NOVEL WEB Chapter 111: The Winners
It wasn't the first time that Maria genuinely got lost. However, on this occasion, she got lost in front of a live audience.
Maria began walking around while killing any monsters that got in her way and eventually, she arrived at the Mountain Blade ogres' newly completed Fort.
"Wait a minute...this isn't the city!"
<...>
<Oh my god…>
Maria's audience were all flabbergasted and couldn't help but facepalm or sigh in real life. The chat stopped for a moment before everyone began spamming it with laughing emojis and the channel's exclusive emoji of Maria looking lost and puzzled.
Thankfully she arrived here because if it was anywhere else, who knew how long it would take for her to get back to the city. The competition might even have to continue until tomorrow just because Maria had gotten lost and couldn't finish the judging segment.
The twin-headed ogre, Orh'bankhur soon received a report from his subordinates that Maria had arrived at their fort.
He quickly walked out of his home and went to the gate to receive her. After seeing the large NPC again, Maria smiled and waved her hand at him.
"Hola~"
"Queen, why come with no notice?"
Maria scratched her head and replied honestly, "Uhm, I got lost and stumbled here when I was trying to get back…"
She didn't want to look bad in front of her subordinates but lying here would only complicate things so she just spoke the truth. The ogres weren't so mean as to laugh at her...or not.
"WAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Orh'bankhur let out a thunderous laugh after hearing Maria's reply. This naturally caused the angel in question to pout and pull out her Calamity.
"Oi, you want another beating?" Maria said in a thuggish manner.
The audience was amused by her interaction with the NPCs. This was just another daily occurrence for her and her long-time fans who were no longer too surprised by it. The rest of her audience that was new to the game and her stream was intrigued by the human-like and highly intelligent NPCs of the game.
The other ogres in the vicinity that heard Maria had let out a slight chuckle earlier but immediately silenced themselves after seeing their grand chieftain threaten their chief with her ax.
Orh'bankhur immediately shut up and rubbed his arms and said, "No disrespect, Queen. Queen get lost but have magic. Why no use magic?"
"Eh?"
Maria lowered her ax before remembering that she still had Paimon's Magic Book.
"Aiya, I forgot about that! I could have just teleported home!"
"Queen need escort?" Orh'bankhur asked.
"No need for that. I'll return to my castle now~" Maria rose into the air and patted the ogre's two heads and thanked him for reminding her. "Thanks, Orh~"
"Hrmh?"
"You welcome, Queen. When war coming?" Orh'bankhur eagerly asked.
Maria pulled out her magic book and began invoking the return spell before replying to Orh'bankhur, "Not right now, but it'll come soon."
"Orh'bankhur will wait."
"Goodbye, big guy~"
Maria waved him goodbye before she teleported. Orh'bankhur had a silly smile on his face as he waved back.
With their Queen returning, Orh'bankhur quickly went back to his home and the ogres went about their business again.
*****
Back at Heltania Castle, Maria suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall and this startled everyone that was present.
Over an hour had already passed and Maria still hadn't returned so Ash was about to send a team out to look for her so when she suddenly appeared, he let out a relieved sigh and called off his command.
"My Lady, the judging segment is over. The registered citizens in the city have also finished casting their votes so we can announce the results," Ash reported.
It wasn't only the stream's viewers that were casting their votes but Maria's citizens were doing so as well. Only the registered citizens that were permanently staying in her city were given forms so they could cast their votes.
The ones that weren't registered weren't given this privilege. As for those that were registered, they needed to have resided in her territory for at least a month or they wouldn't be given a form.
Once all the votes from both Maria's audience and citizens were collected and tallied, Maria finally revealed the top 3 dresses that won the competition.
Maria was excited because the one she wanted to win made it to the top 3. The black-red battle dress that was named Tenebrous Queen's Crimson Regalia. It had such a long and elaborate name and design that it made it into the top 3.
It didn't win first place but second place instead. It was the only NPC-made dress that made it into the top 3. The other 2 dresses were made by the players.
