An Achillean literary mystery set within the cutthroat world of Tokyo publishing, featuring exclusive illustrations and a sharp, danmei-esque edge.

A game of barbed wits and bad manners-until the search for a vanished author turns a comedy of errors into a haunting.

Kamada Eizo is a web novelist with a breezy front and a desperate core. Having landed a flagship fantasy serial with a Tokyo publisher, he's finally within reach of the life he craves-a life built on a foundation that could crumble at any moment.

Miyamoto Ran detests liars. A brusque, uncompromising editor, Ran is obsessed with a single prize: unearthing the lost work of an author who vanished eight years ago. Securing Eizo's success is merely the means to an end.

They are polar opposites, bound together by dislike-at-first-sight and a mutual talent for barbed one-upmanship until a high-stakes deadline forces an uneasy truce. Yet, as they draw closer, Ran begins to see through Eizo's mask, sensing that the fragile connection they share is built on carefully wrought artifice. But for two men who have had the story of their lives once stolen, how far will one go to win it back, even if it means silencing the other's voice?

Note: This is Book 1 of a duet. While the banter is sharp (sometimes crude) and the tension is high, this volume focuses on the mystery and the slow-burn psychological connection. A HEA concludes the duet in Book 2, Or So We Say (Winter 2026).