Even Kazuya's "Friends Young" rushed to the second place on the pre-sale list as a dark horse in the week before the release, but the dark horse is only a dark horse after all, and it may be able to gain high attention by becoming a topic, but compared to Kasumi Shiko, who is already a famous writer, this attention comes and goes quickly, at least, on the day of the release, all the topics have been snatched up by Shiyu, who signed books on the spot for the first time after switching to the Mystery library.

Outside the door of the exclusive bookstore under the Mystery Library in Wahe City, Kazuya looked at the long queue in a daze, a little dazed, although he was already surprised by the popularity of Shiyu's autograph book club, but now that he and the other party are competitors, Kazuya looked at such a long queue, and his heart was still mixed.

"What's the matter, Aragaki-san, don't you go in and line up? I've seen that Yasu-san has already taken the book signed by Kasumigaoka! A voice that Jean and a little surprised came, and Kato, who was wearing a small pink padded jacket and a pink earmuff on his head, stood behind him.

"Kato? Are you even here? Kazuya blinked in surprise, after all, although it was not too early now, it was also quite time-consuming and laborious to rush to Hehe City to participate in Shiyu's book signing party, and if it wasn't a die-hard fan, it wasn't really cost-effective to come to the book sale.

"Well, there's a lot of time today, even if you don't come to the book sale of Sister Kasumigaoka, wouldn't it be nice to come purely to Hehe City for sightseeing?" Kato said noncommittally, "However, Aragaki-san, you are sure that you don't have a problem not queuing up now, this time you are more than one position behind Anyi-san." ”

"I didn't expect to have the perseverance to compare with that guy in this regard," Kazuya stretched and said, "Besides, I just came here to take a look at the situation, and now it's too embarrassing for me to go see Shiyu-senpai." ”

"That's right, you're competitors now, after all."

"How to say it, in fact, the competitor is secondary, the key is that now that I have come to this point with Senior Sister Shiyu, I feel that I don't know what to call each other anymore. If I call it Senior Sister under normal circumstances, I think I'm really a little speechless, but I can't think of what to call each other by what to call each other, so it's better not to meet. Kazuya sighed, his eyes became a little melancholy, and said helplessly.

"I'm sorry, Aragaki-san, it was my suggestion." Kato also bowed his head apologetically, a little rarely.

"At the end of the day, Kato's suggestion is just a suggestion, right? I also did this after careful consideration, so there is no need to apologize, then again, Ying Lili's side, have you spoken to her recently? Kazuya looked at Kato, who was a little sad, stopped the other party's self-blame, and at the same time, asked a question that he had been thinking about.

Ying Lili's expression in front of ordinary classmates must still be that proud school princess.,Even if she quarrels with herself,,She'll definitely only use the words of no problem.,But,If it's Kato,,She may not be able to say too much to Ying Lili.,But what she sees,Or what she can feel,It should still be Ying Lili's true mood.。

"As far as my contact with Eiri is concerned," Kato replied, frowning, "I don't think she's in a bad mood, is it?" Or does she seem to be completely worried about you? ”

"Is that so?" Kazuya's heart sank a little, no matter whether Kato's feelings of Ying Li Li were real or false, this was not good news for him, if it was true, then his weight in Ying Li's heart might be lighter than he imagined, then his forbearance during this period of time may have backfired-Ying Li Li may think that he really doesn't pay attention to her and let himself go even more, but Kazuya doesn't want to believe that this is Ying Lili's reaction to himself. So, the more likely scenario should be the latter, that is, even in front of Kato, Eiri is reluctant to show her true feelings, which is really bad.

"But maybe I misunderstood, right? Aragaki should still look in a better direction, if the result is good this time, then all problems can be solved? Looking at Kazuya, whose face was a little unpleasant, Kato comforted.

Kazuya found that for some time now, the conversation with Kato has been in this mode, asking for help by himself, Kato helping, feeling depressed, Kato comforting, the kind of "normal" relationship mode in which Kato said something off the line and then complained to himself, and did something very boring by himself and then Kato "teased" The "normal" mode of getting along has also slowly disappeared over time, which has to make Kazuya really realize that many of the behaviors that he is familiar with and are accustomed to are slowly changing.

"I hope so, right?" Vaguely, Kazuya noticed a small change in Kato's temperament, but he didn't know where that change was embodied, so he finally gave up looking for the change in Kato, and just responded well to her words.

"By the way, doesn't Aragaki-san care about the sales of your own novels? Isn't it customary for first-time writers to sneak out of bookstores and calculate the popularity of their books based on the percentage of books purchased by readers in a certain bookstore? ”

"Where did this strange convention come from! Don't take the setting from the comics and bring it to reality, okay? If you keep an eye on the exit of a bookstore in reality, you will soon be taken away by the police under the guise of a suspicious person, right? ”

"That seems to make sense! So how should writers know their sales in reality? Kato asked with a wink.

"Of course, it's up to the publisher and the editor to tell you, right? It should be said that this is the right way for most authors to know about sales, isn't it? ”

"That makes sense," Kato nodded, "But Aragaki-san, haven't you ever longed for that kind of behavior of staying outside the bookstore and doing this kind of statistics?" You know, such a characteristic behavior is only possible when you are a new author, right? ”

"You guy, do you have to drag me to do such a humiliating thing?"

"I just think Aragaki can experience these things."

