Two Memorial Portraits

And the beauty mark beneath the corner of her left eye added plenty to her charm.

"Ryo, don't scare people on purpose! And what are you doing?"

Nijika touched her flat chest, looking thoroughly shaken.

"I was planning to travel somewhere far away, but while I was getting ready... I suddenly realized that going so far away was a huge hassle, so I decided to camp in the courtyard instead."

"You! Don't underestimate camping!"

Nijika clenched her fist and chided her.

Yamada Ryo's lips curled into a smile.

Bai Qiu couldn't help twitching his mouth. Beside Yamada Ryo's tent, he spotted some empty takeout containers.

Just how much did this girl know how to enjoy herself?

"Oh, right. These are the two new friends I told you about. This is Bai Qiu-kun, and this is Goto Hitori."

"Hitori's filling in on guitar for us."

Nijika introduced them enthusiastically.

"And this is the bassist I told you about, Yamada Ryo. Just call her Ryo!"

"Yeah, just call me Ryo. Yamada's too generic."

Bai Qiu actually thought she had a point. Yamada really was a common surname in Japan.

"Hi, Ryo."

Yamada Ryo turned her gaze to Bai Qiu.

She studied him for a few seconds.

"Have we met somewhere before?"

Bai Qiu blinked. "I don't think... so?"

Come on, how could he have met Yamada Ryo without realizing it?

"Hmm, that's a distinctive name. I like it."

Yamada Ryo complimented him.

"Bai Qiu-kun is from the Celestial Dynasty,"

Ijichi Nijika explained, covering her face.

Yamada Ryo didn't dwell on it. Her gaze had already shifted to Goto Hitori, who was hiding behind Bai Qiu.

Goto Hitori looked terrified.

She wanted to go home... It was scary. She felt like Ryo was staring at her nonstop.

"I-I'm Goto Hitori. I'm very sorry if I offended you!"

Goto Hitori bowed with her guitar on her back.

"Hitori, don't be scared. Ryo just doesn't show much on her face. If you call her a weirdo, she'll be happy."

"I won't be happy."

Yamada Ryo shifted in place as she answered, but the corners of her mouth kept turning up.

She didn't look unhappy at all... The other three thought the same thing.

Just then, Yamada Ryo struggled to get out of her sleeping bag.

She fell heavily back to the ground.

"Nijika, help me..."

Ijichi Nijika handed the book to Bai Qiu beside her.

"Honestly, I've been so worried about you. You haven't come to school once since the semester started. If you don't show up soon, you'll get expelled... And you haven't been to work at the shop in ages, either..."

Despite her words, Nijika's hands were quick and sure as she began wrestling with the sleeping bag wrapped around Yamada Ryo.

"Getting expelled would be great. I've wanted to become a member of society for ages."

Bai Qiu took the book from Nijika, his face full of surprise.

Wasn't this the light novel he'd written?

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, one of the works he'd copied.

Just as the title suggested, it was about the protagonist, Satoru Mikami, who was stabbed to death, transported to another world, and turned into a cute blue slime.

Then he started building a monster kingdom, became a Demon Lord, and conquered another world.

It had only been a few short volumes, but it had been well received in the market.

He hadn't expected Yamada Ryo to be reading one of his light novels.

Well, that was all right, then. Bai Qiu smiled.

He had plenty of confidence in his own work.

It seemed Yamada Ryo had good taste after all. No wonder she'd fallen into ruin.

Oh, no... He meant she'd emerged from the gloom of her band breaking up.

With Nijika's help, Yamada Ryo had already been freed from her sleeping bag.

Yamada Ryo stood up.

Ryo was dressed all in black today.

A long black skirt, a black unisex T-shirt, and black UV sleeves on her arms.

"How can anyone lie in a sleeping bag dressed like that?"

Ijichi Nijika looked baffled.

Yamada Ryo gave her a thumbs-up.

"By the way, Ryo, I came to see you today because I wanted you to play bass for us," Nijika said.

"I see..."

Yamada Ryo let out a soft sigh.

"Sorry, Nijika. The soul of music in me is dead."

Nijika's eyes dimmed, and she pressed her lips together.

"It's buried in here."

"Eh!" ×3

The three of them had no idea what she meant.

Ryo had already unzipped the tent and said, "Come on in."

Nijika followed right behind her.

Bai Qiu was about to follow when his right eyelid began twitching uncontrollably.

As the saying went, a twitching left eye meant good fortune, while a twitching right eye meant bad luck.

A sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

"What's wrong?"

Hitori asked from behind him. Bai Qiu was blocking the way.

Bai Qiu shook his head and stepped inside.

Chapter 16: Two Memorial Portraits

The tent was rather dim, but the computer monitor was lit, so it looked like the power was on.

Various things lay scattered across the floor.

All kinds of light novels, manga, magazines, figurines, plushies, and other merchandise.

There wasn't a single music-related item.

The three of them were amazed.

Goto Hitori couldn't help thinking that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she ended up living in a place like this someday.

Bai Qiu noticed that quite a few of the light novels were his own works.

Seeing them brought back memories of the glory days when he'd written copied light novels.

Besides the slime novel he'd just spotted, there were other classic long-running works, such as Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!, and My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected, about Ta-sensei.

But they all had one thing in common: only a few volumes had been released, because Bai Qiu had only updated that many.

He really couldn't keep copying the later storylines. He couldn't come up with the rest.

Thanks to his experience with many different genres, Bai Qiu was known in the industry as the Hexagon Warrior.

Maybe his writing wasn't top-tier, and back then he didn't have any special cheat abilities, either.

He could only rely on his limited memories and work hard at literature to recreate these popular works.

Only Nijika's face darkened. Just what had all this stuff done to Ryo?

Light novels were harmful!

Ryo had become a full-fledged otaku!

Yamada Ryo pressed her hands together, bowed her head slightly, closed her eyes, and murmured.

Bai Qiu and the other two were drawn to Yamada Ryo's behavior.

They saw her standing before the little table in the center, worshipping something.

But when Bai Qiu saw the black-and-white photograph in the memorial frame, his pupils contracted.

No wonder his eyelid had been twitching this whole time.

So you were the culprit.

Yamada Ryo, do you even have a heart?

The memorial portrait wasn't actually a picture of Bai Qiu himself. After all, he'd never revealed his identity.

Instead, it was a photoshopped picture of the light novelist Bai Qiu, made from images of the authors of his various works, with his pen name printed in large letters.

It stood out quite a bit.

It was the pen name he used to publish his light novels.

The characters for grain and fire combined to form the Qiu in Bai Qiu's name.

The last fire represented Bai Qiu's firm belief that his works would definitely become popular.

As for why he'd chosen such a name...

Japanese light novelists had a few small requirements when choosing pen names. They couldn't just pick anything they wanted like online novelists in the Celestial Dynasty.

At the very least, the pen name couldn't be too casual or too suggestive.

After all, a well-written light novel might be published as a physical book, and the author's pen name would naturally appear on it.

So publishers hoped authors would choose pen names that were proper and normal.

Of course, anything went for web novels serialized online.

So, ordinary as the name looked...

Bai Qiu had only come up with it after a great deal of deep thought!

Bai Qiu didn't have time to feel sad. He was just about to say something, but then he realized he couldn't get the words out.

Why wasn't the person in the photograph you, Kita...

This was supposed to be a hilarious scene, but it wasn't nearly as funny when it happened to him.

"Ryo, what are you doing?" Nijika asked.

"Paying my respects to this departed author. I do it every day."