Time to Go Pick Up Our Players (6)
Over the past few days, I had met nearly every name on my list of host candidates.
The results had been pretty fruitful—aside from Kalian, no fewer than three of them had accepted my offer to join us as players in a row.
And now it was time to meet the final name on the list.
The bookstore clerk rumored to be a pretty boy among the ladies
For the record, this bookstore clerk was a slightly different breed from my other candidates.
Up until now, when recruiting players, I had appealed to their desires. For Kalian and Hermes, it had been money; for Harlion, intellectual curiosity.
And Fion had been a blend of the two—money and thrill mixed together.
Viewed through that lens, the bookstore clerk—a young man by the name of Joel—left me at a loss as to what exactly I was supposed to dangle in front of him.
He had simply lived an unremarkably ordinary life, and no matter how diligently I dug, I couldn't turn up a single exploitable weakness the way I had with Kalian's sister.
"Um... Boss?"
"What?"
"Do you think it's proper for a businessman appealing to the ladies to be investigating people's weaknesses?"
"Hey, hey. Anyone overhearing you would think I go around blackmailing people with their dirty secrets."
"With Kalian... um... never mind."
Louis couldn't bring himself to finish, as if I'd done something similar with Kalian in the past.
Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean? I resent that.
I'd actually helped Kalian's sister and donated money to her treatment on top of it, so I genuinely didn't get the accusation.
"In any case, I'm working as hard as I can to recruit our players. That beats failing, doesn't it?"
"But do we really need a bookstore clerk? The only thing that stands out about him seems to be his 'delicate build and features.'"
"Hmm? That's the single most important part. When women fall for the pretty-boy type, they fall hard. Call it triggering the protective instinct, if you like."
Plenty of women gravitate toward strong, dependable men, but there are undeniably those who are drawn to the kind of man who makes them think, I want to protect him.
Honestly, strong men and rough-edged men are a bit of a dime a dozen, aren't they?
But a pretty boy like Joel would offer the women of this world a stimulation they'd never known before.
"......Boss, how on earth do you know all this?"
At Louis's question, my footsteps halted for a moment.
Granted, from his perspective it was a perfectly fair question.
A bastard son who'd drifted aimlessly through life shouldn't know this much about this particular field.
But I decided there was no pressing need to tell him the truth.
Living on honesty alone makes it awfully hard to survive in this treacherous world.
"Just a businessman's gut instinct. In the end, business is a contest won by whoever reads people's desires first."
"Hmm. If you say so."
Louis wore a distinctly unconvinced expression at my answer, but he nodded all the same, seemingly satisfied enough.
"Come to think of it, what does the reason even matter? As you told Fion yesterday—just prove it with results."
"Exactly."
With that, we set our footsteps toward the bookstore where Joel worked.
Oh, and for the record—thanks to the power of alcohol, I'd dropped all formality with Fion.
Louis and Fion in particular seemed to have gotten remarkably close.
Maybe crazy really does recognize crazy.
With that thought, I pushed open the door of the bookstore.
Ding-a-ling— a small bell chimed clearly, and the air inside seeped out to greet us.
In contrast to the bustle of the street, the shop was hushed. The musty scent of aged paper mingled with the heavy aroma rising from the wooden shelves, weaving a tranquil atmosphere.
In one corner, near the window, a young man sorting through books caught my eye.
A slender face, pale skin, a delicate frame. He wore a plain gray shirt, but there was something so fresh and clear about his features that my gaze lingered at once.
"That must be Joel."
I nodded at Louis's remark.
I hadn't quite believed it from hearsay alone, but seeing him in the flesh, I understood.
It was a face that could absolutely earn the title of pretty boy among the women. And just how striking was it, you ask?
"If he'd been biologically female, I would have confessed on the spot."
"...Louis? Did you really need to say that out loud?"
"If nobody validates the thought, I feel terrible about myself for having it."
"Are you a genius or what?"
Just as Louis said, I had genuinely found another man beautiful and adorable—which was how I learned something new about myself.
Joel's looks were that captivating.
And a man like that was rotting away in a bookstore like this?
Absolutely unacceptable.
He was a talent who had to bloom at our very own Bloom.
Which was why I narrowed my eyes, hunting for a pretext—anything—to dig into him.
On the surface, he looked like the textbook edition of a pretty boy, but a person's inside never quite matches the outside.
And the moment I began observing Joel, I confirmed that saying was dead on.
"This book is not a mere adventure tale! In truth, it holds profound insight into the loneliness of the human heart and the nature of growth. Take this scene in particular—what the black bird symbolizes is—"
"I, um... I'm terribly sorry, but I have somewhere else to be—!"
The customer broke into a cold sweat and bolted out of the bookstore as fast as his legs would carry him.
