Chapter 31
“So… I ended up receiving the title of Chief Magician…”
“Yes! I heard you well! Haha! So that’s what happened!”
“Hehe…”
Millie Cléang’s story about how she became the Chief Magician lasted a full hour.
If this were written as a novel, it would be an epic saga comparable to Les Misérables. It was that unnecessarily detailed.
And I was sure of one thing:
I should never engage in a long conversation with this person.
“Listening to the Chief Magician’s story, I’m confident that you’ll do an excellent job as a consultant!”
“Right… And I…”
“Let’s look at the work first before we continue talking!”
As Millie Cléang was about to launch into yet another tale, I quickly shoved the manuscript at her.
I was confident that once she read the manuscript, we could proceed somehow.
[Sherlock Holmes]
[A Study in Scarlet]
Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet.
It was the monumental first work where Watson and Sherlock Holmes met.
There were many iconic lines associated with Sherlock, and the Sherlock Holmes series contained plenty of famous quotes about deduction.
But the first line Sherlock uttered to Watson in this work revealed more about who ‘Sherlock’ really was than any profound saying could.
[You’ve been in Afghanistan, I perceive.]
It was the moment when he deduced Watson’s identity as a military doctor stationed in Afghanistan just by looking at him.
Of course, in my plagiarized translation, the place names and analyses were slightly altered.
Still, the basic format remained intact. Despite the challenge of adapting a detective novel, many attempts had been made to ‘localize’ Sherlock Holmes even in my past life, so I at least had some minimal guidelines to remember.
Millie Cléang, who had received the manuscript, flipped through the pages at lightning speed—so fast it made me question if she was actually reading them.
After getting to the last page, Millie beamed and exclaimed.
“This is rubbish…!”
“Have you already finished reading it?”
“Yes… I read quickly… but this is a complete mess…?”
“Yes, yes. That’s why I need your consultation…”
“But it’s written really logically and well…”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t think it needs any revisions…?”
* * *
Millie Cléang, who claimed no revisions were necessary, suddenly launched into a lecture about magic. Her words were still slow, and the information was overwhelming, but she explained it in a very clear manner.
“To put it simply… magic is ultimately the ‘reproduction of previously attempted events’… It’s a concretization of possibilities… So, when we use magic, everything inevitably flows in a logical direction… Just like how teleportation in the Mage Tower is only possible through certain ‘connected’ points… Of course, ancient magic, like what appears in the ‘Conan Saga,’ is a bit different…”
“I see.”
“Of course, there are aspects that bother me… But it’s so entertaining as it is that I wonder if it needs any revisions… That’s how this ‘A Study in Scarlet’ is… But—”
Millie Cléang continued with a shy smile.
“—This isn’t the end, is it…? Since it’s a serialized novel…”
“Yes.”
“Exactly… Then, I need to read all the upcoming novels as well to compare them… That’s the only way to provide proper consultation…”
“Aha.”
It wasn’t a difficult request. After all, if Millie Cléang were to take on the role of a consultant, she would eventually read all of it. Part of me suspected she was just making an excuse to quickly read the novels—well, I could overlook such “playfulness.”
Instead…
“Showing you the next serialized part isn’t difficult, but before that, could you show me something?”
“What do you mean…?”
“Magic. I’d like to see the ‘real’ magic of a magician.”
I had seen plenty of magical tools produced in factories or the performances of a ‘Magic Troupe.’ However, I couldn’t help but be deeply interested in the wonders created directly by a ‘magician.’
“It won’t be anything impressive… Hmm…”
After pondering for a moment, Millie Cléang filled an empty kettle on the table with cold water from a bottle. She sprinkled a few tea leaves into the water and then grabbed the kettle’s handle.
“Uh…?”
Then the water in the kettle began to boil vigorously. White steam shot up, and the tea leaves turned the transparent water a deep red as they brewed.
“This is all I can show you right now…”
“Is it a spell to boil water?”
“It’s a bit different…”
The magician poured the kettle’s water into my teacup. Hesitantly, I took a sip and was somewhat surprised.
“The tea is completely cold?”
