I Was Trying to Stream a Slow Life, but It Seems My Golem Partner Started Warming Up. - Chapter 2

After Beta-chan suddenly pinned me down, I immediately ended the stream.

If things had continued, I felt like I might have opened some kind of dangerous door. Between two girls… well, no, one of them was a golem, but still…

“Whoa, my subscriber count is blowing up…”

The next morning, lying in a grassy field outside, I felt a little overwhelmed by the flood of new subscriber notifications hitting my streaming device (yeah, okay, it was basically a smartphone).

In just one day, the number of subscribers I’d painstakingly gathered over the past year had quadrupled—no, quintupled. It wasn’t exactly fear I felt, more like a detached curiosity… So, people really liked that kind of thing, huh?

—-Yuri baiting.

That was what they called it when you showed girls being all lovey-dovey, catering to the people who enjoyed watching that sort of thing. I did a quick search, and apparently, there weren’t any other streamers specifically marketing themselves with the yuri angle.

Or rather, it seemed like otaku knowledge like ‘yuri’ or ‘boys’ love’ probably didn’t even exist in this world yet. If you asked why streaming culture existed, then it must have been that whoever spread it either didn’t know about those things, or they did know but didn’t have the guts to popularize them. Probably.

I mean, I’d do the same. I didn’t exactly have thick skin—or whatever you called it—to go around promoting ‘yuri’ or ‘boys’ love’ myself…

“Well, I guess if I kept playing up that angle, the subscriber count would probably keep growing…”

Most of the people who subscribed just now were likely here because of yesterday’s yuri bait. If my next stream was just another bland showcase of items I made with alchemy, most of them would probably unsubscribe and leave. But what I really wanted was to enjoy a relaxed, leisurely Slow Life like you found in the countryside. From a Slow Life perspective, this whole trend felt… off.

“Argh, thinking about it isn’t getting me anywhere!”

“What isn’t getting you anywhere, Master?”

“That would be— Whoa, Beta-chan?!”

I shot upright, only to find her ample chest bouncing right in front of my eyes!? Seriously, way too close! We almost collided at that distance!

“Master, please answer the question. If you could clarify what isn’t getting you anywhere, I could also assist with the task”

“No, it’s fine! Totally fine!!”

There was no way I could possibly admit I was agonizing over whether the two of us should make ‘flirting and lovey-dovey antics’ the focus of our streams from now on. I frantically waved my hands, trying to brush it off.

“Right, today’s stream! For today’s stream, I was thinking of doing a crafting stream for all the new viewers! You know, since the subscriber count totally blew up!”

A crafting stream was basically just that—a stream showing the process of creating one specific item from start to finish. There were other alchemist streamers besides me, but quite a few had gotten flamed for lying, claiming items made by other alchemists were their own work. With my subscriber count suddenly skyrocketing, many first-time viewers were probably doubting whether I was a real alchemist or not.

So, the plan was to hit them with a crafting stream right away and prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I was the real thing.

“…!”

Just as I was feeling pretty pleased with myself (Heh heh), Beta-chan’s beautiful, glass-like eyes suddenly started shimmering. She didn’t have tear ducts installed, but this was definitely… crying… Wait, she was crying?!

“Wh-wh-what’s wrong?! Beta-chan!? Why are you crying?! Was it a malfunction?!”

“No, Master. It’s just… my ‘happiness’ was running wild.”

Beta-chan expertly mimicked a human wiping away non-existent tears, then smiled brightly.

“It was the first time, you see.”

“The first time?”

As I wondered what she meant, Beta-chan spoke, savoring the feeling of happiness.

“Yes. It had been three years and eight months since you first activated me, Master. This was the first time you had ever consulted me about something, so my ‘cry’ function activated involuntarily.”

Her words struck me with a pang of guilt. “Ugh…” Wait… Had I really never done that?

Regarding stream plans… yeah, I probably hadn’t discussed them with her even once. Before that, back in the Royal Capital… um, things were so hectic I could barely remember what I was doing.

R-Right, anyway! From now on, I’d make sure to consult her about various things frequently. At least enough so I didn’t feel quite so guilty.

“Well then, Master. Allow me to ask again. What kind of stream will you be doing next?”

“About that—I was thinking this time we could combine it with fulfilling a request from the village.”

Iswood, where I lived now, was a village on the kingdom’s eastern frontier. In this village, where wild animals outnumbered people, mutual help was the basic principle, and I got asked for assistance several times a week. This time, the plan was to use alchemy to create an item that solved one of those requests, and stream the process.

“What we were making today was a commission from the owner of the village tavern! A wondrous item that could stir-fry and heat things without using fire—a Magical Stove!”