Young Lily hated being in debt to someone.
Even though she was at an age where she could pout and take a lot, Lily always wanted to repay others.
And that was the same for me.
Of course, I didn’t try to repay everyone to the extent Lily did, but I still made an effort to do my best.
“I’ve supported the poor… no, the unfortunate residents of the Northern Kingdom, so let’s heal our people.”
“If that’s done, then the evil monsters in the West…”
“Done? … If I have some time left, I’ll just…”
“I decline.”
All I could do to repay was uphold my duties as a Saintess and the responsibilities of being ‘the same’ human.
I never strayed even slightly from those two.
Instead, if I couldn’t pay the full price, I focused more on human relief efforts.
…Looking back now, it seems a bit foolish.
■
Beep beep-! Beep beep-! Beep beep-!
“……”
An alarm rings.
I had never broken my waking time, except for when I returned to the modern world and drank myself to sleep.
I groggily get up and turn off the alarm.
The newly bought alarm blared loudly, but stopped crying when a small white hand started to pet my head.
It calmed down.
7:05 AM.
It’s the time I always get up.
“Ugh…!”
What time did I stay up until yesterday?
After the Greatsword Couple, I played a few more rounds, ended the stream after a brief chat with Yena.
Excluding the first round with an archer and shield combo, which seemed like an account for casual play, it wasn’t very fun.
When everyone met us, they acted overly friendly as fans, or quickly gave up on the matches if they looked like they would lose.
Were they here for a match or some fan meeting?
Meeting people who liked me wasn’t bad, but I came for a match, and the other side had no intentions of having one, so it was bound to be boring.
Should I really try a siege war once?
“…Hmm.”
I got up and vaguely opened the cupboard in the kitchen.
I poured some cornflakes I bought before into a bowl and opened the small fridge to add some milk.
Carrying the still crispy cornflakes to the monitor, I took a bite.
The crunchiness and the coolness of the milk distinctly filled my mouth.
It’s delicious.
The cooking here was just millet porridge.
And it tasted terrible.
There was absolutely nothing.
“Tr… Itch.”
I entered the Itch.
The message box was still piled high.
Only the Itch operator knows if +999 really means 999 or 9999, but everyone knows that nobody wants to open it.
For now, I set aside the message box and carelessly entered my channel that was more like abandoned than anything else.
“Wow.”
Has it been only 5 days? 6 days? My channel, which just started, has over 80,000 followers.
The channel had no image or branding, just the two characters that read “Lily,” and below were videos to re-watch the broadcasts.
“View count… 500,000?”
Why is it so high?
It’s just an unedited 7 to 8-hour raw video.
Suddenly, the Newtube videos I had broadcasted flooded my mind.
Even without any editing, they easily racked up hundreds of thousands of views, and Yena’s videos exceeded 10 million.
At the time, I thought that was normal since the local artists and writers took inspiration from my face and stories, so I didn’t think much of it.
“…My money?”
That place had a vague sense of copyright, and since they couldn’t live life otherwise, they let it slide.
After all, just because I was selling my face doesn’t mean I was wearing out.
But now, it’s different.
Among those uploading Newtube videos, there might be some struggling, but at least those people came to meet me at least once to ask for permission.
That means they didn’t just sell my face and stories without asking.
After much thought, I decided to contact Yena through the Discord account I got from her.
When it comes to the broadcasting aspects, Yena probably knows a lot better than I do, so I should seek her opinion.
■
“So, I guess we should extend it to five parts—”
-Why? Sis?
“Hold on, I’m on the phone with Lady Lily. Take a break.”
Yena, who was in a meeting about the Newtube videos related to Lily, received a Discord call from her.
The meeting was important, but the subject of the meeting was Lily, after all.
Of course, she had to answer when the topic of the call was right in front of her.
As we moved to the Discord room, a round icon with no profile picture appeared on the screen.
“I guess speaking of the devil makes him come. We were just talking about Lady Lily.”
─What were you talking about?
