The Villainess VTuber Tears People Apart

Anyway, Sora and I had to establish a good relationship with Hanabane Rui. After all, it was clear that Rui was the leader of Team Leviathan.

That meant we needed to get closer to her. I thought the first step was understanding each other’s personalities well.

If we were overly formal with each other, it would only lead to a superficial relationship.

Hiding our true selves behind masks and interacting like that was something I particularly disliked.

Especially since aristocratic socializing often felt like that. Nobles might appear friendly and polite, but many were the type to stab you in the back. If they were going to criticize, they should just do it openly. I couldn’t stand their underhandedness.

Particularly because we were going to be working together as a team, understanding each other’s thoughts and building trust was the most important thing.

In that sense, the “1,000 Yen Donation If You Get Angry” idea was a great opportunity.

It would let me understand what kind of person Hanabane Rui was.

“…I don’t know if you’re aware, but I have a lot of acquaintances in this industry. Sometimes they ask me to plan events for them.”

“That’s because your planning skills are impressive, right? That’s amazing.”

“I’ve been asked to organize plenty of events, but… this is the first time I’ve been asked to plan one like this.”

Rui spoke in a slightly incredulous tone.

“And it’s also the first time I’ve been tied up by a junior who debuted only four months ago.”

Rui twisted her body around as if to emphasize her point.

We were currently in VR My Room.

This was Rui’s personal virtual reality space.

Rui was known as a VTuber specializing in large-scale collaborations and major event planning.

Apparently, she frequently invited guests to her VR My Room, and she owned several presets for these occasions.

Interestingly, none of those presets were made by Rui herself.

They were gifts from her viewers. From what I’d heard, Rui’s audience was known for their exceptionally high loyalty.

In any case, Rui was now tightly bound to a chair.

I had tied her to the chair’s backrest with ropes myself.

【るいちゃんテンサイ (Rui-chan) has donated 1,000 Yen.】

【What is thiswww Hostage situation?wwwwww】

【AuroraFootMat has donated 10,000 Won.】

【We apologize on behalf of our lady.】

“I watched some of your recent streams. I thought this was the most fitting approach.”

“What kind of streams could you have seen to make you think that…? Fine, whatever.”

Rui nodded.

***

When people think of South Korea’s national MC, most would picture the same person.

There aren’t that many entertainers who can serve as MCs in the first place.

Whenever a new variety show began, it was almost always hosted by a familiar face.

This was only natural. While you could fill a show with rookie guests, putting an untested entertainer in the host’s seat risked ruining the broadcast.

More importantly, an MC needed the ability to “control the guests.” Without that, the show would devolve into chaos.

It made perfect sense that hosting duties went to veterans with plenty of broadcast experience. In the worst case, they could keep the guests in line purely through their seniority.

In that regard, Hanabane Rui was a VTuber uniquely suited to being an MC.

She had been active in this field for nearly seven years, despite the industry being less than a decade old.

“This is the first time I’ve started a collab while tied up, but welcome to the Leviathan Collaboration.”

Rui spoke and tilted her head curiously.

“Sora-san, what is Leviathan?”

“Pardon?”

“Explain Leviathan to me.”

“Uh… It’s a demon symbolizing envy, one of the seven deadly sins, and a sea monster mentioned in the Psalms….”

“Who asked for all that? Why do you know so much about it?”

Rui deliberately raised her voice in protest.

Every MC had their own style, and Rui’s was inherently aggressive.

“My family includes Christians… So I ended up learning about it.”

“I see. But that’s not what I was asking. Sora-san, didn’t you study Korean? You should be able to grasp the context of a question, right? Or did you not graduate school?”

“…No, I graduated college. I’m sorry.”

“So even minstrels go to college nowadays, huh? Is education becoming important for them too? Anyway, Sora-san, what is Leviathan?”

“It’s one of the four teams in Fantasy League…?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Fantasy League!”

Clap!

Though Rui was tied up, she managed to clap. Her upper body and back were tied to the chair with ropes, but she still had some room to move.

“Well then, Laura-san, what is Fantasy League?”

“Oh dear, must I, a noblewoman, explain this?”

“Of course not. Asking you was a mistake. Fantasy League is a private Labyrinthos league organized by Kaiser─.”

Rui continued explaining.

After seven years of acting as an MC, it was only natural that she had become adept at explaining things.

In fact, Rui had been doing this kind of work even before debuting as a VTuber. She’d worked as an office employee, taken on private tutoring gigs, and even done part-time event hosting.

Her starting point was fundamentally different from most VTubers. While many VTubers preferred being guests, few enjoyed taking on the demanding role of host.

