“Well… after all, I watched them grow up. Their thoughts… can be more or less predicted.”

“In that case, you should tell me in advance.”

“I was about to say… but you interrupted me…”

Guan Meng explained helplessly.

“I—” Erya was speechless for a moment, then he lay on the table as if he was deflated, mumbling with a bitter face, “Ah… Granny Guan Meng. What should I do?”

“Are you worried about the outcome?”

“Well… being threatened by them isn’t really a problem – um, no, although that’s a big problem too. The main thing is that now that I know their true thoughts, I’m starting to feel unsure about convincing them.”

Erya scratched his head and explained in distress.

“I originally wanted to say that we should not destroy other people’s future because of our own desires and we should learn to respect each other. But now they are taking it too seriously.”

Choices that harm others for personal gain should be criticized, but selfless acts are usually praised by the world.

If it was the former, she could still nag a little bit with the attitude of an elder. But the latter was not possible. She could not replace Yui or Yakuya to judge the other party without authorization. Even if it was not right in theory, it was not her, an outsider, who could make irresponsible comments.

“Ah… the pressure is so great.”

Erya couldn’t help but groan. When she thought about how her decision tomorrow would affect the future of a pair of beautiful twin girls, Erya couldn’t help but feel a stomachache.

What’s more, neither side of the game wants to win. What’s going on?

“Grandma Guan Meng, you said that those two kids clearly value each other so much, why don’t they be more frank? Oh, right.” Erya suddenly had an idea and clapped his hands and said, “If I tell them that they want each other to win, will they just shake hands and make peace, and everything will be fine?”

“I advise you… it’s better not to do this…” Guan Meng smiled bitterly and shook her head gently, “Those two kids… have too much self-esteem. If they knew that the other party wanted them to win… they would definitely quarrel more fiercely, or even fight… until they broke up.”

Hearing Guan Meng’s words, Erya’s eyes twitched slightly.

“……real or fake?”

“real.”

Guan Meng nodded.

“…Then forget it.”

If you don’t listen to the advice of the elderly, you will suffer the consequences. After experiencing the truth of this sentence, Erya decisively gave up this rash idea.

“Ah…what about tomorrow’s refereeing?”

Unable to think of any good solution at the moment, Erya could only continue to lie on the table and whimper in vain.

“According to your original idea… a fair judgment would be fine. After all, it is the result of a fair competition, and they should not have any complaints.”

“but……”

After hearing Guan Meng’s words, Erya seemed a little hesitant.

“Have you seen both of their works?”

“I’ve seen it for now…”

Nodding slightly, Niya took out two opened envelopes from her bag, one containing the works of Yui and the other of Yakuya.

“They drew short stories of about 20 pages. Yakuya’s work is a passionate and orthodox boy’s manga, while Yui’s is a girl’s manga that is more of a school romance type. The plot content… I can only say it’s subtle. It feels like some scenes that I’ve seen before are pieced together. Although there are no logical bugs, it feels a bit awkward to read, lacking characteristics and personality. The style of painting is not bad, but it’s a bit unstable. The storyboards on each page also lack a sense of coherence. And like here on this page, and here on the next page. You can clearly see the traces of forced repairs after the blackening and dot paper pasting were wrong.”

While flipping through the two people’s works, Erya carefully evaluated every detail and finally concluded.

“Well, for a rookie work that was finished in just one week, it’s already pretty impressive. But it’s hard to say who’s better or worse. If I had to choose… I’d say Yakuya wins. After all, I’m also the author of a shonen manga, so the subject matter is more to my liking.”

(Well, this is definitely not because I’m afraid of Yui’s threat… probably.)

Erya added silently in his heart.

“However, this point involves a lot of subjective factors on my part. If I were a girl’s comic writer, I would probably choose Yui to win. Judging from their level alone, they should be evenly matched.”

“Haha…Is that so?”

After listening to Erya’s words quietly, Guan Meng smiled slightly.

“What, what’s wrong, Granny Guan Meng? You suddenly smiled so kindly. Did I say something stupid?”

