What does it have to do with me if they hate vests?

"A friend of a friend." Fuyuo Kishi corrected.

Ying Lili grinned and gnashed her canine teeth in protest, then she said dejectedly, "My drawing is far worse than yours, why don't you just let me draw it directly?"

"It's different. It's like your favorite idol star's handwriting looks like dog crawling, but your teacher's comment criticizing you on your homework is very beautiful. You also prefer the idol's signature to the teacher's criticism, right?"

"I'm a good student, and my teacher won't criticize me."

The golden-haired girl, who had always been a good little girl in school, answered seriously.

"..."

Dongwei Kiku was speechless for a moment: Sister, have you missed the point?

After a while, he recovered and explained in a more straightforward way: "The quality of the painting and the plot is not everything in a comic book."

"So besides the art and the plot, what else is there in comics?" Eriri asked very cooperatively, like a diligent and studious student.

"Practicality." Fuyuo Kishiku answered as if it was a matter of course: "Admittedly, my story and pictures are not bad, but in terms of Ling○ (emphasis), BindX (emphasis), Touch△ (emphasis) and Beast□ (emphasis), I have to admit that you are stronger now."

"Don't say words like that in public, idiot!"

Eriri, who was holding a long-handled thin spoon for stirring coffee, almost couldn't help but stabbed the boy in front of her who was talking and seemed to be talking about something serious to death with the spoon.

"Anyway," Fuyuo Kishi continued cheerfully, not caring about the girl's murderous intent. "It seems that she likes this aspect of you, Mr. Kashiwagi, so she wanted you to help with the illustrations."

"Wait, illustrations?"

Ying Lili suddenly realized something, and her eyes were full of suspicion: "Could your friend's friend be a light novel writer?"

The boy had a noncommittal smile on his face, which made Ying Lili wonder if this guy's "let slip of the tongue" just now was intentional.

Seeing this, Eriri probably had some guesses in her mind. She narrowed her eyes and looked at the other person suspiciously: "The light novel written by your friend's friend, could it be "The Exploding Dark Fairy"? "

As a famous doujinshi master, it is natural that he occasionally receives invitations to illustrate light novels.

However, unlike most cash-strapped doujinshi authors, Eriri is not short of money, so she is usually selective in her choices regarding invitations in this regard, and has drawn illustrations for several light novels so far.

"The Exploding Dark Fairy" is not one of them. Although this novel is still quite good on the sales list, the content is mostly about welfare. Although the plot is quite interesting, it is too straightforward. The part about selling welfare is also average and greasy. It does not suit Eriri's taste very well and is one of the works that was rejected by Eriri the fastest.

The reason why Eriri has an impression of "Exploding Dark Fairy" is naturally because the author named Yamada Fairy, even though he was rejected, still often pestered her on Line and asked her to draw illustrations for his works. His annoyingness even surpassed flies and mosquitoes, the pig-headed monster in Wang Lei, and the bass in Animal Crossing, and became the creature that Eriri hates the most recently.

"Are you going to go back on your word?" Fuyuo Kishikyu asked with interest.

"I have never broken my promise." The girl snorted. She glanced at the boy and continued, "Besides, from the moment you tricked me out, I have already lost, right?"

Dongwei Kishiku took a sip of coffee with a smile and agreed with her statement.

That's right, because the previous agreement was that as long as Yamada Fairy could find her, she would win, and from the moment she showed up and admitted that she was Kashiwagi Eri, the other party had actually won and must fulfill the agreement to draw light novel illustrations for the other party.

In many ways, Fuyu Kishi's request to "draw a few pictures for his friend's friend" was already quite generous. Otherwise, Eriri would have to give Fuyu Kishi extra compensation in addition to drawing illustrations for "The Exploding Dark Fairy".

But even though she knew what was going on, the girl became angrier and angrier the more she thought about it, and she became more and more annoyed with the other person's calm smile.

She pushed the brown paper file bag on the table back in front of the other person and said angrily, "Okay, you have achieved your goal. Take this comic book back. I can't give you any suggestions."

After realizing that "That Snow" was just a bait, Eriri even felt that this guy brought "That Snow" simply to attack her, and the other party had no intention of asking her to make any changes.

"No, you misunderstood."

