CH 2

On the first day of the bookshop’s opening, perhaps because the rumour the boss wanted hadn’t spread yet, the only people who came to the bookshop were passing by demons. No demons were looking for expensive human books, so the boss took charge of the reception while Paul took charge of the cashier. Despite Paul’s concerns, the boss responded well to the customers. Paul didn’t have much difficulty as his job did not require any communication except for showing the billed amount. That was until he faced the so-called ‘troublemaking’ customers.

As a matter of fact, Paul was being looked down on by the demons again and again. They either deliberately threw gold at him or made fun of him in demon language.

Then, there was that one time when a customer with a human body and a chicken head brought a book and came to pay. The chickenhead suddenly squawked something at Paul. Although Paul didn’t understand the words, he had a hunch.

‘They’re definitely asking for a discount.’

He looked at the boss with a troubled look, but the boss was busy searching for a book in a faraway bookcase. The more Paul panicked, the louder the chickenhead’s squawks became. At that moment, something flew from the boss’s direction and accurately struck the chickenhead’s forehead. ‘Nice shot, boss!’ was undoubtedly the appropriate phrase to use in times like this.

“เจ้าจะถอยไปข้างหลังไหม?”

Upon closer inspection, the thing that was stuck on the chickenhead like a dagger was nothing other than a bookmark. 

Paul then asked the boss, “Thank you, boss! But what did you say?”

“I asked if they wanted to cut their life, not the price.” The boss, who said this with a casual look, was truly a little scary. But at the same time, it was really satisfying because if it were a human world, Paul would have certainly been in an inferior position. Paul hurriedly sent the chickenhead out.

However, the very next customer was also troublesome. This time, Paul successfully handled the payment and made a gesture asking if they needed something to carry. Then, the three-armed demon suddenly made a fuss. 

Paul felt that he was hearing a human voice again.

‘Then how do I take it without a bag?!’

You could have just responded that you needed it. Paul gazed at the boss while clicking his tongue. The boss, who made eye contact with Paul, slightly frowned. He said something in demon language, then put the book in a bag himself and put it in the mouth of the frightened demon.

“I told them to take it with their mouth if they had no hand to carry it.”

Paul felt like he was showered with cider! But the refreshed feeling lasted for only a moment as the final boss appeared in the bookshop…

Paul immediately noticed that they were homeless by their beggarly appearance. Regardless of how the human world was, for the homeless demons, bookshops were a place with an appropriate temperature, a quiet atmosphere, and books that could be seen as a way to relieve boredom.

‘Ack! What the hell is this smell!’

Paul involuntarily held his nose. Originally, the demons didn’t smell good, but the homeless demons smelled so terrible that Paul felt sick. Moreover, they wandered around the bookshop, disturbing other demon customers or touching the new books with their dirty hands.

“Boss! Please help me out here…!”

The boss, who heard Paul’s muffled voice, quickly escorted the homeless man outside and returned alone shortly after. Looking closely, the boss’s bookmark was now stained with sticky dark red fluid.

“…”

Paul quietly took the bookmark and threw it in the trash. He, who had accumulated a lot of things while working at a bookshop, danced internally without anyone knowing. 

Once, Paul had heard someone say, “At least people who come to the bookshop can read letters, so the customers should be decent, right?” 

Oh! That was the most ridiculous thing Paul had ever heard in his 20 years of life. This is because bookstores were where people who knew how to read but couldn’t understand spoken language came.

Paul, who had been secretly dancing to a beat, soon realized that the number of demons in the bookshop had decreased significantly before he knew it.

“Boss, it’s good to get rid of troublemakers, but is it okay to kick all the customers out like this?”

“It’s okay. It’s not like these low-level demons are interesting anyway.”

What the boss said was true. By his standards, an interesting customer turned out to be a red-haired kid who arrived late.

Around the evening that day, a little kid came, wearing a neat black dress like a rich lady, fancy enamel shoes, and a black velvet ribbon on her hair. She looked like a human girl, but small red horns protruded from both sides of her red hair.

“เอาหนังสือมาให้ข้า!”

The red girl burst through the bookshop door with an extremely angry face and suddenly shouted at the boss. The boss stood with an expressionless face, his arms crossed, and exchanged a few words with the kid.

