A day had passed since the conclusion of the hotdog-eating contest! Wataru and his party had spent the night at an inn and departed the village that morning in search of the second orb!
The trio carried on through the luscious plains for hours! A pleasant breeze brushed their cheeks, and an endless blue sky stretched above them! What a lovely day to wander through a meadow on a leisurely quest in search of a magical orb to defeat a dragon!!
“The village elder said that we could find whoever has the second orb somewhere around here...” Résistance mused. “Is anyone living out in the middle of nowhere like this?”
When they had asked the village elder after the contest if he knew where any of the other orbs were, he had told them: “Now that I think about it... There’s a gothic manor to the west of the plains. I’ve heard that the person who lives there is in possession of an orb!”
The three had put their faith in that information and set out! However, no matter how far they traveled, there was nothing around them but the same endless expanse of grass! Even Résistance’s patience seemed to be wearing thin by the experience!!!
“Maybe, but it’s not like we have any other leads to an orb...” Aria admitted.
“You said it! All we can do now is believe the elder’s tip!!” Wataru declared, his face set in the stony, determined expression of a Nio!
“Oh... Is that it?” Résistance pointed towards a gothic manor, standing by itself near the horizon.
Aria let out a relieved sigh beside her. “Whoever lives in that manor must be a serious weirdo. Who would live this far out from civilization?” she complained!
“Now that I think about it, the elder said something about a bestselling novelist living in that manor,” Résistance remarked.
“Yes, I remember that, too,” Aria confirmed.
“What!? Really!?!?” Wataru shouted in astonishment!
“Weren’t you there with us, Wataru...?”
“No! I think I was outside working out!! So, what kind of stories does this novelist write!?”
Résistance answered: “His most famous story is called It’s Me, a Shy Orc Loner with a Heart of Gold (Notice Me, Senpai!) Who Got Reborn In Another World, a.k.a. ‘Isekai,’ Where I Am Getting Into All Sorts of Troubles, Hijinks, and Shenanigans, Oh My!”
Wataru’s energetic demeanor did a backflip out the window as all color made an emergency evacuation from his face!! “Hey!!!!! Why didn’t you tell me that sooner!?!?!?!?!?” Allow me to explain! Back in Chapter Six of Volume One, “Wataru, Confusion! The One and Only Literary Critique Battle!”, this was the very novel that Wataru had harshly criticized during the aforementioned Literary Critique Battle! For him to meet the author of this story in person would be a disaster in more ways than one!!
“You’re putting too much thought into this, Wataru,” Aria said.
“That’s right, Wataru,” Résistance chimed in. “The author lives in the middle of nowhere. I doubt he even knows that you gave it a harsh review.”
“Yeah,” Aria concurred.
“I-I sure hope so...!!!”
As Aria and Résistance dragged Wataru along, he couldn’t help but carry a shade of anxiety in his heart in trepidation of the encounter to come...!!
✦ ✦ ✦
“You really thought I’d just hand over my orb when you crapped all over my novel, you crap-for-brains, boneheaded, nimcompooping, single-brain-celled, bag-of-rocks, lose-your-head-if-it-wasn’t-attached-to-you, indescribable moron!!”
Once they entered the manor, Wataru and his party had immediately asked the author of It’s Me, a Shy Orc Loner with a Heart of Gold (Notice Me, Senpai!) Who Got Reborn In Another World, a.k.a. “Isekai,” Where I Am Getting Into All Sorts of Troubles, Hijinks, and Shenanigans, Oh My! (Or Me, Oh My! for short), Jacob Yamada, for the orb! As it turned out... Jacob Yamada snapped!! Jacob, a green-faced orc, contorted his hog-like face in anger! “Get the hell out of here!!”
“But, please!!” Wataru begged, to no avail!!