“No… I just think Niya is amazing. Although she complained a lot, she never tried to run away or give up… She even read the comics of the two of them carefully. She is worthy of being a professional manga artist.”

Erya felt a little uncomfortable after receiving the sudden praise and scratched his hair awkwardly.

“It’s nothing. After all, I’m an adult now. If I go back on my words, it won’t be good for the education of Xixian and the others. And if I just give up because I’m afraid, I will definitely regret it so much that I won’t be able to sleep well.”

“This is already very impressive. Incredible~”

Gently stroking Erya’s hair, Guan Meng said softly.

“Wu…don’t be like this, mother-in-law. I’m not a child anymore.”

Shaking her head gently, Erya muttered with a slightly blushing face.

Perhaps he was embarrassed to be treated like a child. Erya, who was usually carefree, was unusually shy at this moment.

“And mother-in-law, instead of praising me now, I need you to give me some constructive suggestions. Otherwise, I might have to stop publishing the comics next time.”

“Hmm… that’s true.” Guan Meng paused for a moment and said, “Well… although I’m sorry to Yui and Yakuya… let’s be a little cunning in this competition.”

…………

“What do you mean, pale dream painter? Do you think I am an idiot?”

“I don’t agree. Xixian cannot agree with such an evaluation.”

Just like that, on the second day, facing the judgment given by Niya, Yui and Yakuya both expressed great dissatisfaction.

Both of you failed. There is no winner and no loser. With such simple words, Honjo Nia denied their achievements.

“Look down on you? Is that what I want to say? Are you looking down on me?”

Pretending to look indifferent, Erya replied without showing any weakness.

“Look at the work you handed in. The storyboard logic is disordered, the plot theme is unclear, the characterization is inexplicable, and there are so many low-level mistakes. It’s a pity that you were so confident in handing the manuscript to me yesterday?”

As she spoke, Erya listed the various problems in the drawing, but unlike yesterday, today she did not mention the advantages, but only focused on the disadvantages.

After listening to Erya’s clear and logical analysis, the Yami sisters, who had originally seemed very dissatisfied, seemed to begin to feel a little guilty.

“This, this can’t be helped. I’m just a beginner, so it’s impossible for me to take care of every aspect.”

“Counter-Refutation. With only one week, it is impossible to achieve such a level of completion.”

“That’s not an excuse.” Erya crossed his arms and refuted confidently, “If you feel that one week is not enough, you can extend the submission time and do your best to make your work better instead of handing me such a half-baked work. In our industry, there is only one person in history who can allow this!!”

“But you didn’t say…”

“Aren’t you guys competing? Then you have to do your best, try your best, rack your brains, and use every possible method to win. I thought you were confident that you could produce the most satisfactory work within a week, so you didn’t point it out. Or did you not want to win from the beginning?”

Hearing this, Yakushi looked at Niya with wide eyes. He looked as if he was choked, and wanted to say something, but couldn’t.

“Reply. Yui can understand Niya’s opinion. However, this is not a reason for the match to be unwinnable. Even if Niya is not qualified in reading Yui’s comics, it should not be difficult to judge the winner with Yakuya, right?”

Xixian looked at Erya and said calmly.

Seeing that Xixian was not misled by his words, Erya did not show any surprise and spoke calmly.

“You’re right. I could do that. But, I don’t recommend it.”

“…Question. Can you tell Yui-chan the reason?”

“If I remember correctly, you plan to decide your future aspirations based on the outcome of this duel, right?”

The Yamai sisters nodded. After receiving their approval, Niya continued,

“In the comics editorial department, in order to discover new talents with potential, the editors often receive manuscripts from newbies who want to become cartoonists. Sometimes they may have to read dozens or even hundreds of manuscripts a day. However, there are only a handful of authors who are truly recognized as having potential, and even fewer who can be published. The others who are not selected may indeed have their merits and demerits, but do you think anyone would care about these?”

“…”

“…”

Faced with Niya’s question, Yakuya and Yui fell into silence.

Erya continued speaking earnestly.

