As a mystery novel writer, although Hikigaya Hachiman had only published three novels so far, the honors he had received already exceeded those of almost ninety percent of his peers.
First of all, the Mystery Writers Association of Japan Award alone was an unattainable dream for countless mystery novelists, and Hachiman had won it less than a year after his debut. In addition, at the end of last year, he had unprecedentedly won first place on three major year-end lists: This Mystery Novel is Amazing!, the Weekly Bunshun Annual Mystery Novel Ranking, and the Honya Taishō, or Bookstore Award.
Even though he had won so many honors in such a short period, there were still some award committees that seemed unwilling to be left out, as if awarding Hikigaya Hachiman had become a required task.
The Honkaku Mystery Award?
Hachiman was reading an important email his assistant had selected for him. The message was from the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. He had heard about this association from Arisugawa before. Compared with other writers' associations in Japan, it was a relatively new organization, and the Honkaku Mystery Award they hosted was also a relatively young literary prize. (The term Honkaku refers to the "authentic" or "orthodox" school of Japanese mystery fiction, which emphasizes logical puzzles and fair-play clues for the reader.)
However, its youth did not mean it lacked value. In fact, through its excellent selection vision, the Honkaku Mystery Award had developed into a prize second only to the Edogawa Ranpo Award and the Mystery Writers Association Award in just over a decade.
The email from the association informed him that he had won this year's Honkaku Mystery Award and invited him to attend the award ceremony in early June.
I understand the reasoning, but why "Malice"? he thought, confused. This novel is a pure social mystery and has nothing to do with the "Honkaku" genre. He decided to call Mr. Arisugawa to ask.
"Haha, Hikigaya-kun, you're being too dogmatic," Arisugawa laughed when he heard the reason for the call.
"I'm still very curious, Mr. Arisugawa. Disintegration of the Causes is a pure orthodox mystery. Why did they choose Malice?"
"To put it bluntly, Hikigaya-kun, the Honkaku Mystery Award is just a name. It doesn't really only give prizes to orthodox novels. That wouldn't make it well-known. If you look through the winning works of previous years, you'll often see social mystery works winning," Arisugawa explained.
"I see... I understand now. Thank you for your answer, Mr. Arisugawa."
"To be honest, Hikigaya-kun, the mystery world is a little strange right now," Arisugawa continued. "It stands to reason that they shouldn't be giving you so many important awards so quickly, but that's what's happening. There is no doubt that the mystery world wants to create a god, and they are in urgent need of a new mystery writer who can lead the times. Right now, only you can be that person."
"Now that you put it that way, Mr. Arisugawa, I'm feeling a bit stressed."
"This is a good thing, Hikigaya-kun. As the saying goes, people are born from hardship and die in comfort. When everyone wants to push you to the throne, you can't refuse. All you can do is write better works to respond to their expectations. Your current achievements have reached a point where others can simply ignore your age." Arisugawa was determined to make him realize this: although he was only sixteen, the industry no longer regarded him as a child or a teenager. He would have to shoulder the high expectations of the entire mystery literature world.
The next day, the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club announced the winners of the latest Honkaku Mystery Awards on its official website. The most important novel category was won by Malice.
As soon as the news was released, Sakuraba Publishing House quickly organized an online publicity campaign, which also served as part of the promotion for The Clockwork Museum Incident in July. Hikigaya Hachiman himself asked his assistant to edit and send out a very formal tweet, which basically said he hadn't expected to win, thanked the association, and would work harder in the future.
"Writer Hachiman is incredible! He has won two major mystery awards in less than two years since his debut. He's on his way to becoming a literary god!" As expected, readers began heated discussions on the internet again, all feeling a sacred sense of witnessing history.
"These awards are too hasty. The Clockwork Museum Incident hasn't even been published yet. There won't be any awards left for it," some netizens expressed with regret, as literary awards are generally not awarded to the same author repeatedly.
"Next, Mr. Hachiman may be able to win some awards outside of mystery literature. Don't forget, he was nominated for the last Naoki Prize." "Winning the Naoki Prize for a mystery novel... that still seems a bit far-fetched." "Believe in Mr. Hachiman. He's a writer who can create miracles."
Netizens were full of confidence in him. In their eyes, Hachiman's career as a writer was a process of turning the impossible into reality.
"For the novel Malice itself, there isn't much room for sales growth," Naho Imamura revealed to Hachiman over the phone. "The publisher previously expected that the book would sell a total of 900,000 copies by July of this year, its first year after publication."
"Nine hundred thousand... isn't that a bit low?" Hachiman said with some dissatisfaction, remembering that Confessions had sold 1.5 million copies in one year.
Of course, this sales volume only seemed low when compared to his own work; in fact, it had crushed the vast majority of his fellow writers.
"Writer Hachiman, please don't say such things when you're out in public. People will be very jealous if they hear it," Naho Imamura said, shocked by his casual flexing, and hurriedly reminded him.
"Don't worry, Editor Imamura. I'm quite confident in my emotional intelligence," he replied, changing the subject. "By the way, the publishing house said they wanted to recommend you for the position of deputy editor-in-chief. How is that going?"
"Oh, that," she sneered. "They just gave me a symbolic raise. It's probably too early for me to be an associate editor. That's just how capitalists work." Of course, she hadn't had high expectations for the matter anyway.
"Is that so... But I heard from Editor Machida that after she helps writer Kasumi Shiko finish Love Metronome, she'll be promoted to deputy editor-in-chief immediately. The relevant procedures have apparently already been prepared."
"Don't compare our literary magazine with its long history to the light novel library that woman works for, Mr. Hachiman!" Naho Imamura's voice cracked. "I wouldn't even want a deputy editor-in-chief position like that!"
It was hard to tell how much of her voice was sincerity, and how much was a broken defense.
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