Messai’s performance barely managed to receive the applause from all the audience present in the theater.
A portion of the audience Joshua invited were Sir Weissenasche’s noble friends. Those nobles were far more demanding in their appreciation for the arts.
The only reason why they were even willing to applaud Messai was due to her voice. After all, even an non-expert like Joshua could tell that Messai had many off-key moments in her performance.
“Miss Messai’s final votes are two thousand three hundred and seventy. So far, you are the one with the greatest number of votes. Miss Messai, what do you want to say to your two thousand-plus supporters?”
Tylene walked onto the stage and handed an originium crystal microphone embedded with ‘voice amplification’ magic to Messai.
Messai had just finished singing. Her face was still a bit red. After calming her breathing, she said in a very indifferent manner, “Thanks.” and exited the stage.
As she was forced to participate in the competition, Messai didn’t care about winning the competition. Naturally, she didn’t care about what the audience thinks of her.
However, Messai’s indifferent behavior actually caused her votes to increase by over two hundred more.
“A woman’s beauty is also their weapon,” said Joshua quietly.
“Unfortunately, that weapon is completely ineffective toward men with a significant other in mind,” refuted Gallolie.
Hearing the Flower of Farucci’s ridicule, Joshua shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Soon, the third contestant appeared on stage.
The World’s Singers competition smoothly continued.
Unfortunately, the next couple contestants were not as lucky as the knight lady.
“Even if ordinary commoners are given swords, they will not be able to kill any demons on the battlefield.”
Bored, Vulture yawned in his seat. Even though the performances of the people on the stage were barely decent, Vulture couldn’t help himself from becoming sleepy.
When he was planning to take a nap and have Bishop Darco wake him up when it’s Saintess Herolia’s turn...
Vulture was roused awake from his sleepiness by a near stifling aura of death.
“Impossible...”
Vulture stood up in alarm. He looked all around. A large amount of cold sweat covered his forehead. His body was shivering involuntarily.
“Vulture, your breathing is in a complete mess. What happened?”
Bishop Darco spoke to remind the legion commander to keep calm. He was also curious as to what could terrify an experienced legion commander like so.
“Bishop Darco, I am very sensitive toward the undead,” Completely exhausted, Vulture sat back down. He was still looking all around. It was like he just detected the arrival of a wild Godzilla.
No... if it was a giant dragon-type creature, Vulture was confident that he would be able to escape from it.
“I know,” said Bishop Darco.
“Since the beginning of the performance, there are fifteen Day Banshees in the theater. While they’re dangerous, they do not possess any malice. Most importantly, those Day Banshees are incapable of injuring Lady Saintess.”
An unsupressable sense of nervousness was present in Vulture’s voice. His back was already soaked in cold sweat.
It was impossible for ordinary undeads to cause harm to Saintess Herolia protected by the Holy Light. Furthermore, that outstanding knight Messai was also with her.
That was the reason why Vulture was able to calmly sit in the audience seat to enjoy the competition. But, just earlier... he felt a... terrifying aura behind the stage.
That aura of death far surpassed all the undeads Vulture came into contact before. It was as dense and intense as the vast ocean.
That was an undead comparable to the Sages of Norland! In fact... it might be even more powerful than the Sages!
“That Chaos Demon does not possess any contestants that could defeat Lady Saintess. Thus, he’s utilizing this sort of despicable method?”
After hearing Vulture’s explanation, Bishop Darco furiously grabbed his crutch. He intended to leave his seat to set off to rescue Herolia.
But, at this moment, Saintess Herolia walked out from the back of the stage completely unscathed.
Herolia’s attire was very simple. Her outfit couldn’t even compare to Messai’s white dress.
Furthermore, she looked like someone else. Nevertheless, her facial features still looked a bit similar so Bishop Darco was able to recognize her right away.
Apart from that, she looked like an ordinary girl next door.
“The saintess is... alright?”
Bishop Darco didn’t know what Saintess Herolia planned to do. Nevertheless, he heaved a sigh of relief after seeing her and stood up to stubbornly proceed toward the stage.
He did not trust the Chaos Demon...
That Chaos Demon was using the World’s Singer competition as a way to declare war against the Nation of the Holy Church. It was totally possible for him to place traps or do other despicable things to the saintess while she’s performing.
For example, he could refuse to give her accompanying music or deliberately make mistakes in her accompanying music.
Besides, Bishop Darco cannot accept allowing others to perform the accompanying music for the saintess!
“My name is Lia. I came from the Nation of the Holy Church.”
Herolia openly introduced herself to the audience.
“Nation of the Holy Church. Miss Lia, did you know that the citizens of Norland have a bad impression toward the Nation of the Holy Church?”
The person who asked that question was not Joshua. Instead, it was Gallolie.
After the Flower of Farucci experienced the burning of the Blackwood Forest incident, she acquired bone-deep hatred toward the Nation of the Holy Church.
Naturally, her hatred extended to the ordinary citizens of the Nation of the Holy Church too.
Unfortunately, Gallolie was unable to protect her home and avenge the sufferings with bows and arrows like the Blackwood Elves.
But, she knew very well that she had other weapons in her disposal — her charm and words as the Flower of Farucci.
Those weapons were given to her by none other than Joshua.
Sure enough, after Gallolie voiced her question, many posts calling into question this Miss Lia appeared on the mage forum.
The burning of the Blackwood Forest incident was dug back up by those with ulterior motives.
“Miss... Miss Gallolie, I... I have no knowledge of those things...”
Herolia’s tone sounded slightly afraid. She acted like an ignorant commoner living in the Nation of the Holy Church.
“Is that so?”
Gallolie did not continue to make things difficult for Herolia after seeing her ‘scared’ appearance.
If she did, she would look like a famous actress bullying a new talent.
Gallolie knew that if she was to do that, it would only be detrimental to her image.
“Miss Lia, correct?” Joshua did not expose the performance of the lady before him. Instead, he began to cooperate with her performance.
“Mn.”
Herolia nodded her head and smiled a very amiable smile.
She no longer resembled the aloof saintess of the Holy Church. Instead, she looked like an ordinary girl, a neighborhood girl one will encounter on the way out buying flowers or milk.
Her intimate persona was truly befitting of the theme of the World’s Singers.
Naturally, she answered Joshua’s question using her fake persona.
After she finished answering Joshua’s question and was about to begin her performance, she turned to the stage and made a gesture. She was indicating Bishop Darco to not make any reckless move. Then, using the ‘microphone’ Tylene handed her, she began to sing as the ordinary girl Lia.