The Black Iron Glory
Bookstore

Chapter 42

Bookstore

There's only one bookstore in town, Bark's Books. It was mostly frequented by the clerics and elite members of the Whitestag. So, even though it wasn't a big company, it spanned two storefronts and was very quiet inside.

"Uncle Bark, I heard you just got a stack of books. Where are they?" borkal shouted as he entered. He was a regular customer of that bookstore and could not be bothered with keeping the silence inside.

"There are a total of 15 books. Please be careful when you look around. I've only got three copies of each book and you'll have to pay me back if you ruin it" said the owner, Bark, as he adjusted his lensed glasses and kept counting his bills on the counter.

Among the 15 books, eight of them are biographies. Claude always thought of the books as motivational chicken soup novels. Usually, they appear because a noble or a famous councillor asks someone to publish a book about their experiences and exploits. The books usually tell the story of how much trouble those people had to go through before they managed to overcome it and become the successful people they are today.

Only a fool would believe in such a thing. . . Claude was no stranger to chicken soup books in his previous life. He felt that this novel-like biography was just a sad parody of the chicken soup books he had read in his previous life. Most of them follow the same formula, with slight variations in names, places, and dates. In the end, they are published for two main reasons: to cheat and to make a profit.

It was another five knight novels that contained stories of certain brave knights who went around saving noble princesses or ladies from the clutches of evil magi during the dark ages. The knights would always emerge victorious in their struggles and return with the girl in their hands without exception. They will also get their fair share of the treasures amassed by the evil magi, getting the best out of the world of romance and riches.

Claude felt that swapping the evil magi for the terrifying dragon would make the story more convincing, but for some reason, the, dragons in the mythology of this world do not seem to enjoy catching beautiful women to hear their cry for help. Instead, they are almost always reduced to being forced to serve as a mountain or magi minion and will always end up turning against their master, being killed by the protagonist or becoming their mountain.

The nearly identical knight's love story was once Claude's favorite when he first arrived in that world. He was very excited when he read it. But now, he was well aware that the stories were just silly fantasies made by his author that had nothing to do with the true history of the world. In fact, it was not that he did not understand the need for writers to make a living and limited the scope of their writing to meet royal tolerances.

One of the last two books is a travel journal across continents. It was written by an Aueras diplomat who had served in the Syik kingdom. The book is a consolidation of his five years of experience there. It looks good, I'll take it.

The other is the latest investigative report on marine flora and fauna. After eight years of long research, an herbalist managed to purify a type of dye from the water grass of the purple violet plant. The fabric dyed with grass was barely faded in color and it added another color choice to the royal outfit. The book details the process of planting atro grass and price guidance for them.

Hmm, 'Atro Grass' sounds like a great new addition to paternity studies. As the chief secretary of the city, Morssen would occasionally show his guests his study to present his extensive knowledge and attention to royal trends. Perhaps, he could also use the book to justify funding for a project to get city dwellers to cultivate this crop. Even if it ended in failure, people would not heed it as normally a research project would yield nothing.

In the end, Claude bought four books, namely, 'Atro Grass', 'Sights of Shiks', a chilvaric romance and biography, spending two riyases and two sunars in total. Although he did not really want to buy that much, his father had given him two riyases worth of coins for him to buy books, so he made a purchase that almost equaled that amount.

Although he was especially unwilling to buy biographies, Morssen liked to read such books for inspirational lessons to teach his children. As for the knight novel, Claude would use it to kill his boredom while he was in the toilet. He was spoiled for the convenience of a smartphone in his previous life, so he couldn't empty his bowels without sitting on the toilet with his mind occupied with anything else.

"Claude, come here to see it," Eriksson said in a suspicious soft tone, "There's something good …"

"What are you planning? You look like a thief" Claude said as he walked.

Eriksson pressed a finger to his lips. "Shh, quiet. I'll show you something cool."

He slipped the book into Claude's hands. Claude doesn't know where Eriksson got the handcopy. When he opened it, he smiled with understanding. I didn't expect there would be an adult magazine in this world with photos of couples so blazing. . . Although it was hand-copied, it can be seen that the copier is very attentive to its work. The proportion of people in the picture is mostly normal. Although it is not entirely realistic, the art style is also not abstract. 'The 'important parts' in question are presented in great detail on paper. No wonder Eriksson was flushed to his ears.

He slipped the book into Claude's hands. Claude doesn't know where Eriksson got the handcopy. When he opened it, he smiled with understanding. I didn't expect there would be an adult magazine in this world with photos of couples so blazing. . . Although it was hand-copied, it can be seen that the copier is very attentive to its work. The proportion of people in the picture is mostly normal. Although it is not entirely realistic, the art style is also not abstract. 'The 'important parts' in question are presented in great detail on paper. No wonder Eriksson was flushed to his ears.

After flipping roughly and looking through the contents, she finds that the book details the story of a noble young woman who did her best to help her father maintain his rank and position after losing his business. He went to the capital and exchanged help with his body and the scenario described in the book was extremely powerful. Paragraph by paragraph describes the action during the deed and it is endlessly entertaining.

