Chapter 145 It Seemed Something Was Exposed

Even with Ye Zhao's meager knowledge of the ACG world, he was quite familiar with the name Kondo Nana—or rather, Nana Mizuki. Moreover, he knew her not because of her later success in transitioning from a voice actress to a singer, but because he came to know her strictly through her work as a voice actress.

In his past life, Ye Zhao seemed to have burned out his passion for anime back in his early youth, leaving his knowledge of the medium stuck at the level of older generation classics like *Wakabayashi Genzo is the Best!* and *Sun Wukong and the Seven Glass Orbs*.

As he grew older, he could no longer keep up with the endless streams of new anime broadcasts. At most, he would turn on an episode of the newly released *Shinnosuke from Saitama* to accompany a lonely meal, or pass the time with the Ghibli version of *The Cat with Ears Chewed Off by Mice*. The last new manga he had ever read was *InuYasha*, which was hardly new at all.

Therefore, expecting him to recognize voice actors and actresses through anime was truly asking a bit much of him. Even so, Ye Zhao had known of Nana Mizuki from an early age, though not through an anime, but rather through a visual novel romance game called *Memories Off 2*.

In his past life, due to sheer coincidence, Ye Zhao discovered the existence of visual novels, and from then on—brands like Age, Leaf, and those two Key companies... cough, he knew nothing about any of that.

The very first visual novel he ever played was *Memories Off 2*. Without a walkthrough guide, he could only blunder into dead ends leading to Bad Endings over and over again. Through this endless cycle of restarts, his impressions of the game's primary heroine, Hotaru Shirakawa, and her voice actress, Nana Mizuki, became deeply engraved in his heart.

Because in this game, the protagonist and Hotaru Shirakawa start out as a couple, and anyone wanting to pursue the other heroines had to repeatedly dump this legitimate girlfriend. Thus, Ye Zhao was the legendary man who had made Nana Mizuki cry countless times.

...

Sitting in front of the control console, watching Nana Mizuki—or rather, Kondo Nana—delivering her lines with intense emotion on the other side... fifteen-year-old Kondo Nana had managed to enter by just scraping past the minimum age requirement for applicants. Though he had no idea whether she had begun any professional voice acting training yet, her performance right now, while raw, was genuinely commendable. It was no wonder she managed to survive the brutal survival-of-the-fittest meat grinder of the voice acting industry and stand tall for decades.

Ye Zhao lowered his gaze to look at the application form on the desk. Under the school column, she had written Horikoshi High School. Speaking of which, this reminded him of a little piece of gossip: Tsuyoshi Domoto, who was currently starring in his production, was actually a high school classmate of this very Kondo Nana, even though the two of them had practically never exchanged a single word during their high school days. Kondo Nana had been an exceptionally top student back then, and there was even a classmate named Ichikawa in her class who constantly hated taking notes and copied her homework every single day.

"Very good. Please go to the waiting room and wait for the final results," Tanaka called out through the microphone.

Kondo Nana let out a soft breath, gently closed her open script, and bowed to the supporting voice actors who had assisted her. Then she walked out of the recording booth, bowed to everyone in turn once more, and slowly stepped out of the room, carefully pulling the door shut behind her.

"Surprisingly good. I thought she might have attended some voice acting academy," Tanaka said, flipping through the application form in his hands and confirming that there was no prior experience listed.

"Still, I'm a bit curious. Why didn't a single person from voice acting schools apply for these auditions?" Ye Zhao realized the question belatedly.

Tanaka explained, "As for that, I'm not sure about the newest voice acting schools, but the academies from our time had a strict rule prohibiting students from taking on dubbing work before graduation."

"Is that so? Then it's no wonder." Ye Zhao nodded. That meant Kondo Nana hadn't even begun formal training yet.

...

The next candidate walked in. Ye Zhao pulled back his wandering thoughts and earnestly focused on the rest of the auditions. While he did harbor a somewhat quirky hobby of collecting famous warriors, if a completely unknown dark horse managed to break through today, he would not hesitate to choose the one with superior skill.

Unfortunately, that supreme dark horse never appeared, even as the final candidate walked out of the recording studio. While feeling a tinge of regret, Ye Zhao couldn't help but chuckle slightly: Wasn't Kondo Nana's sudden appearance essentially a dark horse breaking through the pack? Otherwise, what kind of twist of fate could have possibly brought a Kondo Nana, who should have been on an entirely different trajectory, to this audition venue?

When only eight examiners, including Ye Zhao, remained in the recording studio, they quickly exchanged opinions. Tanaka wore a serious and earnest expression. "As expected... it's number seven, right?"

Ye Zhao put down his fountain pen and nodded in agreement. "That's what I was thinking."

In the end, five of the eight votes from the examiners were cast for Kondo Nana. The remaining three votes went to number 26, a seventeen-year-old girl named Sayaka Yoshida. Since no one held veto power, the minority deferred to the majority, and Kondo Nana secured the top spot in the auditions by a margin of two votes.

...

During the routine celebration banquet, Kondo Nana's seat was arranged directly to Ye Zhao's left. It was the exact same seating arrangement used yesterday during the celebration for Junnosuke Tajima.

Tanaka's reasoning was entirely sound: "Ye-kun and they are both young people, so sitting together will be much more relaxing. If they sat next to boring middle-aged folks like us, they'd probably feel awkward."

That being said, even with young people seated together, Junnosuke Tajima hadn't become any more talkative yesterday. Even when Ye Zhao periodically tossed out conversation topics, Tajima had merely nodded stiffly, let alone initiated a conversation. Ye Zhao even doubted whether Tajima had managed to get enough to eat at the gathering.

Today, Kondo Nana was at least somewhat more conversational than Junnosuke Tajima. Although in a crowd of strangers, one shouldn't expect her to chatter endlessly, at least when someone spoke to her, her responses didn't make a person harbor the subtle suspicion that they lacked conversational skills.

"I still need to thank you for today." After finishing a glass of beer, the other examiners had switched to sake. Ye Zhao followed yesterday's precedent and stuck to non-alcoholic beverages intended for minors. If his role as an examiner had served any practical purpose, this was probably it.

"Thank you?" Kondo Nana looked baffled.

"You forgot? Before the final auditions started, didn't you help catch that stack of cardboard boxes that was about to topple over?" Ye Zhao reminded her, while silently sighing inwardly. His presence hadn't felt this weak in ages—he had been completely and utterly ignored.