As soon as Lady Es left the parlor, Isolette entered the room.
She stared blankly at the door for a mont before sitting across from him as usual, resting her chin in her hand.
“I guess I was a little late, wasn’t I?”
“Hmm?”
“I wanted to be the first one here… well, I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Lady Es and Isolette—was being the “first” that important to them?
Clicking her tongue as if disappointed, Isolette took an envelope from her bosom and handed it to him. She spoke in a simple, nonchalant tone.
“A fan letter.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Did Lady Es give you one as well?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm… Still, you know I’m your first fan, right? Since we were kids… no, from way back then.”
“Pfft, yeah, that’s true.”
“Back then, we were both so young… Looking back on it now, isn’t it kind of amazing?”
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, Isolette flashed a mischievous smile.
That smile felt oddly familiar. Resting her chin delicately on her hand, squinting with a playful gleam in her eyes as she looked up at him—there was sothing so familiar about that smile.
It was incredibly familiar.
“To think there’s soone out there who could fall in love with soone as clueless as you.”
“…….”
“Right, senior?”
“…….”
At that mont.
He wasn’t sure what emotions he felt. Maybe he was so surprised that his mind went blank. Or maybe he was so frightened that goosebumps prickled all over his skin.
The confusion was overwhelming, making it feel as though his mory had been wiped clean.
Whatever expression he made must have unsettled Isolette, because she gave an awkward laugh, looking sowhat embarrassed.
“…Pfft, I’m joking. I read sothing like that in a novel once—it was so striking that I just had to mimic it.”
“…….”
“Did it seem a little real?”
“…….”
“Wow, you got so startled. How are you going to manage being this naïve….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…You know, I used to have dreams sotis. I think it started, hmm, not long after we parted ways when we were kids. Every night, I’d fall asleep reading those fairy tales you wrote for …. It was a strange dream. So strange that I’d forget about it almost imdiately after waking up.”
“…….”
“But right as I woke up from that dream, it always felt so vivid. I think, on the mornings after I had that dream, I’d say this to myself.”
“…….”
“I dread the sa dream again.”
“Sigh…”
In the end, he let out a long sigh, heavy with too many emotions.
Holding his throbbing head, he couldn’t help but ask.
“After I died…”
“Hmm?”
“After I died… what happened to you?”
.
.
.
What kind of conversation he had with Isolette after that, he couldn’t quite recall.
His mind had gone entirely blank, leaving him to ask question after question without pause.
According to Isolette’s “dream,” after his death, she had collected, organized, and edited all of his translated works and published them.
She had written a preface for all the works, explaining that they were translations left behind by the senior she deeply respected before his passing.
This gained so attention in online communities, and because of that, the translated works he had left behind sold well.
Thanks to the success, the publisher grew in size, eventually expanding from public domain translations to acquiring the rights to foreign bestsellers for translation.
And.
After becoming the chief editor of the publishing house, she resigned shortly after finishing the task of organizing his works.
That was where Isolette’s dream had ended.
“…….”
“Ed…?”
He couldn’t et her gaze. With his eyes closed, he replayed her story in his mind.
As the world grew darker around him, his thoughts beca a little clearer.
“…….”
“Huh…?”
What could she have been thinking while organizing his works in the world after his death?
He still didn’t know.
Human emotions were sothing he struggled to comprehend. The more he tried to imagine them on his own, the deeper he seed to sink into an endless labyrinth.
He didn’t understand people.
“…….”
“You… right now…”
He couldn’t feel even half the emotions from people that he felt from literature.
He couldn’t love people even half as much as he loved literature.
He couldn’t mourn people even half as deeply as literature had comforted his sorrow.
“…….”
“Are you… crying? Huh…?”
So Isolette saying that he was “crying” had to be an outright lie.
The handkerchief she placed in his hand, too.
The damp streaks staining his vision.
None of it could be tears.
“…….”
When he didn’t take the handkerchief from her, Isolette wiped his eyes herself.
Without saying a word, for a long ti.
In the silence of the parlor, the sound of the handkerchief brushing his skin was the only noise.
As the handkerchief moved, her fingertips grazed his cheek.
It was soft.
Whether it was the handkerchief that was soft or Isolette’s fingertips, he wasn’t sure.
For a long while, he let the silence comfort him.
He opened his mouth several tis, his lips trembling, and after nurous attempts, he finally managed to speak.
“…Thank you, Isolette.”
“It’s my pleasure, Ed.”
.
.
.
After Isolette, a few more fan letters and a couple of visitors ca to see him.
Among the visitors was the Chief Mage of the Magic Tower.
“You say you saw a connection from a past life in your dreams…? Hmm… fascinating. It’s not entirely impossible, I think….”
“Is that so?”
“The twin communication magic of the Blue Magic Tower works on a similar principle…. Things that resemble each other tend to align… which is why twins can share mories or willpower and even use telepathic magic sotis….”
“Hmm.”
“On a different note… in the Red Magic Tower, they say that if two entities interact with the ‘sa subject’ in the ‘sa way,’ it creates magical equivalence…. Apparently, in ancient tis, rituals were based on this principle…. So, by establishing similar interactions and relationships with soone, you could theoretically extract that person’s mories… or sothing like that….”
“Is that right?”
“Actually, I don’t really know….”
“Excuse ?”
