264 A Promise to Publish (1/2)

”Don’t misunderstand—I’m just going by my impression as a reader, not my review as the head editor,” Souzo explained after he noticed the editors’ expressions. It seemed that he'd realized what they were thinking. ”This story made me recall the feeling I had reading that story from ten years ago... and as the head editor, I can only say that so far this story seems to be written quite well and has a good chance of becoming popular. As for how popular it can become... that will depend on luck and the audience’s tastes.”

The editors finally understood.

A popular story’s success didn’t depend solely on the quality of the written work. Luck was also a factor, and more precisely, it depended on what the general public wanted to read at the time.

If luck wasn’t on a story’s side, even an excellently written story wouldn’t become popular. And if the audience simply wanted to read a certain genre, some stories that had only average writing quality could also become a huge hit.

Another way of putting it was that some stories mysteriously fell flat, while others became popular for no apparent reason. The light novel market was just such a mysterious creature.

This was already the case for popular stories, so of course it also applied to legendary stories.

Even Head Editor Hattori, who had been in this business for several decades, and read countless amounts of light novels wouldn’t be able to tell just from a draft if it would become hugely popular or a legendary success.

”Yoshizawa-san, give me a report about this story’s situation... as for everyone else, why are you just standing around here? Hurry up and go do your work!”

All the other editors scattered after being reprimanded by the head editor.

Saki then informed Souzo about the story and the author.

”He doesn’t want to publish Become Handsome and wants to publish this Brother Monogatari instead,” Souzo muttered to himself. He mulled it over, considering the matter deeply as he stared at the computer screen. ”Judging by the quality of his draft so far, it’s probably okay. But still, we should wait until he finishes the final draft to set it in stone. Yoshizawa-san... tell him that if he can finish the final draft with this same quality—if he passes our standards—then we’ll give him the highest-level contract for newcomer authors and promise to get his story published as soon as possible!”

A strange light flashed in Head Editor Hattori’s eyes as he made his decision.

...

Seiji received another phone call from Editor Yoshizawa during his lunch break.

Although he hadn’t finished his draft yet, his word count was quite high already, so Seiji had figured that she wouldn’t call him until later this afternoon or even tonight as it would take time to finish reading his draft. This was earlier than he expected.

Seiji was delighted to hear all this, and, moved by Thunderbolt Literature’s sincerity, he agreed.

He immediately called Shika to tell her about the good news.

Shika was also delighted and said that this was only to be expected. ”Brother Seiji’s story is the best!”

”No, this wasn’t written by me alone—we wrote this together!”

Seiji wished that Shika could be prouder of herself, instead of giving him all the credit.

After he finished talking to Shika, Seiji also informed Mika and Chiaki, who were both eating lunch with him, of the situation. Kaho wasn’t with them this time.

More than ever, Mika and Chiaki were anxious to read the finished version of Brother Monogatari now that it had received recognition from a professional editor.

After school, Seiji and his friends walked to the library again to join the drama club study group.

Hiroshi Fuuma, who had collapsed yesterday, didn’t come today.

The club members asked Vice President Shiina about how he was doing.

”Fuuma-san didn’t tell me why he fainted; he simply thanked me and also asked me to thank Harano-san and Wakaba-san for helping to take him to the infirmary,” Shiina said. ”He also mentioned that we shouldn't worry about him. As for today, he took a day's leave to rest at home, so he hasn't come to school.”

In the end, they still didn’t know the real reason. It wasn’t actually the so-called ”truth” from yesterday, was it?

Seiji and everyone had rather subtle expressions as they thought about it.

”What’s the matter?” Shiina felt that everyone was acting a little strange.

Everyone looked in Nakajima’s direction.

”The cruel truth shouldn’t be told more than once; it should be allowed to disappear peacefully and rest in the darkness,” Nakajima murmured, looking off into the distance wistfully.

‘The hell with disappearing! You’re probably just afraid of ‘Demon Face’ Shiina’s forceful retorts!’ was what ran through the drama club member's minds.