Chapter 35
The die Ulysses Caesar threw came up 4.
That meant that, when betting against Chloe, luck would be on my side to the tune of a small win.
According to the gambler's maxim that if you're not sure, don't place the bet, that still couldn't be called a sure thing.
Kim Yul was a man who didn't blindly trust the luck given to him; rather, he knew how to use it to carve out his own fate.
Even if I lost the bet, it didn't really matter.
Unlike the Cao Cao route, which absolutely couldn't be compromised, the Liu Bei route had already seen quite a lot of changes even in the Romance.
Sword Master Liu Bei.
Zhang Fei, who turned out to be an unexpectedly smart type.
Lady Mi, Xu Province's most beautiful woman.
It was, quite literally, cramming in every author-convenient setting imaginable.
Besides, the original historical-drama anecdote itself was already part of the official history, so what did it matter if 150 steps became 300?
And.
Man makes the plans, Heaven makes them succeed.
It is man who schemes the work, but Heaven's will that brings it to fruition.
“What? A bet? Sounds fun! With whom? Where? Why?”
On the day of the showdown.
Meeting Estea, who had been buzzing around the neighborhood since morning, was also Heaven's will.
Kim Yul, almost like he was blurting it all out as if confessing, told her the whole story, and the more Estea listened, the more she couldn't help but sympathize with his feelings.
Of course, the angle was a little different.
“How dare you! You're trying to toy with my slave!”
“I'm not a slave, though... And your tail popped out.”
The sound of the tail flapping drowned out Kim Yul's timid addendum, but either way Estea was filled with the desire to hand down a biased ruling in what was supposed to be a fair bet.
Looking down at that scene,
a vicious grin briefly flickered at the corner of Kim Yul's mouth, as if he were muttering to himself, “Just as planned.”
.
.
.
Of course, Estea was a great, noble, and fair dragon.
Though she was a little, just a little, possessive, it wasn't to the point of abusing her power over some petty squabble.
Otherwise, Kim Yul and Historie would already have been bound together and left hanging limply in the lair, reduced to writing machines.
However.
Unlike the second arrow, which had been beaten purely on skill,
Just before Chloe fired her third arrow, Estea slightly furrowed her brow.
On the bow, on the string, on the arrow.
The blessing of the wind spirit was flowing through it.
No matter how frail that pointy-eared brat looked, once the spirit's blessing was on it, the arrow would be more than enough to hit the spearhead planted over there.
Since Estea had already lost to curiosity, grabbed Kim Yul by the collar, and shaken him until she'd read through even the latest stockpile, this felt unfair.
Lu Bu did that purely with his own archery skill!
How dare you use spirit power!
In that instant, horns briefly sprouted from her head, only to vanish again, and at the same time.
The spirit pressure in the area completely vanished.
* * *
For a roll that came up 4, it was a surprisingly dull match.
And my fantasy also came crashing down in a heap.
If you think of elves, aren't they usually the cliché type who are good with bows?
So if the die had come up ambiguously, I had planned to make the conditions as soft and simple as possible to minimize the damage.
But I never expected her to be that much of a scrub...
Well, works for me.
“You've lost the bet, haven't you?”
I was dying to teabag her, but if I pushed too hard here, it might just trigger a backlash.
She was obviously a hopeless scrub of an elf lady, but she was still from a ducal house, after all.
If a commoner like me, with no rank, no pedigree, and no assets, got too cocky, it could backfire.
Those in power are always best handled carefully.
So.
“My condition is simple. Just sign the documents prepared here.”
I held out the papers containing the Plan A I'd prepared in advance.
Chloe weakly took the papers and read them,
“Wha, what the elf...! What kind of monstrous cruelty is this!”
Along with her shock, she hurled a blazing glare at me.
“This is a slave contract...! This is absurd...!”
“Hmm.”
“The loser... talking back?”
I wanted to whisper that, but naturally a waiver of bodily rights plus a lifelong slave contract would be hard to accept.
However.
Negotiation is supposed to work like this.
First you present a shocking demand that is impossible to accept, then you throw out the comparatively reasonable proposal.
“Hmm, then how about this.”
I snatched the paper from Chloe's trembling, flustered hands and held out the Plan B I'd also prepared.
Would it work, I wondered.
“Mmm... if it's this much...? E-even so, my dignity, mm...”
“If you don't like that, should we go with the first option?”
“That one is no good, desuwa!”
It worked.
But what even is this 'desuwa,' anyway?
This world, no matter how you look at it, is a little off its rocker.
