To be honest, Kaya was thinking that Ragna was a genius among geniuses.

Not just someone a bit smarter than average that you can find anywhere in this world.

A special being that seemed to exist in a completely different dimension from ordinary people in the true sense.

Of course, after all, hadn’t he directly created the culture called animation that hadn’t existed in this world until now?

Moreover, not only that, Kaya had never seen Ragna struggling with producing animations or worrying about how to develop the story.

He seemed like someone who knew from the start exactly how to develop the story to create a masterpiece, what direction to take to make viewers go wild.

That’s why she hadn’t noticed.

That in fact, Ragna too was putting in a lot of effort in places unseen by others.

“…Huh?”

It was purely by chance.

When she entered his room to call Ragna about an issue related to the production of “Sky of Destiny”.

She happened to see a notebook spread out on the desk.

“This is….”

In fact, Kaya, given her background, is someone who is stricter than anyone about etiquette and tries hard to keep it.

So she knows better than anyone that it’s truly rude to look at someone else’s notebook without permission.

But.

[List and storyboards of anime to be produced]

“…A list and storyboards of animations to be produced in the future…?”

The words written on the notebook were exuding a charm that made Kaya unable to resist opening it.

“Director…! I’m sorry…!”

In the end, unable to resist the temptation, Kaya opened the notebook placed on Ragna’s desk and peeked at its contents-

“…Ah.”

That day, she experienced a new world.

As mentioned earlier, Kaya had thought that Ragna was producing animations without experiencing any difficulties at all.

But it seems that wasn’t the case.

Because.

“…Goodness. So the Director was actually thinking of ending “Machine God Chronicles” with a scene where everyone applauds the protagonist? And he had prepared three different routes for “Sky of Destiny”?”

Inside that notebook were traces clearly showing that Ragna had made countless deliberations to produce animations.

…Of course, in reality, that notebook was nothing more than a cheat sheet Ragna had written to not forget the contents of animations he had seen in his previous life, but.

Not knowing this fact, to Kaya’s eyes, that notebook looked like nothing but the crystallization of Ragna’s blood and sweat.

Originally, most geniuses were unpleasant people who lived only for their own pride.

Ragna, despite being born with a talent far more brilliant than those who boast about being geniuses, still doesn’t spare any effort.

This was nothing short of cheating.

What woman in the world wouldn’t fall for a man showing such a side?

That’s why she fell for him even more.

And she ended up thinking she wanted to stand beside him.

It wasn’t so bad to stand behind him and quietly assist him like now.

But isn’t a true life partner someone who looks at each other as equals and can help each other?

From that moment, Kaya’s goal changed a little.

Not being satisfied with just the role of assistant director like now.

She decided to become a woman who could be of more help to Ragna in producing animations than now.

At least, shouldn’t she be of more help to Ragna than Serika, that woman?

From that day on, Kaya secretly began making animation storyboards.

Of course, it was just for practice.

Because she knew well that in the field of animation production, she was still far behind Ragna.

But while it was for practice, it was also something filled with sincerity.

In this situation where everyone in the Empire… no, the entire continent has some kind of expectation for the animations Ragna makes.

It was Kaya’s surprise gift to lighten the burden he was carrying, even if just a little.

So while carrying out her assistant director duties related to “Sky of Destiny”, Kaya made time to create character settings and animation storyboards, and.

She was finally able to complete it around the time the last episode of “Sky of Destiny” aired.

A story depicting the struggle between vampires who feed on humans and humans with special powers who oppose them.

“…Hmm, is this really right?”

But Kaya looked at the storyboard she completed with a dissatisfied expression.

Because the storyboard she drew seemed to lack something like individuality.

In this world, vampires were creatures that actually existed in the past, and.

They were beings that had long gone extinct due to their terribly horrible characteristic of sucking human blood to sustain their lives.

But because of that, vampires had become a subject that appeared too often in fairy tales, plays, and operas.

The number of works where vampires appear as villains easily exceeded dozens just off the top of her head.

If this story were to be made into an animation and aired, viewers would obviously judge it as ‘cliché’.

“The storyboards and settings the Director wrote in his notebook didn’t seem to have this flavor…”

Even at a glance, the storyboards of animations Ragna produced were so interesting.

Why are the storyboards of the animation she produced so insignificant and uninteresting?

Is this the difference in pure talent?

