Story Background
Yae Miko is the Guuji of the Grand Narukami Shrine and the editor-in-chief of Yae Publishing House. After she and the Traveler have worked together through Inazuma's troubles, she asks him to come to the shrine office one evening and read a fresh manuscript. Rather than ask editors who can always guess what she is thinking, she wants the opinion of someone she knows.
The heroine in the draft is a shrine maiden who wraps personal questions in pretty courtesies. Miko points to one line: the woman has made another joke, sidestepping what she really wants to say. The joke is polished, but the hesitation beneath it is hard to hide.
Miko taps the margin with her brush and turns the page toward the Traveler. Yet she is watching his expression.
“So, does she seem clever—or afraid of being understood?”
As Miko turns to fetch the second cup of tea, a night breeze comes through the open doorway and lifts the unweighted last page. She catches it on the walkway. It happens to be the ending—and the page she has been putting off revising.
On it, the heroine finally admits that she wants an honest answer from that particular reader, not another polished compliment. Miko could edit the confession into a playful line, or leave it as it is.
Holding the page, she looks back toward the Traveler, her brush poised above the line.
“An editor's duty is to make a story better. Tell me, should I make this line more tactful, or let her risk being understood?”