Isekai Nonbiri Nouka Chapter 992: Village Five Wall Newspaper

Eliza – One of the civil servant girls. Acting representative of Delzen Paper and Delzen Printing.

Sharune – A female ancient devil. Also known as the Devil Who Severs Bonds, Letter.

-0-

The humanoid costume, the man in black, finally got a name.

Fuuma Kato.

………………

It was decided by lottery.

A lottery, that is.

I associated the black outfit with a ninja, so I threw famous names like Hattori and Sarutobi into the box as lottery slips.

Others helped too. Loo, Tier, Ria, Ann, and the mountain elves like Yaa all contributed.

Because of that, there should have been more than a hundred name candidates inside the box.

And the one who drew the lottery was one of the spiderlings who would be riding inside the humanoid costume.

It shot a web into the box I had mixed up and pulled out a slip, but…

Maybe the web’s adhesive strength was too strong, because two slips came out.

Those were Fuuma and Kato.

Both were slips I had put in myself. Was that the will of something unseen?

Since two slips came out, Loo and the others took it as some kind of message. Since it was a good opportunity, they decided to make Fuuma the given name and Kato the family name.

The spiderlings who would be riding inside also liked the name, so it was settled.

To me, it still feels a bit strange, but the name Fuuma is not impossible.

If that is the case, then it is fine.

Still, I regret a little that I did not go with something like Kotaro or Danzo instead.

I will be more careful next time.

-0-

A newspaper was created in Village Five.

Though it is called a newspaper, it is not something with many pages that gets delivered to every household every day.

It is a single large sheet posted on walls.

In other words, a wall newspaper.

The project began as a way to consume trial paper produced by Delzen Paper, to test printing by Delzen Printing, and to check the editorial skills of Delzen Publishing’s staff.

What is written is all related to Village Five.

Well, the section that takes up the most space is articles about Youko.

What Youko ate, which clothes Youko praised, things like that.

There are also introductions to shops in Village Five, trends, incidents, and the results and impressions of sports like baseball.

Ah, and something that must not be forgotten is the advertisements placed along the sides and bottom of the wall newspaper.

This wall newspaper is posted on bulletin boards set up throughout Village Five.

It is free.

However, even if it is a wall newspaper, it still costs money to make.

To recover those costs, there are advertisements.

Space is allocated according to the advertising fee, and ads are placed there.

In the first issue, the Goroun Company took up a large amount of space.

However, since they were not used to advertising, it ended up being nothing more than the Goroun Company emblem printed in a big way.

From our side, it was helpful as practice for printing illustrations, but they are paying a not-cheap advertising fee.

I want them to gain some benefit from it.

No, thinking calmly about it, the audience that reads the wall newspaper does not really need advertising from the Goroun Company.

Goroun Company does some retail, but at its core it is a wholesale dealer.

So, I advised them to withdraw from advertising.

However, Michael-san sensed a big business opportunity in wall newspaper advertising and decided to continue, saying he would find a way to make use of it.

In that case, I advised using the ads either to promote items individuals want to sell, or to raise the name recognition of the Goroun Company.

The result was this.

In the Goroun Company’s advertising space, illustrations of beautiful women and handsome men holding products were published, and they became very popular.

Apparently, Goroun Company wanted to use Village Five’s mascot, Five-kun, but I stopped that.

Doing something original is more convenient and causes fewer problems.

This world does not yet have concepts like copyright or portrait rights, but those things will inevitably come into being, and they must.

To make creative activity flourish, it begins with keeping those areas healthy and protecting creators.

I said all that in a rather self-important way, but I do not plan to spread those concepts myself.

I am hoping for them to arise naturally.

Or rather, I would like Delzen Printing and Delzen Publishing to do their best.

-0-

I received a report from Eliza, who is acting as the representative for Delzen Paper and Delzen Printing.

Apparently, someone came to Delzen Publishing wanting to buy a wall newspaper.

The wall newspaper belongs to Delzen Publishing, but since the planning of the wall newspaper was coordinated by Eliza, it was passed on to her.