“It was never hot to begin with… It boiled while remaining lukewarm… It’s a reproduction of the ‘possibility’ that the water boiled and the tea leaves’ components dissolved into the water… We can create changes but can’t conjure something out of nothing…”
“But isn’t a magic troupe something that ‘creates’ illusions?”
“Scattering light, refraction, mental confusion… all of these are happening at a microscopic level in real-time… Ultimately, if something is possible with magic, it should also be ‘possible’ without magic…”
Hmm.
It was a slightly tricky concept to grasp, but I understood that ‘magic’ wasn’t as mysterious and omnipotent as I had imagined.
“Hehe, you thought it wasn’t a big deal after all, didn’t you?”
“Oh, that’s not it.”
“If you’re curious about large-scale magic, come visit the Mage Tower… I can show you how tiny possibilities can lead to the end of the world…”
“Is it like the butterfly effect?”
“What’s that…?”
Oh, this world probably doesn’t have the term ‘butterfly effect.’
I briefly explained the concept of the ‘butterfly effect.’ Millie Cléang nodded in agreement.
“It’s the first time I’ve heard of it… but it’s an interesting possibility… It might be possible…?”
“I see.”
It wasn’t particularly important.
Magic for boiling water could probably be used for ‘steam engines’ or ‘power generation using turbines,’ but I wasn’t an engineer.
Ultimately, what mattered now was whether ‘Sherlock Holmes’—and ‘detective novels’—could function properly in this world.
And Millie Cléang’s answer was ‘possible.’
That meant I could publish ‘Sherlock Holmes.’
“Thank you for the information. I’ll bring the other manuscripts right away.”
“Hehehe….”
If it could be published, I would publish it.
That was all I wanted.
* * *
“Why is Holmes being killed here…?”
“Indeed… why?”
“Hmm, is this Professor James Moriarty a magician…?”
“Pardon?”
“Turning everything into chaos to expand ‘possibilities’ is a method of the Black Tower… Hmm… And the consulting criminal role fits, right? The fact that he wasn’t mentioned before could mean he was working to reduce the ‘possibility’ of his crimes being discovered… It sounds plausible…”
“Oh, really?”
* * *
The serialization of the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ series, with advice from Millie Cléang, began.
[Half and Half]
[The new work by Herodotus, author of ‘Conan Saga’ and ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’!]
[Read the story of ‘consulting detective’ Sherlock Holmes now in ‘Half and Half’!]
Thanks to the record-breaking success of The Count of Monte Cristo, the response from people was enthusiastic.
The new work from the author who had completely shattered the barriers between high culture and low culture purely with ‘entertainment’—anyone interested in novels read Half and Half.
“I’m curious about the next part! So what happened?! Wasn’t Arthur Charpentier the culprit?!”
“Of course not! So who is the culprit?”
In an instant, they were totally hooked on this detective novel called ‘Sherlock Holmes.’
In terms of capturing people’s curiosity and interest, ‘detective novels’ were the alpha and omega of all genre fiction. The plot structures of suspense, thrillers, twists, and foreshadowing spilled over into all genre novels that dominated the ‘subculture’ of my previous life.
Hero stories, action, thrillers, crime stories—there were countless genres influenced by them.
And ‘Sherlock Holmes’ was a classic and masterpiece representing the ‘detective novel’ genre. Simply put, there wasn’t another work that could draw more interest as an entertainment novel than Sherlock Holmes.
“Bring the next chapter right now!”
“It hasn’t been released yet!”
“Then storm the publisher and get it!”
“That’s… a good idea?”
Excessive interest sometimes led to slightly violent actions—
“Eek! It’s the Whiterock Detective Agency!”
“This publisher has a security contract with our Whiterock Detective Agency. Approaching without permission may lead to some ‘forceful’ measures, so please be cautious.”
The detectives from the ‘Whiterock Detective Agency,’ contracted by Half and Half to promote ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ were guarding the publisher.
The detectives from this agency wore deerstalker hats and Inverness capes, looking like an army of Sherlockians protecting the publisher.
“Please give us the next part of Sherlock Holmes!”
“Take my money, Half and Half! And release the next part of Sherlock Holmes!”
In other words.
It was chaos.
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