Volume 8 epilogue

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Epilogue

“Ahhh… It’s so hot today…”

Half of our summer vacation had passed,and it was noon on a certain day. Sweating profusely, I was walkingdown the road near my house. I was on my way home after getting somelight novels in Akiba, but I might’ve been better off not doingthis on such a humid day, really.

“No no, I really needed this newrelease…!”

I was about to give in to the heat, butquickly changed my train of thought. Yes, in order to write a goodlight novel, I need some good input. That doesn’t change even nowthat I’ve figured out what kind of novel I want to write. Rather,it’s exactly because I know the direction that I want to go thatI’m striving for even higher quality.

After that incident, I started writingthe little sister novel. That being said, I didn’t just move on andwrite the main part—No, I carefully built it up from scratch. Theplot, the characters, everything. I’m actually pretty satisfiedwith how it’s going right now. It’s not like everything’sperfect, but it definitely is an emotional high for sure.

…Maybe this is all because I’mwriting exactly what I want to…

—I’ve been spending my whole summerbreak like this.

“…Still, I’m really thirsty.Maybe I should get something to drink…”

Trying to cope with the heat, I made myway to a nearby vending machine. When I did, I saw that there wasalready another person there. A woman, wearing a t-shirt withg-pants, making her look pretty lax. She had just pressed the buttonto get some tea.

“…Eh? S-Sakaki-san?!”

As it turned out, it was actuallySakaki-san from Crescent Publishing, which surprised me.

“Oh? …Oh would you look at that,it’s Nagami-kun. Well well, what a coincidence to meet you here.How have you been?”

Not to mention that she seemed asdisinterested in everything as ever.

…Ahh, there are so many things I wantto tell her, but now that she’s in front of me, I can’t get outthe words…!

“Ah, perfect timing, though. I wantedto talk about something.”

As my mouth was opening and closinglike a fish, Sakaki-san got the jump on me as she put her hand in thedispenser of the vending machine.

“Ah, I accidentally got coke. Can wetrade~?”

And she said something that didn’tmatter at all.

“I actually came here to meet you. Iwas searching for your house, but I kinda got lost. It’s lucky thatI met you on the way here~”

Anyway, I took Sakaki-san with me to anearby park. I had been hoping to hear some details from her, but sheimmediately blurted that out, which left me in confusion.

“W-What do you mean by that? I wentto your office before, but I could only find a small letter that saidyou went insolvent. And I couldn’t call you since you never gave meyour number…”

“Ah, really? Sorry about that. I wasplanning on contacting you after that, but I got really busy and soon. That’s why I wanted to meet you personally to apologize.”

Sakaki-san sat down on the bench andstarted sipping on the can of tea in her hand.

“…I’m really sorry about thisincident.”

She suddenly lowered her head, and Iwas at a loss as to what to do.

“R-Raise your head, Sakaki-san…”

“Since you’ve seen the paper on thedoor, you must already know, but Crescent Publishing went bankrupt.The management was trying its best to keep it running, but it didn’twork out in the end… We really troubled you a lot by this, huh? Thething is, we put on our light novel contest in hopes of making itthrough this pinch, but there wasn’t quite enough time left…”

“E-Even if you tell me that…”

“That’s why I feel really bad aboutgetting your hopes up. It’s totally our fault, so I can understandif you’re mad. That’s why I came here for an apology.”

After gulping down the rest of her tea,Sakaki-san directed her gaze towards me.

“Of course, I wasn’t expecting youto forgive me just like that. That being said, I don’t have anymoney, so I thought I could at least repay you with my body. You cando whatever you want with me, but please refrain from anythingpainful, alright?”

“Bfuu?! W-What are you talkingabout?!”

“I was planning on using my body toquell your anger. I mean, my body is really the only thing I canoffer.”

“A-As if I could do that?! Also,you’re a woman, so treasure yourself a bit more!”

…W-What kind of crazy things is shebringing up all of a sudden…?!

“You really are kind~. But I reallydon’t have anything else.”

“…I-It’s fine. There’s no needfor an apology or anything. I mean, I was a bit let down after Ifound out that your company went bankrupt, but this doesn’t meanthat I’ll never be able to debut. And also…”

“Hm?Also… what?”

