Business as Usual - 5
Dangga Pungun, Volume 3.
The Sichuan Tang Clan had granted permission for the next volume of Dangga Pungun to be published, but getting it onto shelves the moment I arrived back in Yichang was out of the question. After all, I was Hopil the barbarian scribbler, not a web novelist who could simply hit publish.
Written by Hopil. Published by Kang Yunho. Sold at Daseogak. Every role in the chain fell to me alone. Even with volume 3 finished, the pages still had to roll off the presses and move at Daseogak before a single coin of profit could be made.
Things might have worked out if I could split myself in two, but forget clone techniques — I couldn't even manage the substitution arts that would let me cry, "Where are you looking? That's merely my afterimage!"
In the end, only after hiring staff to run the printing and reopening trade with the suppliers of my materials was I finally able to begin.
"V-Volume 3 of Dangga Pungun is being printed?"
Lim Hayeon's eyes went wide with shock, and she promptly began glancing between the box in my arms and the printing room. She looked one breath away from darting off. I had to rein her in.
"Even if you went, Miss Hayeon, you wouldn't get into the printing room. I've already ordered the staff to lock the door from the inside so that no one can enter."
Don't even think about stealing it. I didn't say it that bluntly, of course; I simply warned her by listing all the reasons the box had to be delivered by my own two hands.
"There are ways around things like that, you know."
"..."
So there are, are there.
Like a treasure hunter coveting some legendary relic, Lim Hayeon bored her gaze into the printing room with more burning ambition than I had ever seen from her. Truly the next Shadowless Divine Thief. If the place she were casing weren't my own bookstore, I might have found it fascinating to ask how she'd go about it.
"N-no, that's not what I meant... I-I only meant that someone else might try something!"
Had she caught the meaning behind my silence? Flustered, Lim Hayeon mumbled her way out of it. If she believed I suspected her of thievery, her feelings might well be hurt. This was a few days ahead of schedule, but I would simply have to say what I'd planned to say.
"Well said. And as it happens, there is something I need to tell you in confidence, Miss Hayeon — something about my Dangga Pungun."
I steered her toward a secluded corner at the back of Daseogak.
"Yes?"
Lim Hayeon was the next Shadowless Divine Thief. But there was no need for the legend of the next Shadowless Divine Thief to begin here, at Daseogak.
Had she been an ordinary employee caught red-handed, I'd have had her clapped in irons then and there and sent off to the executioner's block. But Lim Hayeon was a character from a martial arts visual novel — and an S-rank talent among Daseogak staff, besides.
A difficult thief-cat to handle, yes, but there were reasons she had to be tamed. There was plenty she could do for me as a Daseogak employee, and she might even be the true heroine. So I could hardly let her rob my store, and I needed her working diligently as my staff.
In other words, I had to turn Lim Hayeon from a hardened thief-cat into a finicky, pampered house cat.
So how does one manage that?
'You put a bell on the thief-cat's neck.'
The method was already in hand.
"Everything I am about to tell you about Dangga Pungun must remain between you and me alone, Miss Hayeon."
Step one was forging a bond — sharing a secret draws two people closer together.
I backed her into a secluded corner of Daseogak to set the proper conspiratorial mood, then stepped in closer so I could speak in a hush.
"Wh-what is it? Is something wrong with volume 3?"
When I spoke of her long-awaited novel in such grave tones, Lim Hayeon asked with a face full of anxiety.
"Volume 3 of Dangga Pungun is being printed in secret. Everything will proceed under the strictest confidence until we announce the release in the near future."
Printing had begun several days ago. I had ordered everyone to keep quiet, but there was no telling where a secret might spring a leak.
What if word of volume 3 found its way to her ears without my knowing? That exact chill — that cold, heavy weight of foreboding. She would proclaim it was time for the Shadowless Divine Thief to return.
Lim Hayeon's fangirl devotion was anything but ordinary. Far better for me to tell her myself that volume 3 was on the presses, and keep her firmly in hand.
"A secret? Why? Wouldn't promoting it in advance be better?"
"Because of the risk of leaks."
"Leaks?"
"You remember Hopil. I told you before that I knew the man's story — did you also hear about the incident with the unauthorized sale of volume 1?"
"I heard about it through Haomen."
"Daseogak suffered grievous losses in that unauthorized sale of volume 1. We were driven to the brink — close enough to shutting our doors for good."
"Surely no one in Yichang has the gall to print Dangga Pungun these days, though?"
True enough. But she had overlooked one thing.
"Dangga Pungun is no longer famous in Yichang alone."
"Ah."
Realizing she had missed something crucial, Lim Hayeon let out a small sound, her lips parting slightly. She had read Dangga Pungun back in Wushan. I might be able to enforce my copyright in Yichang, but everywhere else remained beyond my reach.
