Chapter 102: That's Right. That Was Me...

"S-sometimes I get this thought, but... Charlotte's true nature really is l-lewd, isn't it?"

"Huh? I do like her...?"

Liking Charlotte, and thinking of Charlotte as a lewd woman, were two entirely separate matters.

"From the middle on, th-this saint costume she wears is designed way t-too sexy, and Charlotte picked it herself.... A Charlotte who w-wants to wear clothes like these is d-definitely lewd...."

I had only said what I honestly thought, and still a flood of slander came pouring down on me. But this was a fact that could never be refuted, so I was never going to bend.

"L-look at this. The side here is o-open just a little, right...? In the m-manga, because of this, her side shows a little sometimes, and this was definitely on purpose...."

"No, more than anything, this outfit... her whole s-spine is showing.... No matter how you look at it, isn't this something she wore to seduce Un-Uncle Satoru?"

Charlotte, who was always supporting Uncle Satoru from behind his back, wearing an outfit that bared her entire spine. Everyone could feel that transgressive thrill without my having to spell it out. So why was everyone talking as if I were the strange one? It was so unfair.

"Charlotte's t-true nature is definitely lewd.... Heheh...."

"What are you saying. I talk like this b-because I like Charlotte."

Of course, a lewd nature could feel like a flaw, depending on the person. But I liked Charlotte including even that part. If anything, knowing that lewd nature was aimed at Uncle Satoru and no one else only made me like her more!

"H-heheh...."

So what I wanted to say was this: when you draw fan art of Charlotte praying, you have to pay the utmost care to that spine and that side. The author was surely always paying the utmost care to exactly that.

"And being able to embrace even the other person's f-flaws... isn't that true love...?"

"Hnnngh...."

Once the rough sketch was done, I stretched and glanced at the clock. Somehow it was already 8:30 in the evening. Watching the chat and rambling with the Iztomo had naturally made the whole thing take far longer than usual.

"Mmm, p-probably during tomorrow's chat stream, I think...?"

Tomorrow was only an ordinary chat stream anyway, so turning it into an art stream wouldn't be a problem at all. And fortunately the Iztomo seemed to accept that, because they didn't say anything more.

"Th-then I'll get going. See you again next time...."

"Haa...."

After I ended the stream, I quietly planted my head on the desk and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠let out a sigh.

"...As expected. Doesn't seem like anyone's caught on yet."

Well, I'd only finished the rough sketch so far. It would have been strange if anyone had figured it out from that. Still, by tomorrow I ought to be done at least through the line art, so maybe someone would notice then. I'd already braced myself for it, of course... but I couldn't help being nervous.

People who draw usually keep some kind of social media, something like Nater. Some simply want their skill to be known. Some use it as a pipeline for paid commissions. Some just want to talk to other people while they draw.

But in this life, I had never once used any social media related to art. ...Well, to be precise, I had never used social media at all. Drawing, for me, was only a hobby I could enjoy alone, a way to shake off the fatigue other work left behind. It wasn't that I'd never wanted to show my skill off to anyone, but in the end I always landed on a do I even need to? and never so much as touched it. From my past life on, I had always believed it was best to avoid social media and communities as much as I could.

But.

"Yeah.... A-actually, we already talked about drawing together next time...."

That didn't mean my skill had fallen off. And it absolutely wasn't as if my illustrations had never been shown to the world.

And as the line art neared completion, reactions like that slowly began to surface among the Iztomo. No—among them, there was definitely someone who had caught on, one hundred percent. But saying information about the Person Inside out loud on stream, when the VTuber herself had never said it, was a kind of taboo, so fortunately no one brought it up outright. Even so, the talk was probably already creeping through the communities. Well, I wasn't even sure this really counted as information about the Person Inside, and I had no intention of letting the stream see me fussing over chats like that.

"Oh, and you saw the Uncle author's Nater yesterday, right?! I-I told you I was right?"

After my stream ended yesterday, the author of Uncle had posted on Nater.

It wasn't an outright confirmation that Charlotte was a lewd girl, of course, but it was an answer that I had read the outfit's intent exactly right. This was the eye of a true veteran fan, someone who had been hooked since Uncle was only a one-shot and had prayed in earnest for a proper serialization!

"Hey. Don't say it like that. P-people who don't know will misunderstand...."

I had only seen through what Charlotte was thinking. I was not a pervert.

Unfair. I hadn't done anything wrong, and still the world insisted on tormenting me....

There is an illustrator known as Blank.

The first time they appeared before people was three years ago. Their first work was a celebratory illustration for the release of Rhapsody of the Shining Sky, a new game from Stellar, a famous entertainment company in Japan. The portrait of the protagonist, set against a vast wilderness, was of a quality no one could deny. But the illustrator's pen name was not written on that illustration, and even though the quality was plainly industry-top skill, no one could learn the illustrator's name. Of course that stirred people's interest.

So many people guessed. This illustration belonged to this person. Every guess was denied. Plenty of users inquired with Stellar directly, and plenty went to ask illustrators in person, and the answer that always came back was the same.

Even the most likely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠candidate, the illustrator Yukino Toka, denied it, saying it wasn't hers.

Time passed, and just as people were forgetting there had even been such an illustration, Rhapsody of the Shining Sky began airing as an anime, and their illustration appeared again on the end card of episode 7. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this time, too, the illustrator's pen name was not written there.

In the two years after that, their illustrations were released a total of three times. Not once was the illustrator's pen name written. If there was a common point, it was that their illustrations were used only in works related to Stellar. So the guess that an internal Stellar employee had drawn them began to gather strength, and that guess was denied head-on.

Not an internal employee of Stellar. Not any illustrator the world already knew. Someone who would never reveal their pen name, and who would never touch social media or a community. In more ways than one, it was only natural that this illustrator became famous. And so the pen name people arbitrarily stuck on them was Blank. An empty space where a name should have been.

Countless people fell for Blank's art and became fans, but finding any other drawing of theirs on the internet was impossible. So in the end, all they could do was wait for Stellar to announce a new work. But starting a year ago, news of Blank stopped coming even from Stellar, and on an internet overflowing with countless scraps of information every single day, it was only natural that an inactive Blank would slowly disappear.

Yes.

The illustrator who had once drawn a cult following.

Blank was me.