Kingdom of Ice
Kingdom of Ice
"I knew you wouldn't let this opportunity slip, Master Rupert."
Esteban, the merchant company head who had been waiting for me outside the imperial palace, laughed heartily and was delighted when he heard about my conversation with the imperial princess.
This man had definitely lost his mind. I was about to get dragged into a literacy campaign I'd never asked for, so what was there to laugh about?
"This isn't the time to be laughing. The scale of this has suddenly gotten way too big."
No joke—since imperial funds were involved, if I skimmed money and got caught, it'd be off with my head.
Even if the results were mediocre, whether I lived or died could be decided by the Emperor's mood that day. It was a precarious situation.
"There's no need to worry about that. Since it's a public-interest project with no real profit anyway, why not hand all the credit—and the blame—to Her Highness?"
Oh, that's plausible. So I just sketch out the initial plan, dump the rest on the princess, and pretend I don't know anything?
If the princess took the lead, even a failure would be packaged as imperial benevolence. It really was a good idea.
"Moreover, since this is a project run by the imperial family, the only uncertainty is how effective it will be. What's certain is that picture books will be distributed far more widely than now, isn't it?"
"That's true."
"In that case, the environment might be created to try that 'thing' we discussed last time."
At Esteban's words, I finally remembered the 'merchandise' business we had discussed in the past.
A business plan to make and sell symbolic items from the picture books—for example, glass slippers, or the queen's mirror, or the dresses the protagonists wore.
But that plan had been scrapped, and the reason was none other than a lack of demand.
Unlike picture books, those items all had to be handcrafted in small quantities, which drove prices up too high and took too long, making them commercially unviable.
On the other hand, mass production would only allow sales to a portion of noble young ladies, and the cost of setting up mass-production facilities would make the tail wag the dog.
"My Zhang Zifang! My Zhuge Liang! As expected of the company head!!!"
I marveled at the company head's wisdom in casually turning the imperial family's outrageous bullying of a small fry like me into a money-making opportunity.
I wanted to hug him and plant a kiss on him, but his look of utter revulsion forced me to let him go.
"I don't know who Zhang Zifang or Zhuge Liang are, but anyway, I think this is a great opportunity for our business to expand."
Right. There was no need to make a profit from distributing the books themselves.
We could leave the literacy campaign to the princess and spread the books as widely as possible, as long as we didn't lose money on them.
The profits could come from merchandise.
This was the core of the free-to-play model that had swept South Korea's gaming industry.
Make the game free, draw in lots of children, then get those kids to spend their five- or ten-thousand-won allowances on in-game purchases—a truly diabolical business tactic.
I could practically hear gold coins jingling in my ears. This venture smelled like a winner.
I discussed with the company head which products to release as merchandise and prepared to return to the territory.
***
"Rupert, why didn't you draw the next part?"
After finishing the eventful business at the imperial palace, I had finally returned home and was about to enjoy a sweet rest.
My plans were ruined by my father, who suddenly grabbed me and wouldn't let go.
My unfinished manuscript in my father's hand.
'Ah, that's Kingdom of Ice.'
It was one of the candidate works from the period before I made The Little Mermaid, when I hadn't yet decided on a follow-up.
It wasn't a picture book, but it was inspired by one of the animated works that had become a worldwide hit. I knew it was entertaining, so I'd tried adapting it, but—
'It really doesn't suit the picture book format.'
Other works had started as picture books and later been adapted into animation, but Kingdom of Ice had been an animated work from the outset.
In short, turning it into a picture book would halve its charm, so I had shoved the unfinished manuscript aside. And somehow he found it.
"Father, you're not Ada. What are you doing barging into my studio like this?"
"That's not—no, I didn't come in on purpose."
"Give that here. I need to rest now."
I snatched the unfinished manuscript from my father's hand and headed to my room.
From behind me, I heard my father's voice desperately asking, "What happens next, Rupert?" but I dismissed it as an auditory hallucination.
'Come to think of it, this is the first time Father has shown interest in my manuscript.'
As I entered my room and lay down on the bed, I felt something strange.
Ada I could understand, but Father had only ever looked at picture books and said things like "The art is beautiful!" He had never reacted like this.
Of course, all the picture books I made were works for young girls, so that was only natural.
But I wondered why he had reacted that way to Kingdom of Ice.
The conclusion was adventure and magic. Aren't those the elements men go crazy for?
Come to think of it, one of the reasons the original was such a massive hit was that people of all ages and genders could enjoy it. The potential of this work really was tremendous.
A work that could capture male readers I hadn't drawn in before—and even adult readers.
