Chapter 217: Voting, Results, Factional Disputes

"Teacher Wada, this proposal of yours is not quite appropriate."

Akiwara Yuto looked up and said while looking at Wada Shin.

In his view, in Wada Shin's words just now, there was neither a "request" nor a "plea"; it was completely spoken in the tone of a superior ordering a subordinate.

So his attitude also became much colder.

Wada Shin seemed not to have heard the coldness in Akiwara Yuto's words and continued on his own, "Akiwara-san, what's inappropriate about this? Do you think *The Duet of Death* is not a brilliant work?"

"I don't think that, but I think *The Deceased Mother* is also written very well."

Wada Shin seemed to have heard some joke, and a mocking expression appeared on his face, "Heh, social school?"

He paused and added, "That work is designed so crudely even in its murder tricks; what kind of detective story can it be considered?"

Akiwara Yuto's face turned cold.

This work had been revised by him many times; he didn't expect it to be mocked like this.

However, he also saw that this Teacher Wada Shin, as a radical in the Honkaku school, completely looked down on works of the social school.

Wada Shin continued on his own, "Akiwara-san, do you know how you won the Detective Literature Newcomer Award back then?"

Akiwara Yuto was just about to mock the other party, but he didn't expect to hear this, so he could only say in a cold attitude, "I'd like to hear the details."

Wada Shin glanced at him and then said in a casual attitude, "The reason your work was able to win the championship back then was the result of Morioka Yuho and Takaoka Haruto voting for it. I won't say any more extra words."

He stood up, looked down at Akiwara Yuto again, and said impolitely, "For the afternoon vote, I hope you consider it clearly."

In his view, Akiwara Yuto was a smart person and would naturally make a reasonable choice.

Akiwara Yuto watched Wada Shin's departing figure and fell into deep thought.

Morioka Yuho was also one of the judges this time, and he had also met Takaoka Haruto once before.

But the stance of these two people seemed to be radicals in the Honkaku school, believing that the award should be given to works of the Honkaku school.

He himself had disdained this philosophy at the time, but he didn't expect that he was the beneficiary of this philosophy.

To tell the truth, if it weren't for those two votes, it is estimated that his hope of winning the award at the time would have been slim.

So Wada Shin's meaning was probably that he wanted him to return the favor, but...

Akiwara Yuto put down the knife and fork, wiped the corners of his mouth with a paper towel, and then made a decision.

2:30 PM, conference room.

The white-haired person in charge of the review committee, after confirming that all judges had finished reading the manuscripts, said to the five judges below the stage, "After all judges have filled out the forms, please hand the forms directly to the staff."

Immediately after, a man in a suit handed the forms to the five people.

After Akiwara Yuto finished writing, he handed the form back to him, and the latter, after collecting all the forms, handed them to the person in charge.

The person in charge counted them and then announced the result, "This vote adopts a non-anonymous form. *The Deceased Mother* received votes from three teachers: Akiwara Yuto, Seto Tamae, and Takada Tomohisa. *The Duet of Death* received votes from two teachers: Wada Shin and Morioka Yuho."

"So the work that won this Modern Detective Literature Newcomer Award is *The Deceased Mother*."

Just then, a "slap" sound came from the conference room, attracting everyone's attention.

Akiwara Yuto looked up and discovered that it was Wada Shin's hand slamming heavily on the conference table, even knocking over the teacup.

The person in charge was just about to go down, but he didn't expect to be interrupted like this.

He hesitated and said in a polite tone, "Teacher Wada Shin, do you have any objections?"

Wada Shin was a judge after all, and he was the oldest among this group of judge writers, so he could only ask like this with a polite attitude.

Wada Shin was just about to say something, but Ms. Morioka Yuho, who was sitting next to him, coughed lightly.

After hearing the cough, Wada Shin seemed to have realized something, so he waved his hand, "Sorry, excuse me."

The person in charge breathed a sigh of relief and then continued.

After some official pleasantries, the selection for this Newcomer Award was officially declared over.

Under the bowing and seeing off of the person in charge and the staff, the five judges, including Akiwara Yuto, stood up and left the conference room one after another.

Akiwara Yuto and Seto Tamae were together, preparing to go to a nearby izakaya for a drink.

His disciple being able to win the award this time was inseparable from Seto Tamae's key vote.

And the other social school writer, Takada Tomohisa, would definitely not cast his vote for *The Duet of Death*, which promoted negative human nature.

