Research Purposes

After a few moments, the girl released Elric, taking a few steps back.

"Right, I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Ember Extinguished!"

"..."

Ember shook her head rapidly.

"My parents just have a really terrible sense of humor. My grandfather was a fireman, hence the odd last name."

Elric nodded.

"You probably got bullied a lot as a kid."

"Yeah… wait, why did that vaguely sound like an insult?"

Elric rubbed at his forehead as he turned and started walking toward the kitchen.

'Urg, that was kinda bad. Normal, polite, hard-working Elric is making his return today!"

After opening the fridge and locating a jug of strawberry-flavored milk, he raised it up for Ember to see.

"Want some too? My pops says strawberry milk helps soothe the vocal cords."

Seeing the girl nod her head, Elric poured a second glass. After handing it over to her, he decided that it was time for them to discuss their future plans.

"Alright, so you want to be a singer, right? Judging by that guitar, you can play that as well."

Ember nodded her head.

"Yep! I can play guitar, piano, and violin. I think I'm better at singing than playing, though."

She paused for a second, glancing down at the instrument she brought with her.

"When I looked up your company, it looked like all of the talents you employ now are in fields other than entertainment."

After the death of his mother a few years ago, Peliston moved away from the industry. There were still plenty of opportunities to sponsor or manage other ventures, and he still had a large stockpile of money left from his huge success in the past.

Nowadays, he was mainly focused on horse races but failed to see much success there.

"It's fine, our main focus was on singing when I was growing up. I should know enough about it to handle whatever that trashy WStar company throws at us!"

Ember grinned as she heard Elric's words.

"Awesome! Uh, are you able to schedule something for this week? I'm going back home to visit my parents, and I really wanted to be able to show off how my singing has been going."

Elric frowned, but he quickly remembered that one of the local members of the group chat he frequented owned a bar in town.

"I think I can make something happen… Follow me, I'll show you my office space."

Elric started walking toward his room, Ember following right behind him.

His office also served as his bedroom, and as he walked, something occurred to him.

'This is the first time a girl will have been in my room, aside from mom. Hmm, everyone on the chat would attack me if they heard about this.'

Elric wasn't worried about there being anything bad or embarrassing in his room. He always kept it in a spotlessly clean state.

Having an organized room was paramount to being productive.

Not that he was.

As soon as he walked inside and saw the display on his monitor, though, he instantly realized that his confidence was misplaced.

The chat was still open, but instead of discussing the viability of harems, they were now having an in-depth, descriptive debate on the content of the images shared in the R18 channel.

"So this is your room..."

Ember started looking around, admiring how neatly everything was organized. There was a small bookshelf in one corner, packed tightly with books on business management and the entertainment industry. 

The bed was made neatly with the corners tucked in, and there was a small brown stuffed bear proper upright on the pillow. 

While Ember was wandering around, Elric rushed over to the computer, swiftly changing to a different channel before she could see the content of the chat. 

"Ehm... please forget if you saw any of that."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Ember turned back to look at Elric, and the young man let out a sigh of relief as he realized that she hadn't seen anything.

"Ehm... never mind."

After sending a quick "SFW" warning into the general chat, everyone who'd been part of the conversation swiftly erased the entire thread. A torrent of pottery and botany-related messages flooded the chat, firmly drowning the remnants of the previous conversation.

Once the channel was clear, Elric reopened it once again.

–General Chat–

SecretlyKind: @Lordof.grassless You own a bar? I need a spot for a singer, tonight or tomorrow.

After a few moments, Elric received a response.

Lordof.grassless: @SecretlyKind I do, and I've actually got an open spot in an hour. Are you tryin to sing for us?

The Milkman Delivers: Yo, Kind singing? I'll head over to watch that!

+1

+1

A string of messages quickly followed behind the last message, prompting Elric's brow to furrow. He quickly responded that he was working with a client, and everyone's interest quickly evaporated. Aside from a few lingering jokes about whether he was telling the truth about actually having a client, the chat went mostly dead.

SecretlyKind: Alright, 5 pm then? I'll have my singer over there.

Someone reacted to his message with a custom laughing emoji, and within a few seconds, the number of reactions shot up to almost twenty.

The number of lurkers that could be present at any time was unfathomable.

Turning away from his screen, Elric gave a thumbs-up to Ember. The girl seemed to have spaced out as she looked at the bookcase.

"See? I got you booked for a stage on the southern side of the city in an hour! Maybe I really am cut out for this management stuff!"

'Shit, there is a bit of a problem, though. If traffic is bad, the ride might take close to an hour just to get down there… and I haven't even heard Ember sing yet! What if she's terrible? Even if no one else comes to watch, Grassless is a bit of a prick! He'll probably record it, then never let me live it down.'