Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 57 of 74

Dawn came clean. The pillar still stood, the bunker maps lay exposed, and Kawaii Princess walked out to her broadcast stage ready to claim the morning. But the glass pavilion sat empty, its frost panes catching the pale light with no one inside. The long night had scattered her followers across the field. At the edge of the platform, she found a single weathered stone marker pressed into the snow. Carved initials held tiny ice crystals in their grooves. One girl had come early and staked her place before sunrise. One. Kawaii Princess set her hand on the cold stone and made herself look past it. Further out stood a wooden signpost, its arrows pointing in three crooked directions. Her followers were out there, lost between routes, still finding their way. The broadcast bell would ring soon. She could not wait. Kawaii Princess pulled the signpost free and dragged it back to the pavilion door. She rewrote every arrow to point here, then climbed the frame and rang the iron bell post hard. The sound carried. By the time the broadcast opened, twos and threes were arriving at her glass walls, the lone marker now ringed with feet. Her stage was not full — but it was no longer empty, and the cameras turned on her anyway.