Dragons don't even chant spells in Latin.
Assassins and elves don't even use clumsy pseudo-Japanese.
Heck, even Chinese characters were treated as the demons' script.
...Though that might be right, since it was originally the script used on a continent ruled by the Great Demon King Pingping?
Anyway.
The gist of the second proposal was as follows.
Don't toy with me.
Actively cooperate with my creative work.
Actively provide promotion for the work.
Always provide whatever conveniences I need for my creative work.
It was still nothing but toxic clauses, though.
Still, wasn't it better than Plan A, which would have made 'body, mind, assets, and everything else belong to Kim Yul'?
“E-even so, mm... you're asking for way too many things, aren't you...? It isn't fair to guarantee all this for just one bet...?”
So she still had some pride left.
I drove the dagger I'd prepared in advance into Chloe's heart.
“I have no choice. Then I'll go straight to the Imperial Daily, tip them off that the young lady of House Whisperaud is terrible at archery, and while I'm at it, land a contract for my next work.”
“Hiiik...! What monstrous cruelty...!”
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of switching over to Imperial Daily.
It boasted the lofty prestige of the industry's number one, and though its scale was vastly different from Truth Daily's.
Its backer was none other than the Emperor.
And unlike this idiot elf, it wasn't even an environment where I could speak up.
The conditions when I received the scouting offer last time were atrocious as well.
- If the complete manuscript delivered by the creator is objectively judged to lack completeness, Imperial Daily may request revisions from the creator within 14 days of receiving the manuscript, and the creator must revise and supplement it before redelivering it to Imperial Daily.
In short, a clause that meant, 'If we don't like your manuscript, we'll make you revise it endlessly.'
- If, within six months after the creator's work is published in Imperial Daily, an amount equivalent to 80% of the total advance payment has not been deducted, the creator shall immediately compensate Imperial Daily for the remainder of the advance payment received from Imperial Daily, after deducting the royalties generated within six months from the work's publication.
A clause that meant, 'We'll pay you in advance, but if the work doesn't earn more than the money we gave you up front, you'll have to pay it back.'
There were toxic clauses everywhere, the kind of thing publishers use to squeeze authors even in modern times.
Is this really the industry's number one...?
“Phew... Fine. I am an elf who can gracefully accept defeat in a contest.”
“You made the right choice.”
“But don't think this means I've lost! Someday I'll break that smug nose of yours again, invalidate that contract, and make you whimper beneath my feet...!”
After unleashing a death wail, the elf hurriedly scampered off.
Anyway.
Victory!
I turned back toward the onlookers with a bright smile.
“That elf is pretty messed up too, but Kim Yul definitely has a sadistic side. Es-chan, you should be careful too.”
“Yep! Humans really are fun!”
Well.
Why.
* * *
A week later.
Although her personality was that of an obnoxious, utterly hopeless elf, Chloe was still a top-tier elf when it came to keeping her promises.
Not only did the newly arranged special feature on the 'Two Heroes' series fill the front page of Truth Daily,
“If you buy Truth Daily today, you'll also get a limited-edition bonus magazine! It includes a Lu Bu side story!”
A side story containing narration from Lu Bu's point of view, which had to be published with somewhat disappointing page count in the main work since he wasn't the protagonist, was released at the same time.
If there was a minor difference,
The author of 'Two Heroes: Lu Bu Story' wasn't Kim Yul,
“Historie. You've definitely gotten stronger. Not quite on my level or above me, though.”
“If you're going to praise me, could you make it a little softer?”
“Then our tin can would just get cocky again and go, ‘The end of human literature has arrived,’ and cackle, you know.”
“I don't let out frivolous laughs like 'kehihit,' though.”
He was truly a tin-can writer, determined to throw down his first challenge to Fantasy Land with his own writing.
Kim Yul said.
He said that even writing just one parody would make a writer's growth flourish.
Kim Yul even persuaded Historie by citing several examples.
There was even a writer who, starting from a parody of 'Dong■ Project,' used every cliché—regression, possession, and reincarnation—to create a masterpiece.
There was also a writer who, from the original combining a rom-com protagonist and a writer story in 'My Cheong■ Comedy,' created a nearly perfect writer novel, leaving out only the romance part.
There was even a writer who took the 'Harry ■ter Series,' layered TS onto it, and completed a work that maximized the appeal of portraying it as Malfoy.
The legendary hopeless wannabe writer who had learned from all those parody-born greats and gone beyond mega, giga, and tera evolution, and even into dark evolution.
It was Historie, pen name 'Hitori.'