My Sister and my New Story

"Alright, got it updated."

It's Wednesday morning and in my living room updating my story like I normally do. I top it off with my usual black coffee.

"Good job Onii."

Karen's munching on a toasted sandwich as she says that to me. And as usual, our banter begins.

"Fuu...."

"What's wrong Onii? You seem less perky than usual."

"Really? I don't really think I'm acting that different."

"You aren't saying your usual gross statements today."

"So your only basis on my mental state is how many gross comments I make?"

Well, Karen does have a point. Since the beginning of this week, I've been heavily sleep-deprived.

"Well, I've been updating my story more frequently now. I've been staying up late too."

Up until now, I've updated once every morning, but now I update twice a day with one in the mornings and one at night. Because of that, I've been going to bed pretty late nowadays.

"I see."

Her voice is drowned out by her munching on strawberry shortcake.

"Don't push yourself too much Onii."

"You serious Karen?"

"If you say you'll rent a younger sister, I'll take the doorknob from your room."

"Hey, don't do that!"

Ping

I hear the notification sound come from my laptop.

"Ah, he never skips a day."

"Nira-san?"

"I really am thankful."

By the way, Nira-san has been sending me messages at night too. Seriously, does he ever sleep?

"Today's chapter was also really good! Ryousuke-kun was such a man today! The way he gave Maika-san that ring made my chest thump so much (The fact that the ring was made of bamboo was awesome too!). So this is the end? It's been such a fun ride, thank you so much, author! PS: Thank you for updating the story as frequently as you have, don't overwork yourself though!"

"Ah, thank you so much Nira-san."

Since I've been updating more frequently, the burden I've been putting on myself increased a lot. But with this, I believe I can continue towards my path of fulfilling my promise with Rin. Also, having Nira-san and everyone else's encouragement helped out a lot. I just feel so thankful towards all of them.

"By the way Onii, you're done with your story?"

After I finish typing out my reply to Nira-san, I hear Karen ask me that, which makes my heart skip a beat.

"Ka-Karen!? Don't tell me you were following my story the whole way through..."

"Well, I just happened to find the first chapter."

I found myself just happen to fall over.

"Ah, Ishikawa-Kun?"

"Yeah, yeah, he said it felt like it was ending soon."

"Someone that young is able to guess when my story is going to end, he has the makings of a genius."

I definitely need to meet up with him sometime. Now that I have some breathing room, I should definitely host a party.

"You're already thinking of making a new story?"

"Of course!"

I give her a thumbs up.

"My next work will be set in a dark alternate universe. The protagonist gets kicked out of his party when he suddenly awakens the omnipotent power that will allow him to dominate everyone. That's the basic synopsis."

"So, you're doing another fantasy story."

"Well, I do need to expand my horizons and improve my abilities."

"Huh..."

"What's wrong?"

"Umm you know, it sort of feels like you enjoy yourself a lot more when you're writing romance stories. It feels weird when you don't."

"Ahh..."

I get what Karen means when she says that. It's kind of apparent that my enjoyment is way higher when I write modern romance.

"But if I don't then things might not go as well for me..."

I made a promise to Rin. If I want to be a pro author, I need to get my work published somehow and fantasy stories have the best odds of getting noticed. I'm planning my next story with that in mind. If I want to get published, going with the trends and doing something that's popular is my top priority.

That's why I have to write a fantasy story.

It's very clear that on the top of the rankings for the fantasy genre are stories about cheats, being stronger than anyone else and making harems. I have to incorporate those elements if I want a story to get published. Once enough readers are interested and want to keep reading, they'll bookmark it and my points will increase. Once I accumulate enough points, I'm sure publishers will start to take notice.

It's a simple plan.

I thought I would continue writing fantasy when I first started out. In the end, my writing abilities were simply not good enough, Although it was pretty popular, it wasn't good enough to get noticed by publishers. Because I was down on myself, I decided to write a modern romance story on a whim.

Even though I decided to start on an impulse, I analyzed the trends of the genre and tried to tailor my work accordingly. Compared to fantasy, since there's not that many out there, I thought I would get noticed by a publisher, but that never happened. The amount of views, bookmarks and eventually points I received was considerably less compared to my fantasy work.

I definitely noticed that there's no way to go against the demand of the crowd. I let out a sigh as I mull that over in my head. I make a fist as I tell Karen something.

"I want you to tell Ishikawa-kun something. For my next work, I might not be able to meet his expectations."

Karen was quiet for five seconds before she said anything.

"Alright...."

Karen nods in response, but she looks dissatisfied. Her gloomy facial expression combined with my nagging in her chest felt like dark storm clouds signaling something ominous to come.