The Epilogue

“Come in!”

“Excuse me, but is this the game design club?”

“Yes, it is! Ah, are you looking to join?!”

“Y-yeah, I’ve-woah!”

“Great! Fantastic! Thank you very much.”

“That is a very deep bow…I don’t even know your name.”

“Ah, true. Should we start with our real names or our aliases?”

“Haha, true. It’s nice to meet you. My name’s-”

***

“Oh wow.”

“Right?”

“This is…wow.”

“A good wow?”

“Haha, I’m not sure. I think so?”

“That’s mean!”

“Sorry, sorry, but…when you said you’d written a little bit of it, I didn’t expect a thesis.”

“It’s only 50 pages of a Game Bible.”

“Oh, only 50 pages? Hahahaha!”

“…Hmph, fine, don’t read-”

“Don’t pout, don’t pout! Sorry, it’s just…I didn’t expect you to have this much already. I’ve only got like a sketch or two.”

“But that’s impressive!”

“Not a Game Bible level of impressive…hang on, ‘Only 50 Pages’…how much more do you think you’ll write?”

“…I won’t say.”

“Seriously, please don’t pout, ADNois. But you must really love this idea - The Making of Heroes. Is that the game name, or the series?”

“The series. I think, if we get this right, we could really make something special.”

“I agree, but right now we’re not even in pre-production. We’re in pre-pre-pre-pre discussions I suppose.”

“Yeah, but if we never make the effort to achieve anything, then we’ll never get anywhere! I know that if it’s the two of us at the helm, we can make it a reality! What about you, DaGR?”

“…Yeah, I agree. Well, I believe in us; I just don’t believe in other people buying into our vision.”

“Then, it’ll be part of our job to make them believe in us! To want to walk this road with us! And our story starts here, at university!”

“Agreed. Alright, let’s get to it. So, tell me all about The Making of Heroes.”

“Happily!”

***

“It’s done.”

“Wow, our first game.”

“Haha, yeah…just in time for Comiket too. Ahhhh~, I’m exhausted.”

“Good work on those last illustrations, DaGR.”

“Thank you very much, ADNois. Our first game and it’s a visual novel…with H-sce-”

“Don’t remind me, pervert!”

“Ow! First, ow. Second, it was your idea to make it an Eroge so it’d sell-Okay, I’m sorry, I won’t mention it again, so please put the chair down!”

“…To think I sunk to this level for my art.”

“W-well, think of it this way, this could be the first big step we need to make The Making of Heroes exist.”

“…Yeah.”

“…Hey, come here. Look, I know it’s not The Making of Heroes, but it’s a start. If this does well, we can hire actual programmers and designers to help make MoH real. Okay?”

“…Yeah.”

“Don’t pout so much. It’s a bad habit, ADNois.”

***

“I hate this software so much!”

“You shouldn’t have volunteered to help the programmers, DaGR.”

“But! But they made it look so easy!”

“Fufu~ It probably is, if you know what you’re doing.”

“…They showed me how to do it.”

“And it was 10 hours spent poorly.”

“Oi.”

“Still, it’s almost ready - the demo for The Making of Heroes: Land in the Sky.”

“Yeah. God, it’s been a long time coming.”

“Yeah, it has. And to think you doubted me back then.”

“I always believed in us. It’s just nice to know that so many people believed in us. Do you think they’ll like it?”

“I know they will.”

“Oh, how arrogant of you, Miss ADNois.”

“Well, well, Mr DaGR, I think we can confidently say that. I mean, they liked our VNs, even the non-Eroge ones, so I know they’ll love it. After all, they’re our fans.”

***

“We did it! We did it! Boom! Boom! Yay! Victory!”

“…ADNois.”

“Ah-! D-DaGR! Since when were you-?”

“The beginning. With my phone. Uh oh!”

“DaGR~!”

“Tactical retreat!”

***

“…We’re losing money?”

“A little. Not loads, but yes…just a touch.”

“Hmm, I guess we might have expanded a bit fast or maybe our ambitions were-”

“Don’t knock yourself too much, ADNois. We knew our sales wouldn’t exactly compete with the bigger games, and we have lots of fans…it’s just we need to find more ways of raising money.”

“…What? Like sponsors or-?”

“If we want to keep as much control of our own brand as possible, then making merchandise is our best option.”

“But where would we sell it? Or make it? Or-?”

“Don’t worry. Leave this to me!”

***

“…Floods?”

“…”

“How bad?”