“…Also, all the advice I got fromyou wasn’t for nothing. It’s because of my time with you that Imade the decision to write a little sister novel.”

“A little sister novel… Can I askfor the reason why you suddenly had a change of heart like that?”

I was a bit hesitant at first, but Ididn’t find any concrete reason not to, so I explained whathappened. Naturally, I left out the part about Suzuka, but I toldSakaki-san about the part with that little sister novel being theorigin of my dream.

“…So basically, because of thisnovel, you started aiming to be a light novel author, and it made youwant to write a little sister novel?”

“Yes. Though it’s not that cool ofa story.”

“That’s not true.”

Sakaki-san shook her head while she satnext to me.

“Oh, can I ask for the title of thatnovel that turned into the origin of your dream?”

“Ah,right. It was a little sister romcom called ‘Honey Sister’—”

“…And the author was Kirurin?”

“Yes… Eh? Did I tell you the nameof the author?”

When I asked her that, Sakaki-san shookher head again. And when I heard her next words, I was reallyshocked.

“I just know it. After all, it’s abook that I wrote a long time ago.”

“…Huh?”

A confused voice leaked out of mymouth. But, when I finally understood the meaning of her words…

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

I jumped up and screamed.

“Eh….?! S-Sakaki-san is the…author?! W-What are you…?!”

“I just told you, didn’t I? I wasthe one who wrote the novel ‘Honey Sister.’ I’m surprisedmyself that you suddenly brought up that name,” Sakaki-san said.Her eyes were still half-opened like usual.

N-No no no no…!

“You looked like you still don’tquite believe me, huh? What if I told you that the pen name Kirurinoriginates from my name Sakaki Ruriko?”

Sakaki Ruriko. Saka, Kiruri, Ko…?!

“S-Seriously?!”

“Seriously. Still, to think that mynovel was the start of everything for you~”

“B-But, why?! Why did you stopwriting light novels, Sakaki-san?!”

“Because it didn’t sell at all. Imanaged to release that novel, but the evaluation was so-so. That waswhy I decided to stop aiming to be an author, and went into editinginstead.”

Sakaki-san was saying like it wasnothing special, but my shock continued.

…S-Seriously… Do coincidences likethat really happen?

“…But I see…”

I heard Sakaki-san’s voice. When Ilifted my head to look at her, she had distant eyes, until shesuddenly jumped up from the bench.

“I’ll have to go now.”

“Eh?”

“My goal was to apologize to you, butif I don’t find a job soon, I’ll probably starve.”

“H-Huh…?”

“…I should probably do it now withthis good feeling I have now.”

“Good feeling…?”

With a smile, Sakaki-san responded.

“…To think that the novel I justthrew together back then would influence somebody else…”

She looked happy, and she turned herheel, saying “Anyway, I have to go.”

“Ah! H-hey, Sakaki-san?!”

“Nagami-kun.”

“Y-Yes?”

“I believe that you can write a trulyfun novel. The plot you came up with was interesting, and thecharacters you developed were cute. Now you just have to write ayounger heroine, or a little sister even, and you’ll make it far.”

“D-Do you think so…?”

“Well, I didn’t really read anyother novels because almost nobody sent in any other novels for thecontest.”

“Ehh?!”

“Anyway, I’m praying that you’llfind success, and that you can achieve your dream. Do your best~”

Sakaki-san said this as she turnedaround, leaving me unable to say anything besides a confused “T-Thankyou very much…?”

When I did, Sakaki-san said something.

“Maybe I should try and follow mydream once again…”

Those were her last words before shewalked off. For a while, I just sat there, watching her off, until Igot up from the bench myself and made my way home.

“Welcome back, Onii-chan! I-Is yourlittle sister novel still not done yet?!”

The second I opened the entrance door,Suzuka, who had been like this all the time recently, energeticallygreeted me. Normally, I’d cringe a bit at that, but just for today,I actually felt a certain warmth filling up my body, and I respondedbefore I could think.

“…Yeah, I’ll try my best.”

I swore that I would give it my all to chase my dream.