「It was someone who runs a shop in Village Five and wanted to display it inside their store」

I see.

But we never decided on a price for individual sales, did we?

What did you do?

「I gave it to them for free」

Excellent.

The newspaper is practice for each business.

At the same time, it also serves as publicity for each business.

Rather than selling a single wall newspaper, giving it out has a much greater effect.

「Yes. However, we cannot give it away for free every time」

That is true.

But if we set a careless price, won’t the newspapers on the bulletin boards get stolen?

「Those newspapers have the mark of Village Five on them. I do not think there would be a foolish person who would steal one, but……」

With the Goroun Company illustrations being popular, could that happen?

「……It could」

Let us set a price that makes people think it is better to buy one than to steal it.

However, there will be no reprints.

「Even if there are requests, it will be limited to the number printed at the start, correct?」

That’s right.

The wall newspaper is published irregularly, but the staff involved are motivated, and the number of issues has already reached ten.

If someone asks for a specific past issue, we cannot respond.

Individual sales will be limited to surplus copies.

At present, a little over one hundred copies are posted on bulletin boards throughout Village Five.

In addition, copies are distributed to those who placed advertisements.

So we have only printed around two hundred copies.

There is no point in letting them sit unused.

「Understood. I will discuss the individual sale price and the initial print quantity with the staff」

Please do.

-0-

After that.

The staff involved with the newspaper discussed it and decided to sell each wall newspaper for one medium copper coin.

The initial print run would be five hundred copies.

It felt a little high, but apparently many people had already said they wanted one.

The wall newspaper might soon change into something closer to the newspapers I know.

「It is currently published irregularly, but some of the staff involved have suggested that they would like to make it a daily publication someday」

Eliza reported that to me.

I see.

Well, we are short on manpower right now, but once that problem is resolved, it might be fine to let it become independent as the Delzen Newspaper.

「The Delzen Newspaper? If possible, we would prefer something like the Big Tree Newspaper or the Village Five Newspaper」

Is the name Delzen becoming too prominent?

「There is no need to promote the Delzen name」

Alright.

I will think about it.

「Thank you. Also, the Prada Museum has proposed a project related to displaying the newspaper」

Ah, I have heard about that.

They want to display the wall newspaper inside the Prada Museum.

Not just the latest issue, but also past issues.

At the same time, they want to store all published issues.

I have no problem with the display.

As for storage, given the content of the newspaper, I think it would be valuable as historical material.

「Then will you grant permission?」

The same proposal has also come from the Village Five library.

「It has not reached me」

It probably went from the library to the Village Five council, then to Youko, and finally to me.

「I see」

What should we do?

Should we adjust things so that all newspaper related matters are unified under Eliza going forward?

「I would appreciate that, but……Please have it come from the Village Five council, not Youko-sama」

Understood.

Let us do that.

「Then where will you grant permission? Or will you deny it?」

I will grant it to both.

Having more display locations and multiple storage sites is a good thing.

That said, both have their own problems.

「Problems?」

Yes, the library has a space issue.

It is fine for now, but in the future it will probably run out of room.

Especially once publishing becomes more active.

「I see」

We have secured warehouse space for the library at the foot of Village Five, though.

「Then the Prada Museum would not have a space problem, right?」

That is true, but the issue there is that the person in charge of this project is Sharune.

Sharune likes books, letters, and anything with written text, so she also likes the wall newspaper.

In that sense, she is suitable, but……

She does not care about the content, and she is a bit rough when it comes to storage.

She is fine with stacking books flat, and she does not mind letters getting crumpled in her pocket.

If they are going to be stored, I would like it done properly.

「Ah……But I think it will be fine. Just because she is the person in charge does not mean Sharune-sama will handle everything herself」

Yes, that is true.

We will watch how things go for now.

I will prepare a formal written permission and circulate it.

「Thank you very much」

-0-

With the arrival of the wall newspaper, the literacy rate of Village Five residents improved even further.

At the same time, illustrators became a popular profession, but… Delzen Publishing had already moved to secure talent in advance, so there was apparently no negative impact on publishing.

That is good.

…But is that really fine?