In the anime series, Goto Ichiri is actually my childhood sweetheart?

"Row."

"Where is Eriri? I don't see her."

Goto Ichiri looked towards the front of the classroom but didn't see any sign of Eriri.

"It seems like other classmates are calling her to eat. After all, there are quite a lot of people who want to make friends with her."

"oh oh."

Goto Ichiri nodded, thinking to himself that she was worthy of being Eriri, and then took out the lunch box from his schoolbag.

The two of them pushed the tables together and sat facing each other like in a restaurant.

"Xiao Feng, do you feel that Tanaka likes you a little? She always talks to you and often brings you food."

Goto Ichiri sat behind Takahashi Kaede. Every day he would either sleep in class or watch Takahashi Kaede to see what he was doing.

As a bystander, Goto Ichiri was very clear that Tanaka Misaki often looked for him, and he also heard the conversation between the two of them just now.

"Well, I don't know, maybe a little."

Takahashi Feng sighed, took a mouthful of rice, then picked up a piece of meat and put it in Goto Ichiri's bowl.

"Xiao Feng, don't you like being liked?" Goto Ichiri asked curiously while biting the spoon.

"It always feels too heavy. I don't know how to respond to her in the best way. She hasn't said it, but she's just a little enthusiastic towards me. I can't just ask her so self-indulgently."

"If you were confessed to, would Xiao Feng agree?"

Gao Qiaofeng held his head and seemed to be very distressed.

"No matter how you think about it, you're not going to be able to do that. You're only that old. You should be at least in high school to date. And how can I have the time to be with my girlfriend, do carpentry, write novels, and play with you guys? Apart from these, I have almost no time left."

In Gaoqiao Feng's previous life, her school was extremely strict about dealing with romance. As soon as there was any sign of romance, they would immediately put pressure on and then put an end to it. If young lovers were caught having a secret meeting by surveillance cameras, they would be expelled from school.

In this environment, he had almost no experience in love, and his later experiences made it even more difficult for him to get along with girls, so he was surprisingly conservative in this regard.

"There is a couple in our class who often walk hand in hand into the woods outside. They scream and run away when someone approaches them."

Goto Ichiri doesn't have any real feelings about love yet, he's just curious, nothing else.

"You're too precocious! How old are you? Oh, that's why I'm unsure about this. Forget it. Eat your meal. Don't listen to what others say. It's too weird."

"Xiao Feng feels surprisingly conservative."

Goto Ichiri mixed the meat and green peppers cooked by Takahashi Kaede into the rice, took a big bite, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"Delicious! Xiao Feng, how did you make it? Green peppers are so delicious! Mom often cooks green peppers, but I can't eat that taste at all."

"It tastes good, doesn't it? Your mother's is boiled in water, so of course it has no taste."

Takahashi Kaede is still very proud that Goto Ichiri likes to eat the food with the flavor of his hometown.

Chapter 39: Goto Ichiri commits suicide with the miko

Many Japanese parents like to add green peppers to the bento boxes they prepare for their children because they are promoted on TV every day as nutritious and healthy.

But they don’t like to add oil or salt, so they just cook it in water. How can it be delicious?

Children don’t care whether it is healthy or not. The only reason they eat more is because it tastes good. Therefore, you can see many students who eat their lunch boxes at noon taking out all the green peppers in their bowls and throwing them away.

Or stuff it into your companion's mouth.

Gao Qiaofeng has different cooking habits. He stir-fries food with oil, and then adds more salt and MSG.

He always felt that as long as he exercised enough, it was no big deal to eat heavy food, as long as he didn't eat it all the time.

"Didn't I mention before that my mom took me to the game store? I bought a new galgame and played it last night. I felt that the plot was quite heavy."

Goto Ichiri took a mouthful of rice and said.

"What kind of theme is it? It's not the kind of doomsday type where you have to experience separation of life and death, right?"

Goto Ichiri shook his head.

"No, the story takes place on an isolated island with a village on it. The villagers believe that the island is protected by a god. In order to please the god, they sacrifice a witch to the sea every twenty years."

“Is that village often hit by tsunamis?”

Gao Qiaofeng speculated that this kind of religious ritual was mostly caused by human weakness in the struggle between man and nature. Because their own abilities were too weak, they could only place their hopes on God.

Since it is a small island, the problem is most likely caused by a tsunami.

"Xiao Feng is so awesome! I only found out about this later in the game. An old man in the village said that every twenty years, the sea god will be born and bring a world-destroying tsunami. The village suffered one many years ago, and that time, the entire village was almost destroyed."

