Melée 3

Eichi: If we could make use of L$ from the beginning, we would have had an unfair advantage for being so wealthy.

In using SSL$ for the duration of the Qualifying Rounds, idols could be compared based on merit, fair and square.

It puts everyone at the same starting point to measure the distance they can run—to measure how much money they can earn in this fixed period.

SSL$ was the mise-en-scène used to measure that.

In short, the SS Administration Committee set the measurable standard of each idol’s value as how much profit they could turn.

The higher the returns, the better the idol. That’s, well, just a reality for a modern capitalistic society.

Keito: Your face says you don’t agree with that in the slightest, Eichi.

Eichi: I understand the theory behind it. Actually, it’s rather easy to understand. It’s up to each individual to decide the value of idols.

But ES is a company, and companies seek profit. So basing the standard around money is easier to grasp than other, vague concepts.

Love, beauty, fantasies, brilliance—these sorts of things.

Keito: Hm. Where the value of idols once meant a variety of things, it has been simplified to the point that the best idols is now the one who wins a Dream Fest—

We created that hostile system, so we have no right to complain about it. I didn’t expect it to be so unpleasant when we got caught up in a similar system, though. I’ll have to reflect on this.

Eichi: It’s karma, in our case. ...Well, enough of that.

The upper echelons at ES may so innocently believe that this is a fair judgment of an idol’s merit.

But in reality, it’s far from it. The SSL$ we idols worked so hard to earn during the Qualifying Rounds, that vast amount of wealth—

It never actually disappeared when the competition ended.

It’s been collected and stored away by the Administration.

The amount accumulated is so astronomical that it would make anyone with a normal perspective—Mashiro-kun, for example—dizzy just hearing about it.

Tomoya: ...What’s so bad about being normal, huh?

Eichi: I’m praising you, actually. Somehow or another, we too often forget that sense of perspective.

But normal people understand the value of money.

The industry is different. During the economic bubble, entertainers could make paper airplanes out of all their excess money and let them fly.

With only that slip of paper, they could save the lives of starving orphans in faraway nations.

What a tragedy that it all went to people who didn’t know the value of their money, or how to use it properly.

Natsume: Perhaps the rest of the world thinks the same of you, who invested your money into the construction of a giant building for idols.

Eichi: How harsh. I’ll allow future historians to decide whether I am of the same caliber as those nouveau riche burning cash just to warm their feet.

In any case, that vast amount of money we all earned during the Qualifying Rounds will not simply left to sit in the pockets of ES.

I, for one, would like to see it fund ES’s future activities, among other things.

However, that entire quantity will be distributed fairly among the winning team at the SS Finals as prize money.

By “fairly,” though, I don’t mean an even distribution. Rather, it will be doled out in proportion to the number of votes we receive: one vote equals ten thousand yen, or something to that tune.

Tomoya: Umm... so if the winner is determined by popular vote, and the max number of possible votes in each live showdown is around a hundred million...

And one vote is ten thousand yen, so a hundred million votes is, like, one, two, three...

Huh? Th–that’s like, the equivalent of our national budget?!

Are you sure we should have access to that kind of money?!

Eichi: Fufu. There is a system in place to hoard votes, so it’s possible that we earn even more than one hundred million votes.

Hokuto: And it’s not just a single vote per person, either. Members have their votes multiplied by a hundred.

They probably want to line their pockets with membership fees. It gives me the impression of a cult religion.

Keito: ...As a man of religion, let me give you some advice: don’t generalize religions as being bad. It’s just par for the course that a company has a system in place for making money.

It’s no different from paying a monthly fee for access to unlimited eBooks. More or less.

Tomoya: (Hasumi-senpai’s metaphors are pretty down-to-earth and easy to understand.)

Eichi: Fufu, the single vote for ten thousand yen is just an example, anyway. The more votes you get, the more exorbitant your payout will be.

Hokuto: Of course. So long as you belong to the winning team, that is.

Eichi: Yes. If you lose, you get nothing. You’ll have been working entirely for free. So I’d like to win, if at all possible.

The winners will see paradise, while the losers will toil in vain—this is the foundation on which the SS Finals rest. If in the end you are on the winner’s podium, you’ll receive a massive amount of prize money—

At ES, we need L$ to do anything related to idol work, so this will make it exceedingly easy to continue our activities.

Winning SS would be an impressive boost to our careers.

And the one who conquers SS with the most votes of all will become so powerful that even the management level at ES will be unable to oppose them.

Wealth and influence are more than sufficient to make things happen. I think that’s easy enough to understand just by considering me as an example.

Tomoya: Yeah, obviously... you’re all about that, aren’t you.

Natsume: Tomoya-kun, your favorability toward His Majesty the Emperor keeps decreasing without you even being aware of it.

Welcome to our side! Hokke-kun and I make up the “Tenshouin Eichi Resentment and Loathing Alliance” ♪

Tomoya: Huh? I–if Hokuto-senpai is part of that, then sign me up too!

Hokuto: Don’t drag me into this.

Eichi: Okay. If you use your money right, it would be easy to get rid of people you don’t like, too.

If you don’t like how ES is operated, you can buy up all of the stocks and purge the management. Just complaining about everything you don’t like will get you nowhere.

But with money like that and the rank of SS victor, you might be able to spark real change.

Then, we can transform the environment such that every idol can exist according to their own ideals.

If we win SS, we can make any wish at all come true.

...That may be an exaggeration, but with money and power, we can certainly change the world, even if only incrementally.

I’m sure none of us are so young and foolish as to believe we can change the world with only our wishful thinking. That only works in the fairy tales we tell to children.

Natsume: I think you underestimate people’s feelings too much. But I understand what you’re trying to say, though.

In order to turn a dream into reality, we need to obtain the powers that drive this reality.

Which are money and influence. And we get that through victory at SS.

Eichi: Yes. Well, that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Hokuto: ? Don’t talk in riddles.

Eichi: There’s no helping that. We idols have been working tirelessly for a profit that might change the world—only to have someone else swoop in and usurp it all.

An antagonist has come to tear this whole thing down.

Chiaki: ...Gatekeeper, huh?

Eichi: Naturally. You’re quite perceptive in matters such as these, Hero of Justice-kun.

Chiaki: Don’t make fun of me. I no longer have the right to call myself that without shame... but more than that, I think I’ve finally connected the dots.

As we all know, there’s that guy out there called Gatekeeper.

He’s been at the head of the SS Administration Committee for who knows how long, and he’s the one who tied us down with those secret orders.

Or really, I should say he was blackmailing us. I don’t know what exactly the secret orders and penalties he had against everyone else were—

But they were horrible, designed to strike right at all our weak points.

Tenshouin and Hasumi, Sakuma and Mikejima-san, even Amagi-senpai... even those who would never fall so neatly in line were shackled by their secret orders.

It speaks for itself that they’d all been threatened with such heinous penalties that they had no choice but to obey.