"Brother Monogatari," Seiji confidently told her his novel’s planned name.
"This name... isn’t quite as eye-catching as I’ll Die if I Don"t Become Handsome," Saki remarked. "I hope that its contents are as outstanding as you say."
"You’ll have to see for yourself," Seiji said with a chuckle. "I’m going to call my home now and have s.h.i.+ka-chan... my relative send you the draft."
"Alright, I’ll be waiting."
They ended the call on that note.
Seiji instantly called s.h.i.+ka-chan and had her email a copy of his draft to Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa.
All he could do now was wait. He was confident that Editor Yos.h.i.+zawa would definitely call him back again today!
Saki instantly received Seigo Harano’s draft. She immediately began perusing it.
As a professional editor, Saki had strict standards for story drafts. If it couldn’t attract readers within a set word count, she would unhesitatingly give up on it, no matter who the author was.
And if she finished reading a draft from start to finish, then that basically meant the draft had pa.s.sed her standards, and she would objectively give a review based on her impression.
She had given Seigo’s Become Handsome short story a review of "quite an attractive story" after one quick read-through.
Very few stories could actually receive such a good review from her on the first read-through!
Saki Yos.h.i.+zawa’s strict standards were by far the highest in Thunderbolt Literature’s editing department.
When she was still a newbie, she had the astonis.h.i.+ng feat of having criticized a young, formerly successful author to the point of making them break down in tears. And after she became more familiar with the line of work and increased her standards, she received the exaggerated nickname of "Wall of Disappointment."
All her coworkers had witnessed her rejecting newcomers’ drafts before and criticizing them to the point of despondency or leaving them in tears.
Even veteran authors would be nervous when sending her their drafts, and some even went to the point of specifically requesting editors other than her if possible.
The head editor had lectured her several times about it—he had tried to tell her to be "gentler" with the authors, and not break them.
At any rate, the nickname of "Wall of Disappointment" was no joke. If a draft could successfully get past this "Wall," it was considered a type of glory in the authors’ circle, just slightly behind that of receiving the head editor’s praise.
All the drafts that successfully pa.s.sed this "Wall" would have good results after publication, better than the average results of drafts that didn’t pa.s.s this "Wall’s" standards. That’s why even though the authors always complained how Saki was too strict, she was still viewed as an important employee by the editing department.
All her coworkers believed in her ability and believed that she would eventually become an editor team leader, although this would depend on luck—the luck of receiving an excellent draft.
Saki had processed many good stories, but none were wildly popular hits yet, so she lacked absolutely convincing result. This meant that she was right on the border between an excellent editor and a famous editor known by everyone—she was barely on the wall.
Saki herself didn’t mind too much. She was just going through Seigo’s draft as per normal, using her own standards.
After she quickly read through the first page, she paused for a moment.
Instead of reading the next page, she started over again from the beginning and read again while paying closer attention to detail!
This was something she had never done before.
Saki didn’t even notice the change from her normal behavior, because all she could think of was the story she was reading right now.
This story was completely different.
It had a totally different writing style from Become Handsome, but it was just as excellent... no, even better!
The writing quality was quite high, and compared to Become Handsome, the part where it stood out the most was that it was something "fres.h.!.+"
At the very least, Saki felt that it was a fresh type of story, as she had never read such a style of light novel before.
This story seemed like a real-life romantic comedy at first. However, it was also mysterious and mystical, and there were also serious and elegant elements in the novel.
"Monsters; the abnormal; the unexplained; mystery... Brother, which word do you prefer?"
"The world may not be pure black and white, but black and white do exist and will always exist."
"Those that wear masks are humans; those that don’t wear masks are inhuman."
"Sister, don’t run around, something bad will happen."
Saki was drawn to sentences like these. As she quickly skimmed through the draft, she felt a strong compulsion to read further.
And when she read it again in more detail, she got addicted and lost herself in the words.
She was so lost in the story that she didn’t even hear one of her coworkers calling out for her, as her eyes were glued to her computer screen.
Saki’s female coworker thought it was rather strange. Just what was the famous "Wall of Disappointment" so busy reading?
She got curious and went over to Saki’s side to take a look at Saki’s computer screen.
A novel... when she tried reading it, Saki’s coworker also got lost in the story.
Who wrote this story? It was so well written.
Amazing!
Saki’s coworker forgot what she originally wanted to do and stood next to Saki, dazed, and read the story together with her.
This attracted another coworker’s attention.
Several editors came over as well, looked at the screen in curiosity, and were likewise attracted by the story.
When the head editor arrived at the office, he was astonished to see so many editors clumped together in one spot.
What was going on?
He walked over to the gaggle. "What are you guys doing?"
There was no response.
The head editor frowned at this and repeated his question in a louder voice.
The editors finally regained their senses and were sheepish to notice that their boss was standing beside them.
"Head editor, we’re reading a draft... it’s incredibly well written! The author is..."
The editors looked at Saki, unsure.
"The author is Idle Dimension by the Sh.o.r.e," Saki said, giving Seigo Harano’s pen name.
"Idle Dimension by the Sh.o.r.e... The person who wrote Become Handsome?"
"That author!? This is a totally different style from Become Handsome!"
"Can he change styles? Or is this his real style!?"
Idle Dimension by the Sh.o.r.e was a brand-new author who managed to rank #6 with his first short story.
This was an excellent result, so all the editors in the department had remembered this author’s pen name.
This might be an incredible newcomer... no, not might—this was definitely an incredible newcomer!
There was no doubting it anymore: his stories would definitely become bestsellers! All the editors who"d just read his draft shared this belief.
How long was it since the last time that all the editors would crowd together in front of the same computer screen to read a draft together?
The newer editors didn’t have such a memory, and only some of the veteran editors could recall... that the last time must have been about five years ago?
"Let me take a look," the head editor said in a solemn voice.
Saki stood up and let the head editor sit down in her seat.
The head editor’s name was Souzo Hattori. He was about fifty years old. His hair was greying, and his face was lined with deep wrinkles. He wore a pair of black-rimmed gla.s.ses and had dark gray eyes.
He went to the beginning of the draft and began reading with a sharp expression.
He read one page, two pages, three pages...
And stopped right there, took off his eyegla.s.ses, and rubbed his eyes.
"Ten years... it’s been ten years since I’ve last had this feeling while reading a light novel." Souzo sighed as he put on his eyegla.s.ses again.
Ten years... could it be, Souzo was comparing it to that story!? All the editors were astonished.
They all believed that this story was quite good, but they didn’t expect that Head Editor Hattori would actually compare it to that story from ten years ago.
That story not only became a huge hit in Sakura Island, it even became popular in many other countries and began a new legend for its generation!