep… Maybe I should go to the dining room and get something to drink…”
I had no idea when the stream was going to end, so I went to the dining room.
—And the same video was playing there!
“It’s being broadcast everywhere in the house?!”
As I stood there bewildered, Falfa and Shalsha came up to me.
“Oh, it’s playing here, too.”
“The sound is making it so I can’t sleep…”
Dammit, now this was harming my daughters. I wished this would just stop already…
“I think I’ve done a pretty good job, if I do say so myself~ What do you think~? ”
On the stream, Pecora wore a proud, infuriating look.
“Who cares?! Let us sleep!”
“Oh, we’ve passed ten thousand viewers. Thank you so much!”
Were there seriously ten thousand people watching this?
“I see that broadcasting in more places has worked wonders! I will hope you keep watching~!”
“You unilaterally increased them?!”
This was getting ridiculous, more than I’d imagined… In my past life, there were a lot of YouTubers, but I doubted any of them actually forced people to subscribe. They’d have to hack your computer to do that…
“Now, in celebration of getting ten thousand viewers, I will do something that was apparently very popular to do on streams in the distant past~!”
A song cover or something?
“Yes. I will be doing a live sleep stream~”
Pecora went straight over to the bed in the background of the shot.
“Good night, everyone~! The stream will continue until morning~ ”
Just like that, she zonked out. The video was just Pecora sleeping.
“What did the people in the ancient civilization find so interesting about this…?”
This was like recording your pet goldfish… Oh, but people did used to have constant livestreams of nothing but their fish tanks, so maybe there was more demand than I thought.
“It’s quiet now, Mommy~”
“I could use this function to observe the ecology of grasshoppers. Shalsha wants to start using this technology, too.”
Shalsha apparently had the same idea I did. I had a feeling that was the most beneficial way to use this magic.
“Streamer’s asleep now, so why don’t we sleep now, too?”
We went back to our rooms and fell asleep.
When I woke up in the morning, the stream was gone. I wonder how many people watched until the end.
At this rate, I felt like video streaming would quickly be under pressure to be canceled. Actually, I wished the demons would hurry up and do it already.
It seemed viewer feedback had already been taken into account, though, as the videos evolved dramatically after that.
“Everyone~! Right now you can see a button on the upper-right hand corner of the phantasm that looks like a square within a square, yes? Press that, and it will minimize this screen! I believe there are times where I’m just too painfully cute to watch. Press it when that happens, okay?”
I didn’t think she was ever too painfully cute to watch, but I was glad I wasn’t being force-fed these videos anymore. I gave the button a press, and it shrunk down to the size of a jam jar.
Hey, I’d barely notice it at this size. I could still hear her, though!
“Press it again, and I’ll come back to the big screen~ Give it a go!”
I tended to follow the instructions in tutorials like this. The screen got bigger again.
“Next, I believe that there are times my adorable voice just pains you to hear~ When that happens, press the button that looks like a bell on the lower right. When you do, you won’t be able to hear me anymore. Press it again, and it’s back to normal~”
So they implemented ways to minimize the window and mute the sound!
“Ooh! Now I can live my life without being bothered by annoying broadcasts!”
The streaming videos and all its problems were greatly improved.
“And now, if you touch the small screen to the right of the phantasm, you’ll be able to see previous streams~ Please use this if there is ever a stream you want to watch over and over again or one you missed and want to see every moment of~”
These crappy streams were starting to get a whole lot more respectable… The content itself still had issues, but the system was decent now.
The advancements of an online society are truly grand, aren’t they?
…Oh, this wasn’t an online society. If anything, it was a magical society.
Pecora’s streams were apparently spreading to the most surprising of places.
When I went to the Flatta guild to exchange the magic stones I got from slimes, Natalie told me about them.
“Great Witch of the Highlands, did you know? The magic streams are the talk of the town!”
“The magic streams… Those are the phantasms projected by the demon king, right…?”
“Oh, I’m not surprised you know about them already~ It’s like a fire has been lit in the adventurer community! So many of them are watching the magic streams now!”
Who’da thunk the demon king’s streams would end up being popular among adventurers?!
“By the way, how is everyone watching it…?”
I knew what they were watching only too well, but I still wasn’t exactly clear on how these adventurers were enjoying the videos.
