Child of Destiny

……

The whole Penumbra Stadium was at its liveliest state due to the enthusiastic and excited audience.

They all looked at the huge and fancy stage, anticipating the appearance of their idol. They were all shouting with all their might while also waving the light sticks that they were holding.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

There was also a huge number projected in the air at the center of the stadium, showing them the countdown.

“10! 9! 8! -…”

When it reached the single digits, everyone started shouting and counting down with high anticipation.

“7! 6! 5! 4! -…”

As the countdown neared zero, the excitement reached its peak.

“3! 2! 1!”

BOOM!

There was an explosion at the center of the stage before everyone followed, with Alice jumping out from underneath, along with a bunch of confetti.

When Alice appeared, everyone could not help but pause, filling the entire lively stadium with silence.

It was because what Alice saw was very different from what they remembered. Unlike her usual princess style, she was wearing a punky outfit and hairstyle, which was very different from her young diva status.

She was still beautiful, but it was still far from what everyone was expecting.

Alice did not panic when such a thing happened. Instead, she could not help but smile widely, seemingly satisfied with everyone’s reaction. This was exactly what the team was expecting.

This did not mean that she would be dropping her usual singing style. It was just meant for the theme of the first few songs that they had prepared for everyone.

A punky and rock ’n roll style!

Alice did not start singing, which was a bit unusual for the opening act of such big concerts. It was common practice to have an opening song during concerts before the main character had a small ’chat’ with the audience and proceeded to the next number.

However, on this particular concert, Alice decided to do it the other way around.

“PENUMBRA!”

She first greeted everyone with a powerful voice, even infusing her Mental Energy and using a Mentalism Technique to captivate everyone’s attention.

“It has been a while since we last met each other. I know that a lot of people are quite confused, but I will promise you that this is just one of the surprises that we have prepared just for you!”

Everyone seemed to have calmed down the internal turmoil that they were suffering due to the technique that Alice had infused in her voice.

“Since I will be performing with my friends, we have decided to take it a bit differently,” she continued. “Let me first introduce you to all the friends that will be performing alongside me for the night!”

She paused for a moment, letting the audience digest her words first before naming the first member.

After a while, she took a step to the side before pointing to the back. “Our prince in drums, Arthur!”

Even though Alice felt a bit of cringe with the title that Arthur had given himself, she had to keep up with the showmanship.

Tug! Tug! Tug!

Right after her words sounded, the dim lights behind her suddenly brightened, revealing a handsome young man behind a drum set.

Arthur was wearing the same style as Alice, giving everyone a punky vibe.

Even though he always loved to be in the spotlight, he did not immediately start with a powerful performance and kept it a bit low-profile.

He started with slow and rhythmic beats of the bass, seemingly setting up the mood. He smiled as he nodded his head alongside the beats before finally hitting the snare drums and toms to pick up the pace.

While he was ramping up the beats and making the vibes a bit livelier, the audience finally started to become affected. They seemed to have been infected by some sort of disease that quickly spread to everyone.

They immediately forgot their initial confusion and started jiving alongside the beats, making the atmosphere filled with excitement.

When Arthur started hitting the cymbals as well and even doing some drum tricks like flipping and tossing the drumsticks, the entire audience was already jumping up and down and fully enjoying the vibe.

Some girls were even shouting crazily, watching such a cool performance, especially from such a handsome drummer.

Alice let Arthur perform with his full thunder before finally introducing the second member. “Our beautiful master behind the keyboard, Lorraine!”

Right on cue, Arthur suddenly lowered the beats, almost making it sound a bit faint and giving way for the next performer.

Unlike Arthur, who started with slow beats to set up the mood, Lorraine started with power. She hit multiple keys at once before suddenly sweeping her hand over all the keys.

She controlled the rhythm very well, not dropping the vibe that Arthur had already built up. Her hands even ramped it up a bit more, making the people feel dizzy with how good she played the keys.

She might not be able to play any fancy and acrobatic tricks like Arthur, but she could at least do a few beautiful and stunning shifts when playing with the keys.

