Life is a Mess Ever Since My Mother Won an Ero-Novel Grand Prize - Chapter 3.2
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Chapter 3.2
As we went outside the station through the crowds,
“… Hey, Shimomura, before we meet Senri-senpai, do you have a minute?”
“Hmm?”
When I looked at her, she had a serious expression on her face, seemingly troubled by something.
“Senri-senpai… I don’t think she’s a bad person.”
“…”
Rinka seemed to have the same impression as me. I do agree that Senri-senpai wasn’t a bad person.
“At that bar,” Rinka continued,
“Before you guys came, she was very kind to me. She told me how to be a writer, how to handle taxes, and so on. She even told us that if I ever face any problem with the editorial department, I could always come to her for help.”
“Hmm…”
“She even gave me some advice on how to revise my work.”
“I see.”
“Shimomura, have you read my synopsis of ‘Stardust’?”
“Yes, I read it from the website.”
The main character is a girl who lost her mother early and was raised by everyone in the village.
When she turns fourteen, she becomes eligible to leave the village and sets out on a journey to find her father, the only living relative she has. In the process, she happens to meet a mechanical doll boy who is actually a kind of magical weapon created by her father, and the Empire and the Grand Church are desperately searching for him.
Yes, the girl’s father was a genius magical engineer who held the fate of the world in his hands.
Why in the world had he abandoned his family and disappeared? Why was her father driving the world to ruin?
Overcoming many challenges of fate, the girl, who loved her father, finally came face to face with him.
[Let’s meet at the place where stardust decays] This story won the grand prize in the fantasy category of the All-Genre Novel Newcomer’s Award.
“Senri-senpai said that she liked it so much that she decided to let it pass the fourth round based on the synopsis alone.”
“What? But at that time in the bar she was saying that she gave us the lowest rating in the bar…”
Not only that, she even told me to stop writing, what nonsense.
Why is she contradicting her own statements?
“Yeah, she said the synopsis was good…, but she couldn’t accept the ending, and she said it would be much better if the ending is revised a lot.”
Just the last part, huh?
It’s true that all is well that ends well, but if the ending is bad, the reading experience will be terrible. Sometimes the opinion of the work changes drastically depending on the quality of the last part.
“So, what was the last part of your story like when you submitted it, before you revised it? I know it’s a spoiler, but I’d like to ask you at this point.”
“It’s just a normal happy ending. The father, despairing over the loss of his wife and planning to bring her back to life by ruining the planet, finally regains his bond with his daughter and leads the world to peace. The love between father and daughter will save the world.”
It’s a very positive ending. The main character’s mother probably won’t come back to life, but the remaining two will live with that past.
“Isn’t it good enough? It’s like there’s true happiness after overcoming sorrow.”
“Yes, the other judges had the same opinion, praising the ending for being so royal and good. But Senri-senpai was the only one who said it wasn’t good enough. Thus she told me to change it.”
“What did she say?”
“She said that the father she finally found should be a robot, and that her real father was long dead.”
“That’s…”
It’s beyond unfair.
“She told me that her real father broke down when he lost his wife, went crazy, and was killed and replaced by a cold, emotionless robot. The robot doesn’t know who he is, he just thinks he’s the doctor himself, and the only thing he knows is wanting to see his wife again, not aware of the fact that he has a daughter. She also told me that even after learning the proof that he was a machine, he continued to work without changing anything, he didn’t care about the world or his daughter, just as a machine, like a ghost, he continued to work without a care until his body was destroyed.”
I was speechless.
It was too sad for a story.
“I said I didn’t want it to end like that, but then you guys came and interrupted the conversation.”
“Oh, I see…”
“I wonder why she wanted to make the story that sad?”
“I have no idea…”
If “Stardust” had been an android story from the beginning, I wouldn’t say that such a tragic ending would be wrong. It is clear from past examples that android novels tend to be tragic and sell well.
However, “Stardust” was a modern fantasy, a story about a daughter looking for her father in a world where machines and magic are fused together. Senri’s suggestion to change the story to an android one is like saying that the concept of the work should be completely changed.
Why did she say that?
Was it simply because she thought it would be more interesting?
Or it was something personal…
I don’t know, but I’d have to ask her.
“It’s getting late, let’s go.”
We started walking again.
“Yeah, Starbucks is waiting for us!”
“No, it’s not Starbucks that’s waiting for us, it’s Senri-senpai.”