Special Episode: The Shocking Epilogue! Aria Challenges the Novelist!

Two months had quickly passed by since Wataru defeated the dragon!!

Résistance had, just as planned, left the party to set out on a journey to become a better martial artist! Wataru and Aria had returned to the Sky Kingdom and gotten a great deal of reward money from the King!

Combined with what they’d gotten from defeating the Demon Lord Deus, they now had enough money to live in luxury for the rest of their days! But Wataru was not about to let himself get carried away by something like money! He was now living it up in one of the examination rooms in the clinic managed by Aria’s parents! He had completely remodeled the place into a personal fitness room! And today, like all days, he was hard at work training his muscles!

“Nine-ninety-five... Nine-ninety-six... Nine-ninety-seven...!”

With carefully controlled breath rhythm, Wataru kept his body in a dauntingly precise form as he raised and lowered a barbell! The weights on the barbell added up to an entire ton! And he hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet!!

“Nine-ninety-eight... Nine-ninety-nine... One thousand! Awesome!”

He slowly lowered the barbell to the ground, wiped away the sweat dripping down his forehead with his towel, and guzzled down an entire bottle of chocolate protein drink he had on hand!! His black hair had grown down to his waist during his fight with the dragon, but he had found it to be a huge inconvenience and so had cut it right back to the length it had been before!

“All right then, what kind of lifts should I do next?!?!”

Then! At that moment! The room to the door swung wide open and in barged none other than Aria!

“Wataru! Hey hey, boyyyyyy~!”

She looked nothing like the Aria we have come to know and love! She had always worn a simple, pure white dress, but the dress she wore now was an eye-popping crimson! Massive black sunglasses covered her eyes, and she wore a golden necklace around her neck and a silver bracelet on her wrist! How unbelievably stylish of her!!

The instant Aria had gotten her hands on a huge amount of money, she’d gone on a spending craze that apparently knew no bounds! “Price” had no meaning for this wealthy young lady!

“Oh, hey, Aria, nice to see you here! I’d really appreciate it if you stopped going around wearing all that ridiculous stuff, though!!”

“Please, Wataru, don’t you lecture me! You went and wasted a bunch of our hard-earned money on a bunch of fitness equipment!” Aria took off her sunglasses and looked around the room, completely exasperated! The twenty-square-meter room was filled with barbells, dumbbells, treadmills, and a variety of other workout equipment! It was not at all the type of room you’d expect the two-time savior of the world to live in!!

“Hey, it’s my room, all right! ...Anyway, what do you want today?”

Aria answered Wataru’s question with an evil grin! “The truth is, I’ve brought along a surprise guest with me here today!”

“Huh!? Who’re you talking about!?”

Aria turned and called out to someone beyond the door! “You can come in now!” Slowly, the door opened wider—to admit a woman inside! She had sharp, clean facial features, and long, silky blue hair! Covering the rest of her body was spiky, sharp, wicked-looking black armor!

Yes, it was Résistance!

“Résistance! It’s you... but you only just left us! It’s too early for a reunion episode!”

Without a second thought, Wataru’s instinctive reaction was to criticize her sudden appearance!!

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Wataru?”

“It’s only been two months! What the hell happened!? Why’d you come all the way out here to the Sky Kingdom!?”

Résistance folded her arms with a most serious expression! “I’ll get right to it: I’ve come today because I have something to tell you both. I could’ve just written a letter, but it’s an important announcement, so I wanted to tell you face-to-face.”

“Oho...... An important announcement, you say?”

“Just what do you have to tell us!?!?” Aria tilted her head to one side! Despite having led Résistance all the way to Wataru’s room, it seemed as though she had no idea why she was back in the Sky Kingdom!

Just what in the world might Résistance need to tell the other two!?

With a solemn expression on her face, she stared at her friends, took a deep breath, and then opened her mouth to proclaim—

“I’m actually... going to debut as a novelist this month!”

There were several seconds of silence, then—!

“Résistance, please. Would you just cut that out?”

“She’s right, Résistance! Stop lying!”

Neither Aria nor Wataru believed her in the slightest!

“I’m not—! I’m telling the truth, you know.” Résistance was most resolute!

Aria, however, simply could not hold back her laughter any longer! She was literally doubled over in mirth! “Ahaha! Résistance, you could never be a novelist! Back when we were trying to get the second orb, your writing was completely awful!”

