The Hero's Streaming Life with the Saintess-Chapter 7: A Glimpse of a Familiar Hero

[Viewers: 20]

“Huh... Why are there twenty people in here?”

That was a lot for a first-time streamer.

Someone had even sent a donation right at the start.

“Did my parents promote the stream to their employees or something?”

But I shook my head.

Sure, they helped me set up the equipment, but they weren’t the type to openly advertise this kind of thing to people around them.

[Please read chat!!!]

[Noona... I’m dying!!!]

[If her voice is really that good, then for f**k’s sake, say something!!]

[Is this some kind of study stream?]

Should I nudge Lyla to engage with chat a little?

Seemed better than barging in on the stream myself.

I subtly pulled out my phone to text her a quick message.

[OverflowingDivinePowerPouch charged 10,000 Watts!]

Saintess, your voice... please let us hear it.

I immediately closed the messaging app.

...Maybe this whole mysterious silent-saintess thing was actually working.

“Wow, when did so many people join? I didn’t even notice—I was just reading my book.”

[Holy crap... that voice...]

[Hearing that made my whole body warm up.]

[Did I just... nut?]

[Bro, what the hell LMAO]

Yikes... Okay, I’ll let those comments slide. For now.

[So, what’s this stream actually about?]

“Hmm... I didn’t really plan anything. Originally, I was going to stream Gate raids.”

[Huh? Gate raids?]

[Wait, the Saintess is a Hunter?]

[You’re telling me she fights monsters? Looking like that?]

“Oh no, I don’t fight myself. The Hero does all the fighting. I’m here to support him!”

[LMAO that’s right—Hero and Saintess always come as a set.]

[Ahh, so it’s that kind of concept.]

[“Concept” my ass, shut up.]

[So when’s the Hero gonna show up?]

Lyla glanced my way. I quickly made a big X sign with my arms.

“He’s busy right now. You’ll probably see him when we actually go on a Gate raid.”

[So the Hero concept guy hasn’t been cast yet, huh?]

[Concept streamers GTFO LOL]

[Also what’s with that boomer-ass username?]

“What does ‘boomer-ass’ mean...? Anyway, the Hero picked the name himself.”

[Is that a wig and colored contacts? The quality’s insane.]

[Bet that outfit was custom-made and pricey.]

Lyla started playing with her hair, widened her eyes, and leaned in close to the camera.

She made it clear that her hair and eye color were 100% natural.

[Holy hell... I couldn’t breathe for a second.]

[Her divine power is overflowing.]

[Puwaaaaang LMAO]

“Hmm... Looks like it’s almost dinner time. I’ll end the stream here for today.”

[?]

[Wait, you’re ending already?]

[You’ve only been on for three hours!]

Despite the flood of protest from the viewers, Lyla ended the stream.

Right before it went off, the viewer count had shot past 50.

****

The next day, I checked around a few online communities to see the aftermath of her stream.

[Posted by: anon]

[Title: Noona... I’m dying...]

[Body: (photo of her face pressed up to the camera) Heuheung...]

↳ Cut the damn viral marketing already, ffs!!!

↳ I watched too. She seemed really pure, honestly.

↳ Of course, Saintesses are supposed to be pure.

↳ Uh, clearly you’ve never read Hitomi.

↳ BLASPHEMY!

Lyla’s stream was being talked about here and there on major forums.

[Posted by: ThrowThatResignation]

[Title: Puwaaaang!]

[Body: (GIF of her leaning into the camera)]

↳ Insert generic “stop the viral spam” comment.

↳ Is she, like, a professional cosplayer or something?

↳ No idea? But someone asked her, and she said it’s her real hair and eye color.

↳ Still, I’ve never seen someone do a concept stream like this without being a VTuber.

↳ It’s not a concept stream, dammit!!!

Lyla sat next to me, watching the buzz with curious eyes.

I worried for a moment—what if she got hit with hate comments?

But thankfully, the response was overwhelmingly positive.

“Lyla, how was your first stream?”

“It was great. Talking to everyone and interacting like that was actually really fun.”

She smiled brightly.

Still... not every comment out there was going to be nice forever.

Eventually, something was bound to hurt her feelings.

“Lyla, if it ever gets too hard, it’s okay to tell me, okay?”

“Hehe... It’s nice having the Hero worry about me.”

I couldn’t help but worry—Lyla was too kind, too soft-hearted.

And as if she had no clue about what I was thinking, she launched the streaming software again.

[OPAFHero: The Saintess’s Chill Chat Stream]

Her stream went live instantly.

My phone lit up with a buzz from Fizzshot notifications.

[I shall pray...]

[Saintess, my joystick hurts...]

↳ CleanBot has detected inappropriate language.

[STFU LMAO]

[Noona, you’re back!!]

Her unique "concept" was definitely working.

Viewers had already climbed into the triple digits.

