episode_0046

Hans and Johan.

The two people, who each shared the name ‘Johannes’, were friends with a very bitter relationship. To be precise, we inevitably became deeply intertwined due to our ancestral ties.

To put it simply, Hans’ father, who was a wealthy man who ran a business, brought in Johan’s father, who was a poor nobleman, as ‘legal advice’.

It was to participate in a national project where one could not even present a business card without a title.

For John’s father, who was on the verge of giving up his noble title in the Munichwon, it was a life of disaster. In fact, Hans’ father chose him simply because he thought he could borrow the rights at a low price.

If there was one thing Hans’ father didn’t expect.

– “… yes? Our Johannes sangang is now in charge of supplying materials for the imperial capital maintenance project?”

It is said that John’s father’s ability as a ‘legal advisor’ was beyond imagination.

I was planning to simply put my name on the empire’s national project to increase the value of my name at the top, but I ended up playing a key role. That project was a project pushed forward by the emperor of the empire at the time – that is, the emperor of the empire, who has now stepped down as the former emperor – by mobilizing all the capabilities of the imperial family.

In fact, at the time, Johannes Dandan did not have the capacity to handle such a large project. There wasn’t—.

As a merchant, once you have won a big business, you cannot return it. I had to somehow find a way to push the business to success. Current size or capabilities were not taken into consideration.

High risk, high return.

Either fail to fulfill the contract and have the merchant confiscated by the imperial family, or somehow fulfill the contract and make the merchant’s name known throughout the empire. It was one of two things. Thus, Hans’ father, with the help of Johan’s father, who was a ‘legal advisor’, somehow succeeded in fulfilling the contract by using all kinds of extra-legal and extra-legal means.

Succeeded in growing from a small to medium-sized company to a large company.

– “Haha! thank you! Advisor! This is all thanks to you!”

– “Thank you for your hard work, Sangdan Lord.”

Thus, the two became irreplaceable partners.

So much so that when the two families had a child, they promised to divide the family’s name, ‘Johannes’, and give it to each of the eldest sons.

The one born first was Johan, and the one born later was Hans.

It was that kind of promise.

That’s how the strong relationship between the two began.

“My victory will be decided today.”

“Ha! It remains to be seen who God will smile on.”

“Tsk tsk, stop being so stubborn. Have you still not come to your senses after losing that duel?”

“You, stop being so forceful! If you think about it, wouldn’t I have won more duels?”

“That’s because you grew up quickly when you were young. Haven’t I won more recently? It’s a bit ugly to see a man obsessed with the glory of his childhood.”

“The way you try to avoid admitting the truth is truly ugly!

Even in front of the ‘Homeric writer’, the two people’s reactions were not much different from usual.

In a way, it was natural since these two people made a fuss about having a duel at the awards ceremony.

Homer, who was staring at the two people, Ed introduced himself with a grin.

“Yes, yes. nice to meet you You may have heard the introduction from Herodotus, but it is Homer. That friend was busy with work, so I came to visit him like this.”

“It is an honor that the author of Homer personally invited us.”

“Yes. You both prepared your work, right?”

The two people took out their respective works from their bags as if they had been waiting for them.

And so a small contest just for the two of them began.

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John’s novel was close to a ‘historical novel’. To express the theme of adventure, I wrote a biographical text using the adventurer’s guild of an old era as the background, when most maps were still unknown. It seemed like it was referencing Don Quixote, and it also seemed like it was referencing a ‘travel book’ rather than a literal novel.

Hans’ novel was a typical ‘revenge story’. It was impressive to see the main character wandering around various countries and territories and preparing for revenge. It seemed to be deeply inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, and fantasy elements centered on the main character of the Conan Saga were also seen sparsely.

What’s unusual is that the color of the ‘detective novel’ has completely disappeared?

Since they chose ‘adventure novels’ as their theme in order to compete with a different topic than before, it seemed like both of them tried to avoid the atmosphere of existing ‘detective novels’.

I smiled at the two people who were looking at me with nervous expressions, and put the manuscript down on the desk.

“Both are good. It was fun to read because each style was clear.”

“Yes!”

“Because the genres of the two novels are so different, it seems difficult to simply compare them… Did you hear the story from author Herodotus? I’m thinking of doing ‘planned publishing’.”

“Yes!”

“Recently, a writer I know said that. The evaluation of a work should be left entirely to the reader. So, how about deciding the winner through reader voting again?”

