episode_0040

“It seems like most things are going according to your plan. I think this contest will also be successful.”

“Is there even a plan? . I just said, ‘I wish it would be like this.’ I was lucky.”

Since pledging allegiance to me, Shion has been actively helping me with my ‘hobby activities’.

There are many things related to literature. I was doing things that were difficult or time-consuming for me to do myself – collecting issues and rumors related to literature and reporting them to me.

If I had been in a past life, I would have been able to get information about trends in the literary world through the ‘reading community’… .

In this world, people had no choice but to take action themselves. So, I was receiving a lot of help from Zion.

“More readers may participate in this contest than in the ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ contest.”

“Oh, that will definitely involve more participation. There will probably be an overwhelming crowd.”

“Is that so?”

“Uh. It’s a mystery novel. Due to the nature of the two works, the character fandom is also wide.”

In this type of ‘secondary creation’ contest, the size of the fandom determines the number of participants.

And the [Sherlock Holmes

The mania of the genre of mystery novel itself, the attractive characters of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Arsene Lupin’. All readers of mystery novels were essentially a ‘fandom’.

“I hope a lot of interesting works come out.”

“Hmm, but if there are too many participating works, reading them will be a struggle. Isn’t it likely that most participants are poor at writing?”

“That’s also true. Forcing yourself to read a boring novel is tiring… . Still, even that fatigue has its own joy.”

“Do you plan to read each one yourself again this time?”

“Uh.”

I answered without hesitation.

I don’t know how many readers will participate in this contest, but I planned to read every piece myself.

Rather than making a ‘strain’ and missing the pearls in the mud, it was better to count each mud grain by hand.

“… It seems you are very adamant when it comes to reading-related matters.”

“Because you can’t compromise your hobbies.”

“Aren’t you running out of time?”

“Well… .”

Considering the submission period for the contest work and the subsequent evaluation period, the schedule will be tight.

still.

“If it’s reading, I can do it all day.”

“… yes. Then, we will prepare in advance so that you can read comfortably.”

“Ugh. Thank you always. Zion.”

“It is my pleasure. Master.”

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Half and Half Publishing.

I looked at the entries with Ryan, the publisher’s president, and Mr. Kindersley, who came to help.

“There are a lot of works submitted? I think it’s a lot more than the ‘Homer’ author’s contest we held at Kindersley Publishing.”

“Of course. It would be worth reading.”

When I think back, in my past life, I didn’t tend to read a lot of books.

A novel of about 300 pages. That was the amount of books I could digest in a day. I couldn’t read more than that because I didn’t have enough time. (Looking up materials to translate doesn’t count as ‘reading.’)

Compared to some of my friends who read books at the library, I was definitely not good at reading.

The biggest problem was the lack of speed. Due to my occupational disease as a translator, the reading would take a long time as I had to look up annotations or the original language every time I read a book.

and.

This problem has been solved in a rather absurd way since I was reincarnated in this world.

” Author, why was this book excluded from the nominations? I thought it was a very interesting and unique novel!”

“Ah. That’s plagiarism. I took a few sentences and events from less famous novels and mixed them together. ‘Valley of Blue Spring’, ‘Black Cross’, ‘Lils and Heine’, ‘Gerrick Walk’, ‘Man with a Gun’, ‘Village Without a Gravekeeper’… . Besides that, this and that?”

“You read it all… ?”

“I read all the books published by Kindersley Publishing, and most of the books published by other publishers if they were popular by word of mouth.”

“Yes?”

“There are a lot of interesting books.”

Thanks to reading ‘all’ of the famous novels in this world, I was able to immediately recall related novels in my mind without even having to look for notes or materials separately.

In other words, it was possible to read quite deeply even with speed reading.

Of course, if it is a novel with deep wordplay permeating the sentences, like the novel written by Rolls Camel, I still read it slowly, recalling each sentence in my head.

If it was a novel that focused on ‘tricks’ and ‘information’ like a mystery novel, you didn’t need even an hour to read one book.

“Is that possible? ?”

“Do you have any tips?”

“Is this the trick? .”

In my previous life in Korea, there were people who created and lectured on something like the ‘10-minute reading method.’

There is some doubt as to whether such a thing can really be called reading. Because simply pounding the plot into your head doesn’t mean it’s ‘reading.’

Because I tend to think that the joy of reading lies in the ‘process’, I tend to read really good books slowly, at least on purpose.

