Moving In

Cassie continued to chat with the duo as they moved Ember's stuff onto the cart, and they found out that all three of them were going to share some classes.

Cassie and Ember were going to be first-years at the college, and would mainly be taking their generals courses.

Elric was a second-year, but still had a number of generals to finish, some of which he shared with the two girls.

Once they had all of Ember's stuff gathered onto the cart, Elric grabbed a violin that was laying by the side.

"Ember, you said that you play piano, too? We have one at home already, I'll show you when we get back."

Cassie's eyebrows perked up as she saw the violin and heard them talking.

"Wait, are you two musicians?"

"Ember is. I can play the piano, but I'm going to be focusing on management for her, it's what my father did as well."

"Nice, let me know whenever you're playing, I'll come and watch!"

Having gathered all of Ember's belongings, they headed back down to the hotel lobby. Just as they were leaving the elevator, a managerial-looking person walked briskly over to the group, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Cassie, what are you doing?! Didn't I assign you to help Ed today?"

She gave a small bow, then waved her hand toward Ember and Elric.

"I'm sorry sir, I was helping these kind customers move their stuff."

The manager looked between Cassie and the duo, an indifferent yet annoyed expression on his face.

"More like chatting with your friends. Head back over to help Ed right away."

After sending Cassie away, the manager let out a long sigh.

"Sorry about that, I'd normally let my workers chat with customers as much as they want, but I'm really short-staffed right now. Are the two of you able to handle that cart?"

The manager didn't give them a chance to respond before speaking again.

"Please bring it back once you're done. I don't want to-"

A phone began ringing near the lobby's desk, and the manager glanced up. There were no workers heading over to pick it up.

"Ugh, where did the secretary go?! Damn it!"

Ignoring Ember and Elric, the manager ran over and picked up the line.

"... Well then. Was it like this the entire time you were staying here?"

Ember shook her head.

"I don't think so, or at least not that I noticed. Let's just bring this out to the car, I can lift everything here."

~

~

Two days later.

Elric leaned in toward his computer screen, scanning through lines of text.

'Here. This Angeline girl will be performing this Tuesday… that'll be during the time Ember is away at home.'

Elric glanced out into the hallway, then clicked into a video on his computer. He'd already seen it a few times, but watching it again still made his fists curl in anger.

"You're trying to steal my time? Who do you think you are?"

A shaky video taken from within a crowd captured the interaction between a small group of performers and a bar staff member.

On one side, a beautiful blonde girl wearing a fine red dress stood alone.

"If you look at the times-"

"I'm talking with my fans. It's a lot better than forcing them to listen to whatever banshee shrieks you have to offer, right?"

Alha Nulstaya, one of the top young singers of the WStar agency, scoffed as she looked down at Ember.

"I- I booked time-"

Another girl standing with Nulstaya stepped forward, disgust evident on her face.

"Your voice is probably as hideous as that ugly dress you're wearing. Ugh, I can't imagine touching trash like that, let alone wearing it as clothing."

Now that Elric had looked into the matter, he was able to identify this second girl. It was Angeline.

The two agency singers continued insulting Ember, and the crowd went right along with them. Their jeering drowned out anything Ember tried to say, and Elric could see tears welling up in the girl's eyes.

Just before the video cut off, Elric could see Ember covering up her face and running off the stage.

Closing the video, his eyes wandered back to his notepad, where he'd written down the date and location of her next gig.

'Well, I don't have too much in terms of resources right now. I could ask The Boys for help… I think I can handle this on my own, though.'

Getting up from his chair, Elric made his way to the garage, then started rummaging through some boxes placed in a back corner.

The Melov family's garage was much larger than what was needed to store the one car they owned, and Peliston utilized the extra space for storage.

Much of what was sitting in there was regular stuff one might find in any random storage, but tucked away in the back were some tools that he'd used back when he was climbing the entertainment ladder.

'Pops hasn't explained much of this stuff to me, but I have been able to figure out a few things…'

Elric grinned as he found the item he was looking for. Withdrawing his hand from within one of the boxes, he pulled out a small chain of flat weights.

'There's no such thing as overboard in the entertainment industry, right? I can use these as a follow-up, but I should do something more direct… hm. Something to mess with their performance in some way.'

Elric opened the car door and tossed the weight chain inside as he brainstormed more ways to mess with Angeline's next performance.

When he walked back into the family room, Ember was walking around and seemed to be looking for him.

"Ah, Elric! We should be getting ready to go, right? You said that your friend would be getting us clothes for our date, right?"

The girl blushed a bit as she finished speaking, her face looking like a cute little tomato.

"Ah, yep. We should start heading over there pretty soon. Let's take the car-"

"Nope. I'm going to be using it."

A deeper yet hollow voice rang out from the hallway behind Ember, and she jumped in fright.

"Mr. Melov! Good morning!"

Peliston waved his hand to Ember, continuing to walk toward the garage.

"Good morning, Ember. You kids will have to find another ride, I've got some business to attend to. I might not be back for a couple of days."

Peliston placed a hand on Elric's shoulder as he walked past.

"Don't do anything irresponsible. If you are going to do something dumb, do it well."

Pausing for a moment, Peliston turned around and walked back to where Ember was standing.

Leaning in, he spoke in a low voice.

"I know you're leaving in a couple of days, but while you're here, make sure he doesn't do anything too outrageous."

Peliston's eyes didn't look quite as empty as normal as he winked.

"I don't want to die without any grandchildren, so please take good care of my son."

Elric sighed as he saw Ember's face turn bright red again. The girl muttered something too quietly for Elric to hear, and his father grinned.

"Pops, please don't say weird things to her. We're just going to a party together, not getting married. You don't need to worry about anything."

"Just helping you out, kiddo. I'm going to head out now, I don't want to leave an old friend waiting. Good luck, love you."

"Thanks, Dad, love you too."

After Peliston departed, Elric turned back to Ember.

"Sorry about that. He… seems a lot happier now, though. These past few days, he's been way more talkative. Thank you for being here, it seems to be cheering him up."

"Mm! It's been super fun staying here for me, too!"

Pulling up her phone, Ember started searching for something.

"I'll call for a cab, we'll need to leave right away if we want to make it in time to be fitted for our new clothes."

Elric nodded, and a few minutes later, the couple headed out for the clothing store.