Ranobe no Pro! Volume 1 – Chapter 1 Part 3

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Chapter 1 Part 2 | Project Page | Chapter 1 Part 4

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After that, I started working on Eirasu volume 11’s afterword, while Yuma began cooking dinner.

It’s 17:00.

Being told that the dinner is ready, I stopped writing.

“Yota, you are always staring at your computer, huh.”

As she continued cooking, Yuma said it with a tone filled with admiration and amazement.

“It’s work, after all.”

“You are writing all day long without going outside, right? It’s impossible for me~ How to say it, hmm… I’d be like, ‘uwaaaa~’, or something like that.”

Well, that’s more a matter of disposition or how different people are cut out for different things.

It isn’t really hard at all for me to stay at home all day. In fact, I’m enjoying it. While there are a lot of authors who write at a family restaurant or rental spaces because “they cannot concentrate at home”, I’m definitely a stay-at-home type.

In the first place, half the reason why I became an author is because “I can work without even taking a step away from my house”. If I’m writing somewhere besides my house, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that 50% of my reason to become an author would vanish.

With the cooking lined up on the table, the dinner’s preparation is all but finished. However—

“Isn’t this a bit grand?”

Omurice. Salad. Roasted beef. Spinach quiche. There is even a pudding for dessert. The roasted beef does look like it was pre-cooked, but the rest are all homemade. Ever since I started living alone in Yokohama, Yuma has cooked for me couples of times before, but today’s cooking feels especially luxurious in particular.

“Well of course, it’s the dinner of a 25 million yen great author, after all.”

“Hey, you…”

“I’m just kidding.”

Hmm? Now that I think about it, she bought me the ingredients before I told her about my annual income.

“Today… I, I’m thinking of doing a celebration.”

Yuma said it as she turned her eyes away and fidgeted while entwining her fingertips.

“Celebration? Did something happen?”

“Err… It’s the anime celebration party for Yota or something like that, I guess?”

“……”

I was taken aback by her reply which came out of nowhere. An awkward silence ensued afterwards, but Yuma quickly started speaking.

“I, I mean, look. You had been very busy with it, right? Taking a break from college and staying at home all day getting chased by anime-related works.”

“Not really… I wasn’t really getting chased by it all that much. I was certainly busy, but some parts of it are just me making things busy on my own anyway…”

Cramming all my works together and taking a break from college are all done on my own will. Well, I do feel like congratulating my old self who thought “Who came up with this stupid schedule? Please die for fuck’s sake,” when things got chaotic.

“Even if you are college student, you can’t even hang out with your frie… ah.”

“Hey! What’s with that ‘ah which sounds like a slip of the tongue!? That ‘ah’ which sounds like you’re reconsidering something!?”

“A, anyway—finally, you have completed the first stage, right?”

“Ah, yeah.”

All the bonus light novels are done, and so is the stupid project called “Yota Jin’s April Consecutive Publication!” which ran alongside the anime’s airing period. Really, who came up with such a shitty project? ……I did.

It’s fine to say that I have completed the first stage of my anime-related works. That’s why I thought of doing a new project, and also why I thought of hiring an assistant for tax measure.

“And that’s why, today is a celebration party. Well… You worked hard, after all, so I thought of showing you a bit of appreciation.”

“Yuma…”

“W, what is it… Huh. Be grateful, okay? I cooked this with five times the time and effort. I spent the same amount of money as usual too.”

“…Didn’t I already pay you for the ingredients earlie—“

“Okay, okay! No need to think about the details! Sit down, sit down!”

Yuma forcefully ended the conversation and urged me to take a seat. As we sit side by side in front of the square table, Yuma started pouring oolong tea from a plastic bottle to a tumbler.

“In any case, I should have bought alcohol too.”

“It’s okay. I don’t really drink alcohol, and your alcohol tolerance isn’t really that high either, right?”

“Ah, now that I think about it, you’re abstaining from alcohol, aren’t you? Ever since you did something at last year’s award ceremony afterparty or something.”

“…Yeah.”

At last year’s Phoenix Bunko Newcomer Award Grand Prize ceremony—at the first award ceremony I attended after turning 20… Well, a lot of things happened. Ever since then, I have sworn in my heart to never drink any alcohol again.

“Well then, to celebrate the anime adaptation, and to pray for the author Yota Jin’s continuous efforts and hard work from now on, cheers!”

“Cheers.”

Clink. A refreshing voice resounded in the small room. After taking a gulp of the oolong tea, Yuma reached out her hand for the ketchup.

“Oh, right. I will draw that for you. That, errr… That rabbit plushie owned by the little girl with blue hair in Eirasu…”

“You mean ‘Ussy’?”

“Right, that one! I really love that plushie. It’s so cute.”

“If you really like it, at least remember the name. You don’t even read my own work, and yet you only like the mascot character.”

“Uh… Isn’t it fine? I like cute things.”

Saying it with a prim face, Yuma started scribbling on the omurice using the ketchup. But since she doesn’t really have the artistic ability of an illustrator, Ussy which is supposed to boast a surreal level of cuteness in the original work’s illustration was reduced to a grotesque, twisted design. I thought that as I stared at the dejected Yuma who went, “…Eh? It’s not supposed to look like this…”

For my continuous efforts and hard work from now on, huh…

Exactly. It’s exactly right. I have to work even harder from now on. I can’t let myself think that I have already accomplished something.

The anime has ended. My anime-related works have also ended.

However, something like that is not even a goal.

To put it better—it’s no more than a checkpoint.

It’s an everyday life.

It’s an everyday life for a light novel author, and for someone who calls himself a pro.

It doesn’t matter if it gets an anime adaptation or not, if it becomes a media mix project or not, if it sells or not; what an author should do never changes. Even if other works like supervising adaptations or attending autograph sessions and talk events come, all of those are ultimately a daily routine. The job of an author, the essence of an author, is only one.

It’s to write.

It’s only to write.

It’s to write a story—to keep writing a story that the readers will find interesting.

That is the only essence of being an author, and yet another part of everyday life.