Upon arrival at the hotel, Sonoko checked in and brought Mizuto to her room. With the conversation they had previously, she knew that she could trust him, and there were also many things that she wanted to talk about in the future of the novel. Still, she was quite unfamiliar with Kyoto, and she had only been in this city a few times in her life, so among all the places they could have a conversation, she thought her room was the perfect place to talk.
"The room is good."
Entering her room for the first time, Sonoko was satisfied. "Thanks for recommending this place to me." Before she came, she asked him whether he knew a place to stay, so he gave her a good hotel recommendation, a worthy price, and close proximity to many places.
While it might seem hard for others, for Mizuto, who had the "Hotelier" job, it was easy to do. "That's great to know."
"Did you often stay in the hotel?"
"...what do you mean?" Mizuto was speechless, wondering whether this woman thought that he was someone who often went to the hotel. Did his good boy act seen? Impossible!
Yet, he also thought that a woman in Tokyo might have much more societal experience, considering how enormous the population in Tokyo was.
"I am not saying anything bad, but I just didn't expect that you would really be able to give me a recommendation before."
Frankly, Sonoko was surprised that Mizuto could give a hotel recommendation as it definitely wasn't something common for a high school student to stay in the hotel unless he often stayed in the hotel due to a "certain reason" or—
"Or your parents are working in the hospitality industry?"
Considering Kyoto's primary source of income was tourism, Sonoko also didn't feel surprised.
"No, I just want you to have a good stay in Kyoto, after all, so I asked my acquaintance, who told me about this place."
Nevertheless, hearing her words, Mizuto sighed in relief, thinking that he might think too much. No matter whether they were coming from Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka, they all came from the same country and also lived on the same Earth. Even so, it was normal for them to be different due to their habits, living place, and environment, but he should erase all of his skepticism as he didn't know Sonoko much as an individual, talking with her like he usually did with someone.
"Thanks." Sonoko smiled and somehow could imagine how this young man would do his best to ask his friends about a good place for her to stay in Kyoto.
"No problem."
As expected, his answer was sincere, and Sonoko thought that Mizuto was a gentle and innocent young man.
"While it's a bit too early, how about we talk about the contract, the development of the story, and all the necessary things that you need to know before the publication."
Watching her suddenly change, Mizuto thought that this woman must be a workaholic, but he didn't hate this part of her. "Okay."
Sitting side by side, Sonoko explained the contract and many other things that he needed to know as a new author.
"The copyright of the book will be shared between the two of us, a publisher and you, as the author...."
Mizuto didn't say anything and listened to Sonoko quietly. Still, the explanation was quite simple, especially about copyright and income.
"You will get two incomes; one is a manuscript, and the other is a royalty, which is about 12% of the price of the book. You should be grateful that everyone has high expectations for your book, so they give you quite a good percentage for royalty."
"Is that good?" Mizuto might not care much about money now as he had so much that even if he had so many grandchildren, they might not be able to empty his net worth, but he wouldn't reject more money even if the amount wasn't much.
"Of course, since most of the new writers only get 8% of the royalty."
"Thank you." Nevertheless, Mizuto felt a bit speechless by their high expectation, wondering how they were sure that his book could be sold so much.
Or was it the result of "Golden Luck" from the "Merchant" job?
"If your book can be sold for 500,000 copies, then the royalty will increase to 20%."
"...let's talk when the book is sold, okay?"
"You are too pragmatic. Shouldn't you feel excited?"
"I think that we need a balance. When you are excited, I need to be calm so the early success won't blind me."
"....."
"Is there something wrong?"
"It's hard for me to see you as a teenager this way."
Her eyes were sincere when she said those words, which made Mizuto wonder why they had so much confidence in him, but then again, he continued the conversation about other things from the manuscript fee, which was about 10,000 yen for every 1,000 words along with the illustrations, ignoring how she started to view him as a man instead of a young man.
"This is a light novel, so your book needs illustrations." If there was a reason why the light novel was popular, naturally, illustrations were definitely one of the reasons. There were many such stories, but with good illustrations, they could be sold well, which showed how vital illustrations for a light novel were.
"Do you know a good illustrator, or do you want to leave the illustrator to us?"
"Can I draw the illustrations by myself?"
"Huh? Can you draw?"
"I do."
"Then, can you let me see the illustrations? Or have you brought them with you in your bag?"
"I did. It's just a sketch, though."
"It's okay. Let me see."
Mizuto took his sketch of illustrations from the bag and gave them to Sonoko.
Taking the illustrations, Sonoko was dumbfounded by the illustrations that Mizuto drew. The heroine was beautiful, especially the leg parts, which made her expression subtle, but she didn't say anything since this was a great point. Then, one by one, she checked the rough sketch for the most memorable scenes in the novel, which made her sigh, thinking that she really had found a great deal.
"Amazing..." There was nothing to be worried about. "If you have smoothed them out, please send all of the illustrations to me."
"Okay."
"Oh, I will send you another contract then since you will also get an income from your illustrations."
"Thank you."
"If you don't have any problems, then you can sign the contract right away."
However, he didn't sign the contract immediately and read it until the end. Still, Sonoko didn't stop him, and she only looked at him in surprise and then said, "If you have any questions, please ask."
"Then... this part." Mizuto pointed to one of the clauses in the contract. "Do I have to appear in front of the readers to help with the promotion?" It was said that he also needed to help with the marketing program to promote his book, but he definitely didn't want to appear in front of the public, considering the story of his light novel.
"You don't want to appear in the media?"
"I don't." He shook his head and said, "Machida-san, I have read that some writers are killed by crazy fans. You should know how dangerous the fans of the light novel are, right?" While what he said might be an excuse and wasn't the truth, he also knew the fans in this country were a little bit crazy, and with his face, he really couldn't imagine what they would do.
"...that's a rare case, but I can't deny that. Still, if you don't want to, then we won't force you."
Anyway, this wasn't the first time a writer wished for their identity to be kept a secret, but it was such a shame since she knew his face definitely would be used as a way to promote his book, especially when his romance story was about a fluffy, warm love story.
Still, talking back and forth for a while, they fixed up the contract with Sonoko's laptop before they went to the nearby convenience store to print the contract, returned to the hotel, and then signed the contract.
With that, the two sighed in relief, but then Sonoko asked, "By the way, have you finished the next book?"
"I haven't written all of them, but about half of the story should be fine."
"Okay, let me see it first."
Mizuto thought that this woman was really a workaholic as they hadn't taken a single break after they entered the room, but it didn't matter, and he forwarded his manuscript to her email.
Sonoko had been itching to read the development of the love story between the protagonist and the president of the astronomy club, Asano Hikari.
Still, at the end of volume one of the novels, Akiyama Yuzuki, the protagonist's crush, suddenly made a confession to the protagonist, which made Sonoko wonder how the protagonist was going to answer the confession about his previous crush.
As expected, the protagonist softly rejected the confession of Akiyama Yuzuki, his previous crush, but as Sonoko read, she realized that the story had become quite different from what she had imagined. The warm, fluffy love between the protagonist and the president of the astronomy club didn't appear; instead, what was seen was how Akiyama and the protagonist became closer and closer until, in the end, he cheated on his girlfriend.
"...."
"Is there something wrong?"
Watching his confusion, Sonoko realized that Mizuto wasn't as innocent as he appeared to be.