Chapter 991: The First Manuscript
Ok, so the plan to write those books remained unchanged, the only difference is that now I need to do some edits to the story to attract the people of this World instead.
Thankfully, my Shadow Guards should be able to adapt to whatever changes I make quite easily since they would be able to read my thoughts and memories.
For now, I decided to just go through with the current story as it is without doing much edits to it just to see how it would do if it was published like that.
As Eins had estimated, they finished writing the entire book in an hour and I got to work reading through the manuscript to do a quality check.
It took me the rest of the day to finish reading it and making the changes that I believe would improve the story.
By dinner time, I felt that it was finally ready so I brought it with me and handed it to Emilia while we were all having dessert.
Emilia looked at the stack of papers I had handed to her, "This is the story?"
"Yep~"
"May I read it?"
"That's why I brought this to you, silly~"
She gingerly flipped over the first page to read it while I took a scoop of the ice cream I was served to bring it to my mouth.
Mmmm!! So sweet~ So good~
"I wanna read it too!" Lisa cried out, scrambling over towards Emilia.
That seemed to set off the rest because Odeta, Delmare and Tiara all got up from their seats and rushed towards the Nekomata as well.
She almost got knocked out of her chair by the group but she managed to catch the edge of the table to hold herself steady.
But that meant that she lost her grip on my manuscript and the pages started to fall towards the ground.
Right as Emilia turned her head towards the falling manuscript, Katsuki had already appeared there and snatched the papers out of the air, keeping them in the same order and not letting a single page fall out from the stack.
"Please do treat Mistress's work with more respect, ladies," Katsuki admonished them before handing over the manuscript back to Emilia.
I did note that she remained behind her instead of returning to my side so I guess she was also interested in reading the story as well huh?
So cute~
Oh, there's some chocolate bits mixed into the ice cream! Delish~ Nom nom nom~
When my bowl was empty, a handkerchief appeared and started wiping my mouth, which was normal since Katsuki would do that all the time… Until I realised it was Mother that was doing that since Katsuki was currently occupied reading my story behind Emilia right now.
"Ufufufu~ Did my little one enjoy today's sweets?" She giggled.
I nodded, "They are as delicious as always~"
"Fufufu~ Speaking of which, has my little one decided to start writing?"
"Mnn… Is that alright?"
"Ara, ara? Of course it's alright, my little one~ Aren't you a cute one? Ufufufu~ Mother was just wondering if my little one might let Mama read your work too?"
"Eh? Of course, Mommy~"
I wonder why she would even ask that? Did she think that I was ashamed of showing it or something?
I mean… It's not like that book was one of my more raunchy ones and even if it was… I think it would just be considered normal here right? Considering how they view sex here…
Right as I thought of that, I suddenly heard sobbing coming from the side and I turned to see that my girls were crying as they read the manuscript in Emilia's hands. Even Katsuki looked like she was tearing up in the corner of her eyes.
Oh, I'm guessing that they must have reached the part where the main character's mentor sacrifices themselves to save the main character.
At least… That's what I believe they were crying about since they were still pretty early in the story judging by how many pages were left.
Honestly, I felt that I might have written that part a little too cliche but I had minimal complaints for that part of the story so I didn't change it.
Mother, of course, took notice of the girls, "Ara, ara? It seems like my little one's stories are that touching to them? Ufufufu~ Now Mama is curious~ But Mama will wait for her turn~"
I mean… The book is quite long so I don't think they will be able to finish it in one sitting… Unless she's planning to just take the parts that they have already read and read from there.
Well… More feedback is nice I suppose so I'll just leave it to them and wait to hear what they thought about it.
That's why I didn't think too much about it and just went back to eating my dessert and completely forgot about it.
So when the next morning came around…
I was quite abruptly woken from my sleep when I felt something jump on the same bed as me.
I scrambled back instinctively and raised up my hands defensively, only to stop when I realise that it was my girls all crowded in front of me with Emilia leading them, my manuscript clutched possessively in her chest.
"Aster!"
"Sister Aster!"
"Boss!!"
All of them called out at the same time, looking at me with wide eyes.
"""Where's the second part of the story?!"""
Ah… Right… This was supposed to be a trilogy and that manuscript was the first part so there's still part two and part three that I have yet to write.
I was thinking that if this first part was well received, I could then easily publish part two and maybe part three later and make use of the first book's popularity to boost the subsequent publications.
While the first book did have an ending of sorts, there was also a very obvious hint at the end that there was more to come so even if it did not do well and I didn't plan to continue with the second part, it still had a legitimate ending instead of just dropping on a cliffhanger.
But I guess the girls figured out that there was more to the story and they already finished reading it which is why we're here now…
Lisa gestured at the book, "What happened to Maril?! Did she actually get a miscarriage?! What about Tom?! Did he actually abandon her?!"
"Sister Aster!! Did Norman actually sleep with Cecilia? And why was Hela mad about it?" Odeta asked, pushing her face close to mine.
Delmare peeked from behind her back, "Was Hela actually abusing Norman? And what about her sister? Did she really betray her to get her disowned by her own family?"
Tiara pushed herself to the front, "Aster! What about Nami's business? Did she really succeed or did her alcoholic father ruin everything again?"
I realised Katsuki was standing by the side of the bed and refraining herself from joining them, but from how she was clutching her hands in front of her, I could tell that she was really holding herself back and had questions of her own as well.
Emilia finally managed to push the others off of her to reappear in front of her, "That's not the important thing right now!! Aster!! I'll start production on this right away!! I think this will be a huge hit!! Can I go ahead with its publication?!"
I blinked at the girls.
Ok, first of all… I didn't think they would actually be that invested in that story…
Especially since it's really a romance drama story and one of the main draws of it was the fact that the main lead was stuck in a love pentagon with four other girls, each of whom have their own relationship with either each other or were already involved with someone else.
To be honest, that premise was really over the top but for some reason my readers really liked the drama of the story which was what made it sell well.
But for them to like it this much…
"You really think it will sell?" I asked.
Emilia nodded her head vehemently, "Definitely!! Not only just with commoners but noble ladies would also want to read this too! They love these kinds of dramas!! If you would just allow some suggestions from me, though! Please don't publish the second part or any other book for at least a period of time!"
"""WHAT?!!""" The other girls screeched, all of them glaring at Emilia with murderous gazes.
She ignored them and continued, "We need to create anticipation for your works! If you publish too many at once, they will lose interest too quickly! We'll stretch it out as long as we can and only when the interest hits the peak, we'll release your second book and get the interest rolling again! This is the best way!"
Err… I don't know about that… But she's the business minded person here so I think I can trust her?
And girls… If you really want to know, I can just spoil you the story you know?
But I guess I'm really debuting as an author here sooner than I thought, huh?