Chapter 31

Exposé Stream

By the time I entered, the stream had already been going for quite a while. I could not exactly ask her to start over just because I had arrived, so I had to piece together the situation from the reactions flowing through chat.

“Since a lot of new people have joined, I’ll explain a little more.”

In the middle of that, I heard something welcome. Rine, no, Ms. Seorin... had rewound the story, at least a little.

“...As I said before, until recently, I was in the same group chat as these people.”

Her voice was very calm. Maybe a little gloomy too.

Ms. Seorin at the riding center had been more lively. She had always answered my questions well too.

-She’s an accomplice, an accomplice

-What the hell even is this situation

-You idiots shut up, Rine’s talking

-What does chatting have to do with listening?

-What’s with that ending? Is this bastard from Ilbe?

-Chat is a complete mess

“They were all people who had gathered to bring down a streamer named Lilith. I was among them too. That’s why I know everything. The contract going around the internet right now, the audio recording too, all of it was made by those people—no, by us.”

“...What?”

Sis, my head just went blank.

Wow. I made a joke, but I really did get dizzy for a moment.

Who in the world could have predicted a situation like this?

So this person, Ms. Seorin, my riding instructor, had been one of the people tearing into me? And now she was exposing it herself?

What the hell is going on?

Why is she suddenly stepping forward on her own and revealing everything? With her face exposed too.

-Huh? Who is that woman

-Princess, you’re watching this, right

-Someone from inside is exposing them?

-But why is she exposing them?

-Who? Knows?

My viewers seemed just as confused as I was.

“I’ll show you definite evidence, so you can look and judge for yourselves.”

Before we could find an answer, Ms. Seorin continued speaking.

Click. Click. Click.

At the same time, her hands moved nonstop, bringing up materials one after another on the screen.

“These are chat logs I saved while I was still in that group chat.”

Soon, screenshots filled the screen.

They contained embarrassing material in full.

Who would post what on which community, how they would steer public opinion using alternate accounts, how they would bury rebuttal comments when they appeared.

“Huh...”

As I read, I became so dumbfounded that a sigh escaped me without realizing it.

I mean, how could it not?

Things I had thought were suspicions that had spread naturally had actually been planned one by one inside that tiny group chat.

Maybe every conspiracy theory and suspicion in the world is made this way?

Shiver shiver. The internet really is terrifying. I think I am starting to understand why Ms. Sejin keeps saying she will ban me from the internet.

And then came the decisive part.

The discussion about forging the contract.

The discussion about stitching voices together to make a fake recording.

Who was assigned to that work.

Even the specific progress reports were all there.

“As you can see, these people—no, we—made up facts that did not exist from the very beginning. To begin with, the streamer Lilith does not even accept donations. In other words, she has no revenue.”

-Maybe they’re trying to grow her size first and get ads?

-We already refuted that shit

-Came late so I missed it, sorry sorry

“So there was no reason for some slave contract or anything like that in the first place. We were just jealous that Lilith was doing well.”

-What if that woman made all of this herself?

-Fake fake fakey-fake

-Are you connected to Lilith? Why are you taking her side

-Where’s the evidence, the evidence

-You idiots, she’s been showing evidence this whole time

-Yep fake, nice try

The chat was filling with messages denying Ms. Seorin’s story. There were probably plenty of alternate accounts belonging to Seira’s group mixed in among them.

But no matter how much they struggled, they could not reverse the tide.

They were swept away by the wave—no, the tsunami—created by Ms. Seorin’s concrete evidence.

-Wait, this actually looks real

-Look at the dates, those screenshots are from before the fabrications

-So that contract was fake?

-Wow, I got fooled lol they went this far against a little kid

The people who until yesterday had been burning with righteous anger and cursing me—no, the adults behind me(?)—were now using that exact same sense of justice to curse Seira’s group instead.

No matter how I thought about it, public opinion was terrifying and ridiculous.

Yesterday they had driven me into a corner like they wanted me dead, and today they were rushing to the opposite side as if none of that had ever happened.

Maybe people do not actually want the truth. Maybe they just want a justification to side with someone or curse someone.