“I’m really grateful that so many people came just to see me.”

[Heuheung... my ears are melting...]

Thankfully, the AI moderation was doing a solid job filtering the gross stuff.

All I had to do was block the creepier ones who tried to be subtle about it.

[OverflowingDivinePowerPouch charged 5,000 Watts!]

Saintess, what are you doing today?

“Hmm... I hadn’t really thought that far. Should we just chat a little?”

She was out of the camera’s view from where I sat, but she was smiling and engaging with the audience pretty well.

[SaintessHeroCandidate charged 1,000 Watts!]

Didn’t you say you were going to a Gate though?

“Yes, I’m still figuring it out. I’m not sure where would be good to go.”

[By the way, what rank is the Saintess?]

[She’s gotta be high, right?]

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

[If she was, why would she bother streaming instead of just making bank as a Hunter lol]

[Fr, high-rank Hunters earn a completely different kind of money.]

“Ah, just /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ a second.”

Lyla opened a drawer and began rummaging through it.

Then she pulled out a small, card-sized license and held it up to the camera.

[???]

[C-rank? Seriously?]

[A treasure like you in a place this humble?]

[What the hell do you mean "humble"? You dissing Fizzshot now?]

[Why not join a guild instead of streaming?]

Everyone was thrown off by her rank.

C-rank was nothing to scoff at—you could earn as much as a fresh employee at a major corporation.

So naturally, people found it odd that someone like Lyla would bother with streaming.

Chat blazed with speculation over her license, but no one outright doubted her.

Hunter licenses were basically impossible to forge.

Doing so was a felony, and no one thought anyone would flaunt a fake license on a live stream.

[Use your brain, dumbass. You think someone would flash a fake license on stream?]

[Supermodel-tier Saintess and she’s just C-rank? This world really ain’t fair...]

[Would you consider keeping me as a pet? I’m potty trained.]

[Get to the back of the line, clown lol]

Lyla handled the stream with grace and confidence.

There were a few weirdos here and there, but I was already swatting those creeps off the chat like flies.

At the same time, I was cutting clips of her stream and spreading them like wildfire.

Even pulled out the VPN to make sure it didn’t trace back.

[OverflowingDivinePowerPouch charged 10,000 Watts!]

But honestly, I’m most curious about the Hero she keeps talking about lol

[No doubt he’s hot AF like her, right?]

[Lmao it’s gotta be a blonde pretty boy, standard Hero design.]

[Wait, did she already lock in a Hero for the bit?]

[LET’S GOOOOO, Saintess and Hero is classic OTP.]

Lyla glanced back behind her monitor, eyes landing on me.

“Hmm... I think I might have a photo with the Hero somewhere...”

She gave me a look, asking if it was okay to show.

I mean, eventually I was gonna end up on camera during a Gate raid anyway.

I made a circle with my fingers to give her the go-ahead.

“Hold on a moment... I’ll go find it.”

[drdrdrdr... Something big’s coming.]

[No lie, I am curious lol]

[Hero and Saintess is such a god-tier combo.]

Judging by the chat, this was working out better than expected.

Female streamers usually had to be very careful about revealing if they were dating anyone.

Even a hint of it and your fanbase could vanish overnight.

“Well... Lyla and I are more of a business relationship anyway, right?”

I wasn’t sure if this whole “Hero & Saintess duo concept” was giving off the right message.

But by clearly defining it from the start, we’d probably filter out all the parasocial romance fans early.

“Better that than having drama explode later...”

Otherwise it’d turn into ‘she betrayed the fans!’ or ‘she’d been lying all along!’ nonsense.

“...Though maybe we should still hide the fact that we live together?”

Eh, screw it.

The ones who want to watch will keep watching.

And the ones who don’t? Who cares.

Feels way better to just be honest and run a clean, transparent stream.

“Ah! I found it!”

[Almost passed out...]

[Saintess, what’s my grilling temp right now?]

[This stream is too damn good at training chat.]

Lyla held her phone up to the camera with the photo on screen.

It was a picture of the two of us.

And for a moment—chat went totally still.

[...]

[Okay, so he is blonde...]

[Dude... why does that pose look so damn familiar lol]

Watching from my end of the stream, I didn’t think much of it.

It was a picture my parents had taken when we went to the beach together.

Lyla had been blushing, flashing a V-sign.

I had my hand resting casually on her shoulder.

“Is there something weird about our expressions or poses?”

I studied it carefully but couldn’t find anything strange.

Lyla had her signature hair flowing down, wearing casual clothes.

And me—lean, athletic frame, sun-kissed skin, the healthy look of a guy who trained hard.

“Maybe it’s my smile? I’ve never been great at smiling in pictures...”

[SaintessFootTowel charged 10,000 Watts!]

If this showed up in Hitomi, I’d be smashing that like button LMAO