All Beautiful Girls Want to Stick with Me

The phone rang.

At that moment, Haruno Yukinoshita, who was sitting in front of her computer, frantically working overtime, was momentarily dazed when she saw Kotomi calling. It was already late at night—why was Kotomi suddenly calling her?

Lately, Kotomi had been busy with her weekly serialization at Shueisha, which had significantly reduced their contact.

Haruno, too, had been swamped with work ever since her promotion to editor-in-chief. Especially now, with the crucial launch of the tankōbon (collected volume) approaching, she often worked overtime late into the night. But every day after work, when she checked her phone and saw that Kotomi hadn’t messaged her, she couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of disappointment.

Sure, a weekly manga serialization came with tight deadlines and heavy workloads, but did that mean she had to completely neglect her light novel side of things? Haruno would often find herself thinking that.

Now, receiving Kotomi’s call out of the blue, she felt an inexplicable sense of joy.

”Good evening, Izumi-sensei. Calling this late—what’s the occasion?”

Taking advantage of the brief break while answering the call, Haruno stretched lazily, got up from her office chair, and walked over to the vending machine in the hallway to grab a can of coffee to keep herself awake.

Anyone who frequently worked overtime couldn’t escape the grasp of caffeine.

On the other end of the line, Kotomi seemed to have been holding back her emotions for a while. Suddenly, she raised her voice and shouted:

”Editor Yukinoshita! What the hell is going on?! Why did my Twitter account suddenly get verified?!”

Haruno instinctively pulled the phone away from her ear—Kotomi’s voice nearly deafened her.

This girl’s volume is seriously something else!

”Huh? Your Twitter verification? Oh, oh! I remember now—sorry about that. I’ve been so busy handling the publishing details for your tankōbon that I completely forgot to tell you about this.”

”Sword Art Online Volume 1 has been progressing much faster than expected under my supervision, and it’ll be released much earlier than originally scheduled. So over the past few days, I’ve been taking care of all the necessary paperwork and brainstorming promotional copy.”

”Then, about two weeks ago, Chief Editor Hiratsuka suddenly asked me if I knew your Twitter handle.”

”I said I did, and she said she wanted to get you verified. So, I just gave her your account information.”

After hearing Haruno’s explanation, Kotomi finally understood—it was the chief editor who had applied for her verification in advance. She just hadn’t expected Twitter’s verification process to be so fast, approving it without any prior notice.

Come to think of it, this was her own oversight. When Haruno had asked for her Twitter handle earlier, she hadn’t thought much about it and had simply given it to her.

”Is there a problem?”

From Kotomi’s tone, Haruno could immediately tell that something had happened, and it was likely related to her newly verified Twitter account.

Kotomi let out a long sigh and proceeded to recount her recent ”social death” experience to Haruno.

As an editor at Light Novel Library, recently promoted to chief editor, Haruno Yukinoshita considered herself someone who could keep a straight face no matter how amusing a situation was.

But after hearing Kotomi’s account, she nearly sprayed out the coffee she was drinking.

Fortunately, she wasn’t sitting at her desk at the moment—otherwise, her computer screen might have taken a direct hit.

”Pfft… cough, cough! Izumi-sensei, I understand the general situation now. And I must say… I deeply sympathize… pffft—hahaha!”

”You find this funny, don’t you?” Kotomi asked blandly.

”Not at all. Absolutely not.” Haruno immediately adjusted her expression, trying to appear serious.

”Hmph.”

Kotomi let out a displeased snort.

”Well… let’s just say—hmm, actually, I don’t even know what to say. Right now, your Twitter has already amassed 210,000 followers. Whether they should have seen it or not, I’d say they’ve all seen it by now. Even if you delete your account and start over, it wouldn’t change anything.”

”Instead, why not face your ’public execution’ with confidence? Who knows, it might even become part of your appeal and help you gain more fans!””

”Hah?” Kotomi was confused. She had just suffered a social death—how could that possibly attract more fans?

”Think about it. Some authors never like to show themselves on social media. Even if they open a Twitter account, the most they do is retweet official announcements when their books get published. They rarely post anything personal and almost never reply to comments.”

”Now, while there should be some distance between authors and their readers, too much distance—or too little—can both be problematic. But you? You’re in the perfect middle ground, Izumi-sensei.”

