Ichin himself had never been a big fan of Dark Souls' PvP content, but with so many players constantly discussing it, he eventually pushed the "improve online matchmaking" project onto his schedule.
He planned to handle the online systems personally, while handing the main DLC2 content to the rest of the team.
After all, he had already completed the planning—everyone just needed to follow the blueprint. The team was no longer full of rookies, so nothing major should go wrong.
Starting from late October, Ichin estimated the update could be released together with The Ringed City.
So, while keeping up with his university coursework, he also began improving the game's online mode.
Utaha was just as busy—aside from coursework and writing her novels, she occasionally had to respond to questions from actors in the drama adaptation. Fortunately, as filming progressed, the actors' understanding of their characters deepened, so there weren't many issues anymore.
And then, in mid-November, something Utaha had long expected finally happened.
Her identity as Kasumi Utako was exposed.
It began at the start of the month. She and Machida Sonoko visited the filming set. Because of the weather that week and the red autumn leaves reaching peak season, the director considered revising parts of the script to use the scenery—and invited Utaha to give her opinion.
At the same time, the drama's promotional activities had begun, and the name "Kasumi Utako" was already appearing in promotional materials. So a reporter collecting information happened to notice it.
After a few days of digging, the reporter confirmed Utaha's real identity. Then, when releasing an article with some behind-the-scenes drama-shooting details, he exposed her identity as well.
Originally, no one planned to reveal it. But Kasumi Utako's reputation in the light-novel world had been sky-high for two years. Once someone finally uncovered her true identity, it inevitably became a hot topic.
As soon as the news dropped, Utaha's campus life became anything but peaceful.
Especially in the Literature Department—there were many girls there, and quite a few were her readers. For several days she couldn't walk two steps without someone asking her for an autograph.
In the end, Utaha couldn't take it anymore and approached a professor in the department. Only then did the students finally behave themselves.
After her identity was exposed, curious netizens naturally also discovered her relationship with Ichin.
They couldn't help it—Persona had been one of the most popular games in the community these last two years. The two main scenario writers were "Kasumi Utako" and the game's producer, Ichin.
Only now did players realize that Kasumi Utako was actually the boss's wife.
No wonder she suddenly became the game's scriptwriter back then!
So this is what they call a "winner in life."
Same senior high school class, then both got into Tokyo University… too amazing!
Both not even graduated and already so successful.
Online discussions went wild, and of course people also talked about the new romance drama she worked on. But since it was a romance series, most gamers weren't that interested. At best, they planned to watch a few episodes when it aired.
At the company, after reading several reports online, Ichin turned to her and asked,
"How do you feel? Should I get someone to suppress these articles?"
Utaha smiled and shook her head.
"No need. I don't have any scandals for them to dig up. You didn't see? Those entertainment outlets stopped writing about me after the first wave. Now people at campus are discussing it less too. As long as it doesn't affect my campus life and reporters don't bother me outside, I'm fine. If someone really tries to stir trouble later, I'll ask Aunt Sayuri for help."
Since Utaha had already thought it through, Ichin didn't press the issue. Sayuri already knew about everything anyway, and would probably call Utaha soon.
Sure enough, within minutes, Utaha's phone rang.
"Hello? Aunt Sayuri?"
Hearing their conversation, Ichin quietly stood up and slipped out of the office toward the dev team.
In the end, Utaha's situation caused only a small ripple, and it didn't affect the two of them at all. Within a week, everything had completely calmed down.
Utaha only had one public social-media account—a Twitter run entirely by the publisher. They only posted updates about book releases, anime announcements, and merchandise. There were never any private posts.
Even after her identity was revealed, Utaha still didn't announce any signing event.
Many readers wanted her autograph or hoped for a signing session. When they couldn't get answers from Kasumi Utako's account, they flooded the publisher's official account.
After over a day, the official account finally responded:
After discussions with Kasumi Utako-sensei, she will not be holding any public events, including signing events. We respect the author's wishes and apologize to the fans.
There was nothing the readers could do—Kasumi Utako was one of the publisher's biggest moneymakers, had connections, and brought in huge profits, so the publisher had no reason to pressure her.
A few autograph sessions wouldn't even bring meaningful revenue. Her popularity was already more than solid, and organizing such events required manpower and budget—completely unnecessary.
Readers, seeing even the publisher say this, could only hope for the occasional giveaway events where they might win signed copies.
It wasn't really a problem anyway—plenty of authors in the industry don't hold signing sessions. Kasumi Utako's stance wasn't strange enough to spark backlash.
The only reason readers wanted one so badly was pure curiosity after the identity reveal.
After a bit of excitement, the publisher conveniently released news about Kasumi Utako's upcoming new volume. Instantly, reader attention shifted away.
Utaha's second series was already reaching its finale. Every volume had been outstanding, and Kyoto Animation had already secured the rights for Season 2 early on. In an era dominated by isekai adaptations, hers was a complete outlier—and still one of the highest-popularity titles.
Just like that, time moved on to December.
Dark Souls' DLC2, The Ringed City, was finally about to launch.
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