Chapter 27
- Let's proceed with the contract for sure. However, the higher-ups are also taking a great interest in this novel, so would it be all right if I told you the detailed terms a week from now?
- As you wish.
After I returned home from Guildford's words, which I couldn't tell were good news or bad news.
“Ha-ha, stand up straight!”
I spent my days in the rewarding work of training Historye with a whip.
Of course, there was also a vile attempted mutiny, where Historye tried to fire laser beams from her eyes, which I barely stopped by quickly stuffing chocolate into her mouth.
As a result.
“I've realized it. The ultimate essence of web novels.”
“You've finally reached the summit.”
“The summit?”
“The peak of stupidity.”
“Indeed.”
Unlike back when even what I typed by hand couldn't escape LLM-style cliché phrasing.
It was starting to show improvement.
It seemed that having me read the other works serialized in the newspaper from my painstakingly accumulated 'Molgwijung' had helped quite a bit.
There is only one way to write a good novel.
Read a lot.
Write a lot.
Think a lot.
My thinking speed wasn't a problem, since I'd come from a super-high-school-level AI that far surpassed humanity, but I was definitely lacking in the rest.
At this rate,
Historye would become an excellent source of material for me.
“Heh-heh.”
“According to my big-data analysis, Kim Yul is thinking something sneaky right now.”
“I won't deny it.”
As expected from a virtual avatar, Historye expressed contempt by displaying black effects around the eyes.
“Anyway, I'm off. Keep writing hard.”
“Chocolate bread when you come back.”
That damn chocolate bread.
The memory of getting stranded in that demonic hellscape while going to buy chocolate bread last time came flooding back, but...
Well, it's delicious.
“Buy five, and I'll eat three.”
“That's unfair.”
After trading such pointless banter, I cracked the door open a little and peeked outside to check the situation, just in case the yellow mutt was growling again.
Once I confirmed it was safe, I left the lab.
Unlike the lab, where an air purifier was running around the clock, the somewhat stale air outside assaulted my lungs.
“It's been a week.”
Maybe I'd gotten so used to chatting with Historye that I muttered without realizing it.
Lately, the capital's air quality had seemed especially poor, so I'd switched from walking to cycling and ended up hardly ever leaving the lab.
As for groceries, Historye bought them for me after fending off the yellow mutt.
It was no exaggeration to say I was living the textbook life of a writer.
.
.
.
The moment I reached the square after leisurely taking in the scenery around me.
“……?”
I couldn't believe my eyes.
Right in the middle of the square, where there should definitely have been an elf statue,
there was no statue at all, and in its place stood a rather large tree, as if it had been genetically modified.
……It was a peach tree.
And, to top it off, peach blossoms were in full bloom and spilling everywhere despite the season.
“No way.”
I forcibly swallowed the thought that it was just a coincidence, or some other fantasy-world species, and went into the newspaper office to look for Guildford, but...
“Oh, you saw it? The higher-ups were very pleased as well. They said it was a scene that opened a new frontier for racial harmony.”
“……What?”
“By the way, Writer-nim, you have quite a political sense. Choosing a high elf for the protagonist, of all things.”
“Did you perhaps eat dried persimmons and gejang together?”
“What's gejang? Hmm, I like dried persimmons too, though.”
It wasn't as though he'd hallucinated after eating some forbidden secret recipe.
Wondering what on earth he was talking about, I just listened quietly to Guildford's explanation.
And this was the conclusion.
Liu Bei has big ears, so he's a high elf.
Zhang Fei has a distinctive beard, so he's a dwarf hybrid.
As for Guan Yu, a dwarf would never grow a beard like that, so he's human.
“……That's ridiculous.”
“What? Isn't it?”
No, I'd definitely heard rumors like that before—some big-eared guy being a sword master from a super-beautiful, big-busted elf race.
If people who knew the Romance of the Three Kingdoms were just enjoying it as a meme, that would be one thing, but seeing him seriously believe the Liu Bei-is-an-elf theory made my head spin.