However, what she didn't expect was that Dongwei Kishi put down his coffee cup and said leisurely: "I didn't say that just to tease you. Your ability will indeed be helpful to "That Snow"."

"Is that so?" Eriri felt that the other party didn't seem to be lying, which made her lose confidence: "How can I help?"

"Look, after all, I'm just a man who has never experienced real fighting, so there must be some missing information..." Dongwei Kishi said with his hands spread out.

"What exactly do you want to say?" Ying Lili was a little confused.

"For the love parts, I hope the legendary teacher Kashiwagi Eri can help correct them. It would be best if you can show the sensuality and desire that you are good at as much as possible."

"Love love..."

Ying Lili suddenly realized what this guy was talking about and her face turned red.

After all, there is no exposed part in the original work of "That Snow", and it is completely suitable for all ages. But now it has to be posted on a popular forum, so this part of the content was added after the plot was expanded.

But the problem is that although Fuyu Kishige can draw the human body with artistic beauty, it is too beautiful and lacks practicality, which makes him a little distressed. Although he can improve his ability in this area by reading books, it is not unreasonable to ask Eriri for advice.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Dongwei Kishi stood up and said, "This manuscript is just a photocopy. Please feel free to revise it. I will find time to meet with you later."

After watching the other person leave, Eriri carefully packed up the drawing, held it in her arms with a slightly blushing face, and gently stroked the brown paper bag as if she was holding a priceless treasure - no matter how much she disliked Fuyu Kishihisa's personality, but just in terms of the comic itself, she really loved "That Snow".

After reading this comic, all the works that were originally her favorite in her heart were thrown out of the window, leaving only this masterpiece that was beautiful yet a little sad, sweet yet a little painful, and hard to let go.

"By the way," suddenly, Fuyuo Kishihisa's head popped out from behind the booth again: "Don't just focus on revising the manuscript and forget to contact Yamada Fairy... What are you doing?"

"What's it to you!" The girl, who was holding the briefcase like a squirrel holding an acorn, was caught by the other party and immediately made a sound of shame and anger.

Chapter 65: Publication

Not long after Shiki returned to Washimiya Dormitory, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from upstairs.

A moment later, the Yamada Fairy ran into his room barefoot and said excitedly, "Teacher Kashiwagi Eri said she can help me draw illustrations!"

"Congratulations." Si Ji said calmly, "Would you like some butterbeer (non-alcoholic) to celebrate?" At the same time, he glanced at her white and tender little feet calmly.

It seemed that the Yamada fairy was so excited that she didn't even have time to put on her shoes before running to tell him the good news.

Fairy Yamada noticed Shiki's gaze keenly. She shyly retracted her pearly toes inward, but she did not feel disgusted. Rather, she felt a little secretly happy in her heart.

So the girl didn't run away, but suppressed the shame and asked, "Did the assistant contact Mr. Kashiwagi?"

"I have a friend," Shiki's expression became a little more serious when asked about the vest-related questions: "He is also a cartoonist, and he happened to have the contact information of Kashiwagi Eri, so I asked him for help."

This explanation was quite reasonable, so Yamada Fairy didn't feel like "Is this friend you are talking about yourself?" Instead, he nodded to show that he understood.

"It seems I have to work harder, otherwise I won't even have a finished draft, and Kashiwagi Eri-sensei won't know how to draw illustrations."

The blonde girl looked very energetic and immediately left Si Ji's room in a hurry.

Shiki looked at her back, thought for a moment, and took out his phone: "Hello, is this Chris? I have a request about the new work of the fairy..."

On the other side, after returning to his room, the Yamada Fairy's fiery mind calmed down a little, but he felt a little confused again.

She came here to look for Kashiwagi Eri and ask her to draw illustrations for her light novel. She was prepared to spend a lot of time, which was why she rented a house instead of staying in a hotel. But she didn't expect everything to go so smoothly. She had put all her energy into it, but she didn't know where to put it, and she felt a little uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the original purpose has now become secondary. Even if the Yamada Fairy has achieved the original goal, he will not leave Washimiya Ryo at least in the short term.

Thinking of this, the young Yamada Fairy couldn't help but sigh.

"Why do I feel like I'm the only one who's fallen for you... No, I have to work hard to improve my assistant's favorability. The one who falls in love with the other person first in a relationship is the loser!"

