Chapter 72
The next day.
In the end, after refusing to sell out to the times and finishing the manuscript for The Legend of Ma Su, the Mountain-Climbing King, Kim Yul ambled into Novelpia headquarters.
“You’re here?”
Normally, Kim Yul would immediately hand the manuscript to Chloe and then sit on the sofa for a moment to calm his mind and body.
But today was a little different.
Just.
He simply stared at Chloe’s twitching ears.
Sensing something off in that stare, Chloe quietly gauged Kim Yul’s mood.
“Elfie.”
“Do not casually change the name of the holy and great elf!”
“You’ve got something you’re hiding.”
“Eek.”
At Kim Yul’s dead-on jab, Chloe unconsciously averted her eyes a little.
Duke Shunaisen had once described his daughter like this:
She was foolish, and when she lied, it showed on her face; how could the bloodline of a great elf be so hopelessly daft!
“A-a-a, I don’t have any secrets at all, deesuwa? I’m a perfectly pure and innocent maiden elf, deesuwa?”
Even truths Kim Yul hadn’t particularly cared to know spilled out intact—world-tree-level frankness!
Before her.
Thud──
Along with Kim Yul’s manuscript, a thin book dropped to the floor.
“Hieeek!”
The ears that had been twitching started turning carrot-red in an instant.
How did he find out?
I definitely changed the pen name so it couldn’t be recognized.
As if piercing straight through the question in her heart.
“You think swapping the order makes it unnoticeable? What, did you turn Liu Bei into the strongest overlord in the whole setting?”
“That’s what an elf is, deesuwa! ...Eek.”
A soft yet steady hand reached for Chloe’s ears, which had just blurted everything out.
It was a trajectory she could have dodged if she had just tilted her head a little.
“Aah, eek, eek, uh──”
And yet, strangely enough.
Despite the rudeness of grabbing a noble elf’s extremely sensitive ears—not any other part—she couldn’t dodge Kim Yul’s hand.
It felt as though a deterministic chain of cause and effect, one that had decreed her body was to be used as a handle, was pressing down on her.
Though really, it was just that she was out of shape and couldn’t get away.
“Is it really okay for the publishing house president to ignore copyright, publish pirate editions like this, and make pocket money on the side, Erocl-sensei?”
“N-nooo──”
Looking down at Chloe as she trembled all over, Kim Yul let out a sigh.
The name was so blatant I figured as much.
Even so, I never thought she’d be this foolish.
After mentally reevaluating Chloe,
Kim Yul let go of Chloe’s ears and rubbed her head.
“Eep.”
For a moment, Chloe’s body went rigid at the unexpected follow-up attack.
“It was fun. You’ve got talent.”
After moistening his lips slightly, Kim Yul left her an encouraging remark in a softer-than-usual tone.
Chloe’s nose lifted slightly.
“Oh-hoho! So my talent really was recognized after all!”
Seeing Chloe recover her self-assured elf look, as if nothing had happened after being held by the ears just now, Kim Yul let a faint smile slip onto his face.
“So, wouldn’t you say this setting is a little too good to waste?”
“It does, deesuwa. There are quite a few places where the development feels lacking, deesuwa.”
As Kim Yul’s fingers stroked Chloe’s ears, her once-proud gaze returned to that of a meek lamb.
“So, if it really does wrap up soon.”
“...Wrap up soon? Huh?”
Ignoring Chloe’s reaction.
“How about making the novel’s copyright completely free and holding a derivative-works contest?”
The idea that had kept circling in Kim Yul’s mind ever since he first discovered Chloe’s ersatz kindling finally began to take shape.
Even in modern times, Romance of the Three Kingdoms wasn’t just Romance of the Three Kingdoms itself; it had so much material that it formed the so-called “Three Kingdoms” genre.
If they published A Three Kingdoms Story in One Volume outright and held a contest to actively encourage derivative works.
And if an appealing story came out and got popular, then he could scoop up that setting wholesale and sell it as an IF expansion pack for the “Heroes Assemble” card packs...!
“It smells like money……!”
Chloe, whose intelligence shot up 300% whenever money was involved, was practically drooling.
For a while, in the president’s office.
Heeheehee.
Oh-hoho.
A grotesque laugh rang out, the kind that made Chloe’s secretary outside think those two lunatics had gone completely off their rockers again.
* * *
Like Chloe, who cried from having her ears grabbed, then laughed at the smell of money.
And then, like Chloe, who nearly sprouted horns on her backside after crying again over the manuscript for ‘Two Heroes.’
Over the course of three days.
Six installments, including the bonus upload.
For a moment, the readers broke into broad smiles at the overwhelming volume, but only for a moment.
“I’m losing my mind!”
“Why on earth was he so obsessed with mountains...!”
