Promotion

"Mei-chan, isn't that a bit exaggerated?" Misaki Shio, while having heard of the Sawamura family's eldest daughter, couldn't quite believe what Kuki Mei was saying. Neither she nor those around her had ever seen Eriri in person, making it hard for her to grasp just how beautiful someone could be to captivate both men and women so completely.

"No, it's not an exaggeration at all! Not only my brother and sister but lots of people in our circle have similar stories," Kuki Mei insisted.

Reina, however, saw nothing unusual in their reactions. "What's the big deal? This seems perfectly normal to me," she said matter-of-factly.

To Reina, Eriri was the most beautiful, adorable, powerful, and noble person in the world—no one could compare. If Eriri didn't have such overwhelming charm, that would be surprising to Reina.

"Listening to you all, now I really want to meet Eriri-sama," Kosaka Haguro said, her face full of anticipation.

"Me too! I want to see the person who managed to captivate both my brother and sister to such an extent," Kuki Mei chimed in, raising her hand excitedly.

"Me too…" Misaki Shio didn't say much, but it was clear what she meant.

The three girls all turned their hopeful gazes toward Reina. If they wanted to meet the legendary Eriri, they would need Reina's help.

Faced with their eager looks, Reina shrank back a bit but thought it over and then nodded decisively.

"Hmm… how about this? I'll ask my sister if she's okay with it. If she agrees, I'll invite you all over to my house. It's a lively place," Reina said, smiling.

Even though she knew Eriri wouldn't mind if she brought her friends home unannounced, Reina still felt it was polite to ask for permission first.

"Really?"

"Of course! You're all my good friends," Reina replied, making the girls squeal in delight.

The thought of meeting the fabled Eriri soon filled Kosaka Haguro and the others with joy. After all, despite their maturity for their age, they were still just elementary school students, and the excitement was hard to contain. Kuki Mei even started thinking about how she could brag to her siblings.

The conversation soon shifted, and the girls resumed working on their homework amid laughter and chatter.

Before long, there was a knock on the door, and a maid entered, pushing a fancy cart filled with assorted desserts and drinks. Her mannerisms were professional, but Reina couldn't help but compare the twenty-something maid to her own maid, Aoi.

Hmm, not even close. Reina thought, concluding that the maid here couldn't compare to the grace and competence of Aoi. No contest at all!

Time flew by, and by five o'clock in the evening, Reina was picked up by Aoi Kujo. As soon as they got home, Reina spotted Eriri sitting on the sofa, watching Nana and Momo play a fighting game.

With a big smile, Reina ran toward her sister, while Aoi Kujo trailed behind, carrying Reina's small school bag.

"Onee-chan, I'm back!" Reina called out, her fox ears twitching and her nine tails swaying behind her as she ran.

"Welcome back, Reina. Did you have fun at your friend's house?" Eriri smiled as she pulled Reina into her arms, planting a kiss on her cheek and gently rubbing her fluffy ears.

"Mm-hmm, I had a great time." Reina snuggled into Eriri's embrace, enjoying the familiar warmth and affection. Then, she remembered the promise she had made to Kosaka Haguro and the others.

"Onee-chan, can I invite my friends over to our house sometime?"

"Of course! If they're your friends, they're more than welcome," Eriri replied without hesitation, just as Reina had expected. After all, a few elementary school girls couldn't possibly cause any trouble here.

"Introduce them to us too when they come over, okay?" Nana said, looking over her shoulder with a smile while still focused on her game controller.

"No problem," Reina agreed with a grin.

…

After dinner, Jibril, who had spent the entire day reading on a laptop, and Schwi, who had been helping Lala with her research, joined the others. Eriri formally introduced the two girls to everyone in the household, officially welcoming them as part of the family.

Even though both Jibril and Schwi didn't technically need to eat, Eriri encouraged them to join the family at mealtimes to fully enjoy life's pleasures. For this, she had even modified Schwi with a unique digestive system that would let her experience the taste of food, but without needing to actually digest it—anything she ate would disappear into another dimension.

"What's this? What's this? What's this?!" Jibril exclaimed in astonishment as she tasted her first meal. Throughout her long life, she had spent most of her time either fighting or repairing sigils, gaining satisfaction only from battle. But now, the joy of savoring food almost matched that of combat.

"Aoi's cooking has improved again," Eriri noted, savoring her meal. No matter what the situation, she never missed her three meals a day.

Aoi Kujo's culinary skills had indeed progressed rapidly. Since joining Eriri, her cooking had improved by leaps and bounds, to the point where Eriri thought it rivaled that of the top chefs in "Shokugeki no Soma."

Though she had never tasted the legendary "Food Wars" dishes, known to be so delicious they could be likened to aphrodisiacs, she figured Aoi's cooking must be close. One day, she mused, it might be fun to visit that world with Aoi to see for themselves.

"Thank you for the compliment, Miss," Aoi replied with a gentle smile, clearly pleased by Eriri's praise.

Since discovering the world of the extraordinary, Aoi had started smiling more, no longer hiding her emotions behind a stoic facade. Though she still kept a composed exterior when dealing with outsiders, her warmth was growing.

