Chapter 41: The Professional Suzuki Misaki

When Kitahara Chiki saw a flash of disappointment cross Suzuki Misaki’s eyes after hearing his joke, he felt a pang.

The sadness and hurt were clearly written on her face.

Remembering how much she had looked after his predecessor, and how sincere her concern and care for him had just been, Kitahara couldn’t bear to disappoint this mature beauty, nor did he want her to misunderstand him. He quickly explained:

"Misaki-nee, of course I have no intention of giving up on literature. But I have to eat, don’t I? Ideals can’t fill my stomach, nor can they pay my rent. Writing erotica is a last resort!"

"Huh? Is Kitahara-kun very short on money right now? Have you reached the point where you can’t cover your living expenses? Do you need me to lend you some to tide you over?"

Hearing Kitahara say this, Suzuki Misaki’s expression finally improved a bit.

She genuinely had a good impression of Kitahara. Hearing he was short on money, she thought of lending him some.

How could Kitahara be so shameless as to use a woman’s money? He wasn’t the type to eat soft rice and act tough. This was just an excuse he’d made up on the spot:

"No need for that, Misaki-nee. Why don’t you just help me look at the new book and see if it can be published? To be honest, I was under a lot of pressure a while ago, almost had a mental breakdown. I finally managed to pull through and decided to write something light-hearted.

I think this work is actually pretty good. I feel I have a real talent for writing erotica!"

Scratching his head, Kitahara smiled shyly and bashfully.

Hearing this, Suzuki Misaki laughed too, but she quickly turned serious:

"Kitahara-kun, you must pay attention to your mental state. When the pressure is too great, you must find a way to relieve it — talk to friends, or come talk to me. You need to release your emotions.

Writers really do face enormous pressure and can easily take extreme personal actions — that is, suicide. In our country, every year famous and unknown writers kill themselves. You must pay special attention to this!"

Kitahara nodded:

"Yes, I’ll be careful. But for now, I probably don’t need to worry about that. Writing this kind of thing isn’t stressful at all. Misaki-nee, hurry and help me take a look!"

Kitahara thought to himself: Too bad your warning came too late. The original Kitahara kid has already kicked the bucket!

Otherwise, this Primitive Desire: A Beautiful Girl’s Unforgettable Adventure in the Goblin Cave wouldn’t exist!

The current Kitahara had no pressure at all. Damn, writing this stuff felt better and better the more he wrote it. Sometimes when he got really into it, he’d even pull Hayami Rina in for some hands-on practice. Where was the pressure?

But he did know that writers had a high suicide rate. He’d read a statistic saying eighty percent of writers had emotional disorders, and forty-five percent suffered from bipolar disorder or depression.

It really was a high-risk profession.

"Sigh, I still feel it’s such a waste for Kitahara-kun to write this kind of thing. Do you really have to? Why don’t you reconsider? You’re a top student from the University of Tokyo’s literature department. Writing erotica is too undignified, isn’t it? Don’t you feel any psychological pressure?"

Returning to the erotica novel, Suzuki Misaki was still somewhat speechless.

How had Kitahara-kun ended up writing this kind of thing?

At this moment, she still felt like she was dreaming. This was once a rising star of the literary world! How had he fallen to this?

If word got out, it would make headlines!

She still wanted to save Kitahara, like saving a young girl about to go astray.

"Misaki-nee, I need to solve the problem of food and warmth first. Literature can wait until I’ve eaten my fill. It’s just for survival — there’s no dignity or undignity about it. I promise you, I won’t give up on literary creation in the future." Kitahara said helplessly.

This editor-nee was really persistent about saving him. Her heart was in a good place, but he didn’t need it!

He just wanted to see if it could be published.

If not, he’d go ask another publisher!

What a hassle!

Seeing Kitahara put it that way, Suzuki Misaki sighed:

"Alright then. But remember what you said. Also, you need to prepare a pen name. You can’t publish this under your real name, or your reputation will never recover!

I won’t tell anyone about this either!"

"Hai, thank you, Misaki-nee!"

Kitahara nodded in thanks.

He had to admit, this editor-nee was really good — really good to him. She could be said to have considered everything for him.

Kitahara was quite touched.

He had considered the pen name matter before. At first, he’d even thought of using his real name. If nothing else, the gimmick alone would be strong enough.

"Rising Literary Star Kitahara Chiki Descends into Erotica — Is This Moral Decay, or Twisted Human Nature?"

Just a headline like that on the newspaper would at least draw enough attention to his new book, selling an extra ten thousand copies or so, right?

Anyway, reputation wasn’t worth much, and he didn’t care.

But after running into Sakai Izumi today, he felt he should still cherish his feathers a bit.

For ordinary people it didn’t matter, but to pursue a goddess-level person like her, he still needed a proper professional identity.

"Erotica writer" as a profession was obviously unsuitable.

Mm, "literary author" sounded much better!

...

"Kitahara-kun, what you’ve written is actually quite interesting. Your writing is on point, your foundation solid. What’s rare is that you can lower yourself to study erotica, seriously crafting characters, plotting the story, making innovations and changes. I’ve read quite a few erotica novels too — yours ranks among the top."

Suzuki Misaki gave her commentary while reading.

To be honest, when she seriously read this book and got into it, she actually found it quite good!

Usually, people who wrote this kind of thing lacked literary cultivation and writing skills. With Kitahara’s level, he could utterly crush them in that regard.

But note — erotica didn’t value writing style. It cared more about scene description, storytelling, and the like. People who read this stuff were after a thrill, excitement.

And Kitahara’s story was very thrilling. Mm, basically thrilling the whole way through. It discarded some plausibility, yet still felt natural, making you want to keep reading until the end.

The story was also very novel. He really didn’t know how Kitahara-kun came up with it.

"So, Misaki-nee, can this be published?" Kitahara asked hopefully.

"Of course it can. If your work can’t be published, it would be a great loss to the entire ’erotica world.’ Kitahara-kun, you said you have talent in this area — I think it might really be true!

Look at your last few lines of description — they evoke infinite imagination. Are you planning to write a second volume?" Suzuki Misaki praised.

"Mm, I do have that plan. But first I need to see how sales go. At least someone has to like it before I can write more."

"I think it should be no problem! How about this, Kitahara-kun — this work is basically very mature, but some details still need polishing. I’ll help you revise it.

Some environmental descriptions are too detailed and cumbersome — part of that needs to be cut. There’s no need for such description in this kind of erotica.

As for the plot, I’m planning to add a bit more content. The dark lake setting is good — you could build on that and add an underground river.

The dark lake you wrote isn’t very large in area, so it gets dirty easily. Having flowing river water to wash it out would be good. You could also add some interactive scenes by the underground river..."

Listening to Suzuki Misaki’s words flowing out one by one, Kitahara Chiki was bewildered.

What was going on?

Why did Suzuki Misaki seem like a professional?