051. First Love (1)
051. First Love (1)
After that, we resumed the Barna Defense Battle.
The equipment settings were the same as before.
There was no significant difference in formation or grand strategy either.
The specs of the two participating in combat were, of course, identical to before.
The only difference was that, from the resumed training onward, I clearly established the order of priority.
The main force was the senior, Laika.
The support was the junior, Rinne.
Therefore, Rinne didn't make independent decisions. She provided buffs and debuffs in step with Laika's actions.
Conversely, Laika didn't assume the other person would take care of things on her own. Whenever necessary, she immediately gave an order.
Under those principles, we tried again.
......Of course, those principles were not immediately and thoroughly observed. There was still bickering.
"Ugh! Senior Laika! Why would you go after that one first?! We're losing damage!"
"This much is something the junior should handle~ Honestly~"
Still, it was fine. Because there was a way to fix it all.
"Kind and courteous words between senior and junior."
If I gave a warning like that while making a snapping motion in the air, both Rinne and Laika would automatically return to combat posture.
Additionally, both of them would tense up their rear ends tight...... but that wasn't important, so let's move on.
In any case, Rinne and Laika's coordination gradually began to align.
Coordination is important. Because coordination creates tempo, and tempo dictates the entire flow of battle.
In fact, up through waves 2–3 there was almost no major difference, but by waves 5–6 the battle was unfolding completely differently from before.
For example.
"Rinne! This time, let's stun those guys first!"
"Okay! Leave it to me!"
That made plays that had previously been impossible possible.
"That thing from just now!"
"Okay!"
Unnecessary movements were cut out.
"Euhe-e— They're coming again—"
"Well, it's more manageable than before."
Their motivation rose as well.
And so, after steadily running the training program for several days like this—
= Training Program Completed =
[Camp Barna Remaining HP: 71%]
[Clear Rank: B]
As you can see, we cleared it without much trouble.
Ms. Jang Yu-na's first quest.
***
Since the first condition had been achieved, the next was the second.
Writing the final volume of Beyond the Cradle.
When I casually asked her last time, she said she hadn't prepared anything in particular.
However, since the person herself seemed filled with enthusiasm to write, I decided not to get involved much.
Frankly, it wasn't as though I could do much by getting involved anyway.
I had optimistically thought that if I just waited a few days, she would resolve it well on her own—— but.
"......What on earth are you doing?"
"Huh?"
Had the shock of the spanking finally faded from her mind?
Rinne was scratching her neck like some adolescent girl.
Well, that kind of cheeky attitude didn't matter to me.
I was of the school of thought that biodroids should be governed with love, not fear.
Above all, I respected the individuality of each soldier.
Taking Laika as an example, I had no intention of forcing her to become a wholesome girl. If that was what she wanted, she could stay a lazy, emotionally unstable girl forever.
Rinne's case was the same. She didn't need to forcibly become a nice, diligent kid; she could live as a disobedient little brat with overdeveloped sensitivity.
They were free to show off their individuality like that as long as they faithfully did their jobs.
That was the only thing I asked of them.
It was truly just that, but.
Recently, Rinne had been violating even that one and only requirement.
For starters, I hadn't seen her write a single line in the past few days.
It wasn't because she had been busy with missions, nor had I saddled her with other chores. To give her time to write, I had divided all the other work among Laika, Alicia, and Sumire.
So what exactly had Rinne done with all that free time...? Nothing.
She was a 'just rested' biodroid.
"Ha? I did not rest?"
"You rested."
Just look at her now.
She was lying sprawled out, munching on potato chips.
She was guzzling energy drinks and shamelessly letting out huge burps.
Without moving a single step from that spot, she was endlessly reading comic books and light novels.
Meanwhile, she had tossed off her socks and left them lying on the floor.
She was even scratching the bit of butt exposed below her denim shorts.
"I don't know what you mean. All of this is work."
"What kind of work?"
"Well, that's...... story conceptualization? Or something?"
Rinne muttered that as she prattled on.
"I'm the type whose creativity rises when I'm in the most comfortable and happy state possible."
So she said.
Fine. If she said so, I'd accept that for the moment.
"Then why are you doing it on the bed in my private room, of all places?"
I asked, suppressing my rising anger.
Just as she said, Rinne was committing all those nuisances and disgraceful acts on the bed in my private room.
And this had already been going on for a full week.
At first she came in saying she wanted a brief change of pace, then gradually brought more and more things in, and by now she had practically moved in.
Yesterday, she even came in while I was gone and took a nap.
When I confronted her about it, Rinne snapped back.
"What can I do if my efficiency goes up when I work here?"
......Did that mean my room and my bed felt even more comfortable and pleasant than the basement where she normally lived?
Instead of asking that and getting kicked for nothing, I decided to pose a more productive question.
"Anyway, it's already been a week since you've been lounging around there. How long exactly do you need to conceptualize?"
"Almost done. Wait a bit. A man's gotta have patience."
Hmm.
"Seems you've forgotten my personality."
I reached my hand over the rear end of Rinne, who was lying face down with her back exposed.
But Rinne, as if finding it laughable, let out a sneering "Heuh—" through her nose.
"Hit me if you're gonna hit me, you pathetic Commander. But, you take responsibility for what comes after."
