"H-how is it?"
Eriri stood to the side with her arms crossed, trying to make her voice sound less urgent than it was.
"It's great! She's a cute girl who immediately makes you feel fond of her. I think it's wonderful. If she becomes the main heroine, many people should like her. Eriri is really amazing."
Kato Megumi's gaze left the computer screen as she gave the first positive evaluation.
"Although it's just a rough draft, it's much better than the previous one."
Kasumigaoka Utaha tucked the long hair falling by her face behind her ear. She didn't directly express words of praise, but the implication was already clear.
Eriri understood this person's personality, so she was pleased and smiled at the moment. But just for an instant, she realized her reaction—wasn't she acting like a child who gets happy from simple parental praise?
So she immediately restrained her excited reaction, coughed pretentiously, and focused her gaze on Aki Tomoya, who was still staring intently at the computer screen.
"Tomoya, what do you think?"
"Ah?"
Suddenly questioned by Eriri, Aki Tomoya seemed somewhat flustered.
"I-I think it's great. Eriri's artwork is still so perfect. It's just..."
"Just?"
Eriri furrowed her pretty brows, and her originally excited heart gradually sank.
"Don't misunderstand. The heroine image Eriri drew is perfect—absolutely flawless. As a layman, I can't find a single flaw."
Feeling the gazes of all three people in the classroom focused on him, Aki Tomoya became somewhat nervous.
This situation was different from before. Last time, Kasumigaoka Utaha had clearly expressed her dissatisfaction with Eriri's original artwork, so he could say something like "it's usable" without seeming disagreeable.
But this time was completely different. Except for him, all four club members thought this heroine design was great. If his attitude seemed ambiguous at this point, the heroine's character design might be directly decided.
If no one stepped forward to voice his true inner thoughts, he would have to steel himself and give his opposing opinion.
"It's just that this artwork can't resonate with my heart. I feel this isn't the game heroine image I want—it's different from what I hoped to convey to players."
Looking at Eriri's gradually cooling expression, Aki Tomoya finally gave this careful response after a long pause.
Eriri took a deep breath. The positive emotions the other two club members had given her completely disappeared. She suppressed her displeasure and tried to remain calm as she questioned Aki Tomoya:
"Then, can you tell me what the problem is?"
"Sorry, Eriri. I can't say specifically what's wrong."
Aki Tomoya shook his head. Pressured by Eriri's intensity, he chose not to look into her eyes and turned his gaze back to the computer screen.
"But this character image doesn't give me a feeling of being moved—
Like that day when I encountered Kato Megumi-san on the slope, that heart-fluttering feeling of a fateful encounter."
Both Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri turned their gazes to Kato Megumi.
The latter, noticing their looks, blinked in confusion, her calm face showing no indication of what she was thinking.
"I completely don't understand when you say that. That day was your encounter with Kato-san—I wasn't even there!
No, that's not right... Even if I had been there, I wouldn't have been able to know your specific psychological state!
That's not right either... Even if I knew your psychological state, I wouldn't have been able to smoothly draw the heroine design you wanted!"
Realizing her emotions were unconsciously becoming agitated, Eriri took another deep breath, calmed her mindset, and softened her tone.
"I'm just an artist, not a psychologist. I can't reverse-engineer the correct result from your ambiguous words.
So don't make me struggle to think, guess, and try. Give me some specific drawing directions or constructive opinions—like the protagonist's face shape, eye size, body proportions, or clothing, gestures, objects, and background images to contrast the character."
Hearing Eriri's words, Kasumigaoka Utaha smiled slightly, then reopened the book in her hands and spread it across her thighs, which were completely wrapped in black stockings.
Although this was a dispute within the club, it was a problem between the producer and the artist—it had nothing to do with her.
Kato Megumi beside them seemed to share the same thoughts. Her closed lips opened several times as if wanting to say something, but ultimately remained silent.
