Parallel World Light Novelist

Chapter 306: Chapter 305: The Turning Point

August brought the relentless heat of late summer to Japan.

Haruto braved this sweltering climate, traveling across Tokyo to promote the latest tankobon releases for both Sword Art Online and Hunter × Hunter. Because of Haruto’s involvement, Kiyozawa Library and Prime Manga had reached a mutual understanding; whenever a fan meetup was scheduled for either series, they would often hold a joint event. Haruto’s time was far too valuable to waste on redundant travel schedules.

"Here is some water, Haruto-sensei."

The assistant assigned to him by Kiyozawa Library promptly handed him a cold drink.

"Thank you," Haruto said, taking a long, deep swig. The icy liquid sent a refreshing shiver through his core.

"About the schedule for late August..." The assistant consulted her notebook, checking in on his availability.

"I won’t be available at the end of August," Haruto replied.

"I’ll likely be stuck at the university for a week. Graduation projects are starting, so I need to meet with my advisor and do some networking."

The assistant nodded with a smile and dropped the subject. From the perspective of Kiyozawa and Prime Manga, they would love for Haruto to visit multiple cities a month for promotion, but they knew that was a fantasy. While Hunter × Hunter and Sword Art Online brought in billions annually, the bulk of Haruto’s income still came from his own anime productions.

As the final frontier of the ACG industry, anime naturally possessed a market reach and profitability that far outstripped manga and light novels. By noon, Haruto was finishing up; by the afternoon, he was on a plane to another city for another event.

Sword Art Online and Hunter × Hunter had become such massive cultural phenomena that major corporations were constantly lining up for licensing collaborations. Haruto had to find the time to coordinate with his publishers and help their partners with promotion.

It was nearly 1:00 AM by the time he finally flew back and arrived at his villa in Tokyo. As he walked toward the house, he noticed that the lights were still on in all three rooms on the second floor.

Reina Fujimoto had essentially locked herself in her room for the past two weeks, grinding away at her new project. Since her confession had ended in failure, writing had returned to being her sole childhood dream. Haruto was the mountain that stood over every novelist in the current era; while people might not say it out loud, the industry had tacitly accepted him as the greatest writer of his generation. Though Reina’s feelings for him remained a tangled mess, her desire to surpass him had only intensified after the rejection.

However, she was finally maturing.

She no longer believed she was invincible, nor did she let her failure to reach a goal lead to mental self-destruction. She would give it everything she had, that much was certain, but she was now prepared to accept whatever result came of it.

To the left of Reina’s room was Shizuru’s. Her lights were also burning late into the night. She was pouring her soul into the latest Chapters of Hunter × Hunter. The story was currently moving into the second half of the Hunter Exam, the final phase, which consisted of a tournament bracket.

In Haruto’s memories, tournament arcs were a staple of battle shonen since the days of Dragon Ball. To be honest, Haruto found the final phase of the Hunter Exam to be the least interesting part of that specific arc. However, for the readers in this world, even tropes that felt old to Haruto were still fresh and exciting. You couldn’t always judge the market based on how things had played out in a different world.

Haruto let out a quiet sigh. None of them had it easy.

In the living room, Yukino was curled up on the sofa, resting quietly. She woke up at the sound of the door opening.

"You’re back?" she whispered, her eyes lighting up with a brief spark of joy.

"Yeah, I’m back," Haruto whispered back with a smile. They both kept their voices low to avoid disturbing the two artists working upstairs.

Haruto sat down beside her, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. "Sigh. You said you’d have time once summer break started, and we could go on a trip. I didn’t think you’d be even busier than before," Yukino lamented.

"I’ve noticed that too," Haruto admitted. "Once Sword Art Online, Hunter × Hunter, and Code Geass are finished, I’m going to stop pushing myself this hard. I’ll adjust my working hours."

"Otherwise, what’s the point of all this money? I won’t have the time to spend any of it. It would just be a lot of wasted effort."

"The problem is that you’re the biggest IP in the entire industry now," Yukino joked. "The entire supply chain, publishing, printing, magazines, merchandise, games, figures.... it’s an industry worth tens of billions of yen, both domestically and overseas, and it all revolves around your work. If you stopped, the capitalists would probably hold a knife to your throat to get an update."

"Let them try. Didn’t Haru-Yuki just hire a bunch of new people?"

"Starting next year, I’ll let the other production teams handle some original, independent anime. It’s not that I can’t come up with stories to feed hundreds of employees, but I’m genuinely out of energy. I’m flying to three different cities in a day and having to write light novel drafts on the plane," Haruto shook his head and then looked at Yukino.

"Forget it. Let’s not talk about work."

Haruto stood up, scooped Yukino into his arms, and headed toward his bedroom on the first floor.

"Hey, Haruto! Reina and Shizuru are still awake upstairs!" Yukino hissed, her face turning a deep shade of red.

"You know how good the soundproofing in this house is," Haruto whispered with a grin. "The living room is a common area, but once we’re in a private room, trust me, they won’t hear a thing."

The next morning, Haruto and Yukino were up early and heading to the office.

Haruto needed to hand over the latest scripts for Code Geass Season 2 to the production team, while Yukino had meetings with several overseas distributors regarding international licensing deals.

And just like that, Haruto’s summer vacation came to an end.

