Kadokawa Light Novel Expo 2021 Novels & Stories

"It's just...I don't think this is working out,” he gestured at the empty space between us. My mind reeled. "What do you mean? We're fine, aren't we?" I asked, holding onto hope. "Honestly, Kalynda, I deserve better." "What's wrong with me?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. Jake's gaze dropped to my body, and he didn’t even try to hide his disgust. "It's just...your weight, Kae. It's...unattractive." Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. "You're ashamed of me," I stated, my voice cracking. Jake shrugged. "I'm just being honest, Kae. You need to lose weight if you want to keep a guy like me.” "You're breaking up with me because of my weight?" I asked, incredulous. Jake nodded. Kalynda hits rock bottom when her boyfriend breaks up with her and she realized he’d been using her all along. The bullying and ridicule from her peers, including her step sister, increased, and Kae wants to end it all. But the brooding Max steps in and stops her. She sees life in a new light and works in herself. What happens when she returns as a completely different person?

I kept it hidden from the entire Moonshadow Pack — the private mate contract I signed with Darren, the current Alpha. Every time he rushed off to spend the heat season with his Omega childhood sweetheart, the wolf inside me howled in agony, tearing itself apart. Every time, he would whisper his empty promises, "Once she's stable, we'll hold the Luna crowning ceremony." For three years, he made that promise ninety-nine times — and skipped the ceremony ninety-nine times. The first time, her wolf died unexpectedly, and he claimed the Moon Goddess had forbidden the ceremony. The second time, her heat struck suddenly, and he abandoned me, throwing himself into her bed. After that, every time there was supposed to be a ceremony, something happened to her — and somehow, he was always right there by her side. Every time, I broke down, screaming, drowning in heartbreak. However, he always looked down on me, his voice calm, detached: "She's just a temporary mate for physical needs. You should understand." After the ninety-ninth broken promise, the wolf inside me finally went silent. I placed a "Mate Contract Termination Application" on his desk. "From now on, in the eyes of the Moon Goddess, I'm no longer yours in any way."

Hilda Oakley, the charity case Mom and Dad take in, steals my family right out from under me. She slips drugs into me, driving me into a bipolar disorder. She turns me into someone who snaps and screams at Mom and Dad without meaning to. She paints me as someone rotten inside, as the bully at school, and as someone who'd shove her down the stairs at home. And because of that, my whole family turns on me. Mom calls me a bad seed. Dad says I'm no daughter of his. Then, they adopt Hilda and throw me out in the dead of winter. My bipolar flares. Naked, I sprint onto the rooftop and jump to my death. When I'm reborn, I realize I can make the thoughts in other people's heads audible. So, at the dinner table, I let Hilda's thoughts spill right before Mom and Dad. 'I kept that witch Valerie drugged for three years. She finally broke! They still don't suspect that Alex isn't really her brother. He's Susan's son. Once we poison Valerie's parents, the Coopers' fortune will belong to us.'

Just as my wealthy boyfriend and I were talking about getting married, his mother dismissed me as an unrefined girl and demanded I attend a finishing school to learn how to be a proper wife. Looking at Zach’s pleading gaze, I gave in. I endured relentless psychological and physical torment for three months. However, on the day I was discharged, I overheard a phone call between Zach and his friend. “Zach, if you don’t want to marry Cathy, why didn’t you just tell her? Why did you have to send her to that hellhole to suffer? That finishing school your family runs is a freaking torture chamber. Constant beatings, electric shocks, forced kneeling for hours… No one comes out of there the same.” “You don’t get it. Jen is about to get engaged, and I can’t risk Cathy ruining it. As long as Jen is happy, I don’t care who I marry. Cathy grew up poor, so she can endure a little hardship. Three months of hardship for a lifetime of Stein money is a fair trade.” My vision blurred with tears when I heard those cruel words from his mouth. I thought. “Zach, since you loved Jenna so much, why did you have to toy with my feelings?”

My entire family could hear my thoughts. In my previous life, I was switched at birth with Victoria Harrington. I was reunited with my family 18 years later. It was the early 1920s, when owning a bicycle or a radio was still rare for most families. I had always dreamed of having one of those precious things. However, after I came home, Victoria would constantly brag right in front of me. "Mom told me that I'm the only one who deserves this fancy watch," she said with a sweet smile. "And look at this gorgeous bicycle Dad got me for my birthday! Oh, and when I mentioned wanting a radio, Daniel bought it for me immediately." Then came the real knife twist. "I know you're their biological daughter, Bernice, but let's be honest. When it comes to love, I'm their real daughter. Daniel definitely prefers me as his little sister too." Her words ate at me. I could not stop the bitter thoughts that flooded my mind about my parents and brother. The problem was that my family could hear every single one of those thoughts. Slowly, they began to resent me. Eventually, they threw me out into the cold, and I died alone in the winter streets while Victoria lived happily within the warmth of their love. When I opened my eyes again, I realized that I had been reborn. As I watched Victoria putting on her usual show, my thoughts took a delicious turn. 'Victoria thinks that Mom is such a cheapskate for only buying her a cheap watch instead of something expensive. She even calls Dad stingy behind his back because he didn't get her a pricier bicycle.' 'And she constantly complains about how ugly and crude Daniel is, saying that he embarrasses her. I wonder if I should share these thoughts with my family?'

