CH 481

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it just so happened to be that the others had a lull in their conversation. Not to mention, a word like “cheated” would always be a sensitive one, which was why everyone heard what Miyabi said.

“My story didn’t cheat,” Seiji said helplessly. “There’s already an announcement on the internet from Thunderbolt Literature about it.”

He had already mentally prepared himself to receive some criticism.

Miyabi wanted to say something, but stopped herself.

“To be mentioning a word like cheated, could you be talking about ‘Brother Monogatari?'” an inquisitive voice asked them.

The person who spoke was the young man who appeared like a college student… his name tag said Koushi Nomura.

Seiji nodded at him.

“I know a bit about what happened with the judging process. That novel didn’t cheat at all. Just as the announcement on the internet said, it received an award based on its own merits. It’s actually quite amazing,” Nomura stated. “If it had been written in time to be formally submitted for the award contest, it definitely would have received the Gold Award rather than just a special award.”

“Thank you.” Seiji was rather surprised to hear someone defending him. “I’m quite happy to hear you saying so, Nomura-san… But saying that it could have received a Gold Award is an exaggeration.”

“It’s not too much at all, it’s the truth,” Nomura insisted. “‘Brother Monogatari’ is of even higher quality than the story that won the Gold Award.”

“Tsk!” A displeased sound came from behind them.

The sound came from the middle school boy… the name on his nametag said Shoutarou Rinura.

He was glaring at Nomura disgustedly with an expression that said, “Just who do you think you are, saying such a thing?”

“That’s the unanimous review by all the judges,” Nomura said as he looked in Rinura’s direction. “All the judges, without exception, stated that they believed ‘Brother Monogatari’ to be the best novel of the year’s batch, exceeding all other light novels submitted as candidates.”

When Nomura said this, not only did Rinura’s expression freeze over, everyone else was shocked as well.

The one-piece dress woman couldn’t help but ask, “All the judges, unanimously… is that really true?”

“That’s what I’ve heard. If it wasn’t for the fact that ‘Brother Monogatari’ was too late for the submissions, it would have definitely received a Gold Award rather than just a special award. A pity that it was written too late for the contest,” Nomura told her. “This story is truly amazing. It’s worthy of far more than simply a special award.”

The entire room fell silent for a moment upon hearing this.

“Nomura-san, how did you learn about all this?” Seiji asked him.

“I have a relative who works as an editor for Thunderbolt Literature. He was the one who told me,” Nomura replied.

‘Ah, so he knew someone on the inside.’

“Hmph… who knows if you’re lying or not,” Rinura growled in a low voice.

“It’s the truth, but it’s up to you whether to believe it or not, Gold Award winner Rinura-san.” Nomura identified Shoutarou Rinura as the Gold Award winner. “Your ‘The Undying Indestructible Avenger’ is pretty good as well, but it can’t compare to ‘Brother Monogatari.’ Especially the vocabulary aspect of your story is still quite immature. It’s easy to tell that the story was written by a middle schooler.”

The middle school boy’s face reddened slightly upon hearing this.

“So… so what!? Vocabulary isn’t really that important for light novels!”

“Yes, you could say that. That’s why your story was able to win the Gold Award.”

“Winning the Gold Award is the top prize! That means my story is the best! Not some ‘Brother Monogatari’ or whatever!!” Rinura raised his voice. “That story sounds like garbage simply from the title! It shouldn’t have even been made a candidate!”

“Hey,” Seiji spoke with an icy tone.

He didn’t use a loud voice or a particularly fierce tone. However, everyone could still feel his imposing manner simply with his “Hey.”

It was as if a sleeping lion had been awakened.

“If you have objections to my story, that’s your right to think that to yourself. However, don’t go around insulting my story in front of me,” Seiji said in a low voice. “Otherwise, I might just beat someone up.”

Shoutarou Rinura froze over completely.

Everyone else felt an almost tangible sense of pressure as well.

This was especially all the more so for Miyabi Ishihara. She recalled the rumors about Harano-san at Genhana High School along with his nicknames, which caused her heartbeat to quicken in a different way from before.

“Nomura-san, thank you for your recognition of my story. However, please don’t go around saying private things like that in public,” Seiji asked Nomura after giving a warning to Rinura.

Koushi Nomura nodded in understanding.

“I apologize… I said too much.” He apparently self-reflected on his words.

After that, silence fell in the room.

Seiji realized that he had made the atmosphere awkward after he calmed down, so he spoke up to break the ice again.

“I’m quite happy to be able to meet other authors here. There’s many things I’d like to discuss with you all… as long as it isn’t anything negative, any topic is fine,” he told them sincerely. “Since the host, Thunderbolt Literature, is having us award winners arrive early and wait here together, they probably intended to give us a chance to meet and talk with each other in the first place. Perhaps we might not all become friends, but chatting for a while should be fine, what do you all think?”

Several seconds of silence permeated the room.

“I’d love to chat with you, would that be alright? Harano-san.” Nomura was the first to respond.

“I… would like to talk about various things as well.” The one-piece dress woman, who was an author named Yuuko Hashimoto, was the next to speak.

“After hearing what Nomura-san said just now, I’ve become quite curious as to what this ‘Brother Monogatari’ story is about,” the office worker author, whose nametag said Shousei Maishi, spoke up as well.

Seiji smiled in response to the authors that showed friendliness towards him.

And so, he successfully managed to thaw the atmosphere.

When Saki Yoshizawa arrived to notify the award winners that it was time to join the award ceremony, she saw that everyone in the waiting room was chatting amicably, with Seiji at the obvious center.

The Gold Award winner, Shoutarou Rinura, seemed to be the only one left alone, isolated. He was simply busy looking at his cell phone.

The female editor wasn’t surprised by such a scene at all.

Thunderbolt Literature had always arranged for the award-winning authors to wait together before the award ceremony. The objective was to have the newcomer authors meet with and exchange ideas with each other.

While there were a few who wanted to do away with this arrangement entirely, and there were others that wanted to increase or shorten the time, or even add one or two editors to oversee the situation with the authors, this was currently how it was.

This method indeed helped to improve friendship amongst the newcomer authors, while it also occasionally generated enmities. Of course, there were also completely ordinary instances where nothing happened at all. At any rate, each batch of newcomers had completely different personalities, so the result would always be different.

Since Seiji’s novel was under some controversy, normally speaking, he would be the one singled out and isolated by the others. However, Saki wasn’t worried about him at all. The result was just as she expected: not only was he not isolated, he even became the center of the conversation.

As for the Gold Award winner, Shoutarou Rinura being all by himself… she didn’t find that strange, either. Although Rinura’s novel won the Gold Award, he was a middle school student who preferred being by himself to begin with. It was normal that he wouldn’t be able to get along well with a crowd of older authors.

“Apologies for the wait. Everyone, please follow me.”

Saki led everyone to the banquet hall and explained the upcoming process to them as they waited outside.

At this moment, they could hear many people talking in the banquet hall before someone spoke into a microphone and asked for silence.

“Thunderbolt Literature’s Eighteenth Annual Newcomer Authors’ Award Ceremony shall now commence!” the male announcer for the ceremony spoke in a loud and clear voice.

“First, please welcome our seven award-winning authors!” a clear and pleasant voice of the female announcer spoke next.

Saki indicated to Seiji and the others that they should enter now.

Many people were currently standing inside. When the award-winning authors entered and walked up to the stage, everyone began clapping for them!