While Senior Grey was genuinely enjoying life for the first time since transmigrating, his subordinates felt a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and awe toward their leader. The "modern" concert was a true cultural shock for them.
Grey's high, slightly squeaky voice sounded beautiful. But why did every line of the song and every one of his movements cause such an aching sense of embarrassment and make them blush uncontrollably? They just wanted to find some hole to hide in. It was as if they were the ones standing on the stage instead of their boss.
And yet, no matter how much shame or embarrassment they felt, they could not suppress the irresistible urge to sing along. They really wanted to feel just as free and join in his crazy behavior.
Grey did not care in the slightest about possible judgment. He absolutely did not give a damn about what others thought of him. He was and would remain who he was, and anyone who disagreed could go to hell.
It seemed that Grey was always backing down and bending over like a floor rag, but if one looked closely at his past, it would become clear that he had never truly changed. It was the world that had to change and adjust itself to his rhythm.
And that was what made him so attractive.
Sunny, whom Grey had ordered to control the spotlight, stood frozen in place, unable to understand what exactly he was seeing or how he was supposed to react to his boss's strange behavior.
He was standing on a small balcony that offered a beautiful view of the entire atrium, which had turned into Grey's dance floor. Bright lights danced across the walls. Adult women in dresses, resembling otherworldly fairies, stared without looking away at the child making strange movements, as if they had fallen under a hypnotic spell.
No matter how hard Sunny racked his brain, a street rat like him could never have imagined something this crazy.
He was completely bewildered.
His little sister, Aileen, who was beating the drums at that moment and trying to keep up with the rhythm of the melody, shot her brother a sideways glance.
"What is he doing?" Aileen wondered for a second, gripping the drumsticks tighter. "He was given a simple task: keep the light on Mr. Grey. So why is my usually clever brother acting like such an idiot right now?"
Aileen tried to signal him with her eyes, but her brother did not react.
She got angry.
Grey was so charming at that moment, and he sang so beautifully, like a prince from a fairy tale. His movements were strange, but she wanted to keep watching them for longer.
And yet, because of her stupid brother, she could not see everything properly.
He was openly ruining their performance!
Aileen gritted her teeth and smacked Sunny's hand with one of the drumsticks.
"Focus and do your job," she snapped, giving her older brother an angry, hurt look for the first time.
She and Irene had worked hard to learn how to play their new musical instruments. Months of long rehearsals, all for the decisive moment when they would finally get a job and become useful.
Today was their first performance, and they desperately needed support. So Aileen had not expected such a betrayal from her older brother at all.
Who would take responsibility if their performance seemed mediocre to everyone because of his mistake?
Fortunately, Sunny's mistake went unnoticed.
It was no wonder, since such a performance was something no one had ever seen before. No one except Aileen and Irene knew what was supposed to happen on stage. The quality and number of the special effects, as well as the performer's natural charm, completely covered up all the flaws caused by their inexperience.
Even Aileen herself was impressed by the work they had done.
Indeed, seeing something once was better than hearing about it a hundred times.
Meanwhile, Lily, who was standing on the same balcony, gave her brother and sister a disapproving look and hissed furiously, putting a finger to her lips.
Her task was much simpler.
Grey, unsure of his performing skills and stage talent, decided to use every possible advantage to impress his first audience. He was not above even underhanded methods, which included making use of Lily's talents.
The little succubus, who specialized in mind control, was supposed to guide the audience's emotions in the right direction.
Lily was visibly nervous, since she was certain that many people in this brothel were no weaker than her, which meant that influencing their emotions would be much more difficult. Moreover, any careless interference could be perceived as outright hostility, and that could already lead to consequences.
Still, Grey managed to convince her by promising a bribe and assuring her that he did not intend to cause any harm. Her task was simply to guide the emotions that already existed and strengthen them, rather than confusing the targets like she would in battle.
Such innocent actions should not provoke anyone!
In his opinion, a succubus's ability to influence emotions should follow certain principles that would be useful to discover.
It was just like a cart loaded with cargo. It was much easier and more efficient to push it along with its existing momentum than to try to suddenly change its direction. The same rules should apply to psychology.
From this theory, Grey came to a conclusion that he wanted to test in practice.
If Lily wanted to influence powerful opponents, she needed to adapt to their current mental state and act accordingly, rather than engage in a confrontation she was bound to lose from the start. Then even someone with a powerful will would not be completely protected from her abilities.
Grey had promised that there would be no problems, so she agreed to take the risk. After all, the participants in the experiment would be people she knew, and the experiment itself was not dangerous and had no ill intentions behind it.
And yet, Lily was not confident in her abilities.
Grey had described the emotions in a very strange way. First, she had to create a slight sense of confusion and anticipation. Then, once he started singing, she had to focus on longing, melancholy mixed with burning desire.
Grey's descriptions gave Lily a serious headache.
He expressed himself in far too grandiose a manner. Far too poetically and without any specifics. However, Grey had no time for detailed explanations, so he left her hanging.
Lily's heart was beating wildly. Her palms were sweaty, and her forehead was covered in perspiration.
She did not want to let her friend down.
Even before the concert began, she was more panicked than the audience itself, who had suddenly found themselves in darkness.
"Calm down, Lily. You can do this..." She patted her cheeks. "There's nothing too difficult here. You've done this hundreds of times... What did he say? Longing... Mela-melancholy... burning desire... Oh no! I forgot!"
She desperately tried to remember his instructions.
The more Lily thought about it, the more she panicked.
