Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World

The simplest way to increase the reading rate and publication rate is to increase the number of libraries.

When there are more libraries, authors can ensure minimal income and publicity effects by selling their books to libraries, and readers can read the books they want without the burden of cost.

In South Korea, libraries are often treated as study rooms for students, and there are cases where people who visit libraries for reading purposes end up being inconvenienced… but that’s a rather unusual case. Fundamentally, libraries were spaces where “authors sold their books to be read by readers for free.”

Naturally, this benefits both authors and readers.

And.

The biggest obstacle to promoting this library culture is precisely this:

“As you mentioned, all libraries owned by the foundation, along with registered artists and partnered publishers, have introduced public lending rights and the book price-fixing system.”

“Ugh. Saying it like that, I feel like I’ve become the villain of the story…”

“Pardon?”

“It’s just… never mind…”

It was the book price-fixing system and the public lending rights system.

The book price-fixing system was a policy that restricted the discount on books sold to a certain percentage below the original price, while the public lending rights system guaranteed authors the financial loss caused by “free loans” at libraries. Naturally, both systems had been heavily criticized in my past life.

The premise of both systems was to protect the author’s rights and prevent the quality of books from declining due to price competition in the free market…

But, of course, in a free market, it’s a load of nonsense.

If the price of books rises, people won’t read them, and if the cost burden of libraries increases, no one will run libraries, leaving only public libraries remaining. Books and libraries are, after all, products and services that exist within the “market economy,” and this policy failed to recognize that.

And.

“So, what about the foundation’s cost burden?”

“There is none at all. In fact, since ‘The Little Prince,’ the cultural industry itself has been almost entirely your monopoly. There was even a report stating that the foundation’s financial revenue surpassed the empire’s government revenue.”

“…The East India Company was a layman, then.”

“Pardon?”

“Doesn’t the empire or the parliament impose any restrictions? If it’s grown to this scale, it might be worth legislating some kind of antitrust law.”

“Most of the nobles in the parliament are your followers. Even the imperial family… they are sponsoring you, aren’t they?”

“Ah.”

I was a person who existed outside of the “market economy.”

What I monopolized was not the publishing industry, but the very “content” of this world.

Products sold by the merchant guild featured characters from works like The Little Prince and Sherlock Holmes, and performances of adaptations of works like Hamlet and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were being staged in theaters. The engineers from the Gray Tower, who learned science through Principia, were developing new technologies for people to enjoy, and the foundation’s patrons were wealthy individuals and politicians who had been moved by the beauty of the literature I had plagiarized or the ideas contained within them.

Other famous authors were mostly writers who participated in the contests I held or studied literature at the academy I ran.

In my past life, I was essentially the combination of Disney and Nintendo.

I was, in effect, the ultimate embodiment of the world’s corruption. When considering not just wealth, but influence, my worth only grew larger.

And that’s why… I was able to introduce the book price-fixing system and the public lending rights system to the foundation. The publishers bought books at high prices, and authors were paid royalties for free loans. The foundation bore all the economic and social costs resulting from this.

It was something only a crazy person, who had no interest in money, would do.

And that crazy person was me.

In the end, since all those profits were borrowed from “the literature of my past life,” it felt only right to return them to “the literature of this world.”

“Hmm… How many main streets are there in the capital?”

“About 600.”

“What about in the whole empire?”

“Well, I think it’s over 10,000.”

“How much would it cost to build libraries on all of them?”

“Are you talking about all of them?”

“Ah, for the ones where libraries are already built, we could just buy and renovate them. And under the assumption that they would all be owned by the foundation.”

“Hmm…”

Sion, who had been rolling his eyes and thinking for a moment, spoke.

“What scale are you considering?”

“Well, something around the size of the empire’s largest library, the Central Library?”

“Even if we sell all the rights, bonds, and financial assets that the foundation owns, it’s impossible. Actually, if we include your personal assets, it might be possible.”

“What about the size of a regular regional library?”

“It would be possible with the foundation’s annual budget.”

“Ha.”

“Shall I proceed with those instructions?”