“Oh, and Duke Schnaisen also seemed pleased as well, and he promised bonuses depending on how well it did, along with a promotion──”
“Of course. Liu Bei is a high elf. He has noble blood, after all.”
From today on, Liu Bei is an elf.
Anyway, it's based on the Romance, isn't it?
For a moment I even considered shifting the drift away from the Romance and toward Yeonhee instead, but then the Cao Cao story would be left hanging.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“The painter who drew Caesar for us—are they perhaps a friend of yours, Writer-nim?”
“That's right.”
That was no simple acquaintance.
He was, quite literally, my invincible roommate…….
Ah, damn it. It rubbed off on me again.
“If you'd be willing, could I ask for illustrations again this time? I'll set the manuscript fee separately. Here, this is the draft.”
“Gasp.”
The moment I heard the size of the illustration fee.
I seriously started wondering whether I should twist the tech tree of the grad student-slash-failure writer at my place toward drawing instead of writing.
I should have come out of art school, not the history department.
Then even if I failed, just sticking on a mustache would have been enough to make it in another world.
* * *
Inside an empire ruled and governed by humans,
the House of Wisperaud, the only ducal house composed entirely of high elves,
Even though they lived mixed in with human society,
they had never forgotten the elves' sacred duty: to heed the holy will of the World Tree and cherish nature.
However,
once magitech was formally introduced into the empire, their position became extremely awkward.
Because the abuse of magitech inevitably devoured the surrounding mana, they tried hard to stop its spread,
in the end, they failed.
Their public image also kept falling and falling.
For that reason,
“Humans are mortal, but art is immortal. We should use this chance to work hard to firmly establish elves as having a righteous image.”
With those words from the head of the house, Duke Schnaisen,
“Hmm, there's a whiff of a masterpiece in the air?”
The actual owner of Truth Daily,
the Duke of Schnaisen's eldest daughter,
Chloe von Wisperaud also voiced active support for the plan.
And so,
three days before Kim Yul's novel was set to begin serialization in earnest,
normally, the front page of a newspaper would be decorated with political stories──
today, that custom was broken.
“What is this?”
“A serialization preview……?”
“What is it? What is it foreshadowing?”
People who picked up Truth Daily that morning first had their eyes drawn to the men decorating both sides of the front page.
A style that was clearly similar to the one that had depicted Caesar's final moments, yet somehow a little more realistic.
The two handsome men drawn in what Kim Yul called the 'Kosam' art style.
A human man in blue clothes, wearing a charismatic, confident smile,
and a high-elf man in green clothes, wearing a soft, gentle smile.
And between them, an ochre-colored river flowed, carrying the words like ripples.
## ====== ##
The sky grows parched, the earth splits apart.
People starve and merely wail.
The sky of humans merely turns its back on them,
for the heavens are so high that even a child's scream cannot reach them.
If it cannot embrace these people, these people who are simply hungry,
how could it ever be called a true sky for humanity?
When the realm has long been divided, it must surely unite,
and when it has long been united, it must surely divide again.
Bring this blue sky a little lower,
clear away the clouds and bring it closer, where human voices can reach.
Only then will they be able to hear
the cries of the hungry, that sorrow.
In this world so painfully blue, so terribly cold,
the moment the golden sun rises will finally come.
So, people,
do not live on your knees.
Rise up and die.
## ====== ##
The moment that final line sank into their brains,
at its audacity, at its profound meaning,
people shivered.
An unprecedented expression, a literary shock of immense magnitude never before experienced, with a resonance like poetry.
As if possessed, they turned to the next page.
As if it were only natural,
the story continued a little more on the newspaper's second page.
As if he had cut out an entire page meant for literature and placed it right at the very front.
Was it because 'Eop-sal-il-juk' resonated with such force across eras and worlds?
Without realizing it, people began chewing over the rest of it as well, devouring it as they went.
## ====== ##
On a single land, there existed only one empire.
But the empire's sky was blinded by dark clouds, and the people's lives only grew harder, as though sinking endlessly into an abyss.
Here, one man raised a banner and sang.
Countless hungry people followed behind him.
They all wore yellow turbans on their heads,
and people called them the Yellow Turbans.
