Editor Nohara

New writers hoping to debut with a detective novel generally entered competitions for unpublished authors.

Winning meant a publishing contract, prize money, and, more importantly, exposure.

But there was a problem: submissions required detailed information, including a pen name, real name, address, date of birth, and educational background.

And that was precisely what Huo Lin could not provide.

Submitting directly to an editor required some information too, but the screening was comparatively less strict. Generally, a pen name, address, and contact details were enough.

Huo Lin had made an appointment to submit her manuscript to the editorial department of Futaba Publishing's Tokyo Mystery, a division of the Futaba Trading Company.

As a major trading company in the Island Nation, the Futaba Trading Company also dealt in children's toys, film and television entertainment, and other businesses.

In publishing, it naturally could not compete with the big three-Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha. Those were established publishers founded early in the previous century, while Futaba Publishing had only been around for three years.

That also meant it was still brimming with ambition and offered relatively generous terms to authors willing to work with it.

It was already five in the afternoon when she arrived at the publishing house. Since she had an appointment, Huo Lin soon met the editor she had contacted in the reception room.

"You must be Mr. Yusaku Kudo, here to submit a manuscript? I'm Hiroshi Nohara." Editor Nohara took out his business card.

"Sorry, I don't have a business card yet."

Editor Nohara froze for a moment.

Exchanging business cards was standard social etiquette in the Island Nation. He had assumed Mr. Kudo had another job, since he looked to be in his forties or fifties. Surely he had a primary occupation before taking up novel writing.

Unless they became wildly successful, novelists could rarely make a living from writing alone.

"I'm a freelancer."

"Oh. Have you contributed to magazines before?"

"Yes, I have."

Huo Lin was referring to the short story she had submitted to a newspaper during a Literature Club activity last year, as a third-grader, which had won a prize.

To Editor Nohara, however, that sounded like the work she did as a "freelancer."

"Then I'll take a look at the manuscript first."

"Yes, please do."

The manuscript was fairly thick and came in an envelope. Baron of the Night was a trilogy, and this was its first installment.

The first book was 230,000 characters long-not short by any means, and firmly in full-length novel territory for detective fiction.

Although it was the first part of a trilogy, it told a self-contained story.

After all, when Kudo first wrote it, he had never planned on a second or third book. The sequels had been written entirely because the readers' enthusiasm had forced his hand.

But as a master of detective fiction, even when pressed into writing more, he had not let the quality slip in either sequel. Instead, he had taken it to new heights.

That was where it ended, though. No matter how much readers or publishers urged him afterward, he never wrote a fourth book.

"The story of Baron of the Night ends here. This is all there is." With that firm declaration, Yusaku Kudo had brought his bestselling series to a close.

Editor Nohara initially flipped through the manuscript quite quickly, but gradually slowed down. Five minutes passed, then ten. Huo Lin did not know whether all editors read manuscripts this way. Apart from that short-story competition she had entered with her club, she had never submitted anything before.

But when an hour had passed, Huo Lin glanced at the clock on the wall. She still had not made dinner for Hayate.

"Editor Nohara."

"Huh? Yes!"

The editor seemed to wake from a dream.

"What do you think?"

What do I think?

Honestly, I don't quite get it, but it's amazing!

Hiroshi Nohara, section chief of Section Two in the Sales Department at the Futaba Trading Company's Tokyo headquarters-that had still been his position six months ago. He had been responsible for selling children's toys.

But after the trading company established a publishing house, it could not recruit enough editors. That was only natural. In the Island Nation, employees rarely chose to switch companies. Anyone disloyal would have their character called into question.

Editorial jobs were generally monopolized by the three major publishers. Poaching people from Shueisha or Kodansha was almost impossible, even with a generous offer.

And so Nohara had been called upon in a crisis-fine, he had simply been shoved into the vacancy.

He commuted from Saitama Prefecture to Tokyo every day, had thirty-two years left on his mortgage, and a wife who stayed home full-time. His five-year-old son was in the youngest kindergarten class, and his baby daughter had been born not long ago.

As his family's sole breadwinner, what else could he do?

The company's decisions were imperial decrees as far as he was concerned.

He did not know how to be an editor. But according to his department head-now the editor-in-chief-when a reader submitted a manuscript, he should forget everything else and simply see whether it was interesting.

Was this Baron of the Night interesting?

He did not know. But he had thought he had only been reading for a few minutes, and an entire hour had passed! Honestly, although he was responsible for Tokyo Mystery, Nohara had rarely read mystery novels before, and was only now trying to familiarize himself with them.

Yet none of the famous works by celebrated authors he had forced himself to read had ever drawn him in so completely that he read for an hour straight.

"Mr. Kudo, please let us publish this book!"

"Of course. That's what I came here for."

Nohara held out his hand for a handshake, only to see the other person hesitate in a rather odd way.

But she still extended her hand.

So soft-no, so small!

Editor Nohara found it strange, but she had already withdrawn her hand. Was that really the hand of a grown man pushing forty?

By then, she had hidden her hand beneath the table.

"Then let's sign the agreement."

"Oh? Ah, of course!"

Right, the hand did not matter. What mattered was keeping Tokyo Mystery running. His thirty-two-year mortgage and his family's livelihood depended on it!

"Mr. Kudo, as you know, Tokyo Mystery is a monthly magazine. Although your novel is already complete, we would still like to serialize it monthly. Once the serialization finishes, we'll release it as a standalone book."

"Mm, that's all fine. Handle it however you see fit. What about the manuscript fee? How is that calculated?"

The manuscript fee was what actually mattered. To Huo Lin, everything else was just talk.

"Well, we settle the manuscript fee when serialization begins. We generally calculate it by manuscript page. For each page of four hundred characters, we can offer you seven thousand yen."

A four-hundred-character manuscript page was a standard sheet of grid paper that many authors used when writing.

Huo Lin had not known that, so she had written directly on ordinary A4 paper, with roughly eight or nine hundred characters per page.

But that did not matter. It would have to be typeset again anyway.

At 230,000 characters for the entire book, she could theoretically receive more than four million yen.

Of course, if the reader response was too poor and the serialization was canceled, there would be no further manuscript fees.

But Nohara had confidence in this novel, and Huo Lin had even more.

"Besides that, once serialization ends, we'll print a standalone edition if the reader response is good. We can offer you a twelve-percent royalty rate."

At the established big three, a royalty rate of eight to ten percent was already very good for a new author. Futaba Publishing was paying a premium to attract talent.

Of course, it was also because Nohara truly wanted to sign this book. These were the best terms he was authorized to offer.

Huo Lin was very satisfied too.

Once the manuscript fees arrived, this book alone would be enough to support her and Hayate until they reached adulthood.

She really had to thank Mr. Yusaku Kudo from that other world.