Chapter 133: The Handsome Gambit and the Melting Ice Queen
Tokyo. July. Laplace Corporation Headquarters.
July at Laplace Corporation was not merely sweltering—it was infernal, in temperature and in pressure. The bustling heart of the company throbbed with relentless tension as deadlines loomed and expectations soared.
Laplace Bunko, the company's publishing arm, had entered a critical period of promotion. The second volume of the light novel series Youth was being pushed with aggressive marketing. Simultaneously, the anime adaptation was now greenlit for a feature film release. Ordinarily, such a venture would take a year or two from pre-production to premiere. But Laplace demanded the impossible: one month.
Criticism flooded in. Online forums buzzed with doubts. The hot search bar on social media flashed with controversy more than once. Whispers turned to outcry.
"Should we pay to have the trending tags removed?" the head of the business department had asked Yukinoshita Yukino repeatedly.
But she had always answered the same way, her expression unchanging.
"No need."
She wasn't being stubborn—just principled. Or maybe naïve.
Beyond books and anime, Laplace Corporation's real battlefield was far more insidious. Patents. Trademarks. Legal frameworks. Corporate backroom politics. The side of business the public never sees.
And on this front, Laplace was struggling.
"Haizz..." Yukino let out a long, controlled sigh, barely louder than the rustle of paper on her desk.