Chapter 80: A Clue? Extortion?!

"Akiwara-sensei, you should be clear about the rules of the Mantan Society Literary Award," Awazu Hideki said, "The final decision on who receives the award still rests with the members of the judging committee."

Akiwara Yuto nodded; this confirmed his own suspicions. The fact that he did not receive the Gold Award was not only driven by Kikuchi Tai, but likely tacitly approved by the head of the judging committee as well.

"Moreover, in the few days before the award ceremony, Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi's behavior was very strange," Awazu Hideki said.

"Strange how?" Akiwara Yuto asked, puzzled.

Awazu Hideki gathered his thoughts: "During that time, Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi came to see Editor Takei several times, and his attitude was very respectful."

He actually left out a part; according to his informant, during those days, Kikuchi Tai's attitude toward Editor Takei was as if he were a subordinate to a superior.

Akiwara Yuto began to ponder. Kikuchi Tai was the Editor-in-Chief, a position higher than Takei Kohei's Deputy Editor-in-Chief, and the sales of *New Novel* had also risen. Theoretically, there was no need for him to be respectful to the other party, right?

Could it be that there was something he didn't know?

He frowned, recalling Takei Kohei's two invitations to him, and felt something was off.

*Tokyo Literature* already had excellent writers like Seto Tamae and Ishii Yu, and sales were maintained at 150,000 copies. Even if they invited him to join, it would be impossible to replicate the miracle of *New Novel*, as the reader bases overlapped significantly.

Unless the other party had some reason they were forced to act?

He thought for a moment and tentatively asked, "Editor Takei, has he encountered some trouble recently?"

"Akiwara-sensei, so you've heard about it too?" Awazu Hideki didn't know his intent and answered directly, "The Editor-in-Chief of *Tokyo Literature* is about to retire. It was originally arranged for Takei Kohei to succeed him, but some trouble has arisen."

"Trouble?" Akiwara Yuto asked, puzzled, "Please tell me in detail."

Awazu Hideki picked up his coffee, took a sip, and said, "This concerns you. After you helped *New Novel* achieve high sales, the fact that Editor Takei rejected your submission was exposed. This led some in the upper management to believe he lacks the vision and responsibility to lead the development of *Tokyo Literature*."

"However," he hesitated, but still said, "I seem to have heard that he is looking for a way to make up for this mistake."

Akiwara Yuto was not moved by this news.

Although the relationship between the two had eased somewhat due to Takei Kohei's recent polite attitude, it was indeed the other party who had rejected his manuscript back then, so he had no reason to feel the slightest sympathy for him.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto's expressionless face, Awazu Hideki assumed he was not interested in this topic and changed the subject: "Akiwara-sensei, who is your current editor?"

Akiwara Yuto frowned and said, "Why do you ask?"

He did not believe the other party didn't know his editor was Asano Aiko.

"It is rumored that Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi Tai applied to Human Resources to transfer Editor Asano to the Proofreading Department. This morning, many people saw Editor Asano carrying a cardboard box and taking the elevator to the basement floor where the Proofreading Department is located."

Hearing this news, Akiwara Yuto was stunned. Recalling the words Asano Aiko had said on the phone earlier, his heart sank.

In his past life, Japan produced a drama called *Pretty Proofreader*, and although this drama was filmed with great passion, in reality, the work of the Proofreading Department is very boring and tedious.

Moreover, in terms of career prospects, proofreaders rarely have a path for promotion; after all, for book proofreading, correcting errors is a duty, and making mistakes is a dereliction of duty.

Asano, why didn't you call to discuss this with me?

He sighed, vaguely guessing her thoughts.

As he was crowned with the reputation of a genius, Asano Aiko, as an ordinary editor, would undoubtedly be under immense pressure. And at this award ceremony, Asano must have felt that she failed to fight for the Gold Award he deserved, and thus felt even more ashamed.

"Akiwara-sensei, this is everything I know," Awazu Hideki replied.

What he had told him was basically everything he understood. He speculated that Akiwara not receiving the Gold Award this time was likely an act directed by Kikuchi Tai under the instruction of Kihara Daigo. As for Takei Kohei's role, to be honest, he wasn't very clear.

Akiwara Yuto nodded, indicating he understood.

In fact, after the series of information revealed by the other party, he already had his own judgment.

As a veteran mystery fan, he firmly believed that behind every incident, there was a corresponding motive, and this motive would drive the person behind the scenes to take corresponding actions and leave clues.

Based on the clues, one could well analyze who the real mastermind was.

Combining these clues mentioned by Awazu Hideki, he immediately ruled out the possibility that Kikuchi Tai was the mastermind.

Because transferring Asano Aiko to the Proofreading Department did not help Kikuchi Tai in any way. As mentioned before, with Kikuchi Tai's slick personality, if he really wanted to award the Gold Award to Kadowaki Yuma, he would have discussed it with him first.

Next was the head of the department; the other party's motive was to pave the way for his daughter's boyfriend, Kadowaki Yuma. After all, a Gold Award could add a lot of prestige to Kadowaki Yuma's credentials. However, beyond that, he had no reason to do anything more, let alone instruct Kikuchi Tai to transfer a small editor from the editorial department.

Therefore, based on this, the mastermind's goal might not be the honor of the Gold Award itself, but the consequences triggered by this selection—for example, the rift between himself and the *New Novel* department.

If it weren't for Seto-sensei's impromptu speech, then upon learning that Kikuchi Tai had changed the Gold Award nominee, he would inevitably be dissatisfied with the *New Novel* editorial department. At the same time, Asano Aiko's transfer would also make him lose the reason to stay at *New Novel*.

In this situation, he would inevitably jump to another editorial department, achieving the goal beneficial to the mastermind.

Akiwara Yuto lowered his head and continued to think.

Finally, the mastermind must have influence over Kikuchi Tai; otherwise, there would be no way to make him change the Gold Award nominee and take the initiative to be responsible for this award ceremony accident.

Recalling what Awazu Hideki said about Kikuchi Tai's recent respectful attitude toward someone, Akiwara Yuto already had the answer in his heart, and his hands subconsciously clenched.

However, how should he respond next?

According to the previously signed agreement, if his *ZOO* novel series were to be published as a standalone book, it could only be represented by the Mantan Society for 3 years. If he chose to leave the Mantan Society because of this incident, then the 20 million yen in revenue that the standalone book could bring would undoubtedly have nothing to do with him.

Besides that, he only had a cooperative relationship with the Mantan Society and could not help Asano Aiko in terms of position.

Awazu Hideki seemed to have guessed the reason for Akiwara Yuto's hesitation and took the initiative to propose: "Akiwara-sensei, if you are worried about the copyright of your work, our Kejiaoguan can come forward to communicate with the Mantan Society. You don't need to worry about that."

Akiwara Yuto looked at his smile, his heart full of doubts. He didn't doubt the truth of what the other party said; after all, as one of the four major publishing houses, Kejiaoguan should also have cooperation with the Mantan Society.

But what was the purpose of the other party helping him like this?

Akiwara Yuto stared at Awazu Hideki's gaze: "Editor Awazu, I don't believe there is such a thing as a free lunch. Can you tell me what your requirements are?"

Awazu Hideki smiled and then gave an answer that was beyond Akiwara Yuto's expectations.

"Kejiaoguan hopes that Akiwara-sensei can exclusively serialize for 7 years in the pages of *April Youth*!"