episode_0074

The simplest way to increase reading and publication rates is to increase libraries.

As the number of libraries increases, authors can be guaranteed a minimum amount of profit and promotional effect by selling books to libraries, and readers can read the books they want without burdening the cost.

In Korea, libraries are treated as study rooms for students, and there are often cases where people who visit libraries for reading purposes suffer… That’s a bit of an unusual case, and basically the library was a space where ‘books were purchased from authors and readers could read them for free.’

Of course, it helps both the writer and the reader.

and.

The biggest obstacle preventing the revitalization of this library culture is.

“As you mentioned, we have introduced public lending rights and fixed book price contracts for all libraries owned by the foundation, registered artists, and publishers that have signed agreements.”

“Ugh. When you say that, I feel like I’ve become part of the axis of evil… .”

“Yes?”

“No, there is something like that… .”

It was a fixed book price system and a public loan system.

The fixed book price system was a system that restricted books from being sold at a discount of more than a certain amount from the regular price, and the public lending right system was a system in which libraries guaranteed authors’ economic losses resulting from ‘free lending’. Of course, both are systems that were criticized countless times in their past lives.

The justification itself is to guarantee the rights of authors and prevent the quality of books from deteriorating due to price competition in the free market… .

Of course, this is bullshit that has no effect in a free market.

If the price of books rises, people will stop reading books, and if the cost burden on libraries increases, no one will run the libraries, and only public libraries will remain. It can be said to be a policy that forgets that books and libraries are ultimately products and services that exist within a ‘market economy’.

and.

“So, what is the foundation’s cost burden?”

“Not at all. In fact, after The Little Prince, the cultural industry itself was no different from the master’s monopoly market. There was also a report that the foundation’s financial profits exceeded the empire’s government revenues.”

“… The East India Company was an ordinary company.”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t there any sanctions from the empire or parliament? If the scale has grown this much, it would be worth enacting anti-monopoly laws.”

“Most of the council nobles are your followers. Even in the imperial family… Aren’t you supporting the master?”

“Ah.”

I was a person who existed outside the ‘market economy’.

What I have a monopoly on is not the publishing industry. It was the ‘content’ itself of this world.

Products sold at the upper union feature characters from works such as ‘The Little Prince’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’, and adaptations of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ are performed at the performance hall. The engineers at the Gray Magic Tower who learned science through the Principia were the ones who developed new technologies for people to enjoy, and the foundation’s sponsors read the literature I plagiarized and were impressed by its beauty or inspired by the ideas contained in it. They were politicians.

Most of the other famous writers either participated in contests I held or learned literature at the academy I run.

In my past life, I am an individual who combines Disney and Nintendo.

In fact, it was no different from the ultimate evil in the world. If you consider the aspect of influence rather than just wealth, its value becomes even greater.

so that… I was able to introduce the ‘fixed book price system’ and ‘public loan right’, which I had criticized so much in my past life, to the foundation. Publishers purchased books at high prices and paid copyright profits to authors for free loans. The foundation bears all the economic and social costs that arise as a result.

It was something only a crazy person with no interest in money would do.

That crazy person was me.

Since all such profits were borrowed from the ‘literature of my previous life’ anyway, it was right to return it to the ‘literature of this world’.

“Hmm… . How many High Streets are there in the capital?”

“About 600.”

“In terms of the entire empire?”

“Well, I think it will be over 10,000.”

“How much budget would be needed to build a library there?”

“Do you mean everything?”

“Ah, in places where libraries are already built, we should just purchase them and renovate them. Under the premise that everything is owned by the foundation.”

“Um… .”

Shion rolled his eyes and thought about something for a moment before opening his mouth.

“How big is it?”

“Well. About the Central Library, the largest library in the empire?”

“It is impossible even if the foundation sells all of its rights, bonds, and financial assets. No, well, it would be possible if you included the master’s personal property.”

” About the size of a typical local library?”

“It is possible with the foundation’s annual budget.”

“Huh.”

“Can I give you that instruction?”

