They moved into a room where Wataru could brainstorm his plot ideas! It was a neat little office with a large square table in the center!
“Listen carefully,” Jacob stated! “You have one hour! Write the title and summary of the novel on that piece of parchment on the table! If you come up with something good, I’ll give you the orb. But if you can’t...”
“Aria’s all yours!” Wataru finished Jacob’s sentence!
Jacob nodded with a beaming smile!
“No one even asked me if I wanted to be a prize...” Aria muttered wearily!
“Okie dokie, Aria! See you in an hour!” Jacob declared! “Oh, and just ask me if you want anything to eat or drink!” He shot a clumsy wink in Aria’s direction!
“Oh, I want orange juice!!” Wataru cheerfully accepted!
“I’ll take coffee. Black,” Résistance ordered, deadpan.
“Shut the hell up! Neither of you are getting jack crap!!” Jacob snapped at Wataru and Résistance! He turned his back on the trio and left the room, slamming the door behind him!!
“All right... We have an hour! We need to come up with the best hook for a novel there is!!”
Wataru had no experience in writing any fiction, but he would do anything for the orb! Oh, and we can’t forget that Aria’s freedom was on the line!! They had to win at all costs!!!
“But, Wataru... We’re at a serious disadvantage here, aren’t we?”
“What!? Are we!?!?!?”
“Well, yeah. We could write a masterpiece and all Jacob Yamada would have to do is pretend like it’s no good.”
That’s right, come to think of it!
Résistance smirked confidently. “Don’t worry, Aria. If he unfairly judges our idea, I’ll go around tearing his novels to shreds on every single review website I can find,” she declared!
Some of our Dear Readers may think that there would be no such thing as review websites in a fantasy world... but I implore you to reconsider your stance with a logical mind! That is nothing but your own bigoted preconceptions! Of course, any fantasy world could have review websites!!
“Well, there’s no use in thinking about that yet! All we can do is come up with a good plot!!” Wataru declared with the confidence of a bestselling author, despite lacking any experience in the literary world!
“Really, Wataru, where does your confidence come from...?” Aria could only lament!
“We’re wasting time already. Let’s begin,” Résistance spoke up. “I actually always loved to write stories. I think they were pretty good, too.” Unlike Wataru, it seemed that Résistance had written before! This shone a little bit of hope for the party’s victory!
“You’ve done this before, Résistance!?” Aria asked, perking up. “Okay, I’ll do my best, too! I don’t want to be anyone’s prize yet!!”
The three each sat in a chair and began quietly thinking about their novel ideas, staring down the sheet of parchment. While this makes for an exceptionally unexciting visual, the task before them was more difficult than one might imagine! While all they had to do was write the title and summary of what would become a “good” novel, they had lacked any specific prompt for theme or genre! In other words, there was too much freedom! It wasn’t the same case for Résistance, but for Wataru and Aria, who had never created any stories from scratch, this task was all too difficult! They didn’t know what to do, what to write first, or even where to start! Before he knew it, Wataru’s mind was consumed with the conundrum that all creators face at one point or another: what does it mean for something to be “good?” Not even the author has come anywhere close to solving this one!! So no amount of thinking was going to help Wataru with this!!!
Thirty minutes passed! Then, Aria spoke up! “Done!”
“Finished already?” Résistance asked! “That was pretty quick. What’s the title?”
Aria answered with pride! “It’s a romance called Amour Mélange! Great title, right?” She was evidently very confident in her work!
“You know, the accent mark really makes it pretentious.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“All right! Give me the summary!!” Wataru bellowed!
“Okay!” Aria began reading the outline of her plot straight from the parchment!! “My name’s Mei! Just an ordinary eighteen-year-old you’d find anywhere! ♥ When I attended the annual king’s ball, I accidentally blew up the castle! ♥ But then, the young and good-looking prince totally fell in love with me and my quirky clumsiness! ♥ I was so so so happy, but dating royalty isn’t easy! ♥ Talk about bullying from jealous bitches, and passive-aggressive comments from the future mother-in-law! ♥ Then there’s the dark royal secret, and the no-holds-barred catfight over the legendary sword Excalibur! ♥ A team of mysterious swordsmen stand between me and Excalibur! ♥ But I’m not going to go down without a fight! ♥ I’ll carry it all on my back! ♥ The legendary sword Excalibur will be mine! ♥”
“I’m sorry Aria, but your delivery was really distracting. I have no idea what the story is about,” Résistance said!
“What!?”
“Why do you keep making this ‘♥’ noise after every sentence?”
“Those are hearts! Don’t you think it’s cuter this way?”
“I liked it!! I liked the hearts!!!” Wataru energetically praised Aria’s stylistic choice!
“And what do you mean ‘accidentally blew up the castle’?”
“The protagonist Mei shoots fireworks to make the ball more exciting.”
“Indoors?”
“She accidentally puts in too much gunpowder.”
“Not that using any gunpowder was acceptable.”
“I liked it!! I liked the explosion!!!” Wataru complimented Aria again!
Still, Résistance didn’t relent! “Wasn’t this a romance novel? It became all about Excalibur in the end. There was no amour, or mélange.”
“Right,” Aria concurred! “As far as the plot goes, Mei acquires Excalibur and brutally murders all of the scummy bitches that bullied her.”
“Wouldn’t that make the book a psycho thriller?”
“Hey, Résistance! Stop criticizing her story so much!” Wataru interrupted!