Chapter 239: 239

Fina stopped at the door, her cheeks puffed up . Shuri walked in behind her .

Had something happened perhaps?

I decided to first greet them before asking .

「Fina, Shuri, I’m back . 」

「Welcome back, Yuna-oneechan . Wait, that’s not it! Yuna-oneechan, what is with this book?!」

For a single moment, Fina had broken into a smile, but she immediately puffed up her cheeks again . Behind her, Shuri replied with,「Welcome back, Yuna-oneechan,」but her words were drowned out by Fina’s angry voice .

Fina walked over to me and loudly placed a book on top of the table . It was a copy of the picture book I had drawn for Princess Flora . It must have been one of the copies I had given to the orphanage children as a present .

「What do you want to know about it?」

「What do I want to know about it?! This is me, isn’t it?!」

She pointed at a cartoonish girl riding a bear on the book’s cover . Oh right, I had used Fina as a reference when I had drawn the girl . It was a bit late to complain about it now, though . I was actually more surprised that it had taken Fina so long to find out about the book .

「The children asked me to read a picture book for them, so I did, and then… I saw the girl in the book…」

Fina seemed quite a bit angry . Still, if she didn’t know anything about the picture book before this, how did she find out that I was the one who drew it? I decided to ask her before proceeding with explanation .

「The story is obviously about the two of us . 」

That was true…

In the first volume, I told the tale of a girl (very much like Fina) meeting Bear-san, and together they searched for medicinal herbs for the girl’s sick mother and brought them to her . I had changed the way we had met a bit to make the story more suitable for a picture book .

In the next book, the girl’s mother became more ill, so Bear-san searched deep in the forest for a precious flower that could heal her . Once Bear-san found the flower, she used it to cure the mother’s illness .

I couldn’t have possibly written that Bear-san had actually used magic to heal her, so I had changed it to a flower that could cure any illness . Still, no matter how I looked at it, the picture book was based on Fina and me, so it made sense for it to be quite obvious to Fina . The character in the story was created with her in mind even though I had put in some effort into making sure that character wasn’t a split copy of her .

「Fina, this is a fictional story and none of these characters exist in real life . See, I wrote that down right here . 」

I said and pointed out a certain part on the picture book with my puppet . There, it stated:

『This is a work of fiction . Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental . 』

I had made sure to clearly declare it was all fictional, so I decided to try and use this as an excuse to appease Fina .

「Still, this ribbon looks exactly like mine . 」

Well, I had modeled the girl off of her, so of course it was .

「Also, this story is clearly about me . 」

I had based it on our meeting so I couldn’t contradict that, either .

「No matter how I read it, the book talks about me . 」

She declared, fully convinced .

It looked like the common legal statement from my former world had no effect on her . Also, since I had actually used her as a model for the picture book, it was hard to make up any good excuses .

「Why did you write a picture book about me?!」

「Well, I just wanted to make something for Princess Flora . 」

「Princess Flora?」

After hearing Princess Flora was involved, Fina’s voice faltered .

「Okay, but why does the orphanage also have this book if you just made it for Princess Flora?」

Seeing there was no other way out of it, I explained the whole story about how the picture book got here .

First, I had drawn the picture book for Princess Flora .

Soon after, it had become a sensation within the castle, and many people had asked for copies, so I had agreed to have the book printed to satisfy the high demand .

「It was a request from both His Majesty and Eleanora-san, so I couldn’t refuse…」

I decided to dump all of the responsibility onto those two . Even though I was the author of the book, the ones responsible for copying and distributing it (within the castle) were His Majesty and Eleanora-san .

As expected, Fina wavered even harder when she heard their names .

I really was a malicious Onee-chan, wasn’t I?

「And back then, since I had seen the opportunity, I asked them to print some for me so that I could give them to the children here . 」

「Does that mean there are a lot of people with this picture book?」

She asked me with concern .

I wouldn’t call it “a lot of people”… it was only the people in the castle .

「Only a few select people in the castle own them . 」

The books might have spread, but it was still mostly families with young children who were interested in them; they weren’t circulating as widely as Fina thought .

Her response, however, was not what I expected .

「Uuu, I can’t go to the castle now . 」

Fina dropped down to her knees and covered her lowered face in shame .

Would it be bad if I actually asked her, 「You were planning to go there?」here?

The old Fina would be like: 「A commoner like me won’t ever be able to go to the castle, so this is fine . 」

She must have changed so much that she even started considering visiting the castle in the future . Well, if she kept traveling to the capital with me, there was a high chance that eventually she would tag along, willingly or not .