"What comes after?"
Instead of answering with words, Rinne thrust out her PDA.
What floated on the screen was...... a photo of Rinne and me lying on a single bed together.
"When did you take this?"
"When Oppa was sleeping."
I could tell that without her saying it. Because in the photo, I was sound asleep.
On the other hand, Rinne was staring at the camera with a meaningful smile. Even making a V-sign with her fingers.
To anyone who saw it, it was unmistakably the appearance of a couple who had finished the deed and even completed their pillow talk.
That was Rinne's aim.
"If I show Senior Laika this photo and tell her I've spent a whole week rolling around in Commander's bed, how do you think she'll react~ Heu-heu-heung~"
Apparently, Rinne had developed her own way of keeping me in check.
So what should I do? Strike first and retrain her with a spanking? Or let it slide?
"Here."
As I was agonizing, Rinne casually tossed something at me.
A document that had been tucked under her stomach, warmed to a toasty temperature by her body heat.
"What's this?"
"The full plot for Volume 16."
Excuse me?
"What, you actually wrote it?"
"I told you, didn't I? Why are you so distrustful, Oppa?"
Ignoring the grumbling Rinne, I examined the document.
Inside, the plot for Volume 16 was really written out.
The content... maybe because I wasn't much of a light-novel reader, looked perfectly fine to me. It was a solid ending.
A story where the protagonist Kang Min-hyuk arrives at the Cradle of Silence, fights the final decisive battle, and ultimately gifts a unique salvation to each of the harem members, including his younger sister.
There were no obvious plot holes or unexplained points in the process, and there was plenty of entertainment value.
I especially liked that, instead of awkwardly trying to give every member of the harem equal weight, the story centered on the main heroine, Roxy.
......No, maybe that was just because Roxy was my favorite character.
Anyway.
"Not bad. You could write the main text right away."
I said, brightening up.
However, Rinne, still lying face down on her stomach, shook her head back and forth.
"No. There are still two unsatisfactory points left."
"Unsatisfactory points?"
"Yeah. So......"
Rinne spoke.
First of all, she said there was a foreshadowing that hadn't been resolved yet.
The foreshadowing about the past life of the main heroine Roxy.
"Past life foreshadowing?"
"You know, wasn't there an implication in Volume 1 that Roxy had a past life?"
Was there?
......Now that she mentioned it, I vaguely remembered something like that.
It was truly just a mention.
It wasn't particularly connected to the overall plot of Volume 1, and above all, the story had simply moved on without ever making clear whether a past life really existed.
As a result, I, the reader, had forgotten the existence of that foreshadowing at some point.
But once I recalled its existence, I became newly curious about the truth.
Did Roxy really have a past life? If she did, what kind of life did she live?
Was she someone related to the protagonist, Min-hyuk?
Or had a completely different story unfolded?
When I asked the author directly, she gave me a terrible answer.
"I haven't thought about it?"
"......Huh?"
"That's what I said. An unsatisfactory point."
Rinne spoke bluntly.
However, this wasn't the time for her to act like she was proud of herself.
"No, why would you plant foreshadowing you hadn't even thought through?"
"Hmph. Well, that's——"
Rinne started to answer in a proud voice.
But immediately afterward, she shrank back.
"......Just, because I wanted to put it in."
What was that?
"You put it in just because you wanted to? Without any thought?"
"Why. Am I not allowed to?"
"Would you be?"
This was a commercial work, after all.
Planting such an important piece of foreshadowing with no plan at all was a bit much.
"......When I was writing Volume 1, I didn't think of it as a commercial work. Because I had no thought at all that it would get published and become a long-running serial."
Rinne grumbled.
As if that opened the floodgates, Rinne quietly began revealing what she had really been thinking.
"Back then, you know. It feels less like I was writing a novel and more like I was just writing out my own story."
"Your own story?"
"Yeah. How should I put it? I guess I was projecting myself onto Roxy... Honestly, I was just writing a self-insert fantasy."
Hoping that a cool person like the protagonist in the story would appear and save her.
Rinne gave Roxy the same personality, the same profession, and the attribute of being an artist as herself.
She didn't stop there—she even gave Roxy the same past as herself.
That she might have had a past life.
"So, I was thinking, if I ever found out about my past life someday, I'd get inspiration from it and resolve the foreshadowing."
But even now, just before writing Volume 16, the truth still hadn't been revealed.
More than that, she had almost given up on ever learning about her past life.
So if she wanted to end the story now, she had no choice but to make up Roxy's past.
There was truly no other way. But...
"How should I put it... If I do that, it feels like Roxy becomes someone different from me... and my mind just won't work."
Being an otaku was hard in all sorts of ways.
As I sighed, Rinne shrugged her shoulders.
"Still, well, I can just gloss over this kind of thing and move on. So it's not that serious of a problem. The real problem is what's next."
"What. There's another problem?"
Ah, right. She had said there were two problems.
Even so, I couldn't imagine what might be more serious than unresolved foreshadowing.
Or did she mean there was another plot thread she had failed to tie up properly?
I puzzled over the plot draft for a moment.
Rinne, with an extremely serious expression and a heavy voice, returned an absurd answer.
"I can't write the romance properly."
You might have noticed by now.
This episode was about teaching this cheeky girl about romance.