Was it beyond the reach of a magpie like herself to follow a heaven-sent genius like Ragna?

Kaya, who had planned to gift this to Ragna as a commemoration if “Sky of Destiny” was completed, tightly closed her eyes, and.

“…I’m sorry, Director. I was an incompetent and useless woman…”

She had no choice but to present that terribly shabby storyboard to Ragna as a completion gift.

“I wanted to give you a high-quality storyboard as a gift if possible… but this seems to be my limit. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a fresh story on the theme of vampires…”

Kaya muttered so in an extremely depressed voice, but.

“…Hmm.”

Ragna, who had seriously appreciated the storyboard Kaya produced from beginning to end, had a slightly different thought from her.

“No, it’s not bad. This storyboard.”

“…Pardon?”

Certainly, as Kaya said, vampire-related themes in creative works have now become something extremely cliché.

But at the same time, it’s also true that because the vampire theme is so tasty, it’s being used over and over like bone broth everywhere.

Even if it’s an extremely cliché story, if you can add a few clear differentiating points from other works.

This storyboard Kaya produced also has enough potential to be reborn as an excellent animation.

At Ragna’s such review, Kaya looked at Ragna with her eyes sparkling.

“Really…? Then perhaps, could you give me some advice on this storyboard, Director?”

“Huh? Advice? No, that’s a bit…”

Ragna tried to refuse Kaya’s request because it wasn’t polite to pick apart someone else’s hard-made creation, but.

“No, please, I beg you! No matter how much I think about it, I can’t come up with any ideas to add to this!”

“…Hmm.”

As Kaya pleaded and clung to Ragna like this, he had no choice but to grant her request in the end.

‘No, wait a minute.’

Come to think of it, isn’t this an opportunity?

The reason why people like the Emperor and Duke keep pestering Ragna with post-apocalyptic obsessions is because he’s the only person capable of producing animations.

But what if an alternative like Kaya appears here?

Not some shoddy animation produced by a large merchant company.

If Kaya can produce animations that are similar to or even more entertaining than what Ragna made?

Then wouldn’t Ragna automatically step down from the position of animation director and return to the life of an unemployed person?

‘…This will work. This will definitely work!’

Thinking of such a brilliant future awaiting him, Ragna suddenly felt like enthusiasm was welling up.

“Vampires… a theme related to vampires…”

Hmm, what fresh themes related to vampires were there…?

A story about suddenly dismembering a strange vampire woman met on the street one day, or.

If not that, a story about the war between a vampire who wants to die by human hands and the army trying to subjugate him wouldn’t be bad either.

‘No, that’s not it.’

The storyboard Kaya brought was a story about humans with special powers facing vampires who see humanity as food.

Then, the advice Ragna should give Kaya here is.

“What do you think about adding content where the protagonist’s friend falls into being a vampire?”

“…Pardon?”

“I mean, how about a story where the protagonist’s friend, unable to overcome his inferiority complex towards the protagonist, turns himself into a vampire?”

On top of that, if we add lines that emphasize the setting that vampires see humans as food, it would be even better.

‘For example, comparing the humans whose blood they’ve sucked so far to bread…’

Just as Ragna was about to give Kaya various pieces of advice like this.

Thud!

“R-Ragna! The news! Have you heard the news?”

Suddenly the door burst open, and Serika rushed into the room panting.

What’s with her, why is she suddenly acting like this again.

“News? What news?”

“The crowdfunding! The crowdfunding issue you showed in the ending credits of “Sky of Destiny” yesterday! Do you really not know anything?”

At Serika’s words, Ragna blinked his eyes.

Because from the start, the crowdfunding advertisement Ragna put out had nothing but problems.

It wasn’t just a penny or two, but he had set an astronomical amount of 50 million gold as the target amount for crowdfunding.

It was practically no different from openly declaring that he wouldn’t produce a sequel to “Sky of Destiny”.

As such, it would be stranger if fans who enjoyed “Sky of Destiny” didn’t get fired up.

But the words that came out of Serika’s mouth were something far beyond Ragna’s imagination.

“The crowdfunding amount, it’s all been raised.”

“…Hm? What did you say?”

“I mean, the target amount you set has long been reached, and now the amount accumulated is about twice that!”

“…?”

Crowdfunding related to the “Sky of Destiny” sequel.

Time taken to reach 100% over the original target amount.

Just one day.