This is the story of the downfall of Kiso Kusunoki, the man who fucked Okani Mitsuhiro’s ex-wife.
The tale begins with Kiso’s early days at the publishing house.
“I’m Kiso Kusunoki, your new hire! Hope we can all get along!”
He was assigned to the editorial department of Takanawa Books.
Kiso bowed his head politely to his new colleagues.
“Right then, Kiso-kun. You’re going to work under Okani-kun. Learn what you can from him first,” said Vice Editor Uematsu. Kiso looked at the man he had just been introduced to.
He was tall, with a certain deadness in his eyes.
Otherwise, he was rather unremarkable…
(Wow, so my mentor is a dull old bastard. I’d have preferred a woman.)
“I’m Okani Mitsuhiro. Nice to meet you, Kiso-kun.”
“Yeees. It’s Kiso here—please take care of me, Senpai!”
Seeing Kiso act so casually… “Kiso-kun.” “What?”
Okaya spoke in a somewhat stern tone. 『Use proper honorifics, will you?』
Suddenly, he had no idea what was being said.
But quickly, he realized he had been reprimanded.
『We editors are going to be interacting with outsiders from here on out. In a business setting, that flippant way of talking risks provoking their displeasure and, at worst, could result in them refusing to do business with us』 『………』
『Be careful with how you speak. Do you understand?』
What Okaya had pointed out was a perfectly reasonable instruction coming from his mentor. …And yet.
(…Huh? Who’s this old man to be ordering me around like that?)
In his mind, Kinosawa clicked his tongue.
(What right does some mediocre geezer have to act so superior? I hate guys like this the most) 『Kinosawa-kun. A response?』 『Yeah, sure, noted』
『……Well, fine. I’ll show you around the facilities today. Follow me』
Following Okaya’s lead, Kinosawa muttered curses inwardly.
(Working under such a pompous old bastard forever… man, I’m sick of it. Can’t we get someone else?)
Takesani was led by Okaya on a tour of the company’s facilities.
“Hey, San-Oka, what university did you graduate from?” ”…Kyōryū.” “Hah?! No way!” …Kyōryū University.
In this country, it is an elite university that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Hasegawa.
(For a washed-up loser like you to be from Kyōryū… damn it, that makes me even angrier. Seriously fucking pissed off. You just wish you were dead.) “What about you, Kisugawa-kun?”
“Ah… well… I mean, it’s nothing special, right!”
He couldn’t possibly be from a third-rate university. He had his own pride.
Now, there is one question that must occur to you.
That being: despite coming from such a mediocre school, how did he manage to get into a major publishing house?
The Takana Group has many highly educated editors, including Okaya and Aematsu. (Aematsu is a Tōdai grad). So how did he get in?
(I introduced my young girl to President Nakanawa of Takana and secured that job at the major publisher) Kisugawa excels only in his appearance.
He leveraged acquaintances from his college days, using them as a conduit to land the position through connections.
(Sigh… stuck in the department for juvenile reads, and under the supervision of this infuriating old man… damn, so unlucky.)
『By the way, Kiso-kun, what kind of light novels do you like?』
As he guided them through the facility, Oka asked.
To him, it was just part of communicating with a junior colleague.
『Hah, sure… Honestly, I don’t give a damn about light novels.』 『…Is that so?』
『Yeah, but I actually wanted to work at a manga editor’s office! Look, between light novels and manga, aren’t manga considered more highbrow, right? They have a much longer history, too!』
…He was implicitly calling light novels vulgar and historically insignificant. Hearing that, Oka…
『Kiso-kun. It’s fine to joke around like this with fellow editors, but you must never show that kind of attitude toward an author. It could easily cause trouble.』
…This was also a warning to the junior colleague Kiso, meant to ensure he wouldn’t get into trouble. However…
『Huh? Why do I have to hear such things from you?』
Kiso twisted his face in disgust and abruptly changed his demeanor.
『It’s so annoying, doing everything one step at a time. Can you please stop bringing up unrelated topics outside of work?』 『…I see. My apologies.』
Oka said nothing more after that. But that was when it started.
(God, that old man is so fucking annoying)
The reason Kiso started feeling a grudge toward Okaya was— ★
It had been about six months since Kiso had transferred to the editing department when one day…
『Kiso-san, I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like writing here anymore.』
『Hahhhhhhh??!』
The location was the conference room of Takana’s editorial department.
Sitting before him was a young man wearing a white suit.
『Wh-what are you saying, Mr. Hakuba!?』 Shiroba Oji.
Arts Magic Online…… The author of AMO.
AMO is the story of swordsmen living in a virtual reality, set within a VR game.
It was a massive hit that had been adapted into anime and movies, making its creator a celebrity ranked number two in the industry.
And it was this ultra-veteran light novel author that Kiso ended up being assigned to handle……
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to work under your supervision.”
“What the hell? Did I do something wrong?”
”…It seems you have treated my apprentice quite harshly.”
Hakuba said this, openly displaying his hostility. “Wait… my apprentice?”
“You know Black Princess Elio, don’t you?”
“Elio… Elio… Ah! The middle school brat, right?” Black Princess Elio.
Recently, she submitted to the Takana New Writer’s Award and won it successfully.
Her winning work is Mr. Forgoing Who Secretly Puts His Feelers Out in Italian… She will debut under the abbreviation Ita-Dere.
Kisogawa was the first editor assigned to Elio, the author of Ita-Dere.
”… Editor Kisogawa. What do you mean by ‘brat’?”
Flames of distinct hostility flickered in Hakuba’s eyes.
“I admit that Elio is still a middle schooler. She may be younger than you… but isn’t she your business partner?”
