Chapter 170: Chapter 170: After the applause

The final note landed, stretched, and then snapped cleanly, like a thread cut on purpose.

For half a second, there was that stunned pocket of silence that only existed because the hall didn’t know what to do with the idea of ’over.’ Then the sound came back in a wave, first voices – people still singing the hook as if the song had simply moved from the speakers into their throats and refused to leave.

Adam grinned so hard his cheeks hurt.

He tossed his head once, and his hair went everywhere, blond strands plastered to his forehead, his temples, and his neck. His shirt was soaked through, clinging to him like he’d been poured into it, and the stage lights made the sweat on his skin flash bright, almost glittering. His chest rose fast, greedy breaths pulled in with that giddy edge of adrenaline that made his hands shake and his mind feel sharp and light at the same time.

He lifted the mic like he might say something.

The crowd screamed louder, as if they could bully an encore out of him by sheer volume.

Adam laughed, breathless, and it came out unguarded, young, bright, and a little disbelieving.

Behind him, the band was already moving. The drummer stood and tossed a stick into the air like punctuation. Someone from tech flashed him a thumbs-up from the wings, eyes wide with the same incredulous joy. The LED panels behind the stage started to dim into a soft wash, the geometric lines collapsing into a slow pulse that looked like a heartbeat settling.

Adam backed toward the rear of the stage, boots hitting the riser with quick, bouncing steps, still riding the momentum. He waved once – big, stupid, and enthusiastic – like he was trying to physically scoop up the sound and keep it.

“Thank you!” he shouted into the mic, voice rough. It didn’t matter if anyone heard the words. The crowd answered anyway, louder, chanting his name again like they’d decided the night wasn’t allowed to end until they’d used every ounce of voice they had.

“ADAM—ADAM—ADAM—”

He handed the mic off as he stepped into the shadow of the backstage corridor, the temperature dropping instantly like someone had opened a door to another world. The roar didn’t fade; it pressed through the walls, vibrating the metal scaffolding, bleeding into the narrow space like the building itself had learned the chorus.

Adam braced a hand on the curtain frame and just stopped.

Not because he was tired, though he was, every muscle humming with it; not because he was overwhelmed, though the feeling sat hot behind his ribs. He stopped because the reality of it hit him late, like the aftershock of a blast.

They were still singing.

He could still hear them, perfectly, even through the warded panels and the thick drapes and the controlled chaos of backstage. It wasn’t clean or pretty. It was off-key in places, too loud in others, and different tempos were crashing into each other because a crowd wasn’t a choir. But it was theirs.

And it was his.

A handler in black and gold – palace security, officially assigned to keep him alive – appeared in his peripheral vision, earpiece glinting. “That was…” the man started, then seemed to lose the ability to keep his face neutral. “That was a success.”

Adam’s smile went softer and somehow brighter at the same time, like the adrenaline had melted something sharp into warmth. He dragged a damp hand through his hair and made it worse, strands spiking and sticking and refusing to behave.

“I know,” he said, and his voice shook on the last word.

Someone shoved a towel at him. Adam grabbed it, scrubbed it over his face, then yanked it down and looked back toward the stage opening like he could see the crowd through the curtain.

They were still singing.

He pressed the towel to the back of his neck, eyes bright, shoulders still rising and falling too fast, and laughed again.

“I can’t believe they remember the words,” he murmured, more to himself than anyone.

The handler’s gaze flicked toward the curtain, where the sound came through in a steady chant. “They remember,” he said, and then, after a beat, like he couldn’t help it, “They needed something to remember.”

Adam swallowed.

The corridor felt too small for what he was carrying in his chest. The Empire was still stitched together with wards and rules and recovery schedules. The city still had ration lists and rebuilding maps and memorial walls that weren’t finished because there were too many names. But right now, behind him, was a hall full of people who had decided that joy was not illegal anymore.

Adam lifted the towel again, tried to breathe like a normal person, failed, and beamed at the nearest tech like he was sharing a secret.

“Okay,” he said, voice hoarse, eyes wild with adrenaline. “Tell me what I broke. Be honest.”

The tech’s laugh burst out. “Nothing major,” she said, and then, with a grin that turned sharp, “Yet. But the wards flashed when they screamed the hook.”

Adam’s heart pounded with delight and surprise.

He tipped his head back against the wall for a second, closed his eyes, and let the noise wash through him, a chorus he didn’t have to sing alone.

Then he pushed off the wall and started walking deeper backstage, still smiling, still shaking, still shining with sweat and victory, while, behind him, the crowd kept singing his song.

A slow clap cut through the backstage noise, like someone applauding a performance the way they might approve a transaction.

Adam’s steps faltered on instinct.

The chant from the hall kept rolling, muffled but relentless, vibrating the corridor in warm pulses. Crew moved around him, laughing, talking, tugging cables, and wiping sweat off their own necks. Someone shouted for water. Someone else swore at a lighting rig. Life, messy and loud.

The clapping resumed – steady, unhurried, and completely out of sync with everything else.

Adam turned.

The man stood half in shadow near the access corridor that led to the service elevators – far enough back that no one had ’accidentally’ wandered into him, close enough that he had clearly chosen this angle. Expensive suit, cut sharp and dark like the midnight swallowing them. Black hair, neat in a way that suggested it had never lost control. Green eyes that did not soften under the dim backstage lights; they caught, held, and returned nothing.

Adam’s brain supplied the first thought before his body finished turning.

Danger.

The second landed right after, calm as a diagnosis.

Alpha.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep