“…I wrote the story for it,” Sora pouted.
“Yeah, the outline.” Nadeshiko gave him an ironic smile. “With RPGs, the story generally goes how the game master works it, but the players are free to take things in all sorts of crazy directions. It’s kind of like the GM and the players teaming up to tell a story.”
“…But that story went pretty much the way I devised it.”
“Right, because all the players saw where it was going. They kept it pointed that direction because they didn’t want to change things too much. They even added foreshadowing in their dialogue for you, to make things more exciting for the next session. Basically, you had four first-class writers bending over backward to make things as fun for the game master as possible. It would’ve turned out great no matter who was GM’ing.”
Sora stared blankly at Nadeshiko. The lively characters Kaede heaped praise upon, the carefully placed foreshadowing… It was all thanks to his parents and their friends, nothing he did himself.
“…!”
His face turned red with shame, his eyes burning hot. Nadeshiko, noticing this, hurriedly walked back her comments.
“W-well, the story itself was pretty well done for a middle schooler, though, I think.”
“You don’t have to console me, thanks.”
“Oh.” Nadeshiko grinned. “So what are you gonna do about this one?”
“What am I gonna do?”
“About your script. Are you gonna keep writing it?”
“I think I’m gonna have to quit. I know there’s no way I can write anything up to her standards.” Sora had to force out the answer.
“Oh?” Nadeshiko sounded wholly indifferent. “Well, if you want to write, you ought to keep going.”
“It’s not that easy…”
“Hey, there’s no such thing as impossible in this world. If you keep persevering and don’t give up, maybe you’ll figure out a way someday. Not that it sounds convincing coming from me, I’m sure.”
She chuckled a little at herself. Nadeshiko Kiso had been active in the professional writing scene for almost ten years, but her reputation as an author was average to below average…or maybe only better than bad. She managed to make her debut after winning a prize in the lowest level of new-writer awards back in high school, but she frankly lacked the kind of actual ability one would expect from a ten-year veteran.
So she used assets besides her work to stay in the industry, uploading selfies and cosplay photos to social media, streaming regularly, and cosplaying at doujin events and such. In time, she even got profiled on TV as the “light novel writer who’s just too cute.” With every new book release, she held autograph and photo sessions, and most of her books sold well, but the reviews were almost universally bad. Nadeshiko’s novels were more throwaway merchandise for Nadeshiko the influencer brand than anything else. Enjoying this popularity beyond her talent naturally attracted a lot of haters that review-bombed her Amazon listings and turned the comment sections of whatever new photos and video she posted into yet another flame war.
This state of affairs was the main reason why her grandfather, the well-known and talented writer Yoshihiro Kiso, and her parents were against her staying in this business. The resulting tension led to her finally leaving home and “apprenticing” with the Hashimas.
Itsuki and Nayuta’s take on Nadeshiko was “she’s got a lot of natural intelligence, so she’s really good at research, and she writes fast enough that she’s fine at novelizations and game or anime scripts where the content’s already set in stone. In terms of original ideas, though, she’s got nothing.” Despite that, however, Nadeshiko kept her nose to the grindstone, still writing her original novels while carrying out her daily work and cosplay photo quota.
“…How can you keep trying so hard like that, Nadeshiko?”
Despite having no talent.
Sora found a way to keep that follow-up sentence far away from his mouth.
Nadeshiko let out a deep sigh, then turned away, eyes staring off into the distance.
“Well… I guess because I wanted to be the protagonist, too.”
“…”
The grown-ups around Sora occasionally had those eyes. The brutish eyes of someone who didn’t care how much they bothered people around them—sometimes even neglecting their own family to keep doggedly pursuing whatever it was they were after.
I want to be the protagonist. Those words—the title of the novel that first set his father’s career in motion—Sora hated them so much.