「Ah, no… that’s… true though…」
“You lack respect for the writer. Not just how you speak—there’s no love in your work… for the author, or for the story itself.”
With a bam!, Hakuuma placed a single sheet of paper on the table.
“Isn’t that… the character roughs from Ito de Dore? The chararoughs.”
Chararoughs are the initial sketches submitted when an illustrator receives a request to design the appearance (forms) of a work’s characters.
“Take this rough, for example. The protagonist has blonde hair. But in this drawing, it’s red. What gives?”
“W-Well, but red stands out more, right? Didn’t you think so too!?”
Hakuuma let out a heavy sigh. “Haa…”
“Elio explicitly instructed for blonde hair. Didn’t I send you the instruction sheet?”
The instruction sheet is a document sent by the author to the illustrator containing rough specifications for the characters’ appearances.
In any case, the hair color Elion ordered and the one that was actually delivered were different.
“No, look, I mean, a blonde heroine is pretty generic, right? Red pops more! So, I figured you’d probably want to leave that kind of thing up to my editorial eye.”
”…I see. It was a change made by the editing team to make it sell better. I get that… but even so.”
With a thud, she slammed the tablet PC onto the table this time.
“How is it that you didn’t tell Elio about the change in hair color and just finished up the cover art? What was that?”
Elio had no idea that Kiso had changed her hair color on her own initiative.
In the dead of night, she had sent over the completed illustration unilaterally, with just a single comment: “Proceeding with this.”
…After seeing it, Elio consulted Shirouma about the matter, which is how they ended up here now.
“Huh? Well, I mean, covers are the editor’s domain, right? The author just has to write the prose, no?” “Cut the crap!”
Thud! Shirouma slammed her hand hard on the table.
“What is that attitude! We are not machines meant to only write words!”
“Uhh, please don’t get serious about something like this…” Shirouma let out a deep sigh.
”…My apologies. I got too heated.” “Nah, it’s fine, really.”
“I see. Then, Elio and I will never work at Takana again.” “Huh…!?”
Shirou stood up and moved to leave the room.
“W-wait, you’re joking, right?! Say something!”
Kisogawa clung desperately to Shirou’s leg as he tried to walk away.
“This isn’t a joke. Elio is… my precious disciple. I don’t want to give her such a sad debut by attaching edits that show no shred of respect.”
“B-but, Mr. Shirou, there’s no need for you to be the one leaving! P-please don’t say things like that, it’s so childish!” “Unpleasant. I’m going home.”
Shirou shook off Kisogawa’s attempt to stop him and made to leave again.
(Oh no! If the author of AMO leaves because of me! My reputation will plummet!)
He was in a total panic… when it happened. “Prince, what’s going on?” “Hikohide…”
Okaya Hikohide had poked his face out from the meeting room area.
Huh? Hikohide? Prince, what does that mean… do they know each other?
Ignoring Kisogawa’s confusion, Okaya began discussing things with Shirou.
After quickly gathering an account of the situation from Shirou, he…
“Professor Hakuba. I’m sorry.”
Okaya dropped to his knees right there and bowed his head in apology.
(What? Why is this old man doing a dogeza…?)
On the other hand, Hakuba stared wide-eyed and rushed over to stop him.
“M-Mitsuhiko! Please lift your head! There’s no need for you to go that far!”
“No, this is a failure of mine in properly guiding my junior. It was my mistake. I apologize, Professor Hakuba.” “Mitsuhiko…”
Hakuba let out a small sigh and said,
“I was wrong. I got too emotional. I’m retracting the withdrawal.”
Relieved, Okaya heaved a breath and stood up.
“Then, what about the illustrations?”
“I’ll bow to the illustrator and have them change it to the design specified by Professor Kurohime.”
“But… you aren’t even in charge of that part…”
“That was my failure as a supervisor. I’m sorry.” ……So he said, anyway.
Oka already wasn’t the editor-in-training for Kiso.
Normally, one would spend a year learning under a senior editor, but……
“I’m a full-fledged pro now, so please assign me away from Oka-san. She picks on her juniors, and I hate it.”
That was the direct complaint Kiso had made to Tsurukane Megumi, the editor-in-chief.
As a result, even though Kiso wasn’t yet at a level sufficient for an assigned role, she withdrew from Oka’s case purely due to her own selfishness. “I’m sorry, Hakuba-sensei.”
“No, it’s fine. I understand, Mitsuhiko. Please stop bowing your head.”
“I will go and apologize to Kurohime-sensei as well.”
“Ah, understood. I’ll let Elio know that.”
Thanks to Oka, we averted an unprecedented crisis: the defection of an AMO author.
Moreover, after this, Ita Dere became a massive hit.
It was a work destined to become one of Takana’s signatures, which nearly got ruined because of Kiso.
He only got off scot-free because Okaya covered for him… and yet…… In the bathroom.
‘Damn it! That old bastard! He’s such a pain in the ass! I’m sick of him!’
He burst into the stall, kicking the wall with all his might.
‘Fuck you! You shitty old geezer! Yeah, I didn’t do anything wrong! You’re the one responsible for my training! If you’d just taught me everything properly, I wouldn’t have made this mistake!’
…That incident reached the ears of Vice Editor-in-Chief Uematsu.
And for an hour, he was chewed out by Uematsu in no uncertain terms.
‘Damn it! Die! Go die! Okaya! I’ll remember this!’
…That was the first episode of Kiso River’s past.
He came to harbor a deep grudge against Okaya. This was before his downfall.
If he had turned over a new leaf at that moment and taken his editing seriously……
He wouldn’t have ended up in such a terrible spot later on……