Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 161



Only Noblemtl

161.

After God returned to the Dean’s office, Edward MacMillan spoke quietly.

“Graduate student~.”

“Yes, Professor!”

“Can I just ask for a cup of coffee?”

“All right!”

The graduate student burst out like the wind.

Edward stood up from his seat and stood in front of the window, enjoying the sunlight for a moment.

After a while, a graduate student brought coffee, and Edward accepted it, savoring the deep flavor and speaking to the sullen graduate student.

“Graduate student.”

“Yes, Professor!”

“Am I making my kids study too much?”

“No! That can’t be!”

“God said so?”

“Hey, isn’t that just his opinion?”

“Well, but still······ I think it would be better to let the freshmen loose a bit.”

“If that’s what you think, Professor, then that seems like a good idea!”

“Hmm, but how do I solve it?”

Edward, who was thinking deeply, soon came up with an idea.

“Should we try holding an outdoor class?”

“Oh, that sounds like a good idea!”

“Really? Then can you come up with a plan and upload it?”

“············.”

“A place with a nice view and good ideas for writing.”

“Yes, Professor!”

The graduate student, who answered with a bright smile, finished his greetings and went out of the room after the professor told him to leave.

Soon, his expression, which had been smiling brightly, became distorted, and the graduate student muttered a man’s name with hatred and anger rising from deep within him.

“SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN·······.”

The professor does not know the human mind.

It’s just designed that way.

***

Things went exactly as I expected.

Having worked for newspapers, magazines of all genres, and publishers for a long time, Simon Carver knew a lot about how to produce and distribute books as products.

Every time I saw that they were paying meticulous attention to every detail, from editing and cover design to book reviews, I felt reassured. And with Julia Chandler right there with me, giving me unsparing advice and help, all my worries disappeared.

If Simon views writing as an ‘art’, Julia views it as a ‘commodity’, which is a perspective he lacks, and makes realistic judgments.

That’s why she was supposed to be listed as a sub-editor for ‘Country of Losers’.

The sight of people believing in the potential of my work and offering help gave me confidence.

The confidence that I can achieve my desired goals.

‘I’m sure you’ll do well.’

After coming to that conclusion, I felt relieved and focused on my college life.

The winter semester began in 1985.

Unlike the fall semester, freshmen applied for the classes they wanted to take, and I applied for five classes, excluding the four required major courses, to meet the standard of 18 credits per semester that Stanford undergraduates usually take.

It was a pretty tight schedule, but I thought it would work out somehow.

He said that the typical goal for Stanford students is to ‘somehow’ meet the graduation criteria by the winter semester of their fourth year and to start job hunting during the summer semester.

I heard it from friends like John Smith who had gotten the information from upperclassmen, and it seemed reasonable, so I went with it.

‘Because it wasn’t that far off from the standards I set when I entered college.’

The only reason I chose to go to college was to get better at writing novels.

In the 1980s, it was difficult to obtain knowledge or information, the experience of attending a top university that I had to compromise on due to practical issues in my previous life, and on top of that, the appropriate amount of free time with acquaintances for psychological stability.

That’s why I chose Stanford.

So really, anything I could learn was good.

I planned to take any class I could get my hands on, from social psychology to all sorts of physics, astronomy, space science, and even the writing that makes up the fabric of the country.

Because of that, I attended classes in the form of audits, even classes that students from other departments would not normally be able to register for.

And it seemed like my attitude made one student very uncomfortable.

“······Well, let me say something first.”

Kate Moore, sitting right next to me, opened her mouth as if trying to make an excuse.

“You’re not uncomfortable at all with taking classes with me, are you? But could you please not sit next to me?”

“I thought of you as a friend.”

“It’s not me.”

Kate ‘The Cruel’ Moore.

It’s a name that sounds like it would appear in a TRPG.

“We had a great time last semester. We did volunteer work together and participated in exchange events.”

“Wasn’t that the deal? You said you wanted to be inspired by my life.”

After saying that, Kate looked around for a moment as if remembering something, then whispered in my ear.

“So, what happened?”

“Thanks, it was well written.”

“······Did I help you with the novel?”

“any?”

“What exactly does it mean to help a novel?”

“Well, I guess it’s just a part of the writing that I wrote about you and other college students and what I saw and felt.”

“So are you going to write something like ‘About T’ again this time?”

“That’s a spoiler.”

“Please tell me······! You said we were friends!”

“Kate Moore was someone who changed her words easily.”

“Don’t write novels with your mouth!”

Kate looked around as her voice grew louder.

Beyond Kate and me were many other sociology friends, all of whom were looking at Kate with expressions of disbelief as she raised her voice.

“Sorry, I spoke a little loudly.”

I chuckled at Kate’s desperate attempt to maintain her image.

In fact, I felt something akin to a friendship with Kate as we spent a lot of time together last semester.

I never expected something like this to happen in my past life, but I guess I only live twice.

“Kate.”

“······why?”

Kate, who was making excuses to her friends, turned to me with a glare again.

I smiled and brought up a story she would welcome.

“‘About T: TV series’ airs today on LBS.”

“I know. That’s why I borrowed money from the girls’ dorm and bought a VCR.”

“······yes?”

Kate pushed up her glasses as she stared at me in bewilderment at the completely unexpected answer.

A motion to fit the hinged parts of the two ends of the glasses to your face using both palms spread wide.

······Somehow, someone who is a toy designer comes to mind.

“Of course. Everyone is serious about ‘About T’.”

“Oh, I see.”

“There are some who claim that we should kidnap you and force you to write only ‘About T.’”

“Hey, that’s a lie.”

“I am the leader.”

I looked into Kate’s eyes and realized that she was half-sincere.

······How would she react if she found out that ‘About T: College’ was being planned in this situation?

I guess I’ll have to change seats.

***

By about 6 p.m., the area around Stanford’s dorms was deserted.

Usually, around this time of year, the sun is starting to set and the weather is nice, so there are a lot of people going for walks or dinner, but this was unusual. The staff who prepared food in the cafeteria and waited for the students to come in tilted their heads as they looked at the empty cafeteria for the first time in a long while.

But it’s not just Stanford University.

Similar events occurred across California, with housewives and young students noticeably disappearing from the streets.

It wasn’t that a piper suddenly showed up and dragged everyone away. It was because of a pilot program that was going to air on prime time television tonight at 7 o’clock.

‘About T : TV series’.

A television drama produced by California Pictures, a subsidiary of LBS, based on a famous novel.

The 40-minute-long piece was heavily advertised on television, radio, and newspapers before it was aired.

The commercial went viral, and everyone who enjoyed the original went home early in anticipation, stocking up on frozen “TV Dinners” sold at the supermarket.

There were also many people who recorded it on a VCR and wanted to watch it whenever they wanted.

And so did the ‘About T’ fangirls in Kate’s dormitory.

There were more people than I thought. About thirty people. Not all of them were able to watch ‘About T: TV Series’ on time today, and many of them wanted to watch it again later, so naturally the topic of buying a VCR came up.

So we all chipped in a little bit of money and put a VCR in our dorm lobby.

In fact, it was quite unusual.

Stanford University dormitories had small CRT televisions, but they were only half-decorative. Most students didn’t pay much attention to them, since they would rather read another book or do homework than watch TV.

But suddenly, something strange happened because of ‘About T’.

“Pizza delivery is here!”

A third grader came in carrying five pizzas.

“I bought ‘that’ too!”

Behind him, a second-year student came in carrying a package of beer wrapped neatly in an envelope.

If they had been caught by the dorm supervisor, they would have been immediately reprimanded, but these smart Stanford female students did not overlook that.

Among the thirty people, a whopping twenty-four were wearing glasses. They pushed up their glasses as they reviewed today’s strategy(?).

“Professor, you went to the meeting today, right?”

“that’s right.”

“I hope everything goes well today.”

“Will it work?”

“You have to! Otherwise you’ll have to come home early!”

“ah.”

“Are you ready to ‘destroy the evidence’?”

“Of course. For now, I plan to hide the bottle in the basement storage room behind the dormitory.”

“I’m thinking of bringing the VCR to May’s room.”

“What about the video?”

“That’s my room.”

“Why your room?!”

“Because I’m the only one among them who knows how to operate a VCR.”

“Oh! You think you’re so great because you’re majoring in computer engineering!”

“······.”

Kate Moore’s eyes widened as she watched her senior students sincerely dismantle the problem.

‘It’s okay, right?’

For some reason, my heart started pounding.

Up until now, Kate has tried to live a ‘proper’ life as much as possible. She has always studied hard for a stable future, and has also been diligent in forming relationships and participating in external activities.

In the midst of all this, the only thing that made her not be herself was a novel called ‘About T’.

‘I wish there was just one thing that wasn’t true.’

It was written by a guy who keeps appearing like a fly and acting sly.

Just thinking about that fact made me angry, but in the end, I made a final argument that the work was not at fault.

The ‘change’ that the work brought about allowed Kate to have a different experience.

And that was true for all thirty female students gathered in the girls’ dormitory right now.

Stanford was a top-tier university in the United States, and its graduation standards were high. Students studied almost nonstop, and they took that life for granted. At best, they would drink a few cans of beer right before bed, clean up properly, and carefully go back to their room to lie down on their bed.

Some of the sports-related departments tended to hang out together, but Kate Moore, a member of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the female students in the dorm here preferred to read books or think about social phenomena rather than drink beer and have fun.

······And the work that caused those female students to deviate was ‘About T’.

“Kate, beer?”

“Uh, yeah? No. I’m fine.”

The girl next to her offered Kate a beer, but she declined.

She had vowed to herself that she would never drink alcohol again in her life. For her, who was trying to properly ‘optimize’ her life, alcohol was the ultimate inefficiency.

Instead, I picked up a high-calorie cheese pizza, opened my mouth, and took a bite.

The rich flavor and saltiness of cheese, and the chewy texture of bread.

My eyes lit up.

In that state, she stared at the television, mingling among the female students.

“Let’s get started!”

The commercial, which seemed like an eternity, ended with someone shouting and the broadcast began.

Bam~Bam~Bam~!

The opening music was upbeat and showed a young man running along a California beach with a football in his hand. Next to him, the words [Anthony Miles – Darren Burney] appeared. This meant that the name of the actor playing Anthony was Darren Burney.

“Gyaaaaah-!”

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Here comes Tony, the ‘boy of dreams’ who set every California woman’s heart on fire!

The female students screamed with their mouths and hearts at the sight of his handsome visuals.

“Are you crazy? How can you be that handsome?!”

“They really chose good actors······!”

What followed was a picture of a female student sitting in the library wearing glasses.

[Alice Riley – Brittany Morgan].

“Alice is so cute!!”

“What, what! ‘About T’ is actually a real thing?!”

Everyone was so excited that they shouted.

The sound from the CRT television was quite crackling and the picture was yellowish, but everyone watched television happily, taking it for granted.

As the actors in each role passed by and the school scene was revealed, ‘About T’ was finally about to begin.

‘huh?’

Kate, who had been watching television absentmindedly for a moment, froze like a stone.

It was because I saw a woman waving her hand awkwardly among the many female students on television······.

‘Alexa Flare?!’

It was a face that was all too familiar to her.

End

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