Time to Start My Next Series
I stopped by the library in the royal capital as well. From the situation at the adventurer’s guild, it looked like the Demon King’s revival was drawing near. In that case, I needed to stay far away from it. Getting tangled up with the Demon King’s army—especially a lich—would be nothing but trouble. From now on, I planned to simply frequent the library. After watching people fight, I felt like I was starting to grasp the general feel of it. When I remembered how the protagonist of my novel, Ras, wielded the Holy Sword, it seemed wise to learn swordsmanship while I still had the chance. Right now, the important thing was studying monsters and magic.
“Hmm, so that’s how it is.”
I was looking into all sorts of things when I discovered that orcs really do mate with females of other species. They apparently have a particular preference for humans. If I had been caught back then, I might have ended up in serious danger. The scene could have played out exactly like something from an adult comic. There were plenty of other creatures like that too. It really was best if I never went outside again. Of course, if the situation was properly verified, I’d have no choice but to go. But not now. Something like a raid, for instance. Looking for opportunities like that seemed far wiser.
In the original novel, Schwald had personally joined adventurer raid parties while carrying the Holy Sword. At first glance it looked like he was helping those in danger, but in truth it was all a scheme Sophia had cooked up from behind the scenes so he could look superior to the adventurers. The message was clear: Let me show you the difference in our levels. After that, the adventurers grew discouraged and their activities declined sharply. This led to the monsters of the Demon King’s army running even more rampant, and from then on Schwald’s role in stirring up trouble and then solving it grew massively. In short, he created the problem and solved it to win the people’s hearts.
Since adventurers already felt distant from ordinary citizens, the people simply cheered whenever the prince made a spectacle of himself.
“Thinking about it, this is really fucked up.”
When you looked at it that way, wasn’t this just an isekai power fantasy? The kind where Sophia pulled all the strings from the shadows. Well, I had already ruined a few of her minor plot points, and after seeing actual combat with my own eyes, I now understood fighting methods too. Once that bastard Schwald obtained the Holy Sword, I definitely couldn’t go anywhere near those events. I had finally managed to put some distance between us; seeing his face again would be awkward.
Next, it would be good to look into magic books.
The following day, Jerry came looking for me. It seemed he had heard about the adventurer’s guild incident. When he arrived, his face was drenched in sweat.
“That was far too close for comfort. Are you truly unharmed?”
“Ah, yes.”
A strange, tickling warmth rose in my chest.
“Phew, what a relief. I was terrified something might have happened to your wrist. I even wondered if I would need to ghostwrite for you.”
Jerry let out a deep sigh and patted his chest.
Fuck. Give me back my.
In short, he was only worried about me not being able to write. If I told him I had awakened some new ability, wouldn’t he immediately demand I write several books at once? Huh? Wait—actually, that was a pretty good idea. After all, I had plenty of free time when I wasn’t working on the hero party story. Maybe I should try writing romance? That might work out nicely.
“Oh, but from now on the adventurer’s guild may prove difficult.”
“Is that so?”
I hadn’t planned to go anyway, but if even the adventurer’s guild was too much, didn’t that mean there were virtually no suitable requests for me? Then the Demon King’s side of things must be progressing for certain. Although I had written quickly, my starting point had already been after the condemnation, the prison time, and everything else, so the original story had reached the foreshadowing episodes for the Demon King’s revival. This section was originally supposed to be handled by Schwald once he obtained the Holy Sword. I wondered how it would turn out now. Well, it should be fine. It was that plagiarized novel, after all. No matter how much the changed Milene influenced events, the overall framework probably wouldn’t shift. Besides, Schwald had always relied on the Holy Sword’s power.
“Yes. Of course, if you insist there is nothing stopping you, but you are a civilian, Author. There is a chance the adventurers might not be able to protect you the way they did yesterday.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
I hadn’t planned to go anyway, but since the episodes were beginning to unfold around this time, I needed to keep watch over Sophia and Schwald’s movements from now on. I wondered how the king and queen would react. Well, it was no longer my story. Since the original work had essentially been replaced by my own, this was truly the beginning of a tale where Milene was the protagonist.
“You are remarkable, Author, but even the most skilled adventurers have their own circumstances. Unless they are completely immersed in your novels, they will not be able to help.”
“Mm, it’s fine.”
I wasn’t going to push myself any further. Hmm.
“You mean magic books?”
“Yes.”
“Knowledge regarding magic… Oh, now that I think of it, there are magical tomes. The elders of the Magic Tower have published several volumes through Fortmus. Shall I bring those?”
Perfect timing. As expected, Jerry was truly Jerry. To be honest, it wasn’t just reference material for me as an author—I was genuinely interested. Come to think of it, it was about time to show him the manuscript.
“Yes. And I’ve written a portion of the next volume. Would you like to see it? I haven’t proofread for typos yet, so you may need to interpret some parts.”
“Well, I am in charge of your typos, so it is no problem at all.”
I showed him the manuscript I had written. Jerry began reading, and his eyes sparkled faintly.
“Author, judging from this content, it seems there will be something like a war in the latter half?”
“Yes. A struggle to protect humanity’s right to survive will erupt across the entire continent.”
“Are you comfortable including elements such as war?”
