"Thank you for your purchase. Hah~"
After seeing a custor off, Itsuka Shido let out a tired yawn.
Although he knew this behavior was improper, it couldn't be helped. Too many things had happened one after another over the past few days, leaving him with hardly any energy to allocate for sleep.
(No, no! Focus, focus!)
Shido slapped his cheeks to wake himself up a bit.
Taking advantage of a break between custors, Shido stealthily checked the remaining stock of doujinshi at Nia's stall. The original print run of five thousand copies was now close to bottoming out. As expected of a popular manga artist, her fa is well-deserved.
(We're still a bit short over here.)
Glancing at Kotori's stall, Shido smiled bitterly to himself.
Although they were catching up, compared to "Honjou-dou," which had a long line from the very beginning, "Ratatoskr" only started attracting custors in the second half. Before that, the people supporting them were either "shills" specially arranged by Kotori, Origami's forr teammates from the AST, or classmates and friends from school.
We lost. Although he felt a bit of regret, strangely, Shido didn't feel particularly depressed or disappointed.
The fact was that the story he and everyone else created together received good reviews. He had done his best and received a reward for it. Regardless of winning or losing, this was already a good result.
Moreover, if he really cared about winning, he wouldn't have deliberately made the self-punishing choice of helping Nia watch her stall.
(Has Nia... reconciled with Takajo-san yet?)
"Yo, we et again~ handso."
"?"
Shido looked up in confusion, only to see a stylishly dressed mature woman, whose presence felt a bit out of place in the venue, standing in front of the counter, smiling faintly at him.
Shido recognized this woman. She was the sowhat strange foreign traveler he had t on the street yesterday.
"Ai-san. You ca to Comic Con too?"
"Just call Mulian."
Ai Mulian nodded gently and answered,
"Yes, it's a rare chance to co to Japan, and it just happened to coincide with such a big event, so of course I had to attend."
"How do you like it?"
"My~ honestly, it's even more exaggerated than I imagined. Everything is very novel, and it's very fun to walk around. The only regret is that there are too many places I want to go, making it hard to choose."
Saying this, Ai Mulian showed Shido the various rchandise bags she had bought, looking like she was thoroughly enjoying herself.
"Well, that's enough chit-chat for now. Handso, do you have any of Honjou-sensei's books left?"
"Yes, this is the last one."
"Oh, Lucky~ Here, one copy please."
"Ten thousand yen... I'm sorry, please wait a mont."
Seeing the other party casually pull out a Yukichi (10,000 yen bill), the highest denomination on the market, from her wallet, Shido broke into a slight sweat. He stood up and asked the other staff mbers to prepare change.
"Thank you for your purchase, that's five hundred yen total, here is your change of nine thousand five hundred yen, please make sure it's correct."
Handing the change and the book together to Mulian, perhaps because they knew it was sold out, the other custors in line besides Mulian had already left in disappointnt.
"Thank you."
After taking the book, Mulian didn't rush to leave, but sat at the counter and started chatting with Shido.
"I see, I was wondering why you were so angry when you saw cutting the manga yesterday. I originally thought you were a fan of Honjou-sensei. But looking at it now, you're Honjou-sensei's assistant."
"No, no, you misunderstood."
Shido smiled bitterly and shook his head, pointing at the stall next door.
"I'm a staff mber of 'Ratatoskr' over there. I'm just helping out because Honjou-sensei had an ergency."
"Oh? The dark horse circle currently being hotly discussed online. Stealing business from Honjou-sensei, you guys have quite so nerve."
Mulian praised with an expression of admiration. To this, Shido scratched his cheek sowhat embarrassedly.
"I just went to your stall and bought a copy earlier. I plan to read it slowly when I get back."
"Really? Thank you so much."
Hearing Mulian's words, joy instantly appeared on Shido's face.
"It's nothing, it's nothing. I just got curious and decided to buy it." Waving her hand gently, Mulian glanced at her handbag, a smile curling her lips, "I'm looking forward to it. I hope your story can make feel genuinely entertained from the bottom of my heart."
We definitely won't disappoint you.
Shido originally wanted to answer like this, but then he rembered the bizarre action the other party took yesterday. His mouth twitched slightly, and he pleaded helplessly.
"Please don't cut the manga into scraps of paper like you did yesterday. As a mber of the production team, I would feel very sad."
"Well... what should I do? If it really is very interesting, it would be very difficult to hold back."
Placing her slender finger against her lips, Mulian looked up as if troubled, revealing her beautiful neck and delicate collarbone. Just a tiny movent exuded an indescribable sexy charm.
Shido felt his cheeks get a little hot, looked away, and said,
"Please try your best to hold back. It's not like I'm asking you not to sleep or eat."