Wataru and Aria had discovered, through their ordeal as described in Chapter Two: “Chaos! A Novel Challenge for the Orb!” that Résistance had absolutely no talent when it came to writing novels! None whatsoever! It was quite ridiculous of her to claim that she was soon going to debut as a novelist!

“What happened was that as I was writing the outline for Dark Taboo ~The Forbidden Abyss~†, I remembered how fun it is to write. So that’s why after I split up from you two, I resolved to finish up my novel all in one go. After I got done writing it, I sent it off to a publishing house, and they told me they wanted to buy it!”

“Weren’t you supposed to be off training to become a better martial artist!?!? Do that first!” Wataru yelled at her, perfectly calm!

Aria was still a little suspicious of Résistance’s story! “Even though you’ve just told us how you did it, I still can’t believe you are going to be a novelist! If the publisher thought it was good enough to print, please show us your manuscript!”

Résistance responded with a firm nod! “I thought you’d say that. I brought along a copy of the prologue for you to read. Take a look.” Résistance pulled a tightly rolled scroll out from somewhere inside her armor and passed it to Wataru! He unfurled the scroll and ran his eyes across what was written there, all the while with a Nio’s stern countenance!

“I can’t read!!”

Yes, that’s right! Wataru can’t read the language of this world! But how, then, you may ask, does he manage to speak with his friends just fine!? We don’t care about that right now!!

“That’s fine. Here, I’ll read it.”

Aria gently took the scroll from Wataru and began reading aloud from the parchment!!

◆ ◆ ◆

Dark Taboo ~The Forbidden Abyss~

Prologue: “Loneliness,” or, Solitudinem

My name is Lucifer. I, an Avatar of Shadow, live here, in this world covered with misery and darkness—the Infinite Hell, or rather, ~Infinitus Infernum~. An Avatar of Shadow is more commonly referred to as a demon.

I loved a woman, once; her name was Tiara. She’d been the most beautiful demon in all of the Infinite Hell, and we had promised one another that we would spend the rest of our days together.

One day, however, she was murdered.

She was killed by one from the race of “humans” that had trespassed into this world.

The moment I learned how she had died, my heart was filled to o’erflowing by a vicious desire for vengeance. I immediately set out to find the killer. Using my special demonic ability ~Obscura Virtute~, I slipped into the human world, alone.

Right now, I am in the middle of a town at night. Everywhere I look, I see sharp, neon light. Humans walking all over the place. A herd of them surrounds me, lost as they must be in the confusion of haphazard buildings standing helter-skelter around the place we stand.

The name of the town was... Tokyo, as in, Le To’kyou.

I shove my way through the crowds, until I’m standing at a busy intersection of two streets where people are walking, practically scrambling, in every direction. I look up to the sky and beseech the full moon above in a solemn mutter: “Where is the one who killed Tiara...?”

Then, that’s when it happens.

“......?”

Suddenly, every person around me stops walking. The loud music playing in the nearby cars stops as well.

Yes...... Time has stopped.

From behind me, I hear the sound of a man laughing.

“Heheheh... Like a moth drawn to a flame...!”

“!?”

I instantly whirl around to face him. Standing there was a man looking most suspicious, dressed in an all-black, hooded cloak.

“You bastard! You stopped time......”

“I did indeed. I wanted to fight you one-on-one. I used my power to stop time around us both.”

“Why would human filth like you have power?”

Allow me to explain to all of our Darkly Enthralled Readers what they are discussing. When it says “power” here, they’re actually using a word in a celestial language, describing abilities that normally only angels and demons are allowed to possess. Ever since Adam and Eve had been cast out of the Garden of Eden, it had been Forbidden ~vetiti~ for humans to have powers.

“I forgot to introduce myself—I am Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third. The other day, I journeyed to the world you live in, the Infinite Hell ~Infinitus Infernum~, where I, a human, killed Tiara.”

“What......... did you just say.........!?”

I’m shocked. This fool, this human, has just told me that it was by his hands that my beloved Tiara had been murdered.

Unconsciously, I let go of the mental break that had been holding me back from using my full infernal power; I am now in Battle Mode ~Proelium Modus~.

“I am the head of an ‘organization’ known as the Right Arm of Divinity, or ~Dextrum Brachium Sanctum~. We have one goal, and one goal only: with help from the angels above, we shall exterminate every last one of you demons.” Though his face was in shadow from beneath his hood, his right eye flashed gold as he said this. I instantly realize exactly what’s going on.

“So that’s what’s up. The angels are involved in this whole charade, huh?”