In that sense, Rui didn’t particularly shy away from the role of a host.

She was thinking about what needed to be explained before the broadcast officially started, like how to introduce her teammates, Laura and Sora.

Rui’s mind worked fast by nature.

“That’s why today’s broadcast is about getting to know the two of you better. …But do you really think something like this will help us get closer?”

“What are you saying? We’re already close friends, aren’t we?”

Laura joked, but she couldn’t agree less with her.

For Rui, the standard for “friends” was quite high. At the very least, you had to call each other once a week, meet in person once a month, and sustain that kind of relationship for about a year before being considered friends.

Of course, no one fits Rui’s criteria. So, Rui thought of herself as “someone with many acquaintances but no friends.”

‘And this was only my second time meeting Aurora.

…If you could even call it the second time.

I wasn’t sure if we even made eye contact during our first encounter. At the time, she wasn’t a VTuber but merely one of the participants in a viewer-participation stream.

Who would have thought I’d end up teaming up with that Dark Knight?’

“Well then, let’s get started. Sora, read the first story.”

“Uh, okay…”

At Laura’s instruction, Sora nodded nervously.

“One day, I caught a cold. Of all days, it was the day I was supposed to meet my boyfriend! Thinking I couldn’t possibly make it, I called him.

『I’m sorry… I think we’ll have to cancel today’s date. I’m too sick to go out.』”

“『Are you very sick? I’ll bring porridge and come to you.』”

Laura mimicked a deep male voice.

Rui involuntarily held her breath.

‘…Wait, she can imitate a man’s voice?

I’d occasionally watched Aurora’s streams.

I was first surprised to hear that someone who participated in viewer streams became a VTuber and then amazed at her skyrocketing popularity.’

Her debut broadcast, her 300-hour marathon stream, and her Aseosal SerenadeKR Destruction stream—these broadcasts even caused a buzz in Japan. Naturally, Rui had picked up on her name.

‘Since we were on the same team, I’d also watched some of Laura’s broadcasts.

Laura struck me as a very feminine person. Even when her gameplay was rough, her role-playing as a noblewoman made her efforts to portray an elegant image noticeable.

Her voice was relatively high-pitched, so I hadn’t imagined she could pull off a male voice. She’s strangely talented in peculiar ways.’

“『No, it’s fine… It’s too much trouble for you to come all the way here! You don’t have to!』”

“『What are you talking about?』”

Laura gave a sly grin.

It wasn’t her usual ladylike smile but a distinctly masculine one.

“『You need to get your strength back so we can go on our date, don’t you?』”

“……”

Rui closed her mouth without realizing it.

‘The voice was impressive. So convincing that I wondered if she’d ever been a man. Come to think of it, I heard she released voice packs. Maybe I should buy one. With that range of performance, it’s worth considering.

But regardless of her acting ability… the story itself was irritating.’

“Phew… I survived.”

‘Although my blood was boiling a bit, I could understand the story.

It was annoying, but tolerable.

I wish all the couples would just break up.’

“That day, I was on a trip with my girlfriend.”

The second story began.

The first one was from the girlfriend’s perspective, but this one seemed to be from the boyfriend’s point of view. Aurora took over the narration.

Once again, her low voice, designed to captivate female hearts, echoed out.

“With hours left until we reached our destination, we were stuck on a cramped train with time to kill.”

“『Oppa, I’m bored. Want to do a riddle?』”

“『A riddle?』”

“『What’s my favorite food in the world~?』”

Sora asked in a cutesy voice.

Her acting wasn’t as refined as Laura’s, but she had that unique vibe of a young woman her age.

This is probably what modern college girls are like.

She genuinely felt like someone’s girlfriend. While her acting wasn’t as impressive as Laura’s, the role suited her so well that she pulled it off perfectly.

“『That’s not a riddle. Your favorite food is mala hot pot, right?』”

“『The correct answer is… oppang~♡』”

‘…Excuse me?’

Rui’s eyebrow twitched.

Unbothered, Laura let out a chuckle.

“『I’ll make sure you’re full when we get to the lodge.』”

“Lies!!!”

-Pop!

Rui shot up from her chair without thinking.

The ropes tying her down snapped completely.

Fueled by deep frustration, Rui demonstrated unexpected strength.

She physically tore apart the ropes binding her and shouted:

“Full? Eat? Cannibalism is illegal! Don’t you know about the desecration of corpse laws?!”

Huff, huff…

Rui caught her breath after unleashing her anger.

Watching her, Laura gave a mischievous smile and said:

“Pay up. 1,000 yen.”