Reader evaluations for The Cautious Hero were severely polarized.
Because the market was still dominated by orthodox hero fantasy novels, many younger readers found it difficult to accept "evil-path" hero stories like The Cautious Hero.
However, because orthodox hero novels were starting to decline, some readers who were already intimately familiar with the common tropes of the genre were immediately impressed by the creativity of The Cautious Hero.
Overall, because older readers generally have more disposable income, Akashi's novel sales were quite good.
Wakayama Hinatsu's purpose for meeting Akashi was precisely related to this. A faction of editors at the publishing house advocated for making adjustments to the subsequent content to use new plotlines to attract the other segment of readers.
However, this suggestion was firmly rejected by Akashi.
He felt that doing so would likely not only fail to attract new readers but would also cause the loss of existing readers. Having decided to take the 'evil path,' he naturally intended to follow it to the end.
During this meeting, Akashi also handed over the manuscript for the second volume to Wakayama Hinatsu.
This act nearly caused Wakayama Hinatsu, who was sipping coffee, to spit it out. She looked at Akashi as if he were some kind of rare animal.
An author not delaying a manuscript was simply unbelievable.
...
The Approaching Battle
Returning to school on Monday, Akashi distinctly felt a change in the atmosphere of the Seijoh volleyball club. The palpable sense of impending war spurred every club member's expression to become unusually serious.
Even Kunimi Akira, during this period of training, stopped talking about "energy conservation" and similar phrases.
The reason was none other than the imminent start of the High School Inter-High tournament. Not long ago, the draw list for the Inter-High preliminaries was released, and Seijoh would participate as the top seed for Group A.
The preliminaries were scheduled for June 2nd, meaning that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this week was likely the final week before the official matches began.
...
BAM!
"Next!"
BAM!
"Next!"
Inside the gym, Oikawa Tōru was setting the ball for players one by one. Thanks to a certain someone, the training rhythm for Seijoh players was at least one-third faster than before.
In the past, during training, most players might have only broken a slight sweat throughout an entire session.
But now, halfway through the session, many were practically gasping for breath.
It soon came to Akashi's turn.
Oikawa Tōru set a ball, but as the ball left his fingertips, his expression changed: "Ah, sorry, the set was a bit too high."
With Oikawa Tōru's current skill level, he rarely makes such a basic mistake. Yet, recently, whenever he teams up with Akashi, Oikawa Tōru frequently makes errors.
The root cause of this is actually Akashi's issue.
Because Akashi's rate of improvement is too fast. Often, Oikawa Tōru spends several days finally managing to consistently set the ball to Akashi's spiking high point.
But after some time, Akashi suddenly starts jumping even higher.
Although the magnitude of each improvement is minute and difficult for ordinary people to observe, who is Oikawa Tōru? To defeat his two destined shadows, Oikawa Tōru constantly holds himself to an extremely high standard.
So, whenever a subtle change in Akashi occurs, Oikawa Tōru must quickly adjust, just like now...
WHOOSH!
Oikawa Tōru's warning was clearly too late, because by the time he spoke, Akashi had already leaped into the air.
If it were before, even Akashi would find it difficult to salvage such a faulty set. However, this time, as if by sudden inspiration, Akashi abruptly tensed his body in mid-air, and then... simply paused there.
Only when the volleyball descended back to the hitting point did Akashi suddenly swing his arm and spike.
BAM!
The volleyball struck the floor, rebounding high into the air.
Under normal circumstances, outsiders wouldn't notice such a change, but Oikawa Tōru, who was closest to Akashi, clearly witnessed everything, and his pupils instantly dilated in shock.
"Akashi, did you... just pause in mid-air?"
"Hmm~"
Akashi pondered for a moment, summoned his data panel with his mind, looked at it briefly, and then nodded affirmatively: "I feel that way too. It seems my Hang Time ability has improved a bit."
On the data panel, Akashi's [Hang Time] attribute had changed from its original 79.9 to 80.
For a while now, Akashi had mainly focused on enhancing his physical stamina. After raising both of those attributes above 80 yesterday, he had planned to start boosting the [Hang Time] attribute as well.
He hadn't expected this attribute to suddenly break its limit and reach 80 on its own today.
Oikawa Tōru's eye twitched.
"Improved a bit?"
You call a change that is visible to the naked eye a bit?
Does having innate talent mean you can just do whatever you want?
"Akashi, after today's training, let's test your current hang time."
"Okay!"
Akashi nodded.
He knew that the improvement in the [Hang Time] attribute would clearly be another significant challenge for Oikawa Tōru. Just like Ushijima Wakatoshi, when the hang time attribute reaches a certain level, its very existence can become a powerful weapon.
As the tournament approached, Akashi's own training plan was also adjusted.
Just like in his middle school days, at times like this, Akashi's training plan would become primarily focused on specialized enhancement.
Day by day, time passed.
By Saturday, Wakayama Hinatsu sent another email informing Akashi of the novel's sales figures for the third week. Compared to the previous two weeks, the third week's sales had increased again, reaching 5,452 copies.
As a result, the publishing house decided to increase the print run by another 10,000 copies.
Furthermore, the second volume of the novel had already been sent to the factory for printing. Due to the success of the first volume, the initial print run for the second volume was set at 20,000 copies.
Given this, Akashi estimated that his royalty payment for the first month of the novel's release had already exceeded 4 million Japanese Yen.
And amidst such good news, the Inter-High School Comprehensive Sports Competition Preliminaries officially began...