“Paul, come here.”

“Yes!” Paul, who felt the unusual atmosphere, ran over quickly.

“This customer is looking for a human book.”

“Yes! Which one is it?”

“But she doesn’t know the title, the author, or the plot. Except that the cover is achromatic.”

“What…?”

The boss put his hand on Paul’s shoulder, and the corner of his lips curved a little.

“How about it? You can find it, right, Paul?”

“Whatttt??”

The little lady’s name was Illumina Lagreen. She was the second daughter of a wealthy noble family. Her story went like this. Illumina had a precious human book, which her parents had sold to the Wolf Merchant Guild. Recent rumours had it that all of the company’s human books had been handed over to Kshatrit. That was why she triumphantly came to retrieve her book.

‘There wasn’t even a backstory!’ Paul thought to himself. He envisioned the scene of the child throwing a tantrum with a comic book in hand and the parents resolutely shaking it off. Anyway, Paul had to serve his first customer.

According to Illumina, it wasn’t that there were no clues at all. She said maybe it was a story about friends, friendship, or something like that. Paul took out a few plausible books from the bookcases containing human books and handed them over. Of course, the covers were all achromatic.

“These aren’t it,” the boss said on behalf of the child. Paul sighed unconsciously. It was as difficult as being asked to find a book that one didn’t know exactly. (Actually, Paul had been asked by a customer to find a book on display five years ago that they didn’t know the name or contents of.)

Paul showed her a few more books, but Illumina kept shaking her head with pursed lips. At this rate, Paul would have to take out all the books with achromatic covers and show them to her. The problem was that half of the human books on the bookcase were achromatic-covered.

“Stop.”

How long has it been? The boss, who was watching Paul and Illumina, finally spoke up. When the boss said something to Illumina, she responded with an annoyed face, kicked back the door she had entered, and went out. From the way she left, she would surely come back again soon.

“I told her that I’ll ask the trading company and asked her to come back in a few days.”

“Yes.”

Paul was reassured by the boss’s words. It might faster this way. Looking at the clock on the wall, the closing time had already passed. Paul, who couldn’t sleep well last night, yawned. The boss, who glanced at him, also looked quite tired as his eyes were sunken.

“Let’s wrap it up for now.”

The two hurriedly closed the store on the first day of opening and went to bed separately.

The next morning, Paul, who got up early, was cleaning the bookshop. Due to the numerous footprints on the floor, he had to wash the mop and wipe the floor. As he cleanly wiped out the last footprint, the bookshop door opened with tremendous force. Looking up, it was the little girl, Illumina, as expected.

“เอาหนังสือมาให้ข้า!”

She looked at Paul and started yelling with a shriek. It was obvious that she was asking for the book again. Soon after, the boss came down from upstairs with an annoyed look. He, who was fond of sleeping in the morning, seemed to be awakened by her voice.

The next day, Illumina came in again and disturbed the boss’s morning sleep. The boss told her to go back because he was looking for it, but she didn’t leave the bookshop. Rather, she behaved imposingly which made Paul amazed.

“ลูกค้าเป็นผู้มีอำนาจ”

“What is she saying?”

“She said it’s the customer’s authority.”

The boss replied with a voice of disgust. It was technically no longer her book, but coming to this extent, Paul thought it was incredible.

Even on the last day, the little girl didn’t go back until it was almost closing time. Paul, who felt that this wasn’t going to work, woke up secretly that night and stealthily climbed up to the first floor. Paul was wary of waking up the boss who had been pestered by her in the last few days. He took out human books with grayscale covers with the bookshop lights still off. Inside the dark bookshop, there was a small, flickering lamp that he had turned on. Holding back the urge to close his eyes, he went through each book one by one.

‘She’ll come tomorrow as well, so I’ll have to find a book about friendship in advance. But why am I so sleepy…’

In the middle of the silence, there was only the sound of turning over the pages. In the meantime, Paul, whose head was tilting this way and that, eventually fell asleep.

“…Paul?”

Paul heard someone calling his name in his sleep. He wanted to open his eyes properly, but it wasn’t easy in his half-asleep state. Soon the owner of the voice picked him up. His broad arms were as warm as if he was in his parents’ embrace during childhood. Paul, who was gently laid on his bed by careful hands, fell into a deep sleep again.

