What would you do if you became the main character of a story that you wrote?
Koushi Nomura would unhesitatingly answer this question with: "This is a pointless question. I don't want to answer it."
He really loved to read light novels when he was young. Later in life, he felt that he could try his hand at writing one as well. The story he wrote received an excellent review from his relative in Thunderbolt Literature who was an editor. Thus, he had the idea of becoming a light novel author.
This idea of his slowly developed into his dream. Even though he understood the real situation of light novel authors from his editor relative and knew that this career wasn't one that was particularly glorious, he still didn't want to give up on his dream. Instead, he swore that he would become a master in this line of work!
While in the course of writing, Nomura naturally thought about his characters' feelings and the actions they would take in various situations. However, he'd never considered what he himself would think or do in the same situation as his story's characters.
Before, when he was reading other people's stories, he had indeed imagined himself in the main character's shoes. However, that stage was now past him. He was now currently an author, so he looked at things differently. He no longer thought about something so meaningless to him like what he would do if he was theoretically thrust into the same situation.
The story was a stage for the characters, not the author.
The author would be the main force behind the scenes, but that was all. That was what Koushi Nomura believed.
Of course, Nomura froze in astonishment when he mysteriously found himself in his own novel, "The Weakest Undefeated Magic Mecha God", in the story's opening scene at a frontline military base!
"The Weakest Undefeated Magic Mecha God" was a story set in another world with highly developed magic and technology. The main character was a teenage boy who was an engineer for the strongest military weapon in the story, "magic mechas," who had the goal of becoming the best mecha engineer in the world. He had excellent grades, so he received an opportunity to become an intern and study at a military base regarding the final first-generation magic mecha still in service in his country's military. He became a repairman soldier for this magic mecha's maintenance team, and met the magic mecha's teenage girl pilot. War unexpectedly broke out at their frontline base, and the main character was able to help the girl pilot and her outdated first-generation magic mecha defeat a powerful enemy, who possessed the newest second-generation magic mecha, using his excellent creativity and knowledge.
Nomura had spent much effort on polishing his light novel before he finally submitted it to Thunderbolt Literature. The judges' review was that his light novel was "Excellent, but parts of the novel are overly complex and may be difficult for an average reader to understand." Hence, his light novel barely missed out on the Gold Award and lost to "The Undying Indestructible Avenger", obtaining only a Silver Award instead.
Nomura had told the truth in his prize acceptance speech. He was quite vexed about only having received Silver, but there was nothing he could do other than accept the results.
However, something that he couldn't comprehend happened right after he received the Silver Award. Nomura discovered that he was suddenly transported to a frontline military base and had now taken on the identity of his own story's main character, a "maintenance repair soldier!"
He knew that according to his own storyline, this base was right about to be ambushed by an enemy country's military forces. The entire base would be instantly eradicated, and the enemy's second-generation magic mechas would descend upon them just like evil demons…
Although Nomura was still confused about what was going on, he decided to take action for his own personal safety and tried to warn the other soldiers at the base.
But before he could do so, the ambush already commenced.
Just like what Nomura wrote in his own story, the military base was destroyed by terrifyingly powerful combat magic spells! The military base's outdated first-generation magic mecha hurriedly rushed into battle, but was at a severe disadvantage…
At this point in time, the main character found a critical flaw in the enemy's second-generation magic mecha, and adamantly refused to leave the military base together with the other lucky soldiers that survived. He stayed behind all by himself in the military base that had been reduced to rubble to search for a communication device to contact the teenage female pilot of the magic mecha.
However, as for Koushi Nomura… he went along and escaped together with the surviving soldiers.
That was because this scene was just too frightening!
A tremendous military base was instantly vaporized before him, with so many living people dying in front of his eyes. There were so many corpses and people struggling on the verge of death… this incredibly cruel scene gave him an incredibly deep impact, and made Nomura lose the ability to think normally. All he had left was confusion and fear.
