69novels Page 144
Page 144
"Oh! You two! You're both here!" Eriri bristled like a kitten whose territory had been invaded.
She rushed in and slammed the sketches she had brought onto the table, trying to assert her presence and importance in this way.
"Yuto! This is my new character design, look!"
For a moment, an eerie three-way standoff was formed in the small living room.
Shi Yu crossed her arms and watched all of this with a half-smile.
Eriri glared at Yuto, her eyes slightly red.
As for Yuzuriha Inori, she looked at this and then at that, and finally lowered her head, silently picked up the apple that Yuto had just placed on the table, and began to take small bites.
Yuto felt like his head had two big heads.
He was about to speak and try to salvage the precarious situation when he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure flashing past the door.
It's Kato Megumi.
She pushed her bicycle past his apartment building, went upstairs, and glanced into the house from the doorway.
Yuto clearly saw that after she saw the people arguing inside the house, she calmly shook her head, then went downstairs and walked away silently, as if she were just an ordinary passerby.
At that moment, Yuto was incredibly envious of Kato Megumi's composure.
“Um…” Yuto cleared his throat, trying to get the three girls’ attention, “Everyone, calm down, it’s not what you think. Yuzuriha Inori is staying here because of work…”
"Work?" Shi Yu sneered. "Then may I ask, is what she's wearing also a work uniform?"
“I…” Yuto was speechless.
You can't say that Yuzuriha Inori didn't even bring a change of clothes, can you?
This sounds more like a flimsy, fabricated excuse.
"Yuto, you idiot!" Eriri finally couldn't hold back and shouted out in a tearful voice.
"Why are you always like this! You always bring back women you don't even know without a word!"
Faced with interrogations from both girls, Yuto was at his wits' end.
He could only try to please everyone, saying things that even he himself found pale and powerless.
The chaotic "trial" lasted until late at night.
Ultimately, after Yuto swore oaths and promised countless unequal treaties, Utaha and Eriri were "forced" to accept the fact that Yuzuriha Inori was temporarily residing there.
But they also immediately formulated new rules.
"To ensure that you can focus on your writing and not be distracted by certain irrelevant people," Utaha announced with a smile, "starting tomorrow, I will come over every day to supervise your script progress."
"Me too!" Eriri chimed in, not to be outdone. "I need to confirm the details of the character design with you all the time! So, I'll come every day too!"
As Yuto watched the two of them work together happily and reach a consensus, only one thought remained in his mind.
This is hardly an invitation to a wolf into the house.
This is clearly like detonating an entire arsenal.
……
The peaceful morning at Yuto Itsuka's house was completely turned upside down.
In the past, he could leisurely go for a morning run, make breakfast, and then start his day of writing in a quiet room.
Now, the first thing he does when he opens his eyes every morning is to make sure that the pink-haired girl who was sleeping with her guitar in the living room hasn't fallen off the sofa.
Yuzuriha Inori's ability to take care of herself is even more...destructive than Yuto imagined.
She would put salt in her cereal like it was sugar, use Yuto's limited edition novels as coasters, and once, Yuto found her preparing to wash the dishes with laundry detergent.
Whenever Yuto pointed out her mistakes, she would tilt her head, look at him with her innocent, deep red eyes, and whisper, "Is that so?"
This instantly extinguished all of Yuto's anger, leaving him with only a deep sense of powerlessness.
Even more devastating than this were Kasumigaoka Utaha and Sawamura Spencer Eriri, who would arrive at the door every day to "supervise the work."
They always arrived one after the other, one with a laptop and the other with a drawing board, rightfully taking over the sofa and coffee table in the living room and turning it into a temporary club activity room.
Thus, Yuto's daily life became a strange scene: Yuto was frantically typing away in his study, Inori Yuzuriha was quietly humming a song in the living room, while Utaha and Eriri were engaged in a fierce battle of words with their eyes and silent language.
“Sawamura-kun, your pencil shavings have fallen on the floor and will dirty your junior’s carpet.”
"Shut up! Kasumigaoka Utaha, the sound of your yogurt straw is too loud, it's disturbing Yuto!"
"Oh dear, is it because you care too much that you're confused? I think the sound of someone grinding their teeth when sharpening a pencil is more like noise pollution."
Even with noise-canceling headphones on, Yuto could feel the low-pressure electromagnetic field in the living room.
He felt that his creative inspiration hadn't increased much, but neurasthenia was about to arrive ahead of schedule.
The real conflict erupted one afternoon when Yuto went out to buy groceries.
It all started with a simple idea from Yuzuriha Inori.
She felt that Yuto worked very hard to take care of her every day, and wanted to cook him a meal to express her gratitude.
For a girl who doesn't even know how to use a microwave oven, this was undoubtedly the beginning of a disaster.
When Utaha and Eriri arrived one after the other, they were greeted by billowing smoke and a pungent smell of burning.
The kitchen was a mess.
The countertop was covered in a mixture of egg and flour, and a frying pan held a black, unidentifiable mass of material, emitting black smoke.
Meanwhile, the culprit, Yuzuriha Inori, stood helplessly at the kitchen doorway, her face still covered in flour, looking both pitiful and innocent.
"...What is this? Is this a biological weapon testing site?" Shi Yu pinched her nose, looking disgusted.
"Oh my god!" Eriri exclaimed in surprise, her first reaction being to rush over and turn off the gas stove. "That was so dangerous! It almost caught fire!"
The two exchanged a glance, both seeing shock and...a sense of urgency in each other's eyes.
We absolutely cannot let Yuto come back and see this terrible state!
Otherwise, he would not only be worried, but more importantly, it would make it seem like the two supervisors couldn't even keep an intruder in sight, which would be a disgrace!
"What are you looking at! Hurry up and start cleaning!" Eriri broke the silence first, shouting at Shiho.