'But it'll be hard as it is now.'
I had given up on it precisely because the picture book genre couldn't fully capture the charm of Kingdom of Ice. I needed a new approach.
Adventure, magic, and cool battle scenes.
This was a work that needed to emphasize dynamic visuals.
"Wait, if I connect this to the method for lowering the illiteracy rate..."
A good idea suddenly came to mind. A work from my previous life that had played a groundbreaking role in teaching children to read.
'Burn! Fire!'
This manga-format book had gained sensational popularity even though it was based on Chinese characters that children hated.
They hated the characters because they were hard, but when combined with action battles, they became interesting.
"The original Kingdom of Ice was an animation from the start, so it suits a manga volume far better than a picture book."
Moreover, manga used mostly short lines of dialogue, making it much easier to read than picture books whose stories were written in prose.
If I turned the unfinished Kingdom of Ice into a manga volume and distributed it widely, it would also be much better as a book for illiterate people to learn from.
In particular, while the picture books so far had been made for young children, manga volumes had the advantage of appealing even to adults.
"If I'm going to do that, there's a lot to prepare."
This was where I needed help from the company head and the artisans.
Unlike picture books, manga volumes were a completely different type of book, so I needed different tools and materials from what I had used so far.
As inspiration struck, the urge to create the work right away surged up.
I opened the drawer beside my bed, took out a stored Vitality Potion, and downed it in one shot.
The amazing effect wiped away all of today's fatigue!
I immediately prepared to get to work and rushed out of the room.
***
"So the grip is made of wood, and the ink flows out through this strange metal nib at the tip."
A metal artisan who understood perfectly even from my garbled explanation. I nodded to confirm that the explanation was correct.
"With this method, drawing thinner lines should be much easier than with a quill pen. However, the durability...."
Even I only knew the appearance of the metal pens I used in my previous life—especially the G-Pen and spoon pen, the most basic tools for drawing manga—but not their structure or principles, so I had only explained roughly.
Yet the artisan grasped the mechanism in an instant and even identified its drawbacks.
'It's true that G-Pens and spoon pens wear out quickly even though they're metal.'
But they were essential tools for drawing manga. Unlike picture books, if line weight couldn't be expressed, manga lost its vitality.
Manga that lost its vitality became such a mess that it was painful to read, so I absolutely had to make them.
While the metal artisan received his special mission and fell into deep thought, the paper artisan was now struggling with my mission.
"For the inner pages, recycled paper should work well enough, but making the cover out of paper—this is something."
Unlike picture books, where you turn pages one by one to read text and view illustrations, manga volumes are books you flip through quickly.
In other words, if the cover was made of leather like now, portability would suffer and it would be hard to read.
There's a reason all manga volumes on Earth are made of paper.
But this other world, unlike Earth, had no paper suitable for covers, so this part also had to be newly developed.
"What about using the sap of the 'cassava tree' for that?"
"Why didn't I think of that? Right, there was that method."
The leather artisan, who had been watching the paper artisan struggle, suggested the method used to coat leather, and the paper artisan reacted like Newton discovering gravity.
"Cassava tree?"
"Yes, Master Rupert. It only grows in the southern regions. The sap is sticky, but it doesn't cling to your hands, and when you apply it to leather, the leather absorbs it and becomes smooth."
Leather smoothed that way repelled raindrops and retained its luster for a long time, so it was a widely used material.
"To apply that directly to paper, we'd need to research the ratios and timing, so it would require a bit more budget than expected...."
"You don't need to worry about the budget."
"Pardon?"
At my saying there was no need to worry about the budget, all the artisans stared at me in shock.
Why were they so surprised?
"The imperial family will cover the research costs for this book anyway, so don't worry and focus solely on producing the best results while using materials freely."
This was clearly work for the imperial campaign to eradicate illiteracy, so I could simply hand the bill to the imperial family.
Just wait, Emperor. I'll repay my family's grudge with this one.
The artisans, who finally understood my words, excitedly began discussing among themselves which materials to use.
Clank.
Then everyone's gaze turned at the sound of the door closing.
"Wait, why did the door close by itself?"
Rattle!
The artisans, puzzled by the suddenly closed door, tried to open it again, but it was firmly fixed as if blocked by something and wouldn't budge.
"For your information, no one can leave this place until a satisfactory product is produced."
"Master Rupert!!!"
"Now, instead, I've brought a box of the Alchemy Guild's new Vitality Potions in advance! Let's all do our best!!!"
Today, too, cheerful harmonies rang through the studio—mostly high-pitched ones, but who cared? I wanted to finish the manga volume as soon as possible.