Chapter 349: Are You Guys Trying to Mess With Me?
Kaede naturally wore a simple suit, but Utaha and Eriri took more time than he had anticipated.
After waiting in the room for nearly twenty minutes, enough time to watch a whole episode of a new anime, Kaede finally saw the two girls emerge.
One in black and one in white—their choice truly surprised Kaede.
Eriri, needless to say, chose a cute style small dress that matched her own aesthetic.
As for Utaha... this was the first time Kaede had seen her wear a dress like this, which perfectly showcased her already flawless figure.
As soon as they came out, Eriri regretted it with puffed cheeks: "I shouldn't have suggested going to the top floor!"
"Hmph hmph, it's too late for regrets now."
Utaha was very satisfied with the dress. She smiled and walked up to Kaede, turning around once: "Asakura-kun, what do you think?"
Because Eriri was staring right beside them, Kaede could only maintain a calm expression and said, "Mhm, very good. As expected of you, Senpai."
Utaha raised her chin triumphantly at Eriri and said to Kaede, "Asakura-kun, you can be a little proud today. You have two female companions."
"I actually hope something like this doesn't happen."
He couldn't withstand that look from Eriri.
Seeing Kaede's reaction, Eriri's expression immediately vanished. She turned to Utaha and smiled smugly, saying, "Hmph hmph, wasn't I right? Don't think having a good figure is enough. The trust between Kaede-kun and me is solid!"
"..."
Kaede watched the two girls speechlessly and finally understood: in the end, these two had planned this together.
Walking over and linking her arm through Kaede's, Eriri smiled and said, "Hehe, Utaha brought up the problem, and of course, I trust Kaede-kun implicitly!"
"Yes, thank you very much."
After poking Kaede's cheek, Eriri said to Utaha, "Alright, let's go. Kaede-kun, tonight, just like Utaha said, you can be a little proud—you have two female companions. But you can't have any weird thoughts, otherwise..."
Saying that, she used her index and middle fingers to make a scissor gesture, which made Kaede tense up below the waist.
Especially after leaving the room, when Utaha really hooked her arm into Kaede's other arm, he felt like things were going south for him.
Specifically, his heart was in trouble.
With a long face, Kaede said, "Eriri, Senpai, please stop messing with me, okay? This really isn't fun. My poor heart can't handle it."
Enjoying it?
Unless Eriri wasn't his girlfriend or fiancée, or if the two women beside him were the type he wouldn't feel guilty about, who would possibly be enjoying this situation?!
This was the first time Eriri had seen Kaede make such an expression, and her smile was exceptionally bright: "Hahaha, Kaede-kun, you look so funny right now. But relax, we really don't have any ulterior motives. You can't just let Utaha walk alone, can you? She'd be easily hit on!"
"Exactly," Utaha said with a light chuckle. "A single girl, even in a high-class place like this, is quite easy to approach. So I can only rely on Asakura-kun to be my bodyguard for a while. Of course, I'm quite nervous myself, whether it's wearing a dress like this or linking arms with a man. Ordinary people don't get this kind of treatment, so I trust Asakura-kun very much."
"Ah, is that so? Thank you very much..."
All Kaede wanted now was to quickly reach their destination, sit down, and have a drink.
Since it was the weekend, there were quite a lot of people on the top floor, more than when they came the day before yesterday.
And this time, upon entering, Utaha's figure attracted too much attention, inevitably drawing more scrutiny toward all of them.
After glancing around, Kaede quickly found a booth in a corner and led the two girls over.
After sitting down, Utaha looked at Kaede, who had sat down on one side, leaving the middle seat for Eriri, and said with a smile, "You looked so depressed before we came in, but your behavior after entering is impeccable, Asakura-kun."
Resting his chin on one hand, Kaede sighed and said, "Don't worry, I still know what to do in what situation. None of us like being disturbed. I'll signal one of the waiters here later so no one bothers us."
Soon, the ordered drinks arrived. While sipping their drinks and listening to the piano music, Utaha and Eriri started discussing novel character designs, and Kaede finally learned the genre of Utaha's novel.
It was still a school romance genre, but this time Utaha clearly wanted to make a change. In *love metronome*, she hadn't set up too many character conflicts, and the male and female leads' journey to knowing and loving each other was relatively smooth. However, in the new book, Utaha planned to introduce more characters to make the story more complicated.
To put it simply, she was preparing to give the readers stomach medicine (angst).
Thinking back to the works he had read that caused stomach aches (angst), Kaede couldn't help but clutch his stomach: "Senpai, are you really going to write it like that? Aren't you afraid of readers sending you razor blades?"
"Isn't that great? I haven't experienced readers sending me razor blades yet; it should be quite interesting," Utaha said happily. "Besides the razor blades, Asakura-kun, won't your *Konosuba* face similar issues? You've already decided that the final winner is Megumin. The Darkness faction and the Aqua faction will be angry, you know."
"Uh... that's true."
Taking a sip of juice, Kaede mused, "Mine is easy to solve. It's an alternate world, after all. Although I've decided on Kazuma and Megumin, I won't truly write off the other possibilities; I'll leave some room for the readers to imagine things themselves. But Senpai, yours is different. You can't write like that in a realistic setting."
"I know. I've seen plenty of examples of what not to do."
Utaha looked at the small notebook she kept in her wallet, which recorded the results of her recent discussion with Eriri: "Actually, I've already finished the story outline 1.0 and am currently refining it bit by bit. I also don't like too much angst. I've learned exactly where that line is during the time since my debut."
Since Utaha was well aware of this, Kaede didn't need to worry too much. After all, she was a genius.
"So, what about the novel's title? You must have thought of that too, right?"
Eriri also chimed in, "Oh right, I don't know the novel title yet either."
"Regarding that..."
Utaha flipped through the notebook and smiled mysteriously: "I have several titles decided, but I plan to think about them a bit more before telling you two."