"Ch-Charlotte?"
"How could it be her?"
Hearing this name, Furina was quite surprised.
After confirming several times, she finally believed that it was Charlotte who had proposed the plot.
"I thought she had the integrity of a professional journalist,"
"I didn't expect her to be like those other sensationalist reporters, actually doing something like this for the sake of hype."
Furina was so angry about it; it was just like when you were eating strawberry cake, thinking you were biting into a strawberry, only to find out it was something else forged with a radish.
And it wasn't even a carrot, but a daikon radish.
"Lady Charlotte and the Traveler were only considering the novel's sales," Rios said. "The final result actually turned out pretty good."
"The Traveler did it too?" Furina exclaimed, then reacted.
Yeah, not long ago, the Traveler had come to her asking for opinions on the continuation.
She had suggested going the pure romance route, but the Traveler not only didn't listen, but instead went with a love triangle, completely going against her opinion.
However, she couldn't put all the blame on the Traveler and Charlotte.
After all, Rios was the author; maybe the Traveler was just responsible for passing on the opinions, and the one who gave the final nod was Rios.
"Mr. Rios, is this book's sequel really unrelated to you?" Furina asked again.
"I can't say it's completely unrelated to me; I can say it has absolutely nothing to do with me anymore."
Rios said calmly, "After becoming the Pyro Archon, I no longer have the energy to manage this book; even the royalties have been given to the Traveler and the publisher."
"I didn't even earn a single Mora from it, so how could this book possibly have anything to do with me?" Rios spread his hands.
What he said was the truth.
All the money earned from the book's sequel went to the Traveler and the publisher; he hadn't earned a single Mora from it.
"How could they do this?" Furina furrowed her brows, complaining endlessly. "How could they change the story into this mess just for a bit of Mora?"
"Lady Furina, please don't be upset," Rios said with a smile. "The later parts of the story weren't written by me. If you're dissatisfied, you can just say it's not canon."
"That's easy to say, but as someone involved, I still hope to see the characters in the novel have a happy ending," Furina said.
A happy ending?
I thought you would definitely prefer to watch the drama.
"You could always find someone to ghostwrite it for you," Rios said with a smile.
Furina was slightly stunned: "Is that allowed?"
"No problem, just say the original author has authorized it," Rios said. "I don't think anyone would sue me over copyright."
"I'm curious whether Lady Furina's ideas will prevail or if Lady Charlotte's suggestions will be more popular."
Hearing Rios's words, Furina immediately got excited: "Alright, since you've said that, Mr. Rios, I'll go back and commission someone to ghostwrite it, putting down the story from my heart."
"By the way, this should be your first time visiting Fontaine as guests, right? I'll act as Fontaine's best tour guide and take you to see the beautiful sights of this nation."
"Won't that be too much trouble for you?"
"It won't be," Furina said. "Mr. Rios was once Natlan's Archon; it's only fitting that I host you all."
"Yay!"
Hearing that Furina was willing to be the tour guide, Mualani and Kachina immediately perked up happily.
Although Mualani had done some research beforehand, having a local lead the way would make their playtime even more efficient.
So, in the time that followed, Furina took everyone to every fun and delicious spot around.
When they arrived at the seaside, Furina casually mentioned that her recent hobby was surfing, which immediately piqued Mualani's interest. The two of them promptly competed to see who had the higher surfing level.
Kachina wasn't very interested in surfing; she just went barefoot on the shore, playing with the crabs that wouldn't attack people.
Seeing this scene, Rios felt inspired to write.
So, he wrote a letter to the Traveler.
Dear Traveler:
It's been a while since we last contacted each other. I wonder how you've been in Natlan lately.
After Mavuika became the Pyro Archon again, I can finally relax and travel to other countries with Mualani, Kachina, and the others.
After leaving Natlan, we came to the desert in Sumeru. The desert there stretches endlessly, and we accidentally lost our way, unwittingly arriving in Fontaine.
At Hotel Debord in Fontaine, we unexpectedly ran into Lady Furina. I didn't expect her to be one of the readers of Super Detective Wang, and she even asked me if the later plot turning into a love triangle was my doing.
To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I told her the truth: it was Lady Charlotte's idea.
Lady Furina was quite shocked by this.
However, afterward, she acted as our tour guide and took us around all of Fontaine.
As I write this letter, Lady Furina is competing in surfing with Mualani.
According to Lady Furina, after the surfing competition, she has something to do at the Steambird Times, and she told us to return to Hotel Debord for dinner.
I've heard you mention that Lady Charlotte is a reporter at the newspaper. I hope Lady Furina won't make things difficult for her.
The letter was written now.
The players received it when they logged in the next day.
When they opened their in-game mail, they thought it was some character's birthday today. Instead, upon opening it, it turned out to be a travelogue of Fontaine written by Rios, which also mentioned the encounter with Furina.
Moreover, the letter came with 50 Primogems.
[No way, bro]
[You guys actually went traveling?]
[Well, traveling is fine, but sending us Primogems too? How embarrassing]
[Suggestion: Travel through the rest of the nations and Nod-Krai too; we don't mind]
[50 Primogems per nation, that's 300 for six nations...]
[Now is—fantasy time!]
[Family, you can go check out the Steambird Times; you might see Furina]
Many players saw this and immediately teleported via waypoint to the vicinity of the Steambird Times. Then, they spotted Furina standing at the newspaper's entrance.
"Traveler, when did you get here?"
When dialoguing with Furina, there would be a line: "I'm preparing to have a good talk with Lady Charlotte and ask her what kind of mindset she had to decide to turn Super Detective Wang into a love triangle."
"I just don't know if she's out on an interview; I've been waiting here and haven't seen her yet."
And if you went around to the back of the Steambird Times building to look, you could find Charlotte hiding there.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no—why is Lady Furina suddenly looking for me?"
"My sixth sense is warning me that I absolutely cannot show myself right now, or something dangerous will definitely happen."
"Traveler, do you know why?"