Paul overslept the next day. After hastily getting ready, he came up to the bookshop. Then he saw a welcome face and a face that wasn’t. The former was Pablo and the latter was Illumina. 

“Sorry for being late!” Paul bowed his head helplessly. However, the atmosphere of the bookshop was off.

“Haha… Good morning, Teeter-nim.” As usual, the boss and Illumina were in a confrontation. Pablo gave an awkward smile. Paul realised that the boss’s eyes were bloodshot. It was obvious that he hadn’t got a night of proper sleep.

It was only after getting a rough summary of the situation from Pablo that Paul came to understand what was going on. It was the boss who moved him to bed last night. He even finished examining the books on Paul’s behalf since he knew how to read the human language. As Illumina came in again, he handed out the books he had prepared. However, the book she was looking for was nowhere to be found. Illumina, who had already checked all the achromatic-covered books but couldn’t find what she wanted, was on the verge of causing a scene.

“Did you call me, boss?”

At that moment, Pablo, who received a message in a timely manner, appeared.

“I’ve looked through all the records, but recently our company hasn’t purchased any human books with the cover you mentioned. And as I mentioned earlier, we brought all the books to Kshatrit.”

So where the hell did that book run away to? This was becoming a complicated situation.

Pablo also appeared to be at a loss. He took a round candy from his pocket to appease Illumina. As expected, there was nothing as good as a sweet candy to pacify a child. Judging from the colour and size, it was clearly the green grape flavour Paul was familiar with.

Illumina, who received the candy from Pablo, peeled off the wrapper and put it into her mouth without saying thank you. But she immediately spat it out. ‘Ptui!’ 

“ข้าไม่ชอบองุ่นเขียว!”

“She says she doesn’t like the taste of green grapes. Is the green grape flavour unpopular with children…?” Pablo asked Paul in a sullen voice. 

Paul doubted that. Anyone could see that the candy was a green grape flavour, so why did Illumina put it in her mouth without thinking? It wasn’t like her to do so out of politeness, considering her personality as a child. 

At that moment, something flashed through Paul’s mind. Illumina’s red hair. Green grape flavour candy. Pablo’s ears and tail, which resembled those of a puppy. Perhaps…?

“By any chance, could it be this book?”

Paul quickly took out a red book from the bookcase containing human books. The cover read:

<A Dog of Flanders>

Illumina, who was diligently looking for the book, suddenly nodded with a lit-up face.

“That’s the book. How did you know?”

Hearing the boss’s words, Paul explained his thoughts.

“Even though Illumina-nim hates green grapes, she ate a green candy without any doubt, right? Maybe she has red-green colour blindness, so whether something is red or green, it just looks achromatic. The same goes for the cover of the book we’re looking for.”

“Indeed.”

“In addition, <A Dog of Flanders> is about friendship even if it’s about different races.”

The boss listened to Paul’s story and admired his reasoning. Besides, the reason why Illumina didn’t know she was colour-blind was that she was still young, or she didn’t get attention from her parents. Or it could be both.

Soon, Paul tried to hand the book in question to Illumina. But the boss quickly took the book and held it up high. As a result, she, who was even shorter than Paul, was flapping her hands in the air trying to reach the book. Illumina glared at the boss and yelled in frustration.

“เจ้าทำอะไรน่ะ?!”

“Teeter-nim.”

Paul was dumbfounded by the boss’s attitude. At that time, Pablo gestured quietly from the corner as if telling him to come closer. Paul smoothly dashed to him.

“Teeter-nim, the boss is asking her about the background of the book.” Pablo kindly translated it for Paul, who didn’t know the demon language. Thanks to Pablo, Paul felt like he was using a translator.

“‘This book, tell me the whole story behind it. Otherwise, I won’t sell it.’ he said.”

“‘What in the world?’ she said”

“‘It’s the boss’s authority.’ he said”

He could see the boss talking with an expression that couldn’t be more wicked. The smile with only one corner of the mouth slightly raised seemed to be able to make even the devil cry. 

“‘Saying it’s a precious book while not even knowing the title or the author, besides, your family is rich, there’s no way you sold it for money.’ he said”

“…!”