But inviting Takada Tomohisa would be a bit abrupt; after all, the other party didn't know that the work he voted for was written by his disciple.

Just as the two were preparing to leave the first-floor entrance, Akiwara Yuto discovered that Wada Shin and Morioka Yuho were standing at the entrance together.

Akiwara Yuto realized that the other party had come with ill intentions, but he still walked up with Seto Tamae and greeted them simply.

Wada Shin did not respond to Akiwara Yuto's greeting but questioned him.

"Akiwara-san, why didn't you cast your vote for *The Duet of Death*? This isn't what we agreed on, is it?"

Akiwara Yuto's attitude also turned cold, and he said, "Wada-san, I don't seem to have promised anything, right?"

The other party had never called him "Teacher" from beginning to end, so he was too lazy to maintain this superficial etiquette.

Wada Shin heard this and "hummed," then glanced at Akiwara Yuto with an arrogant attitude, said "Take care of yourself," and left with Morioka Yuho.

Seto Tamae looked at him worriedly and then asked Akiwara Yuto, "Teacher Akiwara, what happened between you two?"

Akiwara Yuto didn't hide it either and told everything that had happened completely.

However, he didn't worry too much; after all, although Wada Shin had deep qualifications and was an old senior in the industry, he couldn't do anything to him like Mantan Society, and banning him was even more impossible.

But what surprised him was that Seto Tamae said, "Teacher Akiwara, you should still be careful."

Akiwara Yuto frowned and thought, remembering that Chairman Kawai also reminded him to pay attention to this person. Could it be that the other party had something special?

He raised his own doubts and asked, "Teacher Seto, I remember that this person Wada Shin hasn't had any notable works in recent years. It seems he just debuted earlier."

Seto Tamae shook her head and explained, "Teacher Akiwara, debuting early is a huge advantage in itself."

Then, she started to elaborate, and this also gave Akiwara Yuto a deeper understanding of Wada Shin.

Wada Shin himself had debuted for more than 50 years and served as a visiting professor at many universities. Because of this layer of relationship, many writers in the literary circle had a master-disciple relationship with him.

Not only that, he also used his strategic planning to build good relationships with various associations and politicians, giving him quite a bit of influence in both political and cultural circles.

In order to promote and popularize Honkaku school works, he not only served as a columnist book reviewer for several major newspapers but also frequently participated in the selection of various awards, and only awarded the prizes to Honkaku school works.

This also caused some social school and other faction works, no matter how excellent they were written, to be unable to win the grand prizes of these award selections.

Akiwara Yuto frowned, "Teacher Seto, isn't this an academic clique?!"

The so-called academic clique refers to individuals or groups that control and monopolize interests by relying on power. For their own interests, academic cliques can often use any means to carry out exclusionary choices.

Seto Tamae nodded and then sighed, "Teacher Akiwara, do you remember when Teacher Miyagawa invited you to join the Detective Writers Association, saying it wasn't all good things?"

Akiwara Yuto frowned and recalled; it seemed he had indeed heard this statement at the time.

However, he didn't take it to heart at the time; after all, in his view, this kind of factional dispute was still far away from him.

Seto Tamae continued, "After you were recommended by the three of us to join the association, you were already labeled as a moderate. And the radical faction to which Wada belongs is very dissatisfied with Chairman Kawai's recent efforts to promote the development of works of various schools."

She paused and then added, "So, asking you to cast your vote for *The Duet of Death* this time was a test for you."

"A test?" Akiwara Yuto asked suspiciously and then reacted, "Teacher Seto, you mean, they wanted to see if I would insist on Chairman Kawai's point of view, right?"

Kawai Shinta's point of view was to treat works of all schools equally. But the radical faction's point of view was to only promote the Honkaku school and suppress other factions.

He refused Wada Shin's voting proposal, which naturally meant he refused the radical faction's proposition.

Seto Tamae said worriedly, "Teacher Akiwara, you should pay attention later; it is estimated that Wada Shin will not let it go easily."

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and found that he didn't regret it.

After all, this award was related to his disciple's debut, and he also had a great disagreement with the radical faction represented by Wada Shin in terms of philosophy.

And he was no longer that newcomer writer with no fame or connections; what could the other party do to him?

He smiled and waved his hand, comforted Seto Tamae, and proposed to go to the izakaya now.

The two walked one after another and sat into the high-end business car that came to pick them up.

But what surprised Akiwara Yuto was that Wada Shin's revenge was faster than he imagined... ===== CHAPTER 218 =====