"Ah, sorry! Moving these past few days has been really hectic, so I completely forgot about it."
Nohara Hiroshi scratched his head awkwardly as he spoke on the phone.
"Hm? Local specialties from home?"
"Oh, that… I'll have your sister-in-law go pick them up."
"Huh? Whether it's convenient for me to take them back?"
"Well, it's not that it's inconvenient, the main thing is I'm at work right now."
"You'll bring them over?"
Nohara Hiroshi was a bit confused. Bringing them to his office wasn't much different from taking them to his house.
"On the way? What are you coming here for?"
He asked curiously.
"A… company?!"
The next second, he shot up from his seat and exclaimed in shock, immediately drawing the attention of everyone in the office.
"Nohara, what's wrong?"
A middle-aged man looked up at him in confusion.
"S-sorry!"
Nohara Hiroshi quickly apologized to those around him, then covered his phone and whispered in disbelief, "You said you started a company, and it's right upstairs from us?!"
"Yeah."
Sato sat at home, placing his phone on the low table while petting the two cats in his arms.
"Where did you get the money to start a company? You didn't get scammed, did you?!"
Nohara Hiroshi said worriedly.
Although Sato had never caused trouble since childhood, he was still just a high schooler with little experience in the world.
"Money? Didn't Dad tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"I started writing light novels a few years ago. I've saved up quite a bit by now."
"Light novels?"
Nohara Hiroshi froze for a moment, then his mouth twitched.
Knowing their parents' personalities, they definitely wouldn't have gone out of their way to mention something like that, so he really hadn't known.
But soon, he felt genuine joy. "Come to think of it, Sato, that's really impressive. You debuted as a light novel author back in middle school!"
"It's nothing special. I just did it on a whim back then."
Sato replied with a smile while petting the cats.
He wasn't lying. Although Asahigaoka was in the countryside, his family's financial situation was actually quite good. In Japan, farmers who owned large amounts of land didn't live worse than white-collar workers, and the villagers in Asahigaoka not only had large plots of land but also owned hills.
With the operations of forestry companies and agricultural associations, the villagers' incomes were quite high. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to support so many children in each household.
"Even so, being able to debut just on a whim isn't something ordinary people can do."
Nohara Hiroshi laughed loudly in response.
He felt a sense of pride at Sato becoming a light novel author, and his mood was extremely uplifted.
After all, this was his little brother!
But after calming down, Nohara Hiroshi became worried again. "Still, starting a company isn't a small matter. Sato, are you really sure about this?"
He was even more concerned now than before.
Earlier, he didn't know Sato had invested money, so he was just surprised. But now that he knew, he couldn't shake the feeling that Sato might have been scammed.
"Don't worry, big bro. I have experience with this kind of thing. I even had professional lawyers review the contract."
"Then… when you come later, I'll go upstairs with you and take a look."
"Sure, that works. I'll hang up now, see you later."
"Wait! Tell me the name of your work first."
"Hero Throne."
Beep…
After hanging up, Nohara Hiroshi let out a long breath, still feeling uneasy.
If Sato could rent office space upstairs, the investment definitely wasn't small. Even the annual rent alone would be astronomical. As a partner, Sato must have put in quite a bit of money.
But had he really earned that much?
Nohara Hiroshi quietly propped himself up and glanced around. Seeing that his manager was still busy at his desk, he opened a search engine and began typing.
"Senpai! You've learned how to slack off at work too!"
Suddenly, the person at the neighboring desk leaned over to look at his screen, wiggling his eyebrows at him.
Nohara Hiroshi was startled and twitched his eye as he pushed the head away. "Kawaguchi, get out of the way!"
"No way! Senpai, who were you talking to just now? I think I heard something about light novels. You're into that kind of thing too?!"
Nohara Hiroshi sighed helplessly and ignored him, continuing to type. "It's my younger brother. He said he debuted as a light novel author a few years ago."
Kawaguchi froze, then looked at Hiroshi in surprise. "Senpai, your brother is still in high school, right? So he debuted in middle school?!"
"Hmph, so? Pretty amazing, right!"
"Eh? Why are you so proud? You're not the one who debuted!"
"I'm happy about it, so what!"
"…"
"Alright, hurry up and search. Looks like you didn't even know about this after all these years."
"Shut up!"
"Hero Throne? Huh? I feel like I've heard that name somewhere!"
"You've heard of it?"
As Nohara Hiroshi moved the mouse and clicked search, a flood of eye-catching information instantly filled the screen.
Looking at the shocking headlines and tags, both of their expressions froze.
"S-senpai, are you sure this is your brother?!"
Kawaguchi stammered as he stared at the screen. The explosive headlines overwhelmed them both.
[The strongest middle school light novel author in history]…
[Youngest author to reach ten million sales]…
[Shocking! "Hero Throne" first print run increased by another 100,000 copies!]
Nohara Hiroshi's mouth hung open as he stared blankly at the screen, his confidence wavering.
But whether it was the mention of a middle schooler or the pen name Miyabi, everything pointed strongly to one conclusion.
This… was his little brother!
Nohara Hiroshi stared at the screen, his mind in chaos, and muttered blankly, "So my little brother is actually this amazing…"