Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World - Chapter 31: Sherlock Holmes

< Chapter 31: Sherlock Holmes – 2 >

“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 of Becoming the Chief Magician” continued for a full hour.

If this were written as a novel, it would be an epic saga comparable to Les Misérables. It was an unnecessarily detailed story.

And I could be 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 start another story, I quickly handed over the manuscript.

I was confident that once she read the manuscript, we could proceed with the work 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 symbolizing Sherlock, and the Sherlock Holmes series was filled with

famous sayings about deduction.

But the first line Sherlock uttered to Watson in this work showed more about what kind of person ‘Sherlock’ was than any meaningful saying.

[You’ve been in Afghanistan, I perceive.]

It was the scene where he deduced Watson’s identity as a military doctor who had been deployed to Afghanistan the moment he saw him.

Of course, in my plagiarized ‘translated work,’ the place names and analysis were slightly different.

Still, the basic format was maintained. Despite the difficulty of a detective novel… many attempts had been made to ‘localize’ Sherlock Holmes even in my past life, so I remembered at least a minimal guideline.

Millie Cléang, who received the manuscript, flipped through the pages quickly, really quickly. So quickly that I doubted whether she was reading them properly.

After reading the last page of the manuscript, Millie exclaimed with a bright smile.

“This is rubbish…!”

“Have you already finished reading it?”

“Yes… I read very quickly… But this is a real mess…?”

“Yes, yes. That’s why I need your consultation…”

“But it’s written very logically and well…”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t think it needs any revision…?”

* * *

Millie Cléang, who had said there was no need for revisions, suddenly began a lecture on magic. Her speech was still slow, and the amount of information was overwhelming. However, she explained it very clearly.

“To put it simply… Magic is ultimately a ‘reproduction of previously attempted events’… It’s a concretization of possibilities… So, when we use magic, everything inevitably flows in a logical direction… Like how the teleportation of 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 parts 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 bashful 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. There was a part of me that thought she might just be 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 also 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 manufactured in factories or the performances of the ‘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…”

Millie Cléang, after contemplating for a moment, 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 started to boil vigorously. White steam rose from the water, and the tea leaves turned the transparent water into 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 not 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 on 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 difficult 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 Magic Tower…. I can show you how small 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 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’s 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 broken the boundaries between high culture and low culture purely with ‘entertainment’ – anyone interested in novels read Half and Half.

“I, 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 engrossed in 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 permeated all genre novels that dominated the ‘subculture’ of my previous life.

Hero stories, action, thrillers, crime stories – the number of genres influenced by them was countless.

And ‘Sherlock Holmes’ was a classic and masterpiece that represented the ‘detective novel’ genre. Simply put, there was no other 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 result in some ‘forceful’ measures, so please be cautious.”

The detectives from the ‘Whiterock Detective Agency,’ contracted by Half and Half to promote ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ were protecting the publisher.

The detectives from this agency wore deerstalker hats and Inverness capes symbolizing Sherlock Holmes, and had pipes in their mouths. With such people guarding the publisher’s front, it looked like a cosplay event gathered by Sherlockians.

“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.