How to raise a random guy's wife

Page 11

Kasumigaoka Utaha crossed her arms over her chest. "It's because of self-righteous, arrogant people like you that so much hard work gets turned into garbage. You're just an idiot."

“Not stupid, but wicked,” Kobayashi Sora corrected. “They’re all about the return on investment, so they’ll only use three-tenths of their effort, never three and a half. Add to that the internal struggles and unequal distribution of profits, and the final budget for production is minimal, yet they pin their hopes on the popularity of the original work to make a fortune for themselves. How can you possibly create a good work with that bunch of idiots?”

"Then what makes you think you're the same as them?" Kasumigaoka Utaha leaned closer again. "Because you're just like them?"

“No, it’s different.” Kobayashi Sora laughed, her smiling eyes like a fox’s, her thin lips like a snake’s tongue about to flick out. “They are trash, and I am the trash of trash. What’s mine is mine, who wants to share with them?”

Kasumigaoka Utaha's lips parted slightly, a barrage of sarcastic remarks swirling around her lips, but she couldn't bring herself to say them. "You... are still a high school student. Just because your methods work now doesn't mean they will work in the future."

Kobayashi Sora was somewhat surprised. "I thought you would be sarcastic or cynical."

"Reality will mock you for me." Kasumigaoka Utaha leaned back in her chair. "I don't need to say anything more."

Kobayashi Sora chuckled, "Well... I'll wait and see."

“The idea is good, but there are very few people who have the ability to operate independently with copyright, such as…” Kasumigaoka Utaha paused.

For example... Akane Akasaka, the founder and first representative of the super popular doujin circle RER.

She is notorious for being stingy with copyrights, binding her own works with contracts. If a publisher does not abide by the contract and tries to sell the work to another media, she will transfer all the copyrights of the existing works to another publisher.

As if seeing through Kasumigaoka Utaha's thoughts, Kobayashi Sora raised an eyebrow, "Like Akasaka Akane?"

“She has strong creative abilities as a backing, otherwise the publisher would never have agreed to her contract,” Kasumigaoka Utaha said frankly. “To replicate her success, you need her talent, diligence and creative ability.”

"So I need your talent, diligence, and creativity," Kobayashi Sora replied truthfully.

Kasumigaoka Utaha laughed in exasperation, "What's mine is yours?"

“Okay,” Kobayashi Sora nodded. “I agree.”

"I disagree!" As she said this, a seed of hope sprouted uncontrollably in Kasumigaoka Utaha's heart. Becoming someone like Akane Akasaka was the dream of many authors, but Kasumigaoka Utaha knew the difficulty involved. This was not a field that a new author like her could venture into.

And now, a hand called Kobayashi Sora reached out from that realm, right in front of her.

Cooperating with him would be like asking a tiger for its skin.

But... what if...?

It still requires a period of observation. More importantly, we need to find something to hold over Kobayashi Sora, just as we found her weakness.

Kasumigaoka Utaha recalled the image of Kobayashi Sora averting her gaze unnaturally.

Hmm...it doesn't seem too difficult.

"I've heard a lot of nonsense," Kasumigaoka Utaha said, regaining her languid and sleepy demeanor. "Let's focus on doing a good job with the interview first."

"So, any progress on the new book?"

"It's still a story that takes place in that town." Kasumigaoka Utaha yawned and slumped onto the table.

"So, will characters from the previous game appear? Or will supporting characters from the previous game take on leading roles?"

"I can't say for sure..."

"We could try to find an opportunity to do a collaboration project in Undead magazine to revive 'Love Metronome' and attract survey results back," Kobayashi Sora thought of a good idea. "And what about the storyline?"

"It's about boys and girls meeting, dating, arguing, breaking up, making up, repeating this several times, and then they become a couple."

Kobayashi Sora: "Yes, it's a romance novel that continues the delicate and multifaceted expression of emotions from the previous work."

Chapter 16 The fickle nature of young girls

“Ah,” Kasumigaoka Utaha seemed to suddenly remember something, “but Machida-san said I can write more funny and cute content this time.”

"While the previous work received positive reviews, it ultimately consisted mostly of serious scenes, resulting in many comments such as 'It was so sad to read it' or 'The content wasn't enjoyable,'" Kobayashi Sora read through the notes. "Therefore, the new work attempts a romantic comedy that differs from the previous style, allowing more readers to appreciate and understand the charm of Kasumi Shiko."

"I didn't think that much about it..."

"That is a non-purposeful self-breakthrough."

"I never thought about that kind of thing, nor did I say anything like that..."

"That's all for the discussion about the new work." Kobayashi Sora drew a dividing line in her notebook. "Next, we'll focus more on the author, Kasumi Utako, whom readers are very curious about. Where did you get your inspiration for this story?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha remained silent for a long time.

Inspiration?

When the first volume of "Love Metronome" was first released, there was no sign of it being reprinted. The editor-in-chief even predicted that it would be canceled after three volumes. However, when the second volume was released, sales suddenly increased due to a strong recommendation from a fan's blog, TAKI, and it became a popular work.

