"Actually, Tanaka's cooking is quite delicious."
Kawasaki Saki noticed that Kasumigaoka Utaha seemed worried about Tanaka Masao's cooking skills, so she spoke up in his defense; after all, having personally tried it, she had the right to comment.
"Oh, Kawasaki-kun, have you eaten Junior's cooking?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha was a little surprised to hear that.
"But Junior, didn't you just say this was your first time cooking?"
"I said it was my first time cooking dinner for my family, not my first time cooking.
Today's breakfast and lunch bento are considered my first time cooking for my family, and Saki ate my lunch bento.
By the way, my family asked me to cook dinner because they found my breakfast so delicious."
Kasumigaoka Utaha: …
[So he was playing word games with me, making me slightly worried that something strange would enter my mouth.
Sure enough, Fei Zhai Jun's personality is awful; he just loves to toy with people.]
She took a deep breath, feeling that her patience had grown stronger after spending more time with Tanaka Masao.
"So, in that case, I'm not the first one; besides your family, Kawasaki-kun is the first person to eat Junior's cooking?"
Tanaka Masao shook his head.
"To be precise, the first person I cooked for was Yukino.
Last week, when she was sick and I visited her at home, I cooked her a bowl of porridge. That was truly my first time cooking."
"Oh, I see."
The other two looked at Yukinoshita Yukino; to have already visited her at home when she was sick, their relationship must be truly close.
"Yukinoshita Classmate, how was the porridge Junior cooked? Was it delicious?"
Hearing that, Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't help but recall the scene from that day.
The very thick, white porridge felt warm, comfortable, and satisfying in her stomach.
Most importantly, there was an inexplicable sense of security and happiness.
[But, was that really Tanaka-kin's first time cooking? I can't believe I had the courage to eat it. It seems my head was truly muddled at the time.]
She cleared her throat and replied.
"The taste was… alright, average."
"Oh, just average, huh~"
Kasumigaoka Utaha keenly noticed the almost imperceptible blush on Yukinoshita Yukino's face.
[That doesn't seem like an average reaction. Is there something special about the porridge Junior cooked? Why do I suddenly want to try it?]
Yukinoshita Yukino clearly didn't want to continue this topic and spoke up.
"Kasumigaoka Classmate, what exactly did you come to Tanaka-kin for?"
The two of them hadn't mentioned the actual reason for her visit in their previous conversation, and Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't figure it out based on imagination alone.
Kasumigaoka Utaha glanced at Tanaka Masao and asked with a somewhat ambiguous tone.
"Junior, can that kind of thing be revealed?"
It wasn't that she was deliberately being enigmatic; it was because many authors liked to hide their identities and didn't want people around them to know.
In her opinion, Tanaka Masao was this type of person, and given the genre of novels he wrote, the fewer people who knew his true identity, the better.
Otherwise, he might really receive razor blades in the mail.
"Of course it can be said. It's not such an important secret, and Yukino already knows."
Kawasaki Saki looked at Yukinoshita Yukino with some surprise.
[What, you knew too? So, in the end, I was the only one in the dark.]
Yukinoshita Yukino was also a bit confused.
[I knew? Why don't I know myself?]
As Kasumigaoka Utaha continued, her confusion was resolved.
"Junior and I met because of the novel he wrote. Last night, he told me he had written two new novels and wanted me to read them first.
However, he only showed me the prologue and wouldn't let me see the rest. You must understand that feeling of having a great novel with a continuation but being unable to read it, right?
So, I came to Junior to get the rest of the novel."
"Oh, so it was about a novel."
Yukinoshita Yukino nodded. With that, their previous conversation made perfect sense.
Kawasaki Saki was a little surprised.
"Tanaka, you write novels too? That's amazing."
Hearing that, Tanaka Masao humbly said.
"Oh, it's nothing amazing, I just wrote it casually."
Hearing Tanaka Masao's words, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but roll her eyes, feeling a bit annoyed, and her tone became sharp.
"Oh, Junior, according to the latest information, your 'casually written' novel has already surpassed a million sales just a few days after its release.
If that's not amazing, then what am I, an author whose sales haven't even broken ten thousand and is barely surviving?"
"A million!"
Kawasaki Saki exclaimed, then curiously asked.
"Is that very impressive?"
She wasn't very familiar with the light novel industry, so she didn't know what a million sales truly meant.
Yukinoshita Yukino was also a bit surprised; she hadn't expected Tanaka Masao's novel to sell so well. She explained.
"Normally, a novel with cumulative sales of several hundred thousand copies is considered a bestseller.
But Tanaka-kin's novel, released only four days ago, has already surpassed a million copies right at the start. It's no exaggeration to call it a phenomenon.
And I've also read this novel; the overall quality is very good. Following this trend, I believe future sales won't be low; selling three or four million copies won't be a problem.
It might even challenge ten million copies."
"That sounds very impressive."
Well, a million, ten million… honestly, Kawasaki Saki still didn't have much concept of these numbers.
Tanaka Masao saw that Kawasaki Saki looked a bit confused and spoke up.
"Simply put, for every book sold, I earn one hundred japanese yen."
Because Tanaka Masao's novel was of sufficient quality, even as a new author, Dengeki Bunko gave him what was considered top-tier treatment.
They clearly saw Tanaka Masao's potential and wanted to bind him to them, so he would continue to provide high-quality novels to their imprint in the future, which is why they gave him such a high-paying deal.
Only a fool would not cherish such a cash cow.
"One hundred japanese yen per book, so a million books would be…
One hundred million!"
Kawasaki Saki did a quick calculation and arrived at a shocking figure.
She didn't have a concept of novel sales, but she certainly had a concept of money. One hundred million is… one hundred million…
Well, she didn't seem to have much concept of one hundred million either.
Her hourly wage for her part-time job was one thousand japanese yen, which meant that if she worked ten hours a day, and worked hard for ten thousand days, which is less than thirty years, she could earn that much money.
Kawasaki Saki felt that she was taking up so much of Tanaka Masao's time for tutoring, yet she was only giving him one thousand japanese yen a day, which seemed like more than a small difference.
But if she were to give him more money, one hundred million in four days would mean an hourly wage of one million japanese yen.
That much money… even if she sold herself, she couldn't come up with that much.
Kawasaki Saki, who had originally thought that by paying for tutoring, she could comfortably enjoy the lessons, now felt uneasy.
She was considering whether to give up Tanaka Masao's tutoring.
But tutoring with such good results was hard to find, and she didn't really want to give it up.
Kawasaki Saki couldn't do without Tanaka Masao's tutoring anymore.