This is aeventi but venti doesn't even appear. Venti's still lost in the Alps so Aether just keeps bragging about his beautiful boyfriend.
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This Illustration Needs... Fixing?
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"Okay, moving on. Tell me your opinion on this illustration for page three."
Both Paimon and Aether lean closer to the piece of illustration, hand on chin. Both of them stare at it silently, giving it their utmost focus. The person in charge of the illustrations for their soon-to-be-submitted light novel even feels awkward from the long and uncomfortable silence.
The illustration depicts a man in front of the academy's gate on the right half of the illustration page. A female standing just behind the protagonist while holding Chicken-Mushroom Skewer in hand, followed by a bunch of faceless students scattered around the pages.
After a few more seconds, both of them pull back right at the same time.
"I think—"
"Paimon thinks—"
Paimon and Aether turn to look at each other, the latter then gestures for the other to start first.
"Paimon thinks, this character—" Paimon points at the female character holding food in her hand, "—is not pretty enough! Albedo's version of Paimon is so much better!"
"First of all, Paimon, that's rude. Second of all, this is an original character who is only based on you. It's not you, Paimon. I think this is good enough!"
"No, no, no, you don't understand, Aether. This character is even the main focus on the book cover. We need to make her cuter!"
"Well yeah … this character's on the cover page…" Aether's voice quiets down, "… since she's the mascot."
"Hey, Paimon heard that!"
"U-uhm…" The illustrator reaches out with a troubled face. "T-then, what should I do with the illustration for this page?"
"Make her prettier!" Paimon grumbles as she stuffs a piece of Fried Tofu in her mouth.
"Stop making trouble for Ms. Illustrator here, Paimon. Just continue eating, I'll handle the rest." Aether lightly pushes Paimon to the counter and grins teasingly at her. Giving his attention back to the confused illustrator in front of him, he nodded. "The illustration is fine as it is. There's no need for any change."
"Hey!"
"Let it go, Paimon."
The illustrator looks back at her illustration once more and nods to herself. Probably relieved that her work's accepted and there's no need for any changes. She pulls out another piece of paper, then holds it up. "Next is this page."
This time the background is in a classroom, the sunlight streaming through the window and hitting the protagonist's bright-coloured braided hair. Another man with darker hair sitting next to him, holding a lyre on hand and a bottle of liquor is drawn to be under his desk.
Mimicking the same gesture as he did before, Aether narrows his eyes and rubs his chin.
"Hm… this one definitely needs a lot of fixing."
The illustrator gasps softly, sweat begins rolling down her forehead. "W-which part needs fixing?"
"This character—" This time, Aether points to the lyre-loving character. "—he looks too plain here."
"Oh… I tried to draw him a little bit more plain because he's a character who's supposed to be hiding his identity. And also, he only appears in chapter one … so I figured this is the best."
Aether knits his eyebrows, "That's a good point. But still … he's not supposed to be plain even though he is hiding his identity. He is a lot more … charming? His hair should look more smooth and silky, his eyes are also a lot more beautiful than this. Oh, maybe you can draw him with the most beautiful shade of green!"
"Uh … this light novel will be printed in black-and-white."
"Wow, Paimon can sense your favoritism." Paimon adds as she chews on her kushikatsu, before adding more in a sarcastic tone, "Stop making trouble for Ms. Illustrator here, Aether."
"This is different, Paimon."
"How is it different?"
"Remember the information we gathered? He needs to be as eye-catching as possible to catch the readers' attention. We need to make this illustration page our weapon; it has to convey how attractive this bard is, so that the readers' could feel it too. Make him prettier—beautiful—the kind where you just lay your eyes on him the first time and you forgot how to breath. The way he holds his lyre, the way he smiles, the way he—"
"Pfft—"
Not only does Aether stop his feedback, all of them turn to look at Yae Miko who has been quietly watching over them all this time while enjoying her cheap sake.
"Ah… It seems you have quite the detailed request concerning this particular character, little one. Hmm… I wonder who this person is based on?"
"Oh you wouldn't want to know," Paimon answers for him.
"You do know, the more requests you make, the more the illustrator's payment will be deducted from your profit, right?"
"What!?" Paimon screams and leaves her empty plate on the counter, "Aether, stop making ridiculous requests now! All the illustrations are just fine, there's no need to change anything! She's gonna drain all our mora dry!"
There's no way Aether could tell if making more requests would mean they're paying from their profit, or if Yae Miko is messing around with them. Shouldn't the publishing house be the one responsible for the illustrator's payment?
But of course, hearing that their pay will be deducted from this … he wouldn't want that either.
"Okay, I get it. No more changes."
Paimon breathes sighs of relief knowing their mora is safe.
But Aether's eyes are still side-eyeing the illustration on that page. He scans over the beautiful illustration and his eyebrow twitches.
"But just one request … can you make his fingers prettier?"
"Aether!"
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End.
