Encouraged by the energy around me, I was pretty excited, but when asked to speak up, I was too nervous, as was fitting for my feeble commoner mindset. I resigned myself to my fate. I gazed at everyone in this huddle before my eyes finally settled on the hands stacked in the center.
“I know that we all worked really hard to make today happen!” I said. “I’m not sure if we can make this concert—I mean, ritual—a smashing success, but let’s give it our all! We won’t sweat about the small stuff and we’ll enjoy today to its fullest!”
“Yeah!” everyone shouted as they raised their hands in the air with me.
“Let’s go, Little Mary and friends!” Frederika said before casually sliding in an ominous remark. “Continue the ritual no matter what happens!”
We headed to the center of the stage with gusto when I tried to whirl around, befuddled by the mermaid’s latter sentence. Just then, the fanfare of the band filled the area, and cheers arose from the audience. This was a ritual to quell the spirit. Or to be more precise, a concert to appease it.
“Let’s kick off the spirit concert!” I said loudly, my voice reverberating throughout the stage. “Come on, guuuuys! Let’s turn it up!”
I knew that the stage itself was causing my voice to echo, and it was pretty loud for me, but the crowd cheered and roared in response, drowning my voice out as the audience rooted us on. Oh my god! Eek! The pressure! The crushing pressuuuure! My knees almost buckled from the overwhelming passion of the audience, but I managed to keep it all together. I gazed at Tutte and Noa, her eyes sparkling bright. I’m the older sister! I have to show her my cool side! And I want to convey to her how fun it is to be here!
The music went on, and we began to sing just as we’d practiced. Those who weren’t singing were dancing along, totally in sync. Safina and Sita made an adorable pair while Emilia and Magiluka gave off fiery passion. I wasn’t able to mingle with either team as I showed off what I could.
Sita was anxious about her singing talent, and Safina was nervous about going onstage, but their perfect opening number didn’t allow anyone to sense any of their insecurities, and it drove the audience wild. In the employee stands was a certain book, howling louder than anyone else; I wasn’t sure if this dragon was allowed to roar so loudly in Kairomea. His timbre was deafening.
After everyone did their little solo parts, we all came together and sang while Emilia and Sita soared through the air. Safina, Magiluka, and I remained on the ground, singing and dancing as we stood in a delta triangle. I felt like this was going well.
Just when I truly believed that we could end this ritual without any bumps, however, I felt a droplet fall onto my cheek. Huh? Is it raining? The weather had been so beautiful mere moments ago, but the skies grew dark and gloomy as the sea frothed and stirred.
“Yeaaaaah! Woooooo!” an earth-shattering voice echoed through the air.
The noise drowned out the entire crowd, causing the venue to rock back and forth—the spirit must’ve arrived. Only then did Frederika’s warning from earlier finally sink in. Is that what she meant when she wanted us to continue the ritual no matter what happens?! During the interlude, I glanced over at the staff area, and they were all fully equipped, hastily jumping to their feet.
“Blocks A and C of the venue are fully armed!” the prince declared. “Don’t let the spirit into the venue! The success of this ritual depends on us! Protect the maidens performing the ritual!”
Sacher, Rachel, Frederika, and the other armed units roared loudly with agreement. The rain grew stronger and the waves towered over us, threatening to crash down onto our stage. With clear danger looming over us, the other girls must’ve become anxious as they noticed me staring worriedly in the middle of our dance routine. Everyone’s doing their best! We’ve gotta do what we can too! When the music ended, I took a step forward.
“Come on, everyone!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Let’s have some fuuuun! We can blow away these gloomy clouds in no time with our dazzling performance!”
The audience cheered louder than ever as we began singing again. All around us, watery hands shot out from the sea toward us, but our stalwart guards fended them off, protecting us from the spirit’s reach.
“Please! No one is allowed past this point! Please don’t get on the stage!” the guards shouted.
Frederika used herself as a shield to defend against the spirit’s main body, really hammering home how terrifying he was.
“Woooooooo! Maaaary! Magilukaaa! Emiliaaaa! Safinaaa! Sitaaaa!” the spirit bellowed excitedly, trying to attack us as he called our names.
Ahhhh! I’m so scared! As I did my utmost to suppress my fear, we entered the climax of our performance. As we’d done during rehearsal, we used light magic to illuminate the stage with a colorful glow, and the entire venue became one as they cheered for us. The spirit was also pumped up, as he made clear through the surrounding ocean foaming with waves that were growing ever taller and more menacing. The stormy sea would’ve sunk any sturdy ship if it’d attempted to cross the waters during this concert...and yet we continued singing. This wasn’t at all how I imagined concerts went, but I didn’t sweat the small stuff—I was having plenty of fun performing.
As our performance drew to a close, part of me was eager to end it, while another part of me was reluctant to walk off stage. Alas, I had no say in the matter, and our ritual eventually did draw to a close, with the music and the cheers coming to an abrupt halt following the finale. Silence settled throughout the venue, giving the illusion that time stood still.
“Bravooo!” the spirit shouted at the top of his lungs.
At once, the skies turned sunny and bright once more, and as the light shone down on us, the audience realized that the performance was a resounding success, causing them to cheer as loud as the spirit himself. A wave of exhaustion immediately rushed over my body as my nerves eased up—we’d done it. All of us girls must’ve felt a great sense of accomplishment, and we gave each other verbal pats on the back.
“We did it, Mary,” Emilia said.
“Yeah, we sure did,” I replied.
“Yay! Hooray! We really did it!” Sita cried.
“M-My anxiety’s f-f-finally catching up with me...” Safina groaned as she sank to the ground.
“You all right?” I asked.
After Emilia and I had exchanged a solemn thumbs-up and Sita had leaped into the air with joy, I turned to Safina, who was on the ground behind us.
“Um, this was a ritual to appease the spirit, correct?” Magiluka asked. “I felt like all we did was make him more excited than ever... Perhaps we succeeded nonetheless?”
We were all glad that the performance was over, but Magiluka’s question immediately snapped us back to reality as I recalled the impetus for this entire ritual anyway.
“R-Right,” I said gingerly as I gazed at the giant which I assumed was the spirit’s body. “He sure was terrifying. How will he rate our performance?”
He had his hands high up in the air as he froze in place, and the entire venue gulped nervously and awaited his response with bated breath. Just then, Frederika, who was closest to the spirit, inexplicably swam up to this frozen giant and gave him a few pokes. The giant immediately crumbled to the ground in a wave of seawater, and cheers arose from the crowd once more. It seemed we’d successfully managed to appease the spirit.
It kind of just looks like he was all tired out from cheering so hard at our ritual, but whatever. At least it was a success! All’s well that ends well.
“All right, guys. Let’s head home,” I said. A smile of satisfaction stretched across my face as I tried to leave the venue.
“Lady Mary,” Magiluka interrupted, always my voice of reason. “Do you recall why you came here in the first place?”
“Uh, to do this concert, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, right! I came here to head to Xeoral and research the Argent Knight!” I’d forgotten all about it.