“Just as I thought… I knew I’d find you here.”
Iwaizumi had just bought a canned drink from the vending machine when he heard Oikawa’s voice suddenly come from nearby.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, obviously, I came to check whether our dear ‘Ace’ was secretly crying.” Oikawa poked his head out, pulling an adorably exaggerated expression while speaking.
Iwaizumi shot him a disgusted glance.
“Don’t imagine I’m as useless as you, dumbass Oikawa! Besides, I’m not the team’s ‘Ace’ anymore.”
“Ehhh, but in my heart, you’ll always be the best Ace!”
The first part of Oikawa’s words still had his usual teasing tone. But by the second half, his expression had become serious.
And, honestly…
Such a cheesy line left Iwaizumi speechless for a moment.
After a long pause, Iwaizumi finally spoke again.
“If you came all the way here just to comfort me, then there’s no need. I’m not like you. I’m not so pathetic that I’d get jealous over a junior’s talent.”
“Really? But from my perspective, Iwaizumi-chan doesn’t seem like someone who gives up that easily.”
Iwaizumi: “…”
“Damn it! If you knew that already, why did you come over here just to remind me? Are you trying to mock me?”
Bang!
Iwaizumi suddenly smashed the drink can onto the ground.
His calm expression vanished, replaced by an anger that was difficult to describe.
Oikawa looked at him quietly.
“Mock you? Of course not. I just understand exactly how you’re feeling right now.”
Iwaizumi instantly fell silent.
The atmosphere became deathly quiet.
A moment later… Iwaizumi spoke again.
“Sorry…”
Oikawa smiled.
“It’s fine! If you still need to let off some steam, you can have a couple more drinks if you want. I’ll pay for them.”
Iwaizumi pressed his lips together and covered his forehead.
“No, you misunderstood. I was apologizing to myself. Because I never thought I’d react the same way you did back then.”
“That’s seriously embarrassing.”
Oikawa: “ヽ(；Д｀)Eh????”
…
…
The next day, when everyone returned to school for practice…
“Please take care of me from now on, Asuto-chan.”
“Likewise, Oikawa-senpai.”
Oikawa greeted Asuto proactively.
As Oikawa’s training would now focus primarily on Asuto for a considerable amount of time, communication between the two was inevitable.
In truth, becoming the ‘Ace’ did not change Asuto significantly.
The real issue behind replacing the Ace lay in the shift of the team’s tactical core and the increase in offensive ball distribution.
Most of those responsibilities fell to the setter.
Therefore, after the change of Ace, the busiest person was not Asuto, the new Ace, but Oikawa, the setter.
There was also another change:
The training partner arrangements.
Previously, Asuto, as a first-year student, had usually trained with Mishita Ryuhei.
Now, however, his training partner was Oikawa.
Meanwhile, Mishita Ryuhei had teamed up with Iwaizumi.
This change of partner was exhausting for Oikawa.
Although he had deeply loved Iwaizumi before this, he thought of him as a “wooden club”; he had to admit that Asuto, this “high-grade steel spear,” was simply incredible.
No matter how many tricks and creative ideas Oikawa had; there were only so many ways to utilize a ‘small wooden stick.’
But a ‘steel spear’ was completely different.
Now that Asuto had become the Ace, his explosively powerful physical abilities meant that basically any attacking pattern Oikawa could imagine could be executed by Asuto.
As a result, Oikawa experienced a constant stream of inspiration during this period.
He spent his days fighting battle after battle on the court and his nights working so obsessively that he forgot to eat and sleep.
His goal was simple:
To explore Asuto’s limits thoroughly and quickly, and to develop every attacking technique he was capable of.
And because of that, in just one or two short weeks… not only Oikawa but Asuto himself felt as though a whole new world had opened up before them.
After all, Mishita Ryuhei’s abilities had previously been limited.
Most of the time, their offensive strategy was to pass the ball to Asuto and then…
Well, there was no ‘then.’
Asuto was discovering for the first time just how many different things his body was capable of.
And whenever this happened…
On the neighboring court, Iwaizumi and Ryuhei Mishita would always inexplicably feel as though something green had appeared above their heads.
…
Saturday of the third week of May.
While Asuto was training alone, editor Wakayama Kishia sent over the second week’s sales figures for the novel.
Since publication, first-week sales of Cautious Hero had reached 5,024 copies.
The second week reached 5,347 copies.
In both weeks, the novel ranked fourth in monthly sales within the publishing company.
To be honest, these results were somewhat beyond Asuto’s expectations.
Although physical publishing was still highly prosperous in Japan at this time, such sales numbers were considered extremely impressive.
To put it simply… Asuto’s royalty contract for the novel was 10%.
Royalties were not calculated purely based on copies sold, but rather on the total number of books printed by the publisher.
The initial print run was 5,000 copies.
However, when the publisher saw sales rapidly increase, they urgently ordered an additional 15,000 copies.
Each volume of Cautious Hero was priced at 820 yen.
With a 10% royalty rate, this equated to…
Based on the current print numbers alone, Asuto had already earned 1.64 million yen.
“Good grief… Why on earth am I still playing volleyball? At this rate, it feels like I could live off the royalties from this one novel for the rest of my life.”
Asuto was genuinely startled after doing the math himself.
However, Wakayama Kishia seemed even more excited about the success of Cautious Hero than Asuto was.
After all, as an editor, having the very first author under her responsibility achieve this level of performance right after debuting…
Not to mention the bonus from the publishing company alone, which would already be considerable.
As long as the sales remained stable going forward, there was basically no need to worry about Asuto’s first novel getting axed midway through serialization.
The second email from Wakayama Kishia contained congratulations.
The third email invited Asuto to meet again to discuss the future direction of the novel.
Asuto personally felt there was not much need for discussion.
After all, he had already finished writing Volume 2, and Volume 3 was almost complete.
However, after thinking it over, Asuto ultimately agreed to Wakayama Kishia’s request.
After arranging a meeting place, he once again threw himself back into training.
…
(End of Chapter)