The blonde girl, who had never been in love before and whose only knowledge about love came from comedy girls' comics, thought so.

But compared to this, I have to write the latest volume of the novel first.

As a professional light novel author, although Yamada Fairy often meets the deadline to submit her manuscripts, causing her editor Yamada Chris to always have high blood pressure, she still has basic professional ethics and rarely makes mistakes.

It has to be said that she was born to write light novels. Many people thought that Yamada Fairy's writing was very poor, and that she was able to achieve her current success only because she happened to catch the trend of "different world" light novels, and she was one of the first lucky ones to benefit from it.

But this is not the case.

The next day, Washimiya-ryo.

"Well, putting aside those old problems, this volume is indeed very interesting."

Si Ji put down the manuscript in his hand and said to the girl who looked tired and seemed like she would fall asleep at any moment.

"That's great. I'm going to sleep now. I'll leave everything to you from now on."

It can be seen that Yamada Fairy must have stayed up late yesterday, and stayed up very late, so much so that she still looks a little dazed now.

After she handed her latest volume to Si Ji, she just staggered away.

Shiki thought she would go back to her room to rest, but she saw Yamada the Fairy staggering directly to his bedroom, throwing herself on the bed, and falling into a sweet sleep...

Originally, Shiki wanted to wake her up and let her go back to her room to have a good sleep, but after seeing the girl's sweet sleeping face, he couldn't bear to wake her up. In the end, he could only scan the manuscript and send it directly to Eriri. Yamada Fairy had already marked the places where illustrations were needed in the manuscript. I believe Eriri can understand.

Considering that the manuscript will need to be sent to the editors of FULLDRIVE Bunko for proofreading, Eriri still has at least two or three days to finish the illustrations.

Si Ji was not worried at all that the other party would not be able to catch up. After all, although they were illustrations, there were differences between illustrations.

The illustrations used in light novels are basically black and white comic-like illustrations. If Shiki does it himself, it only takes three to five minutes to finish one. Ordinary painters may be slower, but even if they are slower, this much time is enough.

After taking a quick look through the fairy's new book and making sure there were no other problems, Shiki handed it to Chris Yamada and asked FULLDRIVE Bunko to start proofreading and preparing for publication.

After Eriri received the manuscript, she contacted Fuyuo Kishihisa again.

According to her, who is also a golden-haired girl, after agreeing to draw illustrations for "The Exploding Dark Fairy" yesterday, she very professionally bought all the published volumes of the book and has finished reading it during this period of time.

Although she didn't want to admit it, this light novel was much more interesting than she had initially thought, which gave her some motivation to draw illustrations.

What shocked her even more was that the author of this light novel, Yamada Fairy, was actually a girl. Because they had only communicated with each other through text before, and "The Dark Fairy of Explosion" was a very typical isekai harem light novel, so until she contacted Yamada Fairy seriously, she thought that the other party was just a greasy otaku...

Probably because she was too tired and overdrawn in the past two days, Yamada Fairy slept for a whole day before waking up. After realizing that her saliva had wet Shiki's pillow, and that her bad sleeping posture and stupid face when she woke up were all seen by the other party, and that Shiki had to sleep on the sofa last night and almost got a stiff neck, the girl ran away in shame.

Eriri was very helpful and delivered the results two days later. I don't know what kind of public relations FULLDRIVE Bunko got from Chris Yamada, but the manuscript and illustrations quickly went through the review process, which would have taken at least ten days for other novels.

In this way, the latest volume of "The Exploding Dark Fairy" quickly entered the publishing process just before the end of the spring break in April.

By the way, during this process, the phone representing Qiu Ling Wenping rang several times. His assistant reminded him that someone from the Shigong family came to him again to request an interview, but was ignored by Shiki again.

Chapter 66: I was criticized for nothing

'The bet between beautiful girl light novel writers' has become a hot topic recently.

Whether it is Kasumi Shiko or Yamada Fairy, both of them are of the type with very good looks, and one of them happens to be a mature and plump queen-type JK with a curvy figure, and the other is a blonde with pink eyes and a mixed-race who is still within the shelf life of a broad loli;

One is about a delicate and touching love story, and the other is about the journey of a dragon Aotian in another world.