First place belonged to a contestant under the name of 'Sfayte' and their outfit set design deserved its spot in first place. It was a black dress that was intricately detailed and decorated with black diamonds. When it was worn, the dress would ignite with red and pale-white flames.
There was even an added feature that if Maria put it on, the flames on the dress would extend to her wings. The dress was specifically tailored for Maria so when the introduction video showed a model of how Maria would look like if she wore the outfit, many people in the audience were set on having her wear this.
As for the name of the outfit, it was called Blaze of Glory. It was such a fitting name for the outfit. Maria was also intrigued by the add-on effects of the dress but she felt a little embarrassed to put it on because the dress had a short skirt but thankfully the chest area was closed.
Maria gave a few compliments on the first and second place dress saying that she really loved their designs and concepts. The third-place dress was a rather typical and simple one that anyone would see a girl wear to their prom.
It didn't have any overly sophisticated details and it won because a vast majority of the NPCs voted for this simple, cerulean-colored dress that was decorated with sapphires and other blue-colored jewels.
The chest area of the dress dipped into a V-shape so it would pretty much accentuate her mounds. However, Maria was the type that would rather show her chest than her legs.
The outfit also came with a set of jewelry and a beautiful tiara decorated with tourmalines, aquamarines, and sapphires. There were even some decorations for her wings as well.
One thing that had to be taken into notice was the designer of this particular set. It was made by Lavelle Veuillet, a top fashion brand in the real world. Maria was naturally surprised when she saw the name of the contestant and when she checked her SNS accounts, there was a post that LV tagged with her name and the dress details that had entered her competition.
It was such a great honor and she didn't know about it until after the voting because she wasn't the type of person who would periodically check her social media accounts.
Although they were one of the top fashion brands on Earth, the reason why they couldn't secure first place with their beautiful but simplistic design was because of the game's nature.
The outfits and skins inside the game weren't limited by the physics of Earth. The first and second place outfits won because of the unique aesthetics they gave to Maria after she wore them.
Of course, the votes were heavily influenced by Maria's audience that wanted to see her dressed up in a cool get-up and not just something normal. The ones who were actually down-to-Earth were the NPCs.
They knew that it was Maria's first ball, her debut ball, so they wanted her to wear an elegant dress for the occasion so many of them naturally voted for the dress LV designed.
Since the winners were already decided, Maria thanked all of the participants and congratulated the top 3 winners, and began handing out their rewards.
For this occasion, Maria had to log out of the game and go to her VR space's waiting room and connect with the contestants after giving them an invite to her space.
In this space, Maria would have shown up in her IRL appearance, but she had made preparations beforehand so she appeared in her in-game avatar instead.
After handing out the hefty rewards that went well above her initial budget after her father found out that she was hosting a competition for the dress she would be wearing to her first-ever social gathering.
Of course, Corinthus had been waiting for her to reach 18 years old before throwing a large birthday gathering for her friends and his business associates that would act as her first-ever social event but the game was a step ahead of him by a few years unfortunately so he had to make sure everything went well for his daughter.
Corinthus was actually the one who invited the world's top brands to compete in the competition but not every one of them responded to his invitation. He had contacted said brands anonymously so not many even considered joining such a thing.
Only LV did because they were having a charity commission and Corinthus just coincidentally contacted them with his pure intentions of making his daughter happy. They complied and since the competition was done in VR, it was all done without any expense on their part.
Instead, they had won third place and even gotten money in return, and not long after, a large investment was suddenly put into their accounts for the purpose of recreating the dress entered into the competition in real life.
Naturally, this was Corinthus's doing but it was all done anonymously by his trusted aide.
"Good work, Charles," Corinthus said while he was watching his daughter's stream.
"It's my pleasure to be of service, sir."
Seeing the wide angelic smile on his daughter's face, Corinthus's lips raised into a slight smile as he said, "Tell HR that everyone is getting a bonus this month. While you and your team will be getting a raise for the next half year."
"!"
"Keep up the good work."
"Yes sir!"