American: Native Empire

I’m a licensed teacher now.😊 Thanks to galaxytl, translator community and readers for your support.🙏 You helped me pass my exam with confidence. As a token of gratitude, I’ll give 5 chapters each for my novels today. Enjoy😍!

“Welcome, Minister of Defense.”

“I hope I’m not late.”

“Late? No, I just got here. Come on, have a seat.”

The slender rope pointed to a chair with his hand, and the blue earth sat down without hesitation.

“I’m worried that I might have called you for nothing when you’re busy.”

“Haha. What are you talking about? There’s nothing more important than meeting with the Minister of Defense. And we have the same goal, don’t we?”

“That’s why I came here.”

The blue earth went straight to the point.

“Are there any problems with the military supplies heading to China?”

“What kind of question is that? We, the Eagle Summit, are supplying enough materials to all battlefields. And this will continue until the war is over.”

“As you know, supply is the most important thing in war. So please pay more attention.”

“Yes. I will do that.”

In fact, the blue earth was just saying that out of concern, and he trusted the Eagle Summit’s capabilities.

The one who was in charge of supplying the materials to the Chinese smugglers’ army, also known as the Revolutionary Army, was none other than the Eagle Summit. 

There was no one better suited for the job than them.

And until now, when the civil war was escalating, there was not a single hitch in the supply.

The blue earth moved on from this point. His real purpose for coming here was not supply.

He leaned forward and lowered his voice.

“How is the work going?”

The slender rope also knew what he was talking about and answered right away.

“We are working on all fronts with the ten factions that are divided. We were exposed a few times, but the results are not bad. Do you want to see this?”

“Hmm.”

The blue earth opened the document and scanned through the list written inside.

Then he nodded his head.

“You’ve captured some big shots.”

“Yes. Of course, there will be some who will act as double agents among them, but if we operate them as cells, they won’t know each other’s existence.”

“…We’ll settle everything at once, including the cost and reward for this activity, when the war is over.”

“Haha. I’m not doing this for money, but I’ll gladly accept it if you give it to me.”

“You can expect a lot.”

The slender rope was a merchant. 

Therefore, he did not refuse the blue earth’s words that he would pay a proper price.

‘I wonder how many more people there are besides those we captured or infiltrated?’

The list he handed over to the blue earth was only what the Eagle Summit had done.

Thanks to their astronomical funds and manpower, their information gathering and activity capabilities in China had surpassed Shadow. 

Shadow had helped Eagle Summit grow in the beginning, but now the situation had reversed.

That meant he had no idea how many more pro-empire people were stationed within the ten Revolutionary factions.

‘They will prevent these countries from raising their flags against the empire in the future.’

They would also be able to access various secrets of the new countries in advance, and play a role in drafting policies that would benefit the Wakan Tanka Empire.

The slender rope emptied his mind after thinking this far.

‘Let’s not try to know too much.’

Shadow was literally shadow. 

It was an organization that should never be exposed to the world. 

Even Shadow’s agents only knew fragments of their organization’s identity.

The only ones who knew its exact nature were Kim Ki-woo and Blue Earth, and Slender Rope and a few key figures.

It would only be dangerous to dig deeper into it. 

The slender rope changed the atmosphere.

“By the way, it’s frustrating. How can there be such human scum in this good world?”

“Tsk tsk. These guys should all die.”

Various newspapers reported every day on horrific and bizarre violent crimes that shocked society.

Newspapers competed to achieve more sales by doing so. 

But as time passed and printing technology developed, newspaper competition became more fierce.

As a result, they fought more to attract more consumers’ interest.

“What about the new serial novel?”

“Well…”

“What’s with that reaction? Don’t tell me you haven’t confirmed it yet? Are you crazy? You have to decide as soon as possible if you don’t want to go bankrupt!”

“…I’m having trouble talking to the existing famous serial writers. And there’s nothing worth serializing among the submissions…”

“Damn! That’s why I told you to keep an eye on them!”

Round Leaf felt wronged by his editor-in-chief’s scolding.

But he felt differently inside.

‘What do you want me to do? Do you think it’s easy to hire famous serial writers these days?’

He was really unfair. 

He would have understood if he had been lazy or made a mistake, but there was nothing like that.

Rather, it was a miracle that he had serialized the novels that were published in the newspaper with such a small budget.

The newspaper he belonged to, Dew, was not a major newspaper. 

It was published in quite a few areas on the mainland, but it had a short history and not enough funds compared to other newspapers.

