Nyx greatly improved Squire’s drawing efficiency, even unifying the art style so completely that no one could tell it was ghost-drawn.
After all, she was using Squire’s own techniques to create the art.
If it weren’t for Squire’s strong insistence that Nyx not make the work too polished, she probably could have drawn the final manuscript outright. But doing so would definitely have raised suspicions from Miss Nangong Xiwang—after all, producing twenty pages of manga in two days isn’t something you can achieve by sheer effort alone…
“The legendary beast ‘Kraken’ returns from the Abyss as a young girl to avenge the hero who killed her, storming into the battles between villains and heroes.
Because of her overwhelming strength, even her defensive counterattacks easily eliminate the villains, leading people to see her as a new hero. From then on, she begins her activities under the identity of the magical girl Clara… right?”
Squire nodded and asked, “What do you think?”
“Not great. It’s a pretty cliché setup.”
“…Whaaat?!”
The blunt and harsh critique from Nangong Xiwang immediately brought Squire to her knees.
But even so, Nangong Xiwang showed no mercy and continued to criticize.
“The protagonist is so strong there’s no room for growth.”
Squire quietly tried to explain, “It’s not meant to be a typical shonen manga. Clara’s inner character arc—from monster to hero—is what I want to express.”
“Strength and character arcs aren’t mutually exclusive. If anything, a slightly weaker protagonist makes growth easier to portray. Also, your character looks so delicate and fragile, yet you give her this hard-edged storyline. That doesn’t fit, does it?”
“What do you mean, Miss Nangong…?”
“You want to express character growth, right? It’s simple~”
Nangong Xiwang put down Squire’s storyboard and verbally laid out her revised concept.
“Our sea monster girl doesn’t have human emotions at first, only a hatred for the hero. So you should design Clara’s first appearance as a ‘sanwu’ character—with no expression, no emotion, no desire—and then have her enter human society to slowly learn emotions and understand humanity.
Each time she awakens a new emotion, she becomes more human-like and her power grows… power fueled by emotions. That fits the image of a magical girl perfectly, right?”
Squire nodded, “Yeah, magical girls always fight with power that’s purely based on feelings.”
Her own magic and magic wand evolved with her emotional fluctuations—that’s pretty much idealistic power.
What exactly is magic, after all?
Even with such advanced technology and the existence of magical girl guilds, no one can clearly explain what force magical girls use in battle, nor what magic gems really are.
So Nangong Xiwang’s suggestion lit a spark in Squire’s mind. A protagonist who grows stronger by continuously learning emotions also highlights the character arc she wanted.
However, Nangong Xiwang seemed to have more to say, hesitating for a moment.
“But does Clara’s magic have to be linked to tentacles and ink? Just because she’s a giant squid? That’s such a cliché.”
Nangong Xiwang’s dislike of Clara’s abilities surprised Squire.
“Isn’t that theme a good way to highlight her character?”
These abilities were constructed by Squire herself, so she wanted to hold her ground.
Nangong Xiwang rubbed her temples but then apologized.
“…Hmm, sorry, there’s nothing wrong with Clara’s magic itself. It’s just that I recently ran into someone with similar abilities whom I really disliked.”
“Uh, was it also tentacles and ink?”
“Yes. But that’s just my personal issue.” Nangong Xiwang added.
Another squid monster? Or a squid magical girl?
Though it caught Squire off guard, thinking about it more deeply, it wasn’t so strange…
Squid factors aren’t rare. Though not as common as bat monsters, most of the larger evil organizations have a squid monster.
With so many evil groups in Central City, it’s not odd to encounter several villains with the same factors.
With that in mind, Squire felt relieved and didn’t dwell on it, simply saying, “I plan to redo the storyboard based on Miss Nangong’s suggestions…”
Though Nyx can’t be involved this time.
“Sure, you can sketch it roughly. I’ll wait here.”
Nangong Xiwang took her laptop out of her bag and sat down on Squire’s bed.
“Don’t mind if I work here, right?”
“Oh, of course not, but I sometimes go out at night…”
“Go out at night?”
Nangong Xiwang was on alert. A little girl going out alone late at night just didn’t seem right.
But as Squire began working on the new storyboard, she didn’t notice Nangong Xiwang’s suspicions and simply replied, “Yeah, I’m going to meet someone.”
“Meet someone? Who?”
Nangong Xiwang pressed further.
Squire didn’t know how to explain. Nangong Xiwang still thought her name was “Lucia,” so she couldn’t very well say she was meeting the real Lucia, could she?
After some hesitation, Squire only replied vaguely:
“…It’s better if you don’t ask.”
That only made Nangong Xiwang more curious.
From what she knew, “Little Lucia” was struggling financially. A few days ago at the hotpot place, she got some message from someone—something about a family crisis. She was even wearing old clothes from her brother.
A little girl going out to meet someone late at night?
No, no way…
Nangong Xiwang was startled by her own thoughts and looked at Squire with a touch of pity. But Squire, facing away, didn’t notice.
“Lucia, didn’t you say you were short on money a few days ago?”
“Ah? Oh, it’s all solved now. Sorry for worrying you, Miss Nangong.”
Solved?!
The little girl going out late at night to meet someone, apparently having obtained funds to fix her financial situation. And the avatar of the person she messaged that day… seemed to be… a syringe?
All these dangerous clues pointed toward an unsettling conclusion.
But there was no proof yet…
How could Nangong Xiwang verify with little Lucia?
She had to ask around the subject cautiously.
“Um, the person little Lucia is meeting at night—is it a man or a woman?”
“A woman.”
Nangong Xiwang felt a momentary relief.
No, she still couldn’t relax.
Even if it’s a woman, she could be dangerous. After all, anyone who would lure a little girl out in the dead of night is suspicious.
Just then, Squire casually added,
“Sort of a colleague from work.”
“Work?”
Nangong Xiwang hadn’t realized Squire had a job.
But it made sense—since her repeated submissions hadn’t been published, she must have some other source of income, probably a part-time job.
“What kind of part-time work?”
Nangong Xiwang couldn’t imagine what a frail little girl could do for part-time work.
Aside from her solid drawing skills, only her looks could be relied upon…
“Uh…”
Realizing she’d said too much, Squire still dodged the question vaguely.
“J-just some odd jobs to help support the household.”
To Nangong Xiwang, that sounded like it could mean something else.
You can’t say it outright.
What kind of part-time job can’t be spoken of, involves going out at night, earns a lot of money, doesn’t require much strength, and only needs you to be pretty?
Nangong Xiwang’s mind jumped to conclusions, her mouth hanging open speechless.