Kingdom of Ice
Kingdom of Ice
Swish.
The metal pen glided lightly across the manuscript paper, its panels divided according to the storyboard.
Unlike the previous drawings, the lines—thin at times, thick at others rather than a uniform width—proved far better at conveying a sense of life in the artwork.
"Excellent. To create a pen with this kind of feel is truly remarkable."
The metal artisan's face brightened at my praise. They had looked anxious until I tried the pen, but finally smiled once I said I was satisfied.
"As you suggested, rather than using lead alone, I mixed it with steel at a fixed ratio, which resolved the strength issue."
Lead alone was too soft and broke quickly, so mixing in steel had solved the problem.
Easy to think of, but getting the ratio right was anything but easy.
After countless trials and errors, the metal pen—known as the G-Pen—was born.
'Honestly, with just a G-Pen, you can draw an entire manga.'
Among renowned manga artists, so many use only the G-Pen that it's both the foundation and the core of manga pens. Now that I had it in hand, the game was as good as over.
With this, I could express any kind of line. All that remained was my own skill—and honestly, I was overflowing with confidence in that.
'This is no different from handing Lü Bu his Red Hare.'
Now the manga paper and the tools were all complete. All that remained was the work of transferring the storyboard I had already made onto the manuscript paper.
I focused on the manuscript again and began to draw.
***
Recently, a public enemy had emerged among the merchants.
"Those damned Yuren bastards—they've got no business ethics whatsoever!"
The culprit was none other than the Yuren Merchant Company. They had shown up with the new cultural product called the picture book, used it as bait, and snatched away the nobles who were their key customers—a truly underhanded business tactic.
'My lord Count, why the sudden termination of our contract....'
'Sorry, but you can't procure picture books for me, can you?'
Because they granted the right to purchase picture books only to the nobles with whom they had existing business relationships, a great number of nobles switched their accounts to the Yuren Merchant Company.
The merchant companies that suffered losses because of this gnashed their teeth and tried to produce and sell copies of the picture books.
'Copy the work of an artist who received an imperial commendation? Are you insane?!'
But even that was blocked when they somehow buttered up the imperial family and brought out a commendation plaque—infuriating and utterly detestable.
"Still, there isn't much time left until the plan we prepared is complete."
The Vera Merchant Company was one of the empire's Seven Great Merchant Companies, just like Yuren. Jax, manager of its capital branch, was speaking to the company head, Vera.
Vera's lips curled upward at Jax's words.
"Yes, it took longer than expected, but we've finally managed to produce a picture book of our own."
If copying the picture books outright was the problem, then the shift in thinking was to create a picture book with entirely new content from the start.
To that end, the Vera Merchant Company had recruited painters known for their skill and storytellers, and set up a picture book production plan.
Of course, there had been plenty of trial and error at first. No matter how hard they tried, the quality of the art couldn't match Rupert's, and the stories were lacking as well.
After repeated revisions and attempts, they had finally produced a picture book that was still well behind Rupert's in quality but at least worth reading.
Its release was now just around the corner.
Of course, they couldn't expect a dramatic effect all at once, so they had to start by taking a little bit of market share at a time.
As time went on, the quality would gradually improve, and later they might even produce better picture books.
"Just wait, Esteban. I'll pay you back for this humiliation."
Vera had a deep inferiority complex toward Esteban, head of the Yuren Merchant Company.
Compared to Esteban, who was regarded as a monster for raising the Yuren Merchant Company—originally a small or mid-sized company—into one of the Seven Great Merchant Companies,
Despite inheriting a Vera Merchant Company that had once stood at the very top of the Seven Great Merchant Companies, Vera had watched it decline until it was now merely one of the seven. That fact gnawed at him.
In such a situation, Vera was not the type to sit idly by while even his own customers were stolen away by the Yuren Merchant Company using picture books as bait.
'This is the first step toward reclaiming the position of the empire's greatest merchant company.'
Just imagining Esteban flying into a rage at the sight of the released picture book brought a smile to his face.
"C-Company Head!!!"
"What's all the fuss! How can a merchant be so lacking in composure—tsk."
Vera clicked his tongue at the employee who had burst into his office without even knocking. How frivolous—what could possibly be so urgent?
"Well... the Yuren Merchant Company and the imperial family have jointly published a new work!"
"A new work?"
"They call it a manga volume."
A manga? What kind of book was that supposed to be? Unease crept over Vera. Their trump card—the new picture book—had not even launched yet, and suddenly Yuren had another new product.
And the fact that it was released jointly with the imperial family was deeply irritating.
"Go get that manga volume thing at once!"
"Yes, understood!"
