Novelist Running Through Time
Chapter 34

TL: KSD

Books are a peculiar commodity.

Even if produced at the same cost, the volume of sales can vary dramatically depending on how the ink inside is arranged.

Even if the content is good, if it goes against the trend or the flow of time, sales plummet. Thus, creating books is a battle with ‘uncertainty’.

Therefore, Kim Sang-guk, the head of Baekhak Publishing’s publishing division, was someone who dealt with the invisible.

And through the recent meeting, he was certain. He recognized the intangible aura surrounding the boy, and the level of knowledge and talent embedded in his way of speaking.

‘A gem.’

Not a raw stone that needs someone’s cutting but a gem that is already shining, complete. That was Author Moon, in the eyes of Director Kim Sang-guk.

Selling a stone as a fake gem is difficult. Turning a raw stone into a gem is also hard. But selling a gem is very easy.

And in this field, performance is indeed a weapon.

‘Lim Yang-wook, that bastard, has got a weapon out of his league.’

A stray dog has already bitten its owner.

So, what is there to do? A dog that bites its owner must be boiled.

Of course, after carefully securing the pearl necklace around the dog’s neck.

‘How shall I cook this…’

A seemingly kind smile fluttered around the lips of Director Kim Sang-guk as he walked down the dark corridor.

EP 3- Magic Sword~nim, please control me!

When I woke up, it was still dawn.

Lately, I’ve been waking up unusually early.

It’s not that my sleeping place is uncomfortable.

It’s my heart that is uncomfortable.

“Ugh…”

New Light Spring Orphanage houses four people per room. Besides me, there are three other kids in this room. I quietly left the dormitory so as not to wake my roommates.

Checking the wall clock, it’s around 5:30 AM. Wearing slippers with holes, I went out to the yard. The dawn dew collected on the grass tickled my feet through the holes in my slippers.

The sky was full of the light of dawn. It’s difficult to lump the color of the dawn sky into one. The dark blue night sky is gradually pushed away by the crimson glow of dawn. At that boundary, a radiant dawn light crosses the sky. It’s something that can only be described as the light of dawn.

All my senses were dyed with the dawn. The scent of a light rain that fell at dawn tickled the tip of my nose, and what touched my skin was the cool air of dawn, the sensation that tickled my feet was also the dawn dew on the grass, and what reached my ears was the sound of the city slowly waking up to the dawn.

This is why people become sentimental at dawn.

And such sentimentality was the greatest asset of a novelist.

Unlike usual, I sat on the stump in the orphanage yard, lost in thought.

“Ah, life…”

Those were thoughts about me, about Gu Yubin, about my past or even my future.

Meeting Gu Yubin at the broadcasting station gave me a realization. The surge of emotion that overflowed the moment I saw her was the biggest evidence.

I am trapped in the past.

The reason I do not favor public attention is not because of pure art or popular art as Kim Byul mentioned.

I was harboring resentment without even knowing it. Resentment towards people who turned their backs on me when I was most in agony, and now worship me simply because I am young.

“Life is…”

I thought I had left everything behind.

Maybe not.

Everything that meant something to me lies beyond the reaches of time.

Love, friendship, sorrow, grief.

Everything I had earnestly confronted lies beyond.

Now, all that remains is writing.

The only thing I truly own is my writing.

That thought occurs to me.

Then, am I nothing but a writing machine?

“Are you feeling full of yourself?”

“Isn’t that too harsh? Ma hyung?”

The response I got from Ma Ki-hoon when I casually shared my concerns over breakfast at the New Light Spring Orphanage cafeteria was ridiculous.

Of course, I didn’t speak of my concerns directly. It would have been treated as a fictional story. Since I couldn’t explain the distortion of time, the question was slightly altered.

Ironically, by turning the real question into a fake one, I was able to distill the essence of my worries. To get the answer to the real question through a fake one, the core of the question had to be the same.

The point is this:

“How can I fully own my life?”

Ma Ki-hoon looked straight at me.

Then he opened his mouth.

“Hey, Moon~ssi.”

“Yes?”

“Stop the nonsense and just eat your food.”

* * *

“That’s a difficult question…”

Baek Seol was sitting in the driver’s seat because she was taking me to Baekhak Arts Middle School.

She volunteered to be my driver, not as a road manager of Baekhak Entertainment, but because she believed that someone close needed to take care of my mental health.

