Chapter 261: First Work
Taking over from Velvet-san, I next called Rose-san to the recreation room.
Rose-san fidgeted nervously, and even before hearing the story, it was clear this was about her manga.
“Rose-san, is the conversation about manga?”
“…Yes. I tried drawing a manga, and I’d like you to read it.”
“You’ve already drawn it, then. In that case, I’ll take a look right away.”
I tried to take the manga from her, but just like Velvet-san, she hesitated and didn’t let go immediately. She clearly needed a moment to prepare herself.
“…Wait a moment. I’ll give it to you once I’m calm. ……Okay.”
“I’ll take a look, thank you.”
Once she seemed composed, I received the manga from Rose-san. I began reading immediately, and the first thing I noticed was the amount of text.
I understood that balancing text and illustrations is difficult, but judging from the ratio of text to images, it felt more like a light novel than a traditional manga.
Since this was her first work, I decided to overlook that and focus on the content.
The manga Rose-san drew was about a girl living in a small village and a demon.
However, the demon wasn’t evil—it was a supportive presence for the girl, who had no friends.
The villagers, however, were strongly prejudiced against demons, so the girl secretly continued interacting with the demon without anyone noticing.
Although the girl and the demon were simply having fun together, one day a villager saw them.
That villager gathered people to protect the girl and the village and set out to exorcise the demon.
The girl tried desperately to stop them, but she was suspected of being “possessed” and isolated. During that time, the demon she had befriended was exorcised.
Seeing the remnants left behind by the exorcised demon, the girl left the village in despair, ending her chapter of the story.
From the next page onward, the story shifts to the perspective of the villager who saw the girl and demon playing together.
This villager had been puzzled by recent misfortunes in the village and had been wandering around when they witnessed the girl playing with the demon.
Immediately following that, there’s a flashback showing that the villager’s lover had been killed by a demon in the past, depicted with a heavily distorted perspective as the girl and demon play.
Afterward, the villager bravely fought the demon and exorcised it. With the misfortunes resolved, the story ends happily.
Whether the demon inadvertently caused misfortune or was genuinely benevolent is left ambiguous, allowing for multiple interpretations.
The inserted illustrations were beautiful and captivating, giving the short story a high level of completeness.
Still, as a manga, the text was too heavy.
It’s difficult to judge, but the story itself was undeniably engaging.
“Rose-san, it was really interesting! It made me think about so many things!”
“…Hehe… thank you.”
Rose-san couldn’t hide her grin and was covering her face.
“Whether the demon was bad, or just accidentally brought misfortune, or whether the villager who lost their lover just misjudged it due to prejudice… It’s amazing how the truth seems to change just by shifting perspective.”
“…Hehe… I’m glad you thought about it so deeply.”
Her mouth moved shyly, very cute. I wanted to praise her more, but it was time to point out the issues.
“However, I felt the text was a bit too much for a manga. Since you depicted two perspectives, it’s understandable, but it leaned more toward a novel.”
“…Yes. I realized that too. I could write as much content as I wanted, but making the story move through illustrations alone was very difficult.”
“Indeed, you may not have quite reached the point of conveying the story purely through images.”
“…I could imagine each scene visually, but I couldn’t depict the flow properly. Also, it took so much time to draw a single illustration that I couldn’t see it reaching completion.”
Given the beauty of the illustrations, it was clear that a lot of time went into each piece. The level of detail made it understandably difficult to produce an entire manga.
However, that level of detail helped convey the demon’s appearance from both perspectives, making the story so immersive. Balancing this is genuinely difficult.
“Um… Rose-san, may I show this manga to others?”
“…N-No! That’s… embarrassing!”
“The person most knowledgeable about manga in this world could probably give you good advice, you know?”
“…Who would that be?”
“Velvet-san. You’ve talked with her before, right?”
“…Velvet-san… hmm… well…”
Rose-san seemed deeply conflicted, holding her head. It was clear she was weighing embarrassment against improving her manga skills.
“Velvet-san will never ridicule you. I promise that.”
“…In that case, I suppose it’s okay. But only as a report afterward. If the reaction is negative, don’t tell me anything.”
With that, Rose-san practically dashed out of the recreation room.
I would have liked to talk more, but at least I got permission to show Rose-san’s manga.
It’s a significant opportunity in many ways, and if handled well, it could benefit both of us.