I Will Not Yield to Threats! (2)
The headache hit Portmus Publishing president Yugo the moment Jerry delivered the news from the royal palace. He rubbed his temples, unsure how to even process it.
“What on earth is going on? K held a fan signing event? At the royal palace?”
“Yes, sir. It appears to have been a surprise event prepared by His Majesty. Even Author K claims she had no idea until it happened.”
Well, the king had praised the novels quite enthusiastically before. And from what Yugo understood, the king and K had already been rather close back when she was still Milene. In that case, this was essentially royal patronage. And if it was good for business, then it was good for the publishing house. No complaints there.
“Goodness. Even the kingdom’s sun has fallen head over heels for novels. Still, I did think it was about time for her to see the readers’ reactions in person… but the royal palace? She cleared a major hurdle right from the start.”
“However, there is a small problem.”
“A problem?”
“A letter has arrived from the Holpert family.”
Another letter? Surely not about ignoring Sophia’s manuscript? No, that couldn’t be it. Publishing that trash would have brought immediate backlash on the Holpert family itself. People would have accused them of forcing the publisher to print children’s fairy tales.
But he was wrong. The contents were something else entirely.
“What is this…? What exactly happened at the palace? A quarrel between Schwald, Sophia, and K? What did Author K say? You were there too, weren’t you? You must know the full story.”
“From what I gathered, Lady Sophia tried to threaten Author K into stopping her work because of the rumors. Author K responded by declaring that she would never yield to any external pressure. The palace staff praised her for showing true writer’s spirit.”
Yugo felt another spike of pain in his skull. The theme had changed slightly, but at its core this was just another sisterly feud. Of course, the other side still had no idea about K’s true identity. Come to think of it, maybe K had planned for this exact outcome. The fact that the Holperts had specifically requested a meeting with her over this matter…
Setting aside personal loyalty to K, if things went badly, Portmus itself could collapse. Abandoning the author who had brought the company to its current golden age was simply not an option.
Wait. There might be a way.
Most of the palace staff were nobles. The maids, the royal guards protecting the palace—nearly all of them came from aristocratic backgrounds. If they were supporting K, then there were still cards left to play.
“Pretend we never received this letter. Say we only just found it after a long delay. Contact the capital’s newspapers. Have them spread word of everything that happened at the palace as loudly as possible.”
“But what if His Majesty—”
“It’s going to spread anyway, so we might as well use the papers to our advantage. Once we get through this crisis, even the Holperts won’t dare touch K again.”
They could always claim they read the letter only after the story about Sophia had already hit the papers. By then, the Holperts wouldn’t even dream of harassing Author K.
“Perfect.”
It was all or nothing now. Portmus could not afford to lose K. And if even the fans at the royal palace were cheering her on, the Holperts would find it impossible to move against her. Even if they tried to ruin the publisher from the shadows, once the story exploded in the newspapers, the family would be powerless against the weight of public scrutiny.
The newspaper had come from the publishing house. Or rather, from the newspaper company it secretly backed.
“I never imagined it would spread all the way to the publishers.”
So the Holpert family had finally started moving. Though honestly, this was mostly the duke’s own fault for failing to control his daughter. Still, the publishing president had played his cards well. Just look at the front page.
[K Author—Will Not Submit to Holpert Coercion]
I never expected newspapers in this world to be so widely read. There weren’t any photographs, but the front page carried an almost verbatim account of my conversation with Sophia. Someone who had overheard us must have helped. The dialogue was reproduced with eerie accuracy.
It described how Sophia had tried to pressure me into quitting writing because of the rumors about her, how she had slandered completely unrelated novels, and how I had declared that no threat would ever stop me from writing. The reactions, as expected, were varied.
The people in Sophia’s academy circle probably felt differently, but the nobles who were my fans condemned her. Commoners praised me as a brave writer resisting aristocratic oppression. As the story spread, phrases like “a true author who refuses to bow to external pressure” began circulating everywhere.
“Hmm.”
The problem was that my personal information had also been partially revealed because of this incident. Comments like, “I never imagined the author of There Is No Defeat in My Hero Party and The Villainess Has Her Reasons would be a woman,” or “I suspected it might be a woman, but I never dreamed she would be this beautiful,” were making the rounds. Apparently those rumors had started inside the palace itself. Thanks to that, word that the author was a stunning beauty had now spread throughout the capital.
From the perspective of my male mind, it didn’t exactly feel great. But right now, it was actually helping. The trending phrase in the capital—“The author of hero stories and romance novels is an incredible beauty!”—was more than enough. From what I heard, the surge in sales had been driven even more by the explosion of information about me than by the palace event itself.
“It really just happened by accident… Hmm. What should I do?”
I’d been talking to myself a lot lately. The expectations placed on me had grown far too heavy. After making that declaration to Sophia and having it printed in the newspaper, there was only one thing left to do.
I had to write even harder.
Sophia and Schwald’s movements were important, of course, but what the readers wanted to see right now was what kind of novel would come from an author with the spirit to resist pressure from a prestigious noble house.
