Elemental Cats

"Excuse me, my good sir. Is there anything specific you are looking for that I can help you find?"

The receptionist's words would have sounded polite if it weren't for the poorly veiled bucket-load of sarcasm and anger filling his voice.

However, despite the receptionist's clearly hostile attitude, Toz was still unbothered.

"Not really. I'm just browsing, but thank you for asking."

"Then, if you are not looking to purchase anything, may I ask to limit the frankly ludicrous questions you keep asking?"

Toz looked up at the receptionist, his mouth agape in shock. His expression looked so serious and fake at the same time that the cats had to stifle laughter.

"My deepest apologies! I didn't know I was causing you trouble. Can you give me an example of such a question, so I know what I shan't ask?"

The receptionist was too angry to notice that Toz was mocking him, and he sighed before obliging with the faint hope that it would get Toz to stop being so annoying.

"You know, questions like 'What color was the shirt of the third person to touch this grimoire?' How am I supposed to know those things? And how are they relevant to you and your purchase?"

"Oh! That was just fleeting curiosity. I'll make sure to restrain myself from now."

"Thank you."

The receptionist thanked Toz with sincerity and almost laid his head down on the desk to sleep in relief, blissfully unaware that Toz had lied.

Toz went back to browsing through the grimoires, looking for grimoires interesting enough to warrant a second look. He did it long enough that the receptionist's frown had time to melt away.

However, he didn't actually want the receptionist to fall asleep, so Toz opened his mouth again.

"Excuse me…."

Just that was enough to make the receptionist's head jerk up and show his face already scrunched up in irritation.

"What–"

"Is this grimoire from the same mage as 'Sneeze?'"

Toz's words interrupted the receptionist before he could burst out. Being stopped from showing a disgraceful side of himself would have ordinarily made the receptionist thankful. But he was as far from thankful as possible because the would-be object of his gratitude was also the trigger for his lack of grace.

Thankfully, Toz at least asked a somewhat reasonable question this time.

"What grimoire is it?"

Toz held up a grimoire and showed it to the receptionist across the tent.

"This one. 'Handshake.'"

The receptionist quickly flipped through a catalog to his right before answering.

"Yes. They come from the same mage. Though he has chosen to remain anonymous, so I can not tell you his name."

"That's alright. I only wanted to know if the same person made them."

"Great. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, not at the moment, thank you."

Toz went back to looking through the grimoires on the shelves and inside the display cases. But it only took a couple of minutes before he found another thing he could ask.

"Excuse me…."

The receptionist was on the verge of blowing his top by now, but since Toz had promised not to ask any unreasonably stupid questions, the receptionist pulled himself together and put on a fake smile as he answered.

"Yes?"

"How old is this one?"

As he asked, Toz held up a slightly worn grimoire and showed it to the receptionist.

The receptionist squinted to get a look at the name on its front.

"One second."

The receptionist began flipping through the catalog to his right, so Toz had to wait. Fortunately, it didn't take long until the receptionist found the answer to Toz's question.

"It has been two weeks since that grimoire was written. But the book itself is a couple of years old. However, you can rest assured that the spell is untouched and that the grimoire is fresh. Our shop proudly boasts about only putting recent additions to our shop on the shelves."

The receptionist said the last bit with pride as his nose began pointing toward the sky. But his words made Toz realize something.

If only recent additions were put on the shelves, did that mean that there were older grimoires somewhere else? Those grimoires probably hadn't been sold for a reason, and if Toz had to guess, they were probably similar to the Sneeze, Handshake, and Hug's Dance spells he had found.

But there might also be grimoires similar to the one Hassandra gave him. If the receptionist hadn't put up a no-refund sign, it was very likely that Hassandra would have returned the grimoire. The grimoire would have then continued to go unsold until it ended up in that storage.

Before Toz could get his hopes too much, he looked directly at the receptionist with a clear gaze.

"Then, where do the older grimoires end up?"

The receptionist was a little stunned at Toz's question since it didn't seem to be asked with the same mocking intent as all his other questions. But then he realized that Toz had assumed that there were grimoires he couldn't sell. Although he was offended by Toz's question, and it showed on his face, the receptionist still answered Toz's question.

"Grimoires that regrettably don't catch the interest of our customers either end up in front or, if they're generally unwanted, end up in the back."

Toz almost licked his lips in anticipation. His instincts were telling him that the good stuff was in the back that the receptionist had just revealed to him.

Toz restrained himself and asked the receptionist.

"Ahem. And would it be possible to take a look at the grimoires in the back?"

"You want to look at the grimoires that no one else wanted to buy?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I'm curious."

"Unfortunately, we're understaffed at the moment. I have to watch you at all times, but I can't leave the store unattended, so you'll have to come back another time."

Toz could almost taste the receptionist's glee at possibly getting rid of him. But he wasn't going to give up.

"You need to watch this place that has dozens of security and surveillance enchantments?"

"Y-yes, I–"

The receptionist was a little surprised that Toz had noticed all the defensive enchantments that most customers didn't notice. But before he could explain himself, Toz continued with the finisher.

"There aren't even any other customers here."

"B-but we are still open, and there might come someone."

"Then, those enchantments connected to the token at your waist will tell you that, right?"

The receptionist had gone from a little surprised at how Toz noticed all the defensive enchantments to scared at how Toz identified something like the token at his waist when he had been sitting behind a desk at all times.

In order to get to the back, where he could feel his instincts leading him, Toz pulled out all stops. He happily revealed that he knew about the tent's defensive enchantments. And when that didn't work, he used the first thing he picked up after entering the tent.

Since he had his mana vision active at almost all times, nowadays, Toz saw the burst of mana that flew through the air toward the receptionist directly following his entry into the tent. His mana vision also revealed a tight bundle of enchantments hanging at the receptionist's waist. It was clearly a token used to control and communicate with the tent.

With that, Toz successfully convinced the receptionist to show him the back room.