The End of Sogo Doma's Plagiarism (2)

Sogo Doma defined himself as a salted fish. Copying one book for startup capital was already exhausting enough; if he were to keep up this Creation, wouldn't he be worked to death?

Therefore, Sogo Doma had to do one thing first: "Yamagami-san, this place is truly boring..."

That was to prevent any betting or similar tropes from emerging. He only wanted to live a daily life; he had no desire to copy his way into a cultural empire.

"Gyojin-sensei, please don't say that. The reason I had you come here today was at the Editor-in-Chief's request. Editor-in-Chief Aso wanted to introduce you to your colleagues..."

"Sorry, but to me, this is really not interesting at all." Before Yamagami could finish his sentence, Sogo Doma had already clasped his hands behind his head and started walking toward the main entrance. "Besides, I believe that for the profession of an author, it's enough to just write good works. Knowing too many colleagues..."

At this point, Sogo Doma looked back and smiled: "It doesn't seem to have much meaning."

Nice! After firing that metaphorical artillery, Sogo Doma cheered wildly for himself in his heart. Now, all he had to do was leave the venue quickly and push everything that followed onto Yamashita.

In any case, he would never let himself get caught up in a cliché. Sogo Doma had a vague feeling that doing so would only lead to trouble.

Since his intuition said so, he might as well prevent the event from happening. If there is no beginning, there will be no process or ending. He was truly incredibly clever.

Besides—this meeting didn't look very formal anyway. Yamagami's talk about it being unavoidable was nine times out of ten just a ruse. Sogo Doma felt quite hurt; he felt he had been deceived.

Leaving a mess behind for him was a small punishment. He wouldn't use him for his own amusement anymore (the salted fish who never considered copying another book). The moment he made this decision, Sogo Doma felt his heart was incredibly broad.

"Wait, wait, Gyojin-sensei, Gyojin-sensei..." Watching Sogo Doma about to leave, Yamagami panicked. The "unavoidable" situation he spoke of wasn't a lie; it was truly unavoidable.

There was no helping it. The people who requested Sogo Doma's presence were the high-level executives of the publishing house—as the old saying goes, capital always leans toward genius.

Ever since they learned Sogo Doma's true age, the executives had been eager to make a big deal out of it.

Whether it was just hype—a mystery master under thirteen, just thinking about it was exciting. Perhaps some people who didn't read mystery novels would buy a copy out of curiosity, just to see what a thirteen-year-old could write...

Furthermore, it was about setting a benchmark. If Sogo Doma's work sold well, it could stimulate the other authors under their wing. Look, it's not that the publishing house isn't doing its job, it's that you aren't trying hard enough. Someone twelve or thirteen years old can write something that hits the market, and what about you? You only know how to complain about the market being sluggish or the publishing house not being supportive...

Finally, they genuinely wanted to introduce the group of mystery novelists to Sogo Doma. In the eyes of the publishing house, given Sogo Doma's talent, he was destined to walk the path of mystery Creation in the future. If they pushed him out now, they would surely earn his gratitude. With that bond, they could easily tie him to the publishing house later.

As for whether he would be ostracized due to his age? What did that have to do with the publishing house?

No matter how you looked at it, this was a win-win situation.

Unfortunately, no one expected Sogo Doma to be so petty and sharp-tongued. He offended most of the writers the moment he arrived, and combined with the disadvantage of his age and the subsequent exposure of him snatching Kimura's release slot, things went south.

Of course, the latter was truly an accident.

Originally, the publishing house assumed Kimura would swallow the situation and keep it to himself.

After all, the implication of being asked to postpone a release was clear: in the eyes of the publishing house, the quality of your work wasn't as good as someone else's. Who would openly admit that they felt inferior to others?

But what the publishing house didn't expect was that Kimura had just finished calling Sogo Doma a guy who wrote light novel essays—the superiority complex mystery novelists held toward light novel authors.

Yamagami had only just finished explaining that what Sogo Doma wrote was also a mystery novel.

At that moment, Kimura was still in disbelief, and the publishing house happened to call to say his novel's release was delayed? Wasn't this a joke!

When he asked further, the person who snatched his release slot was the same guy he had just dismissed as a light novel essayist. Let him process this: the guy he had just questioned was, in the eyes of the publishing house, much better than him?

Then what was his questioning in front of everyone just now? A clown?

And a newcomer, actually snatching his release slot? In an instant, a word appeared in Kimura's mind:

Gekokujo!

Had he been usurped by a subordinate?

If others found out about this, wouldn't he be driven mad?

Shame and anger instantly flooded Kimura's mind. He had to ask for clarification, but the publishing house had already hung up.

When he dialed back, the line was already busy.

Listening to the busy signal on the phone, Kimura's heart turned cold—fine. He was, after all, a big shot who had written several bestsellers. He hadn't asked for priority resources from the publishing house, and now that a newcomer arrived, they were taking his release date?

He, a big shot, hadn't even suppressed the newcomer, yet the publishing house pulled this on him.

Could he endure this?

Kimura said he couldn't! And when a person is angry, you can't expect them to have any reason.

So, in the end, it really was an accident. The publishing house considered many things, but they failed to consider the human heart.

Sogo Doma walked away with ease. In any case, the novel he had copied was already being typeset and printed. As long as the publishing house wasn't stupid, the next step was to run ads and prepare for release.

As for the purpose of the publishing house bringing him here, he had guessed some of it. It was probably to have him rub shoulders with these big shots in the mystery world, so that when the time came for the release, they could put in a good word or take a side—that was what Sogo Doma thought.

However.

He felt it was unnecessary, because—

Dealing with these novelists at Sogo Doma's current age, he would probably have to use honorifics for every sentence. If he happened to run into a few old-fashioned types who really relied on their status as seniors to boss him around, should he use his fists or his feet?

If things went poorly, he might earn the nickname of "The One Who Punches Tokyo Nursing Homes and Kicks Chiba Kindergartens" before his book was even released.

Ahem...

Besides, he had confidence in the novel he had copied. After all, it had been tested in his previous life, and it even won some award? Heh, he forgot—it seems the alcohol-induced amnesia method was working. In short, it was awesome, that was all that mattered.

Even if the initial results were poor, it didn't matter. After all, the "copying" genre often had such tropes: a novel isn't popular at first, then it gets discovered. He wasn't in a rush for money—as long as the royalties were enough for him to practice his alcohol-induced amnesia method, he could afford to wait!

Elsewhere.

Watching Sogo Doma depart, Editor Kimura felt like crying without tears. He had intended to chase after him, but author after author stepped forward, surrounding him.

"Yamagami-san, does what your Gyojin-sensei said today represent his personal opinion, or the stance of the publishing house?" A rather mature and steady-looking veteran had been elected as their representative!

"Eh?" Editor Yamagami stammered.

A pile of messes still needed to be cleaned up! Gyojin-sensei, don't go, come back quickly, and take my regrets back with you...