The sighting of Mademoiselle Cyrielle at a video game tournament didn’t go under the radar, a picture taken discreetly of her leaning forward, focused on the match, was making rounds on social media.

  -She likes video games too ?????

  -look at her posture she's like me fr fr mdrrr

  -She might come from a prestigious background but she seems to like normal things

  ?Yeah, remember when she posted the photo on horseback ? She likes walks in the forest and video games, she’s really just a girl

  -Everybody was putting her on a pedestal but she's human

  ?No you don’t get it, she is a goddess and in this picture we can see her discover what a video game is xptdr

  -If I start competing in video game tournaments, can I see her in real life ???

  ?good question

  ??Mom, dad, I want to do e-sport !

  -It’s sad that she had to leave when people recognized her, she couldn’t watch the finals…

  ?Yeah, it’s a shame she can’t enjoy her hobbies cuz she’s popur…

  Thankfully, nobody seemed to have made a link between her and Léonard. But Cyrielle was way too busy to worry about that. Today she was in a conference room in Angel-Minet’s building, writing on a whiteboard.

  “I really want to do something personal for each country, I think the fans would like that. However, we can’t change the whole show each time, we have neither the funds nor the time. So I thought about taking a few notes from asian idols, and adding an interactive segment with games or questions from the audience.”

  All the heads of staff were seated at a U-shaped table, listening attentively. There was Julie, of course, but also Bernadette, Hugo, Vincent with his camera on to capture the meeting for a potential making off of the tour, Yannis the chief secretary, Louise the head of communication and editing team, Domitille the accountant, and a few other staff members that Cyrielle was less familiar with. Julie was nodding while scratching her chin.

  “It’s a good idea, it would give a sense of proximity and make the experience more personalized for your fans. However, if we are to do that, we will need to hire a transtor for every country. Unless… How many nguages can you speak ?”

  Cyrielle swiftly avoided the question, she had no idea if she would gain more nguage abilities in the meantime.

  “Most Europeans speak English anyway, so it will be okay.”

  She turned back to the board.

  “Instead of doing a normal concert, I was thinking of adding a narrative, much like my album and my runway. There will be original songs and covers, with acted bits in between. I will also create new songs to give it a musical feel.”

  All the people in the room were surprised or amazed, with Bernadette cpping enthusiastically. Everytime she was speaking to Cyrielle, she seemed to lose her aura of a strict editor-in-chief.

  “Acting ? It will be phenomenal ! It’s not a concert anymore, it’s a whole show !”

  Julie wasn’t even surprised, she simply wrote in her notebook.

  “I see. Do I need to hire actors with the dancers ?”

  “No, it will only be me on stage for the acting bits.”

  Hugo raised his hand.

  “Dancers ? Will you be dancing ?”

  Julie smiled slyly.

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you ? Mademoiselle Cyrielle is a very good dancer !”

  The room was immediately filled with excmations and whispers, so the CEO stood up to connect her phone to the video projector.

  “Let me show you what our dear talent prepared for the Music Moves Europe awards !”

  She dimmed the light and a familiar video appeared, the one Cyrielle had sent her when she filmed her choreography in the living room.

  ‘Julie, do you really need to do that ? It’s so embarrassing…’

  Cyrielle had no choice but to stay composed as the whole room was losing their mind, standing and cpping or gasping loudly. It was overly dramatic in her opinion, but she knew she would probably have reacted the same if Julie suddenly were to do a backflip unprompted. Finally, when everyone had settled down, she cleared her throat.

  “It was just something I thought about, if you find it satisfying it’s a relief.”

  Vincent couldn’t bear it anymore and sprung up from his chair.

  “Satisfying ? It was amazing ! I can’t even imagine what it would be like to see it on stage !”

  Everyone nodded along. Since they were on the topic of the awards, Cyrielle had something to tell them.

  “On that note, I need to address something. My family will come to the Nethernds to watch my performance live.”

  Suddenly, there was silence in the room. Julie seemed particurly tense.

  “The good one or the bad one ?”

  It was an open secret among the upper echelons of the company that Cyrielle’s paternal family was a mess, they couldn’t shut everyone’s mouth so the rumors were spreading. Fortunately, the facts were strongly distorted by the misconceptions about Cyrielle, so instead of having a father remarried to a bad woman, it had become a sad Cinderel-like story, with Julie being the white knight saving her from an abusive father who did unspeakable thing to her, like drugging her to meet with questionable people of the industry, thus how she was so familiar with entertainment despite having her name silenced from every record. It made the employees unable to talk about it to outsiders, as it would start rumors about who were the bad apples and possibly lead to legal trouble, so despite the truth being known and distorted, Cyrielle was mostly safe from the reporters for now.

  “The good one. I’m talking about my mother and my brother.”

  There was a sigh of relief in the room, with Hugo nodding.

  “Léo will be coming too ? We need to ensure their safety, then.”

