Chapter 4
“Thank you, truly thank you……!”
“Well, it’s nothing. Still, we have to keep our word. Please take care of me again this time. Ah, and there’s something I’d like to ask.”
In the end, I renewed my contract with the publisher that had released my first work.
Loyalty?
I, Kim Yul, a man among men.
A history major who had spent his life scrambling to pay off student loans and living a modern-day slave life disguised as a graduate student, I’d long since forgotten such luxurious emotions.
Money isn’t important.
What matters is the message contained in history…….
……Of course, money matters a little too.
Joker, you were wrong.
Anyway.
From the start, I wasn’t someone with many desires, so I had never intended to make a fortune by writing novels.
Simply spreading to others the historical knowledge that only I knew in this other world was, in itself, a deeply enjoyable task.
And to make money while doing something I liked, while even gaining abilities?
Where else could there be a miracle this absurd?
From ancient times to the modern age, and even the future.
I would be the second most enviable person in the eyes of every history student.
The first place would go to the person who found Genghis Khan’s tomb.
So, in the contract terms, I actually lowered the royalty rate a little and instead revised the contract to lower the book’s retail price.
If it’s cheaper, more of it sells.
That’s the obvious law of the capitalist market, isn’t it?
Then more people could read it, too.
Besides, the skills I’d acquire were enough to satisfy my history geek in me.
[Expected skill to acquire: [C-rank] Hera■le■’s ■■]
Unbelievable.
It was Hercules!
Hercules’s hand-to-hand combat.
Hercules’s archery.
Hercules’s vitality.
Hercules’s madness…… okay, that one’s a bit of a trap.
Anyway, the more novels I completed, the more capable I felt, and it was truly beyond words.
Well, for now I was still just an ordinary guy who was fairly decent at talking and using my hands.
I did briefly entertain the bad idea that maybe I could make a killing in a gambling den with this ability.
- Yul, that kind of thinking isn’t justified. Gambling isn’t just entertainment. It’s a shortcut to the abyss, and a cry from the soul. If you need help with gambling addiction, call 1336——
Thanks to Historia’s persuasion, I was able to come to my senses.
Of course, I then got a brutal dose of reality: this fantasy land didn’t even have the civilized convenience of a telephone, let alone 1336.
I miss smartphones.
Why don’t I have a smartphone?
* * *
Kim Yul’s ambitious new work.
The first run of ‘Hercules’ was, in a word, middling.
Unlike the previous work, ‘Zeus’s Love Affairs,’ which had gained cult popularity thanks to its uniquely provocative developments, it wasn’t all that sensational, at least not in sexual terms.
Those who picked it up expecting smut were disappointed at first.
But.
As they turned the pages, they gradually began to get absorbed.
Generally, when people talk about a popular adventure tale,
The orthodox progression is to defeat monsters in the proper order, take down the Four Heavenly Kings, reach the Demon King’s castle, survive a life-or-death battle with the Demon King, and then marry the princess.
But the heroic tale of Hercules was a little different.
He effortlessly dealt with the Nemean Lion, whose hide couldn’t even be scratched by arrows fired with all their might or spears thrust with heroic force.
Taking on the feat said to be harder than killing—capturing them alive—he also caught the golden-horned deer Taygete, which ran faster than an arrow, and the boar of Mount Erymanthus, guardian of the mountain.
Seen from a modern perspective.
It was as if an unfamiliar overpowered-protagonist trope had been dropped into a world that only had adventure stories where the hero grew step by step.
Naturally, the response had to be enthusiastic.
“A month-long life-and-death struggle against a man-eating lion……?”
“Yeah, if even the strongest guy can’t breathe, he dies!”
“Hah, as expected of the protagonist! To somehow capture that golden-horned doe blessed with the goddess’s punishment—amazing!”
“They say it’s as big as a mountain. How did he even capture it?”
“Shh, just enjoy it.”
Besides that.
“He brought back the golden apples…… amazing……! This is highly praised by the Hesperides nymphs……!”
“Krr, you even rescued your buddy Theseus? Romance approved.”
The process of overwhelmingly clearing the twelve labors that ordinary humans had once thought impossible.
It was, quite literally, a macho progression!
It was more than enough to stir the hearts of men who had, at least once in their lives, harbored the dream of becoming a hero.
But.
What dragged down the box office was the post–Twelve Labors section.
“……? Suddenly cross-dressing? No, I thought he was a burly, muscular man—an enormously strong hero—but cross-dressing here?”
The shocking development of serving Queen Omphale as a slave and living for three years in maid’s clothes.
“What kind of development is this……? My horns are aching…….”
“Heh-heh, marriage is a crime, heh-heh!”
There was also dislike for Deianira, Hercules’s last wife, who was tricked by the death echo unleashed by the centaur Nessus.
“If you’re a hero, you should meet a hero’s end…….”
“What was Zeus doing until it got that bad?”
“You have to ask? He was probably off screwing some other woman!”
A tragic ending unbefitting a hero who had defined an era.
All of it ended up becoming a matter of taste.
[Title: Olympus Story – Hercules Heroic Tale]
[Historical accuracy: consistent] [Quality assessment: solid work]
[Public reception: mixed] [Sales: 1,786 copies]
[(14 days remaining) 214 more copies needed before the next skill acquisition]
[Expected skill to acquire: [C-rank] Hera■le■’s ■■]
Low price.
