Chapter 11

“You said it would become stable over time.”

Daniel admitted that at least this time, Katarina’s words were wrong.

If the month after Masked Ball’s publication had been merely a cute level, the ‘real deal’ came afterward.

After appearing in some newspaper, sales jumped once, bringing storms the two of them absolutely couldn’t handle.

“Can we go home today?”

“…Well, I think we can after finishing just this.”

Work could always increase.

Even without Daniel saying it, everyone implicitly knew this fact, so a brief silence passed.

With Katarina’s permission, Sapphire Publishing had acquired the neighboring shop to expand, and desperately needing manpower, they additionally hired three new employees.

“Zeon, aren’t you going to collapse doing that? Take it easy.”

The same went for Zeon, who had drawn the Masked Ball Volume 1 poster and logo.

Hired as the publishing company’s only exclusive artist, his space overflowed with novel-related drawings.

Without any assigned work, he mainly only drew scenes from Masked Ball.

“This isn’t right, it’s not right.”

After being called by Katarina recently and receiving ‘Knights of the Sky’ from Greg, he showed strange symptoms.

Suddenly grabbing his head in despair.

Muttering something while picking up his brush, then tearing up the drawing he’d made.

Even Daniel, who hadn’t paid particular attention to Zeon due to being busy, worried about him.

“Drink this and then work.”

“…Thank you. I really need to pull myself together after drinking this.”

Zeon’s face was pale, but his eyes burned with passion more than ever.

After all, even now when passing bookstores or shopping districts, posters he’d drawn were frequently found.

Knowing the book’s value and understanding the weight of his drawings, he had no choice but to do his absolute best.

“I’ll go to the weapon shop briefly.”

Since their work domains were different anyway, and all employees knew Zeon had been struggling with a single sword.

Without anyone stopping him, he left and exited the publishing company.

In his head, he recalled the content of Knights of the Sky he’d read countless times.

Their conversations.

Their breathing.

His sword.

Unlike before when Katarina gave detailed instructions, this time she didn’t give major drawing directions, as if respecting Zeon’s artistry.

If the symbol engraved on the Masked Ball book was a half-mask, the symbol of Knights of the Sky was a sword.

‘The sword Kyle would wield should be rough yet clean. Not too thick, not too thin.’

Though other weapons would be fine, Zeon was firmly determined to draw the sword used by Kyle, the protagonist, above all else.

Clang—

“Welcome!”

“…Hello. May I look around here?”

“Looking is free, so do as you please. Tell me if there’s a sword you’re looking for.”

The weapon shop owner scanned Zeon with his eyes, then returned to handling the blade he was maintaining.

A slender build clearly far from weapons.

He expected him to leave soon, but he stayed longer than expected.

The weapon shop owner found himself glancing at him unknowingly and discovered Zeon’s expression—more serious than any customer who’d come before while looking at swords.

‘That one’s too sharp at the end, Kyle couldn’t use it.’

But Zeon fell into such a trance that he couldn’t even feel such gazes, observing swords with wide eyes and occasionally pulling out a notebook from his pocket to draw something.

“Unusual customer.”

He eventually bought nothing, bowed politely, and left empty-handed.

Until this point, the weapon shop owner hadn’t thought much of it.

He had no idea that the young man—Zeon—would visit almost daily and they’d become acquainted.

---

“Here are the three Deluxe copies of <Knights of the Sky> you mentioned.”

Greg carefully pulled books from his bag and stacked them one by one on the table.

Having experience once certainly helped—they made samples more smoothly than expected, and <Knights of the Sky> was finally completed.

It seemed time to reveal things to family members, so I’d received three books in advance.

“Thanks.”

I also gave a bright smile to Greg, who’d struggled alongside me.

Recently, just looking at Masked Ball’s sales made my mouth corners rise automatically.

I hoped Knights of the Sky would also bring me a windfall.

If it couldn’t, this book’s ending would… have to remain my secret.