“I know that you think my novel ‘sucked’!! I’m going to make you regret it!!” Jacob raged on, swinging his stubby arms like a windmill! While one might imagine orcs to be a savage species who wore nothing but rags, Jacob did not fit that mental image! He wore a cleanly pressed dress shirt and slacks, and, of course, lived in a really nice house! The floors of the manse were covered with expensive-looking red carpet, while a glittering chandelier hung from the ceiling of the room they were in! Jacob Yamada wasn’t a best-seller for nothing! He seemed pretty well-off!!
“Hey, Wataru, maybe you should apologize,” Résistance suggested! Their objective was to acquire the orb, after all! She saw that the best course of action was for Wataru to apologize and get past this impasse! However...!!
“...” Wataru was silent!
“...” And he remained silent!!
“...” Still silent!!!
“...But it did suck!!” Wataru couldn’t take that back! When something sucked, it sucked!!
“Y-You bastard!! You’re mocking me!?” Jacob’s wrath reached new heights!
Aria jumped in, in an attempt to resolve the situation! “Please, Jacob!! We really need that orb!!” She clasped her hands tight and stared at Jacob with pleading, puppy-dog eyes!
Jacob grabbed his chest and stumbled back! “S-So kawaii...!!” It seemed Jacob Yamada had a weakness: innocent-looking girls like Aria! “Y-You’re cute...! Do you have a boyfriend? If you don’t, what do you think of me? I got stacks of money, you know!” Jacob stammered through this advance!
Aria’s puppy-dog eyes immediately switched to a sharp, offended glare!
“Are you kidding me!?”
“What?”
“Why...!? Why is this happening to me!? Someone finally falls in love with me at first sight, and he’s an orc!?!?” Aria stomped her feet on the floor! Despite her stereotypical light-novel-heroine appearance, she had never had someone fall in love with her at first sight! “Why couldn’t it have been someone good looking!? An orc, of all people!? Arrrrgh!!” Aria began throwing a total tantrum!
“Calm down, Aria,” Résistance reprimanded her! “You shouldn’t say things like that.”
“Why shouldn’t I, Résistance!? Wouldn’t you flip out if... if... that made moves on you!?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“‘Th-That’...?” Jacob muttered sulkily, stabbed through the heart by Aria’s unfeeling words!
“I understand how you feel, Aria, but that’s racist. That’s not going to fly well in this day and age.” Résistance was right! Aria’s being upset about Jacob’s advances “because he was an orc” was unmistakable, blatant racism!
“I see what you mean...” Aria relented.
“In a case like this, instead of saying that you’re disgusted because he’s an orc, say that you’re disgusted because he’s a creepy novelist who flaunts his money. That way, it won’t be racism.”
“Thanks!” Aria said!
“That makes it worse!” Jacob complained!
Alas, Jacob’s feelings didn’t matter, as long as things were kept politically correct!
“I-In any case... If you want the orb, you’re going to have to take my deal!”
“What deal!?” Wataru asked with curiosity!
“To be honest, I’ve hit a bit of a writer’s block... So, if you can let me read a good novel that ignites my inspiration, I’ll hand over the orb, a family heirloom of mine!”
“I’ve never written a novel!” Wataru protested!
“Then, just a title and summary will do!” Jacob compromised! “It just has to be an exciting piece with a unique plot! A real mind-shaker! And if you can’t give me something like that...” Jacob pointed at Aria for the demand! “Give me the girl!!”
“What!?” Aria was astounded!
“Sure!!!” Wataru immediately agreed!
“What the hell, Wataru!? Don’t I get a say in this!? I don’t want to be negotiated into the clutches of an orc—I mean, of a revolting pervert who flaunts his money!!” Aria protested, politically correctly this time, even while Wataru clutched a fist before him with absolute confidence!
“Don’t worry, Aria! I just have to come up with a good pitch!!”
Where in all of the worlds was his confidence coming from!?!? In any case, the plot-writing challenge for the second orb had begun! Will Wataru and his team pitch a novel that will inspire Jacob!? Keep reading to find out!!