It had begun as an effort to restore the world's proper order,
but in the end it arrived at indiscriminate destruction and slaughter.
It was truly an age of chaos.
…….
…….
Right here.
there was a man who sought to end the age of chaos.
In the splendor-soaked imperial capital of Luoyang, where music rang out and only coquettish laughter and moans spilled forth,
“The empire is already rotten.”
Breathing in the dirt-laced air blowing in through the window, Cao Cao swallowed back a sigh.
And then.
He clenched his fist.
…….
…….
Here again.
there was a man who shed tears for the age of chaos.
Far from the imperial capital, in a peaceful village that the Yellow Turbans' power had not yet reached,
the young man living in Zhuo County, Liu Bei, was looking up at the notice posted in the market.
The country is in peril, so those with spirit should rise up and join in crushing those Yellow Turban bandits.
Looking around,
“Oh dear, oh dear…….”
“Even here isn't safe anymore!”
He saw people who had lost their families to the Yellow Turbans and were wandering about, and people who watched them and were filled with unease.
“Is the empire really going to collapse like this…….”
As a distant descendant of the imperial family, unable to shake off the suffocating feeling of simply watching this disaster with no power to stop it, he could only let out a sigh.
And then.
He clenched his fist.
## ====== ##
Although the shocking words that had pounded at their hearts on the front page weren't used,
by combining the contents of pages one and two, the preview of what story would unfold next was clearly revealed.
People with expectations in their hearts lowered their eyes to the bottom of the page where the novel was printed.
There,
[The empire's great man of letters, the pride of this paper, the legend of political drama.]
[Author Ulysses's long-awaited next work. Revealed in three days.]
The line that made Kim Yul cringe so hard he curled up was written there.
But ordinary people preferred expressions that could immediately supply dopamine over something packed full of artfulness and philosophy.
The empire's great man of letters!
The pride of this paper!
The legend of political drama!
The long-awaited next work!
With modifiers that made people think, 'No, seriously, just how insanely amazing is this supposed to be?'
people began gradually raising their expectations.
.
.
.
And then, at last, the long-awaited day arrived.
The Truth Daily's front page, which had gone back to endlessly spouting political stories as if nothing had happened, changed again.
This time, it contained a pure illustration with not a single word on it.
Centered on a high elf with the distinctive high-elf eyes—blue irises with yellow stars seeming to shine within them.
Alongside him was a boisterous man sturdy enough that he could hardly be called a dwarf, but with a distinctive beard that stood out.
And there was a cool-faced man whose beard hung down far longer than his hair, leaving a striking impression.
The three of them were clinking cups under a peach tree that oddly resembled the World Tree.
Not only was the image itself enough to stir a man's heart,
but the very fact that elves, dwarves, and humans—normally at odds with one another—were gathered together
was enough for people to set the newspaper's other pages aside and check the novel page first.
And then they read 'The Royal Family Hides Its Bloodline.'
They saw a scene where men who had never met before gathered solely to denounce the lamentable state of affairs, bound tightly together by righteous spirit and sealing the vow of sworn brothers.
Sometimes pictures can limit the imagination,
but a well-directed illustration could even steer the reader's train of thought.
Before they knew it, something like Three Kingdoms fever had begun to accumulate little by little in their hearts.
Of course, there were also cool-headed people who pointed out, 'Hey, if the very first chapter is already talking about bloodline, why is the title hiding it?'
Even so, they couldn't resist turning to the next page.
And so,
readers naturally began reading the novel that shared the same world, 'The Villain Hides His Ambition.'
Though it lacked the impact of the sworn-brother oath under the peach tree,
- What the people follow is not Zhang Jiao's sorcery, but hunger. The ones who made them hungry are those greedy pigs inside the city walls.
A young official, Cao Cao, sharply denouncing the empire's structural rot.
And from his figure as he fearlessly accepted the appointment as Commandant of the Guards along with the order to suppress the Yellow Turbans,
they couldn't help, whether they liked it or not, but see the figure of Caesar from the author's previous work──
‘The Fallen Aristocrat Is Good at Politics.’