No wonder it's handcopy not printed. These books are banned in the kingdom. . . Authors of such books will face jail terms of five to six years if caught. Copiers and readers on the other hand will be fined or forced to serve three months of unpaid work. But the extent of such punishment usually depends on the law enforcers themselves and those with a good relationship with them will ignore their violations.

"Where did you get this?" ask Claude.

"There's in Uncle Bark's private collection. What say?"

"Average," Claude said as he tossed the book back to Eriksson, "When you grow up and experience it with many women, you will no longer care about such a silly book."

"You said that like you've been with a lot of women" Eriksson said as he hurriedly returned the book, "Claude, please, do you think buying this book and making some copies to sell to our friends at school is a good idea? "

Eriksson was completely silent for a moment. He muttered in dissatisfaction, "I will defeat anyone who dares to tell me to death."

"Stupid, do you think they will tell the instructor in front of you? By the time you find out who did it, it's too late. These handcopies were banned by the kingdom. Distributing it is no lesser crime than being the author of these books, "said Claude as he patted Eriksson on the head," Return it to Uncle Bark now. "

Apart from the four books, the, Claude spent another four sunars to buy a piece of green stock card and 20 sheets of good quality mali paper for the cookbook he would make for his mother as a birthday gift.

Apart from the four books, the, Claude spent another four sunars to buy a piece of green stock card and 20 sheets of good quality mali paper for the cookbook he would make for his mother as a birthday gift.

Compared to the cheap, coarse-textured, yellowish papyrus sheets made in the three southwestern prefectures, the mali paper produced exclusively in the south of the kingdom was nice and clean-looking. However, they cost one fenny each. Mali paper is used as standard in official documents.

Morssen, being Whitestag's chief secretary, often carried the remaining piles of mali paper in his office. Finally, they had many of them and Claude and Angelina used them as concept papers for homework or doodling them. Occasionally, Claude folded them into paper planes, boats, and lanterns for Bloweyk to play with.

Since the mali paper he bought was of a larger breed, not the small paper his father had brought home, he had to roll it up to bring it back. When he finished paying for it, he saw Eriksson stuffing a handcopy book into his breast pocket. The fool bought the adult book in the end. . .

"How much?" claude asked in a whisper.

Eriksson began in shock. He only sighed in relief when he saw that it was just Claude. "One riyas and eight sunars."

"What?!" Claude flabbergasted. The books he bought each only cost around six sunars. How does a handcopy cost more than three whole books? "Why is it so expensive?"

"Uncle Bark said that the copying required little effort. The price was also boosted because books like this were banned. After all he had no choice because he couldn't just display something like this on the internet." it was open. Such specimens were also rarely in his hands, they were expensive. He only has one of them … "

Nonsense I would never believe it was me, Claude thought. No wonder Eriksson thought of making some copies for his friends. The book was a bit too expensive and buying for himself was not worth the high cost.

Claude thought about it and gave Eriksson some advice. "Why didn't you sell it to Boa or rent it when you finished reading it? At the very least, you would be able to earn half of the money you spent on him."

"Then do you want to read it? I'll resell it for a cheaper price, or make a copy for you .." Eriksson sailed full when he saw the wind blowing.

Claude thought about it and gave Eriksson some advice. "Why didn't you sell it to Boa or rent it when you finished reading it? At the very least, you would be able to earn half of the money you spent on him."

"Then do you want to read it? I'll resell it for a cheaper price, or make a copy for you .." Eriksson sailed full when he saw the wind blowing.

"inactive. I don't want to read such a childish book!" claude said as he pushed Eriksson away.

As they were on their way back to school, Borkal slapped his forehead as he thought of something.

"Oh, Claude, did you hit your sister, Anna, when you got home yesterday?"

"What did you say?" Claude frozen. "I didn't do it. I would never hit my sister. She is the most precious little girl in the world! Why did I hit him? I went to bed when I came home yesterday. Why did you say I hit him? "

"So not you .. Yesterday when Boa and I went to your house to give you your share of goat's legs, the flesh of a python and the jerky of a deer, we heard your brother crying in the corner of the kitchen. When he heard "We called, he stopped crying, wiped his tears and came to pick up the things we were carrying. When we asked who took it, he didn't say. But we can see the reddish palm mark left on his face. It looked like someone slapped him. Since you came home not long before that, we thought you did it, so we didn't ask any questions. "

Welikro nodded. "I really think you hit him, so I wanted to tell you not to discipline your sister like that …"

Claude's eyes turned a dead red. Since moving into this world, Claude has done his best to play the role of the older brother of his younger siblings. It made him experience brotherhood for the first time. Since he was the only son in his past life, he had always envied those with brothers and sisters.

"Arbeit ..." ponder Claude with raspy teeth as he thought of how Arbeit had not said a word when his father reprimanded him yesterday. When his father left, Arbeit immediately followed and it seemed like he was avoiding Claude. He immediately flinched with awareness at that thought. Only that fool would dare to lay hands on my little sister. . . I have to give a rough lesson to two people weaker than him when I get home tonight. . .