Without a moment to lose, I activate my Dark Power ~Obscura Virtute~, and in my right hand, a weapon materializes. The weapon, a greatsword, reflects the light of the moon above in a most strangely brilliant way, twisting and breaking its pure white light. I call it The Eternal King of Destruction ~Rex Interitus Aeternam~”

“Now, then... Let us see how your life ends here, at the hands of a demon, me!” I laugh in a shadowy manner.

The next instant, I am flying through the air at the speed of darkness. As I’m closing in on my enemy, I swing down my sword upon his head.

However—

As my sword cuts Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third in twain, his body bursts into a million tiny balls of light, which then disappear.

“What...... was that......?”

I hear his voice again from behind my back.

“Such a shame! That was only an illusion.”

How can this be? I completely fell for that obvious trick.

Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third stabbed his dagger into my back. “Heh, all too easy...” he whispers with laughter.

My own body turns into tiny particles of light, and I disappear.

“What...... just happened.........!?”

Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third is most surprised by this turn of events.

“Ha! Such a shame, right? That was just an illusion.”

I walk around from behind his back to face him once more.

Yes—he’s not the only one that can cast illusions. With this Dark Power ~Obscura Virtute~, I too can create illusions of myself.

“Dammit!”

“Farewell, Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third.”

And so I swing my greatsword, The Eternal King of Destruction ~Rex Interitus Aeternam~, through the air and slice through my enemy’s back.

—Did I kill him?

—No.

“Such a shame. That, too, was just an illusion.”

“How...... did you do that......?”

The Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third I’ve just cut in half yet again dissipates into tiny particles of light and disappears. I realize that once again, he’s manoeuvred behind me.

He shouts in triumph. “Now, you have surely met your end!” Once more, his dagger plunges into my back.

Then—my body becomes tiny particles of light, and I disappear.

“What...... How......?”

“Such a shame! That was another illusion of mine.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Wataru, do you mind if I stop reading this now?”

“Yeah!! Aria, you really pushed through that!! Nice job!!”

Wataru had been completely silent as he listened to Aria read the novel, and now he was completely exhausted from the ordeal!! Résistance frowned at them both!

“Whoa there, you two. There’s still more of the prologue left to read. Lucifer, the protagonist, and his mortal foe Mirage Eclipse Catastrophe the Third have just begun their battle!”

“Nope, we don’t need to read anymore.”

“Résistance!” Wataru demanded, “Is this novel seriously going to be published!?” His face remained, as ever, as stern as a Nio!

Résistance nodded and answered, “Yes, obviously.”

“That’s...... impossible! How can a novel like this get a publisher? The setup is bizarre and the battle scene is completely phoned-in! Just how many times do we need to read about them creating illusions of themselves...!?”

“Résistance, what’s the name of the publisher that offered to buy your book?”

“Sky-Novel Club.”

Both Wataru and Aria turn to look at each other with mystified looks on their faces!

“They agreed to publish... this!?””

“Make no mistake, Wataru: every single editor at that publisher is an incompetent idiot...!!”

Dear Readers! Let me remind you once more that this story is entirely fictional! Any names in this book have absolutely no relation to real people or organizations!!

“Hey, quit it, both of you,” Résistance said. “Stop saying rude things about my publisher. They were able to see how talented I am as a writer. They’re pretty all right, you know.”

She sighed and placed both hands on her hips! “Well, anyhow... I’m going to be continuing my travels now, training as both a martial artist and making my debut tour as an author.”

“What is this world coming to...!?”

“By the way, just in case you’re curious—my pen name is ‘Résistance, a.k.a., ~La Rebellatrix~’.”

Aria had some rather harsh criticism for that! “Don’t you think that’s a bit too on the nose?”

“Well, whatever. I’ve told you what I’ve come to tell you about, so I’m going to be on my way now. Once things have calmed down a bit more, I’ll come back and visit.”

“Yeah! Take care, Résistance!!”

“Thanks.” With a big, wide smile on her face, Résistance waved to the two of them, then left the room!

Wataru and Aria, now alone inside the room, looked at each other once more with expressions of total mystification!!

“Wataru...... I have an idea......”

“......What is it, Aria!? Tell me!!”

“...If Résistance can get published writing a novel like that... Don’t you think that the story I wrote could be published, too...!?”

“I was thinking the same thing!!” Wataru agreed, his face contorted up into that of a Nio!

Aria nodded to herself, folded her arms and shouted: “Excellent! I’ll get right to writing! If I become a novelist, I’m sure lots of people will be fawning all over me! I-WILL-BECOME-A-NOVELIST!!”

