Twisted Wonderland Book 5: A Beauitful Tyrant

Chapter 60: An Eager Reception

Watching Royal Sword Academy's performance has left Night Raven College students with a lot of mixed emotions going on.

Kalim is the first to respond, "Wow, what IS this song? It just keeps coming back around to the hook in circles!"

It's an arrangement of a Shaftlands children's song. Even I've heard it, and I'm from the Sunset Savanna. I'm sure it's quite famous," Rook says.

Ace however says, "Huh. All those dance moves are so simple, anyone could do them. They're not even in sync."

Then Grim notices it, "One of 'em almost fell over! Neige helped him catch himself, but all of these guys look like they could go toppling at any second."

"Frankly, the quality is nothing worthy of note," Jamil says.

"Well, the song seems kind of cute," Sereia says.

"I suppose, even Jasper and I heard the song in school," Tanzanite says.

"Back when we were in elementary school," Jasper says.

"I'm kind of having mixed feelings about their show. It seems nice but um, and the song is, but they seem to be a little imbalanced.

"You can't even call this competition," Vil questions and turns to Vil, "Am I right or what, Vil?"

However, Vil is not answering. Instead he continues to stare at Neige and his friends.

All Vil manages to say is, "We've been outplayed..."

"Huh?" Briar says, confused.

"Are you okay, Vil?" Briar asks, concerned.

The film crew member happily says, "This song really takes me back!

The second member says, "Just watching those cute, wholesome kids makes all my stress melt away."

"I know! It's so heartwarming. Almost makes me wanna cry..." The third film member says, sniffles.

The fourth man says, "Their dancing is out of sync, and their harmonies are clunky at best...but I'm glued to the performance. I want to root for them!"

The Night Raven Students continue to watch the performance.

Deuce is shocked, "Whoa... Neige LeBlanche has everybody awestruck!"

"Ah ain't never knew 'charm' could come off like that..." Epel says.

"...Rgh!" Vil reacts to hear the comments, and grows very uneasy

On the stage, Neige happily says, "Thanks for listening, everybody! I love you all!

The staff members cheer, "Woooow...!"

The first staff member says, "Hey, get in touch with Neige's agency! We're running this video on the evening news!"

The second staff member says, "Yes, sir! I'll verify permissions with them now."

The first staff says in excitement, "This is gonna go more viral than cute kitty videos!"

A music producer says, "What a coup we just witnessed... Have you ever seen an image so perfect for the whole family?!"

The second music producer says, "Neige LeBlanche... He definitely earns his title of most likable celebrity in the world. Mega-hits aren't born from simple trendiness and beauty. They need to be accessible to all ages, from children to the elderly—not just the teen demographic."

And soon, everyone is all over Neige and his friends.

Neige smiles and says, "Thank you for helping with our rehearsal, staff!"

The first staff member walks to him and says, "Hello, Neige! That was the best performance I've ever seen! I got goosebumps just watching! We're with a Shaftlands TV station. Would you be willing to share a few comments for your fans?"

Absolutely!" Neige answers.

The first staff member says, "What made you decide to sing an arrangement of a children's song?"

"I wanted to have a fun time and share it with everybody watching the SDC.

I figured something familiar would be the way to go. The reason why I decided to take part in this year's SDC... was because I wanted to share some special memories with my friends at school. And I thought that if we could get the whole world to sing along with us, it would make for an experience we'd treasure forever," Neige answers.

The staff member says in surprise, "So you weren't just thinking about yourself; you were thinking about people all over the world. I have to hand it to you, Neige. We just uploaded the clip we shot to Magicam. 'So cute!' 'My kid was imitating their dance!' 'That's the most wholesome, beautiful thing I've ever seen!' That's just a small sampling of the comments people are posting. I'd say you've got a real good chance of taking home first prize with this, my friend!

"Oh, you never know with these things. Thank you for your kind words, though!" Neige happily says.

Back at the stands, hearing all the compliments and everyone swarming at Neige, Vil looks like the soul has been sucked out of him.

Unaware that Rook is calling out to him, "Vil. Vil?

"Huh?" Vil replies, snapping back to reality.

Rook asks, "What's the matter? You look pale. Are you feeling out of sorts?"

"No... I'm fine. Nothing's wrong," Vil answers, "It was a school play hardly worthy of my notice. I'll be in the dressing room."

Then Vil walks away, Briar watches as Vil walks away from the scene. Suddenly, Briar feels her head hurting and something flashes into her mind. It's a scene of the queen, disguised as a witch, holding the apple that has poison on it. Then the apple turns red

Briar holds her head and mutters to herself, "Huh, that was..."

Suddenly, Epel asks, "Um, Briar? You're staring into space. Are you all right?"

"What's wrong? Gettin' hungry?" Grim asks.

"Project much, Grim?" Ace says.

"I myself actually AM hungry, though. Let's get something to eat before showtime," Deuce says.

With that, Epel, Deuce, and Ace take their leaves. However, Grim, and the others notice Briar is not leaving instead, looking to where Vil leaves too. She isn't the only one, Rook, Jamil, and Kalim notice a change in Vil as he walks off. And it becomes known that they have a very bad feeling about this.

"He's..." Kalim says.

Meanwhile, in the Coliseum hallway, Vil finds himself alone.

He takes out his phone again and says, "Mira, Mira. Tell me something."

"What would you like me to look up?" Mira answers.

Vil asks, "Who, at this moment, is the most beautiful of all?"

The phone soon says, "Displaying results for "account with the most comments using the word 'beautiful'": Neige LeBlanche.

This has Vil beyond shocked and "Nnnnngh..."And holds a hard grip on his phone. "NEIGE!"

And then the screen on his phone snaps.

Soon, the dark purple and black negative energy become more visible around Vil with bitterness and anger. Then more dark black blots fall to the ground and merge to become one. And of course, a certain someone, Briar, who is hiding down the hall senses it, and grows very concerned about what Vil is doing. Either way, she has a terrible feeling something is going to happen.