Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Wrapping It Up
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Grilled some pork and ate it.
I'm so full.
Yeah, you pig.
Don't say mean things.
Is the bulletin board your diary?
Hing...
Dad brought home some roast chicken!
Miho likes drumsticks, but she eats breast meat pretty well too!
So full... Gonna play just a little, then do homework, wash up, and go to bed!
Sure, sure, Miho. Uncle here was too lazy and just scraped together whatever leftovers he had.
No way! You gotta eat proper meals!
Miho's gonna do homework and sleep, huh? I've got tons of work left, so I probably won't crash until dawn tomorrow, not tonight.
No way! Staying up late is bad for your health!
Hmm... If I don't finish today's work, the boss'll chew me out tomorrow. What to do...
Uh...
Why's everyone teasing the kid?
Hing...
Hm? Still here, Miho? Thought you'd gone off to do homework by now.
...
Just kidding. It's great how you do your homework steadily without putting it off.
Hehe.
You all ignored my post about eating...
Left nothing but nasty comments...
So why bother with other posts and react to them?
Jealous? Just get reborn as a Beastkin then~
Ah, well, that's a bit...
So firm...
Is the bulletin board your place to vent?
You bastard.
Beastkin participation on the bulletin board had spiked.
Communication devices had always existed, but plenty of them hesitated to use the board out of self-consciousness.
With Beastkin perceptions improving, though, it was only natural.
Even among Beastkin, personalities varied wildly by type.
Cat Beastkin mostly posted quirky, offbeat stuff.
Dog Beastkin were full of energy. You could feel their love for people jumping off the screen.
Harpies, whose bodies differed greatly from humans', often griped about the board's inconveniences.
Still, their ability to soar through the skies let them share some truly unique experiences.
But for all their differences, Beastkin shared one thing.
A huge fondness for Aren, the man who'd made this possible.
Not all knew about the novel, of course—plenty of Beastkin were baffled by the world's sudden kindness.
Those who'd followed the board, though, knew the full story.
Posts thanking him popped up several times a day.
Others speculated on his identity.
Maybe he's a Beastkin? If so, what kind?
Quit screwing around and tell him to write Volume 4 already.
Agreed.
...Though it always boiled down to "Just drop the next volume already."
So amid all this noise and skyrocketing attention, what was Aren doing?
"I've really screwed myself."
He groaned, next plot stumping him.
Ah, shoulda thought ahead a bit when wrapping up Volume 3.
I did have a vague outline when I first planned this novel.
Well, sort of. But meeting Ulpi and adding the Rika arc blew it all up.
What I'd envisioned was... a quieter story, wrapping up neatly without all this drama....
But haven't I already used up all the good stuff?
Senyora's struggles? That's been the whole run so far.
Her mental breakdown? Nailed it in Volume 2.
Her heroics? Sure, Karen helped, but she shone—saved Rika and so many others.
Finally finding happiness? Filled the second half of Volume 3 with that. Poured my soul into it.
No material left.... Nothing coming to mind, anyway....
Can't draw inspiration from reality like with Rika's episode.
That'd require another real-life disaster, and once is plenty for that horror.
"I'm trash."
"If you're tossing it out, toss it my way. Ranyori'll make good use of you, Aren."
"Pardon?"
That weird reply to my muttering? Whatever, moving on.
Truth is, I could write more if I pushed.
Drag out a few volumes of Senyora's peaceful daily life.
Something'd come up mid-run. Introduce new characters, too.
But wouldn't that just be repeating the same pattern after showing everything?
How's that different from ending now?
That kind of serialization's pointless... no, not pointless.
Arrogant of me. Plenty of long-runners back on Earth stayed popular.
Skill's in breathing life into repeats, yeah.
But... I never planned to drag this out that long.
Like I said before, I figured reactions wouldn't be great, so short story it was.
Show what I could, end clean.
Truth be told, I started this with some ambition.
Obviously wanted lots of readers.
Pushed that dream aside as unrealistic, though—primary goal was different.
Write a novel I'd be satisfied with.
Ups and downs along the way fine, but nail a clean ending.
And for that, now feels right—if I'm ending it.
"I've decided."
"Fighting~"
"Gonna wrap it up."
"Huh?"
Time to grab paper for Warrenberg—
"...Wait, why not just use the comm device?"
Why'd I limit it to bulletin board checks? Total mix-up.
Whatever, blame Warrenberg. Inertia from early letter exchanges when I didn't have his contact.
I almost never initiated. He sent letters; I replied in kind.
"Hello?"
"Hello. Aren speaking."
"Ah! Author-nim! Ya already wrote Volume 4?"
As if.
"Could ya put President Warrenberg on?"
"Hang on~"
"..."
"...Yes. I've got the phone. What's up, Author Aren?"
No beating around the bush. Straight to it.
Phrased carefully—not too abrupt, letting him sense my deliberation.
"...So, I'd like to conclude with this Volume 4."
"I see."
Surprisingly, no big reaction.
"If that's yer call... Can't stop ya... Sigh... Hoo..."
"..."
"How 'bout pushin' to seven volumes...? That's yer standard length..."
Nope.
Couldn't outright oppose, but clearly bummed.
"Sigh... One promise, though?"
"What kind?"
"If ya serialize another novel... come to us first?"
"Ah~"
"Please, I beg ya! No if ya hate it! We'll treat ya right...!"
"Of course."
Nicely done.
Right... Let's do this. Straight to the finale.
How to end my novel properly?
If I'd set Senyora a goal, hitting it'd be perfect.
Classic hero tale? Demon king down, done.
Romance? Love won, end.
But not mine.
Senyora was designed from the start as a realistically good girl living modestly, scraping joy from daily woes.
No grand aims. That's her: persevering through hardships, finding happiness day by day.
Shoving in a "goal" would ruin it. She's not enduring now for future triumph.
Her only goal's a better tomorrow than today—no success or failure, just lifelong.
So what does "ending" mean in my novel?
Unless I kill her off—which I won't—her story keeps going.
In my head, in readers' heads.
Everyone pictures different futures.
More friends, maybe.
Make the world better.
Even marriage, who knows.
She's already at a better place than the start, so it'll only improve after.
Has to. I won't kill her; it'll continue.
No unreachable goal just means endless forward motion.
If her story lives on post-novel, what meaning does this "novel" ending hold?
"..."
Wracked my brain over that.
Groaned all day.
Morning passed,
lunch passed,
night deepened,
finally hit me as I lay down, calling it quits for today.
My novel's end isn't Senyora's story's end.
It's the end of Senyora of the Back Alleys.
The end of the Senyora who hid from stares, muffling her steps and voice in alley shadows.
How to do that?
How to draw this girl into the light?
Can't just say "world got kind, so she steps out."
Her world isn't that kind to Beastkin yet, unlike ours.
If I wrote "world warmed up, shadows no more"...
What happens if eyes turn cold again? Back to darkness?
Reality's friendly to Beastkin now,
but it won't last forever.
Conflicts will return.
We can't help it— we've advanced by clashing and cracking.
Not pessimism.
Just don't assume eternal harmony between humans and Beastkin without friction.
That's why this direction.
In a world still harsh to Beastkin, how Senyora emerges from shadows.
What mindset lets her face the world and move forward.
And one more thing.
Why did Senyora hide in the first place?
Not just fear of eyes—something personal.
...Gotta figure that out now.