  ‘Since when have you become so close to my brother ?’

  Cyrielle wanted to ask, but instead she focused on the matter at hand.

  “No need, they bought their ticket on their own and will be treated like regur audience members, nobody will know who they are.”

  Julie pursed her lips.

  “If that’s the case, they will have a terrible view ! Won’t you ask them to reconsider ? We could prepare front row seats for them !”

  “No, they would be in the range of the cameras. My mother wants to stay anonymous. I’m simply telling you all so that you can prepare emergency measures.”

  The CEO tapped her nail on her notebook. Cyrielle ‘everything is fine’ Laporte, asking them to prepare emergency measures ? It was highly unusual. Something was guaranteed to go wrong. She nodded and took a few notes.

  “I will prepare everything I can and keep a discreet watch on them. You dancing on stage will be enough of a distraction for the journalists, they won’t think about scanning the audience. Is there anything else we need to know ?”

  Cyrielle hesitated.

  “I don’t think they will come at the festival, they aren’t that kind of people, but during our stay in the Nethernds, we might be approached by other retives.”

  Julie stopped writing.

  “What do you mean ?”

  “I’m not sure. They might come. I don’t talk to them much since we live in a different country, but if I am in the Nethernds…”

  “Wait, wait, wait… You have retives in the Nethernds ?”

  It wasn’t uncommon, Europe as a whole was a big melting pot, and finding a pure french without any ancestry in other countries was rare, but having a Dutch family was quite uncommon in France, it would more likely be from North Africa, Italy, Germany, or Belgium. Cyrielle took a deep breath.

  “Well, I have a family that likes to travel, and a lot fled out of the country during World War II, or went abroad for work and got married. I have an aunt in Finnd, a great-uncle in Norway, a cousin in Canada, my uncle is married to an Algerian, without talking about my second grand-mother who comes from Italy, my sister who lives in Japan, and yes, my grand-mother was Dutch.”

  Julie was holding her head as if she was starting to have a headache.

  “No wonder you can speak English so fluently… You have family all over the pce. What is the probability of your retives contacting you during the tour everytime we enter a new country ?”

  Cyrielle ignored the misunderstanding about her English ability, she had other things to think about.

  “I would have said pretty low before, we don’t really stay in contact except once every ten years for the family reunion. But now that I’m famous ? I can’t predict. We might never meet them, or we might interact with every single one. But we have a greater chance to be contacted by the Dutch ones, that’s why I told you. I went over there regurly when I was young.”

  “Got it. We’ll put this matter aside for now, I’ll need a rundown of who are the bad ones to keep away and who are the safe ones.”

  They went on with the meeting, talking about the merch to be sold on tour and the different things to prepare for the awards. When they concluded their talk and got out of the room, it was already way past noon, but someone was still waiting for them in the open space. It was Manon Sarmer’s manager, with his usual charming smile.

  “I bring good news, the song is finished !”

  At his words, Cyrielle and Julie started to shake with excitement, and they turned around to bring him inside the conference room. They put the USB key inside Julie’s ptop, and listened to the song.

  “It’s perfect !”

  Cyrielle nodded at her friend’s words. The song might have been good before, but with all the editing, it was now a masterpiece. Nothing could compare to it in the current market, it would shake the world without a doubt.

  “I’m gd you like it ! Manon gave me instructions, but it was to be carried on only if your expectations were to be met, so…”

  The manager took a deep breath and hardened his face into a serious expression.

  “Would you agree to shoot a music video for this song ?”

  The two women froze.

  “Excuse me ?”

  The manager started to sweat, expining in a hurry.

  “I know that you only care about the artistic value of the song, and I know that a music video nowadays is mostly used as a marketing device to gain views on MyTube and on TV, but Manon was thinking that this song could gain another meaning if images could carry the lyrics, so on a purely artistic perspective…”

  Julie had her eyes shining with a greedy glow, but Cyrielle was still frozen. Her, appearing in a music video of the famous Manon Sarmer ? Having her voice featured was already incredible, but her face ? Manon was well-known and liked all over the world, not only in Europe, so Cyrielle had the possibility of being seen even in America or Asia. She didn’t have to think, it was too good of an opportunity.

  She nodded elegantly, adding a bit of bravado to her answer.

  “Indeed, it could add to the experience, if visuals were to lift up the song. I agree, it would be a good idea. However, I am quite busy, so it will need to be shot in december.”

  The manager smiled brightly at her words.

  “Fantastic ! I will tell her immediately !”

  Before he could walk away, Cyrielle stopped him.

  “Wait.”

  She wrote a few notes on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

  “Those are my ideas for the video. She can choose to ignore it if she wants, but I think it would go well with the song. Please arrange a meeting as soon as possible.”

  He nodded and went away, only then did Cyrielle rex and take a deep breath.

  ‘Did I agree to even more work ? I miss my bed…’

  AmbreaTaddy