Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden Volume 4

Prologue

Hey, did you guys see that paper play yesterday?!

I did! It was such an interesting show!

I didn’t know the founding king of Altoire was so cool!

Didn’t he look a lot like King Hyurence?

Oh yeah, and I thought the first queen’s childhood name was Lunesia...

For the entirety of my short walk from the dorms to the school, that was all I heard. Everyone I passed was talking about last night’s program on the Silver Channel.

Neal and my instincts had been correct: that paper play project was a winner. It blew my dog-racing programs out of the water; all the broadcasting staff could think to tell me about them was that people seem to like it. This paper play was a far more successful project.

This was what a real trendsetter looked like. I would even go so far as to say this was the first magivision program that had truly captured the hearts of the citizens of Altoire. It had its own unique imagery that let it completely stand out from the aimless string of programming aired every day. It was overflowing with a charm that made you want to watch more.

There was no doubt this was the case, since it had also captured my heart. It was seriously so good. I want to see the next episode already.

Even when I entered the classroom, the conversations about the paper play abounded. Everyone was obsessed with it. This was the power of magivision, the potential that magivision held. It had both influence and the ability to communicate ideas over a wide area.

We had not truly known the real power of magivision.

The students were already being influenced by it this much. This was a prime example of a place where magivision was readily available, a part of everyone’s accommodation. I had no doubt it was causing quite the buzz even outside the school as well; it might even be making waves back at the Liston territories by now. How would Bendelio try to counter this offensive? Or would he sit back and quietly observe for now? I still held a grudge against him for the summer schedule he’d subjected me to, but I did want him to succeed for the sake of the Liston Channel.

Good morning, Nia, a voice higher pitched than usual called out as the speaker filled the seat next to me.

Reliared Silver had arrived.

Wow, look at how smug you are. You’re not even trying to hide how much you want to boast, sticking your chest out like some successful entrepreneur. How wonderful. Given the surrounding reactions, she was almost certainly keenly aware of the response to the show.

The paper play had been a resounding success. That failure of mine over the summer caused me great frustration—I’d thought of it first! The Silvers had practically stolen it from me.

No, let’s stop this. I’d had the idea at the worst place and the worst time. We just weren’t fated to be together, that was all—at least, for now. Who knew how it would develop from here? I would let the Silvers bask in their victory (and their betrayal of me) for the moment. Those who followed after still had their own opportunities to surpass the original.

Good morning, Relia. You’re awfully smug today.

Yup! She enthusiastically nodded. "I’ve wanted to see your frustrated face for so long! You’re frustrated, right? Right?"

Yes, yes, I’m oh so frustrated. Despite how lightly I said it, I was. I really was. If she were an adult, I’d have beat her up. She was practically mocking me and she knew it—I was sure she wouldn’t mind if she had to face the consequences of her actions.

People have been asking me about it all morning. ‘What was that paper play?’ ‘What are you gonna do for future episodes?’ Oh, how it pains me so! They can ask me questions all they want, but I can’t answer them.

Glad she was willing to act so high and mighty about it all. My personal grievances aside, there was no denying this was going to be a big boon to the magivision industry as a whole. It was hard to think the ratings wouldn’t increase overall. This wasn’t a bad thing to have happened by any stretch of the imagination.

It also made me realize something else: I had really been lacking a sense of danger in my life. There was a facet of magivision I had taken far too lightly purely because I had been under the impression that I could clear most things up with a single fist if the situation called for it.

Before summer vacation, Hildetaura had been thinking hard about ideas for magivision. I’d like some unique program for the capital as well, she’d said. At the time, I had viewed her words as quite irrelevant to me; there was no need for that. That unique program Hildetaura wanted to find was something that the Liston Channel also lacked.

Seeing the paper play project though, I had become all too aware that neither the capital’s channel nor the Liston Channel had anything that could match it. That was what could be called a true success. My dog-racing program was like a baby next to this—there was that much of a difference in response.

This situation had only become further motivation for me to put on the national tournament; it was the only chance I had to compete against the other channels.

Magivision aside, there were other matters I still needed to consider. Much had happened around me over the summer.

First, there was the matter of raising a billion krams. It was the amount of money we needed in order to put on the national tournament. In order to fulfill this, my personal attendant, Lynokis, had made her adventuring debut. She had left the school grounds a few days ago and was no doubt taking down monsters and making money about now. Naturally, I didn’t intend to leave this burden on Lynokis alone. I wanted to help out personally, and that meant I needed to make preparations for others to assist.

The second semester of my first year of elementary school had begun.

This fall seemed like it was going to be busy indeed.

Chapter 1: Her Highness’s New Project

A few days had passed since the new school semester had begun.

Young Mistress! I’m home! I’m back!

I can see that.

Welcome back. I’ll talk to you after— What?

