Published: February 1, 2026
Gill had honestly been underestimating Lizel.
No matter how much he acted like a noble, no matter how sheltered he was, Gill had thought that the man before him was already just an ordinary person now. But in this very moment, he realized that up until now, Lizel had simply been adjusting his pace to match Gill’s.
“I’d like to buy every book in this shop. How much would that cost?”
“Hey, cut it out.”
Gill should have seen it coming from the fact that ever-polite Lizel had insisted on interrupting Stud’s explanation just to come to the bookstore. Lizel was far more excited than he looked.
On closer look, his eyes seemed to be sparkling, and his voice had this faintly buoyant tone to it. Leaving the shopkeeper who was rolling his eyes in shock aside for the moment, Gill looked down at Lizel, who wore a troubled smile.
“Don’t you dare act like you’re the victim here.”
“It’s not like I’m not thinking at all, you know.”
“If anything, I want to know what you were thinking that led to what you just said.”
“Well, you said there was no library, didn’t you?”
Walking here, Lizel had said he wanted to buy books and go to a library. Gill had replied with “What’s a library?”, and even after Lizel explained, Gill had only said there was no such place.
By the way, Lizel was currently quite depressed inside. Back in his original world, his former student (the current king) had once told him, “You’re always reading something.” Calling him a print addict would hardly have been an exaggeration.
“So I thought, if there was somewhere similar, that would be fine.”
Lizel understood perfectly well that if he bought every book in the shop and carried them off, it would cause trouble. That was why, after thinking it through, he’d arrived at his previous statement.
He looked calmly at Gill’s face—creased between the brows and scary enough to make babies stop crying—and spoke with a faintly self-satisfied air.
“If I pay up front for the full price of all the books, I can come any time I want and borrow any I like, right?”
“…”
“I’ll leave the books I finish reading here in the shop. Most books sold in bookstores are secondhand anyway, so this shouldn’t affect your business.”
If he really wanted a book, he’d buy it at full price—so he said easily, and Gill had a single thought.
This guy’s an idiot.
Gill knew that beneath Lizel’s mild demeanor, he was always thinking about various things. His act of not knowing about the world was probably calculated too; he didn’t seem like someone who showed weakness for no reason.
Gill had more than once wondered if he wasn’t just being played by Lizel. At this point, he was almost certain of it, but because he was enjoying the situation and their interests aligned, it wasn’t a problem.
“You…”
“Hmm?”
“…Forget it.”
Separately from all that, Gill became certain that Lizel was, in a different way, an idiot. A quick-witted idiot. A smart idiot. The fact that he seemed to be aware of it himself only made him more troublesome.
And the way he smiled in satisfaction up at Gill’s utterly exasperated gaze, all while knowing exactly what Gill was thinking, was idiotic too.
“…It’s not like you’re actually going to read every last one of them. At least negotiate the price.”
“Okay.”
Lizel nodded obediently and approached the still-frozen shopkeeper. He repeated to the owner exactly what he’d just told Gill and smoothly talked down the man, who was so shocked he was babbling incoherently.
Once the owner accepted the proposed arrangement, all that was left was to discuss the price. It was such an absurdly risk-free deal for the shop that the owner was actually hesitant to accept too much money.
In the end, Lizel secured the right to borrow all the shop’s books for a price significantly lower than their total value. The negotiation ended amicably, and both the shopkeeper and Lizel were all smiles.
“Well then, for now I’ll borrow everything on this one shelf.”