5 Only the protagonist knows the heroine's secret
For now, I decided to have Noëlle calm down.
I offered her a seat on the worn-out leather sofa, and she readily complied.
It was surprisingly comfortable, so I figured it might help put her at ease.
Though I still didn't really understand why she was so worked up in the first place.
"I'm sorry," Noëlle murmured.
"Huh?"
"I know this is all so sudden. You must think I'm some weird French girl, right?"
"Well, no..."
I don't think you're a weird French girl, at least.
Her eccentricity clearly has nothing to do with her race or nationality.
"I get that you love Shinmira. And I understand you want me to make an eroge for you, but... it all just seems so out of left field. I can't wrap my head around it."
"I just really love eroge," she insisted.
Ah, she's getting all worked up again.
Noëlle's beautiful blue eyes sparkled with an intense passion.
"We've had tons of eroge at my house for as long as I can remember."
"Didn't you live in France, though?"
"They were imported through completely legal channels. No laws were broken, I assure you."
"That's a relief... Anyway, you grew up loving eroge. Let's just accept that for now."
I had a million questions, but I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I started nitpicking.
"Eroge are wonderful... The cute girls, the intricate settings crafted to help you bond with them, the storylines brimming with foreshadowing... and above all, the erotic developments that happen as you grow closer. They never shy away from the intimacy that should naturally occur. That's what I love about them."
"I-Is that so?"
Is she the only beautiful girl in the world who would talk about eroge with such sparkling eyes?
Truth be told, there was no shortage of manga and light novels with heavy erotic elements, but there was no denying that eroge was a medium that dove headfirst into it rather than just sprinkling it in.
Still, to think this beautiful French girl is so completely captivated by the eroticism of adult games...
"So I had a thought. I want to make an eroge myself. I want to create the eroge of my dreams with my own two hands!"
"Isn't that a bit of a leap?"
Transitioning from consumer to creator.
It wasn't an unnatural thought by any means, but what kind of high school girl seriously decides she wants to make an eroge?
There was no doubting her love for the games, but crossing over to the production side was no small hurdle.
"Are you doubting me?" she asked.
"Huh?"
"You think I'm just all talk! That I'm spouting delusions, making up tons of grandiose settings to stroke my own ego, and dragging others into my mess only to abandon the project without doing anything! Lmao, classic pattern! That's what you're thinking, right?!"
"Your Japanese is seriously way too fluent!"
Even I couldn't spit out a rant like that without tripping over my words!
"This is my proof. Behold!"
What am I, a god?
Noëlle thrust her smartphone toward me.
Now that I thought about it, she was always messing around on her phone in class.
The device was already unlocked, its screen brightly lit.
"You want me to look at this?"
I asked just to be safe, and Noëlle offered a firm nod.
Taking her smartphone in hand, I stared at the screen.
Displayed before me were endless lines of Japanese text.
"Hm? Is this..."
A novel composed almost entirely of dialogue...
"No, is it a scenario script...?"
"Y-Yes. Though it is a bit embarrassing," she admitted.
Character names prefaced every line of dialogue, and the narrative prose was kept incredibly brief, limited to only the barest minimum of description.
It's designed for character sprites and background art.
Along with a text window displayed at the bottom of the game screen.
It was the standard format you'd expect to see in an adventure game—or ADV—scenario.
And the text that would normally populate that ADV window was exactly what filled Noëlle's smartphone screen.
The scenario mainly consisted of conversations between a somewhat goofy boy and a classic, old-school tsundere heroine.
It seemed the protagonist and heroine were in a 'more than friends, less than lovers' relationship.
Their dynamic was already established from the get-go, but it didn't feel inaccessible or hard to get into.
The script transitioned through various scenes—school, the walk home after class—showcasing their banter as it gradually evolved into outright flirting...
"Is this... an H-scene...?"
"P-Please don't call it an H-scene..."
Noëlle squeaked, her voice fading to a whisper.
It wasn't a particularly explicit depiction, but it clearly detailed the protagonist bringing the heroine to his home, where their flirting culminated in them tangling the sheets in bed together.
The total file size must be around kilobytes.
With the length of a short story, the banter, flirting, and eroticism all felt a little lacking in volume.
However, considering the priority was simply keeping it concise, fleshing it out from here would be entirely possible.
"...The Japanese is solid. Maybe it's because you properly studied the grammar, but this is way better than what you'd get from some high schooler who's good at literature. Being a foreigner doesn't seem like a handicap for you at all."
"U-Um, well, you could say that scenario was just dashed off in a hurry..."
"Quiet down for a second. I'm still reading."
"O-Oh, right."
