Sogo Doma's Finale (Still Foggy)

First, a lie that is not a lie: geniuses are revered by others...

Humans yearn to possess extraordinary talent, but when such talent manifests in others, people feel only terror and jealousy... When that talent transcends the common man, terror transforms into fear.

The writers in the hotel did not initially understand Kimura's anger, until—

"Yamagami, what does Kambara mean? Why does the Legend of the Red Moon I have scheduled for publication next month need to be re-typeset?"

Editor Yamagami wore a sincere expression: "Kimura, it's because the publication quota happens to clash with Gyojin's... The publishing house is only acting in your best interest by delaying the release. Kambara should have mentioned this, right?"

Kimura glanced at Sogo Doma, who wore an innocent expression:

"Is the publishing house joking? This little brat?"

Yamagami hurriedly said: "Gyojin's orthodox mystery works are masterpieces even Kudo Yushiro has praised."

Kudo Yushiro, the new generation representative of Japanese mystery. Fortunately, it wasn't Kudo Yusaku; otherwise, Sogo Doma would have wanted to end it all—twenty years, going from Ran the elder sister to Ran the younger sister, then from Ran the younger sister to Ran the niece. Such resentment is hard for a master to dispel.

The two did not lower their voices, and by now, some authors were already looking at Kimura with sympathy.

The subordinate usurping the superior!

Although this occupies a large part of Japanese tradition, when it actually happens to someone around you, it still feels desolate.

Sogo Doma: "..."

It seems he has attracted attention again?

Come to think of it, if the publishing house hadn't said that attending this gathering would increase sales, he would rather be lying at home right now, leveling up for his Idiot Little Sister, than standing here smiling foolishly.

Of course...

This is also the point that gives Editor Yamagami a headache. His author is good, but he is just too much of a Heisei Otaku. How is he supposed to handle this?

"Editor Yamagami, is this your intention or the publishing house's?" Kimura asked.

"Editor Yamagami, is this the publishing house's intention?" a crowd of mystery novelists asked.

Moreover, looking at the situation, it seems his author has offended a group of big shots just by attending one gathering. How is he supposed to manage this?

While Editor Yamagami was pondering, an older author flared up: "I absolutely do not approve! What does a twelve or thirteen-year-old kid know? Starting to write mystery novels already?"

It wasn't a lack of recognition, but rather that if they could snatch Kimura's publication quota today, they might snatch theirs tomorrow. To put it bluntly, it was about interests.

Someone else added:

"That is exactly why the mystery novel circle is not accepted by the mainstream."

The "mainstream" here refers to the traditional literary circle and the Eagle literary circle...

Sogo Doma remained bewildered.

Humans revere geniuses, but one step beyond is a genius, while ten steps beyond is a monster—in such circumstances, those who can endure the suppression are the true grandmasters!

To reiterate, Sogo Doma is a monster.

Therefore, Sogo Doma has never feared anyone's suppression.

Just like today, he originally only wanted to attend a mystery gathering harmoniously, but the collective disregard actually triggered his rebellious nature.

Fortunately, he only had a sharp tongue.

Fortunately, although Editor Yamagami had long known Sogo Doma's personality—and precisely because of that, he had originally wanted to decline the invitation for Sogo Doma—there were big shots above the editor.

The big shots saw profit in Sogo Doma.

Humans revere geniuses, always believing that geniuses will bring them more profit.

Take Sogo Doma, for example. Even if he is uncooperative, for the sake of sales—think about it, a twelve-year-old author challenging readers might cause dissatisfaction, but it is full of gimmicks...

Let us skip over that for now.

Dissatisfaction is one thing, but the publishing house has plenty of ways to group them together, as long as sales increase...

Of course, this is not for the sake of the book's effect, but for the sake of the sales effect.

But—what the publishing house did not expect was that Sogo Doma was very reckless, or perhaps, he simply did not care.

In a Japan where the concepts of hierarchy and status are deeply ingrained, only a monster would ignore class and atmosphere... One must remember, this is a country where even a princess of the imperial family can be bullied.

Isn't a life of following the crowd pleasant? What is the use of thinking about other things? It only wastes one's calories for nothing.

However, this country also extremely reveres young geniuses. Perhaps because they have raised too many Heisei Otaku, whenever a genius appears, countless capitals are willing to invest in them, until the genius transcends the common man too much and becomes a bullied genius.

This phenomenon reminded Sogo Doma of what his elementary school deskmate once said: "This world is not normal. Excellent people often live harder lives than mediocre ones, but there are too few excellent people and too many mediocre ones."

Sogo Doma offered no comment on this view. He remembered that when he first transferred schools in elementary, he also encountered bullying, but—the bullies blossomed into vibrant flowers; in the sunlight, they cried like a group of children.

He remembered someone telling him back then: "Those guys are just children, why..."

Sogo Doma's stance was: Yes, the children are still young, so please, do not pity them.

Unlike the vast majority, Sogo Doma does not believe that whoever is weak is in the right. He has his own principles, even if he is a salted fish—but as a monster, he is the one with the most salt, the one who can make others stick to that salty taste!

Therefore, he does not care about the unspoken rules of any circle. To him, if they make him unhappy or exclude him from the conversation, he is not afraid to break the rules.

But that is all there is to it—in reality, he truly looks down on these people who yearn to enter the traditional literary circle but cannot find a way in, and can only rely on flattering traditional literature to prove their own literary literacy.

However, he only looks down on them a little. After all, how one lives is one's own choice. As someone involved in Creation, if they themselves believe from the bottom of their hearts that their own circle is inferior to the traditional literary circle, what can Sogo Doma do? Is he supposed to brainwash them one by one?

Of course, there was bound to be dissatisfaction; after all, he had prepared for so long—it was like spending an entire semester studying physics, only for someone to suddenly tell him that he was actually enrolled in the liberal arts.

All that effort wasted.

Cough, cough. That sounded suspiciously like the thoughts of a villain, and Sogo Doma was genuinely afraid that some young man might suddenly jump out and slap him across the face twice.

However, he had been keeping such a low profile (think about it: in a world that felt like a daily-life anime, he didn't hunt monsters, nor did he develop the ACG industry—yes, very low profile!), so no one should have noticed him.

Yet, it seemed Sogo Doma couldn't keep a low profile anymore, especially after what Kimura said; Sogo Doma felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

In a moment, wouldn't Kimura try to goad him into a bet? Damn it, this was falling right back into the tropes of a plagiarism-based webnovel.

Just as Sogo Doma had expected, Kimura looked as if he had lost his mind, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at him.

"The publishing house thinks that..."

No, he absolutely could not let this happen! Having already rejected the path of plagiarism for his own development, Sogo Doma had to stop this from unfolding.