In early September, his senior year began. The atmosphere among his classmates had shifted completely. Some were hunting for jobs, some were cramming for grad school entrance exams, some were preparing to study abroad, and those inheriting family businesses were focused solely on their graduation projects. Surprisingly, Haruto found that he was less busy once school started than he had been during the break.

Two weeks passed in a blur, and episodes twenty and twenty-one of Code Geass were broadcast. As per the show’s established rhythm, political intrigue was interspersed with a bit of slice-of-life school drama. Specifically, the episodes focused heavily on the deepening bond between Suzaku and Euphemia.

In anime, character popularity rises incredibly fast whenever a creator gives them significant screen time. Previously, C.C. had been the undisputed queen of popularity polls. Shirley was a distant second, but she never posed a real threat.

However, after Shirley’s memory was erased, she had reverted to being just another member of the student council. She was polite to Lelouch, but it was purely professional. When people mentioned they used to be close, she was just confused. As a result, Shirley’s popularity began to fade.

In her place, the Euphemia and Suzaku pairing began to dominate the discussion. While fans still had a complicated relationship with Suzaku, they genuinely loved Euphemia. After episode twenty, Euphemia’s total votes in official polls reached 60% of C.C.’s, a massive surge.

Most fans didn’t realize the danger hidden in this narrative shift.

A few sharp-eyed viewers, however, were starting to get nervous. They remembered that Shirley had also been the center of the story for several episodes right before she was cut from the narrative.

Seeing the story focus so heavily on Euphemia felt like an ominous sign.

However, the majority of fans, lost in Euphemia’s charm, dismissed these worries. After all, Code Geass hadn’t killed off a single one of Lelouch’s friends yet. Even with Suzaku being as divisive as he was, Lelouch hadn’t killed him. He hadn’t even harmed Shirley after she found out the truth; he only took away her pain by making her forget. Even the early antagonists like Jeremiah or the Britannian officers were still alive.

The fans had convinced themselves.

"This is clearly the kind of show where the main cast and supporting characters are safe."

"Exactly. If Shirley survived that, no one is getting killed off. People are worried about C.C. or Euphemia being knifed, but that’s just ridiculous."

"The show might show the cruelty of war, but the protagonist’s plot armor covers his whole team. Everyone just relax."

"Technically, the only major death was Clovis in episode two. But that was so sudden it just made us think Lelouch was a cold-blooded killer. Since then, he hasn’t touched Euphemia or Cornelia; he just defeats them. Shirley is the ultimate proof."

"The plot has slowed down a bit. That’s probably why the ratings haven’t broken 6% yet."

"Wait, first season? Is there going to be a second season?"

"Definitely. It’s late September and the Black Knights haven’t even taken over Japan, let alone challenged the Empire. There has to be a second season. Or maybe it’ll just keep airing straight through the winter."

"That makes sense."

"But being stuck below 6% is so annoying. The haters are using it to say Haruto has lost his touch. Those comments are driving me crazy."

"Don’t listen to them. My friend works at Haru-Yuki Animation. He couldn’t give spoilers, but he said the upcoming plot is absolute fire. He said the show will either become a legendary masterpiece that fans worship, or it will crash and burn amidst their fury. There is no middle ground."

"The plot gets that extreme?"

"I don’t know, that’s just what he told me."

By the end of September, the popularity and reputation of Code Geass remained stable. Fans were comfortably settled into their routine of discussing the episodes on forums. While the ratings hadn’t broken 6% yet, they hadn’t dropped below 5.9% either, oscillating within that narrow window.

Then came early October and episode twenty-one.

From the very first scene set at Ashford Academy, the fans settled in for what they assumed would be another slice-of-life breather episode. It felt like the show’s standard pattern.

But just as the fans were preparing for a week of minimal plot progression, the end of the episode delivered a massive shock. Euphemia, who had been appointed as the Sub-Viceroy of Area 11, appeared on a global broadcast. She announced the creation of the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan. In doing so, she officially recognized the legitimacy of the Japanese identity and offered the people a chance to build a new society free of discrimination and war, all under the banner of the Empire.

With a single speech, the foundation of the Black Knights’ rebellion was shattered. If the people were granted their identity and equality, the slogan of "Liberating Japan" lost all its power.

Would the soldiers still find a reason to fight? It was a vision of a world without prejudice.

Furthermore, Euphemia publicly called out to Zero, inviting him and the Black Knights to join this new administrative government.

This development sent the CPU of the audience into a meltdown. They weren’t political scientists or historians, and while an objective look might find flaws in the proposal, it felt perfectly logical within the narrative of the anime.

"Wait, can the story actually go in this direction?"

"Euphemia just played a masterstroke!"

If Zero refused, he would be making an enemy of the Japanese people and his own followers. But if he agreed, how could he ever fulfill his true goal of destroying Britannia? No matter what he chose, it looked like Lelouch had lost.

What everyone thought was a filler episode turned out to hold some of the most significant plot weight in the entire series. Euphemia simply wanted to create a place where she, Lelouch, and Nunnally could live happily.

But Lelouch understood the harsh reality: any peace or equality granted by the Empire was an illusion. The moment Euphemia lost her power or was reassigned, the Special Zone would become a joke. However, in the immediate moment, Euphemia’s move had directly undermined Lelouch’s leadership.

The episode ended on Lelouch’s face, contorted with a mixture of shock and fury, signaling that a massive storm was about to break.

Episode 21 had successfully pulled back the curtain on the final, legendary arc of the season.

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