One is an iceberg beauty who hardly communicates with her fans and remains calm even at book signings, while the other is a textbook tsundere who can passionately quarrel with readers online.

The contrast between the two sides is so sharp that such a sense of contrast collides with each other and eventually produces intense sparks.

It can be said that each side has a group of staunch supporters, and under the tacit operation of Fuzuigawa Bunko and FULLDRIVE Bunko, fans of both sides fought fiercely in the online world, causing the popularity of this news to soar, dominating the Twitter popularity list for several hours, and finally being pushed down by the news that the former prime minister had opened his mind.

"Based on the marketing department's reasonable, conservative, yet optimistic estimates, we are a sure winner."

Machida Yuanzi looked at the constantly updated topics and said cheerfully to Kasumigaoka Utaha who was standing beside her: "And Utaha-chan has many more supporters than we expected."

This is the home of Utaha Kasumigaoka. Due to her job, Machida Sonoko has been here many times and is already familiar with the place. Plus, as they are both women, there won't be any particular inconvenience for her.

During the long-term collaboration, Machida also paid great attention to building a good relationship with Kasumigaoka Utaha. The two of them are more like a pair of good friends rather than partners who are together purely for work.

"I hope the library can restrain the fans a little bit and not let the situation escalate to personal attacks." Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had expected this, frowned as she looked at the comments on the screen.

Some people have stopped discussing the work objectively and started attacking Yamada Yoji himself, using some pretty harsh words.

It is certainly a happy thing to have someone supporting you, but if those who support you are full of shit, that is another matter.

"I'll tell them," Editor Machida naturally wouldn't argue with her generals over such a small matter. She just thought it was funny. "What confidence does that boy have to take the initiative to ask for a bet with you?"

"Maybe it's because the person I'm competing against in the bet is Yamada Fairy Sensei, and it has nothing to do with him. I'm just being generous to others." Kasumigaoka Utaha answered casually.

Naturally, Machida Sonoko took this answer as a joke, and she immediately joined in the laughter, paying attention to the atmosphere.

If this is true, Yamada Fairy is not a fool, how could he agree to such a losing bet.

Because this topic has become so popular, the sales of the latest volumes of both Kasumigaoka Utaha's "Love Metronome" and Yamada Elf's "Exploding Dark Fairy" have long exceeded the average of the previous volumes, and are slowly climbing towards their highest sales.

However, just as Shiki and the others predicted at the beginning, "Love Metronome" had fewer volumes and was released several days earlier than "Exploding Dark Fairy" which was published at the end of April, so it had the first-mover advantage and its sales volume firmly surpassed that of Yamada Elf's latest volume.

However, at this moment, Machida Sonoko's cell phone suddenly rang.

She answered the phone, and after hearing what was said on the other end, she immediately said to Kasumigaoka Shiyu, "Quick, Shiyu, turn on the TV!"

Although Kasumigaoka Utaha felt a little strange, she still followed her instructions and turned on the TV.

Over there, in Washimiya Dormitory, the Yamada Fairy was staying in Shiki's room listlessly, lying on the low table, looking listless.

"Brother...Chris said that the sales volume difference between the two sides is at least 30,000 volumes, which is not a number that can be recovered in five days."

She said sullenly, "I'm sorry, my assistant did so much for me, and even invited Mr. Kashiwagi, but I still lost in the end."

The girl believed that this volume, which she had written with great effort, was the culmination of her hard work and there was nothing wrong with the plot and other aspects. It was a pity that its inherent deficiencies could not be remedied, and it ended up in failure.

In fact, in the forums related to light novels, her fans generally think that the latest volume is quite exciting, and only those "pure passers-by" who don't read her novels will use the plot to step on the fairy.

"Don't worry about it," but Shiki didn't seem to care about the failed agreement. He placed a plate of Japanese confectionery on the low table where the girl could reach it, and then took out a deck of playing cards: "It's just like playing cards. No one can be sure who the winner is until the end... Maybe you have some hidden cards up your sleeve?"

"It would be great if there was, but unfortunately it's impossible."

The Yamada Fairy sighed.

In her opinion, Si Ji is simply not familiar with the publishing industry. In fact, FULLDRIVE Library has done a very good job in publicity and promotion. In fact, the strength of this publicity and promotion alone has exceeded the treatment that an author of her level deserves.