Epilogue 1

Eichi: —And so it seems that Gatekeeper has withdrawn back overseas without any further issue.

Yuzuru: Hm. It all feels rather anticlimactic. Can we really trust that information?

Eichi: You’re awfully suspicious of this, Yuzuru.

Yuzuru: The intelligence came from Ran Nagisa-sama, correct? Whether it was a lie or a prank, he was blamed for the abduction of my master—

No. I cannot blindly trust someone who used my master for his own schemes.

Eichi: “Scheme” is a rather uncouth way of putting it. Nagisa-kun was protecting Tori.

It’s similar to how Gatekeeper protected Anzu-chan during the Qualifying Rounds.

Yuzuru: So you mean to say that it wasn’t entirely out of good will, then. He was also holding him as a hostage to use against us?

In the event that we double-crossed him, he would harm the hostage; under those threats, we had no choice but to comply.

Eichi: In the case of Anzu-chan, I had to make a painful choice.

After all, Gatekeeper had already secured his place as the chairman of the SS Administration Committee.

Before we could even detect Gatekeeper’s presence and intervene, he had shamelessly taken control of the P Association and trapped Anzu-chan, as one of its members, like a bird in a cage.

She headed off to work as normal, arrived the conference room, and found the mafia waiting there for her. It was a true disaster for her.

Yuzuru: Hm. And you belatedly realized the situation Anzu-san was in and negotiated with him to ensure her safety after the fact, correct?

Eichi: Yes. It seems that the incident made Gatekeeper quite fond of Anzu-chan.

Even if I hadn’t stepped in, he may have ended up treating her well regardless.

Did you hear? Gatekeeper allegedly handed Anzu-chan a card loaded with a considerable amount of money before he left the country.

It’s no excuse for the trouble he caused, though.

And of course, Anzu-chan said she was uncomfortable holding onto so much money and gave it to me.

She thought I would know how to put it to good use.

I gratefully accepted it. I’m considering running it through my bank account to clean it up and then funnel it back into ES—into other idols.

No matter how dirty, money is money; I’ll make sure it’s used wisely. I suppose this is Gatekeeper’s New Year’s gift to us, hm?

Fufu. He must have taken quite the liking to Anzu-chan for him to hand her that amount of money without hesitation.

Perhaps he just enjoys her rebellious nature? Once you reach a certain status, few people are willing to oppose you like that.

Yuzuru: You also love a good challenge, Eichi-sama.

Eichi: Not quite. I enjoy preying on those who put their hearts and souls into challenging me; it forces me to get stronger.

Actually, Gatekeeper was a formidable foe, the likes of which I hadn’t met before. I got a suitably great return on that.

I won’t go so far as to say I’m grateful, but I can at least ensure that this experience was worthwhile.

It will take a long time before any others who were under threat feel the same way, though...

The scars left by that mafioso’s malice and violence are great.

Still, we must heal those wounds and continue moving forward.

Fortunately, the disaster passed in the mildest way possible. Now all that remains is reconstruction and the prosperity that follows.

The groundwork for it is already laid. SANCTUARY will be the exemplar, but we’ve sown the seeds for it nationwide through SS, as well.

Now we only need water it and provide it nutrients and water until it blooms. Of course, we’ll need to remove pests and prevents disasters which both weaken the soul, like we did this time.

Yuzuru: Yes. This situation has indeed been a great disaster. One such as myself can hardly begin to grasp the full picture.

Eichi: Fufu. I am no god, and I don’t know everything.

However, I can say that this series of events was simply a conflict between the Watchdog and the Priest.

In other words, the foreign mafioso we know as Gatekeeper, and the root cause of the deep-seated corruption that has plagued the entertainment industry, so called the Priest.

We idols were merely swept up in the battle between these massive, evil monsters.

But this is all just conjecture. The Priest was the one who made the first move: He wanted to take control of the idol industry, which has become a great giant since ES’s establishment.

He manipulated those with power in the industry under his influence, and those in charge of ES, from the shadows, distorting this year’s SS, probably to suit his own goals.

His plan was to conquer the nation through SS, boosting the event’s popularity so as to reap a handsome profit. At the same time, he intended to make sure the idols convenient to him would make it through the Qualifying Rounds.

After that, he he would make contact with the surviving idols and mold them into his pawns.

Well, originally he only wanted idols who could be made into puppets like that to advance.

Yuzuru: But we, being both unreadable and uncontrollable, ignored that Priest person’s goals and ended up advancing to the Finals.

Eichi: Exactly. It must have troubled the Priest greatly, because the fruits he thought he would be harvesting someday turned out to be poisoned apples that gave him a rash with just a touch.

Yuzuru: Not all of them, strictly speaking.

A few obedient idols, the ones that the Priest would find manageable, made it through. Take ALKALOID or Ra*bits, for example.

Eichi: Even so, he was still unable to make use of them.

And this is because those fields he had taken great pains to cultivate were under threat by the storm we call Gatekeeper.

The evil being had his sights on the fruit-laden tree of the idol industry and schemed to reap the harvest for himself.

Employing the methods of the mafia, he sought to squeeze all of the juice from each idol.

He attempted to exploit them through coercion and snatching up their profits.

At the very least, I suspect that Gatekeeper intended to do nothing more than that at first.

Wherever great profits can be made, those inhabitants of the underworld will be lured in that direction.

It is, unfortunately, a tale well told. And so I thought this was the general premise of the situation in the beginning.

But for Gatekeeper, it seems that sniffing out the Priest and disposing of him took priority of whatever profits could be gained.