Well, at least at this moment, I was fortunate that their fickleness was on my side.

“From now on, I—.”

As I stared blankly at the scene, I suddenly realized one thing.

Even while exposing every ugly act committed by Seira’s group, Ms. Seorin had not said a single word about who Lilith really was.

That I was Lili-chan, or that I was the girl who went to the riding center. She must know.

And yet she had kept completely silent about that part.

In other words, she was definitely on my side.

Thinking about it, it was really ironic.

A person who had been tearing into me not long ago was now putting her own face on the line to protect me.

I had not even asked her to. We were just in a business relationship where we saw each other twice a week at the riding center.

“Haa...”

One corner of my chest felt strangely warm. Had anyone ever gone this far for me before?

After showing all the evidence she could, Ms. Seorin quietly steadied her breathing.

“That’s everything I can show you. The judgment is yours.”

Then she smiled quietly. It was a smile that looked relieved somehow, but also lonely.

Seeing that smile, my fingers moved without me realizing it.

Originally, I had planned to do nothing. The kind old maid had said so, and Ms. Sejin had too. Do not step forward, staying quiet is better. And in reality, they had been right.

But after Ms. Seorin had gone this far, after she had put her streaming career on the line and sat there barefaced because of me—.

It did not feel right for me, the person benefiting from all of it, to say nothing and move on.

- What a devoted subject.

Ms. Seorin’s chatroom froze for an instant, then began flying upward at a crazy speed.

-Holy shit Lilith is here

-She actually came????

-The person involved appeared, damn damn damn damn

-She’s been watching the stream from the start

-lololol she’s staying in character even here

- This body shall never forget the heart that led you to step forward and brave danger for my sake. This body has witnessed your courage clearly.

Ms. Seorin stared at my message for a long while, then gave a faint smile through the screen.

“Lilith, you came. Thank you.”

Then she lightly bowed her head toward the camera.

“I’m going to end the stream now. Ah, and let me say this in advance. I didn’t come back today. I only turned the stream on briefly to tell this story.”

So that was why.

That was why she had turned the stream on as Lee Seorin with her bare face, instead of as the VTuber Rine.

“As you can see, I’ve disabled all donations today too. I wasn’t trying to gain anything from this. I just... wanted to correct a moment in my life that I was ashamed of.”

Ms. Seorin, who had been speaking calmly, suddenly glanced at the number in the corner of the screen and chuckled.

“Still, this is really strange. It’s the first time this many people have ever come to my stream. Normally, I barely had fifty viewers.”

The viewer count on Ms. Seorin’s stream had already passed seven thousand. So many people had flooded in that the stream was stuttering every now and then.

“My last stream in life is this crowded, so... I guess it feels good.”

With those words—.

Ms. Seorin’s stream quietly went dark.

For a while, I stared at the black screen.

Her last stream in life.

Ms. Seorin really intended to quit streaming with this.

And because of something that had started with me.

“Ah...”

I felt strange.

Grateful, apologetic. Like I should not just leave things like this—.

That kind of feeling.

“That shall be all for today, my subjects. This body too has something to put in order.”

I left a shorter farewell than usual and ended the stream without even checking the reaction.

One thought had already settled in my mind.

That group called Seira or whatever was not made up of people who would quietly back down here. They would definitely try to take out their anger on Ms. Seorin somehow.

There are plenty of people in this world who never look at their own mistakes and only blame others.

If that happened, Ms. Seorin would be the one in danger next.

I absolutely could not stand by and watch someone who stepped forward for me get hurt because of me.

And did I not have enough power to prevent that?

I immediately opened my door, went out, and found Ms. Sejin.

“Ms. Sejin.”

“Yes, Miss. I watched the stream. That... surprised me. Your riding instructor was—.”

“Me too.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Please contact her now. I want to speak with her.”

Ms. Sejin looked at me for a moment, then silently nodded and called somewhere.

“Yes. Yes. That person’s number, please.”

“What? Thank you. Yes. The name should be Lee Seorin.”

“Yes. Please connect me immediately.”

After a few quiet exchanges, Ms. Sejin held out the phone.

“You’re connected.”