Chapter 91: Acquiring Weapons - 7
Chapter 91: Acquiring Weapons - 7
Following Bisel's lead, Jiha left the barracks.
"I'm a Common. Don't you have to check whether I'm even allowed outside?"
Jiha asked belatedly, but Bisel answered without looking back.
"I heard... that you now have freedom of movement."
"..."
I thought she was completely oblivious to the ways of the world, but apparently not.
As he followed Bisel, Jiha sorted out his thoughts.
'Yura has come over to my side now, but standing against Asira will be difficult no matter what. After all, they grew up together since childhood...'
It was now the third night Jiha had spent with Yura, but she was not yet fully subordinated.
'If I completely subordinate Yura, even Asira won't be able to mess with me carelessly. But the conditions for full subordination are unclear. In that case... I'll make Asira follow me for Yura's sake, and make Yura follow me more for Asira's sake.'
It would be a precarious balancing act, but if it works, the payoff would be immense.
The problem was information on Asira.
Her strength as a Unique was blatantly obvious. To find a crack to exploit, he needed even the smallest opening.
Jiha finished his thoughts and looked up. Bisel was silently weaving through alleyways.
A secluded back alley.
The atmosphere was perfect for some thugs to jump out and threaten him with a knife.
"Weren't we going to a bookstore?"
"...That's right."
You wouldn't normally find a bookstore in a place like this.
Bisel stopped in front of the entrance to a two-story house that looked like an ordinary residence, then tapped the door with a distinct rhythm.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap.
"..."
Was clearly some kind of secret code.
As Jiha watched, the door creaked open and a man with a lizard's head poked his face out.
The lizardman saw Bisel and was about to open the door wider when he noticed Jiha behind her and flinched.
"What the hell? A human man? No way. He can't come in."
"He's... with me."
"No, I said no. You trying to put me out of business?"
The lizardman got angry and tried to shut the door, but Jiha slipped his fingers through the gap.
The lizardman, who had been about to slam it shut regardless of the fingers caught, froze in surprise.
The door Jiha held with just his thumb and forefinger refused to budge.
Having channeled Mana into his fingers, Jiha spoke.
"If you don't open up, I might just put you out of business right now."
"Wh—..."
Crunch! Crunch!
The iron door buckled under Jiha's fingers. The lizardman, horrified, yanked the door open.
He stared at Jiha with terrified eyes, then spoke rapidly to Bisel.
"Wh-what is this? What kind of lunatic did you bring here?"
"..."
Bisel silently looked at Jiha.
It was a vacant stare, as if she were genuinely reconsidering whether he was, in fact, a lunatic like the lizardman said.
"Just a customer. Shall we go in?"
Jiha gave a smiling command, and the lizardman backed off, hesitating.
"You've dragged in real trouble. If this blows up..."
"It's fine. He's someone... who loves books."
The lizardman gave Bisel a look of disbelief.
So he loves books, therefore it's okay to break the door?
Jiha found it so ridiculous he just laughed.
He'd only holed up in a library because he needed information; he wasn't exactly a bibliophile.
'And the books themselves were far too limited in scope most of the time.'
The lizardman shook his head and retreated.
"Forget it, handle it yourselves. I'm pretending I didn't see anything if trouble comes. Hmph."
Once the lizardman backed off, Bisel moved forward.
In the barren interior, devoid of any furniture, only a single worn-out rug lay on the floor.
Bisel pulled the rug aside, revealing a trapdoor leading down.
"This is a bookstore?"
A secret code and a hidden door.
Bisel stared at him blankly, nodded, and opened the door.
The structure used an iron ladder to descend.
It was fairly deep.
"..."
Was this some kind of secret cult meeting?
While Jiha was still baffled, Bisel pulled a mask from her clothes and put it on.
It covered her entire face, leaving only her mouth exposed.
"Ah..."
She looked at Jiha with a belated realization.
Meaning, there was no mask for him. Jiha shook his head.
"I'm fine. Just go down."
Having come this far, he meant to see it through.
The ladder wasn't very long.
Jiha stepped onto the ground and looked around.
Grade 2 Mana lamps blazed brightly everywhere.
'Looking at the walls, this isn't an artificial cave. They found a natural cavern and are using it.'
The masked Bisel went ahead with quick, short steps, and Jiha followed silently behind.
It was indeed a bookstore.
He could see merchants with their wares spread on mats, and wooden bookshelves stocked with various books.
Bisel asked Jiha.
"Buying everything... on the list is difficult. Only a few will be available today."
"I'd like to see those few."
As he answered, Jiha realized that everyone around him was staring.
People standing and reading books, people haggling with merchants over mats—all of them were staring at Jiha.
Every single one was a woman.
"..."
Like Bisel, their faces were hidden behind masks, but they were clearly women of all different kinds.
"What kind of place is this?"
"A bookstore."
"It's not a normal bookstore."
Jiha had never been in a Warsland bookstore before, but he doubted they were masquerade balls.
"Is that really a man?"
"Why is a man here...?"
The women were murmuring.
The merchants at the mats were bare-faced and included some men, but the customers were all women.
Regardless of the looks from the surroundings, Bisel remained focused solely on scanning the mats and bookshelves.
"..."
Jiha shrugged at the staring crowd, which prompted the women to murmur even more.
"What's your business here, human man?"
A large, unmasked woman stepped forward and asked Jiha.
Prominent tusks, green skin. An orc.