This TAKI is Aki Tomoya, who was the first to arrive at the first autograph session for "Love Metronome".

When a junior from the same school appeared before her as a fervent fan, praising her enthusiastically and even creating a website that increased her work's sales by 30%, Kasumigaoka Utaha naturally developed feelings for Tomoya.

Afterwards, she had many discussions with Tomoya about the development of the work, and some of the content was even written with Tomoya's opinions in mind.

She poured her heart and soul into writing for a book lover, and in response to this persistent fan, she repeatedly revised and argued with the editor, never giving up until she completed the work.

However, when she tried to show the final volume of the manuscript to Tomoya and get his thoughts, Tomoya rejected her along with her feelings, saying that he "could not be responsible for this work."

He knew perfectly well that he wasn't referring to her artwork, yet he used it as a pretext to reject her feelings.

Kasumigaoka Utaha lay slumped over the table, seemingly asleep, but her hands were unconsciously clenched tightly. This feeling...

"I finally felt a spark, but you made me lose so completely..." Kobayashi Sora suddenly said, "Damn it."

Kasumigaoka Utaha raised her head with an unfriendly look. "What did you say?"

"It just came to mind, don't worry about it." Kobayashi Sora waved her hand. "So the source of inspiration is a sudden flash of inspiration that cannot be expressed in words. Does that mean that Ms. Kasumi Shiko is an inspiration-based writer?"

"Whatever you say goes..." Kasumigaoka Utaha yawned. Her sleep schedule was irregular; she would start writing whenever she had inspiration and wouldn't sleep until she had exhausted her inspiration. "Let me sleep for a while."

"That's enough. I'll polish it a bit more and then hand it over to the deputy editor-in-chief." Kobayashi Sora packed her things. "That's all for today's work. If you want to sleep, go home and get some."

Where are you going?

"Go home and continue polishing the manuscript."

“Write it here.” Kasumigaoka Utaha looked at the sofa in the conference room. “I’ll sleep here, and I’ll check it when I wake up.”

Kobayashi Sora frowned slightly. "I remember you don't look at anything other than your own original manuscript."

“I don’t know where you got that information,” Kasumigaoka Utaha noticed the change in Kobayashi Sora’s expression, leisurely got up, and then collapsed onto the sofa, “but women are very fickle, you know.”

I discovered Kobayashi Sora's second weakness: she dislikes things not going according to plan.

“…Okay.” Kobayashi Sora took out her notebook. “If you don’t mind the noise of the keyboard.”

“That’s my daily routine.” Kasumigaoka Utaha took off her high heels, her delicate toes stretching out in her black stockings, soft light filtering through her fingers and casting hazy shadows on the ground.

She lay on her side on the soft sofa, her legs slightly bent and pressed together, her pantyhose rubbing against each other, making a soft rustling sound.

Kobayashi Sora put on her headphones, listened to the recording, typed on the keyboard, and combined her notes to refine the final draft.

Kasumigaoka Utaha rested her head on her arm, using her thick eyelashes to cover the gap in her open eyes as she observed Kobayashi Sora's movements.

To be fair, Kobayashi Sora, when she's working hard, doesn't have that fox-and-snake vibe she used to have; she actually looks much better now.

Wow, there really are people like that! They look much better without any expression than when they have one.

My fingers were very nimble, flying up and down, and I barely touched the delete key.

When she's inspired, Kasumigaoka Utaha can do the same thing.

That means the thought process is complete; all that's left is to type out what's in your mind, which requires a very high level of proficiency in text input.

Her sudden request to sleep here was not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Just now, Kobayashi Sora's gaze shifted unnaturally, revealing a weakness in him to her.

It seems that he lacks the courage to directly confront the charm of young girls.

A virgin man?!

Regardless of the actual situation, let's verify it first.

Kasumigaoka Utaha is very interested in the future depicted by Kobayashi Sora, but lacks knowledge about Kobayashi Sora herself.

This is a necessary trial-and-error process.

If he tries anything improper while she's asleep, Kasumigaoka Utaha will absolutely not cooperate with him, and even if she does, it will be within safe limits.

If he remains unmoved, then at least we can feel a little more at ease.

If he has the desire to steal but lacks the courage, then necessary measures must be taken to control him.

Kasumigaoka Utaha made a muffled sound, lazily adjusting her position on the sofa to make her breathing as long as possible, creating the illusion of being fast asleep.

Suddenly, she noticed that Kobayashi Sora's hand movements paused.

Is it coming...?

Immediately afterwards, Kobayashi Sora stood up from her seat.

Are they coming?

Kobayashi Sora walked out of the conference room.

Kasumigaoka Utaha: "......"

Ran away?

The footsteps gradually faded away and eventually disappeared completely.

Kasumigaoka Utaha opened her eyes and looked towards the door.

A moment later, footsteps sounded again.

Kasumigaoka Utaha quickly closed her eyes again.

The door was opened and then closed.