“If this is just an ordinary competition, I can lower my standards. But your future aspirations will not just be a competition between the two of you. There may be competitors who are more talented or work harder than you who will eliminate you. Since you want me to be the judge as a professional cartoonist, I must be strictly responsible for this. Otherwise, in the future, when you have a job or career you want to pursue, you will definitely suffer a great loss if you use the same attitude towards professionals.”

After saying this, Erya swallowed secretly and observed the reactions of the two.

What he said just now was more like a sophistry than a sermon. In Erya’s opinion, using the standard of comics for commercial use to reject two novices who had just learned for less than a week was as shameless as asking a baby who had just learned to walk to participate in the Olympic sprint competition.

“Wow… I didn’t expect the Dream Painter to have so many considerations. I will look at you differently.”

“Agreed. Let’s just consider this a draw.”

However, although they still seemed a little dissatisfied, the Yami sisters did not continue to protest and honestly accepted Niya’s conclusion.

After a long breath, Erya closed his eyes and couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. Ginger, old and spicy.

PS: It’s a little different from what I expected. The last paragraph is more than twice as long as I expected. The second half will be finished in the next chapter (so please don’t complain about the title.)

PS2: After the Yamai arc is over, I will put aside the IF line and write the main line. Otherwise, if I don’t move for too long, I’m afraid I will forget what I was going to write.

48 If Line Separation and Intertwining Lovebirds (Part )

==============================

After leaving Nia’s house, on the way home, Yakuya and Yui both had subtle expressions that seemed unable to let go.

They were perfunctorily treated by Erya. The two were not really stupid, and they naturally understood that Erya did not want to make a judgment, so he deliberately said so many words to divert attention.

However, even though they understood it, Erya’s reasoning was true. They were unable to refute it, which was what made them most depressed.

“Welcome back…Yakuya, Yui.”

When they returned to the apartment, Guan Meng stood at the door and greeted them with a kind smile as if she had expected their return.

“I am back.”

“Nod. Xixian is back, grandma.”

After nodding and saying hello, the Yami sisters returned home and leaned on the sofa with a tired look on their faces.

“What’s wrong? You look listless. Aren’t we going to Erya today to find out the results of the competition?”

After handing each of them a cup of barley tea, Guan Meng sat in front of them and asked.

“Oh~ Don’t mention it, grandma. I was lectured by Master Huimeng for a long time. Not to mention the result, my work was criticized as worthless.”

“Disappointed. Xixian thought she had painted it very seriously.”

After taking a sip of barley tea, the two of them couldn’t help but sigh. They had spent a lot of time staying up late to paint this week, but now there was no result. They felt that their efforts were in vain, and they were inevitably a little depressed.

“What’s going on… Did Erya bully you?”

Guan Meng frowned and asked worriedly.

“If there’s any grievance…I’ll go talk to Erya.”

Instead, Yakuya and Yui felt a little guilty and looked away, waved their hands and smiled bitterly.

“Um… no need, grandma. Although the outcome is still undecided, I am not really dissatisfied with the Dream Painter’s handling of the matter.”

“Explain. Don’t worry, grandma. Although the match ended in a draw, Niya didn’t do anything bad, and Yui-chan didn’t feel dissatisfied about it.”

“I see…” Guan Meng breathed a sigh of relief and continued, “So…what do you think about your career path? You’ll be in your third year of high school soon, right? It’s better to decide quickly…”

In response to Guan Meng’s question, Yakushiya and Yui looked at each other and said somewhat awkwardly.

“Answer. Regarding this matter… Yui and Yakuya have not yet come to a conclusion.”

“Kuku – Grandma, don’t worry. I will be able to give you an answer after the next match is decided.”

“Yeah, yeah!”

“……Oops.”

After being reminded by Xixian’s poking on the waist, Yakushi finally realized that he had let the cat out of the bag.

“The victory or defeat you mentioned… don’t you mean to force the loser to change his/her choice?”

Guan Meng asked calmly. For some reason, although grandma still had that amiable smile, the Yami sisters felt an indescribable pressure from her tone.

“About this matter…”

“S-Explain.”

“Xixian, Yejushi.” Guan Meng said the two names softly and said with a smile, “Next… why don’t you compete with me, your grandma?”