It was fine. I had already researched past records of the Demon King’s army through reference books and looked into the original work’s version as well. I knew all about the demon race in human form, orcs, and the like. The Demon King’s army was composed of monster legions, while humanity’s forces included mages and priests. They used various attack methods powered by the dark energy known as Magi. The wars in this world felt quite different from medieval battles on Earth. Mage spells and priestly miracles were still human abilities, but if I had to compare it to Earth, it would be closer to modern armies with various firearms. Of course, real life here hadn’t advanced quite that far, but the fantasy genre covered everything. There were even records of archmages erasing entire mountains with their magic, so the comparison wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Comparing it to World War I? Maybe that was going too far. No, battles like Gallipoli would work. There were plenty of historical conflicts I could reference while writing about the clash between the Demon King’s army and humanity.
“Yes, it’s possible.”
“But aren’t the human factions rather divided? In this section, the only surviving nation is the one where the protagonist was reincarnated.”
Correct. In my novel, the human powers were split. After all, having only one country on the continent for the protagonist would be too bleak. Besides, if there was only one country, people might simply think it was understandable that it would fall to the Demon King. But if many nations existed and they all collapsed before the Demon King, it would demonstrate how overwhelmingly powerful his forces were and highlight the desperate human longing for a hero.
“Yes, exactly. So the nearby humans will come under the protagonist’s nation. In other regions, they will resist in order to reclaim their own countries.”
“I can feel the desperation of the humans.”
“Yes. That’s precisely the point.”
“Hmm. The anguish of losing one’s country… For example, what would that feel like?”
Uh, well. He was digging surprisingly deep. Honestly, even I wasn’t entirely sure. If I had to name someone who would understand, it would be Koreans from the Japanese colonial period. Capturing that feeling wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“Um… What if the things Jerry values most were destroyed by monsters?”
“Hmm. When you put it that way, it fits perfectly. If my house were smashed by monsters, I wouldn’t receive any compensation and I would end up on the street.”
Jerry’s eyes were trembling. It seemed he still had that housing deposit weighing on him.
“Yes, exactly. Now imagine that happening about ten times.”
“I would want to train somehow and kill those monsters.”
“Yes, exactly. If you thought about losing all your precious things that still had huge loans on them, and your parents and siblings ending up on the street, wouldn’t you naturally burn with rage?”
“I see.”
“I plan to instill that same desperation into the human forces that have lost their countries.”
“Oh. That’s excellent.”
Since the protagonist was a hero anyway, the human forces wouldn’t take up too much space. They would appear mainly when the protagonist moved between them; giving them too much focus would turn the story into a war novel. Seeing Jerry grow excited, it seemed he had imagined his own situation. Yeah. That was enough.
And there was still more I wanted to say.
“By the way, Jerry.”
“Yes?”
“If you have time, shall I try writing a new novel?”
“Eh? You’re saying you can handle two works at once?”
It wasn’t impossible. This body was perfectly suited for the task if I wasn’t busy doing saintly duties or adventuring. Honestly, there wasn’t much else I was qualified to do in this world. So while I still had the stamina, I should use it.
“This time I’ll switch genres. Something short that can be finished in about three volumes.”
“Not bad at all. Then what genre?”
“Romance.”
The goal this time was to try linking Sophia and Schwald together. Just in case. If that idiot Schwald couldn’t even use the Holy Sword properly and Sophia remained a useless bitch who accomplished nothing, the Demon King’s revival would become a serious problem. At times like this, I needed to throw a few stones into the pond. Yes. My next plan was to stimulate those two through a novel. It was all about changing the board, after all.
“Romance? Hmm. I’m afraid it might fall into the usual mass-produced pitfalls in several ways.”
That was true. When I had looked at other romance novels before, they only differed in writing quality. They all followed the same pattern—somehow the prince and so-and-so lived happily ever after. The standard formulas of fantasy romance were all they had. Novel development in this era was still slow. If that was the case, whatever I wrote could easily become a hit. If romance was dominating the market, wasn’t it worth carving out my own path in the genre? That was the idea. Having Schwald and Sophia get tangled up in it would simply be an added bonus.
“It won’t be anything like a fairy tale. I plan to twist every single trope.”
“Ho. It seems you already have something prepared.”
“I’ll prepare the plot in synopsis form and give it to you.”
“Actually…”
“Yes?”
What was this? Suddenly the mood had grown heavy. I felt a sense of unease from Jerry’s unusually serious expression. What was he thinking to make his face look like that? After mumbling to himself for a long moment, he wiped cold sweat from his brow with a handkerchief and spoke.
“Not long ago, a woman named Sophia submitted a manuscript to the romance category.”
“Ah, perhaps…”
“Yes. The person who is your younger sister, Author.”
There had been no such content in the original work. Had the hero party novel I launched affected her as well? But while she was skilled at scheming and plotting from the shadows, she had no talent in this area. In the original story, her schemes had only worked because everyone around her was an idiot. Still, just to be sure, I decided to ask.
“Hmm. How was it?”
“Honestly, I believe if you took any neighborhood child who knows how to write and told them to write a fairy tale, the result would be of much higher quality.”
“I see.”
Then it was completely useless. I didn’t have to worry about that side at all. Besides, that girl wasn’t in any position to write a novel seriously right now anyway.
“Hmm, so that’s why. I’m actually a little excited now.”
“Then I’m glad.”
At those words, I smiled with deep meaning. That was simply how the world worked. If the younger sister failed, the older sister would succeed. If the older sister failed, the younger sister would succeed. That kind of expectation always lay beneath the surface. I supposed I ought to thank Sophia.