“It could just be a random dream…. Or it could be your brain misinterpreting things by assembling fragnted mories…. After all, even the fundantal axioms of the Purple Magic Tower are based on the idea that the human mind is incomplete and prone to mistaking one thing for another…. Dreams hold aning precisely because they aren’t reality….”
“…….”
“Still… it was an intriguing story. Feel free to visit whenever you have questions….”
As always, with her lazy voice and panda-like eyes accentuated by dark circles, the Chief Mage confidently declared:
“I am the Chief Mage, after all….”
“Ah, yes….”
.
.
.
After the tumultuous days had passed,
Life eventually returned to its usual rhythm.
When it ca to literature, the novel “Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World” had given rise to a new genre in the Empire: “light novels.”
Similar to the pulp fiction of heroic fantasy, the genre was lighter in tone and focused more on character-driven stories.
Spin-offs like “Surviving as a Chef in Another World” and “Surviving as a Board Ga Creator in Another World” also erged.
In addition to these, there were other significant changes, the biggest being the widespread “writing culture.”
Thanks to the Hor Foundation’s consistent support for writing, statistics showed that over 30% of the Empire’s citizens now owned books published under their nas.
This marked a step toward achieving his goal of creating a “publication-centered society.”
Moreover, the existing children’s welfare foundation transferred its rights to the royal family, restructuring the system to ensure universal child welfare.
As a result, he set an unprecedented record of donating “wealth equivalent to half of the Empire’s value,” a feat unlikely to be surpassed even after hundreds of years.
Of course, the Hor Foundation retained oversight over the children’s welfare foundation, and most of the previous staff continued working there, so he still effectively controlled the foundation.
In addition to that,
The Imperial Academy was separated from the newly established “Hor Literary Academy,” a massive institution dedicated solely to literary education.
This literary academy, structured like a library, was filled with every piece of literature he rembered from his previous life.
In other words, tens of thousands of works from Earth.
He included “Translator’s Notes” detailing the historical context of Earth and the settings in which those works were created.
These works served as teaching materials for literature classes, and the competition rate for admission to the Hor Literary Academy consistently broke records.
As the Empire’s brightest minds graduated from the academy, literature naturally beca inseparably intertwined with mainstream culture.
Even after hundreds of years, literature was likely to remain at the heart of the Empire’s culture.
Thus,
Most of the things he had wished for had been achieved.
In a traditional story, this might be the point where the protagonist says, “I’ve accomplished everything, and I can die without regrets,” and smiles as they pass away.
But unfortunately, he had achieved all of this far too young.
Which is why this story ends like this:
“My son, so when are you planning to get married?”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t you think it’s about ti you started worrying about marriage?”
“…I’ll think about it slowly.”
“As your father, I don’t think marrying a cousin would be such a bad idea. Of course, these days, there are many reasons people are reluctant, but back in the day, it was quite common.”
“Excuse ?”
“Oh my, Ed, I rather like that Lady Es. How confident she is….”
“Excuse ?”
[Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World – The End]
[Afterword]
The end of “Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World”!
A story that’s both long and short has now co to a close.
Even though this is the afterword, I feel like I’ll need to write side stories or other content. (I doubt readers would let off the hook if I ended it like this.)
As I ntioned in the author’s notes a few chapters ago, this novel was inspired by “Ga Developer in Another World.”
To briefly summarize “Ga Developer in Another World,” it’s a novel with the concept of [plagiarizing Tetris and other classic gas in another world to make money].
After reading that novel, I thought, “What if we applied this concept of ‘cultural victory in another world’ to literature?”
And that’s how “Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World” began.
The the of this novel is, “Classics remain worth reading regardless of how much ti passes or how the world changes.”
It’s a belief I hold dearly.
Of course, separate from the intrinsic value of literature, the success and popularity of literature depend on the social context of the era.
There are novels like “The Great Gatsby” that saw no success during the author’s lifeti, while others beca instant hits upon publication.
So, I needed a historical backdrop where the “novel” could succeed.
After so thought, I concluded that using an actual historical setting would be the most convincing approach.
A period when “chivalric literature” was popular—essentially, the Renaissance.
This was an era when people loved chivalric tales, which ant “Don Quixote” was bound to succeed.
After all, Don Quixote is “the last chivalric novel.”
Anyone who loves chivalric literature can’t help but adore Don Quixote….
Most of the episodes in this novel stem from such “motifs.”
Real historical events, characters in the featured novels, the thes or incidents of those works, or even anecdotes about the authors themselves—all served as inspiration.
Each of these motifs was adapted to fit the the of the respective episode.
Even beyond what’s directly revealed, countless works provided inspiration, and I think spotting these “motifs” can be part of the fun of reading this novel.
(Sotis, when readers identify the titles of works I drew from in the comnts, it brings joy. There are many famous nonfiction works, columns, and essays as well.)
While writing this novel and reading readers’ comnts, I realized that many people still deeply love literature.
I was only able to complete this novel thanks to all of you.
As long as people like you who enjoy literature remain, I believe literature will never fade away and will continue to thrive.
If I could share one wish, it would be for you to write your own stories.
There are no limits to literature.
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There’s no set form, no required qualifications.
Literature can adapt to new environnts, like web novels, or take the form of essays that comfort modern readers weary from life.
You, too, can beco a writer.
On platforms like Nobelpia, anyone can beco a writer by simply clicking the “Register New Novel” button.
I support your journey in literature.
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