“I think your motives are a little suspect, but... who cares! I’m rooting for you!”

“Thank you so much, Wataru! Together, we’ll be standing at the top of the literary world in no time!”

Within her eyes glowed the flames of ambition!!

◆ ◆ ◆

Without further ado, Aria fetched some parchment paper and brought it to Wataru’s room, and together they began thinking about the plot for her novel!

Aria glared and groaned at the blank parchment in front of her at the table! “Hmmmm, this really is quite difficult, isn’t it...!”

“You wrote an outline for that romance story before...! It was called ‘Melty Love’ or something, right!? Why don’t you just turn that into a novel!?” Wataru was quick to offer advice from where he sat across the table from her, but his words failed to dispel the troubled look on Aria’s face!

“Well, of course I’d like to do that, but the whole ‘Amour Mélange’ outline was something I thought up on the spot... If I tried turning that story into a full-length novel, I think it’d actually be quite hard to write. Maybe I should just take my time and think up an entirely different setting for my story...”

“You’ve got a point...!”

Wataru and Aria found themselves quite perplexed by the complex vagaries of the literary activity known as Writing a Novel!

—and that’s when it happened!!

Wataru was struck by an idea that was devilishly tempting!!

Hey, that’s right! If we just copy popular stuff I read when I was back in Japan, maybe it’ll be popular here as well!?

Yes! This is a parallel world, so even if Wataru were to completely plagiarize something he read back in his former home, Japan, not a single person would find out!!

Sure, there may be others like the Demon Lord, the dragon, and Wataru, who all came from that world into this one... But surely it’ll all turn out okay!!

I kind of feel like it’s kinda ethically dangerous to do something like that, though... But... What if I didn’t completely copy something else, and just used part of it? That should be fine!!

“Wh-What’s the matter, Wataru? You look even more grim than you usually do!”

Aria sounded concerned! Wataru slowly folded his arms and opened his mouth to say:

“I’ve thought of the perfect setting for our book, Aria...!”

“Oh, um, really!?”

Aria’s eyes were practically dazzling with admiration when she heard this!

“Yeah...! That publishing company will definitely buy this story! It’s the best setting ever!!”

Wataru, just now... sold his soul to the Devil!

“So what kind of setup were you thinking of?” Aria was really excited to hear his answer! And so Wataru began to explain his thoughts in detail!

“Well, first of all... our protagonist is a pirate!”

“Oooh, a pirate, you say! That’s rather common for an adventure story!” Adventure tales that had pirates as the main characters seemed to be fairly popular, even here in this fantasy world!

“Right, but this guy’s different! He’s a pirate, but his body is elastic!!”

“His body’s elastic!?”

Aria was astonished! She’d never heard of such a shockingly outlandish idea for a main character!

“This protagonist of ours is searching for a hidden treasure, hidden somewhere in his world... so he goes off on an adventure with his friends! He has, uh... two friends, at the beginning!!”

“That makes sense. I think if you want to write a long-running series, you need to start off with only a few characters!”

Aria bobbed her head up and down as she agreed with everything Wataru suggested! She began making some notes using the pen and parchment on the table in front of her!

“Cool, now we can talk about what his friends are like! The first one is the protagonist’s best friend, and he’s a detective with amazing powers of observation!”

“Oho! A detective, you say? It’s rather novel to have a pirate and a detective working together, if I do say so myself!”

“The detective, by the way, looks like a child but is actually an adult! They got involved in some past incident with a shady organization where they were made to drink some crazy medicine that shrunk their body!!”

“What!? S-Shrunk their body!?”

Aria was yet again beside herself with surprise! Surely there’s a limit as to how many “interesting” new ideas can be crammed into one novel!

“So he looks like a kid, but has the brain of an adult... That difference in real age, versus apparent age is really important!”

Wataru’s expression was contorted with anger as he explained this! Then he took a deep, gasping breath before continuing on!

“The other friend is a yellow mouse that can shoot lightning bolts out of its body!!”

“A mouse!?!?”

Aria had her socks knocked off thricely! It was absurd! Preposterous! Who’d ever heard of an electrifying mouse appearing as a character in a novel!

“I guess I should mention that the mouse obviously can’t talk—but he’s a really good fighter! When it comes time to sell merchandise, he’ll be a great mascot character for the series!!”

“R-Right......! Yeah, every popular novel or franchise has a mascot character nowadays, don’t they!!”

Aria was honestly impressed by how deeply Wataru was thinking about this! He’d included considerations of future merchandising when thinking of her story!!