Illumina’s shoulders flinched as if she had been caught off guard by the boss’s statement. A moment of silence followed. Finally, Illumina slowly opened her mouth with an unexpected comment that surprised everyone in the bookshop.

“‘I have a human friend. It’s her book.’ she said.”

Illumina’s eyes turned red in no time. Her voice also began to tremble little by little.

Illumina had a human slave named Morroney who was of a similar age. The two had known each other since childhood, so they became best friends. But as Paul experienced, the other demons treated humans even worse than insects.

“How dare a slave own a book? Give it to me!”

“I’m sorry! Master! Please don’t take it away!”

“Go get the whip for punishment!”

“Master, please! Give it back! Kya!”

It was also the same when Morroney was caught hiding <A Dog of Flanders> under the bed. The human slave, who wasn’t allowed to have private belongings, was severely beaten, and the book was immediately sold to the merchants by Illumina’s parents.

“‘Morroney couldn’t come with me because she was sick in bed.’ she said”

“Wahhhh!”

Illumina, who finished her explanation, eventually began to cry. Paul handed a tissue in a hurry. The boss was also surprised by Illumina’s response. In this world dominated by demons, humans were nothing more than slaves. Perhaps humans were even lower than the pets the demons raised. So Illumina calling Morroney a friend meant that she especially cared for her.

He soon returned with his usual expressionless face and handed the book to Paul.

“Wrap the book.”

“Yes!”

“Don’t take any gold for it.”

“Yes, boss!”

Paul wrapped the book carefully in a cute wrapping paper. He also didn’t forget to put bookmarks that children would like. To hear that a human like him was treated like that… He felt sorry for them, at the same time, thankful to the boss. Until now, unlike others, the boss had never shown any signs of discomfort or discrimination because Paul was human.

“Please tell her to just take it.”

“Teeter-nim, little miss said ‘isn’t that obvious?'”

Illumina proudly received the book. In the first place, she sneaked out of the house without anyone knowing, so she didn’t bring much gold. So if he had asked her to pay for it, the bookshop would have been in a commotion once again. Paul thought the boss was the most quick-witted demon in the world.

“‘This is originally my friend’s book, you know?’ she said. And what did she say after that?”

“…ขอบใจ”

“Oh, ‘thank you anyway.’ she said “

Illumina, who received the book, murmured in a small voice, but she thanked Paul for the first time. Then she left the bookshop with lighter steps.

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

“Please take care, Pablo-nim.”

When the case was settled, Pablo also bid farewell and returned to the Wolf Merchant Guild. Paul watched Pablo’s greyish-white tail sway as he went out the door. He felt as if all his energy was drained even though the bookshop had officially been open for less than a week.

Will the bookshop become quieter now? Contrary to Paul’s expectations, however, there was no calm day in Kshatrit.

***

As usual, Paul was organising the books scattered by customers. Demons and humans were the same, throwing the books anywhere.

‘Still, the demons read more books than humans. In a way, are they better than humans?’

While Paul was thinking and putting the books in place, he suddenly noticed an empty space on the shelf.

“What’s this empty spot?” Paul, who was muttering to himself, finally realized something was wrong. Someone had taken a whole stack of books that used to be there.

“Boss! I think there’s a thief in the bookshop!”

A bookshop was known for being a popular target for thieves. In addition, there was currently no proper anti-theft device in Kshatrit. In fact, Paul never explained this to the boss because he hadn’t even considered the possibility of demons stealing from the shop. The boss quickly strode over with his long legs to the space Paul was pointing at.

“It seems to be the place where <The Boy of Samhain> was.”

<The Boy of Samhain> was a newly released novel written in demon language. It wasn’t a very popular book because the writer and publisher were relatively not famous. It seemed that the standards of choosing a book for demon customers weren’t too different from those of humans.

“Even demons steal, don’t they?”

“They’re no different from humans.”

Paul totally agreed with the boss. The events that happened during the past few days at the demon bookshop were like the things that he would go through in the human world. Then, Paul realized that the look on the boss’s face had become grim. As Paul thought there would be a bloodbath in the bookshop at any moment, he intentionally started babbling to lighten the mood.