“No, wait. Let me think about this for a moment…”

By the way, the empire’s Central Library was a massive, antique-looking structure so grand that it could be described as a temple. It was said to store all the books published in the empire. Constructing 10,000 of them was not a “normal” idea, especially if it was possible by “selling the foundation.”

The current foundation had grown so large that, despite being a “charity organization,” its revenue far exceeded its expenditures, leading to cries of astonishment.

It provided education and free meals to all children in the Empire, offered vocational training and job placement services for adults, and supported artists with near-boundless welfare—despite all of this.

“Hmm….”

“Lord Ed?”

“For now, let’s start the public library project—or rather, the foundation library project—around the capital and proceed slowly over the course of several years.”

“Understood.”

“And, I feel like the foundation shouldn’t grow any larger. But I don’t intend to indulge in luxury like other wealthy individuals. If I don’t use it to support the foundation, the money will just keep piling up. Establishing a bank… wouldn’t make much sense either. After all, the foundation buys up the bank’s bonds.”

“Is it problematic for the foundation to grow?”

“The foundation is already taking care of most of the responsibilities that ‘the state’ should handle. The fact that the foundation is managing universal welfare means it oversees all the personnel, infrastructure, and administrative resources necessary for welfare. It’s practically like having another government within the Empire. It’s fine for now, but….”

“Later, the Empire might suspect a coup and draw their swords against it.”

“No.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s the opposite. If the foundation grows even larger, all of the Empire’s citizens will come to believe that ‘the foundation’ is the government. Just as the current royal family exists under a constitutional monarchy and guarantees rights, while the parliament effectively decides the Empire’s policies…. Eventually, the parliament could become nothing more than a legislative institution that rubber-stamps policies exclusively for the foundation. The term ‘Empire’ would no longer symbolize the parliament or the royal family but instead ‘the foundation.'”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“Huh?”

“If the foundation, which operates to advance literature, becomes the core power of the Empire, wouldn’t that bring us closer to your goal of advancing literature?”

Sion seemed puzzled that I, who usually pursued only the “advancement of literature,” was grappling with such concerns.

But.

On this matter, I had no choice but to answer firmly.

“Literature must never seize power. Never.”

In my previous life in South Korea, literature was treated by those in the industry as nothing more than a “tool of the literary world,” subjected to ridicule and scorn.

The literary hierarchy.

Although all writers denied its existence, it was a mysterious, intangible power that was always mentioned whenever a policy or issue related to literature arose. It was the very force that caused literature to be regarded as an “outdated fad of a bygone era” while simultaneously being treated as a political power parasitic on other industries.

Even the mainstream authors, who were deemed to be at the center of this “literary hierarchy,” would tilt their heads in confusion, claiming to be “outsiders of the literary world” themselves. It was an unknowable source, a power structure that raised its head in the name of “literature,” despite being criticized and dismissed by all writers.

Newspapers, publishing companies, politicians, and ideologues─.

The monstrous power of literature, born from the intersection of old-era “resistance literature” with the contemporary “mainstream politics” that it trampled upon.

That was the literary hierarchy.

The moment literature seizes power, “works” are pushed aside, leaving only the ideology of literature behind. The literary hierarchy no longer serves “literature” or the “literary world” but exists solely to sustain itself. Just as all power operates solely to maintain its own existence.

The influence created by works, rather than the works themselves, becomes the entirety of what literature represents.

Therefore, literature must never seize power. Even if I possessed the authority to move the world, after my death, I must remain only as “a work.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Hmm, we could separate the ‘universal welfare’ enterprises of The Little Prince Foundation and the Holmes Foundation, donate them to the Empire, and transition them into state-run projects… I’ll need to think this over.”

.

.

.

That day, I fell asleep while pondering the direction of the foundation.

And.

The next dawn.

─Do not be afraid.

An angel descended upon the Fríden family estate.

─Transcendent of literature, bearing the names of Homer, Herodotus, and Sophocles. Ascend to the heavens.

In the early hours, when all the clamor of the world was buried in darkness.

Amid a profound stillness I had never experienced, not even in the womb.

Time stopped.

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