“Recently, the number of nobles seeking you has been increasing—is it okay to respond as we have been?”

Seeing Greg’s somewhat anxious face reminded me of the nobles who’d been coming before, wanting to meet.

Still doing that, apparently.

Despite clearly expressing refusal, high nobles didn’t easily back down.

If I revealed my identity, it would become extremely bothersome and I wouldn’t see good results.

Objectively, the Blaine Baron family was in a perfect position to be pushed around.

“If they try to dig too deep, tell them I’ll put down my pen because of it.”

I don’t know if it would work, but couldn’t I write a novel under a new pen name in a neighboring kingdom?

From when I chose the pen name Karma, I never intended to step forward.

Anonymity—how comfortable it is.

“…Even imagining it is terrible.”

“If that happens, people will never see Volume 2 in the empire again.”

The strongest card I could play was only suspension of serialization, but I spoke in quite a serious tone.

Then Greg also nodded with a solemn expression.

“I’ll continue to firmly state our position to nobles and absolutely ensure no secrets leak out.”

“…Mm, right. It might be good to issue a statement so everyone can see it.”

Soon my position was no different from Sapphire Publishing’s position.

At some point, I picked up the memo pad and pen prepared on the reception room table and wrote down important things.

“With just this, the workload would decrease by about half.”

Greg, checking the written items along with the method of posting the statement, admired quietly.

‘Just how much were you suffering?’

I looked at him with pitying eyes, but Greg didn’t seem to feel my gaze and carefully put away the memo, stood up, and bowed.

“Then I’ll go first to prepare Knights of the Sky.”

“Contact me if anything happens, and please take care of this one too.”

With one hand supporting my chin and the other waving small, I greeted him.

If this goes well too, I should give employees more performance bonuses.

Unlike with Masked Ball, not having huge worries or expectations made me feel much more comfortable.

Now all that remained was writing Masked Ball Volume 2.

---

“Where’s Greg?”

“He’s probably talking with Fenril Trading Company next door right now.”

Daniel pointed to the wall beside her with her chin while keeping her eyes fixed on documents.

No sooner had they normalized the publishing company than they had to prepare for <Knights of the Sky> publication.

While proceeding with new distribution contracts, officials visited Sapphire Publishing daily.

Unlike before when they ran around showing novel content, thanks to Karma’s established status, those wanting books overflowed.

After all, the content of letters sent to existing sales outlets was roughly:

• Karma’s new work came out, want to try selling it?
• For reference, it’s more interesting than Masked Ball by my standards.

<Masked Ball>’s popularity still hadn’t waned, and recently the top 5 trading companies came first, causing sales to surge.

“We increased bookbinders but inventory isn’t accumulating.”

As expected of major trading companies, they took so many books.

Anyway, Greg continued business with a grinning face, making bookstores and trading companies’ bottoms fidget.

“Deluxe, a thousand copies in Deluxe!”

“Two thousand copies each in Smart and Deluxe.”

“Our bookstore modestly requests just five hundred copies each…”

Having already experienced sellouts early on.

Each tried to secure and sell as much inventory as possible, but Greg waved his hands. With so many distribution places, continuously accepting quantities could cause problems.

“Sorry, but that quantity is impossible.”

Thus, despite being a very small place, Sapphire Publishing could position itself as the invisible party with power.

Along with places that first made deals, the top 5 trading companies received slight preferential treatment, securing additional inventory of Smart and Deluxe as desired.

Afterward, when held inventory completely ran out, they decided additional orders would be delivered on set dates or immediately if possible.

“Tch, acting tough when there’s no guarantee this will sell well.”

“Just do exactly as I say and you’ll make lots of money.”

Watching Greg who wouldn’t compromise even a bit, some officials looked unfavorably upon Sapphire Publishing.

But such curses were completely shattered in just the first week of release.

“This is the book you mentioned?”

Imperial Knights personally purchased books from trading companies.

Word without feet traveled a thousand miles.