“Oh, it was about the Newtube. The video with Lady Lily…”
Yena stopped right there.
He stopped talking.
By the way, does Lady Lily know she’s on NewTube?
Well, the content itself is made for NewTube, and since we paid for it in advance, I didn’t bother saying anything.
“Ah, by the way, do you know about NewTube?”
─Yeah, I’ve seen a video or two.
So you have. Then I should ask about borrowing Lady Lily’s screen, as the editor mentioned.
Using only Yena’s screen would make the editing loose; we needed Lady Lily’s screen with her various activities in the tournament.
After sending a Discord message to the editor saying, “It should be possible,” Yena asked.
“So, what’s going on?”
─There are many people uploading my face on NewTube without my permission.
Yena froze.
Coffee paused mid-sip.
That chilling sensation.
─If it were just one or two people, I could let it slide, but there are too many.
“Uh…”
No way… Is she hinting at something?
Why are you uploading without permission?
Yena’s hands trembled.
No matter how close she and Lily were in broadcasts, Lily was still a famous figure with countless offers from other guilds and channels.
Right now, she was likely to join her guild, “-Yen-,” but what if their relationship soured?
She’d leave that behind and join a well-supported guild like the Angel Guild, climbing the ranks.
‘That can’t happen!’
Yena barely set down her coffee on the table with her shaking hands.
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It might be a shame to give up on millions of views, but if she wanted Lady Lily, some sacrifices had to be made.
“Um… about NewTube. If you don’t want it, it can be taken down. I wasn’t going to just upload it, I, um, was going to ask first…”
─Huh? Why would that be?
“What? Isn’t it that you don’t want it going up without permission?”
Wasn’t that why she brought it up?
After about three seconds, Lily burst into laughter.
Not mocking or sarcastic, but genuinely amused.
How could her voice sound so good, too?
What a cheat of a person.
─You’ve already broadcast with me, Miss Yena. You’ve been paid. There’s nothing for you to worry about.
“Ah… so it’s really about other people…?”
─Yeah. I want to handle it, but I have no knowledge in this area, so I was hoping to get some advice.
Yena sighed and took another sip of coffee.
‘If it’s that, then…’
In fact, Yena had also been somewhat concerned about the issue.
It was a somewhat concerning issue.
No matter how much Lily disregarded NewTube and seemed clueless, it was excessive how many of her videos were being used.
As for herself, she had broadcasted with Lily, paid her, and just a moment ago, she got permission, right?
However, there were people who didn’t even know Lily and were using her videos for their own gain since the views were sweet.
About 30% of the recent Korean Deoen videos might as well be all Lily’s videos.
“I’ll check with the company about that. Deoen has some deep ties with NewTube and Twitch, so we can maybe resolve it through copyright issues.”
─ Is that really possible?
“Yes. Other famous streamers and NewTubers do it too. They either take down the videos due to copyright issues or take most of the profits.”
─ They take away the profits?
“There are those who put in a lot of effort into editing out of fandom. Usually, it’s about a 90-10 split.”
In reality, many NewTubers prefer splitting it 90-10 rather than just taking down the videos.
From the NewTubers’ perspective, it’s like winning a lottery, and from the creators’ perspective, even 10% is a win.
That 10% from a celebrity is worth ten times more than a small NewTuber’s—a whopping 30-40 times more, actually.
Those with good editing skills often get hired as official editors.
“Anyway, you really don’t need to worry about that too much. It might not be a bad idea for Lady Lily to start her own NewTube channel. The reason so many are coming out is that she doesn’t have an official one now.”
─ Thank you. If there’s anything Miss Yena needs help with, please let me know anytime. I’ll help out wherever I can.
“Well, I didn’t ask for help…”
And speaking of which, she had a request about the Black Moon.
Yena recalled the request she had received two days ago.
They asked her to check the location of the new dungeon and guild supplies, just to ask whether she would accept it or not.
“Do you have any interest in participating in the Siege War?”
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