"It's my fault for not being able to express myself accurately. As for drawing directions, Eriri is more professional in that area—I don't dare to interfere. But there's one thing I can confirm."
Aki Tomoya pointed at the computer screen.
"This is not the game heroine I want."
"Bang!"
After hearing this, Eriri finally couldn't stand it and slammed both hands heavily on the desk.
This sudden loud sound made the already somewhat heavy atmosphere in the club freeze, reaching a rather oppressive level.
"Eriri, I..."
"Enough!"
Aki Tomoya was stunned and opened his mouth to say something, but was directly interrupted by Eriri's outburst.
"I already understand what you mean, Tomoya. I'll think about it more when I get back and draw a heroine you truly approve of."
She walked to the desk, closed the laptop, and held it in her arms.
"I won't participate in club activities for now. If there's anything, contact me on LINE. That's all."
Leaving these words behind, Eriri turned and left the club room without any reluctance.
"Although I'm just here to help and don't really understand certain conventions in game production, that drawing should have taken Sawamura-san a lot of time to design, right?
Aki-san, wasn't it a bit inappropriate to reject that artwork so directly?"
In the club room that had become quiet again after Eriri left, Kato Megumi was the first to speak.
Aki Tomoya's expression looked somewhat lost. His hands on the desk gradually clenched, and the next moment he stood up.
"I'm going to apologize."
"Wait, Rinri-kun. Aren't you forgetting something?"
Just as Aki Tomoya was about to move, Kasumigaoka Utaha slowly spoke.
"Today we were supposed to discuss club funding issues after looking at the character design Eriri created, weren't we?"
"But Eriri isn't here now. At least wait until next time when everyone's present..."
"When is next time?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha turned a page of the book spread across her thighs without moving her gaze at all.
"Our time isn't very abundant to begin with. From when you first had the idea to make a game until now, several months have passed, and many important things haven't made any progress. Is your original intention in founding this club really to make a game?"
"Of course! I want to share the emotion I gained that day with everyone. Games are the best medium to express those feelings—this is unquestionable!"
"Nice spirit. Then please tell me, since the club was founded, how much have we progressed toward your goal? Have we reached even one-third of the way?"
"This..."
Aki Tomoya was momentarily speechless, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Kasumigaoka Utaha sighed, closed her eyes, and massaged her shoulder.
Many things in this club couldn't be examined too closely because you wouldn't get the answers you wanted.
"Forget it, let's not talk about that. Back to the original topic—club funding issues."
"Then I'll go call Eriri back so we can all..."
"That's not necessary. The three of us are enough. Besides, Sawamura-san probably doesn't want to deal with you right now. I think it would be better to let her be alone and calm down for a while."
"I understand..."
Aki Tomoya was convinced and sat back down.
Kato Megumi walked in front of the two with her hands behind her back.
"Um, is there a problem with the club funding?"
"It's not that there's a problem with club funding—we never received normal activity funding from the school in the first place."
"Eh? What's going on?"
"Our club has too few members, and since we haven't had any substantial activities with positive significance, although we're nominally established, we haven't received recognition from the student council, so we don't have the benefits that regular clubs enjoy."
"Then what about this activity room?"
"It's just a multimedia classroom that's hardly used normally. Since it's usually empty, they can lend it to us for club activities. But if someone needs to use this room, we still have to vacate it unconditionally."
"Eh?"
After hearing Kasumigaoka Utaha's explanation, Kato Megumi looked at Aki Tomoya with some surprise.
"I always thought that when we had tea and discussions outside school, or when we had meals together, we were using club funds. It turns out Aki-san was paying for everything himself?"
"Sorry to interrupt with an off-topic question, but Kato-san, did you just find out about this?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha was somewhat surprised.
"Yes, I just found out."
Feeling the gazes of both people, Aki Tomoya hurriedly explained:
"I forgot! I really forgot—I didn't intentionally not tell Kato-san. Since the club was established, I've been constantly thinking about the game planning, so I put this kind of trivial matter out of my mind."
