"So if you lose, you lose?"
How could he say something like that so easily?
Wouldn't losing hurt? Wouldn't it be painful? Or was it that he had already grown used to failure, so numb that it no longer mattered?
But with that level of talent in writing, how could he possibly have such an attitude?
Reina stopped walking. The cool composure on her face faded by more than half, replaced by a kind of anger that had nowhere to go, leaving her cheeks faintly flushed.
Her emotions surged. She wanted to say something, anything, but…
What could she say?
Haruto was free. If he wanted to slack off, that was his choice.
"All right, I'm home. I'll head in now," Haruto said, pointing toward the apartment complex he had recently moved into.
"Your home… wasn't it somewhere you had to take the train to get to?" Reina started, then stopped.
"That place was sealed by the court because of my father's debts," Haruto said with a smile. "I can't go back there anymore."
He turned and walked toward the complex. After taking two steps, he paused, turned back, and smiled at her again.
"Reina, I may not be as smart as you, but I'm not that clueless either. I can roughly sense how you see me."
"After all, when Blue Spring Ride and Yesterday's Starlight ended, Yesterday's Starlight ranked second in both score and votes in Fleeting Blossoms, while Blue Spring Ride took first in both."
Reina looked at him silently.
"If the gap were several ranks, it probably wouldn't matter much," Haruto continued. "I've never felt frustrated just because my test scores were worse than the top student in class. After all, I'm usually near the bottom."
"But when you're just one rank away from being number one," he said calmly, "if that were me, I'd definitely feel unwilling to accept it."
"You want to take revenge on me with your next novel, right? After playing so many games together, I have a pretty good idea what kind of person you are."
"The more you lose, the more you want to win."
Reina stared at Haruto, who stood a few meters away, smiling faintly, completely at ease.
From their first meeting in the elevator at Crimson Maple Literature until now, she had known him for four months.
Finally, he understood her.
Finally, he noticed her existence.
At that moment, a wave of indescribable emotion welled up from deep inside her chest.
Her nose stung slightly.
"But," Haruto added gently, "my new work probably won't be that easy to beat."
He spoke as softly as he could.
After all, they had spent more than two months together. He did feel a certain fondness for her, his former game student.
He was simply giving her a precaution, so that if his new work really did have some unexpected brilliance later on and she lost again, it would not hurt quite as much.
Haruto meant it sincerely. There was no mockery in his words. But to Reina, the earlier sense of warmth vanished instantly.
In her ears, Haruto's sentence…
"My new work probably won't be that easy to beat."
….had already been automatically translated into…
"You have no chance of winning against me."
This was the difference in how people with different personalities interpreted the same words.
Her fist clenched.
Too arrogant. Far too arrogant.
But the loser, even a temporary one, had no way to refute such words. Anything she said would only sound like powerless rage in the eyes of the winner.
"Heh."
After hearing Reina let out a strange laugh that did not fit her usual image at all, Haruto slung his bag over his shoulder and walked straight ahead without looking back.
Under the setting sun, her fighting spirit burned intensely.
Shaking his head, Haruto headed home.
He could tell that Reina had a strong competitive drive toward him, but he had never realized just how intense it was.
April passed quietly.
In early May, the second volumes of Blue Spring Ride and Yesterday's Starlight were released as scheduled.
By now, the first volume of Blue Spring Ride had surpassed four hundred thousand copies sold. Thanks to strong support from readers outside the prefecture, its sales growth in the later stage exceeded expectations.
As for the second volume of Blue Spring Ride, because Crimson Maple Literature treated it as a top-tier release, its sales improved noticeably compared to the first volume.
First-week sales reached two hundred and ten thousand copies, instantly claiming first place on the prefectural light novel single-volume sales ranking in early May.
Tankōbon sales were a key indicator of a novel's performance. The most important metric was average sales per volume. Light novels varied greatly in length. Comparing the total sales of a twenty-volume series to a two-volume series was obviously unfair.
Average volume sales, however, told a different story, though they required a longer time span to calculate.
That was why, for newly released volumes, people usually judged success by weekly and per-volume sales.
And Blue Spring Ride Volume Two ranked first in single-volume sales among all new releases in the prefecture during the first week of May.
Even though the novel had ended a month ago, its fan loyalty remained strong.
Yesterday's Starlight Volume Two, meanwhile, sold over eighty thousand copies and placed ninth on the weekly chart.
These sales figures were officially recorded in the author profiles of Shiori Takahashi and Airi.
Then, on Monday, May 8th, both Haruto and Reina received a message from Yukino.
"Wednesday. Bring your new manuscripts and come to my place."
Both of them felt their hearts skip a beat.
They knew exactly what it meant for Yukino to contact them at a time like this.
Vacancies had opened up for new serializations in Crimson Maple.
That evening, after returning home, Reina locked her bedroom door, pulled out a document envelope hidden in a corner of her bookshelf, and took out a thick stack of densely written manuscript pages.
The concept for her new novel had started forming two months ago, and she had begun writing a month earlier.
Over this long period, she had revised it again and again, scrutinizing even a single word or sentence with extreme care.
Holding the manuscript in her hands, she felt excitement mixed with anxiety.
The future was always full of unknowns.
Haruto, after getting home, took out the first three chapters of AnoHana and read through them twice.
To be honest, he was nervous too.
But what made him uneasy was not what the later plot might reveal, or whether there would be some stunning development. What worried him was that the early plot might not be exciting enough.
Would it pass the serialization meeting?
On Wednesday, after school, both Haruto and Reina prepared themselves.
They did not leave the school together, but when they reached the train station, they noticed each other almost simultaneously. Since their chance encounter on the road, they had barely spoken for more than two weeks.
"Hey," Haruto greeted her first this time.
But Reina's attention was not on him.
It was on the document envelope in his hand.
'That… is his new novel?'
Half an hour later, the two arrived at Yukino's apartment complex, entered the elevator with practiced ease, and went up to her place.
"You're here?"
As soon as they stepped inside, they saw Yukino sitting upright on the sofa, waiting for them.
She wore a black office outfit, her hair tied into a neat bun, with a loose strand falling by her ear. Her beautiful face looked serious as she studied the data report in her hands. She seemed far more like a professional editor than her usual relaxed self.
"It's been over a month since I last saw you two," Yukino said after looking them over carefully, then smiled. "You really haven't changed at all."
"Honestly, I'm kind of hurt. The novels ended, and you could have come over as friends, but neither of you showed up even once," she added jokingly.
"That's… because we didn't want to disturb your rest," Reina said softly.
"You're usually very busy."
"Excuses. All excuses."
After teasing them briefly, Yukino's expression turned serious.
"All right. You know why I called you here today, so I won't waste words. I'll get straight to the point."
"Next week, Crimson Maple will open a competition for two serialization slots. Two weeks after that, there will be another slot."
"That means three serialization slots will be decided at the same meeting next Monday, because the schedule is tight."
Haruto and Reina's expressions sharpened.
"But," Yukino continued, "the competition is fierce. As far as I know, at least ten veteran authors from this prefecture with strong past results are eyeing this meeting."
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