However, her confusion vanished as soon as she heard the first notes of the melody along with Grey's singing. Lily instinctively understood what emotions he wanted to convey and even felt those emotions within the audience.
Her task turned out to be extremely easy in practice.
The amount of mana she had to spend was so small that it was as if she were affecting an ordinary mortal rather than a group of powerful experts. It was much easier than she had imagined.
She had even managed to influence her mother, who was far stronger than her when it came to controlling succubus powers.
One could imagine how happy Lily was.
However, she did not notice that by constantly nudging the emotions of those around her, absorbing them and passing them through herself, she had unconsciously fallen into Grey's rhythm and started singing along. If anyone else noticed her confusion, she would have been terribly embarrassed.
Grey continued singing, but his mind was no longer here.
Whether it was because of the moment, the sudden wave of melancholy, or Lily's indiscriminate influence, he had completely lost touch with reality.
His body moved on its own, recreating scenes from his past life.
He remembered how he had invited Bella to a concert by her favorite singer. Back then, they had sung that very song together. The fans were screaming, the music thundered in their ears, and they had fun without thinking about anything.
And right now, it was as if he were experiencing that moment all over again, in a new location, with new people, but with the same feelings.
This moment was especially precious because, for the first time since his transmigration, Grey was able to feel the positive emotions he had been deprived of.
And he became drunk without drinking a single drop. That was the magic of the moment.
Without thinking for even a second, he made a motion as if he were casting a fishing rod, then pulled his body toward Madame Veronika, inviting her to dance while continuing to sing.
«And I'm in pieces, baby, fix me
And just shake me 'til you wake me from this bad dream
I'm going down, down, down, down
And I just can't believe my first love won't be around...»
Madame Veronika's cheeks turned a soft pink.
A strange feeling of embarrassment mixed with excitement settled in her chest. Perhaps it was because of the omnipresent pink aura that grew stronger with every passing moment. Perhaps it was because of the tricks of the little succubus who thought she was acting unnoticed. Or perhaps it was because she had lost to an inexperienced boy.
Her emotions descended into chaos.
The bored empress, who had not left her chambers for several years and thought she had forgotten how to feel anything except boredom, suddenly felt her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
She was ashamed that these emotions had been stirred by nothing more than a boy who still had milk on his lips.
But at this moment, that very boy seemed far too charming to her.
There was a kind of otherworldly freedom about him that no one in this world could understand or comprehend except him. The lyrics of the song were extremely simple, yet they went straight into her soul. It was as if he were singing about her, for her, and together with her.
For these reasons, when Veronika saw his outstretched hand inviting her to dance, she could not bring herself to refuse.
On the contrary, she felt a certain pride and joy that Grey had chosen her. After all, the jealousy coming from the other workers seemed almost tangible. It was so intense that Veronika could have felt it even from a kilometer away.
She placed her free hand on Grey's shoulder, as if she wanted to dance a waltz, but Grey did not let her.
He continued moving chaotically, without any clear pattern to his movements.
Her hand ended up on his chest again, and Grey made a motion as if his heart were about to leap out of his chest.
Veronika was slightly confused, and the next moment she heard a quiet whisper by her ear.
"Close your eyes and surrender to the music. Let your body speak instead of words. Don't think about how you're moving."
Grey's hot breath scorched her tender skin. This time her whole neck flushed red, and goosebumps raced down her back.
But Veronika was not embarrassed because of that.
What embarrassed her was the fact that she had not noticed how Grey ended up right behind her and even managed to lay his hand on her stomach. The boy did whatever he pleased with her body, and she could not push him away.
He kept singing into her ear, and those words turned her body into soft clay. Those words felt like hypnosis, though they held no magic at all.
Lady Veronika closed her eyes and began to move her waist, then her hips and arms.
She admitted to herself that she wanted to keep listening to his soft high voice, wanted to see the desire in his gaze. Her body demanded it.
And yet, when she gathered her strength and turned around, Grey moved on to Lydia to dance a little with his aunt.
Veronika felt so angry and embarrassed that she wanted to kill the insolent boy right then and there. She was jealous...
But the music was too beautiful to interrupt.
Lady Veronika drew a deep breath in and out, closed her eyes, and tried to focus on the melody rather than the singer
Meanwhile, Josh, who had not yet returned to the mansion, stood frozen in place. Just like Sunny, he was not sure how to react to his commander's behavior.
However, the longer he watched, the more he admired Grey.
The leader seemed incredibly fierce to him. He did not care about the status of a cripple and was brave both in battle and in matters of the heart. That was what a real man should be like!
Josh once again became convinced that taking Grey as his role model had been and remained the best decision of his life.
Only a leader like that was worthy of being followed.
Overcome by a surge of courage, Josh cast a few inconspicuous glances at the girl who had left an indelible mark on his thoughts.
He still remembered it as if it had happened yesterday, when he had carried her in his arms during their training. Back then, it had seemed like an extremely unfair punishment and thankless job, but right now, Josh would gladly repeat that unforgettable experience.
Josh blushed, and for some reason, an image appeared in his mind of himself singing the same song for Hope.
But he did not dare to put the idea into practice. Instead, he simply followed everyone else's example and began quietly singing along.
The atrium continued to sparkle with the colorful lights of the disco ball. The light kept flickering, provoking everyone to move. The air temperature was rising rapidly.
And the chorus of voices sounded like a single surge:
«Baby, baby, baby oh
Like baby, baby, baby no
Like baby, baby, baby oh
Thought you'd always be mine, mine»
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