"Not a big deal!?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha's eyes gradually became dangerous.
"St. Chronia Academy, as one of the nation's top private schools, has a progressive principal and wealthy board of directors who care deeply about student club activities. Guess how much they allocate to various clubs for activities each quarter?"
"H-how much?"
Aki Tomoya's Adam's apple bobbed as he involuntarily swallowed.
Kasumigaoka Utaha slowly spread five fingers.
"Five hundred thousand?"
"It's five million."
"Five million!!!"
Not only was Aki Tomoya shocked, even Kato Megumi, who always had the same expression, opened her mouth slightly.
"Don't be so surprised. This is just the minimum. If it's not enough, the student council can apply for more from above. Additionally, if clubs achieve certain results, like winning awards in city-level competitions, they receive special cash rewards from the school.
But the prerequisite for obtaining all this is getting recognition from the student council and becoming an official club recognized by the school."
"I had no idea about any of this..."
Aki Tomoya muttered to himself in a low voice.
"Didn't Aki-san properly research these related basics before founding this club?"
Kato Megumi asked, pointing her fingertip to her lower lip.
"At the time, I only thought about quickly making the game. I didn't have time to consider so much..."
"The desire to quickly make a game is nice, but without funding support, you might not feel it now, but we'll be unable to move forward later.
With me and Sawamura-san handling text and image CGs, and Rinri-kun and Kato-san handling script generation, there are still many, many other issues to consider.
Background music, character voices, game optimization, etc.—these things can't be handled by just the few people in our current club. Although enthusiasm is a great motivational buff, we lack the relevant professional skills, and this can't be denied."
"Ha... ha, ha..."
Thoroughly defeated, Aki Tomoya showed a very forced, very ugly smile.
"The situation doesn't look optimistic. Isn't there any solution?"
Kato Megumi glanced at Aki Tomoya, then asked Kasumigaoka Utaha.
"We can choose to lower the game quality, select open-source background music without copyright issues from the internet, omit character voices entirely, and forget about optimization—since we're skipping so many steps anyway, it doesn't matter."
"No! That's absolutely unacceptable! If we're going to do it, we have to do our absolute best!"
Aki Tomoya slammed the table and stood up.
"I'll get the student council to recognize our club and obtain funding. Besides that, I'll work part-time seriously, and all the money will go toward game production.
Anyway, background music and voice acting in the game are absolutely necessary. If money is still not enough, I have many limited edition figures at home..."
A struggling expression appeared on his face.
"You don't need to sell your figures. I'll cover what's insufficient."
Kasumigaoka Utaha spoke slowly.
"Eh?"
"I'm just doing my part. Why are you so surprised? After all, you've taken care of me a lot before. This level of help is just a small favor."
Kasumigaoka Utaha said this as if it were natural.
"I'll join too."
Kato Megumi raised her hand.
"I have a part-time job at a convenience store after school. Let's use that hourly wage for game production too. After all, Aki-san has treated us to meals so many times—I feel a bit bad about it."
"You two..."
Aki Tomoya's eyes moistened, feeling somewhat moved.
"Don't make that disgusting, embarrassing expression. Since I already agreed to help you make the game, I'll help to the end."
Kasumigaoka Utaha stood up and straightened her skirt.
"Thank you, Utaha-senpai. I'll work hard!"
Meeting Aki Tomoya's eager gaze, Kasumigaoka Utaha still showed no expression, just walked past him without looking sideways.
"Nice spirit. Let me give you some advice—consider more issues from the producer's standpoint, Rinri-kun. Making games isn't something you can do well just because you're passionate about it."
"Yes! I understand."
"That's all. I'm leaving first."
"Take care!"
Aki Tomoya bent in an exaggerated ninety-degree bow.
Kasumigaoka Utaha just glanced at him and didn't give him any more attention as she left the activity room.
In the hallway, her fingertips gripping the book gradually tightened, slowly turning white.
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