“…”

“DaGR, how-?”

“All of it, dammit!”

“…What?”

“All of it! All the shirts, all the damn keyrings and mugs and everything gone, swept away or destroyed. We weren’t the only ones hit, but…dammit!”

“…We have to issue refunds.”

“…We can’t support ourselves if we do.”

“We can’t compromise on this, DaGR. We can’t.”

“…I know…I know. I’ll set up an online donation fund and hope that’s enough.”

“…Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll get it started right away.”

***

“…What is this?”

“…”

“ADNois? What the hell is-?”

“It’s what it says it is. Japan Eagle will buy us out, but allow us to run as we always-”

“The donation page went live yesterday. There’s no way you got these talks done in such a short span of time…hahaha…how long ago? Back when I suggested the merchandise? Or-?”

“DaGR. This is for our dream. Whatever we have to do to make it real, we do.”

“…”

“…”

“…Heh. Wouldn’t even try and stop me walking out the door. Unbelievable.”

***

“Here are the revisions you requested, Miss ADNois.”

“Thank you, Kana. Here.”

“What’s this?”

“A box of chocolates for you and the team. For your hard work.”

“Really?!”

“Really, really.”

“Thank you very much, Miss ADNois!”

“Ah, Miss ADNois, we’ve got the new sketches of Alice Eagold from Mr DaGR.”

“Let me see. Wow, these are better than I expected.”

“Mr DaGR will be pleased to hear that.”

“…That’d be nice if that were true.”

“Miss ADNois?”

“…It’s nothing. Send copies on to the marketing team, the auditionees and the board. They should be happy to know Days of Iron is shaping up exactly as it’s meant to be.”

***

“I’m shocked.”

“About what, Taiji?”

“Well, Mr DaGR, that you and Miss ADNois barely speak with each other. Given how legendary you are as a duo, I’m-”

“That was a long time ago. Back when we weren’t owned by Japan Eagle.”

“Hmm? When was that? Back when you guys were at university?”

“…That’s a joke, right?”

“What is?”

“…Heh, people honestly don’t know our history, do they?”

“Mr DaGR?”

“Don’t worry. So? She liked the design?”

“Loved it. Apparently, she’s getting posters made to hang up alongside Reiss and the rest of the cast.”

“…That’s good. At least that part of her hasn’t-”

***

“And that’s a wrap. Thank you very much for your hard work.”

“Thank you very much!”

“Pre-production is finished…wow, and we’ve done so much, and we’ve got so much more to go.”

“Fufu~ That’s how game design and development goes. Besides, the skeleton of the game’s done. The story is written, the basic gameplay formula is nailed and we just finished all of Alice’s voice lines, so all the voice acting has been recorded. Now, it’s just-Ah, excuse me. Yes? Ah, Mr Chairman, hello, what a-…Excuse me? What do you mean? The board decided? Wh-What? That’s-!”

***

“Budget cuts?!”

“…That’s the official line.”

“What crap! We’ve got all the art, the promotional material, the trailer storyboards and more, and now all of these dumb-ass notes come in!”

“Calm down, DaGR.”

“How can I?! How can you?! They want to cut Alice entirely, add in a little sister character to chase some dumb trend, remove Grace as a main character and turn her into a dumb joke, and they’re cutting the Queen’s backstory we’ve been foreshadowing since the first game, and we went to all that trouble designing the hidden bosses in Tartarus only to just have them made into a freaking footnote!

“What’s the point in having a dual protagonist story if one of them no longer exists?! I mean, this is dumb. “Cut Alice and the whole dual protagonist system, remove or replace any cutscenes that can be easily replaced and adjust the narrative as needed.” What a joke.”

“…They want to put the new little sister character into the Reiss childhood event.”

“And Alice herself?”

“…Kill her off in a side quest.”

“…That does it.”

“DaGR.”

“I’m going to go and punch those assholes in their fu-!”

“DaGR!”

“…Sorry. But ADNois, this isn’t what they said when they bought us out. This is-”

***

Rose opened her eyelids and sighed.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, DaGR.”

Still slightly sleepy, Rose sat up on her bed and groggily stood up. On uneven feet, she walked to her mirror and gently rested her head against it, smiling a little bitterly.

“I never got a chance to apologise to you, but don’t worry, DaGR.” Rose touched her reflection’s fingers. “I’ll make things right. I’ll make sure the story goes as it was always meant to.

“After all.” She laughed. “We’re the legendary duo of ADNois and DaGR.”