“At first, a sage heard about these strange phantasms and used all sorts of items to try and create an environment in which he could see them. He then discovered a way to watch. I think they call the process reception.”
This sage put way too much effort into the weirdest thing.
“By binding items with a bit of magic, the sage built an environment where it was relatively easy to watch the phantasms. He then told other parties and other sages how to do it. He is a wonderful sage indeed to share his knowledge~”
Seriously…? It was like missionary work…
“At first, other adventurers were like ‘What is this?’ and ‘I don’t get it,’ but it’s strangely addictive. More and more people got interested, and the subscriber numbers are skyrocketing.”
This world was already messed up as a fantasy setting, but thanks to that ancient civilization, things were getting even weirder…
“Lately, people generally call them the ‘magic streams.’ It’s the first thing adventurers talk about when they get together in a tavern.”
Adventurers should stick to adventuring.
“Also, when a group of adventurers gathers in places like a tavern to watch the magic streams, other parties end up watching, too, right? That is how they became so popular among adventurers.”
“I see… I get it now.”
Taverns were where adventurers exchanged information.
If a group of people were sitting around and enjoying a weird phantasm, people would wonder what it was.
In case you were curious, I hadn’t really been watching any of Pecora’s magic streams of late. (Now that the broadcasts had a name, I was going to call them that.) It wasn’t like I wasn’t watching them at all. I just preferred to binge when I was free.
“Lately, they’ve been having some intense debates about which streamer they like best.”
“What? There are more than one?”
Only Pecora’s streams got broadcast to our house.
“Yes. The demon king was the only one at first, but the popular ones recently include someone named Pondeli and her Let’s Plays, and someone named Vania, who has been making short and simple cooking streams. There are some niche ones, too, like this Fatla lady, who talks at length about the excellent qualities of moss.”
Everyone was all over the place!
“It would not be an exaggeration to say they’re in a state of near war. The streamers have gotten popular so quickly. I believe this is because the demon king has taken things slowly, but consistently. Thanks to her, this idea has grown into something magnificent.”
“Yeah, I get what you’re saying—but something about this doesn’t sit right with me…”
The very first person to start anything always has the toughest job.
I thought Pecora was great for paving the way in the field of magic streams, truly. But was it right for this to be so popular here…?
“Um, which demon streamer do you like best, Natalie?”
“Hmm, well… The one I follow the most is the minstrel, Kuku.”
Kuku was in on it, too! I guess it was a great medium for her to share her music widely.
“Would you like to watch a little before you go, great Witch? There are no guests at the guild right now, and the people who do come are all regulars anyway. I don’t believe there should be any problem.”
How was Natalie watching the videos anyway?
I was more interested in that question than anything. I didn’t think Natalie had any training in magic.
“Uhhh. Sure, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course! Let me get the equipment.”
She brought in a massive wooden box, which was big enough to comfortably fit an adult inside. It would get in the way if we put it in our house.
“This is a machine for watching the magic streams,” Natalie said, then opened the lid on the box.
There were all sorts of items inside with which I wasn’t familiar. There were stones that gleamed eerily and talismans—it was like a storage chest for an item shop.
“There’s a black stone in here, see? Here, we put a few drops of the liquid that sages use to see if there is any magic on an item or not—”
Natalie then produced a bottle that looked like the ones used for medicine. Judging by her explanation, the item’s original use was a bit dubious.
“—and the black stone lights up to show that it does indeed have magical power in it.”
Just as she said, the stone started glowing faintly.
At the same time, the other items inside also started to emit light.
“The other materials react as well, and now we can watch the magic streams.”
A horizontal, rectangular screen was projected onto the guild wall, with WELCOME in the center!
“Whoa! This is what it looks like now?!”
“Even those who cannot use magic at all can watch the magic streams at any time like this.”
“How much do these cost, by the way?”
Natalie’s expression clouded slightly. “Um, well…it was quite expensive… A—a million and two hundred thousand gold… I am still paying it off…”
She really went for it!
I mean, she was welcome to it if she wanted… It was rude to mind what other people did with their money…
I went back to observing how this computerlike contraption worked.
After the WELCOME message vanished, it changed to a password-input screen.
“Here, I input my subscriber password.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t look at this screen… But how do you input it?”
There was nothing here that looked like a keyboard.
“You write it with your finger directly on the black stone. One, two, three, four. All right, that’s done!”
“Natalie, you should make it a little harder to guess!”
Kinda defeats the purpose of a password!
On the next screen was a whole list of different streamers.
“I don’t have any magic, so I cannot touch the phantasm to move it around. That’s why I use this control panel—”
What Natalie pulled out this time was a thin board with one button in the shape of a plus and two small round buttons on it.
“—from the inside of the mechanism.”
I saw this in my past life… It looked like…it belonged to an Entertainment System… The one developed by that game company in Kyoto whose name rhymes with bin-zen-toe… It looked like their controller…
“I can choose an entry by using the directional buttons on the controller. Then I use the left and right buttons to confirm.”
Then the screen changed again.
Minstrel Kuku’s Magic Streams
NEW SONG |
I Lost My Key, I Can’t Get Home | Vocal & Instrumental Performance
NEWEST VIDEO Uploaded 2 Days Ago 70K Views
I’m going on tour!
Please check the screen below for a detailed schedule.
“This will take me to Minstrel Kuku’s page. Then I select the phantasm I want to watch. Well, why don’t we check out her newest one?”
Kuku and her lute appeared on the screen.
“Hello, I am the almiraj minstrel, Kuku. The other day, I went out shopping and dropped my key. It was terrible.”
Kuku would start things off dark.
“I went to a locksmith and asked for a new key, but I had no way to confirm I was the person who lived there, so they did not believe me. Apparently, they need identification because thieves sometimes ask for keys to be made.”
Man, it was a real pain in the butt losing a key… It’s best to get a spare before anything happens.
“I had to get my neighbors to vouch for me before I finally got my key. In the meanwhile, I started wondering if I even was the real Kuku anymore. I had no way to prove to myself that I was Kuku, you see.”
That was really heavy. I started feeling pensive just listening to her…
“I turned those feelings into a song. Please listen. This is I Lost My Key, I Can’t Get Home.”
She strummed her lute and started singing.
“I Lost My Key, I Can’t Get Home”
Words and Music: Kuku
Shallow girl like me has shallow pockets
Dropping and losing things left and right
But I still put it all in my pockets anyway
Maybe I just want to hold on tight
I went to the store to get my favorite apples
And when I got home, I stuck my hand inside
But I stopped, I stopped in my tracks
I lost my key, I can’t get home
I lost my key, I can’t get home
Where should I go home to?
I lost my key, I can’t get home
I lost my key, I can’t get home
The apples in my bag are so heavy now
I wasn’t surprised it sounded like a depressing folk song…
At least it wasn’t a love song with that title.
The performance was finally over.
“That was my new song, I Lost My Key, I Can’t Get Home. There are three verses in total, but the whole thing might upset some of my listeners, so I stopped here. In the second verse, I sing about the skepticism of the locksmith who wondered if this Kuku girl is really the almiraj.”
That brief explanation was dark enough!
“Everyone, please be careful not to lose your keys. Oh, that’s right! I’ll be going on tour.”
On the bottom of the screen, words appeared that read SANCTUARY FOLKORE EAST: 10/3 | MILFIE OPERA HOUSE 10/6. Those Sanctuary whatever things were probably venue names.
Wow, they even had captions (or something like them) now.
“I do want you all to see me live. Well, it’s more that I believe minstrel music is best experienced live, so those who’ve heard about me through these magic streams should please come if you can. Thank you so much. This is the minstrel Kuku, signing off! See you next time~!”
Kuku waved her hand, and the phantasm ended.
“—And that’s how I can watch the magic stream phantasms. It is a truly revolutionary system,” Natalie announced proudly.
I mean, she paid a million and two hundred thousand gold for this, so she could act as proud as she wanted.
“I can’t argue with that… Man, even the humans are starting a technological revolution. It’s amazing…”
The strong desire to watch the magic streams gave birth to a machine made up of a combination of artifacts. Human desire was a powerful motivator.
If more people knew about Kuku through this and went to her shows, then these streams were the right choice to use as an advertising medium. I had a feeling that the magic streams and Kuku’s music career went hand in hand very well.
“It seems like this Kuku minstrel only ever tours in the demon lands, so I can’t go see her, though.”
Then what’s the point in watching this from here…?
“The person who started the streams called herself the demon king. It seems this is a cultural phenomenon in the demon lands. Although, I feel like I’ve seen her in Flatta every once in a while.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right…”
Natalie wasn’t aware that Pecora was the real demon king, it seemed.