Silencing Noëlle, I returned my focus to the text on the smartphone screen.
What stood out the most was just how adorable the heroine was written.
That was probably why I could dive right into the story, even if it was short and lacking in volume.
"Can you write such an adorable heroine because you're a cute girl yourself...? I wonder if that's how it works."
"U-Um?"
"Most visual novel protagonists are introverts. Since pretty much every scenario writer is an introvert too, they probably just project themselves onto the character."
"Akiba-san, you're making quite the bold statement, you know?"
"In your case, you might be projecting yourself onto the heroine. The protagonist feels a little weak, but as long as the heroine stands out, it strikes a good balance."
"......"
It looked like Noëlle had decided to stop interrupting.
Finishing my read-through of the scenario...
"I see. It certainly looks like you aren't just all talk about wanting to make an eroge."
"But that's just a practice piece. I wrote it as a study exercise. It's not like I want to turn it straight into an eroge as is."
"A practice piece, huh... I'm surprised you know a word like that in Japanese."
I gazed at Noëlle once more.
Golden hair, glamorous beauty, a slender figure clad in a school uniform, and the generous swell of her chest.
She possessed a mysterious aura yet felt wonderfully real—a girl truly fitting to be called a heroine.
"A mansion on the frontier, known as the Manor of Thorns..." I began.
"W-What is it?"
"The thorns attack anyone who approaches the manor as if they have a will of their own, driving them away."
I stood up and paced around the cramped development room, voicing the ideas my brain conjured up.
"Living in the manor is a single blonde girl. Untouched by the thorns, her skin is flawless. She is beautiful, and she is alone."
My eyes swept over Noëlle from head to toe before I continued.
"Isolated and refusing to open her heart to anyone, her soul is cold, her gaze sharp. When she speaks, out come insults that contradict her beauty. She's selfish and prideful, yet fiercely obsessed with what she likes, and she doesn't hesitate to drag others into her messes—"
"Um, are you badmouthing me?"
"It's a misunderstanding."
I returned to the front of the sofa and handed the smartphone back to Noëlle.
"The story begins when a young man, permitted to enter the manor without being attacked by the thorns, meets this blonde girl—"
It was a rather old and orthodox premise, but it wasn't bad.
"Akiba-san, what is that...?" Noëlle asked.
"Just something I thought up on the spot. I came up with The Mirage's Future Tree in a similar way. I agonized over it for months, but in the end, the project I brainstormed in five minutes was the one that worked out."
Of course, I couldn't always come up with projects like that, but this kind of style seemed to suit me.
"I might be able to make an eroge..."
"Really?! Then, please let me handle the scenario!"
"The scenario, huh... You really are serious about writing one."
Looking at the scenario she had just shown me, it was more than obvious how serious Noëlle was.
"I-I know I can't even begin to compare to Akitatsu-san, but still!"
"Akitatsu won't be participating anymore."
I gave a wry smile, swiping on my smartphone to show her a LINE chat screen.
"See? 'Dad's dropping out. I got chewed out by my company,' it says."
It was a message I'd received from my dad right after The Mirage's Future Tree won the Bronze Award.
It was rare for a father to tell his son he got chewed out by his company, but my old man was far from ordinary.
"Dad's company allows side jobs, but they get mad if you make too much of a splash. Apparently, winning the Bronze Award easily crossed that line. So I have... absolutely no leads for a scenario writer."
I could no longer rely on my dad's help.
Perhaps that was exactly why I hadn't been able to make my next game—
"Wait, hold on a second."
A sudden realization hit me, and I threw my hands up in surrender.
"I'm a genius when it comes to art. I can draw anything—characters, mechs, backgrounds, flames, explosions."
"Whatever happened to the Japanese virtue of modesty?" Noëlle asked.
"The Japanese spirit has been updated. You can't survive in this harsh world just by being modest," I replied.
Deflecting with a half-hearted excuse, I grabbed my trusty tablet from my desk and handed it to Noëlle.
"These are the illustrations I've drawn recently. The heroine sketches are in this folder."
"Heroines..."
Noëlle took the tablet and flipped through the sketch images of the heroines one after another.
I had drawn every kind of beautiful game heroine I could think of—from Japanese high school girls and princesses to female knights, elves, and beastmen girls.
However—
"They're beautiful. But—"
"Yeah, the reason there's no erotic content in The Mirage's Future Tree is simple."
I really didn't want to admit this—especially to a girl my own age.
But since Noëlle had gone so far as to share her own motivations, staying silent would be insincere.
"I... can't draw erotic art."
"That is perfectly fine."
"An instant rebuttal"
And after I had just made such a serious confession!
