Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 29 of 54

Dawn after the broadcast, she stepped outside and saw it: a tall stone slab raised in the snow, COMPLAINT chiseled at the top, every name she had sung listed below in frost-filled grooves. Beside it stood a brass telescope on a frozen tripod, aimed at her studio door. The rival's scout had watched everything. She followed the tripod's line of sight back to a cracked ice box humming on a stand — a recorder, her voice trapped inside, the roll call looping for anyone who passed. A small crowd was already gathering to listen. If the panel heard it as proof she had used unregistered singers, she was out of the next round before she sang a note. She did not smash the recorder. She climbed onto its base and sang the roll call again, live, louder, adding her own name last. Then she pulled twelve carved crown tokens from her sleeve and pressed one into each listener's hand, naming them her registered chorus on the spot. A scout runner watched, wrote, and ran. By noon the head scout's ruling reached the monument: the names were witnesses, not violations. The complaint was struck. But the rival's telescope stayed planted, lens now turned toward her practice door — and the placards for the final round hung blank above the square, waiting.