My Stepsister is My Ex-Girlfriend - Volume 12 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

“I can’t believe you’re making high school girls read this, Kamishiro-sensei.”

This was what Ato-chan told me with scrutinizing eyes, their hair losing its battle with the June humidity.

At first I wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but soon enough I realized they were talking about the love hotel.

“Don’t you have any shame, guilt, or moral compass here?” they asked.

“I don’t think there’s any problem here. Isn’t this kinda stuff already in the normal stuff that you read?”

“It’s different when characters that have been in this series for eleven volumes are moaning all of a sudden!”

She and I were close like this. In regard to how close the two of us are, let’s pretend like Ato-chan, Ato Kakitsubata, and I live next door to each other. Outside of that, the rest of this section is real. She has a very sharp eye for light novels that rivals those of pro authors and editors. If anything, she’s become my second editor—or actually, maybe she’s my true editor.

“Don’t you think people will get mad at you for writing this kinda scene in the twelfth volume? Ikumi Hasegawa’s voice is playing on repeat in my head!”

“I wrote that scene precisely because it’s the twelfth volume, though.”

“Meaning?”

“Up until now, I’ve been mixing genres a little bit, so I thought doing a new genre would be fun.”

“You have a bad personality, you know that?”

“I think it shows I’ve matured as an author.”

“Fine, whatever. I get it now. You even used that trick where you don’t reveal a character’s gender. Have you even done that before?”

“I’ve been practicing recently,” I said, smiling. “Maybe you’re actually a guy, and not a girl.”

“If you’re using your standard writing style from Tier 1 Sisters, I bet you already revealed my gender by saying ‘she and I.’”

“Spot on. Do you have any aspirations of being a great detective in a novel?”

“As long as no moaning is involved.”

“Well, at least not in the first eleven volumes.”

“The serialization would be stopped at volume zero,” she said, much more strict than a real editor.

All I could do was chuckle dryly.