Still clutching the book, unable to get another word out, Joel stared blankly at the door before limply setting it down.
"...They ran away again."
There was no anger in the small voice that slipped out, and no regret either.
Only a pure, childlike puzzlement at why, and a faintly hollow bitterness beneath it.
The same pattern repeated itself after that.
Whenever someone asked Joel for a book recommendation, he threw himself into the introduction with blazing passion—and the sheer intensity of it sent the customers fleeing for the door.
Watching him, I stifled a laugh.
Somehow, I felt like I could see the way forward.
I casually picked up a book resting on top of the shelf—the very book Joel had been so earnestly lecturing about to the customer who'd just fled.
"A good book, I think. Not just a simple adventure story—there's real pleasure in following the characters as they grow on the inside."
In the instant those words left my mouth, Joel's eyes sparkled like diamonds.
"Exactly! That's it precisely! Most people skim past this work, but it's steeped through and through in the characters' philosophies of life. Take chapter five, for instance—!"
As he charged toward me in his excitement, I raised a finger and gently held him at bay.
"Hold on."
"...Yes?"
"If you keep pouncing on people like that, your customers will keep running away."
Joel stared at me, his face going blank for a moment.
It was the look of a man who'd just taken a blow to the head from a piece of advice he'd never once heard before.
"Has no one ever pointed this out to you? My understanding is that this store has a manager."
"Well... the manager says having me here is more than enough..."
"Ah. So that's how it is."
To put it simply, here's the situation.
Even if Joel's passionate lectures scared the customers off, his face alone guaranteed they'd keep coming back.
Which meant that manager was... damn good at business, actually.
I probably would've done the same thing, to be honest.
Why risk nagging him into a sulk and having a pretty boy like Joel quit on the spot? There'd be no faster route to losing money.
With that thought, I flashed a friendly smile and continued.
"Passion is certainly a strength. But left unrefined, it becomes poison."
I tapped the book lightly as I spoke, and Joel blinked, tilting his head.
"Poison? I only ever wanted to share wonderful books with people."
"And yet in the end, everyone walks away, don't they?"
"......"
Joel bit his lip for a moment.
Once is chance, but twice is a pattern—or so the saying goes. So naturally, some part of Joel already sensed, however vaguely, that the problem lay with himself.
But still.
"I have no intention of denying your love of books. On the contrary, I believe it could become your greatest weapon."
"My... my weapon?"
"Yes. Wielded properly, it could become a magnificent charm capable of captivating people's hearts. The problem is that you don't know how."
Joel looked at me directly.
His eyes were brimming with pure, unguarded curiosity—like a child beholding a new world for the very first time.
"Could you... teach me that method?"
"Of course. Which brings me to a little proposition I'd like to make."
I tilted my head slightly toward Louis.
He crossed his arms, grinned, and—as always—smoothly played his supporting role.
"The Boss never wastes his time on a lost cause. So this offer of his... I'd wager it'll be quite interesting to you, Mr. Joel."
Joel hesitated a moment, then finally nodded.
"I'll hear you out. This... proposition of yours."
I smiled and extended my hand.
"Excellent. Then how about, from this moment on... you try reading not books, but people's hearts?"
"I didn't expect Mr. Joel to accept the offer that easily. I was sure he'd balk at it."
"Someone who loves books that much must be someone brimming with curiosity. Sure, he was flustered when he first heard my proposal, but you saw how quickly interest lit up his face, didn't you? Besides, he seemed eager to change the person he is now."
"Or maybe he just caved because the Boss has such a silver tongue? How is a sheltered, innocent young man supposed to withstand the whisperings of a devil?"
......
I promised him proper pay and even swore I'd help him learn to read people's hearts. How exactly does that make me a devil?
"In any case, Joel's a complete blank slate, so I'll need to give him the full player training."
"Just out of curiosity—this player training of yours. Will you be conducting it personally, Boss?"
"Of course. Every player at Bloom gets the training, no exceptions. They'll all be vetted before deployment, too."
At my words, Louis's face took on a distinctly meaningful look.
And then—
"But as I understand it, you've never actually dated anyone, Boss. How exactly do you intend to train the players?"
Louis poked straight at my rawest wound.
But I was absolutely certain of one thing: a woman's heart is never something you master through experience alone.
"Heh heh... I've mastered the theory, so worry not."
"...Right. Well, I'd love to keep heckling you, but unfortunately it seems we have a customer."
A customer?
Puzzled, I followed Louis's gaze.
And there, standing before us, was—
"The offer you made me the day we first met. Does it still stand?"
Somehow, there stood Kalian.
His eyes carried the look of a man who had steeled his resolve—and my mouth began to water.