_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Back in his room, Andrew took a quick shower, changed into his pajamas, and sat down at his desk to start writing.
As a high-output author, he needed to wrap up Volume 2 quickly.
Once he handed the draft over to his editor, Miss Machida Sonoko, he could finally move on to writing something new.
Like maybe, he could borrow some ideas from that tearjerker game he played in his past life—Crimson Skies—and use the setting to write a light novel that could really shake things up in the industry.
As long as he could squeeze enough tears from his readers, he figured it wouldn't take long before he reached financial freedom.
That game had seriously moved him when he played it—heck, even the music was amazing.
The story was about a nearly extinct human race. A group of beautiful girl warriors fought monsters on the frontlines to reclaim their homes, and along the way, they found meaning in life and eventually ended up saving humanity—saving the world.
But as the story unfolded, the twist was that all those beautiful girl warriors weren't even real humans. They were clones, artificial beings who inherited other people's genes and memories. Fake humans—"Nabis."
And every battle had a cost. If they died, they turned into mindless Nabis. Andrew had his heart shredded playing through that part.
A group of non-human girls leaning on each other for strength, searching for purpose, and fighting to save a species they didn't even belong to...
Andrew wanted to bring that emotional punch to this world.
Of course, he didn't think his writing was good enough to perfectly recreate the full tearjerking power of that game, so he figured he'd just borrow the setting and write a similar light novel.
For example, he could toss in a magical girl twist.
In this world, the idea of magical girls was still stuck at the level of little-kid stuff like Magical Girl Melulu.
Pfft, if there's no dark senpai getting beheaded, how can you even call it a proper magical girl story?
Also, before he started writing light novels, Andrew had done his homework—he checked out the other big series from various publishers.
A few isekai harem novels from Dengeki Bunko had sold over a million copies, and he'd been seriously blown away.
The author of those hits? A guy (well, supposedly) named "Yamada Fairy."
Yeah… that name sounded way too familiar.
If he remembered right, Yamada Fairy was a character from the anime Eromanga Sensei, and her real identity was a cute little blonde loli.
What made Andrew want to facepalm, though, was how in every one of Yamada Fairy's books, the female leads were constantly stripping down and "blessing" the male lead with fan service.
So basically, Yamada Fairy's secret to becoming a bestselling author was having the girls get naked and send readers' blood pressure through the roof?
Andrew figured… hey, maybe he could learn a thing or two from that approach.
Time flew by.
By the time it hit midnight, Andrew yawned and headed off to bed.
Meanwhile, in the room next door, Mahiru Shiina was having trouble falling asleep.
She hadn't slept in her own room for a while, and now it just felt… empty. Kinda lonely, honestly.
She missed that warm embrace. Guess she'd really gotten attached.
And that's when Mahiru realized something: she genuinely had feelings for Andrew.
Not being in his arms made her feel… well, kind of hollow.
But still, it wasn't like she could just call him over in the middle of the night.
He was probably already asleep.
Sighing, Mahiru tried to calm herself down.
…And failed.
The next morning, she got up with dark circles under her eyes and started making breakfast.
She still hadn't slept a wink.
After finishing up the food and packing the bento boxes, Mahiru took a deep breath, walked up to Andrew's room, and rang the bell.
"Coming, coming!"
Andrew opened the door quickly.
Trying to act normal, Mahiru handed over the bento box and said with a serious face, "I accidentally made too much again today. Mind helping me eat it?"
"No problem! I'll savor every bite!" Andrew grinned as he pulled her inside.
Without another word, he sat down and pulled Mahiru onto his lap.
"Ah—what are you doing?! It's so early in the morning, don't get weird on me…"
Startled, Mahiru instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, her face turning red.
Her delicate, adorable face was blushing, her big, watery eyes staring up, and her soft, pink lips were just begging to be kissed—Andrew couldn't help himself.
His breath quickened as he leaned in.
Mahiru gave a half-hearted struggle before squeezing her eyes shut, nervous and expectant.
No way Andrew was gonna waste that chance.
He lowered his head and kissed her gently on the lips.
After a moment, he cupped her eyes and whispered seriously into her ear:
"Don't move, just a sec."
Mahiru felt a cool sensation on her eyes. They'd been feeling dry and itchy from lack of sleep—but now, that discomfort was gone.
Staring at the mischievous guy holding her, she asked in surprise, "That's weird… my eyes don't itch anymore. How'd you do that?"
Andrew smirked and softly stroked her hair. "It's magic, of course. As long as I recharge using Mahiru-chan's energy, I can do all kinds of crazy things."
Mahiru rolled her eyes, stood up from his lap, and grumbled, "Yeah, right. And don't call me an angel—I'm not some angel."
She figured his hand was just really warm, which probably helped soothe her eyes.
Andrew didn't argue. He just smiled and went to enjoy Mahiru-chan's cooking.
Her cooking was honestly good enough to open a restaurant.
But then again, he didn't want her working that hard—he'd rather just keep her cooking at his place forever.
He wanted to enjoy this happiness all to himself.
After breakfast, he washed the bento box, and the two of them headed out, taking the train to school together.
…
"Yahallo~ Shiina!"
"Mm. Yahallo, Yui Yuigahama-san."
As soon as Mahiru stepped into the classroom, a curvy girl with cotton candy pink twin buns bounced over and greeted her with a cheerful "yahallo."
Mahiru smiled and responded the same way.
"Hehe, Shiina-san, did you check your shoe locker today?"
Yui Yuigahama asked in a gossipy tone, tugging at Mahiru's arm.
Mahiru glanced back at Andrew, who had just walked in behind her, and sighed.
"Of course I checked. I had to change shoes. Another pile of love letters…"
"That just proves how popular you are! I'm so jealous."
Yuigahama wanted to be popular too. She worked hard to get along with everyone in class and had a decent reputation, but it always felt like something was missing.
Girls have their pride too, you know?
Mahiru shrugged and said, "Being too popular is its own headache. There's no way I can reply to all those confessions, so I just pretend I didn't see them."
The two girls kept chatting and soon got completely absorbed in their gossip session.
Their laughter rang out like wind chimes, catching the attention of nearly every boy in Class B.
Andrew didn't bother interrupting Mahiru and Yuigahama's conversation. He quietly went to his seat, nodded at Hayama in greeting, then turned his attention to the girl sitting in front of him—Kato Megumi.
"Kato, I fell asleep last night."
Kato Megumi turned around and calmly nodded. "Oh."
Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be at least a little curious why I fell asleep?"
"But I'm not curious," she said flatly, effectively killing the conversation.
Andrew scowled and stared at her pretty face. "Kato, you just wait. I've got spam calls lined up for tonight!"
Megumi's heart skipped a beat. "So you're seriously planning to harass me with phone calls?"
Scratching her cheek, she added calmly, "Even I'd be pretty annoyed by that. So could you… maybe not?"
Andrew waved her off, dead serious. "Nope. No deal. I only forgot last night 'cause I accidentally fell asleep. But tonight, you better be ready, Kato Megumi!"
"…Who the hell would look forward to that?! And it's Kato Megumi, not 'Kana'!"
She threw in a few deadpan complaints, but the corners of her mouth twitched into a tiny smile.
Sure, Andrew could be a bit of a perv and totally crossed the line sometimes—but she was honestly happy someone actually wanted to talk to her.
Because, well, most classmates—and even her own parents—tended to overlook her existence.
"..."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________