Hearing Arataki Itto say that, the gang members crowded in around him.
Genta and the others stared at the name "Klee" on the membership application and fell into thought.
After a long silence, they reached a conclusion.
Fang Qiu had to be a pen name.
Klee was Fang Qiu's real name.
As for whether anyone in Liyue went by the surname Ke, they argued it over for a moment and decided there probably was.
"All right, let's pull out for now. We'll go back and tell Shinobu the good news, then plan a welcome ceremony for our new member."
"Mm… how about hot pot?"
"Uh… Boss, our funds are already running dry. We can't afford hot pot."
"Yeah, Boss. We've got to buy Miss Fang Qiu's signed collector's edition, and Lady Shina's new release, and there's also the premiere of Miss Fang Qiu's film that Yae Publishing House has been dropping hints about."
"Uh, so what do you guys suggest?"
"Didn't Miss Fang Qiu just say she likes fried fish? Then let's all go get some fried fish."
"Works for me."
With that settled, they burst out laughing and left.
…
Meanwhile.
Inside the International Trade Association inn.
"Mm…"
Fang Qiu opened her eyes. Dazed, she propped herself up on one arm and sat up in bed.
It took her a good while to realize she'd slept at the inn.
After drinking yesterday, she'd lost consciousness on the spot.
But before she blacked out, she vaguely remembered pitching face-first between Yae Miko's legs…
Which meant her face had made intimate contact with Yae Miko's thighs…
Not that she remembered any of it, of course…
Fang Qiu threw back the blanket to get up, and noticed that she wasn't wearing the clothes she'd gone out to eat in. She was wearing a nightdress.
Huh?
She looked down at the slightly rumpled nightdress that left her snow-white thighs bare, and frowned in confusion.
It wasn't the nightdress itself that confused her. The Traveler had probably changed her into it.
What confused her was…
This nightdress… wasn't hers at all…
Its colors were a bit like a shrine maiden's outfit…
Red and white. On her, it made her skin look even fairer.
It was a little revealing, though. There were sheer patches all over it, and it had a distinctly risqué, lingerie-like feel.
But speaking of shrine maidens…
Could this nightdress be Yae Miko's?
While she was still wondering, she suddenly spotted two sheets of paper beside the bed.
One had been left by the Traveler.
It said that she and Paimon had gone out to run an errand for Yae Miko, so she couldn't take Fang Qiu sightseeing.
Fang Qiu understood that well enough.
After all, they had to earn money.
Traveling through all seven nations was no small expense. Paimon's food bill alone was staggering.
The note also explained about the nightdress.
It said that Paimon had accidentally spilled water on her yesterday, so after they brought her back to the inn, they'd changed her into a nightdress.
As for why it wasn't her own, Yae Miko had said she had one that calmed the mind and helped with sleep, and could even spare her the headache of a hangover.
That was why they'd put her in this one.
"So that's how it is."
Fang Qiu nodded in understanding and picked up the second sheet.
"Good morning, little one. How does it feel, wearing a nightdress I've worn before? Is it nice and comfortable?"
Worn… nightdress?
Fang Qiu froze at that line, but before she could react, she saw the next one.
"Just kidding. This nightdress is brand new, so don't worry."
Reading that, Fang Qiu felt a headache coming on.
She really was a lot like Big Sis…
She kept reading. Yae Miko had written out everything that had happened yesterday in detail…
If the Traveler's note was the plot, then Yae Miko's was the chapter outline.
Hmm…
That is, a rough summary of what happens in a chapter.
It was web novel jargon.
From Yae Miko's message, she learned that after getting drunk yesterday, she'd lain asleep on Yae Miko's lap the whole time.
It was Yae Miko who had carried her back to the inn, too, and Yae Miko and the Traveler together who had taken off her clothes and wiped her down with a towel.
Her underwear had gotten soaked through as well, so they'd taken that off her too.
Fang Qiu's face went hot, then red. She'd never imagined so much had happened while she slept…
And how deeply had she been sleeping, anyway?
How could she not wake up when someone stripped her bare…
At least Yae Miko hadn't written out the whole process in detail…
Still, when she thought about it, they were all girls, so it was no big deal.
In her previous life, girls crammed into shower rooms to bathe together without any problem.
Perfectly normal.
After remarking that her underwear was very pretty and that she wanted to go shopping for some with Fang Qiu next time, Yae Miko moved on to the real business.
Namely, the arrangements for the Irodori Festival.
Fang Qiu let out a long breath and got up, taking off the red-and-white nightdress.
Only after she'd taken it off did she realize she hadn't been wearing anything underneath…
Fang Qiu hurriedly dug out some clothes and put them on.
Once she was dressed, she decided to go out for breakfast.
The moment she stepped out, she saw a fiery-red girl pulling outward on a door that slid open sideways.
At the sight of that girl, Fang Qiu was stunned.
For one thing, she was stunned that the girl was pulling outward on a sliding door.
For another, she was stunned to find the girl here all by herself…
This place had been reserved by Yae Publishing House, specifically to house the cultural creators invited to attend the Irodori Festival.
If this little girl could show up here alone with no one accompanying her, that meant she wasn't a family member but a genuine cultural creator?
But…
No matter how Fang Qiu looked at her, the girl seemed about eight or nine years old.
And yet Yae Publishing House only invited people of considerable fame.
Two days before she set out, she'd gone to the editorial office and overheard the editors chatting. There was an author who'd fallen five hundred copies short of the sales mark, hadn't gotten an Irodori Festival invitation, and had gone catatonic with despair on the spot.
As for how they knew it was exactly five hundred copies, it was because someone who'd sold five hundred more than him had received an invitation.
So…
She had two guesses.
The first was that the little girl before her was actually a "legal loli". There'd been plenty of those in her previous life.
Besides, the girl's ears were long and pointed, a bit like the elves Alice, her favorite author, had once mentioned in her books.
So she might well be a legal loli.
Speaking of Alice, Fang Qiu wondered when her new book would be released…
The second guess was that the little girl was a genius!
A dazzling, once-in-a-generation genius.
There'd been that type in her previous life too, writers who started in middle school and were already earning hundreds of thousands a month. Heaven had fed them with a silver spoon, so to speak.
She just didn't know whether this cute elf girl in fiery red was the former or the latter.
She also wondered what kind of cultural creator the girl was…
A bard? A novelist?
Or perhaps a painter?
She was really curious.
…
…
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