‘Famous writers are all skipping newspaper serialization and going straight to publishing books… Sigh.’

From the perspective of writers who had some reputation, there was no need to publish their novels in newspapers.

Well, maybe it was different for a handful of newspapers like the Imperial Newspaper or the Sun Newspaper, but for a newspaper like Dew, it was hard to pay them a satisfactory fee.

Of course, the editor-in-chief knew the situation too. 

So he suppressed his anger and quickly snapped.

“Anyway, if you can’t get the established ones, you have to serialize the submissions. Just pick out the ones that are somewhat decent!”

“Yes, sir.”

Round Leaf bowed to his editor-in-chief and turned around.

“Haha. You look like you’ve been scolded again.”

“Ugh. Don’t even talk about it. If he’s so unhappy, why doesn’t he do it himself?”

“Understand him. The sales are not good these days. He’s getting a lot of pressure from above.”

His colleague next to him patted Round Leaf’s shoulder and comforted him, but his mood didn’t get better.

But what could he do? His mood was his mood and his work was his work.

“What should I serialize…”

Round Leafleaf started to skim through the submissions again. 

But no matter how many times he looked, the novels that were bad did not get any better.

He had a reputation for his discerning eye for novels. 

That was why he had been promoted faster than his peers.

The serial novels he had chosen so far had at least been moderate hits. 

But to Round Leafleaf’s eyes, there was not a single decent novel among the submissions that had come in.

‘It would be a miracle if they don’t get bashed.’

Novels were important for newspapers. 

The sales of newspapers depended on how interesting the novels were. 

In this fierce newspaper market, a decline in the quality of serial novels was fatal.

Round Leafleaf loved the Dew Newspaper very much, and he did not want to cause such a mishap.

As he was racking his brains, a familiar voice came to his ears.

“Round Leafleaf.”

“Hmm?”

“There’s someone who wants to submit a novel, but isn’t the deadline already over? Should I send them away?”

“Submit?”

It was true that the deadline had passed, but Round Leafleaf quickly shook his head.

“No. Let me meet them first.”

“I knew you would say that. They’re waiting in meeting room 9.”

“Thanks.”

He said so and got up from his seat, heading to meeting room 9.

‘Hmm.’

He groaned inwardly.

‘I think I wasted my time.’

There were many male writers among novelists, but there were also many female writers. 

They had their own delicacy as female writers.

But at least the age of the writer was important. 

There were some young genius writers, but they were very rare.

It was hard to ignore the writer’s life experience.

From that perspective, the girl in front of him looked too young. 

As a result, Round Leafleaf’s expectations dropped sharply.

But he did not want to dismiss her without even looking at her work.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, hello!”

The girl, White Canvas, greeted him loudly as soon as she saw Round Leafleaf.

“Haha. Don’t be so nervous. Come on, have a seat.”

He gestured for her to calm down and sat down opposite her. 

Then he went straight to the point since he did not have much time.

“Let’s start with your name. I’m Round Leafleaf, the editor in charge of serial novels.”

“I’m White Canvas.”

“Hmm. You look very young…”

“I’m fifteen this year… Is there an age limit?”

“No, there isn’t. You want to submit a novel?”

“Well… To be exact, it’s not a novel.”

“What?”

Round Leafleaf’s face showed doubt as an unexpected answer came out of White Canvas’s mouth.

“I heard you wanted to submit something, didn’t you?”

“It is a submission, but not a novel.”

“Sigh…”

He tapped his head. 

He was already having a headache from choosing serial novels, and he felt like he wasted his time.

Round Leafleaf stood up and said.

“I only accept novel submissions as I’m in charge of serial novels. If you have something else to submit, please call the relevant person.”

“Wait, please!”

“Do you have anything else to say?”

“Can’t you just look at my manuscript once?”

“…Fine, give it to me.”

“Thank you, thank you so much!”

White Canvas smiled as if she had won the world and bowed her head repeatedly.

Whatever. Round Leafleaf took her manuscript and turned the first page.

‘Huh?’

He reflexively turned a few more pages.

‘Illustrations?’

There were clearly drawings on them.

Of course, printing technology had advanced enough to put illustrations on newspapers. 

The Dew Newspaper even had a separate illustration team.

But White Canvas’s illustrations were different.

They looked like…

‘The characters in the illustrations are talking and leading the story?’

The balloons above them were clearly the dialogue of the characters.