However, if the purpose was to ‘filter’ novels that did not follow the basics, it was possible to reject one work every 10 minutes. Even in my previous life, it seemed like it took exactly the same amount of time to inspect the work of a new translator.

It was the difference between a hobby and a job.

“It would be a shame if I missed out on a good novel because of my laziness. So I have no choice but to read more novels. Even if it looks like a bad novel, read it first.”

“But if you’re as good as the author Herodotus, wouldn’t you be able to tell a good novel just by looking at the first sentence?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Of course, a nonsense novel is obvious from the first sentence, but─.”

I picked up one of the submitted works and put it down where the ‘passed’ works were.

Mr. Kindersley, who was reading along with the work I had put down, frowned. However, since it was a work that I rated as ‘passing’, it seemed like I wanted to read it a little more.

For some reason, I laughed a little.

“If you evaluate a novel based solely on the first sentence, wouldn’t it be unfair to read the other sentences that you haven’t read? Father Brown, like Sherlock Holmes, has the observation skills to figure out what a person has done just by looking at their collar, but he tries to listen to the other person’s story first so as not to fall into preconceived notions. Holmes sometimes gets into trouble because of his prejudices.”

“Haha! It seems that Herodotus also enjoyed reading Father Brown! I heard it was a famous story, but it was definitely fun as a novel by Homer! Still, I think the author’s Sherlock Holmes is a more interesting mystery novel!”

“Phuh.”

“Haha.”

“Why are you smiling?”

President Ryan, who did not know that I was ‘Homer’, joined the conversation.

Thanks to this, boss Kindersley and I burst out laughing.

Only CEO Ryan tilted his head in confusion. I wonder if there will be an opportunity later to let President Ryan know that I am ‘Homer’. I do not know.

“I guess I can classify it like this for today. Is it okay if I take the remaining entries and read them?”

“Of course! Herodotus, do whatever you want! Haha!”

“Thank you.”

“What!”

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Father Brown was a mystery novel about contradictions.

This novel did not require grandiose tricks or logical rationality. Father Brown’s author – ‘GK Chesterton’ was a person who deeply understood the contradictions and distortions that people create for themselves.

He had the power to intuit the sloppy but extraordinary crimes that were created as misunderstandings piled up.

This methodology of ‘psychological reasoning’ also influenced the novels of ‘Agatha Christie’, the queen of mystery novels, and thanks to the power of such ‘queen’, it continued to be written in many Japanese mystery novels even to modern times. If you read a ‘Japanese mystery novel’ that is bizarre and full of misunderstandings and contradictions, you could say that you have read a novel influenced by Chesterton.

And, these ‘internal human contradictions’ did not discriminate between eras and worlds.

Anyone living in any era who read ‘Father Brown’ could not help but understand how thoughtfully this book was written.

“… haha. Really, thank you… . I can’t even imagine how I can repay this favor… . Homer is truly the benefactor of all prisoners.”

And this was the same even if it was a ‘prisoner’.

A prisoner who has been persecuted for a long time because he was born without forgetting the ‘instincts of the beast’. Gray, the gray wolf representing them, was bowing his head to me and expressing gratitude.

“Did I do something? It was all possible thanks to the church’s consideration.”

“This is truly… . It has been the long-cherished wish of all prisoners for a very, very long time… . Really, it’s been such a long time… . haha… . Even if I were to die like this today, I don’t think I would have any time left… .”

The reason Gray was so grateful to me was simple.

Originally, prisoners could not receive ‘baptism’ because they were a race that did not receive blessings from the human universe.

“I am only half human and half beast… Being baptized… .”

This was because I was baptized by Protestant priests whom I learned through the advice of Father Brown.

“Uh, are you okay? Tears… .”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m old, so it’s my fault… . I was so happy that I couldn’t control my emotions… .”

I did not intend for this situation from the beginning when I introduced him to ‘Protestantism’.

The reason Gray was introduced to Protestantism was purely at the request of Protestantism.

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[“How were you able to figure all this out? Are you saying you are the devil?”]

[“I am human.”]

[“Because I am human, I have all the devils in my heart.”]

After Father Brown’s writing. An ordinary day, reading popular mystery novels and wondering which novel to plagiarize next.

The Protestant priests who came to see me immediately made an absurd request.

“I hope Ga Kyung-ja scolds us.”

“… Yes?”

“Please.”