"A customer."
"Men are strictly prohibited from entering. How did you find out about this place?"
"I followed my companion."
At Jiha's explanation, the orc woman glanced at the busy, book-browsing Bisel and sighed.
"Even so, this is problematic. It's making the other customers uneasy, so I'd like you to leave."
"I'll be gone as soon as I grab what I'm looking for."
"I told you to leave."
The orc rolled up her sleeves. Jiha spoke quietly.
"Silence is the basic rule in a library. Let's leave it at this."
Slamming this orc to the ground would be trivial, but Jiha opted for a verbal warning.
He was here to gather information; avoiding a pointless commotion was the better play.
As Jiha and the orc were glaring at each other, Bisel returned with an armful of books.
She held them out to Jiha, belatedly noticing the orc.
The orc scolded Bisel sternly.
"Miss, you are a highly valued customer, but this is still a problem. I told you, no men allowed."
"It's okay. He's someone... who loves books."
"No, but the other customers are..."
"He loves books... that's why."
"..."
The orc shook her head and looked at Jiha.
"Restrain yourself from now on. Understand?"
"Sure, if I can help it."
The orc nodded at Jiha's words, then walked over to the other women and spoke to them.
Jiha was watching the orc's back as she soothed the crowd, assuring them they were safe, when he felt a nudge in his side and turned around.
Bisel was holding an armful of books out to him with both hands.
"These are... recommendations."
"..."
Jiha grabbed the topmost book and flipped it open.
"'Imperial Calendar'... Was there an empire in Warsland?"
"It's a fictional... country somewhere."
"..."
Thanks to the existence of Commons, the people of Warsland knew other worlds existed.
Jiha flipped through a few more pages before closing it.
"Are these five the only ones from the list available here? I'll buy them."
"At least 200,000... rel per book. All of them?"
"..."
One million rel for five books. Roughly a million won?
"I know books are somewhat rare due to printing technology issues, but this is highway robbery. Aren't they normally 30,000 rel?"
"The one you just looked at is 460,000... rel. At a premium."
"..."
He had plenty of money, but he wasn't keen on paying 460,000 for a single book like this.
Seeing Jiha's dumbfounded look, Bisel offered an explanation.
"This one... just went out of print a little while ago. If you sell it in three years... you could get maybe 600,000."
She was essentially trying to sell him on the idea that he'd never lose money buying it now. Jiha shook his head.
"What is this place exactly?"
Bisel was about to answer, but Jiha cut her off.
"I know it's a bookstore. Why operate so hidden like this? And the customers wear masks?"
"Because it's troublesome."
The orc came back, having calmed the other customers, and explained.
Her voice had softened, likely realizing Jiha was a genuine customer.
"Most of the books here have fallen out of favor with the higher-ups. There's nothing good to come from being found out, so we do business in hiding. Well, this is Waris, so you probably won't die if discovered, but there's no guarantee you won't suffer a nasty fate. That's why the customers try to hide their identities as much as possible."
"It's not a cult's gospels, so why go to such lengths?"
Jiha pulled another book from Bisel's arms, skimmed it, and shook his head.
"I told you. It displeases the higher-ups."
"This is just a novel."
Jiha had assumed these were anti-social, seditious texts. He was wrong.
The books Bisel had brought, the ones on the list, were novels.
They centered on romance between men and women.
"Ah, well, the bedroom descriptions are graphic enough. But so is 'The Love Adventures of Pensaro', isn't it? If we're talking sheer explicitness, that one's way worse, right?"
Thud-thud.
Bisel dropped the books and quickly bent down to pick them up again, but Jiha kept looking at the orc.
"That one's distributed openly on the market. Why is this sold in secret?"
"You don't read many novels, do you?"
"Correct."
What Jiha sought in books was information, not pleasure.
That's why he mostly browsed through history texts and information related to the different species.
He'd read novels very occasionally, but he had no hobby for it.
The orc offered a kind explanation.
"First of all, the novels here generally have female protagonists. Stories about poor women meeting accomplished, wealthy, and strong men and falling into sweet love. There are also some with only men, which are stories about men loving each other. Both types sell well, but you see the common thread, right?"
"The main readership is female?"
"It's not the explicitness or the content that's the problem. It's the premise."
The orc gave a bitter smile, and Jiha realized the reason.
'It's counter to the times.'
In an era of female superiority and male inferiority, and a time when everyone from Unique rank upward is female, these novels just didn't fit in.
"They've been suppressed as seditious thought before. Decades ago, Cheonho, the Legend of Blue Seal, hated them deeply and had them cleaned out. Nobody knows when that might happen again, so we're careful to lay low."
"...I see."
Finally, Jiha understood everything.
Even a fictional story could easily be targeted in Warsland if it featured a great man, a king, an emperor, or a ruler.
It could be seen as denying the era of female dominance and endorsing the idea that the past was better.
So it had been suppressed once, and now was bought and sold secretly in hiding.
In Warsland, this kind of novel was basically like a commie novel in Korea.
"Right..."
These weren't items a high-ranking member of a faction, a Unique like Asira, could afford to have people know she read.
Of course it was a secret.
Jiha nodded.
"What's the hot new release right now? I don't care about the price, I want to buy it."
"A big-spending customer is always welcome."
The orc grinned, and Jiha grinned back.
"I have a woman I want to give a gift to."
Jiha was setting the stage.
A situation where he could gain leverage even before meeting them.