“Yes?”

“Good!”

Johann asked back in confusion, and Hans nodded and confirmed my opinion.

In fact, it was a natural reaction.

If the winner is decided by readers’ vote, Hans’ novel, which follows the provocative and popular ‘revenge’ plot, will receive more votes.

As both of them were readers of Half & Half, they would have known how ‘reader voting’ was conducted.

Yohan belatedly raised his voice.

“Well, wouldn’t that be a little disadvantageous for me?”

“Ha! Johan, you’re not planning on cowardly turning a blind eye now, are you?”

“I don’t intend to do that, but my promise was to have my work evaluated by Homer and Herodotus—.”

“Didn’t those two say they would evaluate it through reader voting? Accept it!”

“You two, please calm down. This reader vote will be a little different from the last ‘Half and Half’.”

“Yes?”

“Star rating─, I thought I would try introducing preference.”

I explained to the two people about the newly designed reader voting method.

This time around, readers’ votes are received via postcards, but this time, readers can give each work a score.

The goal was to determine the winner based on that score.

“Like your evaluation of Hamlet’s performance?”

“Similar, but a little simpler… Five stars are the highest score, and scores are divided according to the number of stars. If you read it very satisfactorily, give it five stars. If you think it was terrible, give it one star. Like this.”

“Umm… . Certainly, it seems like a reasonable approach.”

If this reader vote is successful, we plan to allow magazines and publishers to rate works on a regular basis in the future.

That way, you will be able to find interesting novels more easily.

I had a plan. I plan to read an interesting novel.

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Adventure story planning ─, ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ and ’15 Boys Adrift’, as well as historical novels and revenge stories written by the two people, were published together.

The first work that drew a lot of response from readers was ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.’

Considering that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was published under the pen name of Herodotus, this meant that Herodotus’s works were more popular than Homer’s novels.

“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a masterpiece! Who could represent the deep sea so fantastically and clearly? Drawing a map of the sea beneath the blue water is not something a mere writer can do. The vast knowledge about the sea filled in the novel can be said to be truly magical. Indeed, he is the author of ‘Sherlock Holmes’.”

“Of course, I too was more attracted to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea than 15 Boys Adrift. If I could travel under the sea, I would spend hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“Now that I think about it, I’ve heard that among the wizards’ pieces there is a ship that can dive under the sea.”

“Hmm? Was there actually such a thing as a submarine?”

“Since there is a locomotive, wouldn’t there actually be a submarine?”

“Huh.”

And this became an opportunity for people to become interested in the so-called ‘latest technology’.

Although an airplane appears in The Little Prince, it was difficult to attract much attention due to the characteristics of the ‘fairy tale’ genre. There were many people who did not know what an airplane was in the first place. People who think of airplanes as nothing more than small airships or balloons.

But ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ was different.

‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’, which unravels a vast amount of knowledge such as the principles of submersibles, ocean currents, and vegetation on the seafloor, could be said to be the beginning of ‘science fiction.’

Additionally, ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ was full of Jules Verne’s progressive passion. Thanks to this, people became interested in adventure and technology, and investment money suddenly began to flow into magic engineering.

“Please let me ride that submarine!”

“Yes… ? Well, it’s still unstable so it would be a bit dangerous for people to ride it… . Why is this dangerous? . There is something called water pressure in the sea… .”

However, not all attention was focused on ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’.

Homer’s new work, ’15 Boys Adrift’, also received a lot of attention. Surprisingly, this was especially popular among older nobles.

“Hehe, son. Today, Dad will read ‘15 Boys Adrift’”

“Neng.”

Isn’t it the role of middle-aged people rather than teenagers to admire stories filled with children’s innocence and passion?

Thanks to this, children were also naturally exposed to ‘15 Boys Adrift’.

“There was a time when this dad was overflowing with passion like this. I was very young back then… . Thinking about it now, it felt stupid. Hehe… . Are you curious about this dad’s childhood story?”

“Dad.”

“Yes, my son.”

“Please read the next page quickly.”

“Okay… .”

While the Empire is buzzing with new works that have appeared again.

Homer planned all these things.

“Nice to meet you. I am none other than Andy, the Duke of Carpeter.”

“Yes?”

“Please feel free to call me Andy.”

“Yes?”

I was facing a strange guest.

A strange knight dressed in the attire of a knight-errant.