"So, you guy—" Kazuya looked at Kato, who was unusually stubborn, and was about to complain, but looking at Kato's eyes that were hiding many blanks, he seemed to suddenly understand something.

This guy shouldn't have come up with such a nonsensical idea to pull me out of my current somewhat complicated feelings, right?

If this is not the case, it is difficult to explain what Kato's current anomalous approach is for.

"Hey, you guy," Kazuya, who understood Kato's painstaking efforts, said the words of complaint, and finally turned into a somewhat weak argument, "Aren't you thinking about going to the autograph meeting of Senior Sister Shiyu?" ”

"I've already pre-ordered Kasumigaoka-senpai's new book.,Anyway, I'm private with Kasumigaoka.,So if you have to sign it, can you ask her if you want it later?"

"Then what's the point of you coming here to participate in the book signing party, it's better to come to Hehe City for sightseeing, isn't it?" Kazuya suppressed his desire to complain, nodded and acquiesced to Kato's proposal:

"Forget it, anyway, I don't know what to do, I can't keep counting Senior Sister Shiyu's team, right? I'll go with you! ”

"It's me who goes counting with you, the writer, not you who goes counting with me." Kato corrected solemnly.

"Okay, it's all up to you." ――

Dividing line-

30 minutes later, at the door of the light novel general bookstore in Waai City, Kazuya and Kato looked at each other with an embarrassed expression.

"It's no longer a question of how many books everyone buys and what percentage of them are mine," Kazuya looked at the people coming in and out of the bookstore with a wistful expression, "If everyone puts their own books in bags, how do we know what books they have bought?" Why don't you go to the cash register and watch, do you? If you do this, you will really be arrested by the police for tea. ”

"And generally speaking, the number of books bought by each person who comes to the bookstore is definitely more than one, and even if you can tell that a specific customer bought Aragaki-san's novels, if you don't know how many copies he bought, then this statistic is still meaningless." Kato added.

"So the conclusion is that the two of us stared at the door of the store for half an hour at the risk of being treated as suspicious by the police, and that period of time is meaningless, isn't it?" Kazuya shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"But it's a little weird, I think those people in the comics are comfortable doing this, huh? Didn't those who created comics draw such an irresponsible plot with personal experience? ”

"It can't be like this, can it? Non-experiential people like me should still be in the minority. ”

"I feel like Aragaki-san is showing off to himself in some strange places!"

"I'm just stating a fact."

"But if you accept the fact that Aragaki said, then what is the problem here, do you know?"

"I don't know—uh," Kazuya's words of complaint had not yet been uttered, and a somewhat whimsical answer came to mind, "Hey, Kato, can I be sure?" In the comics you read, what the author observed, whether it was a light novel or not. ”

"Ah, speaking of which, the author is observing a game that seems to be his own main drawing!" Kato nodded suddenly and said.

"Right, so it all makes sense!" Kazuya clapped his hands heavily and said, "If it's a game, then all the problems can be solved, because games often come with some bonuses or clay and other things, and they usually have to be packed in a special bag or box for the game, right?" If it's a game, most people won't buy too many copies at a time, after all, playing a game and then looking for the next goal is the truth, and the problems we just encountered are not a problem. ”

"So at the end of the day, is it because Aragaki-san is a light novel writer and not a game script writer?"

"Please, it's generally okay to switch between the two as a writer!"

"Well, it seems like that!" Kato pursed his lips and smiled shallowly.

"You guy! It feels like I'm suddenly dumb in this regard. ”

"I'm sorry, I haven't accepted Aragaki and Ya Yi recently, so ACG Brain seems to be a little unable to keep up."

"Then hurry up and get used to it again, don't let yourself show such a foreign appearance when you look for us, I'm just complaining about you, if it's Lunye, it's endless preaching, that's a more terrible thing."

"Yes, I see." Kato nodded obediently.

Looking at Kato like this, Kazuya's heavy mood has also become a lot easier, just now, looking at the long queue in front of Shiyu's book sales venue, he was forced to fight with Shiyu, he is likely to be unable to compare to Shiyu's fear in every sense, coupled with his anxiety that he must win, almost made him a little collapsed, and Kato's timely appearance at this time, these relaxation points added to him, but made him look down on the current situation a lot.

"Anyway, we've already done this, and when the time comes, there must be a solution at that time!" Kazuya comforted himself, and then, looking at Kato, who was looking at some other place, Kazuya whispered with some gratitude, "I kind of understand what you just did with this, thank you, Kato." ”

"I'm sorry, Aragaki-san, I have something right now, can you wait for me here for a while?" Kato's unexpected voice came.

"It's okay, it's okay, but how long are you going to keep me here—"

"--Thank you then, it won't take too long." Without waiting for Kazuya's answer, Kato disappeared into the crowd.

"Hey, this guy, it's really-" Kazuya shook his head helplessly, glanced at the nearby scenery, and was stunned for a moment.

"Hey, hey, it's not a coincidence, is it?" After leaving the bookstore, Kazuya walked casually with Kato's pace, and until just now, he had always thought so, but, looking at the current surroundings, Kazuya felt that Kato's "casualness" was much more deliberate than he imagined.

The place where he was standing now was right in front of the coffee shop where Shiyu used to frequent.

And the familiar voice behind him made him almost not have to look back to confirm who was standing behind him.

"Kazuya-kun? It's been a long time! ”