Chapter 23

5. Interview

I went to the school cafeteria, got a sandwich to go, and returned to the dormitory.

Click.

When I opened the door and went in, Eloise approached me.

"Welcome back, Miss. Dinner... Oh, you brought it to go?"

I extended the envelope in my hand.

"Yeah. I thought you might want some, so I brought one for you too. Do you want to eat it?"

Eloise looked slightly surprised at my action but took the envelope with a gentle smile.

"Thank you so much. I was just about to order dinner. Are you going to eat this too, Miss?"

"Yeah. I just want to eat something simple. Ah, I'll eat in my room, so I'll rest now."

"Yes, I understand. Rest well."

I went up to the second-floor bedroom.

"Phew."

As I entered the bedroom, a sigh of relief escaped me without me realizing it.

For the first time today, complete silence and tranquility enveloped me.

Of course, I knew the thrones were watching.

But perhaps because I had grown used to it, I had become quite numb to it.

I put the book on the vanity and stretched my stiff shoulders.

"I'm so tired..."

I wanted to finish the day quietly by eating the sandwich and reading the remaining book.

"Welcome back, Miss Thérèse."

'Damn it.'

As soon as I turned my head with a stiff expression, my eyes twitched slightly.

It was Ozwald again.

"Did you run the advertisement video today?"

I tried to suppress my irritation, but my voice cracked at the end.

Ozwald approached with a pleased look and kissed the back of my hand.

"Thanks to Miss Thérèse's hard work, interview requests are pouring in. I thought we could have a brief Q&A session."

Of course, he didn't ask for my permission.

His habit of kissing my cheek or the back of my hand without hesitation was extremely unpleasant.

As soon as Ozwald let go of my hand, I subtly wiped it on my skirt.

At that moment, Ozwald snatched the paper envelope from my hand.

"What's this?"

I flinched at the now empty hand.

"It's my dinner. Give it back."

While I awkwardly reached for the paper envelope, Ozwald opened the envelope and checked the contents.

"It's a sandwich."

Ozwald threw the envelope with the sandwich behind him.

Thud!

The sandwich tumbled out of the envelope and scattered on the floor.

As a result, my mood became as miserable as the scattered sandwich.

Ozwald looked at me with a concerned expression.

"You need to take care of your meals. Skipping meals makes you so weak."

'Shut up. Why are you worrying about my meals?'

I wanted to yell at him but bit my lower lip and tightly closed my eyes before opening them again.

When Ozwald tapped the bedroom table with his cane, a lavish meal was immediately laid out.

In the center of the table, there was an obnoxiously fancy centerpiece and even candles.

The thick piece of meat, which looked like it would bleed if cut, was not at all appetizing to me.

I just wanted a simple sandwich.

Ozwald pulled out a chair like a proper gentleman and gestured for me to sit.

"Please sit."

I knew this was not a suggestion but a command.

After I sat down first, Ozwald took the seat opposite me, and the meal began.

Ozwald displayed impeccable dining etiquette.

Surprisingly, he was not being sarcastic but genuinely sincere.

The only nobles I had dined with were the Squire family, but none of them exuded the perfect grace and ease that this man did.

What was his true identity?

I was puzzled by how he could exude both vulgarity and nobility simultaneously, but that was as far as my thoughts went.

I lowered my stiff gaze to the piece of meat being cut by the knife and then looked back at Ozwald.

I wanted to finish the matter quickly rather than spend time with Ozwald over a meal I didn't even want to eat.

"When is the interview?"

Ozwald smiled knowingly.

"It seems our previous conversation hasn't been learned yet."

"I don't think your thrones would enjoy such a boring segment."

Although I said it mechanically, I wondered if it wasn't true.

I didn't think a mere Silver Channel BJ would have fans, and even if they did, they wouldn't have enough recognition to warrant interviews.

My reasonable advice was simply ignored.

"Of course they would."

Ozwald smiled and snapped his fingers.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

"!"

My ears almost burst.

I looked in shock at the notification windows that filled the room.