It was hard to believe someone with such a casual personality could be a ruler. It was all an act.
“It doesn’t seem as though anyone from the human world has the magical or technological prowess to stream their own phantasms. No one has been able to make it work. The most we can do right now is watch.”
Humans had managed to create an environment where they could watch, but they still weren’t able to broadcast anything yet.
The Thursa Thursa Kingdom’s technological capabilities were nothing to sneeze at, after all. I bet the demons wouldn’t have been able to pull this off with their magic alone.
“There is another magic streamer who has been rapidly garnering lots of attention. Since you’re already here, great Witch, please take a look!”
I had a feeling this was going to turn into a list of recommendations…
Given I wasn’t pressed for time or anything, I couldn’t complain. I’d listen for as long as she wanted.
“Of course, of course. Who’s next?”
“People in the magic-streams community call her Momma.”
Momma?
A certain spirit came to mind…
“She’s someone called the droplet spirit, Yufufu. She calls herself a spirit, so I guess she’s not a demon? Well, that’s what she claims, but I’m not entirely sure how true that is.”
It really was Yufufu!
Natalie used the controller to select Yufufu’s channel.
There she is…
The Droplet Spirit Yufufu’s Magic Streams
Just Chatting
NEWEST VIDEO Uploaded 4 Days Ago 110K Views
I’m the droplet spirit.
Nice to meet you~
I love dank places!
But be careful of food poisoning.
Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh.
This was the real thing…
“This streamer has rapidly gained a core fanbase recently, though she only started streaming very recently.”
That meant the streaming technology had reached the spirits.
“All right, let’s watch this one.” Natalie selected one of Momma Yufufu’s phantasms.
The image showed the inside of Momma Yufufu’s house. I’d been there many times, so I could tell.
So she was streaming from inside her home. No studio—again reminding me of a YouTuber.
Momma Yufufu entered from the side.
“Hello there, everyone~ This is the droplet spirit, Yufufu~ You can call me Momma if you want~ How have you all been~?”
Even in the phantasmic images, she was so motherly. There was a magnanimity to her that she couldn’t keep hidden!
There was also something a little different from Kuku’s phantasm, which we’d just watched.
On Momma’s right side, there was something that looked like a chat box.
On closer inspection, I saw things written there like “Hello,” “It’s been a while!” “I missed you, Momma!” “I wish I could’ve been born as your child.”
That last commenter was a bit messed up, so she needed to be careful.
“Oh my~ Thank you for your comments~ Momma’s going to do her best today, too~”
Momma Yufufu waved her hand.
“The writing on the right is apparently what people were inputting as they were watching in real time. The demons seem to be equipped with a function that allows the viewers to leave comments.”
“The demons are making great strides in their technological revolution, too…”
They were already pretty close to just inventing computers, weren’t they?
“Today, we’ll be having a chatting stream~ It’s like our usual ones, though. Today, I’d like to talk a little about my daughter~ Oh, thank you to everyone who said I don’t look old enough to have children. But I am a spirit, so I’ve lived for a very long time~”
Her daughter? Uh-oh…
“I call her my daughter, but we aren’t related by blood. I have a three-hundred-year-old daughter now. She’s making a living as a witch~”
She was definitely talking about me!
The chat was reacting: “Your daughter’s three hundred years old, too?” “Three hundred years old and not related by blood… Your family’s a little too complicated for me.”
“See, she’s just adorable~ She thinks of herself as a very mature and levelheaded adult, but she doesn’t have things together as well as she thinks~ She is constantly getting herself into trouble~”
That’s embarrassing! Especially when you’re broadcasting this all over the world (?)!
“She often tries to be the dependable head of her household and tries very hard to be everyone’s rock~”
Comments like “Momma/Daughter? Gulp…” “I feel like I’m awakening to something new…” flew up the chat box. Hey! Stop writing weird stuff!
Oh my god! Stop, stop! Shut up! This is getting embarrassing and just weird!
And whoever wrote Momma/Daughter must be sick with something! Go to the doctor, geez!
“Oh my, I see there are many of you in the comments asking what makes my daughter so cute~”
I kind of wanted to listen to this, and I kind of really, really didn’t…
“Let’s see~ The top thing I’d say is, well, so she comes into the house. Witches wear pointy hats, don’t they? I don’t know if she forgets to take it off, or if it’s just part of her style, but she typically keeps it on the whole time while she’s inside.”