"I don't know who proposed the idea, but the remaining people sacrificed the most beautiful girl in the village. For many years afterwards, there has been no such tsunami."

When talking about sacrificing girls, Goto Ichiri's voice was noticeably trembling.

If I were that girl, and all the relatives who grew up with me suddenly wanted to kill me one day and sacrifice me to an illusory god, I would definitely feel desperate and powerless.

"I am the protagonist. I am a person who enjoys solo sailing. I accidentally came across this island during a voyage and met the miko in a shrine deep in the mountains."

"That miko is so pretty, with a big bow tie on her head. The miko clothes she wears don't look like something from the human world, but like something worn by fairies living in the sky. She is also very cute. When she saw the hero wandering around, she took him in and took care of him with the items that the villagers offered as sacrifices every day."

"And they fell in love?"

This kind of plot sounded very familiar to Takahashi Kaede, as if he had come across a similar game in his previous life.

"Well, during the process, many girls came to the shrine to play with Miss Miko. There was also an option to go down the mountain to the village, but I didn't choose either. I just accompanied Miss Miko wholeheartedly. In the end, Miss Miko and the male protagonist talked to each other in the moonlight, and the two agreed to keep going together."

"Wait, don't people in the village know about this? And those people who went up to the mountain to play?"

Takahashi Kaede discovered the blind spot.

"No... I don't know, because I have been hiding. Miss Miko also wanted to introduce me to everyone, but I always chose to refuse, so she has been supporting me."

Goto Ichiri touched his head and smiled, totally unaware that he was going to end up being kept by someone else.

"What about later? Will the witch be sacrificed after a while?"

"Speaking of which, I'm still a little depressed. I only played this one ending yesterday, and it was a bad ending..."

"Didn't it work?"

"One day, the villagers suddenly gathered together, lined up in a long line, played various musical instruments along the way, and carried a large box that looked like a coffin. They went up the mountain to sacrifice the witch to the sea."

"How can you stop them when you are alone?"

How can a young man, a girl, stop a group of fanatical villagers from sacrificing the witch? Not to mention whether he can convince them, Takahashi Feng feels that he has no way to do anything with just force.

"Miss Miko asked me to hide under the floor of the room with tears in her eyes. Several girls who often go up the mountain started arguing with the leading villager, saying that this ritual was a murder ritual. But it was useless. Although the leader hesitated for a moment, the old man behind him directly denied the girls' claims."

"The old man glared at the witch and said that if she wasn't sacrificed, the whole village would be destroyed by the sea god because of her. Xiaofeng, is that true? I don't know, but he really seems to think so... I also don't know if this sea god is real or fake."

Goto Ichiri had obviously been struggling with this last night. The old man's tone, as if it was a matter of course to push people into the fire pit, made her feel a chill, but she didn't know where the problem lay.

"That's wrong. He can be so confident only because he is not the one who is to be sacrificed."

Takahashi Kaede explained, waving the chopsticks in his hand.

"I think people have a burden of proof when they make a claim. He first proposed that there is a sea god and that the sea god will bring tsunamis, so he has to prove the existence of the sea god. To put it bluntly, there is also the problem of people in the village blindly following the elderly, thinking that what the elderly say must be right."

"It's a very sad thing. No one knows whether he is making it up or not because he is the only one who remembers that history."

"Yili, what did you do afterwards? You didn't hide under the house the whole time, did you?

"Of course not! There was an option to hide down there, but I didn't choose that. I secretly followed her and saw a bunch of rituals. In the end, the witch was put into a big box and thrown directly into the sea. The plot didn't give me any more options at this point. The protagonist jumped down and tried to open the box, but the opening was too tight. In the end, the protagonist and the box containing the witch sank into the sea together, both dying for love."

The chopsticks that Gao Qiaofeng was using to pick up food froze in mid-air.

"How pathetic! As the protagonist, you haven't accomplished anything."

Goto Ichiri lay on the table and accepted the criticism.

"That's why I'm telling you, Xiao Feng, what should I do to save her."

Exuding a faint sadness, Goto Ichiri's voice came through his sleeves, sounding a little dull.

"Contact those people who go up the mountain, contact the villagers, contact the girls who protect the witch, and also try to contact the young leader. Just now you also said that when the witch was about to be taken away, it was these people who raised objections. So they are friends, and friends can only accomplish great things if they unite."

"Oh! So that's how it is. I'll try it when I get back!"

Goto Ichiri had an epiphany and suddenly sat up straight, with stars in his eyes.

"Don't play too late, you'll grow taller."

"I know, I know. Xiao Feng is so long-winded."

"You've really grown up and started to think I'm nagging, even though you were very obedient when you were little."

......

Chapter 40: Novel Illustrations and Haircuts

"How about this one?"

Eriri called Takahashi Kaede over and the computer switched to the Photoshop page.

There is a painting on it. The young man holds a sword in his left hand and stretches out his right hand, touching the huge dragon on the right side of the picture. A contract with a paper and pen is burning nearby, as if it is blessed by magic. The surrounding plants are blown away by the strong wind brought by the formation of the contract, forming a vortex that surrounds the man and the dragon.

It has been a year since the last time I met Koichi Kimura. Kaede Takahashi has just finished the main text of the first volume and is looking for Eriri to draw illustrations.

After all, it was a very early agreement. Commercial drafts are certainly convenient, but we must also respect our friends.

"Hmm... the dragon could be a little bigger in proportion. Also, the first dragon that signed a contract with the protagonist holds the power over the earth. It should have the texture of rock, the kind with reverse boulder spikes and dense marks of dragon scales on it."

Gao Qiaofeng touched his chin and expressed his opinions in detail.

"Thank you for your hard work, Eriri. My requests may be a bit too much."

I don’t know how many versions this is. From the initial sketch-like draft, it has now taken shape.

This is the illustration at the beginning of the story. The boy and the dragon sign a contract and embark on a journey to find the magic. In the beginning, Takahashi Kaede actually only required the scene to be grand enough, but there were new ideas and pictures every day, and this painting was constantly being revised.

"Don't say that! Didn't we already agree that you write the novel and I'll draw the illustrations?"

Eriri seemed a little annoyed by Takahashi Kaede's politeness. She put her hands on her hips, bared her little fangs, and spoke in a very imposing manner.

"Yeah, my question. Let me edit the details of the dragon."

Eriri gave up her seat to Takahashi Kaede, who picked up the pen and began to revise.

This set of tools was funded by Takahashi Kaede. When Eriri proposed it to Sayuri, she was rejected on the grounds that she was too young. Takahashi Kaede then used his money ability and found Sayuri to discuss it in detail.

Finally agreed.

The condition is that the work must produce results. If she can see the results, she will help promote the novel and even help her daughter sell it at comic conventions.

"Eri, you rarely talk to Ichiri about games at school recently. Ichiri really wants to talk to you."

With glasses on, Takahashi Kaede almost put his face against the computer, and Eriri forced him to straighten his posture.

"I can just ask her to come to my house and tell her... To be honest, I don't really want to talk about homebodies at school."

Ying Lili became a little taciturn, as if she had something to hide.

"Is it still because of that thing... Never mind, it's good this way, it saves a lot of trouble. The things we like are indeed just a small circle, and it's other people's problem if they have opinions, but there will definitely be some radical ones who won't stand it."

Takahashi Kaede is very open-minded about this aspect. Just do whatever is more trouble-free. There are very few people who like the two-dimensional world, and there are even fewer people like Tomoya Aki who are almost obsessed with it. There is no need for Eriri to be so active.

"Eri, you're really good at drawing characters. It's only been a short while, but I feel like you're more skilled at the movement details and skeletons than I am. And the connection between the legs and waist is so strong!"

Takahashi Kaede is good at setting things up, such as a completely imaginary dragon. He can expand on it and draw a lot of them, but the character modeling is not as good as the current Eriri.

"No...no, it's not that great!"

Ying Lili's face suddenly turned red and she said while pretending to be calm.

She moved to the side, as if blocking something.

Takahashi Feng didn't notice and continued staring at the screen.

"Your personality is totally different from Amaki Tomoya's. I feel like your identities have been switched. You were the one who led him into the trap in the beginning, but now you are silent in school, while he is chatting with everyone."

"That guy is completely different. He is already heartless. He won't just approach anyone and preach to them!"

Eriri is not very willing to admit that she was very similar to Akitomo now when she first entered school.

"Indeed, I am a little afraid to talk to him. I am a little scared of the way he gets excited when talking about staying at home."

I don’t know what he went through when he came into contact with games and animations, but now he is very fanatical, just like those fans who chased stars in his previous life.

I heard him say that he wanted to apply for a part-time job while in junior high school, and then bought three copies of a galgame, one for his own use, one for preaching, and one for collection.