Drawing Manga in a Romance Fantasy

Chapter 110

"White Whale had a simple structure from the start."

At Rupert's words, Ismael nodded.

Originally, Ismael’s White Whale was an adventure about a boy searching for his father, and the story was supposed to end with the boy defeating the great whale, a sea beast named White Whale, and rescuing his father.

"But... if I progress the story the way I first imagined, it might end too quickly."

Ismael was worried about exactly that. Rupert’s Van Helsing and other works had just moved past the opening stages of their stories, while White Whale had already reached the final battle with the whale.

“What’s bothering you about that?”

“If my story ends before the others, there will be a gap in the magazine, won’t there?”

Currently, Manafia was serializing six different works, and Ismael was concerned about leaving a void if his story ended early.

I didn’t realize he was thinking about this too.

Rupert found Ismael’s consideration admirable. It wasn’t easy for someone so young to not only think about their own work but also take into account the magazine’s situation. Ismael was showing remarkable depth for his age.

"Don’t worry. I’ve already prepared for something like this."

"Huh?"

"Not every story can end at the same time, so I’ve made arrangements in advance."

Rupert smiled and patted Ismael’s head, which brightened his expression. Ismael had been struggling to stretch out his story, and Rupert’s reassurance that it was fine to conclude it without worry felt like a beam of light.

"But remember this, Ismael."

"Remember what?"

"A writer's work doesn’t belong to the writer alone."

Ismael tilted his head, confused by this statement.

"Oh! You mean because Manafia or the Somerset Comics Workshop owns it?"

"No, that’s not what I mean."

Rupert chuckled softly and continued.@@@@

"When you’re creating something on your own, it can be whatever story you want. But once you’ve released it to the public and people start reading it, it’s no longer just yours."

"Then whose is it?"

"It also belongs to the readers. Never forget—if no one reads it, it isn’t a story at all."

A comic is only complete when someone reads it, so you must write an ending that the readers can understand.

Ismael finally understood the weight of responsibility that came with serializing a comic. Up until now, he had been drawing without much thought, but Rupert’s words made him realize that hundreds, if not thousands, of readers were watching him.

Can I deliver an ending that readers will understand?

Ismael began to reevaluate the conclusion he had in mind for his story.

Meanwhile, Rupert was also lost in thought.

I regret it the most.

The advice he had given Ismael was, in truth, a warning to himself.

The final scene on Earth flashed through Rupert’s mind.

Ah, I wish I had been born in a world where I could just draw comics.

Even now, he sometimes had nightmares of dragons appearing and destroying everything.

Back then, his editor had pushed him to wrap up his series due to licensing issues, and if someone asked whether Rupert had made the best decision at that time, he would have said no.

There must have been a better way.

But with the tight deadlines of weekly serialization, sudden cancellation orders, and the accumulating fatigue, Rupert’s mental state had been far from ideal.

That’s why he had ended his series the way he had—chaotically.

Esteban, the head merchant, descended from his office on the second floor.

"Head merchant! Look at this—these are the earnings for this quarter! Not for the year, but for this quarter alone!"

"Haha, that’s impressive."

Esteban smiled at their excitement but then added,

"All of this needs to be spent."

"Huh? All of it?"

"Hmm, it might not even be enough. But we’ll have to squeeze some additional investment from the Vera Trading Company to make it work."

The staff were shocked to hear that Esteban intended to spend every last bit of this enormous sum.

It was such a vast amount that they couldn’t even fathom how it could all be used up so quickly.

Esteban understood their concerns.

It’s insane, I know. With this much reserve, it would be wiser to hold onto it and use it when the time is right.

In trading, you never knew when a crisis might strike, so having ample reserves was always a good idea.

But to execute the plans he had discussed with Rupert, a massive amount of money was needed.

Honestly, it’s nerve-wracking even for me.

Esteban thought back to the conversation he’d had with Rupert.

“No matter how much we streamline it, our craftsmen have calculated that the cost price of the projector is still about 20 gold.”

At Rupert’s words, Esteban frowned.

"That’s too high."

Twenty gold was an unattainable sum for most commoners, and even for nobles, it was a steep price, limiting the potential market.

The animation projector was already an expensive venture, and there was a real risk of not even breaking even, let alone making a profit.

"Even if the craftsmen continue to refine the design over time, it’s hard to predict how much the cost will drop."

"It might be better to delay the release until we can lower the price as much as possible...."

"No, we’re going to raise the price even higher."

"What?!"

Esteban was taken aback by Rupert’s words.

Even with the current price, only a limited number of people could afford it. Raising the price would restrict the market to an even smaller group of elite nobles, making it difficult to recoup the investment.

"Rupert, that would be like throwing money away!"

Esteban, who usually trusted Rupert’s business instincts, was firmly opposed to this idea.

"We’ll approach it with two strategies."

"Two strategies?"

"One is to sell luxury projectors for nobles, exquisitely crafted and decorated, so they can enjoy the animation in their own homes."

Esteban understood that part—if the price was going to be high, positioning the projectors as luxury items for the elite was a reasonable strategy.

But the problem was that with such a high investment in animation production, it wouldn’t be enough to cover their costs.

"And the second strategy is to build public theaters."

"Public theaters?"

"Yes, we’ll build theaters across the Empire, wherever there’s a sufficient population, so that everyone can watch the animation."

If they couldn’t make enough profit selling projectors, Rupert proposed setting up theaters throughout the Empire where people could come to watch the animation.