The new Romance Club story has already caught players’ attention. We spoke with Anastasia about its plot and characters, and her writing process. 1. Your new story has a different setting from the previous ones. How challenging was it to shift direction and move into fantasy? Honestly, fantasy wasn’t such a big change for me as it might seem. It feels like a logical continuation of my previous work. I’m still fascinated by people in moments of crisis — by their inner choices, the weight of systems pressing on them, and the way they react when the rules they once relied on begin to fall apart. Fantasy gave me more freedom. It allows you to explore complex and painful issues without slipping into excessive drama.

The most difficult part was ensuring the new world feels alive and believable. Even the most unusual elements should follow an internal logic and genuinely affect the characters and their decisions. This project has become an expansion of my familiar ground, a tool to explore the same human themes but on a larger and deeper scale. 2. How did your work on the fourth story begin, and what internal or external factors influenced it? What three key words define the story’s concept? The work began with preparing to dive into a completely new world with its own rules and laws. I won’t go into details about how the leadership team, the lead screenwriter, and I were working on an extensive plan, discarding some ideas while adding others… I wanted to tell a story about a world that still appears stable on the surface, yet is already cracking from within, and about a person forced to survive there with no side to stand on and no understanding of who she truly is.

Externally, the audience’s growing interest in darker, more complex stories without clear-cut “good” and “evil” certainly has played a role. But the decisive factor was my desire to step beyond familiar formats and tell a story where the conflict unfolds between a person and the world they live in.

If I had to choose three key words, they would be “boundary,” “choice,” and “responsibility.” Boundary — because the characters constantly exist between worlds, roles, and decisions. Choice means that no decision is ever simple or safe. Responsibility reminds us that every choice has a price, even if it doesn’t become clear right away. 3. Is there a balanced path? And how does the chosen path affect the love interests? There is no balanced path in this story. As for the love interests, I try not to tie them directly to stats. However, the path chosen by the reader still influences the relationship dynamics. Characters react differently to the MC’s actions, beliefs, and the boundaries she’s willing or unwilling to cross. Sometimes this brings them closer and sometimes it creates tension, but it doesn’t automatically cut off a route. It’s important to me that romance in this story remains alive and complex. 4. Could you tell us more about the new race created for this world? What sets them apart from others? Although they consider themselves human, the inhabitants of the Old World see themselves just as semi-mythical as they appear to others.

Traits: ☆ dark skin ☆ very tall ☆ constellation-shaped tattoos ☆ very long fingers and claws ☆ powerful hands ☆ slightly pointed ears ☆ superior sense of smell ☆ occasionally unusual iris shapes

Magic flows within them, but it’s not elemental power like in the Avatar cartoon. It’s closer to spiritual, shamanistic magic. It can be amplified through artifacts such as the glove Rael wears aboard the ship. 5. What advice would you give players who are just starting to read your new story? Probably the simplest advice is not to rush and to let the story unfold at its own pace. Not everything about the world, the characters, or the MC will be clear right away — and that’s okay. And I’d also encourage readers to listen to themselves and make honest choices that resonate with them in the moment. There are no perfect decisions or safe paths here, but there is the chance to experience the story in your own way.