「It’s only been distributed to families with young children, so you don’t have to worry that much . Also, nobody should realize it’s you even if they meet you . 」

Since the artwork was very cartoonish, nobody except for people very close to Fina should be able to make the connection between her and the character . It was similar to how celebrities on TV could walk around in public without anybody recognizing them . It wasn’t easy to recognize someone while casually passing them by…

「The children were all saying,「This girl looks like you, Fina-oneechan,」though . . 」

Well, I couldn’t really help her there .

「Fina, why don’t you forgive Yuna-chan for this? She drew you so adorably, after all . 」

Terumi-san had picked up the picture book to skim it after listening to our conversation and was now trying to help me out .

「Mother?」

「No matter how I look at it, this is such a cute book . 」

Terumi-san said as she continued to flip through the pages .

「If the girl is Fina, then the girl’s mother must be based on me, right?」

She said, coming to a stop at a certain page . I glanced over and saw she was on the last page, which showed a girl and her mother smiling happily in an embrace . It was the scene just after the mother drank her medicine .

「She drew us so cutely . Look, the girl is just as sweet as you are . 」

「Even if you say so, aren’t you embarrassed at all, Mother?」

「I wouldn’t like it if I was drawn weirdly, but since it’s this cute, isn’t it okay?」

「But still, we’re in a picture book…」

「I agree that’s a bit embarrassing but it’s not enough to make such a fuss over . 」

Terumi-san’s words slowly but surely started to convince Fina .

「Okay, but why does the girl look like me while Yuna-oneechan just looks like a bear? If you were going to draw me, you should have drawn yourself, too . 」

For my character, I had simply drawn a cartoon Bear-san instead .

「That’s because Princess Flora said she liked Bear-san . Fina, you do still remember that, right?」

「Yes…」

「It’s because of that that I drew the main character as Bear-san instead of me . 」

Fina once again fell silent with the Princess Flora excuse . She couldn’t say that she disliked me using Bear-san anymore,

「Ugh, fine . Tell me before drawing me next time, okay?」

「I can draw more?」

「I really don’t like it, but the children seem to enjoy your books very much . Still, please make sure that the books don’t spread any further . 」

「Okay, I’ll make sure they don’t spread . If His Majesty and Eleanora-san attempt to distribute the book to others, I’ll stop them even if I have to use my magic on them . 」

Those two were most likely to try and spread the book around more .

「Yuna-oneechan, just keep it within reason . 」

Fina told me to hold back after hearing me say that I would use magic on the king .

「I was just kidding . I’ll properly scold them but no more than that . 」

Fina was somewhat reassured hearing I wouldn’t go as far as using magic . Somehow, with all of this, I even managed to get Fina’s approval to write the third volume of the picture book…

Just when I thought this conversation about the picture books was over, an attack from a different angle came flying right at me .

「Onee-chan, Mother, this isn’t fair . 」

Shuri, who had been quiet this whole time, suddenly spoke up .

「Yuna-neechan, why am I not in the books, too? I want you to draw me as well . 」

Fina looked troubled when she heard Shuri say that . I never thought that Shuri would get mad at me for not drawing her in the picture book . Well, she most likely just felt bad for being left out .

「You want me to draw you too?」

Shuri responded with a small nod .

I kind of understood where she was coming from . Of course it would make her feel bad, knowing that I was writing a story about her family, but she wasn’t included . She probably felt like she wasn’t a true part of her family in my mind . Shuri was still young, so it wasn’t surprising for her to feel that way .

「Shuri, I’m sorry for leaving you out . It wasn’t on purpose, I was only writing about how Fina and I met, and it turned out like that . When I draw the next book, I’ll make sure to include you . 」

「You will?!」

Shuri sounded really happy when she heard that .

「Yup, and I will make sure to draw you cutely . 」

Shuri was even more delighted when I made her that promise .

For the third volume, I had originally planned on writing a story about Bear-san escorting Fina and Noa the Capital, but if I were to include Shuri, I had to change the plot .

I could maybe try writing about the two sisters playing with the Bears . Gentz-san and Terumi-san’s wedding could also be a thing . Although, in that case, Bear-san wouldn’t really need to be a part of the story .

Hmm, I could also try changing it so that Bear-san brings Shuri along with Fina and Noa to the Capital, but that would mean three people were riding on top of the bear . Should I increase the number of Bears? I had to think about this a bit more before I decided .

With the picture book conversation finally finished, Fina also talked about Eleanora-san and Zelef-san’s surprise visit for a bit, and after chatting for a while longer, I decided it was time to go out and get some fresh air .

Author’s Note:

I wrote about Yuna giving the picture books to the orphanage back in May of last year . When I checked the date, I was surprised by how much time has passed . lol

I was even more surprised when I realized that the only things I wrote about since then was Yuna defeating the golem, making a cake, going to a birthday party, and going to the Elf Village . lol