”Take Sword Art Online and Chainsaw Man, your two current works. It’s not just the readers—even we as editors were curious about what kind of person you are when we first read your manuscripts.”

”You don’t have to show your real self—just the version of yourself you want readers to see! For example, what about an LSP (Lewd-Persona) character setting?

”Think about it. Izumi Ki—an incredibly talented creator of awe-inspiring works—yet on Twitter, she’s just some LSP who loves retweeting all kinds of questionable artwork. And the best part?”

”You wouldn’t even be faking it—that is just who you are.”

”So, there’s no need to worry about anyone accusing you of fabricating a fake persona.”

After a moment of contemplation, Kotomi understood Haruno’s point.

She couldn’t help but admire her—Haruno really had a talent for character branding.

Instead of trying to cover up or fix a PR mistake, her first instinct was to turn it into an opportunity.

Though, strictly speaking, this wasn’t even a mistake to begin with—it was just that Kotomi’s past unfiltered, questionable Twitter posts had been discovered by her readers.

Sure, some people might start seeing her as an LSP.

But sometimes… an LSP persona could actually be an advantage.

Especially on Twitter—where it carried almost no risk.

If anything, it might even draw in a crowd of non-traditional light novel or manga readers, boosting her visibility even further.

”You don’t read novels, and you don’t read manga, so why are you following Izumi Ki’s Twitter?”

”Isn’t it obvious?! The lewd artwork that Izumi Ki retweets is top-tier—each one better than the last! And her comments? They align perfectly with my XP preferences! A man will die for a friend who truly understands him! Even if I wasn’t into novels or manga before, I’d still follow her Twitter, and I’d make sure to buy every single volume of her past and future works!”

After imagining this conversation in her head, Kotomi couldn’t help but smirk.

Hehehehe~

”Editor Yukinoshita, I think you’d be better suited for a talent agency in the entertainment industry,” Kotomi remarked instinctively.

”Haha, isn’t an editor basically an author’s agent?” Haruno Yukinoshita chuckled.

With the phone on speaker, the call was still dialing as Kotomi scrolled through the comments under her latest tweet.

[Comment 1] ”This lewd artwork is absolutely fantastic! Especially the close-up of those stockings—I’m done for.”

[Comment 2] ”And it’s even a mature married woman in stockings? A black-haired, sophisticated wife? I’ve never been more enlightened.”

[Comment 3] ”Izumi Ki-sensei’s comments on her retweets are always downright depraved, but I have to admit, her taste in lewd art is impeccable. I’m not even interested in this stuff, but I casually scrolled for three hours and still haven’t reached the bottom. Just knowing that Izumi-sensei is deeply immersed in lewd art every day fills me with sorrow. I sincerely hope she reflects on this and spends more time writing! Anyway, gotta go—seems like my phone storage is full, time to upgrade.”

[Comment 4] ”Izumi Ki-sensei’s latest retweet… wait a minute… isn’t this drawn by Hanayui-sensei?!”

[Comment 5] ”Hanayui? Never heard of them. Are they a rising artist?”

[Comment 6] ”You don’t know Hanayoi? Okay, fine, I admit they’re not super popular yet, but I swear Hanayui’s lewd art is absolutely top-tier!”

[Comment 7] ”Alright, listen up—let me tell you why Hanayui is a god!”

After reading through the comments, Kotomi let out an awkward chuckle.

Last night, before going to bed, she had—out of habit—scrolled through lewd artwork, and the last one she saw was Hanayui’s newly uploaded piece. Without much thought, she retweeted it as usual and went straight to sleep, not bothering to check Twitter afterward.

As luck would have it, right after her retweet, her official verification got approved.

Any reader who regularly followed industry news would have immediately realized that this was Izumi Ki’s official Twitter account.

Within a single day, her follower count had surged by a staggering 210,000.

Naturally, as the latest artist she had retweeted, Hanayui also gained attention.

Kotomi clicked on Hanayui’s Twitter profile—originally, the artist had only 10,000 followers, but now that number had ballooned to 80,000!

”Guess I just gave Yuigahama-madam—I mean, Hanayui-sensei—a massive publicity boost,” Kotomi mused, laughing to herself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:

Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven