13 A trap appears

"... What?" Muttered Igarashi while holding a cup of coffee.

It had been 2 days since he had started teaching Sasori common sense as it turns out, you need to teach them this kind of thing. Just look at Scaramouche's backstory; he was thrown away by the Raiden Shogun because after he was created and shown good results, he shed tears and the Raiden Shogun deemed that he was too soft and gentle.

Some things happened and the Raiden Shogun would find her thought of him wrong. Because soon, Scaramouche named himself Kunukuzushi which literally means "To destroy a country". Scaramouche would soon prove that his name was quite fitting.

Anywho, back to the topic, after Igarashi thought Sasori some basic manners and common sense, as well as some arts, they both worked on the manga. And with Sasori's help, Igarashi's workload decreased and he felt relieved.

And now, Igarashi was outside his shop drinking some finely grounded coffee that he bought nearby. His hair was still a bit messy as it was 10 in the morning and he just woke up. Yeah, not that much of a morning guy since he worked hard last night with Sasori.

As for the reason he said "What?" Well, the answer is a certain mischievous chivalrous kid the same age as Igarashi appeared in front of his shop.

The person has dark, navy blue hair with asymmetrical bangs and golden amber eyes. He has a slight frame and a light skin tone. He wears a blue earring with a gold tassel on his right ear. His vision is pinned to the bottom of the left side of his coat on top of a span of frilled, white fabric. A tassel made of amber which matches his eyes hangs from the vision.

As for his attire, it consists of a long coat of silk which gradients from black at the collar, to shades of navy blue as the material descends. The coat's underside is a contrasting yellow with a faint, wavy pattern decorating the fabric, alluding to the person's Hydro vision.

His collar and shoulder plates are rimmed with a gold, metallic material and to the right side of his chest sits a large circular brooch. It's embedded with a blue jewel, like the center of his collar, coat buttons, and sleeve cuffs.

When Igarashi first saw this person, he was not prepared because he just woke up and just wanted some morning breeze. But who would have thought that... 'Why is Xingqiu here...?'

It was one of the many people in Teyvat that can be easily mistaken for their gender, Xingqiu.

However, with the effect of the caffeine entering his brain because of his coffee, he suddenly remembered why Xingqiu is here. 'Ah, right. My plan of luring in some big shots in Liyue to promote my work...'

"It's an honor to meet you, my liege!" Xingqiu said as he put his hand on his left chest as he slowly bowed.

Seeing this, Igarashi didn't know how to respond to this weird... Behavior. "No, no, please raise your head..."

Xingqiu followed and his eyes full of gleam met with Igarashi who still had fuzzy eyes. "Let me formally introduce myself, my liege. My name is Xingqiu. I am the second son of the Guild Manager of the Feiyun commerce Guild, a practitioner of the Guhua Clan's arts, and... A mere bookworm."

'He has too much energy...' Igarashi thought as he drank some coffee. "So, why did the second son of the Feiyun commerce guild come to this lowly doorstep of my shop?"

'Gotta keep that act on...' In order to act as if everything was natural and he definitely not anticipated this meeting, Igarashi has to go with the flow of the mood and conversation.

Hearing Igrashi's reply, Xingqiu cleared his throat and started to explain. "Well, you see, my liege..."

"Uhh... Can you please drop the " liege" part? From the looks of it, we are of the same age... No need for formalities." Igarashi cut off Xingqiu as he felt like that "Liege" part was getting a bit uncomfortable. He took another drink from his cup. 'Coffee here is so good...'

When Xingqiu heard Igarashi's sudden remark, he slightly laughed and apologized. "I apologize my— I mean, umm... What is my liege's name again?"

"Chen Yunru. But you can just call me Yunru. And again, stop the liege part." Igarashi explained.

Xingqiu nodded and started again, "Well then, Boss Yunru, I have a matter that I would like to discuss with you."

Igarashi nodded as he sips on some coffee and open the door behind him and replied. "I don't think talking outside the door is a valid place. Let's go inside."

Igarashi entered and Xingqiu shortly followed. When Xingqiu entered, what he saw was a room with only two sources of light which was two candles and the windows. In the middle, a small table was present and two couches were facing the opposite of each other with a mat underneath. At the back, a big table was presented with some paper and a pen on top.

