Chapter 236 - Fans out of control.

Third-Person POV

It was the next day. Luan had already written a few pages of his new book. He was sleeping next to Hestia when a rumor began to spread. Throughout the streets of Orario, people couldn’t talk about anything else.

"Hey, did you hear that Luan from the Hestia Familia is the same Luan who wrote Re:Zero?"

"Is that true? I knew both of them—I thought they were different people. But I should’ve realized it, since I’ve never met anyone else with that name!"

Two women were chatting about it near the tower, and other people who hadn’t heard the news overheard the conversation. Soon enough, those same people began spreading the rumor further.

It became a snowball.

No one knew who started the rumor, but within a few hours, it had spread across the entire city.

Because of that, people started showing up in front of the Hestia Familia’s new home.

Even that piece of information had somehow gotten out.

People kept shouting outside. Most of them were female adventurers.

There were a few ordinary humans, but the majority were adventurers.

Luan, who had just finished breakfast, was finally starting to get annoyed by all the noise outside. Lili had left for work in the morning and hadn’t returned to warn him about the situation.

After all, there hadn’t been anyone outside at that hour.

Mikoto, who was in her room, didn’t seem bothered by the noise.

Hestia had eaten breakfast and gone back to sleep.

Luan was the only one in the living room—and the only one disturbed by the growing commotion.

Even though he couldn’t quite make out what people were shouting, Luan was sure he’d heard his name. He finally stopped ignoring it and opened the front door.

As Luan opened the door—scratching his head and yawning—the people outside began screaming his name. The women shouted as if they had just seen a pop star.

And it wasn’t just the women. Some men were acting the same way.

Luan froze.

Then, he smiled awkwardly and waved before quickly stepping back inside. As soon as he closed the door behind him, he leaned against it and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. A few seconds later—

“Hestia! Mikoto! We’ve got a problem!” he shouted.

The two of them, startled by his shout, rushed downstairs.

Only then did they finally hear the noise from outside.

“What’s going on?”

“Who are all these people?”

They both ran to the window and looked outside.

As soon as they appeared, the crowd looked disappointed. They were there to see Luan.

“I think people have finally discovered that I'm the author of Re: Zero and Overlord.”

“What??? I thought everyone already knew that! I mean, there’s no other Luan in Orario!” Mikoto said, surprised.

“I thought most people knew you were the author too,” Hestia added.

“Of course they didn’t know! Why do you think no one ever stopped me on the street to talk about the books?”

“You’re right…” Hestia admitted. She’d never seen a single fan approach Luan before. “But… who leaked the information? Do you think Elma did it?”

“No, definitely not,” Luan replied. “It was probably someone who doesn’t like me and found out somehow. Then they spread the word.” Luan was clearly worried. Being famous was a problem—a big one.

He was already regretting using his real name as a pen name.

‘Damn, who could it have been?’ Luan considered a few possibilities. ‘The girls from the Loki Familia would never do something like that. Maybe... Ishtar? She’s totally obsessed with me, and I have been ignoring her lately.’

Luan quickly made Ishtar his prime suspect.

“But is this really a problem, Luan?” Hestia asked.

“Being this famous is a problem—just look at this.” Luan opened the door and the people outside screamed like crazy. He shut it again, and the noise immediately died down. “Isn’t that… scary?”

“You’re right… Not even strong, well-known adventurers get treated like this,” Mikoto said.

This level of fame was beyond anything people in that world could comprehend.

There were famous adventurers, sure, but none of them were mobbed like this.

Luan had reached a new level—the fame of a celebrity from his old world.

People were being irrational, treating him like a superstar.

‘I always thought being famous would be annoying, but I never imagined it would be this bad.’ Luan started to sympathize with the celebrities from his old world who used to say that fame was a curse.

Days went by, yet the crowd in front of Luan’s house never left.

More and more people kept showing up.

To even leave the house, Luan had to rely on his teleportation or invisibility skills.

It became a burden not just for him, but also for Mikoto and Lili, who had to go out every day.

‘I need to get rid of these people. Would giving everyone an autograph be enough?’

####

Luan’s POV

I finally decided to face all those people. I stepped out of the mansion and walked into the garden. The moment they saw me, they started screaming my name and begging me to come closer.

“Luan! Over here!”

“Luan, sign my book! I brought all the volumes!”

“Please, just touch my hand!”

Hearing so many people shouting things like that made me incredibly uncomfortable.

“Please, calm down!” I yelled. The crowd finally quieted down after I asked.

There were easily over a hundred people.

“I’m sorry for not coming out earlier. I was just a little scared by how many of you there were.” I smiled as sincerely as I could.

Then people started saying it was okay.

But it quickly turned into chaos again.

Everyone started asking for my autograph.

“All right. I’ll sign every book you brought—but once you get my signature, I kindly ask that you leave. You’re making a lot of noise, and it might be bothering the neighbors.”

I didn’t say it was bothering me, because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

And so, I began taking one book at a time and signing them.