Chapter 121: I Call That Professional
"Ugh... Thinking up a pen name is so hard!"
Fifteen minutes later, Eriri, still unable to think of a good pen name, lay on Kaede's lap, swinging her legs incessantly.
Kaede twirled a strand of Eriri's hair around his finger and laughed, "Who told you that you had to think of a name that matched mine? I just came up with my pen name randomly when I saw a maple forest."
"Ugh... isn't that because we're partners?"
Grabbing the hand that was running through her long hair, Eriri said, "Kaede-kun, hurry up and help me think!"
"That's tough. What kind of pen name should I use?"
"Maybe I'll just use my real name, Kashiwagi Eri. It's much simpler."
"But if you do that, everyone in the Art Club will know you're a doujin artist! Didn't we decide to use a different pen name precisely because of the potential public discussion if the serialization succeeded? It wouldn't be good if people found out that a famous doujin artist in the industry is an underage girl."
"I know, but the law doesn't say I can't draw!"
"Aren't you just arguing?"
"Ugh... fine, I'll think about it slowly. Anyway, I have until I qualify for serialization to come up with a pen name. If I really can't think of one, I'll just tell everyone in the Art Club."
Eriri clearly had a tendency to give up, thinking that since they already knew about her hobby, she might as well blame her mother for drawing adult comics.
Sawamura Sayuri, who was watching TV downstairs, suddenly sneezed... The matter of the pen name was temporarily put aside. It was really difficult for Kaede to choose a suitable pen name for Eriri that also matched his own.
On Saturday, at Eriri's house, besides spending time with Eriri, the two also briefly planned the progress of each chapter of the manga, as summer vacation was approaching in about half a month.
The submission also had to be put on the agenda.
And when Sunday arrived, it was time for everyone in the Art Club to go to the art museum to see the competition entries.
After leaving in the morning, Kaede picked up Eriri, and the two set off for the art museum together.
"Hmm~~ Honestly, it's been a long time since I've been to a place like an art museum."
"Huh? Why? It's quite interesting to go when there's an exhibition." Eriri looked at Kaede in confusion. In the past, Sawamura Sayuri would take Eriri to large exhibitions, and she actually quite enjoyed them.
"Emm~~ If I really had to say, Eriri, you should definitely remember. In a Detective Conan case, wasn't there a medieval art museum murder case? That case could totally be considered a childhood trauma for me. Although I'm not the timid type, that case, combined with art museums always filled with various unearthed artifacts, always gives me a gloomy feeling, and I don't feel like going."
"That case..."
Kaede's words made Eriri remember; there was indeed such an episode.
"I remember, it was a case where an old art museum director killed someone while wearing medieval knight armor, right? Ugh... now that you've brought it up, I feel scared too."
Saying that, Eriri hugged Kaede's arm.
"Pfft... I brought it up first, why are you like this now? Could it be that Eriri can't handle scary things?"
"No, no, it's not that, I just remembered it because you mentioned it!"
Seeing Eriri's stiff expression, Kaede knew he had guessed correctly and immediately said with a smile, "Okay, it's decided! When we have free time at home later, let's watch horror movies together!"
"No way!!!"
Joking and laughing all the way, the two finally arrived at the art museum and saw Uchimaki Subaru and Usami-san, who had already arrived, outside the museum.
After greeting them, Kaede looked around and asked, "Has the president not arrived yet?"
Uchimaki Subaru said calmly, "Isn't this normal? It's not even nine-thirty yet. I just called the president, and he'll probably arrive just in time."
"That's truly the president's style. It looks like he woke up at the very last minute this morning."
Kaede smiled, looking at the two in front of him and asked, "How do you feel? Are you nervous about the competition results?"
Uchimaki Subaru and Usami-san exchanged glances and both smiled, "We're calm!"
After a while, sure enough, at nine-thirty, everyone saw the president rush over.
"Ha... ha... I'm not late, am I?"
Kaede checked his watch and said, "Indeed, nine-thirty, very punctual."
"That's good, let's go in quickly!"
No one was angry about the president's "punctuality"; after all, that was just his personality, and they were used to it.
Since today was the exhibition of art competition entries, there was no need to buy tickets to enter the museum; they could just walk right in.
Inside the art museum, quite a few people had already arrived, many of them students from various participating schools and their parents.
On the display walls, competition entries were also being exhibited, but the ones seen at first were not award-winning works.
Among the entries, there were portraits and landscapes; conventional subjects were all available.
As she looked, Usami-san exclaimed, "So many amazing works!"
Eriri, following beside Kaede, looked at some and said, "They're not bad, but I feel like Usami-san's paintings are better than these."
Kaede also said, "That's right. Although I'm not good at oil painting, everyone has seen Usami-san's efforts these past few days. Her progress is very obvious, and it's better than what we've seen so far."
Being praised by the two, Usami-san felt a little embarrassed, a shy blush appeared on her face, and she said with a smile, "Don't say that, I'll get conceited."
The president, as the senior among the five, also said something fitting his position for once: "Usami-san, you don't need to be overly humble about the growth you've achieved. We are not people who would humor you; you truly have made great progress. The fact that we haven't seen your work yet proves it! Ah, I see Usami-san's painting."
Following the direction the president pointed, everyone indeed saw the landscape painting Usami-san had drawn, the content of which Usami-san had chosen from her own photos.
"A bronze prize! For someone participating in a competition for the first time, that's excellent!"
Although there were as many as five bronze prizes in this kind of competition, for Usami-san, who had only recently started painting, it was already a very good achievement.
"That's great, a bronze prize!"
Usami-san had originally thought she would only get an encouragement award or something, but she didn't expect it to be a bronze prize, and she became completely excited.
Not far from Usami-san's painting, everyone saw Uchimaki Subaru's work.
"...A gold prize?!"
Looking at the fairy girl Uchimaki Subaru had drawn, although the artwork was exquisite, a gold prize... could there be a kindred spirit among the judges?
WTF, I'm calling him an expert!