Although he had seen similar scenes before in disaster or war movies, witnessing death and destruction on a screen was something absolutely incomparable to seeing such things in person!
'The next person to die might be me!' Nomura was overwhelmed by the terror of dying.
He chose to escape due to his own fear. Nomura got on the car which was evacuating the surviving soldiers.
Nomura watched the two gigantic magic mechas battle each other as he sat on the car which speedily left the demolished military base. While still being astonished, he was able to somewhat regain his senses and start thinking again.
'What will happen if I escape like this?
'The female lead will probably die in combat… and what will happen to me?'
While Nomura was struggling with his internal conflict, his vision was suddenly enveloped in a black mist.
He was confused as to what was going on yet again. However, when he looked at the other soldiers, he saw that their expressions were now wooden and their eyes hollow.
Nomura tried talking to them but received no response.
The car they were in slowly came to a stop.
Nomura felt that things were really becoming abnormal.
'Is this black mist some sort of magic spell?' Just as he was thinking this, he saw a brilliantly red flower begin to grow out of the car.
Nomura recognized this flower as a cluster amaryllis flower.
Numerous cluster amaryllis flowers began growing everywhere and giving off a faint red glow.
The soldiers with wooden expressions suddenly began to rot as their flesh decayed, clothes corroded, hair fell out, and eyeballs melted… they soon became white skeletons bathed in the flowers' red light!
Nomura felt that things were getting dangerous again as he jumped out of the car and started running away from this place.
The skeletons started chasing after him!
Nomura used the magical weapon he was equipped with as a soldier to shoot at the skeletons. He kept shooting as he continued running.
As he ran, the black mist became thicker and thicker. Nomura couldn't see anything at all in the pitch-black darkness anymore. He could only barely make out the ground before him due to the cluster amaryllis flowers' glow.
'Am I on the verge of death?'
Nomura couldn't help but think this as he looked at the cluster amaryllis flowers which were a symbol of death.
'Did I suddenly fall deathly ill at the award ceremony for some reason, and now I'm in the midst of dying? Everything I'm experiencing right now is a dream I'm having on my deathbed…?
'If I'm dying, can't I at least end my life with a more pleasant dream?'
Countless skeletons were now chasing after him. He figured that no matter what, allowing them to catch him couldn't possibly be a good thing.
Nomura kept endlessly running for his life in a last-ditch-effort struggle to remain alive.
He didn't dare to run into the darkness. He instinctively ran in a direction that had more light, which just happened to be the direction where the cluster amaryllis flowers were growing more thickly.
'Perhaps I'll be able to run all the way to the path to the netherworld,' Nomura thought as he reached a location where the cluster amaryllis flowers were incredibly dense.
In this brilliantly red and beautiful flower garden, there was actually a wooden door standing in the midst with an exquisite welcoming sign on it!
Nomura was already at the end of his line and didn't have the energy to even stop or look closely at what was written on the door. He immediately rushed over and opened the door, running into the space behind it.
That was when he saw someone he recognized.
"Harano… san…"
'Where am I?' He intended to ask such a question.
However, he had completely run out of energy. Not having managed to catch his breath, Nomura saw the world around him go black as he collapsed.
Seiji immediately went up to check on Koushi Nomura's condition when he saw him collapsing.
"Allow me to see to this customer," a low and steady male voice spoke up. It was the restaurant owner!
The handsome middle-aged restaurant owner inspected the silver-haired boy that had collapsed on the ground. The restaurant owner lifted his hand and his palm glowed with a gentle white light.
After Nomura was bathed in this white light for several seconds, he started moving as he opened his eyes again.
The restaurant owner helped support Nomura in standing up again. He had Nomura rest on a nearby chair. Then, he went back into the restaurant's kitchen.
Something flashed in Seiji's eyes as he watched the restaurant owner go back into the kitchen.
"Something that Hashimoto-san didn't write in her story has appeared here…"