After a few moments, Alice continued to introduce the next member. “Our street performer on the saxophone, Leonard!”

Then the spotlight pointed at him, Leonard did not pick up on the same level of energy as Lorraine. Instead, he used a few low keys, calming the nerves of everyone and giving them a bit of breathing time.

In the first few moments, Leonard had given everyone enough time to catch their breath before swiftly shifting the pace.

He started showcasing his talent as a street music performer, doing some gestures while playing the saxophone.

Just like how Arthur had set the vibe earlier, Leonard captivated everyone with his performance. They all started swaying and jiving along with his play while enjoying the music.

Once again, the girls were up for some eye candy. If Arthur was a prince that the girls were dreaming of, then Leonard was your cool bad boy on the strength.

Along with that loose sleeveless shirt that was showcasing his muscular arms with properly toned muscles and the wavy crimson hair tied to a high ponytail, he looked very cool and attractive.

Paired with his skillful performance, it was not that strange for these girls to go crazy.

“Next, our angle with harp, Jilian!” shouted Alice, introducing the next member.

This time, the audience was taken aback once again since it was quite unusual to find such a classical instrument paired with modern ones.

The saxophone was a bit alright since it was not their first time seeing something like this. But the harp was a bit different, especially a huge one that Jilian had.

Adding the punky style of Jilian to match the rest of the band, and putting her beside a classical harp, the people could not help but feel a bit strange.

However, all their doubts were immediately cleared right after Jilian started performing.

Not only did she play such a classical instrument in an unorthodox way, but she had even complemented the others very well.

She played skillfully and beautifully, seemingly making everyone believe that the harp she was playing was not a classical instrument at all.

It was indeed amazing.

Jilian was indeed a good harpist, but she knew that all this was due to Shin’s composition. He had composed such a score for her to play, matching the style and theme of their opening act.

She had to admit that this guy was indeed a genius, even when it came to music.

After giving her enough time to showcase her skills, Alice proceeded to the next member. “Our little showman in cello, Molton!”

Molton was so nervous earlier, making him quite ill. But when he was finally on stage and started performing, he seemed to have forgotten everything and focused on what he had to do.

However, he only achieved it by isolating the noise that was coming from the audience, filtering only the noise that was coming from the band.

In his performance, he followed Arthur and Leonard as examples, only starting with bits of keys to set up the vibe. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on N()velFire.net

But instead of properly playing the cello, he went for a plucking style. The low pitches he made while pulling the strings greatly complement the somewhat silent beats that Arthur was making.

This then made the audience nod and sway alongside the beats, similar to what happened at Arthur’s opening.

Not long after, Molton started using the bow and did a series of short bowing techniques, which were slowly ramping up alongside the beats.

Immediately after that, he also started slowing his skills in playing the cello while still keeping the theme and style of the band.

“Our violin goddess, Cloe!” shouted Alice, keeping the level of enthusiasm when introducing the members.

Cloe did not go on with a low-profile manner at all and started with a powerful performance right after she was called. She instantly overshadowed everyone right after she started playing arco.

She seemed to be instantly becoming the center of attention right after she picked up the violin and the bow, making the rest of the band smile a bit bitterly.

They were already accustomed to her style, but they still couldn’t help but notice that her current aura was very different during their rehearsals.

She was not trying to steal their thunder on purpose. This was just how things usually went whenever she started her performance.

The audience was also unable to take their eyes off her right after they heard her.

After letting her show off her skills, Alice finally introduced the final member of the band. “Next is our Mr. All-Rounder, Shin!”

Shin did not hold back either and immediately exploded with a ’bang’. He was currently carrying an electric guitar and started playing it like crazy.

When the audience turned their attention to him, they could not help but stare at his figure and focus solely on him.

His guitar skills were something that immediately captivated everyone. Instead of cheering, everyone in the audience stared blankly at him and just watched his performance.

They had only recovered when Shin finally finished, and the entire band started harmonizing with each other.

“PENUMBRA! We are the One Day Dairy!” started Alice to wake up everyone before continuing. “For our first song, it is one of our original songs, ’That Time of Day’!”

…