“It’s the demon lord! Siti is a blue mage. She can make a portal for him!” Lydia cried out.
“This doesn’t change anything.” I sighed. “All of you. Listen. Take control of your respective units. Follow me. Do as I do. That is a Slave Order. Anyone who doesn’t follow my orders will be severely punished!”
In truth, the morale of the troops was at an all-time low. They were going into a battle they didn’t want to face. Even the arrogant and prideful nobles saw this battle against civilians to be pointless. It wasn’t that they didn’t think they’d win, it was just that they felt the entire battle was a waste of resources, especially with the real enemy on our doorsteps.
The girls gave me pleading eyes, and I could only shake my head. “You’re just going to have to trust me.”
Although my voice wasn’t convincing, they all nodded and returned to their spots. I reached out and grabbed the horse offered to me by a knight. I could see Deedee similarly mounting a horse. Basic Horse Riding had appeared in Hero at some point. After all, how could you have a hero ride on a white steed if he didn’t know how to ride? At the very least, it was enough that I wouldn’t embarrass myself. She’d have the exact same riding skill as me.
With my eyes locked on her and her eyes on me, the pair of us lifted our hands as one. The girls had tried to convince both of us to stop numerous times over the last week. Yet, we still had ended up here. This was just part of the plan.
“Attack!”
“Go!” I heard her yell as well.
Both of us dropped our hands at the same time and then kicked our horses. The armies wouldn’t march against each other if we didn’t lead by example, so it turned out we were riding out in front of everyone else. The rest started moving forward, one step at a time. However, as we started to pull away from the main army, they started to quicken their pace. Still, the acceleration was slow, and it soon looked like Deedee and I would face off long before everyone else.
“One last thing.” I messaged the girls. “If I should fall in battle, do not seek out vengeance. Immediately join Deedee…”
It was an order I had forgotten to give earlier. It was the only concession I could offer. Now, I just had to reach Deedee. The sooner I got to her, the sooner this battle would turn, and the less harm would come to everyone else. Behind me, I could hear shouting and roaring. With the heat of battle in front of them, the army was finally growing more animated. This may not be a battle any one of them wanted to be a part of, but this was a battle their leader had asked them to fight.
Our horses would reach each other first. I pulled out my sword. She did as well. Our eyes met, and the pair of us nodded to each other. It was time to make our move!
When a common enemy appears between 2 feuding parties, guess what they will do?
Whatever the author writes in the next chapter, this arc does not look good.
@torvn77 maybe he is stressed?
@travisswan86
I don’t think it’s stress or exhaustion of ideas, I think the point is this: he might want, following the authors of other novels, to start maintaining intrigue by hiding significant information from the reader, for example, now he “does not tell” us about any plan or event that, as it turns out in a few chapters now or earlier happened.
This is a rather vile trick that leads to the fact that you stop reading the novel until the moment when the author announces this event.
@torvn77 that is the privilege of an author, they are gods to the stories of the world they create. as a fellow author, I can catch what is he hatching to a certain degree & also pass unnoticed suggestions to fellow authors who I think about to pick it up & make use of it.
@travisswan86
that is the privilege of an author
This abuse of privilege is unfortunately as fashionable and common as throwing garbage on the sidewalk in bad neighborhoods.
But since Whatsawhizzer wrote well before this arc, I will forgive him this mockery and simply ignore this arc of the novel and will not lower the rating of the novel.
In general, I'll just pretend that this arch does not exist.
@torvn77 some arcs are too long till the reader can't see what is happening. try reading from the start till the end of this arc once it is concluded. there is something yet to be seen here.
@travisswan86 I understand that I can wait until the end of the arc, read the ending, and only then start reading it from the beginning.
But then the question is: why not immediately place the end at the beginning of the arch, since this arch should be read in this way?
some arcs are too long till the reader can't see what is happening.
It's not that the arc is long, it's that Whatsawhizzer hides part of the events from the reader.
@torvn77 he has rights. it could be locked behind a paywall.
@travisswan86
he has rights.
I think that if, when evaluating a work, a discussion of the author’s right to arbitrariness begins, then this is not even a call, but a whole siren warning that the author made a mistake when creating the work, the author did not cope with some of the tasks.
it could be locked behind a paywall.
I don't understand what you mean here, but if we talk about paid access, then I have a great idea: to sell chapters letter by letter / character by character.
How nice it will be to look at the physiognomy of some writers from whom several chapters in a row will buy only the first few words of a paragraph, which will clearly show how priceless their work is.
But that's the general idea, not for this novel.
@torvn77 I'm not his editor. are you? anyway, Alan Moore once said reading terrible books will put you into the mindset to self-improve as a writer. That is why I don't mind him making those mistakes.
@travisswan86
❗This is a general discussion not related to this novel.
The essence of the idea is not in editing, but in detailing the purchase.
And what is there to edit?
How many authors would agree to omit 60% of a chapter while completely disagreeing with the critique and editing?
In addition, such chapters have their own readers.
I have two more ideas:
1. give the opportunity to return 40% of the price of the letter back, provided that this letter is "closed" back and marked in gray.
