Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 65: It’s raining, playing board games, watching TV, drinking and chatting, staying as long as you want
Although he no longer had to finish his illustrations and could stay in the art club to paint watercolors, he still left the school with an umbrella and went back to his rental house as usual before Saotome, who brought Ichinose his lunch box every day, arrived.

Before I knew it, it was already August, but the rainy season still seemed to be not over.

He touched the clothes that had been moved from the balcony to the window, and they were no different from when he first hung them up. He considered using his points to buy a dryer.

I walked from the bedroom to the dining and living room, and then went up to the second floor. I went around every place except Takeda's bedroom, but couldn't find a suitable place to install it.

The only space in the water room that can accommodate an electrical appliance is already occupied by a washing machine, so it would be difficult to put a dryer in and out.

The most convenient way would be to install it on his bedroom balcony, but then he wouldn't be able to share it with Takeda...

He exited the Japanese-style room, his thoughts paused for a moment, and suddenly realized that he had unconsciously included Takeda in his life...

Is this the level of consideration when it comes to so-called risks?

He came to his senses and placed the dryer on the balcony of his room with peace of mind.

No one can avoid falling into a certain inertial thinking, but as long as we can realize this in time and take precautions, we can eliminate the inertia in time and avoid irreversible consequences.

But he was already a century old, and such philosophies of life were as numerous to him as origami stars in a cookie jar, so numerous that he had no idea how many there were.

The dryer recommended to him by the points store originally cost more than 100,000 yen, positioning him as a middle-class customer who was not short of money.

If Zhutian discovers it one day in the future and wants to borrow it, he will charge him 40% of the price of the drying shop.

He made up his mind, listened to the humming noise of the dryer and the sound of rain outside the window, and began to organize his notes on knowledge from the first year of high school.

While reviewing before the final exam, he discovered a new feature of the points store - textbook knowledge can also be purchased with points, and discounts will be given according to one's level of mastery.

The scope of knowledge that should be mastered in the first semester of the second year of high school, except for mathematics which still requires 100 points, the cost of other subjects has been reduced to within 10 points.

He is currently reviewing the island history course for the first year of high school. The original price was 3000 points. The price he checked before the review was 461, but now it has dropped to 355, and he is making steady progress.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon, Kuroki sent him a message, as if he had just woken up and saw the illustration email sent to him by editor Sasaki.

[Kuroki: Why only five? I really want you to draw one more—]
[Kuroki: The scene of encountering the solution trap in the maze...it's really worth painting, right? It'll definitely boost sales, right?!]
[Inoue: That scene was rejected by editor Sasaki because it crossed the red line. I informed you of that a long time ago.]
[Kuroki: That's why I'm complaining here!]
[Kuroki: Why does the profession of editor exist in this world?]
[Kuroki: Novelists write books for readers, and readers buy novels to hear the novelists' stories—can this still work without an editor?]
[Inoue: There's a new website that's serializing light novels lately, I highly recommend it.]
[Kuroki: Well, forget it...]
Indeed, some websites have inquired about his collaboration intentions through his media accounts, and he's only willing to pay 8,000 yen per illustration. There's still a long way to go before he can develop into a mature business model similar to traditional light novel publishing.

After talking about illustrations, Kuroki talked about the animation process of "The Wasteful Hero". The dubbing work will start in late August. If all goes well, it will be broadcast as scheduled in January of the following year, which is also the release date of his next volume of light novel.

This person only updates three volumes a year, but he is always busy as hell before and after the submission deadline. It's amazing.

Kuroki: I heard from Sasaki that you changed your mailing address and moved?
[Inoue: I live in an old, single-family house in an old residential area, and I share it with a classmate. The cost is about the same as boarding school, but I have a lot more freedom.]
Kuroki: Perfect! The tax return from the local tax bureau arrived a few days ago. I'll bring a few bottles of sake, call someone, and have dinner at your place.
Free food...

He walked out of the bedroom and looked around the dining and living room. There was no sofa or TV, no table or chairs, only a refrigerator and some kitchen utensils that Zhutian had found but had not yet used.

You can only eat standing at the kitchen table.

The house is completely bare.

[Inoue: Aren’t izakayas the same?]
[Kuroki: How can it be the same? The atmosphere is completely different.]
Kuroki: Imagine—on a rainy day, gathering in a house with a yard outside. Throwing the dishes in the sink after eating, playing board games, watching TV, drinking and chatting, staying as long as you want…wouldn't that be more comfortable than an izakaya?
How long do you want to stay?
It's okay for him to live alone. After all, it's summer vacation, so it doesn't matter how late he gets up the next day.

But Takeda really needed to rest early, at the latest before she came back from the grocery store.

[Inoue: No TV, no board games, but if I had to say, there was a deck of cards.]
[Inoue: Also, I can’t cook, and I don’t drink.]
Kuroki: Leave it to me! Order food from nearby restaurants and bring it back for plating. I also have some freshly squeezed pear juice from the Tottori Prefecture Tax Bureau. We'll have some drinks later, so you can have that.
[Inoue: My roommate has to go to bed at 11 o'clock.]
Kuroki: We'll just leave when the time comes! If you can't catch the train, just call a taxi. There's always a way.
When it comes to things like eating and drinking, Kuroki is much more flexible than when he is writing.

[Inoue: Yes...]
I've said everything that needs to be said in advance. I'll just let the Takeda branch know and it's okay to have dinner at the rental house.

He simply sent a message to Takeda, saying that he had friends over that evening and that he would send them all off before she got home from work. Then he started looking for an inexpensive but comfortable sofa, coffee table, dining table, and chairs at the points store...

All meals are purchased with points and fill the dining table.

I'm increasingly experiencing the convenience of shopping with points compared to brick-and-mortar shopping. It's like takeout and online shopping with incredibly fast delivery speeds. Anyone who uses them will gradually develop a dependency...

In order to prevent himself from developing a habit of thinking in this regard, he opened his umbrella, went out, and went to a nearby convenience store to buy some small items that only cost one or two points each.

Disposable bamboo chopsticks, dishcloths, canned cola, boxed milk, and the rice sauce recommended by the convenience store clerk...

An hour after Kuroki chatted with him on Line, a bell rang at the entrance.

He went to open the door, and unexpectedly Asakura walked in ahead of Kuroki who was still closing his umbrella.

"...Asakura?"

"Miss me?" Asakura nodded and smiled at him.

"I remembered Sasaki told me that Asakura's new work had been announced for an animation, so I asked for her contact information... Miss Asakura was so kind that she agreed to come." Kuroki was still confused about what was going on. He looked at the two of them, hesitant, while shaking his shoes as if they had stepped into the rain. "You... know each other?"

"Inoue was also responsible for the illustrations of 'The Wrong Kind of Love'," Asakura explained patiently.

"It's the same editor, the same illustrator, and you don't know about it?" He was not so easy to talk to and immediately added insult to injury.

(End of this chapter)