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When he got home, Mahiru Shiina and Nanami Aoyama still hadn't returned.
So Andrew decided to boot up his computer and log in to his author account under the pen name Twilight Sky.
The moment he opened his page, he saw that his latest work was flooded with positive comments. Many readers who'd just sampled the preview were already eagerly looking forward to what came next.
In fact, the comment section had split into two distinct camps—one fiercely defending the tsundere blonde twin-tails, the other swearing allegiance to the seductive black-stockinged upperclassman.
Of course, a few negative reviews had popped up as well.
Andrew scrolled through them for a while, but quickly lost interest.
This was only his debut work, after all. He had plenty more stories to write—stories that would shake the world!
His goal was nothing less than to dominate the light novel industry, crush Yamada Fairy beneath his word count, and claim the throne of best-selling author.
As he continued browsing, one particular comment caught his eye.
"Twilight Sky-sensei, can we be friends? I'm Roshiko."
Roshiko?
Wait a second—could that be Kasumigaoka Utaha?
The genius beauty of the light novel world he'd admired from afar for so long?
The very same woman who'd inspired him to create Queen Tsukimiya, the regal heroine in his own story?
Well, this was getting interesting.
A friend request from her? There was no way he wasn't accepting that.
On her side, Kasumigaoka—mid-typing away at her own manuscript—saw the friend request notification flip from "pending" to "accepted," and instantly sent him a message.
"Hello, Twilight Sky-sensei. I'm Roshiko. I wonder if you've ever read any of my light novels?"
Seeing the upperclassman being so polite, Andrew naturally wasn't going to leave her hanging.
"Of course—'Love Metronome,' right? I've definitely read it. And if you've read my work, you might have found something… familiar."
Reading that, Kasumigaoka arched an eyebrow. There was only one conclusion to draw from his reply.
So he really has been paying attention to me.
Roshiko:"Yes, I did find something familiar. The black-stockinged, white-headband-wearing Tsukimiya… she's based on someone real, isn't she?""And her personality… is she modeled after my heroine, Sayuka?"
Twilight Sky:"That's right. There's a very beautiful senpai at my school. I once caught a glimpse of her from afar and thought, 'She'd make the perfect light novel heroine.'""Then I read 'Love Metronome' and borrowed Sayuka's personality, combining it with the Queen's appearance. Looks like it worked pretty well."
For some reason, Kasumigaoka felt her cheeks warm up at that.
Finding out that the junior she was chatting with had actually used her as the blueprint for his heroine gave her a strange, indescribable feeling.
She took a deep breath, pushing aside the odd thoughts, and shifted into a more serious tone.
Roshiko:"Twilight Sky-sensei, I'm actually stuck in a bit of a writing slump. Would you mind giving me some advice?"
Twilight Sky:"Advice might be too strong a word—you're my senior, and your prose is way beyond mine. But we can definitely discuss writing together, maybe help each other improve."
Roshiko:"Then I'll be blunt. I'd like you to look over the second volume of 'Love Metronome.' Miss Sonoko suggested I cut it short, but I really don't want to give up on it."
Twilight Sky:"Cut it? That bad, huh? Send it over—I'll take a look and let you know."
She sent him the manuscript file.
Roshiko:"Sorry to bother you so late, Twilight Sky-sensei. Just read it whenever you have time—your reply can wait. I'm logging off now."
Twilight Sky:"Got it."
Once the chat ended, Andrew settled in to read the second volume of Love Metronome.
If you were going to charm a girl, you had to take her work seriously, right?
It didn't take long to finish.
Well… her writing style was still as polished and elegant as ever—far beyond anything he could manage.
But the plot… that was another story.
The problems were everywhere.
The characters felt off, almost like their personalities were falling apart.
Volume One had been a sweet, down-to-earth school romance about the male and female leads meeting and growing closer.
Then in Volume Two, she'd suddenly thrown in fantasy elements—completely out of nowhere. Some of the scenes were downright absurd.
Worse still, Volume One had ended with the leads officially getting together, raising readers' expectations sky-high.
But Volume Two's relationship scenes were painfully bland. The date chapters felt empty, almost like they'd been written by someone who'd never been in a relationship before.