"And there is no telling what the money-blind might do about it."
"I suppose that could happen."
"Daseogak has to turn a profit on Dangga Pungun before I can pay your wages or support the work-study students, so I am taking exceptional care with this."
Lim Hayeon. The first bell I would hang around your neck was the bell of conscience.
If a leak ever broke, you, me, and the work-study students would all go down together. Understood?
"..."
Had the bell of conscience been fastened on properly? Apparently sensing how grave the matter was, Lim Hayeon arranged her face into solemn lines.
"And should a leak occur, the problems become truly enormous."
On to the next. Lim Hayeon, you might still be thinking that even if the book leaked, no harm done so long as nobody else published it.
"A bigger problem than that? What on earth could it be?"
Oh, there was a very big problem indeed.
With her backed against the wall, I closed the distance by another step. Before delivering the news, I let a pained expression settle over my face — as though I could hardly bear even to imagine what might come to pass. Expression acting in full swing, I spoke as though forcing out an agonizing truth.
"Hopil... will rise again."
"Ah..."
"Author Hopil is a sensitive soul. He would not set down so much as a single character until I returned. He worried himself so sick he had even lost weight."
The trip to the Sichuan Tang Clan had left no time for writing, and the long journey had whittled me down besides.
"What?! Is Author Hopil's health all right?!"
Lim Hayeon's eyes and mouth went wide at once as she cried out in alarm.
"The moment I returned safely to Yichang, he began to recover his spirits. But if news reached him that his next work had leaked, the shock would be devastating. He has suffered so much anguish over Dangga Pungun that he has even been weighing whether to lay down his pen for good."
The second bell was Hopil laying down his pen. No Dangga Pungun fan alive could stomach that.
"He can't! Lay down his pen?! Author Hopil has to keep writing — he must!"
Too loud! Someone will hear you.
"Shh!"
Pressing a finger to my lips, I hurried toward her.
"Eep!"
Too close, perhaps? Even Lim Hayeon seemed to feel the pressure, shrinking back with her chin tucked in. It was fine. This was the perfect distance for delivering a warning.
"Let's keep our voices down, shall we?"
"Then why are you telling me all this?"
Avoiding my gaze, Lim Hayeon asked in a brusque tone.
Uneasy, was she? Did she think I suspected her of thieving? Even if the suspicion were reasonable, it couldn't feel pleasant. But what if that wasn't the reason at all?
"Because you know exactly how to vault another man's wall — and yet you've never once dreamed of vaulting it."
Quoting her own words back at her showed I understood her. The wary thief-cat would lower her guard.
Wearing a small, reassuring smile for Lim Hayeon, I opened my mouth to fasten on the bell.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
The thief-cat asked, her guard visibly softened.
Of course, a bell on a collar means nothing if the cat refuses to wear the collar. So how does one get the cat to put it on herself?
"This is something only you can do, Miss Hayeon. There is no telling where rumors might drift, so if you should spot anyone suspicious, I would like you to step in."
Simple — you hand the cat a title.
"Me?"
"I am begging you. Dangga Pungun is something Hopil and I have staked our very lives to protect. Just keep a careful eye out until we have printed enough copies to meet demand and are ready to announce it to the world."
As if she were the only soul in the world I could trust, I gently took hold of both her wrists, my face full of earnest pleading.
I trust you. Don't be a thief — be the thief who catches thieves. Once I've hung a title-that-isn't-really-a-title around your neck, betraying my trust won't come so easily, will it?
"Um... your face is a little too close."
"Ah! My apologies."
The instant I stepped back, Lim Hayeon slipped out of the corner in one fluid motion, quick as the deft little thief-cat she was.
I had said my piece. Now answer. Success, or failure?
Lim Hayeon regarded my sheepish grin with a stony expression, then at last opened her mouth.
"If I happen to see anyone suspicious, I'll tell you right away."
Success. The bell was finally on the cat's neck.
Having given her answer, Lim Hayeon headed for the second floor like a thief-cat who had not yet given me her heart.
Like I said — a difficult employee to handle. And please, whatever you do, don't go sneaking a peek.
I had hung that belled collar on her two and three times over: the bell of conscience, the threat of Hopil laying down his pen, my personal trust in her — even a title that wasn't really a title.
From now on, whenever Lim Hayeon found herself tempted to steal Dangga Pungun, the bells I had planted would chime in the depths of her heart.
I watched until the hem of Lim Hayeon's black qipao vanished from sight, then murmured quietly to myself.
"Looks like I'll have to tighten Daseogak's security starting today."
After all, one could never be too thorough about locking up.