Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 39 of 54

The music box wound down to its last tiny note, and the front rows held their breath. Kawaii Princess felt the head scout's eyes on her from the wooden watchtower at the arena's edge, frost glinting on its railings. One song remained. The finale. Without a voice, she had no way to deliver it. She stepped onto the frosted glass platform at the center of the stage. The icy handrails caught the late sun. She pulled a polished mirror in a carved wooden frame from her satchel and angled it toward the watchtower window. A bright square of light leapt across the arena and landed on the scout's face. She tilted the mirror in slow beats — long, short, long, short, long — the rhythm of her four notes and the secret fifth. The crowd looked up to follow the moving light. She flashed it across the banner, across the rival's crystal mic, across every row. The melody she could not sing traveled as flashes on snow. Children traced the pattern with their fingers. The head scout leaned out over the frost-kissed rail and counted along. The bell rang. The head scout lifted a carved crown token above the watchtower platform and let it fall to the stage. Kawaii Princess had won the finale without a single sound from her throat. The crowd erupted, but her rival was already pointing at the mirror and shouting that light was not music — and the head scout, token still in hand, turned slowly to listen.