I had gone to move past Lynokis as I left the room, but before I could go farther, she suddenly grabbed my arm.

Where’s my welcome-back hug?! Your humble Lynokis has returned!

Why did she look so desperate?

Yes. And I have to go to school. I wasn’t in danger of being late, but I didn’t have the leeway to sit and have a leisurely chat either. We had a lot to catch up on, so if we started talking now, we’d never stop.

Who cares about school? Are you saying it’s more important than me?! Lynokis whined.

Right now, yes.

"How horrible! Even though I went out to earn money for you, even though I went all that way for you and your mean self! I tried my hardest for you!"

Okay, I’ll see you later. Seeing Lynokis suddenly burst into tears, I decided to leave her alone for now. She’d calm down if I gave her time.

You’re horrible! You’re really abandoning me! She screamed so loud I could hear her from the other side of the door, but I ignored her and continued walking.

Lynokis had arrived home around the day she had been scheduled to. What hadn’t been part of the plan was that she would come back to the dorms first thing in the morning. We obviously wouldn’t have time to chat now, so I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t taken her time and made her way back in the afternoon.

Her adventurer debut, the details of her trip, the results of her hunt—I was naturally interested in all the stories Lynokis had to tell. Given how she looked, I imagined she hadn’t done bad at least.

Still...it might not be until evening that we could really talk. Hildetaura would likely come around today as well, after all.

Nia, you know why I am here, yes?

After school, I returned to my dorm room, my brain exhausted from overuse, and already waiting there was Hildetaura sipping away at some tea, just as I’d thought she would be. This smells like expensive tea leaves I don’t even normally get to drink... She was our guest though, so it made sense.

Apparently, she had originally been waiting down in the lobby for me, but Lynokis had happened to walk past with the laundry and had let her through. Hildetaura was known for her approachability, but she was still royalty, so Lynokis’s judgment hadn’t been incorrect—neither was the choice to make use of the expensive tea leaves.

We hadn’t made any plans, but she’d come to see me again today, after all.

Let me guess, you want to continue yesterday’s conversation?

Yes. We have yet to actually decide on something after all.

Not wrong.

Young Mistress, did something happen between you and Her Highness? Lynokis asked in a whisper when she came to take my bag. She’d only just returned this morning, so it was natural she wasn’t aware of the state of things.

I had a chat with Hilde about possible ideas for a new program. The Silvers have jumped ahead with their paper plays, so we need to devise a counterattack. You’ve at least heard the rumors by now, right? I answered, without lowering my voice. I didn’t mind if Hildetaura heard so I saw no reason to hide from her.

Lynokis had been absent for a while, but she had likely heard something from the attendant network. That paper play was the talk of the town right now—people were discussing it everywhere you went.

She nodded. Something about it being a winning proposal, yes.

That phrase perfectly described the situation. The Silvers had struck gold. Frustrated by that, Hildetaura had come to discuss possible counterattacks with me over the past several days, and yesterday, we had gone out to the town to try and see if we could find something to use for a program. Though to no one’s surprise, that wasn’t such an easy task, and we had ended up aimlessly wandering around window shopping, trying on clothes, checking out the stalls, eating some sweet desserts, and then returning home.

To be honest, the only impression I had of our excursion was that going out together was kind of fun. I’d gone around with Hildetaura feeling like a grandma watching over her granddaughter as she greatly enjoyed herself. That was it.

You want to go back out again? I sat myself down across from her as I asked, even though I’d be standing right back up again if the answer was yes.

Of course.

Really? I also wanted to think up a good proposal, so it wasn’t that I didn’t want to search for ideas, but...

But let us not go by ourselves, Hildetaura quickly added. We ended up doing nothing but playing around yesterday. When I returned to the castle and reflected on our day, I was appalled to realize how little we had actually achieved.

I couldn’t blame her because I felt exactly the same way. For the record, Lynette had joined us yesterday.

That said, I do think we are on the right track to approach this with the mindset of finding a project rather than thinking of one, Hildetaura continued. Everyone at the broadcasting station is already working hard to brainstorm new ideas, after all.

Changing one’s perspective was important when stuck. We’re better off trying to look at things in the long term. Nothing good will come from panicking, I replied. If it only took one or two days of wandering around town to find a good project, no one would struggle to find ideas.

How can I not panic, though? Only Altoire does not have a signature program.

Wait, what’s the Liston Channel’s signature program then?

Did she mean Bendelio’s Tales of a Liston Stroll? It had somehow ended up the longest-running program on the Liston Channel. Its target audience was on the older side, but I supposed you could consider that a winning program. I could certainly enjoy watching it on occasion—except for the alcohol tasting portions.

The dog races!

What? I was surprised by Hildetaura suddenly raising her voice but also by the answer itself.

