Kiana- No, not really, yesterday was the first time I ever saw you. I’m not from here so that might explain it. However, would you mind telling me who you are? That way I can at least understand what’s happening.

  She removes her hands from Roxy's shoulders as she says this, it seems she has calmed down, so much so that her eyes no longer shine. Although she does have a worried look on her face, a genuine one at that.

  “(She doesn't know me and yet, she’s this worried about me? How is that even possible? How can you worry about someone that is a stranger to you?)”

  Roxy- That explains it then, but don’t worry I will tell you. At the end of the day, it’s nothing bad or anything of that sort, so you can relax. I’m Roxy Noir as you know. I’m an upcoming idol that goes by the name of Sona. I have done a few shows here and there however, my latest one was sponsored by Myra Roosevelt. Thanks to it I’ve gained quite a bit of popularity, while in the city I can easily walk around without getting recognized, I cannot say the same here, in the Academy. I’m hiding here because I want to be left alone, everywhere that I go, I get almost immediately recognized and with it, a crowd tends to follow me around, being a bother to those who are here.

  This easily explains everything then. And I do understand her, as the Hero I also have the tendency to be recognized in a fraction of a second, I don’t see it as a bad thing but, it can get overwhelming though, having several hundredths and sometimes even thousands of people surrounding you, carefully seeing every single move you make, carefully listening what you’re saying and so on. It’s too much sometimes. I just wanted to have a casual stroll around the capital, but that is impossible when you have a magnitude of people following you. Ah, just thinking about it, it is making me feel weird. Seriously, I can probably slay a Dragon but I can’t deal with a crowd of people. Enough talking about myself, as anyone can guess, Kiana is extremely excited as the thought of knowing a famous individual takes over her simple mind. Her worry sure went out the window. Though, her ignorance about the real world will quickly be shown to Roxy with her following ignorant set of questions.

  Kiana- So you’re famous! But what is an idol? Is it something that we can eat? A slang for famous people? Something else? I really have no clue what that means.

  “Eh? You don’t know what an Idol is?”

  For the first time ever, her face shows some emotions. Her eyes are somewhat wide open, but her pupils are small, the sheer shock is making them in that way. Her mouth opens a bit, but this only happens at first as the “Eh?” comes out of it, something that happens without even her noticing it. “How is this possible?” She might ask herself this. “How come in this day and age there is someone that does not know what an Idol is?” Another good question, although while we know that Kiana is from a village far from here, Roxy is still ignorant of that fact, so it’s more than normal her mind is unable to wrap around Kiana's ignorance.

  Kiana- Wait, am I so disconnected from the new trends? Really? I mean, I’m from a remote village quite far from here but I didn’t think I was so ignorant about these things!

  Roxy- Ye-yes, it’s a little weird that you don’t know what an Idol is, but don’t worry too much about it, I will tell you what it is. I think I should also put you up to date so that this does not happen anymore.

  “An Idol is…”

  And that’s when she hit the wall dead on with full speed, stopping right as she was about to spell out what an Idol is. I think it should be a simple answer, an Idol is simply a person that is admired, loved by other people. In some cases, they even are revered, depending on how popular they are and what they are popular for. As the Hero I think you can imagine how much of an “Idol” I am, even though I wouldn’t consider myself as such. Not much I can do in that regard, but enough of talking about myself, it seems this question is much harder than Roxy could ever imagine, or maybe it triggered something that it shouldn’t have? A memory for example.

  “What is an Idol? What am I, since I am one?”

  Hmm, you’re going way too deep into the question, but if I had to answer, when you ask an Idol what an Idol is, in a sense it’s the same thing as asking said person who she is. In my experience, to become an Idol you either are born as such or fake it until you make it. It’s a bit confusing, what do you mean by “born as such”?

  “Does that mean an Idol is already pre decided on birth?”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  See? That’s the confusing part, if you have a bubbly personality, one that gathers the attention to you from everyone near you, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that said person is admired, loved or maybe even revered. She was born with that personality, and therefore she has what it takes to be an Idol. You wouldn’t love someone that is evil right? In this case if you are evil, you simply need to fake it, to become good, someone that can be loved, admired and even revered.

  “I wasn’t born in such a way, with such a personality. Does that mean I’m faking it?”