Does that even matter?!
I had no idea the magic streams would ruin me like this…
And this is going to create more issues, isn’t it…? This is the butterfly effect, isn’t it?
“Also, I suppose she has a bit of a complex over the size of her chest. She looks at mine and makes a little scowly face~ I believe the size of one’s chest is simply a part of what makes an individual, so I think she lets it bother her too much.”
“Momma Yufufu! Stop! Don’t broadcast that! This is defamation!”
Even though I knew there was no point in it, I pressed my face against the (wall with the) phantasm.
“Oh, I thought her daughter sounded a little bit like you, but I see I was right after all.”
Oh no. Now Natalie was going to find out everything…
“A lot happens when you’re alive for three hundred years. I found myself daughters, so of course I could find a mom. Everything has to come from something else; it’s normal for me to have a mom. That is how balance in the world is kept,” I argued. Yeah, it was a reach, I know.
“I see… It is convincing when you say it, great Witch…”
“Yep. That’s how things are. Nothing weird about it.”
Somehow, I managed to get Natalie to come around to my point of view.
Meanwhile, Momma Yufufu’s stream kept going.
“Also, my daughter does have a few of her own little children~ She is doing her best to act like a good mother. It’s adorable; she tries so very hard to do her best~ I want to genuinely cheer her on~”
Oh, she was complimenting me. I’ll take it.
“‘Is my daughter or are my grandchildren cuter?’ Oh my, you can’t rank them like that. They’re all so cute~ Can you compare droplets in a cave and droplets from a waterfall? They’re both nice~ Oh, I suppose that comparison is a little hard to understand~”
Yes, it was. I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who gets that, Momma.
Then, Momma Yufufu looked straight at the camera. (There weren’t any cameras in this world, though.)
“Are you watching, Azusa~? I talked about how much I love you today~ Come over again soon~ I’ll fry up some pancakes dripping with honey~ See you soon~!”
“Sure, I’ll go. I’ll go.”
I waved to the phantasm. What, was this a video letter?
“I love you~! Come in waves as much as you like~!”
“Thanks—not quite sure what that means, though.”
I couldn’t say I loved her face-to-face, but surprises like this weren’t terrible every once in a while.
These magic streams that used phantasms—at first, it just seemed like Pecora was being her usual capricious self, but now Kuku was using it to announce her music and whatnot. A new form of communication had been born.
That had to be a very good thing. These magic streams were bringing happiness to people all over the world, I’m sure.
New problems naturally arose once a communication tool that hadn’t existed before was invented, and I still hadn’t forgiven Pecora for her nonconsensual streams.
At least she’d added those screen minimization and mute functions.
Momma Yufufu’s phantasm ended there.
“—Anyway, that was a stream. It is currently popular among adventurers now, but it may even spread to normal people one day!”
Natalie was more worked up than usual, excited to experience the birth of a brand-new cultural phenomenon.
It might sound like an exaggeration, but the magic streams could be a form of revolution on their own.
I had a feeling, though, it wouldn’t be so great if it became ubiquitous…
Demon information was flowing so freely… I hoped it would stop with adventurers.
“Oh yes. I just had a great idea!” Natalie clapped her hands together.
I had a feeling it wasn’t actually that great, and I was usually right about these things.
“If you’re able, why don’t you do a phantasmic magic stream yourse—?”
“No thank you!”
I could get my hands on the mechanisms if I wanted, but I wasn’t doing it!
“But great Witch, you could broadcast how cute your daughters are.”
My heart stirred a little—a lot, actually.
Was sharing the delights of my daughters with the demons and adventurers not, as it were, a great contribution to society? Was it not my duty?
There had to be at least a hundred thousand people throughout the world who would find the vigor and determination to live through the next day just by seeing how cute my daughters were. It would be like saving the lives of a hundred thousand people.
Then I remembered the demon minister of agriculture who first came to tell us about the magic streams.
What if there were more people like Beelzebub who’d come to take Falfa, Shalsha, and Sandra away? They were all adorable, so the risk was entirely possible.
I might seem biased, but I’m not. That’s the truth.
“I think I’ll stick to just watching,” I smiled and said to Natalie.
The End
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