"How's the food, Schwi?" Eriri asked, turning to the little robot girl who was quietly but steadily consuming her meal.

"It's delicious!" Schwi's eyes flickered in various colors and patterns, clearly reflecting her amazement. Like Jibril, the taste of food was a new and thrilling experience for her. Unknown to Schwi, a new emotion was stirring within her—one called "joy."

…

After dinner, Eriri returned to her room, where she hadn't been alone in quite some time. She sat at her desk and powered on her computer, which had remained untouched for days. Due to various distractions and personal laziness, Eriri hadn't worked on any new doujinshi lately, much to the dismay of her eager fans online.

Eriri, still using her pen name "Kashiwagi Eri," continued to focus on drawing darker, more intense doujinshi, particularly yuri (lesbian) themes. Her name was just as famous in otaku circles as it was in the original storyline, if not more so. However, in this world, she concentrated solely on yuri content, and her drawing skills were far superior to the original story's version of Eriri.

In addition to drawing doujinshi, Eriri had even created some mainstream yuri manga, further boosting her popularity. As a result, her fanbase had grown significantly, far larger than in the original timeline.

Logging into her Twitter account, Eriri noticed that her last post was from over a month ago, yet there were still tens of thousands of comments below it. Most were fans eagerly asking for updates, though some expressed concern or discussed other yuri works. Surprisingly, there were very few negative comments.

"Teacher, your doujinshi are so intense! It's like a collection of every fetish imaginable."

"When's your next doujinshi coming out, teacher?"

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

"Is everything okay, teacher? You haven't posted in over a month."

"Teacher, could you draw a doujinshi of the two heroines from the new yuri novel? I'm begging you!"

"Are you talking about the new novel by Utako Kasumi, Love Metronome? I read that one too. Man, Kasumi-sensei really pulled a twist there. I thought Naoto was the male lead in volume one, but then the 'real' protagonist shows up in volume two—yuri fans went wild! And Naoto turning into the wingman for the two heroines? That plot twist was something else, but I loved it. (LOL)"

"Yeah, the second volume was so much better than the first! Kasumi-sensei really leveled up her romance writing."

"..."

Reading through the latest comments, Eriri caught up on quite a bit of news, including the fact that Utaha Kasumigaoka's Love Metronome had already released its second volume. Not only that, but the story had taken a sharp turn—from a traditional male-female romance into a full-blown yuri narrative. This development surprised Eriri, since in the original story, volume two introduced a love triangle between the male and female protagonists.

Apparently, Naoto, who was supposed to be the male lead, had now been sidelined as a "wingman" for the two heroines, Sayuka and Mayu, much to the delight of yuri fans.

Reflecting on her recent interactions with Utaha, Eriri realized that the author had been showing signs of leaning towards yuri themes. Still, she hadn't expected Utaha to take it this far and reshape her entire novel series around it.

It was no small feat for Utaha to have written and published the second volume in just half a month. No wonder she had been scarce at school recently and rarely visited the rooftop during lunch.

Eriri pulled up Utaha's Twitter account and, for the first time, hit the "Follow" button. Given that Eriri rarely followed anyone—her account had less than ten people on the list—it was only a matter of time before her fans noticed.

In the otaku world, the weight of Eriri's Twitter presence was far greater than Utaha's. While Utaha's author account had only a few thousand followers, Eriri's account boasted over five million. The two were simply in different leagues.

It wouldn't be long before Eriri's fans flocked to Utaha's account, bringing her a surge of popularity she had never experienced before.

Utaha's last tweet, posted just the day before, was a simple promotional message for Love Metronome's second volume, with only a few hundred comments below it.

Despite the book's rocky start, with disappointing sales for volume one, Utaha had persevered. Unfortunately, the second volume's sales were equally slow, partly due to the dramatic shift in narrative, which alienated many original readers.

Moreover, the publishing house wasn't doing much to promote the novel, having mostly given up on it. Without significant external support or promotion, it seemed that the second volume was heading towards a commercial failure as well.

And then there was Tomoya Aki. Although Eriri had coldly dismissed him back in elementary school, he had stubbornly remained in the otaku scene, much like his original counterpart in the story. He was well-known at school for constantly pushing various anime, novels, and games on anyone who would listen—though not in a good way.

Given that Love Metronome's second volume was now a yuri story, Tomoya, once a fervent supporter of the series, had not only refused to promote it but had also taken to publicly criticizing it on Twitter. Worse, he had even stirred up trouble by trolling Utaha's account directly, leading to many unpleasant interactions.

The situation was dire, and Eriri knew it was time for her to step in. Without hesitation, she logged onto her Twitter account and posted a glowing endorsement of Love Metronome volume two.

"Utako Kasumi-sensei's Love Metronome volume two is amazing! The relationship between the two heroines is so sweet, I couldn't help but want to draw a pure yuri doujinshi of them.

Highly recommended! All my yuri-loving fans, please go buy a copy and support the author!"

Within moments, notifications began flooding in as fans who had set special alerts for Eriri's tweets swarmed her account, eager to see what their favorite artist had to say.