Soon, when I get a studio near the school and live there while commuting, Baek Seol will be my temporary road manager until then.

Out of gratitude for her dedication, I didn’t arrogantly sit in the backseat but sat in the passenger seat instead, and thanks to that, we had book discussions in the car on our way to school every morning.

Today, the book discussion turned into a personal consultation.

So, Baek Seol continued the conversation quite naturally without any embarrassment.

“Is that why you’re also hesitant about appearing in variety shows and shooting commercials?”

“After giving it some thought, that seems to be the case. My parents not being around isn’t because of something I did, so I don’t think it’s a flaw of mine. But I can’t be happy about achievements that I’ve gained without my effort for ‘various reasons’.”

“Then you must not be very happy with your current fame either?”

“It’s not that I’m unhappy; I just can’t enjoy it with ease.”

“Hmm.”

Baek Seol made a thoughtful noise, nodded a few times, and then started to share her own story.

“I can’t fully empathize, but I get that too many things in life are determined by things set before we were born.”

“Is that so?”

“Actually, my great-grandfather was the chairman.”

Hmm. I see.

I nodded.

Then I briskly straightened up, neatened my body, adjusted my bangs, and neatly folded the blanket I was loosely wrapped in over my knees.

I then pressed my knees together, placed my hands politely on top, and bowed my head at a 45-degree angle before speaking to Baek Seol.

“Please, continue, madam.”

“Kyaa! What madam!”

“My apologies, miss.”

“Stop it, it’s creepy, Author~nim!” Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøᴠel Fɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Please, speak down to this lowly one.” (TL: Speak down as in treat me as someone below you)

Art has always been dominated by the wealthy. Royalty, eccentric millionaires, and those suspiciously wealthy… those kinds of people.

So, for me, a proud novelist, bowing to a chaebol wasn’t a shameful act but a natural occurrence according to the laws of nature.

Anyway, that’s how it is.

But Baek Seol, looking both troubled and amused, laughed out loud for a while, then wiping away tears, she said this:

“It might seem like being a great-granddaughter makes us close, but if you think about it, it’s actually a very distant relationship. I’m the eldest daughter of the second son of the chairman’s brother… How many such grandnieces would the chairman have? I’m not even a direct granddaughter. He probably barely remembers my name, right?”

I straightened my back from 45 degrees to 15 degrees.

“Even my real grandfather and the chairman aren’t biological brothers. The previous chairman, that is, my great-grandfather, had more than one wife. Technically, you could say ours is a family of illegitimate children. Essentially, we’ve been strangers since my great-grandfather passed away.”

I straightened my back completely and spoke to Baek Seol in a more friendly manner again.

“Editor~nim, your life must have had its ups and downs too.”

“That’s right. But being a chaebol, even if in name, attracted many who coveted our bloodline. My dad didn’t do business, but my uncle inherited a company.”

My back bent to 15 degrees again.

“That’s why my mom always said I should marry as young as possible, to the point it was drilled into my ears. In high society, a young, pretty, and trouble-free girl commands a high price in the marriage market. But I liked novels. You know I studied abroad, right, Author~nim?”

I listened to her with a polite posture.

“Yes.”

“Men have this perception. A woman who studied abroad is a bit… undesirable as a marriage partner. So, when I went to study abroad, I fought really hard with my mom. But after much trouble, she acknowledged my dream of working in book publishing, and I went abroad, got my degree, and came back.”

“And then you joined the Baekhak Group?”

“No!”

Baek Seol frowned.

“Of course, I went to a different publisher! Thanks to my hard-earned degree, I got a job right away. I liked the department I was assigned to. It was in translation. But just as I finished my newbie training, started to get along with my new colleagues, and began learning the ropes, something happened.”

“What happened…?”

“The chairman called me in and scolded me.”

Baek Seol mimicked the chairman’s voice in a ridiculous tone, not hiding her displeasure.

“Summoned by people in dark suits to the main house, he went on like this, ‘How can a child of our family earn their keep at another’s house? Come back to Baekhak right now!'”

My back bent to 45 degrees again.

“But it seems it was all for his own pride… After confirming I had joined Baekhak Publishing, he cut off contact. Since then, even though I was assigned to the TF team and started working in Baekhak Entertainment’s underground parking lot, there was no follow-up action. If this was going to be the case, why bother bringing me in…”

My back straightened again.

