[TSSIM] Chapter 519: Won't You Feel Lonely at Night?

In the end, Homura and the others approached the crowd, casually listening to the conversations around them.

"Senpai, what do you think Minamiya-sensei's new manga will be about?"

"Huh? Isn't it a romance manga? It's probably a modern setting."

"But... during that giveaway event, I won even though I picked the 'apocalypse' tag..."

As soon as the people around heard this, they instantly froze, looking completely dumbfounded.

After a long pause, the one called Senpai finally reacted.

"You won?"

"Yeah..."

In an instant, everyone fell into an eerie silence.

"Damn! We've got a real lucky one here!"

"Wa-Wait a sec, that's not the main point! Dude, he won with the apocalypse tag!"

"Now that you mention it, does the new manga have apocalyptic elements?"

"Apocalypse and wholesome... how the hell do these even go together?"

"Is it like... finding kindness and beauty in a ruined world? A glimpse of humanity's goodness or something?"

"Uh... you actually put some thought into that, but yeah, that does kinda make sense."

Meanwhile, Eriri had a weird look on her face.

"Homura, why do I feel like your twisted tastes are about to be exposed?" Eriri said in a low voice.

"Not likely..." Homura shrugged. "Still, I didn't even notice that someone actually chose the apocalypse tag and won."

It wasn't surprising that he thought this way.

Most of the winners had picked romance, drama, or wholesome stories. Compared to them, picking something like romance, wholesome, and apocalypse together was rare—almost like finding a cat in a dog show—since the chances of winning with this choice were ridiculously low.

"Oy, the doors are opening!"

Someone within the crowd suddenly yelled, immediately causing a commotion.

Amid the commotion, Homura and the others took a few steps back, and after thinking for a moment, he pulled out a hat and put it on.

"Hmm? Why are you putting on a hat?" Elf asked, trying to hold back her laughter.

"What else? To block the light." Homura replied with twitching lips.

"You're not lying, are you?" Elf asked, looking amused.

"I mean, people's eyes give off light too, don't they?" Homura shrugged.

Elf: "…"

What kind of ridiculous answer was that?

"Honestly, any seasoned otaku would probably sense that the prologue you added hints at a tragedy..." Eriri remarked and let out a soft sigh.

As Homura and the girls chatted, people started pushing their way out of the crowd, clutching their hard-won prizes while chatting with each other.

"Damn, almost got crushed in there."

"Right? Who knew things would go crazy all of a sudden?"

"Well, it makes sense. I mean, the girl on the promo poster is just too beautiful..."

Saying this, the person had a dazed look in his eyes.

"But I did pick up a bit of intel—the story setting is surely not modern."

"Did you really need to spill that?"

"Damn, Minamiya-sensei really went all out this time! A full-color manga?!"

"Full-color?! Yo, that's insane! Lemme see!"

Ultimately, their loud voices caused another small commotion in the crowd.

It was only natural since a full-color manga was no joke but a huge deal.

Wasting no time, the people who had bought Manke Weekly Magazines just squatted down right there and started reading.

After a while—

"Guys, the heroine on the cover has blue hair, right? So why does she have red hair when the story starts? And the setting... the dialogue..."

"Yeah... I suddenly have a bad feeling about this. Minamiya-sensei isn't tricking us, is he? I mean, this doesn't seem like a wholesome story..."

"Whatever, who cares if it's wholesome or not—let's just read. At the very least, I think it looks great."

Seeing them all so absorbed in the manga of WorldEnd, Homura smiled slightly and left the scene with the girls.

===

Kusumoto Park.

After leaving Manke Bookstore, Homura and the others were sitting in this park, taking a break.

"Well, even if they couldn't guess the plot, they should've at least picked up on the tone. If you hadn't inserted the prologue like that, Homura, maybe you could've kept it hidden for a bit longer." Eriri said, shaking her head slightly.

"It has its pros and cons." Homura replied casually. "Doing it that way means revealing some info early on, but it also makes people even more eager to keep reading."

"Kinda like how in some stories." Elf nodded. "You already know from the start that it's gonna be a tragic story, but curiosity just keeps pulling you forward. It's practically human nature."

"Yeah, and with just that little tweak, the same story suddenly doesn't feel lighthearted anymore." Homura shrugged casually. "People already know what's coming, so they naturally get more tense while watching. Overall, this approach is more beneficial than not."

"Nii-san, they're already talking about it online." Sagiri chimed in, holding up her phone.

"Oh, that fast?" Homura chuckled and shook his head. "What are they saying?"

"They think either Nii-san messed up the tags, or there are likely some extra ones hiding in there..." Sagiri replied, her expression turning a little weird.

"Well, they're not wrong." Homura nodded lightly. "Honestly, you can slap a ton of tags on any story. Like, take WorldEnd—adding the 'war' tag wouldn't be wrong either, but if we went by that logic, wouldn't way too many tags qualify?"

Hearing this, Eriri's face darkened before speaking up.

"I won't deny that, but let's be real, if you weren't trying to mess with people, switching 'wholesome' to 'tragedy' would've worked just fine."

Homura spread his hands and shrugged, saying nothing.

Truthfully, all he wanted was for more people to know about the happiest girl in the world, a girl named Chtholly.

Messing with people?

No, that was just to make Chtholly's impression stick strongly in people's minds! Even if he didn't do it, wouldn't she still pop up anyway?

Since it would happen no matter what he did, he might as well go all in!

"Feels like Senpai's gonna be getting a ton of knife emojis soon." Nayuta teased.

"Meh, I'm immune to that." Homura shrugged nonchalantly.

At this, the four girls instantly fell silent, rolling their eyes at him.

Homura stretched his body before standing up.

"Yosh, let's head home. You two still gotta pack up some stuff, don't you?"

Homura's words were directed at Eriri and Nayuta.

"Yeah, that's true..." Eriri nodded. "Shi-chan and the others might already be done packing by now."

===

As Homura and the girls walked home, Elf suddenly sidled up to his side with a mischievous grin, nudging him with her elbow.

"Hey, Homura, since Megumi, Utaha, and Eriri went home, won't you feel lonely at night?"

Hearing this, Sagiri's face flushed red, clearly imagining something improper.

Nayuta, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes, lost in thought.

Who knew what was running through her head?

Regardless, even if she was thinking of sneaking in for a 'night raid' while the others were away, Homura definitely wouldn't agree.

Meanwhile, Eriri looked a little embarrassed, but she still wanted to hear what Homura had to say.

At Elf's question, Homura's lips twitched before responding.

"You know, it's not like we're doing it every single night anyway."

Eriri: "..."

She honestly wanted to, but how was she supposed to keep up with Homura's monstrous stamina?

If they were really doing it every night together, wouldn't it feel like they were just using him as a sex tool?

Needless to say, with how prideful they all were, such a thought was just way too humiliating.