That dog program is absolutely a winning proposal! You recorded so many over the summer in both your territories and the Silver territories, didn’t you?! And in the capital, as well! That’s because it’s popular!

Really? It didn’t feel that way to me. The only thoughts I’d had during all those recordings were Wow, they’re recording a lot of these and Is it really smart to record this many?

"Do you think it’s a winner?" I decided to ask the silent third party.

Lynokis nodded earnestly. But of course. Dogs are man’s best friend no matter where in the world you go, and they are practically the star of the program. The contents are simple enough for anyone to understand, which makes it accessible to a wide audience. There are many dog lovers out there. I personally couldn’t care less about the dogs, but you yourself are also cute, Young Mistress. I cannot find a possible reason for it to be a flop.

I had no reason to think otherwise if Lynokis was indeed correct, but... Honestly, now that I had borne witness to a true winning proposal, it really felt like night and day. My little dog races were clearly far inferior to the paper plays.

Hildetaura took a sip of her tea. The Silvers are no doubt going to record paper plays of classical literature and folk tales. In fact, I am sure they will go even beyond that. Art could be used to present anything.

I agreed that the possibilities of the paper plays were vast, but what was truly surprising was how well Vikson Silver had hit the ground running. If the debut program had been fumbled, it would likely have taken longer for society to care about these paper plays.

That said, they had literally chosen to recount the founding of the kingdom. It was an easy topic for viewers to care about if they were even just a little patriotic. They had really aimed at a good place. I doubted there was a better first play than this.

The Liston territories undoubtedly have their dog program. It is something that is even more difficult to follow up on than the paper plays, since it is entirely dependent on your unique abilities and speed, Nia. What is important is that this is not restricted to dogs but can also be applied to all kinds of creatures. Could competition between people not get viewers just as excited? On top of that, because you constantly win, your audience gets curious about how long your streak will continue. I have even heard there are dog lovers who are training their dogs solely to try and beat you.

True, there were dog owners who would really talk up their beloved pets. There was a time I’d raced with an aristocrat’s dog, and its owner had said to me all smug, "Do you really think someone like you can win against our doggy?"

It really was a much higher-rated program than I’d anticipated. I hadn’t even intended for things to turn out this way. Originally, all that had happened was that I’d been playing with the sheepdog at a farm I’d gone to record at. I’d just happened to fetch the ball faster than the dog could.

You remember we raced with a dog during the summer, yes? Hildetaura asked.

Yes, I do. Her challenge hadn’t been unwarranted. For an eight-year-old, Hildetaura had been pretty fast.

I had been thinking that if I won, I would be able to take the dog project from you.

Really now.

Why not do as you please? You can just copy what we do. I had no qualms about acknowledging one’s bold ambition or desire to overthrow the powerful—especially if they intended to overthrow me through their own ability rather than simple negotiation.

Like I said before, you are the reason that program can exist. If I had only lost to you, then I could still have made something out of it. But it is no good if I lose to the dog as well. In that case, the program would be based around the high win rate of the dogs.

In other words, she had determined that it would be impossible at her current strength.

Hm... Thinking about it like that, nothing really comes to mind at all. I understood now why Hildetaura was struggling as much as she was. In her case, her royal standing meant there were proposals that wouldn’t fly due to the quality and class expected of her. There were some projects where simply giving it a try wouldn’t be permitted.

I was busy with raising one billion krams, but it didn’t mean I could slack on my activities for Project Magivision, even if said krams were technically all for promoting magivision in the first place. Abandoning Hildetaura here would be like turning my back on that overarching goal, so I wanted to help her out as much as possible.

A signature program for the Altoire Broadcasting Station...

Well, for now, there was one thing we could very easily do.

Let’s start by increasing the number of brains we have working the problem.

The number of...brains?

The more brains we had, the more ideas would be conjured up. Preferably, that brain would belong to someone who had some experience with magivision but whom we trusted not to leak anything. Someone who hadn’t been too involved in the industry so their imagination could be allowed to run a little freer than those of us who were aware of the restrictions in place.

In other words, we needed my brother—my dear older brother who was surprisingly a great help in times of need—Neal Liston.

Lynokis, go to the boys’ dorm and capture my brother. Bring Lynette along as well.

Yes, Young Mistress.

Neal was usually busy with swordsmanship training after school, but he’d always make sure to stop by his dorm room to drop off his school bag and grab his training clothes first. If we hurried, we still had a chance to catch him.

I see.

Lynokis had succeeded in catching Neal just as he was about to head off to the dojo and returned with both him and Lynette in tow.

I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, but I’ll at least try and think of something with you.

Ever the little gentleman, my brother was. When we briefly explained our situation, he readily agreed to assist. It appeared he was willing to forgo his training for the day to accompany us.

"I’m sorry for calling you over so suddenly, brother. You had