"Well... let handle it as I see fit."
Mulian chuckled, leaned in slightly, supporting herself on the table with one hand, and cupped Shido's face with the other. Closing the distance, she began to observe him with interest.
"Mulian-san? What are you doing?"
Seeing the other party suddenly close the distance until he could feel her breath, Shido cried out in a panic.
"Hoo... I see, so that's how it is."
However, Mulian ignored Shido. Like an artist evaluating a painting, she muttered to herself with a look of realization.
Fortunately, Mulian didn't observe for too long before letting go of Shido.
"Hehe, you actually blushed. You really are cute."
"Pl-Please don't make fun of !"
Realizing the other party was teasing him, Shido coughed sowhat embarrassedly.
"Mulian-san, what was that action just now? Is it a custom in your country or sothing?"
"No, no!" Mulian waved her hand, looked at the confused Shido, and revealed a aningful smile.
"Handso. Your experience with won is actually very abundant, isn't it? Who would have thought that behind that herbivore face lies such an incredible playboy."
Hearing Mulian's words, Shido's eyes widened in surprise behind his glasses.
"Wh-Why..."
"Because I'm a big sister who's older than you."
Revealing a mysterious smile, Mulian whispered.
"Moreover, the mont I pulled you close just now, all the girls at your stall cast hostile glares at ."
"—!?"
Shido abruptly turned his head, and sure enough, Kotori, Tohka, and the others were all staring daggers at him and Mulian.
I'm dead. Shido felt a huge chill in his heart.
"My, although you suit my tastes in many ways, handso. It's a pity I don't like unfaithful guys. Sorry about that."
Mulian put her hands together in apology. To this, Shido's forehead was covered in sweatdrops.
"Mulian-san, although you are indeed a very beautiful woman... but please don't ignore my wishes and unilaterally hand a 'good guy card', okay?"
"Hehe~ That's true. Sorry for teasing you. Goodbye, Itsuka Shido."
Laughing very happily, Mulian said goodbye and then left with her luggage.
"She finally left..."
Shido sighed, looking drained. How should he put it, he was surprisingly bad at dealing with this kind of older woman who liked to tease people.
(How am I going to explain this to everyone later?)
Watching Mulian leave, Shido thought distressingly.
Coincidentally, just as Mulian left, Shido saw Nia walking over from the venue's passageway.
"Welco back. How is it, did you make up with Takajo-san, Nia?"
Silently adjusting his mood, Shido asked Nia.
"Well... it was alright."
Nia touched the back of her head and answered vaguely. Shido could tell that right now, Nia's expression was one of soone who is happy but too embarrassed to show it.
"I'll just say thank you for now, boy."
"It's fine. As long as you guys made up."
Her cheeks slightly flushed, Nia looked away embarrassedly, coughed lightly, and changed the subject.
"Was that person just now my custor? I saw her holding my manga."
"Mhm, it's all sold out. The person just now bought the last copy."
"I see... Then I guess I lose."
"Eh?"
Hearing Nia's words, Shido felt a bit confused. Turning his head, he noticed that during the ti he was chatting with Mulian, Kotori and the others had sold out all their doujinshi.
"Uh, no, Nia. Actually, it's because—"
"Well, you don't need to tell , I know you must have slacked off... Forget it, I can only say I was too naive for leaving the stall to you."
Not giving Shido a chance to explain, Nia sighed helplessly. She extended her right hand towards Shido.
"...You want money?"
Not understanding Nia's aning, Shido asked tentatively.
"Of course not!" Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Nia waved her hand and said, "A loss is a loss. Give a copy of your manga so I can read it."
——————————
An hour later, after packing up their stalls, Shido, Nia, and the others left Tengu Square where the event was held, and went to a corner of a park behind it.
Sitting on a park bench, Nia crossed her legs and placed the doujinshi made by Shido and the others on her lap.
Just as she was about to open the cover, Nia suddenly stopped, looke dup at the people around her, and said with a bitter smile.
"Um... With you guys staring at like this, it's hard for to read..."
"O-Oh... sorry."
Everyone awkwardly looked away. Yutsuki shrugged and said.
"Let's move a bit further away from here. We can patrol the surroundings while we're at it, to make sure there are no enemies hiding nearby."
"Mhm, that makes sense."
Nodding in agreent with Yutsuki's proposal, everyone distanced themselves while ensuring Nia remained within their line of sight, whilst secretly keeping an alert eye on their surroundings.
...
"Well, that's that. Let take a good look at what makes this manga so unique."
After the surroundings quieted down, Nia began to carefully examine the manga in her hands.
"Mhm... the cover is okay, I'll give it a passing grade."