Baek Seol, gripping the steering wheel, glared at me seriously.

“…Do you find it amusing to joke around?”

“My apologies.”

“Anyway-”

Baek Seol lamented the reality listlessly.

“Actually, my favorite line from your novels is that one. ‘Too many things – our faces, the era, skin color, wealth – are determined before we’re even born.'”

“…”

“I often think it’s too hard to live life the way I want.”

“I see…”

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the school. Baek Seol made a peculiar noise as the car jerked to a stop in the parking lot.

“Eek.”

Then she glanced at me with a hint of slyness and smiled.

“…It’s a secret from the company people, ok?”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“But it seems like everyone secretly knows!”

Baek Seol nudged my back, pushing me out of the car.

And she returned to her usual cheerful demeanor and smiled.

“Have a good day at school, Author~nim!”

And then I remembered.

Wasn’t the CEO of Baekhak Publishing, when Lim Yang-wook was an executive, a young woman…?

* * *

“Owning one’s life…”

That thought stayed with me all the way to the classroom. A question once posed had ignited a creative desire.

Looking back, the web novel I wrote in a past life or past time was probably about that.

The title was ‘Demon Sword’.

It was a traditional fantasy novel that dealt with the life and inner world of a swordsman who gradually loses control of his life to the demon sword.

Back then, I was a bit short on money, so I remember trying to write it as commercially as possible, referencing Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

It was a failure, though.

“Ah…”

Just thinking about it made me shudder.

As a pure literary writer, I had ventured into a tricky path, but even that was ignored by the readers, leaving me with no pride to speak of.

Writing, in any form, was indeed a difficult thing.

“Good morning, Kim sunbae.”

I met Kim Byul in the corridor.

But Kim Byul doesn’t respond to my greeting and flinched away from me.

It seems the aftereffects of the last variety show appearance are still lingering.

“I told you I’m sorry for what happened last time…”

“What are you talking about? I’m not bothered by it at all.”

“I’ll be more careful with my words next time…”

The incident at the shooting site had been resolved then and there. I had apologized to Kim Byul and Gu Yubin before we parted ways.

Once I showed humility, Kim Byul accepted my greeting with a confident expression.

“Hmm! If you’re sincerely apologizing like that… I’ll let it slide this time. But next time, show some respect towards your seniors on air too. Anyway, how was your weekend?”

“It was okay.”

“Did you get any messages from Author Gu Yubin? Though you and I are from different industries, she’s truly a senior in the same field as you. You did grill her quite mercilessly…”

“Won’t the more serious stuff be edited out?”

“Don’t think so. Do you trust those TV station guys? And watching from the sidelines, it was pretty entertaining.”

I still feel a bit guilty towards Gu Yubin. It’s exactly like the paradox of whether to kill baby Hitler or not.

Having analyzed the delicate inner workings of Gu Yubin, who is just a high school student, in front of the camera, it wouldn’t be strange if she harbored some resentment towards me.

So, a few days after the shooting, I sent her a text apologizing, and a strange reply came back.

“She said it’s okay… and to please take care of her in the future?”

“Really? Then it ended well? That’s a relief.”

“I’m not sure what she means by asking to be taken care of, though.”

“It’s just a formality, why bother about it?”

“People who act might not understand, but those of us who write are sensitive to words.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re great. I’m off!”

“Yeah.”

And so, we finished our brief exchange in the corridor and went our separate ways.

She headed to the third year acting class, and I went to the first year creative writing class.

Just as the morning roll call for the first year creative writing class was about to start.

I understood what Gu Yubin meant by asking me to ‘please take care of her in the future’.

“Everyone! We have a new transfer student in our class!”

The moment the homeroom teacher entered the classroom with the transfer student, I froze like ice.

“Would you like to introduce yourself?”

I already knew the name of that stoic girl.

Gu Yuna.

“Gu Yuna.”

Not Yoon-ah.

“It’s not Gu Yoon-ah, but Gu Yuna.”

Gu Yuna.

The old lover I met again appeared as a child.

****

TL: As explained in this chapter, it’s a demonic sword, not a magic sword. Anyway, I’ll be keeping it as ‘magic sword’ in the title.

****

Join our discord here:.gg/GGKyZWDuZM

Sᴇarch the ɴovᴇlꜰirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.