“Since the main character’s a pirate, there’s obviously gonna be some battle scenes, adventures, episodes when he makes new friends, and a whole lot of other interesting plot twists! It’ll be the ideal multi-volume series!!”

“I’ve no doubt that it’ll be explosively popular, Wataru!! By the way, what are we going to name this series?”

“The title? Hmmm, that’s a good question...!”

Wataru grew silent as he stroked his chin for a few moments, then his eyes flashed open wide as if he’d just been struck by lightning:

“Live from the Sky Kingdom on the Wind Continent: The Pirates!!”

He’d just copied the whole title from other, more popular series!!

But Aria had no way of knowing that!

“Hmmmm, that’s a bit long, isn’t it? Sure, it’s better than Jacob Yamada’s ‘It’s Me, a Shy Orc Loner with a Heart of Gold (Notice Me, Senpai!) Who Got Reborn In Another World, a.k.a. “Isekai,” Where I Am Getting Into All Sorts of Troubles, Hijinks, and Shenanigans, Oh My!,’ but still......”

“It’ll be just fine, Aria! This title has, you know... That feeling of being a well-loved title for many years! Don’t you think so!?!?!

“U-Uh, I’m not sure, but if you say so...?”

“I do say so!”

And so this was how Wataru half-forced Aria to adopt “Live from the Sky Kingdom on the Wind Continent: The Pirates!!” as the title for her novel!!

◆ ◆ ◆

With Wataru’s help in deciding the setting, the characters, and the title, Aria then spent three days and three nights hard at work writing the epic first volume of Live from the Sky Kingdom on the Wind Continent: The Pirates!! The very moment she finished, she mailed off the manuscript to Anytown, Wind Continent, where Sky-Novel Club had their offices! A mere one month later, they received a reply from Sky-Novel Club!

“1027... 1028... 1029...!”

Wataru was lifting his one-ton barbell in his room, same as always, when all of a sudden Aria slammed the door open and entered the room!

“Wataru! Sky-Novel Club sent us their reply!!”

She was practically yelling with excitement as she waved around a white envelope in her left hand!

“Whoa, nice! It’s finally here! What’d they say!?”

“I haven’t read it yet! Let’s see what they have to say together, Wataru!”

“Yeah! Let’s do that!!”

He laid down the barbell on the floor, wiped away the sweat on his brow with a towel, and walked over to where Aria stood with the letter! Aria, heart nearly bursting with anticipation, tore open the letter and read what was written on the single page inside!

“......So, what does it say!?”

Wataru kept peeking over her shoulder in an attempt to catch a glimpse at the letter, but he still couldn’t read it! Or any other written materials in this world! Wataru, hit the books!

“Um, let’s see here...”

Aria began to read the letter aloud!

“To be perfectly frank, the novel you wrote was completely uninteresting. It’s unbelievably lame that the pirate protagonist can stretch his limbs like they’re made of rubber. Then there’s the detective. It’s totally unrealistic to have a character that looks like a child, but has the brains of an adult. What’s yet more ridiculous is the suggestion of an electrifying mouse as a mascot character—that doesn’t sound cute in the slightest. It also has that weird cry—‘bibabu～♡♡!’—what in the world were you trying to convey with that? Finally, we have the title: ‘Live from the Sky Kingdom on the Wind Continent: The Pirates!!’ That’ll never be popular. Please, do yourself a favor and pick up a book like, ‘It’s Me, a Shy Orc Loner with a Heart of Gold (Notice Me, Senpai!) Who Got Reborn In Another World, a.k.a. “Isekai,” Where I Am Getting Into All Sorts of Troubles, Hijinks, and Shenanigans, Oh My!’ by Mr. Jacob Yamada, or the more recently published ‘Dark Taboo ~The Forbidden Abyss~’ by Ms. Résistance, a.k.a., ~La Rebellatrix~. Read one of those so you can find out what a real novel is like.”

“......!!”

“......”

The air inside the room was suddenly very heavy! Claustrophobically so!!

“......Hey, Aria.........!!”

“......What is it, Wataru......”

“......All the editors at this ‘Sky-Novel Club’ place really are awful, aren’t they!!”

“Without a doubt!”

Let me remind our Dear Readers one more time! This story is entirely fictional! Any similarity to real people or organizations is entirely coincidental!

And so it was that Aria’s dream of becoming a novelist and having “legions of adoring fans” came to naught, all hopes of achieving such a life scattered to the four winds by that cruel letter! Happily ever after! Happiest ever after!!