(MC POV)
The good thing was that Kiyomi managed to calm down and actually do a proper rehearsal with me for her scenes eventually.
The caveat was the fact that I had to make out with her several times which led to us having a steamy sex session within the rehearsal room until she was satisfied enough to continue.
After that though, she managed to keep her focus on the rehearsal and performed the rest with me flawlessly.
Unfortunately, that entire thing took pretty much the rest of the day and it was dark by the time we were done.
We packed up the place and left the room after straightening ourselves up, only to find a girl that was seated outside the room and nodding off with a clipboard propped up in her arms.
The girl had a pair of white fox ears on her head and a snowy white tail that waved slightly on her lap.
Kiyomi blinked at her before calling out to her, "Yumi?"
The girl jumped and the clipboard in her hand clattered noisily onto the ground.
"Ah! I'm not sleeping!! I… Oh… Umm… Hello boss."
"What are you doing out here? It's already late, shouldn't you be back at the inn?"
Yumi quickly picked up the clipboard and smoothed her dress as she stood back up, "Umm… I… I needed to hand this to you, boss! But umm… I didn't want to intrude on your rehearsals!"
At first I thought that she might have heard us being intimate inside the rehearsal room but I remembered that the rooms had no windows and it was soundproof so that was not possible.
Kiyomi took the clipboard from Yumi and flipped through the pages while I peeked over her shoulder to try and see its contents.
Apparently it was a report on the cost of us making use of the premises which required Kiyomi's signature to approve.
Kiyomi frowned, "Shouldn't Clarisse be able to sign this as well? You could have just gone to her instead of waiting for me."
"Umm… That's the next thing I needed to talk to you about boss… Umm… I'm not sure how to say this but Clarisse and a few of the actors had disappeared suddenly this evening…"
Kiyomi "What?! How? When?! And where?!"
Yumi poked her fingers together, "We… We don't know… We only found out that they were missing when we started closing up since they didn't come out of the rehearsal room… We didn't want to raise an alarm with the others so we have not told anyone yet and umm… Boss was really engrossed in your rehearsal so I didn't want to disturb you…"
"This is an emergency! How could you not interrupt me?!"
"Umm… Umm… Boss and Master were… Embracing each other…"
Ah… She didn't just hear us, she saw us… The door wasn't locked…
I didn't even notice that she came in… Then again, with how loudly Kiyomi was howling in pleasure while riding on top of me, I doubt any other person would have noticed it in my position.
Kiyomi seemed to have realised what she was referring to and coughed to hide her embarrassment.
"Let's go and see the rehearsal room they were using first."
Yumi led the way towards the next rehearsal room, pulling out a key from her belt to unlock the door.
Pushing open the door, we entered the room to see it made into a mess with tables, chairs and paper strewn all around the room.
Kiyomi frowned, "Was the room like this when they started using it?"
Yumi shook her head quickly, "Not at all boss…"
"Then it's obvious isn't it? Some people kidnapped our actors."
"E… Eh? Why would anyone want to kidnap our actors? And they managed to take everyone without anyone noticing?"
"If they hired Practitioners to do it, it's not that hard. The real question is… Who would stand to gain the most from us being unable to perform? Are there any other troupes performing at the same time and place as us on that day?"
Yumi thought for a moment, "There are a few, boss… You don't think that…"
"That one of them is trying to sabotage us so that we can't perform in front of the Empress and potentially getting the Empress to become our sponsor? I would be surprised if none of them were trying anything."
Yumi turned to me, "What should we do, Master?"
Kiyomi stepped in front of me, "We'll handle it. It's already late so you should go back to the inn. Don't worry, they'll be back by tomorrow morning."
Seeing that it was already quite late at night, I don't blame Yumi for looking at us with eyes of doubt after hearing that. But since Kiyomi was insistent on it, she did not argue and did as she was told.
When the door closed, Kiyomi immediately turned to me, "How interesting Master~ I never thought that we would face problems like these as a troupe~ Did these Worlds' version of me also faced such problems?"
"A few of them but not all at once, also for different reasons as well," I admitted.
Kiyomi smirked at that, "In that case… Doesn't this mean that I would be better than all these versions of me because I managed to triumph over all their troubles simultaneously?"
I chuckled, "That goes without saying, doesn't it?"
Actually, considering the fact that she was the only one amongst them who managed to rise to godhood, she was already better than all these versions of her even if she did not manage to solve these problems on her own.
In fact, the only reason why she might even face any trouble would simply be because she did not wish to make use of her divinity. All of these troubles would be removed instantly should she choose to use all her powers.
Kiyomi then turned back to her room, her expression turning cold.
"Now which one of those little fools decided to mess with us? There isn't a problem if I mess them up in turn… Right, Master?"
I shrugged, "If you would like me to help you cover up some things… I could do that."
"Kukuku, there's no need for that Master. I know how to cover up my own tracks~ Do you want to come with me?"
"Oh? You already know who's responsible for this?"
"Not yet, but I will be able to find out soon enough."
Of course I don't doubt she would be able to find out who was responsible for this. I just want to know how she was going to handle it.
Is she going to look for clues, or maybe call up some contacts? Maybe she might be thinking about… Eh? Where is she going?
Why is she walking out of the room without even looking around?