“May I tell you an interesting story, boss?”

“What is it?”

“You see, my family ran a bookshop for generations. My dad told me that one time, it was strange that the book kept disappearing, so he tracked down the culprit. He finally caught the thief after a series of twists and turns. But do you know who the thief was? He was the oldest regular customer at the bookshop! He had been buying a lot of books while stealing a lot of them at the same time. After the quarrel, he broke into that person’s house and goodness~! There were a lot of stolen books being displayed. They were a government official and close enough to eat meals together with my dad! This is why we should absolutely never judge a person by their appearance, right?”

Perhaps due to how Paul chattered enthusiastically like a sparrow, the boss’s expression softened considerably compared to before.

Paul checked the ledger with the boss again because he had to adjust the inventory of the stolen books. As the boss had said, exactly five copies of <The Boy of Samhain> had been stolen.

‘Something’s not right.’ Paul thought. Based on his experience, there had never been a case of thieves stealing the same book like this due to the high risk of being caught. Furthermore, stealing from a small rural bookshop that could easily track their inventory must surely be the work of a bold demon.

After that day, Paul, who noticed the thief’s existence, became suspicious of every demon. Was it a homeless person who had nothing to lose? Did the chickenhead who was driven out last time do this out of spite? Or was it a frequent visitor? If that also wasn’t the case, don’t tell me, the boss…?

“Lego!”

‘Meow?’

“You’re the culprit, aren’t you?”

Paul was now looking at even the stupid-looking cat, Lego, with a suspicious look. It wasn’t until seeing Lego, which had been grooming itself, running away in a hurry, that he knew Pablo had entered the bookshop.

“Hello, Pablo-nim!”

“Hello, Teeter-nim! I brought the books you ordered today.”

Pablo said while putting the books down. Paul wondered if Pablo might be the culprit. Paul, who was scrutinizing Pablo with narrow eyes, suddenly thought that he looked a bit haggard. The rich grey tail was drooping down, and shadows were cast over his lively face.

“Pablo-nim, are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

“Haha… It’s alright.” As he weakly smiled, Paul felt bad to see him like this. Paul was initially going to request Pablo to find out about <Prelude to the Battlefield> but he decided to put off the matter because he looked like he was in a bad condition. Instead, he offered a cup of warm barley tea. Pablo’s hand shook slightly as he was handed the tea.

“Pablo-nim, please don’t overexert yourself.”

“Thank you, Teeter-nim. We, beastmen, have a time when we become weak periodically.”

Paul wanted to ask in detail but quit because Pablo didn’t seem to want to. Instead, the thief became the topic of their conversation.

“Did something like that happen? Our merchant guild is always on the lookout for thieves. Especially, there are times when bandits appear during transport.”

“Bandits?”

“Yes, it’s going to be a long story so I’ll tell you more about it next time.”

After finishing the tea, Pablo bowed and left to transport other things in the carriage he drove. At the place where he stood remained a handful of green grape candy as if they were a token of gratitude. Paul smiled and put a candy in his mouth.

Pablo brought new books every time he came, so the bookshop became busy again. In particular, salespeople from the publishing companies who heard the news of the opening had been constantly visiting these days.

“Aigo, boss, our books turned out really well this time! We’ll give you a sample, so how about putting it on that shelf over there?”

They flattered them in order to get their publisher’s books displayed in a good spot by any means. Of course, Paul couldn’t understand the demon language, so the target was the boss at first. But the boss with his expressionless face wouldn’t fall for them easily, and they were now starting to capture Paul. 

In particular, Publisher A’s salesperson followed Paul persistently with an amiable smile. “Paul-ssi, how are you~?” He, an uncommon two-mouthed demon who came with a smile every day, greeted Paul while entering the bookshop. Both of his hands would be full of snacks Paul would like.

“Paul, don’t carelessly pick up and eat.”

“But boss, snacks are innocent, right?”

The boss raised his eyebrow, but Paul accepted them gratefully. So he ended up remembering the friendly-looking face of the demon unintentionally.

A few more days passed. During this time, a book was stolen again.

“Boss, <The Boy of Samhain> disappeared again…” Paul’s mouth popped out in despair. Even though he had searched harder than usual, the whereabouts of the thief were unknown.

