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After eating and drinking, the three of them sat around the stove.
"Well, I have a message to tell you!" Sora took out her cell phone and said suddenly.
"Today, the twelve-hour voting ranking of Sora's release has come out." Sora changed her previous laugh and looked at Haruki and Kotone.
Sora's words caught the attention of the two in a flash.
"More than four thousand votes, ranked eleventh." Sora also did not sell any suspense.
"More than four thousand votes, so many?"
"More than four thousand votes, so few?"
Kotone and Haruki almost said together, and after speaking, they looked at each other.
For Kotone, who had been submitting for three years without serialization opportunities, the first episode being published within twelve hours and receiving more than 4,000 votes was already a huge achievement. For her, this was a victory in itself, as it meant there were over 4,000 people willing to log into the voting website and support the work.
But it was completely different for Haruki. Even when Haruki serialized The Garden of Words on Inkbolt, his number of votes in the last two issues was almost three thousand.
Although this had broken the record for the number of votes for works on Inkbolt, Inkbolt was just a journal with a circulation of tens of thousands, so the support it received was limited. In contrast, Rurouni Kenshin was serialized in Sora, a journal with sales of more than 300,000 copies per issue, and these results seemed modest by comparison.
"Don't worry, this is just the first thing..." Sora saw Haruki's somewhat solemn face. She was also a little nervous but still patted him on the shoulder.
"You forgot that when the first episode of The Garden of Words was serialized, there were less than 1,000 votes. In the end, more than 3,000 people supported you, right?"
"If Rurouni Kenshin Remembrance can develop with this momentum, it must be no problem to enter the top five voting list by then."
To be honest, Sora had great expectations for Rurouni Kenshin. Although she had brought several works to serialization at Kurokawa Publishing over the years, none had had extraordinary results.
Only Rurouni Kenshin had unexpectedly defeated Yuna's new work by an absolute advantage at the serial conference, earning a serialization spot. This also had the effect of taking a jab at Rika in the process.
At that moment, even Sora had imagined in her heart that the work would go viral after the serialization began, but reality was rarely so simple.
Although Rurouni Kenshin had defeated The Hidden Girl and earned the serialization opportunity, The Hidden Girl had the full backing of its manga agency. Sora's buses, subway stations, and underground passages were plastered with advertisements for Yuna's new work. Meanwhile, Rurouni Kenshin seemed to have been forgotten, with no additional support.
Sora also felt deeply powerless about this. Compared to Rika, who had a strong background, she was somewhat lacking in influence. Even though the editor Torigoe, had suggested providing some resources to Rurouni Kenshin during the meeting, the Operations Department had rejected the proposal.
Thinking of this, although she was comforting Haruki, her eyes turned red as she spoke.
"I'm sorry..." Sora said in a low voice.
Kotone and Haruki were a little startled.
"Huh?" Haruki looked at her. "Why apologize?"
"With the quality of Rurouni Kenshin, if it weren't for the editor following me, the results would definitely be much better than this..."
"Why bring this up again?" Haruki shook his head. "When you proposed to change the editor, I didn't agree with that decision. Didn't we let it go?"
"How can there be so many things like this?"
"The Garden of Words started as my project," Haruki said calmly. "Kurokawa, the editorial team—you all helped shape it. That's how it got in front of readers in the first place. I was the one who gave it that shot."
"If you hadn't discovered me in the beginning, how would there have been a Rurouni Kenshin?"
Because of this, Haruki hadn't agreed to change his editor when he learned about Sora's situation. Although it was Sora's job to discover potential manga, for Haruki, this was like the old saying:
"If I had agreed to Sora's proposal at the time, maybe I would be in a much better position with Kurokawa in the future, but in Haruki's view, it would be the same as if my good friend was being beaten and I ran away instead of helping."
If he were an adult, perhaps he would value benefits more, but for Haruki, a few hundred yen a month was enough. Drawing manga was a hobby, not something dictated by ambition.
Haruki didn't want to dwell on this issue any further.
"Sora, don't think about it so much. I don't believe Rika can control everything. Just because we don't get the publicity resources, so what?"
Although Haruki had put Sora in this difficult position himself, he did not regret it.
"Rurouni Kenshin has hundreds of thousands of readers each issue. Just being published on this platform is the best publicity resource."
"It's just that you haven't accumulated readers yet, right? It's all about grades, nothing more."
"Although I haven't seen him, doesn't Rika just like to engage in these villainous acts? Sora, you're depressed right now."
Perhaps because he regarded Sora as a friend, Haruki felt a little upset when he saw the redness in her eyes. He found himself talking more than usual, getting more and more excited as he spoke, not noticing that Kotone and Sora had started staring at him.
"In this case, we're even less likely to do what he wants."
"I'm confident this work will definitely become popular in the future..." Haruki said.
"Absolutely... it will be a hit." Sora repeated involuntarily.
"Why... why do you have such confidence?"
Good quality works were one thing, but the path to fame was different—just like how most people had never seen a Nobel Prize in Literature.
"Because... I painted this work, so I have confidence." Haruki said solemnly.
He still didn't believe that a work with such a rich history in another world's comic industry could fail in his hands.
"I'm going to push for Rurouni Kenshin to reach the top of Sora's popularity rankings before this work ends..."
---
Haruki Yuuki looked at the two, his expression steady. He wasn't just being optimistic—he had faith in Rurouni Kenshin. If a work like this couldn't rise to the top, then there was no way Sora could ever reach its full potential.
"Climbing to the top?" Sora asked, tilting her head slightly in curiosity.
"Yes, that's right. I want to take first place," Haruki replied, his voice calm but unwavering.
"Doesn't Rika think he has everything under control? Well, I'm aiming for Rurouni Kenshin to make it to the top of Sora," Haruki said, his tone resolute.
"Show him what we can do." Kotone, who had been quiet until then, chimed in softly, her words sharp yet casual.
"Exactly." Haruki gave a small nod, slightly surprised by Kotone's straightforwardness.
Sora…
Sora's mind raced as she processed his words.
Looking at Haruki's calm yet confident demeanor, she realized that maybe she hadn't fully understood him until now.
Before, she had believed Haruki had the potential to become a prominent manga artist in Osaka. But now, she wondered if that was too small of a dream for him. Perhaps Tokyo—or even further—was where he truly belonged.
"Alright then!" Sora smiled brightly, her face lighting up with a renewed sense of excitement.
"If that's the case, then we'll aim for Rurouni Kenshin to reach the top of Sora," she said, a determined glint in her eyes.
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