  Roxy, you’re the only one that can answer that, but if we follow the logic, yes, you are. However, you are “one” of them, after all, you’re hiding from your fans. Now, is it because of the personality you were born with, or did you create such a personality? It’s not that easy to just say, “fake it until you make it” and at the same time, you don’t need to be the peak of good human nature to be an Idol. Let’s say a singer for example, if said person has an excellent voice, that alone will make her admired by many. She can easily be considered an Idol in that sense.

  “Wait a second. Does that mean anyone can be an Idol? Do you just need to be admired, loved or revered? Is that it?”

  Once again, if you follow the logic, yes, that is correct. The problem now is, becoming said person. Even if you are the peak of good human nature as I mentioned, if you are not recognized as such, you’re not an Idol. You have to have followers, one that sees you up there, above them, on a pedestal even. You are their “God”, someone so high up that they feel the need to follow. With this in mind, you can see that anyone can be an Idol. An actor can be an idol, an author can also be an Idol. These two for example are well common in this world, but an evil alchemist can also be one if he meets said requirements. Ah, quite the contradiction from what you just said. An evil person being an Idol? It is possible after all, this vast world is filled with bad people and even these people can admire, love and revere those who are evil, making them effectively Idols. It does not matter their morals, actions, professions, personalities, at the end, if they have followers, then most probable they can be considered Idols.

  “Then, what is an Idol?”

  Weren’t you listening to what you were thinking? Roxy, you circle back to the beginning. You have the answer at the tip of your tongue, just tell Kiana what you’re thinking. The pure definition of it and of course why you are one.

  “An Idols is… She is… I am…”

  And she’s unable to say it. The words are right there, ready to get out, but her mind is stopping them from coming out. Something is messing with her emotions, something that Kiana unfortunately riddle up with that simple question.

  “(Why can’t I answer this? Why are the words stuck in my mouth? Why am I having so much trouble answering her! Why!?)”

  The final trigger.

  Kiana- (Her magic output is increasing! But why? Is there something wrong with her? What happened?)

  Her face has changed, once emotionless is now filled with panic and despair. Her multi-coloured eyes are shining with said multicolours. But they do so in a patterned way, they first shine purple, blending into the blue colour right after that, then for last, blending into a grey colour. Just like Kiana noticed, this is thanks to her magic output, that in this case, it’s for the high side. Maybe it’s thanks to that Magic Core that her magic energy is that high, B rank even, however the true cause for this is nothing more than her current emotional state.

  “Gasp!”

  It’s hard to breathe so much so that she's doing her best to get air into her lungs by increasing the rate of her breath ins and outs consequently. Her heart beat of course follows the same pattern, increasing drastically the rate of it. The panic truly is consuming her as she can’t answer Kiana's question, but when despair overwhelms her, then everything collapses.

  “Oie! I found something! I think it is her!”

  Luckily or not, someone finds her, fully interrupting them once he got closer.

  Way to excited Fan- Ah! Ro-Sona-chan! How happy I am to see you- Who the heck are you!?

  As he was about to procrastinate himself before his god, something stops him from doing so. Although in this case it’s someone rather than something, the moment his way to happy eyes look at Kiana, his face quickly turns from a happy one into a somewhat angry one. As you can guess, Kiana simply looks at him with a confused look on her face as she has no clue why he’s acting this way. So much so that, she tilts her cute head a little bit sideways as she says this-

  Kiana- M-Me? Are you talking to me? I-I’m a friend of hers? Yeah, a friend, I think.

  Way to excited Fan- A friend of hers? Someone like you!? Wait a second... Two individuals behind a pillar… Basically touching each other… Hiding from everyone else… Yo-You! What are you doing to my Sona-chan! You thot! I will not let you take Sona-chan for yourself!

  Alright, is there any way that I can leave this narrator thingy for a second or so? It can be less than that, just allow me to punch this one in the face. Seriously, after that I will happily revert back to normal. What do you mean by thot!? Just look at our Kiana for crying out loud! Argh! The people in this Academy are so rude! Whatever, quite the misunderstanding is about to happen. As he puts the “pieces” together, once he fully understands what possibly has happen between them, furry and anger starts to contaminate his thoughts, his emotions, so much so that he “screams” at her right at the end.

  “Guys! I found her! Follow my voice and you will meet your goddess!”

  As loudly as he can, he shouts with everything he has. He’s calling for his “comrades” who do arrive rather quickly, just a few seconds after he shouts. However, this does somewhat bring back Roxy to reality, though she’s unable to do anything as they were far too quick and there are far too many of them, blocking any possible exit in case she wanted to run for example. In other words, they are surrounded.