"Finished. Congratulations!"
"It's over. Yesterday's Starlight has been with me for two whole months. Thankfully, this new author, Airi, really held it together. I was honestly scared she wouldn't manage to properly close all the foreshadowing."
"I hope Volume Two of the paperback comes out soon. I already want to buy it and keep it."
"I don't know when Airi-sensei's next work will be released, but I'm officially a loyal fan now."
"Honestly, looking back now, Yesterday's Starlight was still a bit immature in places. But compared to other light novels, veteran readers can tell that from Chapter One to Chapter Thirteen, whether it's the plot or the prose, there's a growing sense of vitality and individuality."
"A lot of light novel authors can rely on experience, technique, and sheer volume of reading to write something that average readers can enjoy all the way through. But novels like that become boring once you've read too many."
"Yesterday's Starlight is different. You can clearly feel that the author deliberately avoided formulaic storytelling and genuinely wanted to write something in her own style from start to finish. That might be why, even though it only ranked third in Fleeting Blossoms, its paperback sales were still so strong."
"As long as Airi keeps this creative state, her future is bright. I've been reading novels for twenty years. I don't know how to write, but I know how to judge. I'm calling it now. Once Airi matures, her achievements won't be low."
"Wishing Airi-sensei massive success with her next work. One book to fame across the country."
"Putting everything else aside, next time let's use that 'Shiori Takahashi' as a sacrificial blade first. They're both students from Minamijo Third High School, around the same age, and both rumored to be beautiful girl authors. Yesterday's Starlight and Blue Spring Ride even started serialization in the same issue of the same magazine. From Chapter One until now, Yesterday's Starlight has always been suppressed by Blue Spring Ride, and I've been annoyed about it the whole time."
"Same here. Really annoyed."
"Next time, all of us Airi fans need to unite and crush Shiori Takahashi's fanbase. The title of Minamijo Third High's number one light novel author needs to change hands."
On the day Yesterday's Starlight concluded, a flood of comments appeared on Crimson Maple Literature's official platform.
That night, Reina sat alone in her room, quietly staring at the screen filled with messages of encouragement and support from her readers.
Her expression remained cool and calm as ever, but inside her chest, it felt as though a blazing fire had been lit.
At the beginning, writing novels had probably just been driven by curiosity and a faint stirring of emotion. She herself had never really thought about how long she would write or how far she would go.
But now, seeing so many people supporting her, a warm and complicated feeling welled up in her heart. She did not want to lose. She did not want to disappoint those who believed in her.
That emotion completely occupied her mind at this moment.
In that instant, Haruto's calm and confident face surfaced in her thoughts. Some people aim for fame and fortune, high positions, great wealth, and a perfect life.
For a long time, Reina herself had also been working toward self-improvement, aiming to become a top-tier elite in society once she grew up.
The specific industry did not matter.
What mattered was achieving that title of elite.
Only that label was worthy of her talent and ability.
That was why she learned everything.
School subjects went without saying, but also piano, painting, flower arrangement, etiquette, golf, skiing, and various competitions.
Yet deep down, she knew she had never truly found joy in any of it. She was simply following a set path, striving and working hard for the sake of an elite life.
In truth, that was also a form of confusion.
When ordinary people do not know what they want, they give up and drift aimlessly.
When geniuses do not know what they want, they learn everything and excel at everything. Even if they do not know how those skills will be used in the future, at least they are not wasting time.
But now, on this night when Yesterday's Starlight had ended, the emotions rising within her pierced through that long-standing confusion.
They told her clearly that at this moment, the goal she valued most was to create outstanding work and completely defeat Haruto. The day after Chapter Thirteen of Yesterday's Starlight was published, all of its final statistics in Fleeting Blossoms were released.
Overall rating: 8.9, second place in the magazine.
Reader votes for this issue: 5,681, also second place.
Meanwhile, Blue Spring Ride maintained its 9.5 rating and remained firmly in first place, with 10,989 reader votes, also first.
No one had expected that two works submitted by complete newcomers would, two months later, occupy the top two spots in both ratings and votes in Fleeting Blossoms.
But this was the end of the road for Yesterday's Starlight. Even with the boost from its finale, the gap between it and Blue Spring Ride remained substantial.
Over the course of two months, Reina's writing quality steadily improved with every installment, from Chapter One to Chapter Thirteen.
Yet even after the final chapter was published, even though her results surpassed every other author in Fleeting Blossoms, she still could not surpass the fellow newcomer serialized alongside her, Shiori Takahashi. For a while, many editors at Crimson Maple Literature could not help but sigh over it.
Haruto knew nothing about the turbulence in Reina's heart over these days. He did not even realize that he had become her new target.
After all, the two of them had not seen each other for two weeks.
Class Three and Class Seven were in different buildings. Even wandering the hallways during breaks, there was no chance of them brushing past one another.
These days, Haruto had been focused entirely on figuring out how to adapt AnoHana from an anime into a light novel.
But when the weekend arrived, he temporarily put that work aside, because this day was also the release date of Blue Spring Ride's final chapter.
Unlike Yesterday's Starlight's conclusion four days earlier, Blue Spring Ride's finale drew responses not only from local readers but also from fans in other prefectures, who flocked to Crimson Maple's forums to comment.
At this point, the first volume of Blue Spring Ride had surpassed 320,000 copies sold.
Within the prefecture, its popularity and sales had reached a level where, even compared to strong titles serialized in Fleeting Blossoms, or even against works in top-tier magazines, it did not lose out, despite its weaker promotional resources.
In terms of reputation and fan loyalty, none of the serialized works in those five magazines could clearly surpass Blue Spring Ride.
That 9.5 rating was unique among all mainstream light novel magazines in the prefecture. Even the most popular works in other magazines usually hovered between 8.6 and 9.0.
Still, no matter how outstanding a work was, fan enthusiasm rose quickly and faded just as fast.
Blue Spring Ride was excellent, but it was impossible for it to remain unforgettable to readers for a long time.
Within a few days, discussions about the ending dropped by more than half. Two weeks later, most local readers had already shifted their attention to other strong titles on the market.
Of course, by late April, promotional campaigns for Volume Two of both Blue Spring Ride and Yesterday's Starlight officially began.
Thanks to the outstanding performance of their first volumes, Crimson Maple Literature invested heavily in promoting the second volumes scheduled for early May.
As a result, both works saw their popularity rise again toward the end of April.
However, Haruto and Reina had already shifted their focus entirely to their next projects.
April 25th, Minamijo Third High School.
Haruto walked out of the school gate, preparing to head home.
Not far from the entrance, he spotted a familiar figure. Beneath a black-and-white school skirt were long, straight, slender legs. Her hair reached her waist, and her fair, delicate face carried a hint of nervous guilt. Standing near the roadside, using the reflection in a shop's glass door, Reina saw Haruto exit the school.
She naturally turned her head toward the school gate, pretending to notice him by chance, then showed a surprised expression and spoke up first.
"Haruto. W-what a coincidence."
_______________________
Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters