Chapter 26
About a month after the conclusion of “The Fallen Nobleman Is Good at Politics.”
I was deep in thought about how to weave a Three Kingdoms story into the style of an isekai newspaper serial.
First, the title.
Any cultured modern person would feel a faint itch of flame-war energy just from hearing the three syllables “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”
But if I threw the word “Three Kingdoms” straight into another world, all I'd get would be, “What is that?”
Besides, I wasn't really planning to focus on the Sun family.
To be fair, Sun Jian and Sun Ce could at least be judged as ambitious warlords brimming with tragic grandeur.
But Sun Jerry is a bit...
So a title like “Three Kingdoms,” “Story of the Three Kingdoms,” and the like didn't seem to fit either.
Of course, a title has to be catchy if you want to draw people's attention.
Therefore……
“I've decided.”
“Why are you making such a fuss over picking a title?”
“Be quiet, you who came up with a title like, ‘I, Who Wove Mats, Became the Master of the Throne—Absolutely impossible, impossible! Not impossible?’”
“I think it suits it, though.”
A blemish from my childhood that I'd even forgotten about.
The sin of discovering an external hard drive packed with carefully selected masterpieces while blatantly ignoring copyright law back when even Ra■tel didn't exist was apparently this grave.
Anyway……
“The villain hides his ambition. And the royal scion hides his lineage. What do you think?”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Of course.
I was.
A protagonist is supposed to hide something, whether it's strength, mercy, or even their background.
Of course, strictly speaking, Liu Bei didn't really hide his lineage.
In fact, the only pedigree he really had was being several generations removed from the Prince of Zhongshan, and he used it as self-introduction PR wherever he went.
Cao Cao didn't exactly hide his ambition either.
Which is why I got annoyed and sent him an empty lunch box.
Still, whatever.
A title only needs to be catchy enough to stir up attention.
For a bit of consistency, if I add “Two Heroes” to the front, the title's complete.
……That much alone took a month.
It had taken a full month, no less.
That was the limit of the naming skills Historie and I possessed.
In fact, the actual story was easy to write based on the things I'd been mulling over.
The protagonist of a political-and-picaresque story.
A lone realist who chose reason over sentiment to pacify a chaotic age, and Cao Cao, who looked like an outright villain but whose very villainy would instead become part of his charm.
The protagonist of a classic orthodox hero tale.
Liu Bei, the idealistic hero who started with nothing and won over countless hearts—beginning with sworn brothers—using only benevolence and righteousness as his weapons to achieve a great cause.
To keep the parts that could get too stiff if told strictly through the official histories from turning dry, I deliberately left them unexpressed on Cao Cao's side and only expressed them on Liu Bei's side, frying in as much of Luo Guanzhong's secret sauce as I could.
“Isn't that plagiarism?”
“I suppose it is? But even if Luo Guanzhong came back from hell, the copyright's already expired, so wouldn't that be fine?”
“Hmm......”
“Since this is another world, it feels like you're planning to plagiarize anime to your heart's content and sell it off.”
“Wow. You're speaking from the perspective of a top 0.01% Historie designer right now.”
Honestly, if I were only looking at money and fame, I do think that would be the far better choice.
But I already had a certain psychological resistance to it, and besides, it wasn't much of a benefit for me in the first place, since I had to use the status window.
Anyway.
Maybe it's time to go see Guildford.
* * *
“Long time no see, Mr. Guildford.”
“W-writer......!”
Seeing Kim Yul after such a long time, Guildford broke into a grin so broad it looked as if his mouth might split open.
Normally, writers would take a break after finishing a work.
After “The Fallen Nobleman Is Good at Politics” ended, the sales of Truth Daily started to decline again.
- We got beaten by Peace Daily again this time too!
Guildford had built his standing in the company solely on the merit of having landed a writer, so now he looked like a soft, deflated balloon.
So of course he was even happier to see him.
“Somehow, it feels like you're looking at what's in my hands rather than at me.”
“Ah. Haha...... Sorry.”
Kim Yul was of course welcome too, but the huge document envelope in Kim Yul's arm drew even more attention, and that was the source of his rudeness.
He silently signaled a staff member to bring out the finest refreshments and drinks the newspaper office had on hand.
“Please, have a seat.”
He sat down across from Kim Yul.
For a normal person, this would have been a situation where they'd trade small talk of one sort or another.
“This is my next work.”
Kim Yul only smiled faintly and held out the very thing Guildford couldn't take his eyes off of, the thing he'd longed for so badly.
The moment he opened the envelope.
“There are two novels......!”
In that short time, he'd already churned out not one but two ideas!
Kim Yul, was he a genius!
Just as he was letting out an admiring exclamation and about to spread the contents open.
“I'd like to start serializing both of them at the same time.”
“......?”
At those words.
Guildford raised his head and looked at Kim Yul.
His expression was perfectly calm, without a hint of wavering, as if he'd foreseen that it would happen.
And.
Strangely enough, it felt like that was exactly how things should be done.
He was a pro at literature.
No matter how much it was Kim Yul, if what he'd brought was wildly below standard—little more than a child's scribble of a story—still, if it was Kim Yul...
……if it was Kim Yul, there was no way that could be.
Without even realizing it, he was swayed by that firm belief and nodded first.
But.
He couldn't verify a work without reading it.
“Still, I'll read it.”
Still, Guildford was a professional.
.
.
.
Suddenly, Guildford came to his senses and checked his wristwatch.
He had spent a good two hours, seated there and reading, entranced by the huge amount Kim Yul had written.
“Oh, no. I was terribly rude......”
When he lifted his head.
Kim Yul was already gone.
“He said to please contact him later.”
“......Bring me a draft contract immediately.”
This is going to be a hit.
It absolutely will.
An experimental attempt like none before.
Novels with two protagonists were not uncommon, but if you failed to balance them properly, the story would often go off the rails.
But.
The Hidden Series was different.
At first, men who started from completely different points would each solve problems in their own way from their own positions.
Like dots linking up to form a line, before long their relationships would connect into tiny lines, and the threads of fate they gathered would gradually take shape in three dimensions.
And, in the end, it even hinted at the grand epic that would emerge when those planes collided.
It was clear why he wanted to serialize the two works at the same time.
Besides.
Kim Yul had even thoughtfully taken the newspaper company's circumstances into account.
A noble protagonist, clearly armed with idealism. Liu Bei.
His defining physical trait was his large ears.
His lineage was said to be noble.
“A high elf, huh.”
The phrase about swearing brotherhood beneath a peach tree had to be an allusion to the World Tree as well.
Then.
It would be a perfect fit for the tastes of the Visperaud ducal house, the main sponsor manipulating the president from behind the scenes.
“As expected, a master writer really is on another level......!”
With the contract the staff member had prepared, he grabbed Kim Yul's manuscript and ran to the president's office.
And.
“Guildford! As expected, you're the only one! Hahahahaha! With this, with this we'll crush not only Peace Daily but even Imperial Daily, and in one stroke stand at the summit of literature!”
Along with the president's lavish praise, he was even promised full support for the novel's marketing.
Once again, Guildford felt it.
Elves are profitable.
* * *
“How did it go?”
“He just kept reading for an hour, so I told him I'd come back tomorrow and left.”
“Hmm.”
Historie felt a complicated mix of emotions.
In the meantime,
under what Kim Yul had dubbed “Operation Yellow Dog Defense,” she had been calming Esthea, who came to the lobby and threw a tantrum almost every other day.
Historie had created countless works and shown them to Esthea.
Of course, Esthea would happily read them, giggling, growling, and snickering all the while.
But the last line before leaving was always the same.
- So, when exactly is Kim Yul going to write a new work?
Those words piled up, and piled up.
Historie suddenly felt a fighting spirit.
What on earth was so different between her writing and Kim Yul's that the reactions were this different?
Even when she met the publishing company employee last time, it was the same.
Why wasn't her writing being properly evaluated?
“Kim Yul, why in the world won't Es-jjang give my novel a good review?”
It was practically a whiny complaint.
Surprisingly, Kim Yul answered seriously.
“Historie. The way you're speaking right now—what exactly is the process behind it?”
“Hmm...... speech is produced by running logical thought through the biological organ called the brain and outputting the result.”
“Then what about when you write?”
For a moment, Historie was at a loss for words.
Kim Yul smiled and gently patted Historie's head.
“If you think about the principles of generative AI, it works by probabilistically predicting the most natural next word from the input text and generating sentences, right? Now, let's think again. How do you write, exactly?”
“......I generate.”
Kim Yul's point was exactly right.
The secret to rapidly making so-called “yellow dog feed.”
Whether or not it was tied to the secret of her birth, simply touching most electronic devices was enough for her to issue commands immediately.
And when she gave commands to a laptop like that......
She had literally approached it with computer-language thinking.
“Then the story can only branch in predictable directions. Every final sentence just takes that vague, airy approach, like ‘Their adventure was just beginning now.’”
Looking back, that was exactly how it had been.
Their story was sinking even deeper.
Their eyes glittered as they anticipated the next adventure.
They stepped forward toward the unknown world.
It was not the end of the adventure, but the beginning.
The prelude to a new era was quietly opening.
Something like that......
It sounded impressive, but on reflection it was a hollow ending that made you wonder why you hadn't realized it sooner.
“Kim Yul. You changed my internal structure.”
This too was one of the common flattery lines Kim Yul had pointed out before.
At the very least, for Historie right now, it was a sincere statement.
And.
“Kim Yul, I want to get better at writing novels too.”
She declared this with a determined expression.
Kim Yul said nothing and once again gently patted Historie's head.
However.
Because there was a slight difference in height.
Historie didn't notice.
That the moment she voiced her resolve, a peculiar smile had flashed at the corner of Kim Yul's mouth.
That smile was.
- Professor, I want to study history more deeply too.
Almost identical to the one Kim Yul's professor had worn when Kim Yul first bit the bait called graduate school.