264 A Promise to Publish

"Don’t misunderstand—I’m just going by my impression as a reader, not my review as the head editor," Souzo explained after he noticed the editors’ expressions. It seemed that he'd realized what they were thinking. "This story made me recall the feeling I had reading that story from ten years ago... and as the head editor, I can only say that so far this story seems to be written quite well and has a good chance of becoming popular. As for how popular it can become... that will depend on luck and the audience’s tastes."

The editors finally understood.

A popular story’s success didn’t depend solely on the quality of the written work. Luck was also a factor, and more precisely, it depended on what the general public wanted to read at the time.