"One Decision" follows eighteen -year-old Freya Myers, a brilliant but broken foster teen, as she teeters on the edge of a new beginning-and a hidden nightmare. With a perfect GPA and dreams of opening a bookstore, Freya is determined to escape a system that's failed her. When a wealthy Southern family unexpectedly adopts her and whisks her away to a private estate in Georgia, it feels too good to be true. Because it is. The mansion is beautiful. The people? Picture-perfect. But behind the polished smiles and choreographed greetings lies something Freya can't quite name-yet. Strange rules. Watchful eyes. Whispers behind closed doors. And her new "brothers," who know more about her than they should. As Freya digs deeper into the family's secrets, she's forced to confront her past and a chilling truth: she may not have been saved... she may have been chosen. Dark, gripping, and emotionally raw, One Decision is a psychological coming-of-age thriller that explores what happens when the price of belonging may be your freedom-or your soul.

We finally separate, we are just fooling around thinking we had parted, yet our hearts dwells where we cowardly believed we had left.

My stepmother, Mary, hated me to the bone. All because when I was little, I went to a classmate’s house to play and forgot to close the courtyard gate. Her son ran onto the road and was hit to death by a car. My father loved my younger brother the most. After learning what happened, he was heartbroken. “Were you jealous of your brother? That’s why you deliberately left the gate open?” I desperately explained that I had closed the gate, but Dad didn’t believe me. He locked me in the basement and raised me like a dog for the rest of my life. Until one day, when Dad went on a business trip, Mary didn’t give me any food for three days. Starving, I crawled upstairs to the kitchen to look for something to eat. That was when I saw Mary sitting on a man’s lap, saying softly, “If you hadn’t forgotten to close the gate back then, I wouldn’t be living in fear every day of my husband finding out… We’re the ones who killed Ethan.” Only then did I understand that I wasn’t the one who had forgotten to close the gate and caused my brother to run outside, but my stepmother’s lover. Just as I was about to sneak back to the basement, my stepmother noticed me. “What did you hear? No! I can’t let your father find out that I killed our own son!” In a panic, she grabbed me and threw me down the stairs, killing me on the spot. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day the car hit my brother. I blinked my innocent, childlike eyes and pointed upstairs, speaking in a soft, baby voice, “Dad, I closed the gate. It was the man in Mom’s bedroom who didn’t!”

I was cleaning up the house on the second day after my wife went for a business trip. I casually instructed the smart speaker. “Smart, play some music.” However, I heard a husky, strange male voice. “Sure. I’m the Sun that loves you. Plus, Lindy, I would like to remind you not to forget about your birthday surprise for Sam tonight.” I stiffened and found the music particularly annoying. Linda Clark was my wife, but I had no idea who Sam was. I immediately called my wife. “Did you use the smart speaker at home?” Linda paused for a moment before she laughed indifferently. “Oh, my friend visited me a few days ago. She might have connected her account to it. What’s wrong?” I laughed and told her it was nothing. After hanging up, I found the login record of the speaker and hailed a cab. I headed straight to the registered company associated with the unfamiliar account on the record.

After deciding to leave Azurea and follow Clara Miller to Northwood City, I was cast out by my parents. "That girl is an orphan–what can she possibly give you? If you choose a life of hardship now, you’ll spend the rest of your life suffering! Once you walk out that door, don’t bother coming back!" I left anyway. For five years, I watched Clara rise step by step, becoming one of Northwood City’s most respected psychologists. Just as she had promised, she gave me a home. As the New Year approached, I planned to take her back to Azurea to reconcile with my parents. However, just before boarding the plane, she abandoned me again–this time for a depressed patient threatening to take his own life. She let go of my hand, her eyes full of pain. "Julian Vance… he’s just like I used to be–alone, with no one to rely on. If I don’t go, he’ll jump. I’m sorry. Just this once. I’ll catch the next flight and meet you there." Then she turned and ran toward the exit without hesitation. I stood there, staring at the two plane tickets in my hand. She had saved everyone who needed redemption. Everyone… except me. Slowly, I tore up her ticket. Then I walked alone toward the security gate and turned off my phone. What Clara did not know was this: Some journeys home, once missed, are gone forever.