The Mirage's Future Tree was heavily story-focused, so it was fine if the heroines were just "normally" cute.
I even thought that if the heroine's character stood out too much, it would interfere with the story.
The sketches I drew kept skin exposure to a minimum, and none of the poses were the least bit provocative.
But when it came to an eroge, cuteness was a given; without any eroticism, it wouldn't work at all.
I had tried drawing it before. I'd drawn beautiful heroines, starting from mild eroticism and going all the way to explicit content.
But objectively speaking, no matter how much skin I exposed, the heroines I drew only ever looked wholesome.
Especially in the doujin game scene, if you wanted to make an eroge, you were up against a horde of creators churning out ridiculously erotic games with overwhelming artistic talent.
Charging headfirst into such a fiercely competitive red ocean with my weakness would be fatal.
"The heroine for that proposal from earlier... Are you planning to use me as the model?" Noëlle asked.
"A-Ah, sorry," I stammered. "I got a little carried away. It was just an idea off the top of my head, so don't worry about—"
"Please, use me as your model."
"Huh?" I muttered in surprise.
Noëlle stood up from the sofa and began to hike up her short skirt.
She lifted the hem right to the very edge, teasing a glimpse of her underwear—
"W-What are you doing?" I stammered, my voice cracking.
"Please use me as your scenario writer, and... as the model for your heroine," she declared.
"Model...?" I echoed blankly.
"If you can't draw erotic scenes, you can just use my body," she explained. "As long as you draw exactly what you see, you'll be able to create erotic art."
"Hold on a second! Are you seriously suggesting this"
Making an eroge using a girl from my class as a live model?
To put it mildly, she had lost her damn mind.
"I am very particular about my scenarios," Noëlle continued. "I can be stubborn, and I might make unreasonable demands."
"...That's just how scenario writers are," I sighed. "There's no way a well-behaved writer with zero stubbornness or particularities could ever write a good scenario."
I actually knew a thing or two about scenarios myself.
Unfortunately, the most eccentric people tend to write the best scenarios—that was just a fact of life.
"Therefore, I might be difficult to handle as a scenario writer," she admitted. "I'm selfish, and my pride is quite high. However—"
Noëlle's face turned beet red as she spoke, and she hoisted her skirt up even further—
"Please do whatever you want with me as your model," she pleaded. "I'll do anything you say, so... please make an eroge with me."
"......"
She was right on the edge, but her underwear hadn't quite come into view yet.
Which somehow made it even more erotic.
Noëlle wasn't just paying lip service about wanting to make an eroge.
Between the scenario she'd shown me and the sight of her standing before me right now—
Putting those two things together was all the proof I needed that she was dead serious.
My second doujin game... and an eroge, at that.
"All right," I said with a nod. "I'll take you up on that offer."
"A-Are you serious" Noëlle gasped.
"I am. After all, my goal was always to make an eroge and surpass my dad," I declared.
Ever since finishing The Mirage's Future Tree, I hadn't been able to so much as draft a single proposal.
As for the reason... Yeah, I think some part of me always knew, and I was just pretending not to notice.
It was because I had something I truly wanted to make, yet I refused to actually try making it.
"The time I spent freely making eroge was the most fun I ever had."
"Excuse me?"
"...Or so my dad used to say," I clarified. "I always figured he was just looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but maybe he really meant it."
"Does your father... Does Akitatsu-san still have lingering attachments to eroge?" Noëlle asked curiously.
"Who knows? Even if he does, it's not like he can just go back to it now," I shrugged.
It wasn't totally unheard of for a creator to transition from eroge to general games, and then back to eroge again.
But my dad became entirely too successful in the mainstream market.
The gaming industry wouldn't exactly allow him to just drop everything and return to his roots.
"There's no point if I don't surpass my dad at the peak of his passion. That's why I want to try my hand at making an eroge, too."
"Then you're truly, genuinely—a-are you absolutely sure?" she stammered excitedly.
"Yeah," I nodded. "I don't love eroge the same way you do, Noëlle. But if you're okay with that."
"I believe any motive is fine," she smiled brightly. "As long as there's a burning passion behind it!"
Noëlle grabbed both of my hands in a firm grip.
I could feel the slightly cool, yet soft sensation of her hands—
"I want you to accept my burning passion as well!" she declared.
"......"
It almost felt like she was confessing her love to me...
Anyway, even if our underlying feelings towards eroge were completely different, our desire to make one was completely genuine.
In that case, I didn't have any reason to refuse Noëlle's offer anymore.
Yeah, fine by me.
I'll take that burning passion of hers and show her exactly what my own fervor looks like.
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