Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 68 of 74

The cracked horn slid from her fingers as the next placard turned on its frosted chains. A single question mark stared down at her. The crowd hushed. A sung response was demanded, and her throat was still empty. Kawaii Princess reached for the ice-glazed bronze bell at the slab's edge. She lifted it, swung it once. Nothing. The clapper was frozen fast inside. Her voice would not come, and the bell would not ring for her. She set the silent bell down and walked behind the closed blue curtains at the stage's rear. Snow drifted at their hem. She gripped the heavy cloth and pulled the curtains shut around her whole figure, leaving only her shadow pressed against the fabric. Where words failed, she would offer stillness instead — a held silence the crowd had to lean in to read. The head scout watched the shadow on the curtain. He lifted the crown token and let it fall to her side of the slab. Round won, voiceless. But the frozen question mark swung again above the stage, and a second placard was already rising behind it, heavier than the first.