And despite the halo from the previous work, sales were underwhelming.
“Why? Why? Why?”
『Yul. That isn’t merely sadness. It’s the cry of your soul bursting out from within you.』
“……From now on, sentence structures that just say ‘blah blah’ are completely banned.”
『Yes, understood. From now on, I will avoid using neutral transition phrases based on algorithms and will do my best to provide the most appropriate responses. What else can I help you with?』
Kim Yul stopped eating altogether for a while.
.
.
.
But in life, fortune and misfortune follow one another.
Three days later.
“Writer! Have you seen this weekly paper?”
“……What is it?”
As I read the weekly newspaper the editor, brimming with excitement, had shoved into my hands,
Kim Yul’s eyes widened.
[A celebratory blast from the demon realm! The secret is a novel?]
[The monster White-Faced Dragon, which had devoured countless heroes, has finally been subdued for the first time, and news of it recently reached the imperial palace. ……According to a reliable source, Hero Serepin said with an awkward smile that he had found the clue in a heroic-tale novel recently published. ……Our paper’s investigation found that the novel contained twelve feats, and that the monster ‘Hydra’ in the second feat was remarkably similar in ecology to White-Faced Dragon……]
“This is…… huge.”
The dream of becoming a writer earning ten million won a month shimmered before Kim Yul’s eyes.
* * *
From today on, the god in my heart is the hero.
I worship you, MY GOAT.
With the publication of Hercules Heroic Tale, a large-scale promotional campaign was also launched for my older works, but the results were not as good as I’d expected.
It felt so borderline that I wondered whether I’d really have to go out to the square and shout, “I’ll put on a flashy show for you!”
After the news coverage.
A catastrophic surge……!
It was like refreshing the page and checking the view count.
The thrill of watching the number climb every time I opened the status window.
It was even more exhilarating than the dopamine I could get from a gambling den.
If there was one slight disappointment.
[Title: Olympus Story – War of the Gods]
[Next skill acquisition unavailable: expired]
[Title: Olympus Story – Zeus’s Love Affairs]
[Next skill acquisition unavailable: expired]
These were old works that had expired because 60 days had passed before I could acquire another skill.
But a person can succeed only if they don’t cling to the past.
Just the stories recorded since the Anthropocene began would be too many for me to fit in before I die.
So, it’s fine.
Fine…….
……Still, I was a little, just a little, disappointed.
I should do some healing.
.
.
.
There are stories where people gather.
Where stories gather, there are people.
Like how, during the Japanese colonial period, writers who self-mockingly called themselves lumpen gathered in coffeehouses.
In this fantasy land too, there was a place where people gathered to enjoy the refined, superior hobby of genre fiction.
It was called a salon.
……I gave up long ago on pondering why another world would use a French word as a proper noun.
Even the everyday script they used was Hangul.
It was easier to just understand it as some sort of language cheat and move on.
When I opened the door and stepped inside.
“After the first three labors, the pacing tends to get a little loose. Especially the part where he cleans out King Augeas’s stables—ugh.”
“Rather, that part eased the tension of the story as a humor beat, didn’t it? Haha.”
“I’m reading the previous work now, and I think later stories will also be about Zeus’s sons. I’m looking forward to it.”
As expected, today’s hot topic was my Hercules.
When I wrote my first work.
It feels like just yesterday I learned about the salon, camped out there all day, and then came home sobbing until my pants and undershirt were soaked because there was no Gigantomachy story…….
Of course, I wasn’t an attention seeker.
So I didn’t announce here that my name was Kim Yul.
I just sat in a corner and ordered the cheapest cocktail.
Sip, sip.
“Your imagination is insane. How did you come up with this?”
“Didn’t you read the newspaper article? He was probably a battle-hardened hero who’d been through hell and back in the demon realm.”
“He was definitely handsome…….”
“Heh heh……“
More.
“Praise me harder……!”
Of course, strictly speaking, I was just a parody writer using history as material.
So I had no intention whatsoever of attributing this literary achievement entirely to myself.
But praise is nice to hear.
And by listening to public opinion like this, I could also think about which direction I should take the next story.
Besides.
[C-rank] [Hercules’s Staff Techniques]
[As Zeus’s son Hercules showed talent in archery, swordsmanship, grappling, and every other martial art, staff techniques were no exception. Likewise, you will show talent when wielding a blunt weapon without an edge.]
Though it was a little lacking compared with other martial arts, just as the skill description said, I had finally gained a combat-type skill!
It was a little disappointing that it was limited to clubs, though…….
If you compare a dagger and a wooden bat.
The academic consensus is that the bat wins.
If I could build up a little more popularity, I might even be able to swap it out for a stronger skill, so I decided to wait patiently.
“Excuse me, would you mind if I joined you?”
“Pardon?”
A strange man suddenly sat down across from me, sending me a languid, meaningful look.
Maybe he had read the displeasure on my face.
“Ah, sorry. I’m this kind of person.”
The man handed me a business card.
Truth Daily. Literary Department Head.
Gilford Eshtein.
“Writer Kim Yul, right? Are you interested in newspaper serialization?”