2. Add to the chapter the ability to view revisions of the chapter from a particular user, of course, without the consent of the author of the novel.
That is why I don't mind him making those mistakes.
Those writers who brought to the idea of letter-by-letter sales will not live up to your hopes.
@torvn77 dude, therapist is not my job.
@torvn77 I can relate towards how you feel but I also understand one of the reasons(or excuses) why author's do this deploy this tactic in their writings. I'm not an author, but as a reader, I do enjoy using the knowledge acquired through reading to foreshadow and make educated guesses of what choices that the characters will make and how that will effect the plot later and its awesome to see how much I guessed correctly. On the other hand, also as a reader, I can't stand when they withhold so much information and not give us readers the tiniest bit of a clue about what's planned and or how the characters will resolve the situation that their in. It takes out some of the fun for me, where I like theorizing, and makes the MC and company victory over what ever crisis they was in seem cheap and undeserving.
So my opinion about the author using this tactic may not be cared for, but given how the author has written the situation that they're put in right now, I agree with his choice. With what information we're given up to this point, numerous possibilities of the plot and of where the story is headed can be made and theorized about, but there is too much to be accounted just for that reason alone. If the author tried to drop bread crumbs and it was being written like this, then the possibility of sharing or putting the wrong information becomes much higher, like information that doesn't add too or takes away from the story.
Let's say the information he's giving doesn't add to the lore, doesn't add to the world building, and is only ever going to be mention in just this paragraph or two and it's just some information that he needed to gives us to understand something that's needed to know something else that's also needed to know something else so we can understand enough just to theorize about something else without being too wrong is just terrible. I rather not be told nothing about it if it's just going to be pointless information that I'm storing in my head for no reason. And after reading so many web novels and manga, I can appreciate it. It's just my opinion on it and God knows it don't matter, so just take my thoughts with a grain salt and have blessed day
@OldSoul211 Those chapters that I talked about do not serve any function other than stimulating the pleasure center of naruto-eaters and they can be skipped without any damage.
It was these hormone-poisoned adolescents that I had in mind when I said that such chapters have their readers.
It is clear that not everyone likes such stimulation, and for example, I completely skip it.
@torvn77 ok. I'll admit it. My apologies but I'm confused. Like really incredibly confused and have no idea what your talking about now compared to your discussion with travisswan86 and what was spoken on. Now i need some major clarification to make sure we on the same page please, so bare with me.
Was you trying to make a joke that turned into a deeper discussion the more you spoke on it? Or was you talking about the smut all along? If it's the first one, I didn't see nor get the joke and that's my bad. I'm usually good about those things... but if your conversation with travisswan86 was you talking about the chapters that was just smut and sections of other chapters that contained parts of smut, then nothing you said that I can see remotely suggests or points that out and I can't see how you're referring to just that.
If you, in your conversation, are referring to just the smut chapters then I agree with and your opinion about the function they serve. I will also agree with you that not everybody enjoys reading about smut. Also yes, it does draw in a certain clique of readers who enjoys the cliches that the genre portraits in the writing of the story and how that's transferred to the scenarios and choices of the characters who are designed and styled to represent the genre of smut.
But I'm my opinion(which is only supported by my thoughts and is not facts by no means), the smut was pretty tamed wasn't really wasn't that bad as it did happen to contain some interesting tidbits of info. Some of it had slight character details that wasn't mentioned and contained insights into their personality the was never expanded on. It didn't really add to the story but it also didn't take away from it either. The story was tagged for containing smut so I'm pretty sure that you should have known that it was contained somewhere within these pages to since extent; which I haven't seen you say or mention anything about in the comments of previous chapters as I binge read through and I find that genuinely awesome cause that tells me that your not some random hater who just decided to take the present opportunity to hate bash the author and his readers with an opinion that is heavily one side and full of ignorance with a only a small clique, that you could try to represent the opinions of, would agree with.
I kinda understand your distaste of it but like I said, it's not that bad in this story with its details and descriptions. Unlike in the story "Rupegia", which contains smut in every chapter after a certain point in the story, these chapters are sparse and spread apart from each other very well and I believe the author did an exceedingly good job in keeping it to the minimum requirement and was oriented to be more story focused than anything. Honestly, there really should be more smut and I believe most readers that came for just smut would agree with me. Not saying I'm here for just the smut but I personally do enjoy a little of it. Anyways, those were my thoughts that I probably wasted a bunch of my time writing out and putting to paper(and I really shouldn't have shared it) when I don't fully understand what it is that you was saying nor when I'm not completely sure of what exactly you was talking about without more clarification. So you really can just ignore my ramblings if you wanted to lol I just enjoy having stimulating conversations with others who have differing opinions from my own, who are civil, and not trying to sale some bullsh*t that they think is a critique when it's just them spouting an illogical unreasonable bullsh*t opinion like it's all factual. I can't stand that lol. Many people truly don't comprehend what the difference is between what is their opinion and what is true constructive criticism or an actual critique contains 😂 anyways, I truly enjoyed this and your time, thank you. I love you and Hope you have a blessed day, stay safe.