"Why should I listen to your orders, you blonde loser?" Shi Yu retorted without backing down, but her hands had already begun deftly cleaning up the mess on the kitchen counter.
"Get rid of that charcoal-like thing first; it's disgusting to look at."
Thus, a strange, coerced alliance was formed.
Two girls who are usually at odds are now forced to cooperate for a common enemy—to protect their image in Yuto's eyes.
Eriri may be sharp-tongued, but she's surprisingly practical when it comes to housework. She deftly soaks the burnt pot and wipes the blackened walls.
Utaha, on the other hand, used her clear-headedness to direct the overall operation, arrange the order of cleaning, and at the same time, occasionally deliver sarcastic remarks about Eriri's clumsiness.
"Sawamura-kun, are you scrubbing the floor with brute force? You're going to wear the floor through."
"Mind your own business! Why don't you do something instead of just standing there making sarcastic remarks!"
Yuzuriha Inori, on the other hand, stood blankly to the side, holding a broom, completely unable to help.
Just as the kitchen was gradually returning to normal, but dinner was still nowhere to be found, the doorbell rang.
Utaha and Eriri were on tenterhooks, thinking that Yuto had returned early.
Eriri ran nervously to open the door, only to find Kato Megumi standing outside.
"...Kato-kun?"
"Good afternoon, Eriri, Kasumigaoka-senpai." Kato Megumi greeted her casually, carrying a shopping bag.
She peeked into the kitchen at the two busy people, then at Yuzuriha Inori who looked bewildered, before finally focusing her gaze on the empty rice cooker.
"I passed by a supermarket and saw that eggs were on sale, so I brought some over for Wuhe." She said, taking out a carton of eggs and a small bottle of soy sauce from her shopping bag.
"You guys seem very busy. Are you planning to make omelet rice for dinner? This brand of soy sauce with ketchup would taste great."
Her words instantly enlightened the two who were still struggling with the dinner menu.
Yes, omelet rice! Simple, quick, and unlikely to go wrong!
Kato Megumi didn't linger. She put down her things and, like an NPC who had completed a mission, calmly turned and left.
"I'll be going now, good luck to you guys."
Watching Kato Megumi's departing figure, Utaha and Eriri fell silent once again.
This seemingly ordinary girl always manages to solve problems effortlessly and subtly at the most crucial moments.
When Yuto returned home carrying bags of groceries, he was met with a scene that left him speechless.
The kitchen was spotless, and on the dining table were three... well, different kinds of omelet rice.
Meanwhile, Utaha, Eriri, and Yuzuriha sat upright at the dining table, the atmosphere eerily quiet.
"You guys... what's going on?" Yuto asked, looking confused.
"Hmph, seeing how hard you've been working, I just made dinner for you." Eriri turned her head away, her face flushed, but her tone was still sharp.
"I just don't want someone to come back to a kitchen that looks like it's been bombed," Shiyu added, elegantly tossing her long hair.
Yuto took a bite of the omelet rice, and it tasted surprisingly good.
Looking at the three very different girls in front of him, he was filled with mixed emotions.
This farce, in an unexpected way, seems to have created a delicate balance between them.
They may have begun to realize that Yuzuriha Inori was not a cunning and scheming opponent, but a troublesome one who needed to be kept in check.
Therefore, their hostility seemed to shift more from Yuzuriha Inori to Itsuka Yuto, who had brought this trouble home.
Dinner ended in an atmosphere of apparent peace, but with undercurrents of tension.
After seeing off the two supervisors, Yuto collapsed wearily onto the sofa.
Yuzuriha Inori had fallen asleep against the corner of the sofa, still holding her guitar in her arms.
Just then, Yuto's phone vibrated; it was a message from Kato Megumi.
"Passerby Girl: It seems like it's quite lively today. I put some pudding in the fridge for Itsuka-kun."
Yuto looked at the message and couldn't help but smile wryly.
……
Volume 1: Chapter 139: The Shura Field at the Fan Meeting
A-1 Pictures' official account released the first official promotional video (PV) for "Become the Strongest Farmer in Another World" at 6 PM sharp on Friday.
The online world was instantly ignited.
Toyonosaki Academy, Clubroom.
Yuto Itsuka, Utaha Kasumigaoka, Eriri, and Megumi Kato sat around a laptop. On the screen, the progress bar of the PV had just reached the end, and the final shot showed the male protagonist holding up the holy sword with a vast field behind him.
The room was silent, with only the ethereal melody of Inori Yuzuriha's theme song still gently echoing.
"...The number of clicks has exceeded 500,000 within ten minutes of its release."
Megumi Kato's voice broke the silence. She was refreshing the webpage, and her slightly widened eyes betrayed her inner turmoil.
“It’s more than just the number of clicks.” Kasumigaoka Utaha leaned back in her chair, arms crossed.
"Look at the comments section below, it's completely overrun. 'The budget is burning,' 'The show is set to be the best of the year,' 'The animation quality is top-notch, a true gem in the industry'..."
"Humph, a bunch of guys who have never seen the world."
She spoke with disdain, but the upturned corners of her eyes betrayed her true feelings.
Eriri didn't say anything; she just stared intently at the screen.
When the character she designed herself—Anna, dressed in a maid outfit and wielding a long spear—smoothly performs thrusting and parrying actions in the animation.
When the monster she had meticulously drawn roared deafeningly against the backdrop of fire and magic, an unprecedented sense of dread shot up her spine and head.
She gave them flesh and blood and soul, and animation brought them to life.
"Well done, Ms. Kashiwagi Eri." Utaha's voice drifted over, carrying her uniquely provocative tone.
"This character design is indeed much more refined than the rough lines in your fan works. However, the animation is updated every week. Can your subsequent original drawings keep up with this quality?"