“Ah.”
I clapped my hands together. That was it. It wasn’t impossible. In the next episode, I would finally include a battle against one of the demon generals. The story of a boy living as a slave to the demon race who meets the hero, gains courage, and fights alongside others against a high-ranking demon. That would fit perfectly into the second volume along with the hero’s companions.
Just the right length. It would take some time to publish, of course, but this incident had already been burned into the minds of the capital’s citizens. When volume two came out, those who were sick of Sophia would read it with joy. The Holperts wouldn’t dare move again either. I had to seize this opening.
While I was deep in writing, the door creaked open and Marie entered, carrying a tray of apples.
“Where’s Ritz?”
“Miss Ritz is currently hard at work learning how to cook.”
“That explains the burning smell that’s been drifting in.”
She really was terrible at cooking.
“By the way, my lady. What do you plan to do about Rion? I think it would be best to settle things clearly while we have the chance.”
“Why?”
“That fool keeps coming to me privately. I’ve been preventing him from digging into your secrets, but…”
Rion? This smelled fishy. The fact that the idiot was specifically looking for me meant he had some scheme in mind. He was probably trying to use me to get something for himself.
“I see. He says he wants to help me?”
“Yes.”
I tapped my fingers on the desk, running the calculations. What could I possibly gain by bringing Rion onto my side? Honestly… nothing. I could carry out my revenge perfectly well without him. Once was difficult, but twice or three times would be easy. And there was no guarantee that someone who had already betrayed his master once wouldn’t do it again. Besides, the Holpert family was still a prestigious house. It would only create unnecessary complications.
And above all else—
“A washing machine? No way in hell.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. It’s a thing.”
No matter how you looked at it, this was a character who had betrayed me so thoroughly that even tearing him apart wouldn’t be enough. The kind of character who shows up late with a sudden change of heart, claims he wants to atone, works hard for the protagonist, and then gets forgiven. Or the woman who switches to the villain only to regret it later and crawl back to the protagonist. Or the friend who abandons the protagonist for success, fails spectacularly, and then suffers the appropriate punishment after working alone for the protagonist’s sake. Those kinds of developments only made me feel frustrated.
The “he had his reasons, so it’s okay for the protagonist to forgive him now” trope was just annoying. Forgiveness? Absolutely not. Even if brainwashing or external interference had been involved, I still wouldn’t want to look at him. In Rion’s case, he had simply fallen for that worthless Sophia’s three-inch tongue. There was no brainwashing or outside force. He had stabbed the benefactor who had taken him in right in the back. How could that ever be forgiven? It couldn’t.
“Then about Rion…”
I shook my head. I had already thought about this many times. I simply didn’t want anything to do with him.
“Just ignore him. I don’t need him. No matter how much he regrets it… my life—Milene’s life—has already become like this. In the end I gained freedom, but I can’t forget the betrayal.”
“Understood.”
Even if that bastard was wracked with guilt, regretting everything in the shadows and eventually killed himself, it had nothing to do with me. Would someone like that even become depressed over not being forgiven by me? He’d probably just crawl back to Sophia again before long. Sure, maybe not. But there was no such thing as “maybe” in my book. Even if I could use him and throw him away, I didn’t even want to use him at all. That decision belonged to Milene. It wasn’t K’s responsibility.
Sometimes I called Milene’s name inside my heart. If this world truly existed as a real place, what are you doing right now? But that Milene never answered. This body was entirely mine now. So I had no intention of getting close to him. I would simply treat him with indifference.
Because I am not Milene, indifference is all I can offer. But originally, what is worse than hatred is precisely indifference. I feel nothing toward him. All the relationships that once existed have completely collapsed. There is nothing left between us. We are simply passerby number one to each other. That’s all.
Even so, if Rion keeps causing trouble, I’ll just use my royal palace connections. If he doesn’t like it, he can figure something out himself.
“Then what about Sophia… I mean, that bitch?”
“She seems to be collapsing all on her own.”
She really was a hopeless idiot.
“On her own?”
“Yeah. Maybe because she’s stupid, but she’s getting absolutely shredded with criticism.”
Marie probably wanted revenge. But there was no reason to poke her right now and make her explode immediately. As I had said before, the original story needed to progress to a certain point. If that fool was suffering all by herself, why should I waste any effort? In the end, it just proved she was an idiot.
So what should I do moving forward?
If someone asked me that, there was only one answer.
“I just have to keep writing. From now on too.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be only writing. After thinking it over, there was no reason I couldn’t visit the adventurers’ guild again. I had been a bit hesitant after the last incident, but that prince was running around with the holy sword, and the guild might have taken measures to recruit skilled adventurers. Learning magic, swordsmanship, or archery wouldn’t be a bad idea. Rather than hunting by myself, learning proper form and technique would let me describe situations more realistically in my novels.
I should learn magic, swordsmanship, and archery. It seemed like a good idea to find separate instructors for each.