"You already know this," Yukino said, brushing her hair back behind her ear as her expression turned serious. "Our publishing house's influence is basically limited to Minamijo Prefecture."
"Under normal circumstances, based on the popularity of Yesterday's Starlight, its average volume sales within Minamijo should land somewhere between seventy thousand and ninety thousand copies."
"As for the other prefectural regions across Japan, if they collectively contribute another five to ten thousand copies per volume, that would already be considered a good result."
She paused briefly, then continued.
"As for Blue Spring Ride… honestly speaking, judging from its explosive performance in Fleeting Blossoms, its expected average volume sales within Minamijo alone should reach around two hundred and fifty thousand copies."
Two hundred and fifty thousand copies per volume.
That was triple her own estimate.
Reina's brows immediately knit together. She had known Blue Spring Ride would outperform her novel in standalone sales, but she had not expected the publisher's internal expectations to be this much higher.
Haruto, meanwhile, fell into quiet thought.
Through Shiori's memories, he already had a rough understanding of the original manga's performance in that other world.
At its peak, during one or two golden years of serialization, the manga's annual tankōbon sales ranked within the top twenty nationwide, with total yearly sales reaching four to five million copies.
That figure was the combined total of multiple volumes. By the time the series concluded, Blue Spring Tide had accumulated around twelve million copies sold overall, which translated to roughly one million copies per volume on average.
Of course, novels and manga could not be directly compared. Different worlds had different market structures, and the proportion of anime and light novel fans varied as well.
Even so, Haruto did not believe Japan's current otaku culture was weaker than that parallel world's. From his perspective, the projected numbers still felt conservative.
"What are those faces supposed to mean?" Yukino said, half amused and half exasperated when she saw both of them looking dissatisfied.
"Do not underestimate what these numbers represent. An average of tens of thousands or even two hundred thousand per volume is already excellent. If a novel runs for ten or more volumes, total sales can easily break into the millions, and the royalties alone would be substantial."
"Most novels serialized in Crimson Maple do not even reach an average of one hundred thousand per volume within Minamijo. Even top-tier titles usually cap out at three to four hundred thousand per volume, and that is with massive promotional resources backing them."
She looked directly at Haruto.
"If not for the fact that Blue Spring Ride clearly demonstrates quality that exceeds the usual level of Fleeting Blossoms, the publishing house would never allocate promotional resources to it at the level of a strong Crimson Maple title. An estimate of two hundred and fifty thousand per volume simply does not happen for novels serialized in Fleeting Blossoms under normal circumstances."
They both understood her reasoning.
Reina felt frustrated because she was once again being outpaced by Haruto.
As for Haruto, he was experiencing firsthand just how much a serialization platform influenced a work's popularity. The saying that gold will always shine was true, but gold displayed in a gallery and gold buried in a pigsty were seen by vastly different numbers of people.
In that parallel world, a novel or manga achieving one to two million copies per volume was already considered outstanding.
In this version of Japan which had a lot more population than the parallel world, a truly top-tier work would need several million, or even ten million copies per volume, to earn that title.
That was the true summit of anime and light novel creation in this world. With ten or twenty volumes, total sales could easily surpass one hundred million copies, and the creator's royalties would naturally reach astronomical figures.
However, that path was brutally competitive.
Crimson Maple Literature's top titles only achieved averages in the tens or hundreds of thousands precisely because its distribution power was limited to Minamijo.
If Blue Spring Ride were published under a top national giant like Clearstream Library, then extrapolating from its performance in the parallel world and factoring in Japan's population, several million copies per volume would barely count as acceptable, let alone exceptional. That would mean selling three to four hundred thousand copies per volume in each of Japan's major regions combined.
Unfortunately, reality was reality. Crimson Maple Literature's reach ended at Minamijo.
After submitting their manuscripts, Haruto and Reina returned to their usual routine of game battles.
By now, Haruto could no longer win every match effortlessly. Reina learned fast, and her fighting game skills had improved dramatically in a short time. Even a top-ranked player could slip up after dozens of matches.
Last week, Haruto had finally lost a match to her due to a misplay. The frustration she had bottled up for weeks finally dissipated, and today she played with noticeably lighter spirits.
That said, after a few more rounds, she was still thoroughly defeated.
"Haruto," Reina suddenly asked, her eyes still fixed on the screen, "are you planning to make writing your lifelong profession?"
"Hm?" Haruto glanced at her. She actually cared about this sort of thing?
"Probably," he answered after a moment's thought. "I honestly cannot think of any other job that makes more money while being this relaxed."
"Relaxed?" Her fingers froze. That was bad.
Haruto's eyes lit up as he spotted an opening. A heavy strike, a spinning blow, an aerial finisher.
Five seconds later, her character collapsed.
Another win.
A deep sense of satisfaction rose in Haruto as he looked at her smugly.
Reina , however, looked distinctly unsettled. "You really think writing Blue Spring Ride was easy?" she asked.
"More or less," he replied. "It felt pretty simple to me."
After all, writing something that already existed in memory mostly taxed his fingers, not his mind. Reina lowered her head and fell silent. The atmosphere turned awkward.
"And you?" Haruto asked, trying to ease it. "Do you plan to become a professional novelist in the future?"
"I do not know," she said quietly. "I do not know how much pressure my family would put on me if they found out I was writing novels. And I do not know if I could withstand that pressure."
She looked up at him. "But these past two months taught me something. Someone who looks ordinary on the surface might possess talent far beyond others in a different field. I do not know if I will keep writing forever," she continued. "But one thing is certain."
She did not say the rest.
If she ever gave up writing, she would make sure she defeated Haruto in sales first, washing away the humiliation of Yesterday's Starlight's loss. She did not say it aloud, because empty bravado from a loser only invited contempt. Winners did not need to speak.
Haruto did not press her.
Whatever she left unsaid was not his business.
They were just classmates who happened to cross paths for a short time. Once the Blue Spring Ride ended next week, who knew when they would meet again? He shook his head and let the topic drop.
The next day, Saturday.
On that day, more than ninety percent of bookstores across Minamijo quietly placed two new light novel volumes in prominent positions.
One was titled Blue Spring Ride. The other was Yesterday's Starlight.
Outside Minamijo, bookstores in other regions stocked a few copies in quieter corners.
The standalone release of Blue Spring Ride had officially begun.
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