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With the staff personnel’s efforts, the indoor preparations have been completed. Our audience, the choir club members, has arrived on schedule. Kaori and Kotori are present as well. All that’s left is to confirm with the staff and the supervisor who joined to spectate.

“Well, it’s time. Are you good to go, Sherry?”
“I’m more worried about you, Kotone. You were half-asleep when I checked on you earlier.”

It was unavoidable. I closed my eyes to fully concentrate on the music, so I naturally fell asleep. I’m sure it didn’t last five minutes. If I had fallen into a deep sleep, it would have been a fatal blow to tonight’s program.

“I was right to have Kaori keep an eye on you.”
“Sorry for the trouble.”

Just don’t press a cold bottle of water against my nape when I look like I’m falling asleep, please. It’s really bad for my heart. Kaori really liked doing it, I guess that’s her way of taking revenge for the princess role.

“Now then, please take charge of facilitating the program.”
“Understood.”

I take a deep breath and calm my nerves. Looking around, everyone’s eyes are full of expectation. The star this time is not me. Everyone’s here to watch Sherry; I’m just an extra. Just take it easy.

“Thank you for visiting our theme park tonight. And to everyone, I have a question for you to answer.”

Well then, it’s time to start our memorable finale.

“Who told you that there would be only one surprise event tonight? The night is still young!”

With my declaration, the room exploded with cheer. And on a monitor displaying the park outside, the guests are looking up with dumbfounded astonishment. Now this is how a surprise should be.

“By the way, regarding this program, we are not broadcasting from within the park vicinity. For that reason, please do not bother scouring the grounds.”

In actuality, we’re currently inside a sizable conference room exclusive to the park staff. Our voices are being broadcast through the announcement speakers all over the park. In other words, no showing of faces.

“The star of this event is, of course, Sherry. And I, Unknown, am here to assist her.”
“I can’t go home unsatisfied, after all.”
“We hope that our singing will satisfy everyone for what little time remains.”

There’s only about an hour left before this amusement park closes. Obviously, we don’t plan on using all that time for singing. My stamina won’t last long enough for that and there’s a limit to the songs I’ve memorized. Moreover, it’ll be a nuisance if the guests don’t go home.

“May we get a word from you, Sherry?”
“Singing with the students of the choir club has been an enjoyable experience for me. Still, I am very grateful to the park staff for putting up with my selfishness of wanting to sing more.”

Being someone from outside the twelve families, she knows how to act professionally and keep up appearances. If it was one of the twelve families, they’d just be blunt about their real intentions and it would be hell to cover for them.

“Singing with me today is a promising newcomer, Unknown! Allow me to make it public that I was the one who discovered her.”
“Stop needlessly raising the bar for me.”

What “promising newcomer”? Please stop forcefully railroading me into being a singer. As for my name, I’m neither Kotone nor Souji. For that reason, I’m keeping myself unknown. I’m no one else other than myself.

“No matter how much you raise me up, it won’t make me capable of things I’m not.”
“Isn’t that obvious? No matter how much people expect from us, we can never accomplish results beyond our abilities.”

However, the audience always expects more from us. For that reason, diligence is important as an artist. And I haven’t done any of that diligence. The most I’ve done is go through Shirose’s hellish training in the past.

“It’s not good to make the audience wait. Are you ready, Unknown?”
“Ever since we started.”

This is what we’ve been preparing for, after all. From here on out, the stage is all hers. I only exist as a mere afterthought. It’s because of this that I can take it easy; there’s no chance of failure. That’s just how much trust I have in Sherry.

“Our song of choice is the park’s theme song from last year: ‘Fantasia’! Please enjoy Sherry’s voice.”
“And Anne’s voice as well.”
“Don’t shorten it to a weird nickname.”

I know saying ‘Unknown’ all the time can be a mouthful, but what the heck is ‘Anne’ even? This ended up making me relax my body, so now I won’t mess up by over-straining myself. I have no idea if she was just being herself or if this was calculated.

“Now then, it’s time to start our tonight-only surprise event!”

With the start of the song, Sherry’s amused face turned into a serious one… not, she looked purely excited to have fun. Seeing her face, I felt like I could enjoy myself as well.

Unlike the song sung by the choir club, this one starts with the musical accompaniment. At first, it was the two of us singing, then it turned into a solo with some humming added here and there; we really just had a lot of fun with it.

“Thank you for listening!”

As the song ended, we gave our thanks and the choir applauded with a standing ovation. It made me really happy. It was only one song and I’m completely drenched in sweat. Next to me, Sherry is completely unfazed. I guess it’s the difference in experience.

“I never want to sing with you again, Sherry. It’s exhausting.”
“We’re disbanding already? That’s sad. I’m going to have you sing with me again, so prepare yourself.”
“Seriously, please don’t.”

This event isn’t the only one-time thing. This is also the first and last time the two of us will sing as a duo. There won’t be a next time; there shouldn’t be. Most importantly, it’s absolutely exhausting to sing with Sherry. We’re so far apart that it takes everything to keep up with her.

“Now then, Anne. Time for the next song!”
“Hold on a moment. We only reserved a time slot for one song.”

This is actually true. The original plan was to end it with this one song. Any more and it could delay the guests’ exit and cause congestion at the entrance. The people who already exited might even come back.

“How about it, management?”

Don’t you dare nod yes. “Fantasia” was the only song I memorized. I only know the other songs as information. Singing would be hopelessly impossible, why do you want to force this?

“We’re okay to go.”
“What do you intend to sing?”

I sent the supervisor a spiteful gaze. You were so reluctant before, now you say yes so easily. You’re fully committing to this now, huh. There’s still the aftermath for you to think about, you know?

“We can’t use my own songs. In that case, let’s do an impromptu.”
“Please don’t ask for the impossible.”