[Throne 'Ozwald in Real World' has donated 1,000 coins.]

[Aaaaaah!!!!!! Ozwald!!!!!!!]

[Throne 'Trusted Ozwald' has donated 1,000 coins.]

[Ozwald, this is fun again.]

[Throne 'Ozwald_Slave_75' has donated 1,000 coins.]

[Your face is so holy today... I'll earn more coins... Come often...]

There were countless other notification windows with Ozwald's name in the throne's title.

The reactions were almost manic.

Ozwald snapped his fingers again, and the notification sounds and windows disappeared.

"..."

An eerie silence fell.

I was frozen, and Ozwald shrugged as if it was nothing.

"As you can see, they enjoy it just by seeing me on the stream."

I felt an unpleasant sense of déjà vu.

The notifications from thrones who were enthusiastic about Ozwald reminded me of the fans of Klyebe and Demisa.

Even the apathy of the person with the followers was similar.

Ozwald spoke.

"Now you understand. The donation windows you see are censored. Didn't you find the number of coins more than the number of times you saw the windows?"

'Ah, that's why.'

I had always felt that the total donations were unusually high whenever I checked them.

It was the same now.

[Donations: 151,500 coins]

I had just reached 100,000 coins in the shortest time yesterday.

But now, the donations had already piled up to this amount.

'I thought the donations were just while I was unconscious or asleep, but that wasn't it.'

Thinking about it, I had never seen a nickname with Ozwald's name in it.

I started cutting the meat again.

Even this silent time was enjoyable for the thrones, so I had no other way to argue.

Ozwald, displeased by my sudden silence, put down his fork and knife and acted capriciously.

"Although I don't prefer such low-class behavior, having an interview while eating isn't bad."

I found it amusing that he was talking about etiquette and class.

The most classless thing here was his rainbow-dyed hair, numerous piercings, and bright red suit.

But I didn't voice my thoughts.

Ozwald opened a semi-transparent window beside him and started the interview with a preamble.

"Thrones understand the content of the stream through the explanation provided before entering."

To understand the stream, one needed to know the world it was set in.

Ozwald said that thrones acquired basic information through the game manual of 'God's Play' that he had written.

They didn't know the true identities of the male characters or the endings they could see, which could only be obtained by playing the game.

"However, if necessary, I add subtitles or guides to help them understand better."

Even so, he couldn't provide as direct information as the BJ could.

After all, it would be a spoiler.

"The BJ needs to provide appropriate information at the right moment. If you tell them everything, the anticipation and fun will decrease."

"I understand."

"Good. Then, can you explain today's situation, considering that?"

That wasn't difficult.

"Professor Ilya is a fallen angel and a great demon, pretending to be human. His plan is to pollute the human world with magic and turn it into a second demon world."

The human world was like a transfer station.

The divine, celestial, and demon worlds could not directly interfere with each other except in very special cases.

However, the human world could connect to any of them relatively easily as a middle passage.

Ozwald glanced at the window he had opened and asked.

"Does 'great demon' mean 'demon king'?"

"You can understand it that way."

"Then shouldn't such an existence be able to annihilate the human world in one go?"

'If that were the case, the game couldn't progress.'

Our team had also struggled with this aspect of plausibility and imposed restrictions.

"Humans can't live in water, and fish can't live on land. A realm you don't belong to is like water or land. Professor Ilya is using a human shell like an oxygen tank."

"I understand. But demons are invading this world, how do you explain that?"

"Lower demons, like Ilya, who can't transform into humans, can interfere in the human world through contracts with humans."

I also explained that Professor Ilya's bad ending was the destruction of the human world.

Additionally, I explained that Clyde was half-human, half-demon, and that the relationship between Squire and Willow was as bad as that between the Montague and Capulet families.

I also mentioned that Mimos and Thérèse revered the male characters like first-generation idol fans, willing to wage war between families.

Ozwald then asked, with the most innocent face I had seen from him so far.

"Is the world of reverse harem games originally extreme?"