Chapter 58: Unreasonable Request

After Asano Aiko cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, the time was almost 1 o'clock in the afternoon. She said she had to deal with work in the afternoon, so she greeted and left.

Akiwara Yuto returned to the desk, took out a piece of paper, wrote his name and other information, and together with the manuscript he had written before, put it into a yellow file bag marked "Newcomer Award Submission."

After repeatedly confirming that there were no omissions in the items sent, he left home and walked for 15 minutes to reach the nearest post office, filled out the documents at the reception, confirmed that the recipient address was the Detective Writers Association established in Chiyoda Ward, and handed the file bag to the courier boy.

Akiwara Yuto watched the courier boy collect the file bag and put it into a specific work bag, and for the first time, he felt a bit uneasy in his heart.

Before this, he had always been in a non-waste attitude, so he didn't take out the best works in his memory. He just chose a foreign work that was still okay and adapted it for localization in Japan before submitting it.

But he didn't expect that the adaptation work was much more difficult than he imagined. In order to successfully complete the content, he not only went to the library to consult a large amount of information but also entrusted Asano Aiko to bridge the gap and asked the corresponding police personnel.

To complete the work, it can be said that he spent a full month and a half or so, consuming great brain power and physical strength.

No one hopes that their efforts will be in vain, and he is no exception.

So he hopes that the results of his adaptation can successfully pass the preliminary selection of the Detective Literature Newcomer Award judging committee and let him successfully win the honor of the Grand Prize!

Talking about this after winning the award and telling Asano Aiko, it should be able to scare her, right?

Akiwara Yuto stood and thought for a while, making the courier boy beside him a bit puzzled, and took the initiative to walk up and ask "Do you need any other services?"

Akiwara Yuto shook his head to indicate no, and expressed his gratitude, then turned and pushed open the glass door and walked toward home.

He walked while thinking about other problems.

Although "New Novel" sales are great now, he also knows that today's results have too many coincidences and are not entirely brought about by the works.

And a very important problem is that the serialization is coming to an end, what should happen later?

The content he serialized before came from Otsuichi's "ZOO," and the total content is only 11 articles. Now it has been serialized for 10 issues, so the editorial department has already called to ask about the new work.

Although he promised to make a decision as soon as possible, he still has doubts in his heart. What should the new work choose? Should it be a short story or a long story?

If it's a short story, the "Edogawa Ranpo Short Story Collection" seems good. If it's a long story, he can only consider the works of Keigo Higashino or Miyuki Miyabe.

But are these works really suitable?

He can't just consider sales, he also has to consider his own future.

Although he is slightly famous, in the eyes of many people in the literary world, he is still just a newcomer who only knows how to write horror literature, with no other works on hand, and no literary awards.

Like him, a newcomer crowned with the title of "genius," although rare in the Japanese literary world, there is one every few years. However, many of them often just show their heads, and because there are no subsequent outstanding works, they disappear into the crowd.

These authors who lost the title of "genius" either became writing machines for some small journal magazines, relying on their little fame to compete with others, or completely withdrew from the literary world after seeing no way out and found other jobs.

Taking this as a reference, the new work Akiwara Yuto takes out must satisfy readers' tastes while also making literary critics shine. Otherwise, it will not only make "New Novel" sales decline, but also make the outside world think that he is exhausted.

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and made a decision. He prepared to list the outline as soon as he went back, discuss it carefully with Asano Aiko, and start writing as soon as possible.

Only by writing the work as soon as possible can the existing work be connected after the serialization stops, avoiding too long a blank period.

After all, readers are very realistic. As long as they feel the magazine is boring, they will inevitably leave quickly. If it takes a long time, I guess they won't even remember the name of the magazine.

Besides that, the main purchasing group of "New Novel" is all for his works, while the works of Kadowaki Yuzhen and others, to be honest, are difficult to meet the tastes of the vast majority of readers now.

Akiwara Yuto was thinking about things in his heart, but his walking speed didn't slow down much. However, just as he walked to his door, he found a young man in a professional suit pressing the doorbell.

Akiwara Yuto looked a few times and found that he didn't know the other party, so he asked, puzzled: "Excuse me... who are you looking for?"

The young man reacted immediately, stopped his movements, and asked very politely to Akiwara Yuto: "Excuse me, are you Akiwara-sensei?"

Akiwara Yuto didn't reply immediately, but sized up the young man.

The other party looked a bit handsome, his features were relatively upright, and he had a fluffy short hair. Although the suit on his body was loose, because he was about 1.76 meters tall, he still looked relatively slender.

Akiwara Yuto nodded, which was considered a response to the other party's guess, and asked back: "Excuse me, who are you..."

On the other side, the young man got the answer he wanted, bowed immediately, took out a business card from his pocket, and respectfully handed it to Akiwara Yuto.

"I am the editor of 'April Youth,' Awazu Hideki. I have long admired your name, teacher. It is rude to visit rashly."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised. "April Youth" is a literary journal of Keijiaokan, a literary magazine publicly recognized as the fourth in the literary world. However, this magazine has been a bit miserable recently because of him, and its sales were just exploded by "New Novel."

But in other words, the other party is a competitor of "New Novel."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit confused. Why did the other party come to the door, and what was the purpose? At the same time, he thought of another point: how was his address leaked?

Although confused, he still took the business card and said politely: "Nice to meet you, please take care of me."

At the same time, he asked back: "Editor Awazu, do you have anything special?"

According to reason, Akiwara Yuto should welcome the other party into the house and then politely ask for the reason. But he still wanted to ask clearly first before considering whether to invite the other party into the door.

Awazu Hideki heard this sentence, his eyes became serious, he straightened up, bowed deeply again, and made a request that Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised by.

"Akiwara-sensei, I want to ask you to join 'April Youth'!" ===== CHAPTER 59 =====