Chapter 43
Translator: True Detective
Entries That Don't Even Compare to a Fairy Tale
Winter, the season of reading.
If you ask why it's winter and not autumn, the circumstances of the times are like that.
In autumn, people are dying of busyness with harvests and what not, so where is the time to leisurely read a book.
That is not much different for nobles either.
Collecting taxes, taking care of the territory's people getting through the winter, it's a grueling period preparing this and that for winter, not a time to leisurely read a book or something.
Anyway, when that busy autumn passes and winter comes, now it becomes difficult to do outside activities even if you want to.
What those cooped up in their houses to avoid the cold will do is obvious.
Enduring the boring winter while reading a book at least.
Therefore, naturally, as outside activities decrease, the demand for new works increases dramatically in winter.
In line with that increasing demand, the Empire's largest literature contest sponsored by the Imperial Arts Academy is held in the winter.
The Aurelion Golden Tablet Literature Award.
In line with that most prestigious contest, many literary figures submit their works at the end of the year.
That was no different this year, but an atmosphere slightly different from previous years was being staged.
"This is a bit... serious."
Robert Burton, who was examining the contest entries as one of the judges of the contest this year, muttered with a wrinkle as deep as a valley on his glabella.
His gaze looking at the entries was exactly like the gaze of a professor looking at university freshmen.
A gaze wondering how the level of the freshmen drops as the years go by.
He had many things he wanted to say, but still just let it go thinking that submitting to the contest like this itself was a commendable thing.
Because the contest entries had meaningfully decreased compared to last year.
What more needs to be said about what that reason was.
It was all because those who claimed to write somewhat decently were influenced by Homer and took their eyes off towards writing entertainment novels or devising comic stories.
It means that because of the timing, there were quite a few who judged that it was difficult to participate in the contest while writing an entertainment novel and preparing a comic story, and boldly gave up on the contest.
Robert could not withhold a sigh at how lamentable this was.
'Is the literature of the Empire truly falling to the ground like this...'
Those who considered writing commercial novels a disgrace and reluctantly picked up the pen for the public's entertainment due to hardships of life suddenly began writing entertainment novels without hesitation at some point.
There would be no need to even mention what that trigger was.
Homer's success.
Seeing Homer, who not only earned a lot of money but achieved a success akin to a grandmaster who created the new culture called comics, the number of people following blindly increased dramatically.
There is a concerning indicator to call it a temporary phenomenon.
The ratio of established authors who participated in the contest this year itself is the same.
However, the participation of newcomer authors decreased.
'Meaning that the talents who will develop and lead the Empire's literature in the future have come to prioritize things like entertainment novels.'
Robert sank into sorrow thinking that this was a truly serious issue, beyond simply the entries decreasing.
There had often been years when entries were scarce.
However, this was the first time the participation of newcomers dreaming of making a debut was this low.
It could just be a coincidence, but because of the incident in the Imperial Capital a while ago, he couldn't erase the thought that it was the result of the literary circles being tainted by commerce.
Therefore, this contest could be said to be important, but... works that caught Robert's eye simply didn't appear.
Honestly he didn't want to admit it, but── they couldn't even compare to the new fairy tale The Little Candy Girl written by Author Homer.
Even if you swear at it and criticize it, you have to read it first and do so.
With that single thought, setting aside whether he liked them or not, Robert read all the works that came out under Homer's name.
The Little Candy Girl was no exception either.
Reading that fairy tale, Robert received a shock.
Unlike Homer's fairy tales, which were always overflowing with dreams, hopes, and lessons, The Little Candy Girl, which was a heavy and tragic story, made him doubt whether this was really written by Author Homer.
Since Author Homer's unique feel was imbued in it, he wasn't suspecting ghostwriting or anything like that, but the atmosphere of the work was on a different level from existing Homer's stories to that extent.
A time not long after the Empire pacified the chaotic turbulent times and grasped hegemony over the continent.
A time of disorder when the central power and administration had not yet spread to every corner of the Empire.
Amidst that chaos, there existed criminals who filled their own bellies in the blind spots of the law and administration.
Meaning that trash running 'businesses', not charity, using war orphans were rampant.
The protagonist of the fairy tale, the little girl Nina, was also a child doing work under the name of living in such an orphanage.
The labor given to her was precisely selling a basket of candies.
To meet that quota, the little girl had to work from morning until late at night.
Because on days she couldn't do so, when she couldn't sell all the candies and returned to the orphanage, the director's beatings and verbal abuse were waiting.
Moreover, on days she couldn't properly sell the candies, saying the orphanage's finances were bad, children even younger than Nina had to endure while clutching their hungry stomachs.
The little girl Nina suffering from a heavy sense of responsibility and harsh labor at a young age.
That day was a particularly cold winter.
Even so, the orphanage director didn't dress Nina warmly and send her out, saying looking scantily clad evokes sympathy and sells better.
Nina, who went out to sell candies almost as if being chased out, wearing only thin clothes putting the winter cold to shame.
It's stating the obvious, but she had to figure out her own meals while selling candies.
On days she sold candies well and even received tips, she could at least fill her stomach, but on days she couldn't like today, she had no choice but to endure clutching her hungry stomach.
「Buy candies. They are sweet candies.」
It's cold, hungry, and exhausting.
It was a day when the candies simply weren't selling.
No, not just today, but candies were selling less and less as days went by lately.