He felt as though the unease would not fade until he found out exactly what it was.
Vera barely managed to calm his anxious heart as he waited for the employee who had gone to fetch the newly released manga volume.
'Please, let it be nothing....'
***
"How fascinating. Don't you think so?"
"...Indeed it is, Your Highness."
Imperial Princess Iolin Bell kept exclaiming in admiration as she looked through the copy of <Kingdom of Ice> in her hands.
For one thing, this manga volume was smaller than the picture books, so it fit in one hand, making it easy to read and convenient to carry.
Unlike picture books, whose long blocks of prose were difficult for people who couldn't read, this book consisted mostly of short lines of dialogue and was much easier to follow.
It was easy enough that even commoners could read it with just a little learning, so it was perfectly suited as an introductory text for learning letters.
"And despite that, the story has the grandeur of a heroic epic about overcoming a crisis."
Usually, when only simple words were used, the content tended to become light as well—but this manga volume was different.
The reason was none other than the pictures.
Every page of the book, aside from simple explanations and dialogue, was entirely made up of drawings—a truly wondrous book.
'What in the world kind of book is this?'
When she first received the finished product, she had been bewildered. But soon enough, she found herself completely absorbed in the manga volume.
The drawings seemed as if the characters were alive and moving. Moreover, the panels were divided so naturally that the story flowed along wherever her gaze went.
It was so vivid that she could almost believe the protagonists of <Kingdom of Ice> were alive before her eyes.
The spectacular magical battles were so vivid that they seemed to turn imagination itself into reality.
'This... is entertaining.'
Even Aiton, the head steward who usually complained to the princess that the amount of funding Rupert and the head of the Yuren Merchant Company had taken was excessive, became absorbed in reading the manga volume the moment he saw it, too busy to think of anything else.
The princess was equally satisfied. The previous picture books had certainly been beautiful stories, but they had lacked a certain thrill.
This, however, was content that suited her tastes exactly.
"How utterly refreshing—Hanna punching that man in the face, and Elza, whom I thought was dead, coming back to life and giving him what he deserved—truly entertaining!"
When Hans, whom she had taken for a good man, betrayed them, her blood had boiled. But watching Elza and Hanna take their satisfying revenge afterward sent a thrill of pleasure through her whole body.
The princess had noticed that Rupert's books made her emotions swing unusually hard, but she enjoyed them too much to care.
"Aiton, increase the production volume of this book beyond what was planned."
"Your Highness, the amount already planned is quite substantial."
"I sense potential in this book. I want to give the people of the empire a wider opportunity to learn not only letters but also right from wrong through this book."
Aiton saw the princess's serious expression and decided to follow her will.
She had shown some unreliable behavior lately, but when the princess wore that expression, she always made astonishing judgments that exceeded his expectations—truly the bearing of a sovereign.
In that case, his duty was simply to follow her orders and help her intentions reach the people properly.
'Still, no matter what, those fellows are not at all trustworthy.'
He remembered the face of the company head who had walked away with the imperial funding he approved, and irritation flared again.
There was certainly nothing wrong with the itemized statement, but he couldn't shake the unpleasant feeling that he had been taken for a fool.
Even so, since he had to order an increase in production, he would have to meet with him again.
***
"Elza...."
The Third Imperial Prince, Edric, sat in his residence, staring blankly at a single book for a long while.
This strange new thing called manga had supposedly been made on his elder sister's orders. He had picked it up merely to see what it was, but it had affected him far more than expected.
Honestly, when he had seen the picture books before, they had merely been intriguing, so he had picked this up lightly, thinking it would be the same.
But strangely, the female lead, the character named Elza, kept coming to mind.
A blonde woman with her hair tied back, cursed by an ice witch and burdened with a lonely past.
Yet the process by which she refused to be bound by that curse or her past and ultimately became a hero who saved the kingdom from crisis resonated deeply even with him, the Third Imperial Prince.
Until now, the opposite sex had been something that stirred up unnecessary emotions, interfering with cool-headed judgment.
But if it were Elza, he suddenly thought, perhaps it would be all right to be with her.
He opened the book once more and looked at the scenes where Elza appeared.
Thump.
He felt his heartbeat.
She seemed almost alive inside the pages of the manga.
Her expressions, her movements—didn't everything about her feel alive?
Elza... Elza... Elza... The name kept circling in his head.
He felt sorry for this woman, so strong yet so delicate. Her younger sister Hanna had found true love, but why did this woman have no destined partner?
It was unjust.
Edric thought that this woman, who had so splendidly overcome hardship and adversity, was someone who deserved happiness.
Then, suddenly, he imagined himself at her side.
It was winter.