“No, um. Let’s think about it for a moment… .”

For reference, the central library of the empire was a huge library so large and classically decorated that it could be called a temple. It is said to store every book ever published in the empire. Building 10,000 such things was not normal at the time when ‘it was possible to sell the foundation’.

The current foundation had grown so large that even though it was a ‘charitable business’, the income coming in was far greater than the expenses being spent, so it was screaming.

This was despite providing education and free meals to all children in the empire, providing services such as technical training and job placement to adults, and providing welfare at a level close to providing it to all artists.

“Hmm… .”

“Master?”

“First of all, the public library project… No, let’s start the foundation’s library project around the capital and proceed slowly over several years.”

“Okay.”

“And, I don’t think the foundation should get any bigger. But that doesn’t mean I enjoy luxuries like other wealthy people, so if I don’t support the foundation, the money will just pile up. Creating a bank is… It probably doesn’t make any sense. In the first place, the foundation is purchasing the bank’s bonds.”

“Is it a problem for the foundation to grow?”

“The foundation is already doing most of the work that the ‘state’ should do. The fact that the foundation is providing universal welfare also means that the foundation manages all human resources, infrastructure, and administrative resources for welfare. In effect, it’s like having another government within the empire. It’s okay for now, but… .”

“In the future, the empire may suspect a coup and raise a sword.”

“No.”

“Yes?”

“It’s the opposite. When the Foundation becomes larger than it is now, all of the Empire’s subjects will believe that the Foundation is the government. Although the current imperial family is guaranteed its rights under a constitutional monarchy, in reality, it is as if the parliament decides the imperial policy… . In the future, Congress may become nothing more than a legislative body and become the foundation’s powerhouse, drawing out policies solely for the foundation. ‘Empire’ is a word that symbolizes the ‘foundation’, not the parliament or the imperial family.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Huh?”

“If the foundation that operates to develop literature becomes the core power of the empire, it will be one step closer to your goal of developing literature.”

Zion asked as if he was surprised that I, who had always pursued only the ‘development of literature,’ was having such concerns.

but.

I also had no choice but to give a firm answer to this.

“Literature should not hold power. Never.”

In my previous life in Korea, literature was ridiculed and despised by people working in related industries, treating it as a ‘tool of the literary world’.

Literary power.

All writers deny its existence, but strangely enough, it is an intangible power that is always mentioned whenever any policy or issue related to literature appears. The culprit that caused literature to be treated as an ‘outdated fad of a bygone era’ and at the same time as a political power ‘parasitic on other industries.’

Something whose source is unknown, making even mainstream writers who are considered to be at the center of such ‘literary power’ tilt their heads and say that they are ‘outsiders to the literary world’. A power system that raises its head in the name of ‘literature’ even though all writers criticize and ignore it.

Newspapers, publishers, politicians, and thinkers─.

The most vicious force of literature created when the ‘resistance literature’ of the old era mixed with the ‘mainstream politics’ of the present era, which was born from the politics of that era.

That was literary power.

The moment literature gains power, the ‘work’ is pushed out and only the ideology of literature remains. Literary power operates for ‘literary power’ rather than for ‘paragraphs’ or ‘literature’. Just as all power works only to maintain power.

It is not the work, but the influence it creates, that becomes everything in literature.

Therefore, literature should not hold power. Even if I had the power to move the world, after I died, it had to remain only as a ‘work’.

“Then what should I do?”

“Hmm, the Little Prince Foundation and the Holmes Foundation’s ‘universal welfare’ businesses could be separated and donated to the empire and converted into state-run businesses… I need to think about this a little bit.”

.

.

.

That day, I went to sleep thinking about the direction of the foundation.

and.

Early morning the next day.

─Do not be afraid.

An angel came down to the Frieden family mansion.

─The transcendent figure of literature with the names of Homer, Herodotus, and Sophocles. ascend to the sky

At dawn, all the noise on earth was buried in darkness.

With the utmost tranquility that I have never experienced even in the womb.

Time stopped.