Chapter 6. Seele: Dinner first, bath first, or maybe...
"Brother, welcome home.
Dinner first, bath first, or maybe..."
When Xander opened the door and stepped inside, he was greeted by Seele standing at the entryway in a pale-blue loungewear set.
She bent forward slightly, big eyes sparkling with adorable mischief.
Ah—Xander felt his whole being healed.
Sakura-no-Miya lets out earlier than their school, so the moment class ended he rushed home—for this very scene!
Seeing this, he quickly raised his hand.
"I know this one.
I choose to eat Seele!"
"Bang—bang—bang, wrong answer.
That option isn't available here~"
With her little scheme succeeding, Seele tilted up her cute face just a bit, speaking with a hint of smugness.
"Then what was your third option going to be?"
Xander didn't get upset.
He changed his shoes and asked with an easy smile.
"That would of course be going to work first.
To defeat you, Bronya-sis is working super hard.
If you don't take it seriously, you'll lose to Bronya-sis~"
One hand on her hip, the other wagging a fair little index finger, Seele blinked her "pure and innocent" eyes at her brother.
"Mm. You're right."
Setting his schoolbag on the rack, Xander padded closer in his slippers.
"But I choose the fourth option."
"Where is there a fourth option? I was just—"
Before Seele could finish, a gentle tug drew her a little forward.
Warmth wrapped around her, and then the fleeting brush of heat on her cheek stopped the words in her throat.
"I'm back, Seele."
His gentle voice lingered by her ear.
Gazing into her brother's eyes from very, very close, a thin mist began to gather over Seele's pupils.
After that, red spread swiftly from her neck across both cheeks.
Like boiling water, steam seemed to puff from her little head.
Seele—sunk!
Guiding the dazed girl to sit on the living-room sofa, Xander rubbed her small head, then headed upstairs.
"Sure enough, life only counts as beautiful when Seele is here~"
Still, what Seele said was true.
Getting cocky and then crashing would be bad.
He had to polish the game to perfection.
Upstairs.
Work!
Only after her brother's footsteps faded did Seele shiver all over and spring up.
She sneaked a glance toward the stairs, then, face flushed, she stomped as if "angry," yet worried about making noise and disturbing him.
It ended up like tapping the floor with her toes—way too cute.
Ever since awakening to gender awareness in middle school, Seele had done far fewer of those childhood actions that crossed the line a bit, out of shyness.
But ever since she gave her brother that scarf, he'd been getting more and more affectionate.
It really made her happy… oh no, troubled.
Her brother's words before going upstairs replayed in her mind.
Seele's face reddened another shade.
She muttered quietly, "F-fine.
Brother works so hard every day.
I'll just treat it as fulfilling one of his wishes.
Mm, that's all."
Her muttering grew softer and softer.
Seele tiptoed off toward the kitchen as if afraid imaginary guests might see her.
But the curve at the corner of her lips just wouldn't settle down.
...
Not long after he sat at the computer, a new message popped up in the lower-right corner.
Eromanga Sensei: "[Boss, here are the newly finished CGs and their variants. Please take a look.]"
[Image] [Image] [Image] …
That's right—the assistant he'd hired to draw the CGs was the "Eromanga Sensei" from memory.
But not Sagiri.
Her mother—the first-generation Eromanga Sensei.
Back when he was choosing, the pay he offered was generous enough that many illustrators reached out.
Among them, Xander noticed this single mother currently raising a child.
He thought it over and sent her a trial invitation.
The results didn't disappoint.
After less than half a month of study, the first-gen Eromanga Sensei had mastered this novel style.
With her help, he finished the entire game within three short months.
By the final few CGs, she'd even surpassed the original.
As expected of Eromanga Sensei—her talent in the lewd department leaves everyone in the dust.
So, now that it was time for the third installment, he only needed to provide character sheets and story.
He let Eromanga Sensei handle poses and positions for the CGs herself.
They also switched to a revenue-share model: a 30/70 split between the two.
Thirty percent of profits was quite generous, since the Kaleidoscope IP was in his hands.
As he expected, the other side was like she'd been injected with chicken blood, grinding late into the night every day.
Looking at those CGs with their awfully "exposed bones" poses, Xander felt hot blood rush to his "little head."
"Hiss—
As expected of Eromanga Sensei.
When it comes to lewdness, I, Masato, would call you the strongest."
Xander: "[They're fantastic—no changes needed!]"
Eromanga Sensei: "[Thank you for the praise, Boss. If there's no issue, I'll keep drawing.]"
With that, the avatar on the other side dimmed.
"She really is pushing herself," Xander murmured.
He didn't overthink it.
She was a single parent, after all.
Before their collaboration, she'd been living meal to meal, barely able to make rent.
Now that she had a chance to earn money for herself and her child, it was understandable she'd go all out.
Even if he told her to slow down, she probably wouldn't listen.
Shaking his head, Xander got back to his own tasks.
The core of this game wasn't particularly hard.
Even if pixel-art tiles were hard to source right now, he could draw them on the spot easily.
The map wasn't large, and with Anti-Entropy's Titan game engine, he had it mostly laid out within a few days.
Next came programming and story design with Hatsune Miku's help.
Given his current resources, that wasn't difficult either.
For him, the hardest part of the whole project was probably the music.
He'd only learned a little guitar.
Trying to reproduce the symphony in his head was a bit of a pipe dream, and learning piano certainly wasn't something you could finish quickly.
So he'd been carving out time to study basic music theory.
With Hatsune Miku assisting, he worked to break the melodies echoing in his mind into tiny notes, then entered the score into the computer to check if the tune sounded right.
As for arranging and the like, he planned to find professionals.
Professional work belongs with professionals.
He was smart, but not a superman.
He couldn't do everything.
Ding-dong.
Another message popped in the lower-right corner.
[Image]
"Guess where I am?~"
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