Although she said that, Nia was actually quite amazed. The cover was a beautified half-body portrait of Shido. Although the lines were a bit rough, it had already surpassed the realm of an amateur.
"Next is the plot..."
Turning the pages, Nia carefully read the contents of each page.
By doujinshi standards, it deserved a passing grade. Although several different line art styles were discernible, it at least reached a level where one could read it without feeling stressed.
The story started with a boy nad Itsuka Shido eting a Spirit.
Facing a Spirit who possessed imnse power but was constantly rejected by humans, lonely and helpless, Itsuka Shido, disregarding the potential danger to his life, reached out his hand to her.
After that, the boy t various Spirits. Through his sincere feelings, he gradually opened the hearts of the Spirits.
"...Well. It's passable."
Flipping through the manga, although Nia verbally acknowledged it, her face wore a puzzled expression that showed she couldn't quite accept it.
The manga's quality was good. Unlike a work rushed out by a group of amateurs in less than two days, Nia undeniably admired and acknowledged it.
But conversely, that was all it was.
Comnting from the perspective of a professional manga artist, Nia could say responsibly that this manga could only be classified as third-rate.
First of all, looking at the genre, it could be directly categorized as a harem-thed work. The market competition for this type of manga has always been fierce. With Nia's experience, harem manga better than this one were a di a dozen.
Secondly, the protagonist of the manga—Itsuka Shido—severely lacked realism.
"Mhm... as expected, it's a page count issue."
Judging by the thickness, this manga had about sixty or seventy pages. Although this was already a lot for a doujinshi, from the beginning to now, Itsuka Shido had encountered no less than eight Spirits. Allocated evenly, each Spirit's story could only be told in seven or eight pages. This resulted in the details of each story being very insufficient, leading to various logical problems that broke the imrsion and lacked relatability when reading.
These problems also indirectly caused the image of the protagonist, Itsuka Shido, who saves Spirits, to be too idealized. Instead, he looked like a marionette who saves girls just because he sees them, arranged purely to advance the plot.
"Feels less interesting than the real-life boy..."
Muttering sowhat depressedly, Nia frowned as she neared the last page of the doujinshi manga in her hands.
What exactly about a manga like this could garner such overwhelming praise online?
Harboring this doubt, Nia turned to the last page of the manga—page sixty-five.
"—!?"
Nia's eyes widened abruptly.
Just when all the incidents had been resolved and the story was about to welco a happy end, a mutation occurred.
In front of the boy, following an unimaginably terrifying spacequake, a new Spirit appeared with a close-up taking up two-thirds of the page.
Tyrannical black lightning, a chilling white trench coat, ashen long hair, and pupils a ghostly green like will-o'-the-wisps.
However, these were not the main point.
"...Smiling?"
Yes, unlike the previously introduced Spirits, this Spirit was smiling.
Saliva flowed uncontrollably from her mouth. Like a beast, she stood on all fours atop the ruins, looking at the humans who had luckily survived in the rubble. As if looking at delicious food, she revealed a pure and happy smile.
Even though it was just a drawing, Nia felt as if the other party was going to devour her, involuntarily feeling a chill run down her spine.
That wasn't human. This wasn't just referring to the other party's identity as a Spirit, but rather, in her eyes, Nia could no longer see the emotions and intellect that a human should possess.
And at the end, Itsuka Shido's reaction was also completely different from when he t other Spirits. His facial muscles were contorted in pain. He opened his mouth slightly, and in a strained voice, read out a few words.
"Who... are... you?"
The manga ended right there.
"Eh? Eh?! It just ends like this!?"
Nia widened her eyes in disbelief. What's going on, actually ending directly after leaving such an intriguing massive cliffhanger. Setting aside the sudden explosion of information on the last page, for this strange story with a beginning but no end, if it were Nia, she would definitely fla the author to death.
"Hm? Wait?"
[After scanning that website once, you can't get back in, and you can't even take screenshots. The author of this circle has way too much personality!]
[Selling novels at a manga convention, this circle Ratatoskr is so creative.]
"Website... novel?"
Recalling the comnts she saw online earlier, Nia seed to understand sothing and flipped to the back cover of the manga.
Then she saw, in the bottom right corner of the back cover, a small QR code was printed.
"I see. The manga plot couldn't be finished, so you rely on a novel to fill the gap? What an interesting idea... No wonder that person took out his phone earlier."
What exactly did that last page an? Why would such a Spirit appear? Why would Itsuka Shido say those words?
Harboring various doubts and an irrepressible curiosity, Nia swallowed hard, picked up her phone, and scanned the QR code at the bottom of the cover.
Original author's PS: In the original work, the manga drawn by Shido and the others has a total of 64 pages.
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