Without knowing the reason for that, Nina struggled more to meet her quota.
At least a noble gentleman was about to buy some candies for her, but...
「Sir, that is...」
「Hmm? Hmm...」
After hearing something from the accompanying attendant, he frowned and just walked away.
In the end, night came without her being able to sell even a single candy.
The streets were dark, it was even snowing, and the presence of people was cut off.
Ordinary pedestrians gradually disappeared, and groups that looked of bad quality began to wander around.
Even amidst that, Nina wanted to somehow sell candies, clutching her hungry stomach while terrified of the cold to the point where she could barely feel sensations in her body.
She was on guard wondering if robbers might steal the candies by any chance, but whether it was fortunate or what, the groups of bad quality only glanced at Nina selling candies and didn't even approach her.
「Let's rest... just a little.」
Amidst that, Nina, who had reached her limit, crouched down in an alley and tried to warm her hands that were frozen red by blowing on them.
Then suddenly, the candies she couldn't sell a single one of caught her eye.
「I want to eat one...」
Needless to say how much children like sweetness.
So Nina's lifelong wish was to eat candies to her heart's content.
Ironically, while going around selling candies, Nina herself had never actually eaten a candy, something sweet.
「What on earth is it like to be sweet?」
Because she was too cold and exhausted, she wanted to eat something sweet very much.
However... she couldn't eat it.
She shouldn't eat it.
Because if she did, she would be caught by the director who meticulously managed even a single piece of candy and get beaten soundly.
Actually, there was a child who couldn't hold back because they wanted to eat a candy so much, touched the merchandise they were supposed to sell, and...
「How dare you?」
Was beaten right to the brink of death.
「Look closely, everyone! This is what happens when you do 'bad things'!」
Due to that violence, the child became lame in the leg, and ended up going around begging instead of selling candies.
The orphanage director ordered it, saying they became good at begging because they were a cripple.
Nina clearly remembered the sight of the child beaten to death in front of everyone.
So she had never touched the merchandise no matter how hard it was normally, but today was different.
Joyful and happy laughter could be heard from beyond the thin glass window.
The sight of children rejoicing while eating the warm food their parents made for them.
At that sight so different from herself, who was cold and hungry, Nina eventually did something she normally wouldn't do.
Nina peeled one candy and put it in her mouth.
「So this is what it means to be sweet...」
A candy eaten for the first time in her life.
Sweetness felt for the first time.
When 'candy' entered her empty stomach, Nina's self-control broke.
Just one.
Saying she would only eat exactly one was a lie as she ate more candies.
Then──.
「I'm sleepy...」
The little girl Nina fell asleep hugging her knees.
Snow piling up softly over such a little girl.
Like that, a pitiful life departed to God's side.
And the candies the little girl ate before dying like that.
There was a high possibility that those candies were also... not actually real candies.
Considering it was a time when sugar was more precious than now, was what the little girl sold really a candy made of sugar?
Was it really a candy that tasted properly sweet?
Such doubts naturally arose.
Moreover, it was also strange that no one bought the candies the little girl was selling, and that the ruffians didn't rob the candies the little girl was selling either.
Considering those points, there was a high possibility that those candies weren't real candies, but fake candies that were bad for health, not even food.
They were probably made like candies by adding harmful substances.
A little girl who, without even knowing that, ate a fake candy while freezing to death in the cold after suffering from forced child labor.
No, the little girl Nina who ate something no different from poison while her condition was already not good.
It might not have been a big problem if she had been in a healthy state, but the little girl wasn't.
Trembling in the cold, that toxicity entering her empty stomach took away the little girl's consciousness.
Making her lose consciousness and collapse on the snow in the cold winter.
Even the sweet taste she tasted in the final moment of her life wasn't real.
The overly tragic and heartbreaking story had a different texture from existing Homer's works.
Even The Bridges of Imperium Town could be similarly called a sad ending, but even that is at the level of a happy ending compared to The Little Candy Girl.
So those who first encountered The Little Candy Girl ended up pouring tears endlessly, feeling their sympathy hacked to pieces along with shock.
Sponsorships and donations towards orphanages and children exploded, and that is still continuing even now.
Not only that?
A massive operation to wipe out criminal organizations was implemented, and the extreme penalty was specifically handed down to criminals who exploited children.
It means countless helping hands were pouring out towards marginalized children.
It seemed this craze caused by The Little Candy Girl wouldn't end at least before this cold winter passed.
And Robert was incredibly displeased by the fact that an author capable of writing a text that causes a social phenomenon to that extent was active at the forefront of peripheral pleasure, of commerce and entertainment like comics entirely, going beyond just entertainment novels.
This was not just at the level of a waste of talent or something, but it seemed like mocking literature with overflowing talent.
Of course, the person involved had no such intention at all, but things like this are originally up to interpretation anyway.
Don't they say interpretation is better than the dream.
At least that's how Robert Burton felt it, and so he considered it all the more insolent.
If she had this much literary talent, she should use her strength for the righteous path, so how could she go down this evil──no, deviant path.
He wished a high-level literary work that could reverse this flow would lead the trend...
"Is the newcomer side completely wiped out at this rate?"
Robert, sighing and picking up the last newcomer entry.
"Hmm, Anna Moore. The Oblige of Deception? Wonder what content it will be."
He, who began reading without much expectation, soon experienced his jaw dropping wide open.
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