It was obvious that when it came to romance, Kasumigaoka was a complete novice.
Now that he understood the core issues, Andrew quickly wrote up a long, detailed critique and sent it to her. She was offline, though, so she'd only see it tomorrow.
With that handled, Andrew hopped into an online game and invited his in-game "wife," Tamaki Ako, to team up.
This time, it wasn't just the two of them—they pulled in members from their adventurer's guild as well.
Somewhere along the way, the guild leader brought up meeting in real life, suggesting the end of the month, on a weekend.
Andrew, curious to find out if the girl who kept calling him "husband" was actually a girl, agreed to the plan.
After logging off, Andrew noticed Shiina Mahiru still wasn't home. He was about to sneak a taste of Lady Haruno's cooking when his phone rang—Machida Sonoko was calling.
Machida Sonoko:"Twilight Sky-sensei, I've heard back from the illustrators you asked me to contact—Eri Kashiwagi and Eromanga-sensei.""Eromanga-sensei says she's too busy. She's already taken a commission from Yamada Fairy for an isekai adventure series.""But Eri Kashiwagi says she'd be happy to be your illustrator. She wants to discuss the details in person."
Andrew grinned.
Twilight Sky:"Then it's settled—let's go with Eri Kashiwagi. Just tell me when she's free."
...
"By the way," Machida Enko's voice came through the phone, "she should've already sent you a friend request on your author account. Make sure you accept it when you see it."
"Got it, I'll check right now."
Once she'd said her piece, Machida hung up.
As an editor, her days were always packed—meetings, manuscript reviews, and endless back-and-forth with authors.
Speaking of manuscript reviews…
That writer who called herself Black Cat had submitted something again today.
Machida couldn't help but feel a kind of grudging admiration for this stubborn newcomer. The poor girl had been rejected over a dozen times, racking up more than a million words in total. Yet every single week, without fail, she sent in another manuscript.
In terms of raw writing speed, Black Cat was the kind of author every editor dreamed of.
It wasn't that Machida didn't want to sign her—it was that the work just wasn't publishable.
The niche themes were one thing, but her favorite subject was "The Queen of Nightmares," packed with cringey, over-the-top dialogue and a barrage of deep anime references. Unless you'd watched every obscure anime and read every rare light novel, you wouldn't even understand half of it.
And then there were the settings. So many settings.
Her self-made lore alone took up more than ten pages. Black Cat's stories didn't read like light novels—they were more like setting books for a doujin game.
Leaving poor Black Cat to yet another rejection, we shift over to Andrew—
He logged into his author account again and, sure enough, saw a friend request from Eri Kashiwagi.
He accepted instantly.
Almost immediately, a message popped up:
"Hello, are you Mr. Twilight Sky? I'm Eri Kashiwagi . Thank you so much for considering me and inviting me to be your illustrator."
"Um, do you have time this weekend? I'd love to meet in person and discuss the light novel's illustrations in detail."
After all, you couldn't just start drawing without at least looking over the original settings—and the illustrations had to have the author's stamp of approval to be considered truly professional.
Andrew agreed without hesitation.
"Of course, Kashiwagi. I happen to be free this weekend—how about Saturday morning? We can meet at Chiba's most famous maid café. Does that work for you?"
"Of course! It's a deal!"
Back in her room, the blonde girl lying face-down on her bed let out a cheer, her face lighting up.
"Yes! Finally, someone's hiring me to draw illustrations—and it's for a hot, up-and-coming author, too!"
If she played her cards right, maybe she could even land the manga adaptation rights for his work down the line.
Eri Kashiwagi, for the record, often drew 18+ ecchi doujinshi. Anyone who didn't know her personally would assume she was just some creepy, overweight otaku.
In reality, Eri Kashiwagi was a mixed-blood, twin-tailed blonde beauty—none other than Eri Spencer Sawamura, one of the heroines from Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend.
She didn't actually want to draw erotic manga—what she really wanted was to be a legitimate, professional mangaka.
Now that such a chance had come along, there was no way she was letting it slip by.
Reading over her chat with Twilight Sky again, Eri couldn't help feeling a spark of anticipation toward him.
Meanwhile, Andrew had already used his magic to instantly teleport to Haruno Yukinoshita's side.
"..."
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