“He set up defenses on the mountain peak, but he didn’t even plan a landslide or fire-attack strategy; he cut off his own supply line...?”
“No, Wang Ping even tried to stop him. Then did the author deliberately make Ma Su into an idiot!”
Once again, resentment toward the trash writer Ulysses exploded across the imperial capital.
At least Luo Guanzhong could brazenly dodge the blame by saying, “That’s how history was!”
But Kim Yul, who had fallen into a fantasy world, regrettably couldn’t even hide behind historical accuracy and could only take the abuse in silence.
“Waaah! Ma Su died! So does Zhuge Liang take revenge? No? But wasn’t Zhuge Liang the one who chopped off Ma Su’s head?”
Of course, there were also dragons who merely flapped their tails and thumped their bellies, satisfied with the binge release.
“Cut down Ma Su, cut down Ma Su...! Genius—of course, the writer is a genius of demon language! No wonder the character’s name was Ma Su, hahaha...!”
There were also Sordinangs who didn’t care about the story and simply shuddered at the fact that the origins of classical idioms were being thrown out one by one.
But those mutt-brained reactions were a minority.
If there was one scene that at least got praise,
- Kongming, your guqin is whispering to me. The fortress behind you is empty. If I enter, won’t you be a dead man?
- Whether you kill me today or capture me, that doesn’t matter. Your emperor is suspicious, and your imperial kinsmen envy talent. Once the bird is caught, won’t the bow be discarded?
- This Sima Yi is also a man of loyalty. How could I spare my life?
- Even if you uphold loyalty, what about your son?
As if it were a tribute to the ill-fated work, “The Empire’s Number Two Hides His Ambition Well,” which had been cut off midway.
The part where the new rivalry between Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang was properly established became a refreshing hit of catharsis amid all the frustration.
.
.
.
Two manuscripts a day.
And at last, even the manuscript work for “A Three Kingdoms Story in One Volume,” which was slated to be published in a form similar to the original title of “Two Heroes.”
While Historie gradually began learning the basics of fantasy magic, Kim Yul lived a life of writing all day, eating and drinking well without ever skipping meals.
Of course, the content was.
Northern Expedition, Northern Expedition, and yet another Northern Expedition.
He would spar with Sima Yi and also set up all kinds of fire-attack pits to create the perfect angle for retreat.
and occasionally worked in domestic-policy material, such as developing inventions like the wooden ox and flowing horse, for good measure.
- Your humble servant Zhuge Liang has gone out to Qishan five times, yet still has not gained even an inch of land. My sin is by no means light. I shall once again take full command and march out to Qishan, exterminate the Han traitors, and devote my heart and body to restoring the Central Plains; only after I die will I stop.
As Ulysses’s habit of writing incomprehensible characters flared up again, it came with a bizarre follow-up memorial containing the phrase “to bow humbly, exhaust oneself, and stop only at death.”
At last, the curtain rose on the Fifth Northern Expedition.
* * *
The Empire’s Second Prince, Aizen, had no interest in art.
Novels? If he had time to read printed words, he’d rather spend that time reading one more line of official documents.
But.
After watching the magical stage play “Song of the Hero and the Sea” that day.
And after, from the depths of his heart, acknowledging the talent of the writer Ulysses, Kim Yul,
He had cut back his workload for a while and gone on to devour every story from the previously serialized “Two Heroes.”
And now.
“What’s today’s paper?”
“Here it is, Your Highness.”
In the past, he would have checked the world situation first, but now picking up Novelpia first had become Aizen’s daily routine.
It was the textbook example of a perfect reader’s downfall!
For that reason, even when he had met Kim Yul earlier and urged him to join the naval morale unit, he had also chatted about the novel and been deeply moved by the memorial for setting out on campaign.
And.
“……”
The Empire’s Second Prince.
Aizen, who was second in line to the throne and, because the first prince was frail, the most likely heir, was.
- How wretched! Heaven does not grant a long life to the loyal! As I set out on this campaign, I lose yet another commander!
In the lament Zhuge Liang let out after hearing of Guan Yu’s son Guan Xing’s death before setting out on campaign.
“Heaven does not grant a long life to the loyal, huh...”
Because Aizen had only recently devoured Kim Yul’s works.
The death of the loyal Yi Sun-sin.
The death of the loyal Joan of Arc.
Those layers of déjà vu piled on top of each other until he instinctively sensed the thick, lingering aura of death subtly hanging between the lines of the novel.
So the next day.
“Hoo.”
Before opening the newspaper, Aizen took a deep breath to ease the strangely mounting tension.
“I can’t believe a novel can get my heart racing like this, honestly.”
After swallowing his pointless mutter to himself.
Aizen once again became absorbed in Zhuge Liang’s story.