The stream went live the mont Kaiden allowed it.
There was no countdown, no warning banner, no carefully tid announcent pushed hours in advance.
Perhaps it was laziness, perhaps it was cockiness - or they just knew there was no need for such a thing any more.
One second, the battlefield was silent to the wider world; the next, it was everywhere, his perspective snapping into place as the Awakened dia Platform latched on with greedy efficiency.
Kaiden exhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders once. The glow of his interface hovered at the edge of his vision, numbers already ticking upward faster than most creators ever saw on their best days.
He smiled.
"Well," he said calmly, voice carrying easily over the chaos of the battlefield behind him, "looks like you found again."
The chat detonated.
ssages flooded in so fast they blurred into streaks of color and icons, but three nas appeared exactly as they always did, right at the top.
- Princeless Princess: YOU’RE BACK!!!
- Kaiden’s Wife: Where have you been, Kai?!
- Lady Leia: We were so worried... 😭
Kaiden chuckled, feeling genuine warmth creeping into his tone. "Took a little break from the action."
He glanced at the viewer count, then back at the familiar nas pulsing with activity. They were always first. Always waiting. No matter how long he disappeared, no matter how chaotic things beca.
- Kaiden’s Wife: I understand the need for a break, but... The competition has been raging on.
- Lady Leia: Runewoven is slipping down in the rankings fast...
- Princeless Princess: Have you stopped gunning for first place, Kai? We’d understand, it’s unreasonable with those New Dawn S-tier people...
"The competition’s been raging, and the standings are concerning, yeah, but sotis you must take a step back to take a much bigger leap forward."
The concern in their ssages didn’t fade. If anything, it sharpened.
- Princeless Princess: You vanished for DAYS!
- Kaiden’s Wife: But it felt like WEEKS!!
- Lady Leia: Next ti, warn us at least...
He shook his head lightly, amused and perhaps even a bit touched. "Maybe that one’s on ."
And then, as the stream stabilized and the girls behind him shifted into position, an idea sparked.
Without changing expression, Kaiden issued three invitations through his interface. These were private and direct.
At the sa ti, he felt the seamless transition as Aria and Luna took over the public feed, their perspectives sliding into place through [Harem Vision].
The audience barely noticed the handoff, swept up in the sudden change of angle as moonlight and stormlight flooded the screen.
Kaiden stepped back from the stream.
And smiled wider.
...
Sarah was in the middle of pacing her apartnt when it happened.
Her Awakened dia Platform flickered, once, twice, then she froze.
{Kaiden Grey is calling you.}
She stopped so hard she nearly tripped over her own feet.
"Hah?!"
Her heart slamd against her ribs like it was trying to escape. "No no no no no..." She grabbed the side of the bed, staring at the glowing prompt hovering inside her mind. "THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!"
She slapped accept so fast she nearly blacked out.
...
Emily had been curled up on her couch, hugging a pillow like it was a lifeline, eyes glued to the stream as Aria’s crescent blades tore through monsters.
The notification appeared.
{Kaiden Grey is calling you.}
She scread.
Not internally. Out loud.
Her pillow went airborne. "OH MY GOD! Have I died?! When did I enter heaven?!"
She accepted the call with shaking hands, already crying.
...
Leia was calr.
At least, for half a second.
She stared at the ssage floating serenely before her eyes, reread it once, twice...
{Kaiden Grey is calling you.}
Her brain promptly shut down.
She sat perfectly still, posture immaculate, breathing shallow.
"...Ah," she said faintly. "I see."
Then she collapsed backward onto her bed like a Victorian noblewoman overco by scandal, whispering, "I sohow sensed that supporting him might pay off, but a direct call...?"
All three calls connected at once.
Three fangirls. One impossible invitation.
The silence that followed the connection lasted exactly half a second.
Then...
"Kai... Hello..." a girl said sheepishly.
"SARAH?!"
"EMILY?!"
"Which of you two bitches did this?! Is this a prank?!" Leia shouted.
"It was you, Leia, I know it!"
"Yeah, stop pretending!"
Three voices collided at once, overlapping in a chaotic burst of disbelief.
Sarah blinked hard, then squinted at the two very familiar presences. "Okay, hold on. Emily? Leia? Why are you on this line?!"
Emily gasped, scandalized. "S-Sarah?! I thought you were Kaiden! I thought he called !! How can you play this rude prank?!"
Leia, on the other hand, had already gone feral.
"So this is how you two shaless crooks operate?" she hissed, voice sharp and dramatic. "Inviting into so elaborate psychological ambush? I expected better!"
"I didn’t invite anyone!" Sarah shot back. "I thought you changed your display na to ss with !"
"That is blasphemy! I would never impersonate Kai! Unless I imagined him rawdogging senseless and back!"
Emily made a small, distressed noise. "W-Wait, wait, stop! Why are there three of us? I thought it was a private call!"
They all froze.
A beat passed.
Then Emily’s eyes widened, her breath hitching sharply.
"...Wait."
Both Sarah and Leia turned toward her presence instinctively.
"This is the Awakened dia Platform," Emily said slowly, voice trembling with dawning horror of her realization. "You can’t just... change your caller na to Kaiden Grey. It’s not like a chat app."
Sarah’s stomach dropped.
Leia’s pupils shrank.
"...Oh," Sarah whispered.
"...Oh," Leia echoed faintly.
"Which ans..."
*Clap. Clap. Clap.*
The sound echoed cleanly through the shared ntal space.
"Well done," a familiar voice said, warm and amused, deep and masculine. "Bravo, ladies. I must be dealing with three Sherlocks."
All three of them combusted internally.
Sarah covered her face, heat rushing to her cheeks. "Oh my god..."
Emily let out a tiny, strangled squeak and folded in on herself. "H-He heard everything...!"
Leia made a sound sowhere between a laugh and a death rattle. "It was Kai himself who pranked us... Curses!"
Kaiden’s low chuckle followed, unmistakably pleased. "Prank? I just didn’t get a word in because three angry kittens began hissing instantly."
That did NOT help in the state of their rosy cheeks.
"I’ll keep this brief," he continued, tone shifting. It was still light, but more sincere now. "I didn’t call to ss with you. I called because I wanted to thank you."
The three of them stilled.
"You were there during the Maximilian scandal. You fought the millions of trolls, corrected misinformation, and kept things from spiraling when it would’ve been so much easier to walk away. Even now, you’re always the first ones here. Every stream. Every ti."
Sarah swallowed. "Kai... we don’t do it for gratitude. We do it because we want to. Watching you and the girls grow, feeling like we’re a part of it, even if silently... It’s honestly the highlight of our days."
Emily nodded rapidly, even though he couldn’t see her. "Y-Yeah! It makes happy. It doesn’t feel like work."
Leia scoffed lightly, trying and failing to sound casual. "Obviously. Getting to moderate the channel is a reward in itself."
"I know," Kaiden replied softly. "That’s what makes you special."
They all felt it... That warmth, that sincerity, that made following him feel different from any other creator.
"And that’s exactly why I’m worried," he went on. "You’re spending far too much of your lives moderating my channel. There are days when you barely get to leave your hos, let alone hold down a stable job, unless you abandon your posts."
Leia snorted. "Which we won’t do."
"Exactly," Kaiden agreed. "So I either let you keep living like that... letting you sacrifice for my sake without doing my part... Or I make it official."
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