"So, Mr. Hachiman," Director Shibuya continued to confirm, "you're planning to write another novel concurrently while serializing The Newcomer, just as you did with Disintegration of the Causes?" As the head of the publishing department, he had to be fully aware of the writing plans of the publisher's top author to make preparations in advance.
"That's right," Hachiman said. "The creation cycle for orthodox detective stories is often longer and not suitable for serialization. I prefer to publish them directly after they're completed. Besides, as we just discussed, this type of orthodox novel often doesn't sell very well, and I can't always maintain the quality of The Clockwork Museum Incident." For him, social mysteries were for increasing sales, while orthodox mysteries were for improving his status and reputation in the literary world.
"I see, Mr. Hachiman. In that case, can you give us some information about your new orthodox work?" Director Shibuya asked tentatively. In fact, Hachiman had not yet explicitly stated that the new work would be handed over to Sakuraba Publishing.
"Mr. Shibuya, if you can keep this between us, I can reveal some information," Hachiman said, raising his eyebrows. He saw through the other man's attempt to fish for information and gave a subtle reminder. "But this is a completely private conversation and doesn't involve the publisher."
"No problem, Mr. Hachiman," Shibuya swore, straightening his back. "I can guarantee that I'm just curious. No one else will know."
"In that case," Hachiman said briefly, "the focus of the new work is just one word: folklore."
"Folklore?" Mr. Shibuya looked a little worried. "Mr. Hachiman, that's a very broad and unfathomable field. There are many mystery novels nowadays based on folklore, but... the results are often not very good."
His concerns were not without reason. Japan is a mountainous country, and in the days when transportation was inconvenient, countless strange folk cultures were born in its secluded mountain villages. Studying these folklores is a subject that a scholar could spend their whole life on. Of course, people in modern society, especially well-educated young people in big cities, often dismiss their country's folk culture as "outdated superstitions and cultural dregs." However, as a culture that has influenced Japan for hundreds, even thousands of years, it cannot simply be swept into the garbage dump of history.
Therefore, in recent years, some writers interested in rural folk culture have used this as a blueprint to create many horror, mystery, and adventure novels. But since folklore contains extremely complex knowledge, many authors inevitably fall into the awkward situation of using a great deal of space to explain content that readers are not interested in, while ignoring the story itself. As a result, it is difficult for folklore-related creations to produce high-quality works.
"Yes," Hachiman said. "It is for that very reason that I want to create a folk mystery novel—to make up for the lack of quality works in this field." He just wanted to be a benchmark in the industry, not a follower.
"Seeing you so confident, Mr. Hachiman, I have no reason to worry," Shibuya said, relieved. "One last thing I want to ask: has the title of the book been decided?"
"Shoumu: The Haunted Thing," Hachiman replied.
"Shoumu? That sounds a bit like a yokai mystery." (Yokai are a class of supernatural monsters, spirits, and demons in Japanese folklore.)
"Yokai are inseparable from folklore, Mr. Shibuya," Hachiman explained.
If the words "yokai mystery" and "folklore" were mentioned, the first writer people would think of would be Kyogoku Natsuhiko, who possessed a vast knowledge base that was extensive even in the entire literary world. His works had an extremely wide influence. However, one of the shortcomings of his works was that they were too verbose. His endless display of knowledge made the reading experience a disaster for many. Fortunately, Kyogoku's ability to control a story was extremely good, which set him apart from authors who only showed off.
Although Hachiman respected this writer very much, he had no intention of reproducing his work; it was simply too difficult. Therefore, he chose Shoumu, which was also a folk mystery but was not so verbose and would give readers a better experience. In his previous life, this book was the third work in the "Tojo Genya" series by the famous mystery novelist Mitsuda Shinzo. It was considered the masterpiece of the series and one of the representative works of new orthodox mystery in the 21st century. Although it also involved folklore, it wasn't long-winded, and its puzzles and solutions were very impactful. While Hachiman wasn't optimistic about its sales due to the niche subject matter, it would greatly help improve his reputation.
"I estimate the length of this book will be around 350,000 words, which is 100,000 words more than The Clockwork Museum Incident. But the time it will take to finish won't change much. I still hope to complete it in about a year." This would be the first time he had written a novel of more than 300,000 words.
"Three hundred and fifty thousand words. That's truly a magnum opus," Mr. Shibuya sighed. For novels of that length, the single volume would often be priced at more than 2,000 yen, with the paperback still costing 1,200 yen. The sales volume wouldn't need to be very high to achieve a very good turnover. Of course, large volumes were also a challenge for publishers, as today's readers tended to be reluctant to buy heavy books.
All in all, Director Shibuya was very satisfied with the conversation. In his opinion, if Mr. Hachiman didn't intend to give Shoumu to Sakuraba for publication, he wouldn't have mentioned it at all. He was still very confident that the publishing house could obtain the distribution rights.
Hikigaya Hachiman walked out of the Sakuraba headquarters building. His assistant, Sakamachi, had already received the news and was waiting with the car.
"Sakamachi, have you told Kodansha?" Hachiman asked as soon as he got in.
"We have already discussed it. They agreed immediately. They also said that as long as it is your script, no matter who draws it, they will publish it."
"Huh. Kodansha is really eager to have me," Hachiman said, somewhat pleased with himself.
"By the way, Mr. Hachiman, Kodansha wants to sign a contract with you as soon as possible and meet with the artist you selected," Sakamachi added.
"Tell them not to worry yet," Hachiman ordered lazily, slumping in the back seat. "Please tell them that my comic script will be the prequel to The Clockwork Museum Incident. For maximum impact, we have to wait until The Clockwork Museum is released in early July before publishing the comic."
"I understand, Mr. Hachiman," Sakamachi said. "I would like to ask out of personal curiosity, what will the name of this comic be?"
"As for the name," Hachiman replied, "let's call it The Jukakukan Incident."
__________________________________________________________________