Novel Full Chapter 1067 - 1067: She Was An Illustrator Too
“So in other words… She’s a closet pervert~” Lisa giggled.
Ather ignored her, opting to focus on her sketchbook instead as she drew me while seated across from where I was on the carriage.
After what happened yesterday, the girls basically overruled her rule of making me ride the carriage on my own and they decided to take turns joining me here instead.
Of course, that meant Ather also followed along and she was taking the opportunity to draw more sketches of me as the carriage moved along the road.
Something tells me that she might have even used her Chronomancy during our carriage ride to draw me while I was in the carriage.
Right now, aside from myself and Ather, Lisa and Katsuki were also in the carriage as well. The plan was that everytime Ather wanted to stop to paint, the girls would draw lots to decide who gets to sit in the carriage with me after she was done.
For now, Ather had requested that I act naturally and she would just sketch as we moved along so I didn’t need to worry about posing for her.
Lisa leaned towards her and shot her a grin, “You know, if you had just admitted it to us, you could have done this a lot sooner instead of trying to sneak around~”
Ather continued to ignore her though I saw the side of her eyebrow twitch slightly at Lisa’s words.
I coughed, “Ahem… I think you should stop teasing her, Lisa.”
“Ehhh~ I’m just saying facts though? If only she knew how much lust she was radiating out of her. I can practically taste it.”
Ather still continued to ignore her though she did scrunch up her shoulders slightly as though to hide herself.
I tried to change the topic, “So… Umm… Ather? I just want to ask if you were a doujinshi artist back in our World?”
She paused for a moment before continuing to sketch, “I suppose there’s no point in hiding it… Yes I was…”
“Oh, what did you draw? Maybe I know some of your works?”
She shook her head, “I doubt you would know… I primarily just drew fan works of authors and they’re mostly the adult oriented stuff…”
“Come on, try me~ Maybe I will know!”
“Fine… I guess my most famous work was… ‘Together With My Girlfriend In Another World’… Never heard of it, right?”
I blinked at her before lifting a finger to point at her, “You… You are Mafiart?”
She froze and her eyes widened to stare at me intensely.
“You… You know about me?”
“Well… Yeah… I mean… Err… That work of yours… It’s a doujin of my book… And I believe you also helped me draw the cover and illustrations for several of my works after that, didn’t you?”
Upon hearing my words, her grip on the pencil loosened and it clattered noisily onto the floor.
She didn’t even seem to notice as she slowly lifted up a finger to point at me, “You… No… You…”
She tilted her hand and a book appeared out of thin air and I recognised it to be one of my books that I had been publishing through Emilia in this World.
“You… You are THE Aster?! The one who is republishing all of the Lunar Series?! No wait… This isn’t just a copy from someone else but… You’re the actual author republishing them in this World?!!”
I scratched my cheek, “Err… That’s right…”
“Wait… No, no, no… Is this real? Is it really you?! Wait… Of course it’s you!! No one else is able to write it so perfectly except you! I… I can’t believe it! I’m actually in the same place as you!”
She jumped up to her feet and tried to reach out to me but Katsuki appeared in between us to stop her with an outstretched palm.
“Miss Ather, please remember the agreement we have made for you to keep your distance,” Katsuki reminded her.
The Comissar frowned at Katsuki but did not argue, opting to return back to her seat instead.
I cleared my throat, “Ahem… Anyway… Yes, that’s me… I’m the original author of the book you are holding and I decided to republish my books here in this World as well.”
“I… I still can’t believe… And I even painted you… This is the best day of my life!”
I’m pretty sure she’s exaggerating it but I wasn’t going to call her out on it.
“I suppose this must be some kind of fate then. Funny how I never met you in our old World and yet here we are meeting face to face,” I chuckled.
Even though she had illustrated for me, all of our conversations were made online so I’ve never actually met her in real life. I just simply thought I needed to have her draw for me after seeing a few of her doujins that she made of my books so I had my agent contact her with a proposal to contract her.
That’s not to say that she was my only illustrator of course, there were other illustrators that I had worked with and she was just one of them.
Hmm… She still called herself a ‘failed’ artist despite that though… But I guess that’s because her own original works weren’t really selling that well and most of her earnings came from her contracts with me instead so I guess she saw that as proof of being a failure?
Just to be sure…
“Why did you still think you’re a failure as an artist despite being contracted as a professional? I think the contract you signed with my agent got you paid pretty good, right?”
Her face returned back to her normal expressionless looks as she started sketching again, “It’s simple, Miss Aster… First was the fact that I was only able to sell works that referenced yours. Most of my original works never sold as well as those did.”
Right, that was what I suspected to start with.
She continued, “Next… I did not get the contract to draw your best works, Miss Aster… “Two Steps To Heaven”, “To Tear Over A Tear”, “In Another World With A Glock”, just to name a few… In fact, I was even rejected directly despite asking for it.”
“Ah… Err… I can explain that…” I admitted, raising my hand slightly. “It’s not that I didn’t think you were good enough… It’s just that there were already contracted illustrators that were tasked to make illustrations for it so we had to reject other illustrators for it… It’s not that I didn’t think you were good enough to draw for it…”
She paused again and I realised I’ve been interrupting her drawing a lot on this carriage ride huh?
“Wait… Are you saying… That the fact that I was rejected… Wasn’t because you thought my skills were not good enough?”
“Huh? Of course that wasn’t it? Otherwise, why would I even personally ask my agent to contact you in the first place? I thought your drawings were great from the very start!”
She blinked at me for a good long minute before looking down at her hands, “I’m… I’m actually being praised… By her? Am I dreaming?”
Lisa, who had been silent ever since just now, finally jumped in.
“Ohhh~ Seems like your idol is praising you~ What do you think you should do now? Ehehehe~ If you allow me to suggest, I full recommend going down on your knees and using your mouth~”
Lisa… Do you really have to link it back to something lewd?
Thankfully, Ather was still ignoring her and simply turned back to me, “Miss Aster… Are you also planning to release the rest of your books in this World as well?”
I scratched my cheek, “Well… Erm… I suppose I might? Emilia is the one handling the decision for the publishing for me though… And I guess you’re going to ask if you could illustrate the books for me, are you?”
She nodded her head quickly, “Yes! It would be my honour to do it for you, Miss Aster!! I will hone my skills even more than I have now and go even further beyond! I promise you that I will be able to paint the most beautiful illustrations that are worthy of your works!!”
Well… I already think that they were all beautiful to begin with and her current skill level is way beyond what she had back in our World as well so I have no problems leaving it to her this time if she’s willing to do it.
“I guess you would first need to discuss this with Emilia then. She’s the one making decisions for all of this anyway…” I pointed out.
Ather perked up, “I shall talk to her later then… I will make sure to– Ahh!! Stop the carriages!! There!! This meadow! This is a great spot!! We’re stopping here for now!! Please, Miss Aster! I need you to pose for me again right over there! This is the perfect spot!!”
Right… We’re still doing this as well…
Time for me to get to work then…