“How did they take a book like a ghost…”

The boss tapped his shoulder as if to cheer Paul up as he saw him knocking his head on the table. Paul felt that the boss’s touch was like his father’s clumsy consolation.

Then Paul recalled the story his father told him. It was the story that Paul himself had told the boss. The criminal was a person they had never suspected at all. Paul had already suspected the homeless, the customers, Pablo, and even the boss. However, there must have been someone he hadn’t even thought of. 

“Shall we install an anti-theft device?” The boss asked Paul who was lost in thought. With the boss’s wealth, installing expensive equipment wasn’t a big deal.

“All right. Please install the most expensive one.” Paul continued quickly, “Oh! And boss, about the thief, I don’t have any evidence yet, but I think I know who the culprit is.”

Finally, there was a face that came to his mind. When Paul shared what he thought, the boss nodded. He believed Paul’s intuition after Illumina’s incident.

“How interesting.”

“Hey, boss, our bookshop is just getting started,” Paul replied with a slight smile.

The next day, the employee from Publishing Company A, who received a lot of orders for <The Boy of Samhain>, appeared with a smiling face. This was because Kshatrit ordered a large number of books, saying they would fully support <The Boy of Samhain>. 

‘The result of following the human is finally here!’ The salesperson happily put down the books he brought to the bookshop.

“เอาหนังสือใหม่มาใช่ไหม?”

“You must have brought the new books, right?” The boss, who was watching him, asked in demon language. 

The salesperson replied, “Yes, of course.”

Suddenly, the boss emitted black energy from his fingertips to bind the salesperson’s body! The salesperson opened his two mouths wide in surprise. He shook his body vigorously but couldn’t resist the boss’s powerful magic. Finally, he screamed in protest as if asking the boss what he was doing. The bookshop became noisy when both mouths cried out loud at the same time. Regardless, Paul began to examine the newly delivered <The Boy of Samhain> one by one in front of everybody.

‘I’m sure there’s… Here it is!’

Paul, who was searching hard, finally found the book and handed it to the boss. Inside the cover of <The Boy of Samhain>, there was Kshatrit’s unique seal that Paul had stamped in advance. The face of the salesperson, who couldn’t confirm that the book had a stamp because he was in a hurry to prepare the supply, turned pale.

“You have the guts to bring the stolen books back just like this.”

The presence carried books naturally – someone who wouldn’t be suspected by everyone even if they carried <The Boy of Samhain>. It was the salesperson at Publishing Company A that published <The Boy of Samhain>.

At first, he denied it absolutely. However, he soon became terrified and confessed the truth after seeing the boss’s face. In fact, Paul thought that the boss’s eyes were so scary that even if he wasn’t the culprit, he would confess that he did something wrong.

According to him, Publisher A, which was having financial difficulties, demanded his sales performance. They even threatened employees that if they failed to improve their performance, they would lose their jobs. For that reason, he frantically busied himself with the sales, but the new book <The Boy of Samhain> had lower sales than expected. At that time, the Kshatrit bookshop, which had poor security, opportunely opened. He deliberately stole all the copies of <The Boy of Samhain> from Kshatrit to attract attention. The bookstore ordered the books from the publisher to fill the gap again, and using this method in various places, he was able to make up for the lack of sales.

“What should we do?” Paul asked the boss. He felt a little sorry for him. This demon was also a pitiful salaryman after all. Paul recalled <Les Misérables>, a book he had read as a child. However, stealing is a grave mistake so he didn’t get paid for the stolen books. Instead, all the books of Publisher A were driven out of the place with him. The demon hastily packed the books and fled.

The bread Jean Valjean stole was high-grade bread that was extremely laborious to make. Paul shook his head. Who would have known that an employee of a publishing company would steal their own books?

“Indeed, you shouldn’t trust someone based on appearance alone, regardless of whether they’re a human or a demon.” At Paul’s words, the boss tapped Paul’s shoulders once again as if to give him some encouragement.

‘I should tell Pablo-nim what happened today when he comes.’

Paul recalled that Pablo had been interested while listening to the thief’s story, and looked forward to the day he would come. However, Paul ended up completely forgetting about the theft incident the next day due to the work given to him by the boss.