And at the farthest corner, a kitchen was present with some unusual tools Xingqiu hasn't seen before. This was, of course, the kitchen set bough by Igarashi from the system. Now, he only has 10 System Credits.

During the two days time skip, Igarashi had spent some of his Mora to add some furniture to his shop, leaving him with roughly 56,000 Mora. Of course, add in the stuff he bought while he was strolling in Feiyun Slope and the expenses for his food, only him because Sasori doesn't need to eat.

Both Xingqiu and Igarashi sat down on the couch. Igarashi placed his coffee down and started talking. "Now then, what would you like to discuss?"

Xingqiu straightened up his posture and replied, "I shall get straight to the point."

He then took out a book that Igarashi was rather familiar with. It was the manga he made. 'It seems like Xiangling was successful. She must have sold a manga to Hu Tao and the latter informed Xingqiu.'

Igarashi internally laughed as he thought: 'I can finally say "All according to plan" haha...'

However, Xingqiu soon continued which made him confused. "This book was given to me by my dearest friend, Chongyun."

"???"

'... Well, not everything can go my way, can it?' *Sigh...* I really wanted to say "All according to Keikaku" badly...' Igarashi internally lamented. He did not show it on his expression, though.

Xingqiu continued, however, his mood changed this time to more seriousness. "I'll be frank, what did you do to my friend? What trickery did you use? And how?"

"???"

"What do you mean?" Igarashi was really confused. 'Why did his mood suddenly change?'

Xingqiu then opened the book and pointed at the first page. "This!"

Igarashi looked at it and was even more confused. '... Huh?'

It was... Nothing. No anomaly at all. It was still the same page he drew. It was the page of Taki and Mitsuha facing back to each other as a red string of fate connects them. There was nothing wrong with it at all.

"What do you mean? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong...?"

Xingqiu raised the manga to the same height as his face and pointed once more. "Here! Can you not see? The whole page is blank! Pure white!"

"... Huh?"

'What the heck? It's perfectly fine though... Is he being delusional?'

However, at this moment, the system's notification appeared in front of Igarashi's eyes.

[Notice]

[It is the effects of the system's Anti-Counterfeit function.]

[The only people that can read the host's books are those that bought them from official sources managed by the host. Additionally, the host can grant permission to people to sell your work.]

'Ohh... Why didn't you tell me that earlier?' Igarashi internally asked.

However, unsurprisingly, like always, the system didn't reply. 'Tch.'

'Then can I at least let others see it?'

[Yes]

'Oh, you answered.'

[...]

'Fine, stay quiet.' Igarashi snarled. He then continued 'Alright, let Xingqiu see the manga's contents.'

[Affirmative]

[Please take note that doing this will make the original buyer of the book unable to read it anymore.]

[Will you still proceed?] [Y/N]

'Proceed. I doubt Chongyun even has an interest in books. He probably even bought it for Xingqiu...' Igarashi thought as this is the most logical probability.

[Done.]

Suddenly, from Xingiu's point of view, the contents of the manga started to show themselves to him.

When they appeared, he was a bit shocked and didn't know what to say. 'This is...! What sort of mythical art is this? Is it perhaps... Adepti arts?!'

As a bookworm, Xingqiu is quite knowledgeable in many aspects. One of them is mysticism. It was only natural, after all, his dearest and best friend Chongyun is an exorcist that deals with mysticism every day.

Though, Chongyun himself hasn't seen a single ghost. What he didn't know, however, was that he is so powerful, that every ghost that gets near him gets automatically exorcised.

Back to the topic, when Xingqiu saw the sudden appearance of Igarashi's drawing, he was dumbstruck as he didn't know what kind of mystic art it was.

Seeing his reaction, Igarashi curled up a small smile and said: "How about now? Is it visible yet?"

"T-This is...!" Xingqiu stuttered as he picked up the manga and started flipping pages.

"Yes...?"

"T-This is... Amazing!" Xingqiu exclaimed as he read each page.

'Not the reaction I was expecting but I'll take it.' Igarashi thought as he shrugged his shoulders and sipped on some coffee.

'Now, I only need to wait for him to finish reading and try to make some connections for business... Haha, maybe now, I can say the "Everything is according to plan" line, haha...' Igarashi secretly thought with a sinister grin.

It was at this moment that a system notification suddenly appeared in front of him.

[The character, Rex Lapis, has liked your story]

[+10 System credits]

'... Eh?'