If Irene was irritated before, then the expression her face hastily contorted to after hearing Howard's response probably was in need of a brand new term in order to even describe it.

Beyond annoyed, beyond infuriated, beyond incensed. You know what - let's just go with very, very pissed off. Yeah, that'll do quite well actually.

Though she wasn't exactly the outburst-y type… no, that was more my thing really. Yet her silent, haunting stare was still more than enough to quake boots and tremble lips more than I ever could.

Perks of having a face like hers, I suppose.

"Let's step back for a moment," She said, her voice lacking of any emotion. "You received an email, a game pitch that'd eventually proved lucrative for you, so you stole it, plagiarize the idea, pass it off as your own thing, and then you proceeded to go on and erase the one single piece of evidence that could prove any of all this ever happened in the first place."

Again, impulsively reaching for spectacles that went there, Howard was slowly starting to look a bit queasy.

"No - it wasn't… it wasn't like that!" He said wearily. "If I still have it, I'd show it to you no questions asked! I only deleted it because - "

"Plagiarism is morally wrong?"

"Because I didn't need it anymore," He finished, his sighs sounding more like gasps. "I read it enough to the point where I could practically just recite it all by heart anyway."

"And also because if anybody else were to found out, it'd be kinda bad for your reputation as the sole person responsible for pulling the studio out of dark waters, am I right?" I said.

What I got in return was a cold, hard glare. "Whatever. I did what I did, I don't have to explain myself to you."

"No, but you will to me, you understand?" Irene said, her tone allowing no change at all to speak the contrary. "Recite it by heart, you say? Well then, by all means, Howard."

He blinked once. "By all means, what?"

"Word for word," She explained. "Just what are the things you took in that email that 'inspired' you to create Asteria."

"Look, what does it even matter? It doesn't seem like it has nothing to do with anything out there."

"Do you really want to be difficult?" Another glare, another tone in warning given in a deathly stare. "Start listing."

Howard looked as if he rued the very moment he decided to get out of bed today, that chiseled, rugged face of his just kept whimpering and sighing in absolute despair. Oh woe is me.

I almost felt a little sorry for him.

Almost.

"Look, I didn't exactly take it all word for word," He began. "When I see something I like from it, sometimes I would take it and then I fiddle around with the idea for a bit… you know, put my own flair to it… make it a bit more, I guess… original."

Irene shook her head. It was like every word that spouted out his mouth just kept snowballing him into deeper darker depths of contempt.

"So not only did you copy someone else's homework, you even change the wording of some of the answers," Irene said, and although the prospect sounded a tad bit amusing when spoken out loud, the atmosphere wasn't exactly bursting with chuckles. "Care to share some of it with the rest of the class, please?"

Dreading on bringing about the wrath of scary strict teacher Ms. Irene, Howard readily went off on a tangent, one by one, confessing to his every instant of blatant plagiarization, starting first with the most obvious alteration:

"From Kronocia to Asteria is one. Some continent names too, some nations… they didn't exactly have a nice ring to them, Lamir for example, that was my addition."

Aside from countries and continents, Howard also fancied himself a history maker - changing some monumental events in Kronocia, altering it to better fit his creative vision and his world.

Magic and all the mythical whatnots mostly stayed unchanged. Creatures, species, the likes… Howard deemed perfectly ripe for the pickings.

In all honesty, we'd be here forever if I describe every little thing he went and had a hand in, so for the sake of keeping it brief, I'll opt for a lighting fast round.

Weather? Same. Divines? Same. Elements? Same. Biomes? Changed. Kingdoms and Provinces? Same but with little minute amendments. Cultures and beliefs? Same.

So that explains it all. How Asteria could replicate so much of Kronocia and yet still have glaring inconsistencies shared between them. It's cause Howard can't world build good enough to save his life.

No grand convoluted reasons here. Just a man and his emails.

Irene clearly did not at all approve of this misrepresentation of her world, but it wasn't as if she could just openly express her discontent about it, right now she wasn't the succubus from another world here, she was playing the part of the everyday no-nonsense detective from the precinct a couple of blocks down the street.

And it was a part she needed to uphold no matter what, so for the time being, she stifled her lips, and continued to hearken to the merciless butchering that was her people's culture.

"For Succubi, Email said that they're demons that are more on the neutral side of things, that they would only fight back when they're provoked. I thought that was a wasted opportunity given how much influence they could have because of their strong pheromones, so I made them tough hostile enemies in the game that the player has to have high resistance in order to kill them. No need to provoke them first, they'll just come straight at you."

Speaking of provoked, Irene definitely was. Howard better start praying she doesn't come straight at him instead.

"Creative, well done," she deadpanned. "What else?"

Not much else, really... at least in terms of the trivial stuff that only exists to add depth to the world - but if we're talking characters… Howard's got you covered.

Leonardo and Terestra. The topic most awaited by yours truly, unsurprisingly did not undergo much of a makeover. Dad remained a great hero from the past flung forward to the future, and Mom stayed the great evil that said Dad was obligated to slay with only change in moniker from Demon Goddess to Demon Queen.

"The six servants of Terestra was my idea," Howard explained. "Email said Terestra worked mostly solo, but it'd be quite boring gameplay-wise if she was the only thing the player had to contend with."

No arguments there.

"But the servants themselves… I didn't come up with some of them on my own. Some like Azamoth, or Sera Nas were mine…" He glanced briefly at Ash. "Others like Eshwlyn or Menastro… I based them on other figures I read. In the email."

"Based on who?" Ash said, her voice unnervingly hushed. "Who is… who is Eshwlyn based on?"

"All I did was take the name. Some random Elf Leonardo slew before he was summoned. Eshwlyn's backstory and who she is… that I take full credit for. Thought it'd be an entertaining tale to tell the players."

"Entertaining?" Ash repeated softly, her fingers quickly folding into her palms. "How could… How could one possibly think that entertaining?"

Howard tilted his head, obviously catching notice of how quickly her demeanor had changed. "I get the sense that you don't… that you disagree?"

Disagreeing was frankly really understating it. My sympathy for her was showing in abundance, I can't even imagine having to be told that everything that you struggled through was simply all done for the sake of entertaining faceless millions… millions that you'll never even know nor meet.

So it was amazing that she still was able to keep herself composed, able to stave her anger from lashing out… I don't think I'd be able to in her shoes… a cool solemn stare and nothing more, letting let him continue.

And it was good that she did.

"Ria Ignis, the Scarlet Phoenix," Howard said, much to the shock and surprise of all us that he failed to see. "Asteria instead had - "

"Caeru Ignis, the Blue Phoenix," I finished for him. "Let me guess, another blatant copy?"

"Well, to be fair… Ria's history was already good enough to add in." Howard said. "Being the first and last of her kind makes for a very intriguing tale. Her story's tragic enough, I only thought it'd be more fitting if she had aligned herself with Terestra instead."

"Shitty idea."

Irene was staring daggers, probably most out of all us that was left reeling in shock, clearly, she didn't expect her former bird in an amulet to be mentioned in any form of writing.

Which just made everything drastically more unsettling.

This email writer knew too much about so much… little details, big details, their knowledge on Kronocia had no discrepancies, at least not ones that Irene could find.

All this information about a realm decimated… why give it to a gaming studio in the first place? What's the use? Did they really just wanted a game out of it? Or something much more?

Seriously... our backlog just keeps piling on with the questions and I have a strange feeling that we were quite far from ever reaching the end of it.

I don't expect the answers to those particular questions to be as simple and straightforward as the ones he was giving… but either way, I do hope we'd be able to get to the bottom of them soon.

For now though… just keep talking Howard.