The seven-day New Year holiday finally came to an end—it was back to work.
After breakfast, Ichin drove Utaha and the two cats over to Yukino's place, then headed to the company himself.
Yukino, now a soon-to-be university student, had plenty of free time. Since her final semester of high school hadn't started yet, her daily routine was simply caring for the cats at home and reading books to enrich herself.
This kind of life was something Eriri envied greatly.
At the office, Eriri sat at her desk sketching while grumbling,
"Why is Tokyo University of the Arts taking so long with their assessment? I just want to get my early admission already!"
Standing behind her with a cup of coffee, Ichin said,
"For you, Eriri, it should be no problem, right?"
Eriri had applied for early admission to the Fine Arts Department at TUA as an art-specialty student. With her talent in painting, the awards she'd already won in Tokyo art competitions during high school, and her work experience at Ichin's company, getting accepted was practically a sure thing—there was no risk of jinxing it.
"It's not that it's difficult, it's just that the waiting is unbearable!"
While working on a design of the Onion Knight from Dark Souls, Eriri pouted,
"Five more days until it even starts! I wish I could be carefree like Yukino. Once I'm in, the rest of senior year will be a breeze."
Just as she said that, Aoba's voice came from nearby:
"Carefree? Not a chance, Eriri. Don't forget, you still have to come to the office."
"Eh…"
Eriri froze mid-stroke—she really had forgotten. But quickly retorted,
"Even so, coming to the office is way better than going to school!"
"That's true."
Aoba nodded in agreement.
"I never liked staying at school either."
The two of them then started venting about high school life.
As someone who actually enjoyed studying, Ichin couldn't listen any longer. Smiling and shaking his head, he returned to his office.
Unsurprisingly, Eriri's early admission to TUA went through without a hitch, freeing her to enjoy the remainder of her senior year.
Of course, the tradeoff for not having to attend school daily was that she now had to come to the company.
But just as she'd said, working there was far better than school. At the office, she had plenty of friends to chat with about ACG, she could draw whatever she liked, there were always snacks, and since it was cold winter, Ichin would often treat everyone to hot milk tea.
Nutrition was never lacking—if anything, there was the danger of too much sugar.
Thankfully, Eriri was aware of this. Every time she ordered, she'd be the first to say,
"Three parts sugar only!"
It felt like a futile gesture, but who cared? It wasn't every day, and if a bit of sugar brought happiness, who would refuse?
One day, sipping milk tea, she finished a modeling project and sent it to Yagami Kou.
"Kou-senpai, can you check this for me?"
"Oh? Already finished? That was quick."
Kou opened the file, labeled "Nameless King," and carefully inspected Eriri's 3D model.
Since it was an important boss, she spent over ten minutes checking every detail.
"Mm, mm. As expected of you, Eriri. You've made real progress in 3D modeling."
Hearing the praise, Eriri beamed.
Though her drawing talent had always been outstanding and she'd never shied away from being proud of it, 3D modeling was something she only started learning after joining the company.
Fortunately, she had both the passion and the talent for it. Otherwise, she'd have been limited to being just an illustrator.
Now, many of the key bosses and character designs had been entrusted to her. Her standing within the art team was clearly rising.
As long as she didn't consider leaving, once the company grew large enough to have independent development teams, Eriri could definitely serve as an art director for one of them, overseeing entire projects.
Yagami Kou saw this too, and after discussing with Ichin, began deliberately nurturing her.
Though Eriri was slow to notice, that didn't stop her from learning plenty under Kou and others. When the time came, she'd be ready to take on greater responsibility.
Meanwhile, the buzz from Persona's three TGA awards gradually died down after New Year's. Apart from his pre-Christmas livestream, Ichin hadn't streamed again. He only released one Dark Souls combat demo video, showing off some monsters and a bit of gameplay featuring the Dragonslayer Armor that had appeared in the trailer. After that, there were no further updates.
Still, just that one stream and one demo video had fueled players' anticipation.
Many streamers analyzed the footage, concluding that Dark Souls' combat system had far more depth yet to be revealed.
And they were right. If everything was shown now, there'd be no surprises. Ichin himself posted online, reassuring fans to look forward to future reveals.
As for Titanfall, though no information had been made public, Ichin as the boss knew development was smooth. By July or August—summer—he planned a livestream to finally unveil it.
Skipping ahead to March, the Dark Souls team had several new bosses finished and ready for testing.
"Arghhhh!!! How did I die again!?"
While Ichin was in the programming division, helping refine code, he suddenly heard Eriri's anguished cry from outside.
Narumi couldn't help laughing.
"That's the fifth time in just ten minutes! Is the Nameless King really designed too hard?"
"Well, it's supposed to be a late-game boss. Hard is normal."
Ichin remained calm.
"And it's not like I forced Eriri to test it. She insisted—'I made this boss, so I'll be the first to test it.' Still, the fact that she's died five times in a row and hasn't quit yet… looks like her mental resilience has grown a lot."
*
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