57 57. A Contract

The next day before 1 pm, Izumi arrived in front of the Gongon publishing company.

He immediately headed to the female receptionist and said, "Excuse me miss, I have an appointment with an editor named Otosuna Mihari. Can you notify her?"

"Yes, please wait a moment!" The receptionist replied with a nod.

After a while, the receptionist escorted Izumi to Mihari's office.

Izumi greeted her, and she greeted back as well.

"So you're the Ultimate Sensei who sent the script?"

"It's kinda embarrassing if you call out my pen name." Izumi scratched his head while smiling awkwardly.

"You gave the pen name yourself."

"Should I rename it?"

Mihari leaned her back against the chair. She crossed her arms, then answered.

"Suit yourself! You can change your pen name now! But once your work is published, you can't rename it again."

"Oh, so my work will be published?"

Mihari twitched. After a moment, she said.

"…are you going to rename it or not?"

"I'm still confused about what my pen name should be. There's no way I can give Jean Claude van Damme as my pen name, can I?"

"Have you thought of a spare pen name?"

Izumi raised his index finger.

"Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon."

Mihari slammed her desk.

"Too long, and what the hell's with that name!!!??" She pointed at Izumi.

"Hmmm. I still have some spare names. Fruit Punch Swordsman, Kouhai, Senpai, JustAnt, JustAway, Just FakinAway."

"..." She was speechless. How could Izumi come up with such weird names?

"Not good?"

Mihari waved her hand.

"Ah, it's up to you. Whether you want to change your pen name to Fruit Punch Ninja, FakinAway, or FakinBS, I don't care anymore."

"Anyway, my name is Miyamura Izumi. Nice to meet you."

Izumi was quite surprised. The woman in front of him was a character from the Mangaka and Assistant anime. But in this world, she doesn't work as a manga editor, but rather as a novel editor.

"Alright, enough joking. My name is Otosuna Mihari. I've read your novel. And to be honest, I'm quite interested in your novel. How about the character illustrations? Do you have any?"

Izumi nodded. He took out a piece of paper that was filled with colored drawings of the characters.

"This is a sample character illustration, I combined all the characters and printed them all on a piece of paper. Then—" Izumi took out a flash drive from his bag. Then give it to Mihari.

"Inside, there are illustration files of each character which I have separated in each folder as I describe their traits and abilities. The character illustrations also include all the characters that will appear in the next volume up to the 7th volume."

"Oh, you've even prepared to go that far."

"Of course."

Then, Mihari copied all the files to his computer and talked about unimportant things. After that, he started discussing the continuation of Izumi's novel.

"So, I'll give you a contract. You are paid a royalty based on the retail price. You will be paid each time your book sells 5000 copies. Since you are a beginner and not many people know your pen name, your royalties are only 10% at first, and will increase as your popularity increases." Mihari explained in detail Izumi's payment.

"I see. So it's impossible to get higher royalties for a newbie." Izumi thought in his head.

"Alright, I'll accept your terms. But when do I need to release the next book?" Izumi asked curiously.

"It's up to you as long as you're not going to drop it. But usually, half a year should be good. Although if you can do it sooner, the better." Mihari explained.

"Well, if I drop it, I won't be able to get another contract. What's more, I'll get a bad name from any editor."

"Glad you understand."

Izumi put his arms on the table and said to her.

"I'll try submitting the next volume next month. If my novel sales are good, I might submit another novel."

Mihari instantly knitted her brows.

"Huh? Wait, wait! What did you say?"

"Submitting the next volume next month?"

"No, no. It's the latter."

"Oh, I might submit another novel."

"Hey, don't push yourself too hard to write two different novels at once! After all, you're still a student." Mihari wanted to stop Izumi for fear that he would collapse. There have been many incidents of novelists who were originally able to write multiple scripts for more than one novel, suddenly stopping in the middle of the stories because they ran out of ideas. After that, he was required to finish his novels which left him no time to sleep and ended up collapsing.

"Thanks for your concern. You don't have to worry Mrs. Otosuna. Didn't you say half a year per volume was good? I think I can finish 1 volume in a month."

Izumi wasn't too worried because those weren't his work. Moreover, if he got a mission in another world, he could buy time to complete the mission by taking the time to write a novel.

"Sigh. Suit yourself." Mihari gave up, it seemed useless to give him advice.

"By the way, I've made a prologue to my other novel. Would you like to see it?"

Izumi took out some papers from her bag and gave them to Mihari. Mihari accepted it and started reading.

"A huge castle of stone and steel floated in the endless sky.

It is the whole of the world.

The various groups took one month to research the castle which has a ground floor diameter of around 10 kilometers.

Above it, there were 100 floors neatly arranged in a towering shape, the size alone was unbelievable. Guessing how much data supported the castle was impossible.

Inside, there are countless cities, towns and villages, forests, meadows, and even lakes.

There was only one staircase connecting the floors, and those stairs were in a dungeon, where a large horde of monsters roamed, so finding and traversing them wasn't easy."

At first, Mihari was a bit confused by the words "floating castle" and "data", but after she read on the next page—

"Year 20xx, a virtual reality game was created for the first time, it was Sword Art Online. Hmmm? So, it's a virtual reality game? No wonder. Huh? A game that turned into a deadly game?" Mihari read it for a few pages. Then she let out a long breath.

"So, how is it?" Izumi asked with a smile.

"Astonishing. But this novel is a little more complex than the novel you sent before. Are you sure you want to submit this novel?"

"I've got the plot to the end. Don't worry!"

"Sigh…if you said so."

Mihari faced her computer to look for a file in it before she printed the file.

"Fill out this form first. I'll make your contract after this."

In the form that Mihari gave, Izumi was required to fill in her name, pen name, address, number, email, account number, and so on. In essence, the form was used to fill in his complete personal data.

After Izumi filled in everything, he handed the form to Mihari and waited for her to prepare the contract.

"Mrs. Otosuna, how much will my novel cost if you sell per book?" Izumi asked.

"Hmmm, depends. Between 700 and 900 Yen." Mihari answered without turning to Izumi.

"I see. Thanks for telling me."

"Oh right, if you submitted at least 5 volumes of your novel, our company will try to contact the animation studio to adapt your novel. And if that happens, your Novel can become more in demand in the market. Because adaptation to anime will boost the author's popularity." Mihari explained how good it would be if his novel was adapted into an anime.

After he signed the contract, Mihari introduced him to the others in the company. Aito Yuuki, Ashisu Sahoto, and Matome Minano were here as Izumi expected.

Several hours had passed and Izumi said goodbye to Mihari and the others. The contract was the starting line for him for his future plans. So for now, he could only wait for further developments.

.