What on earth are you doing? said a voice inside his head.
But then a different voice laughed.
It’s fine, it replied.
Both voices were Rintaro’s own, and it was true that he had no idea what he was doing. He let out a sigh, and his breath was white in the bright but chilly morning air.
He stared gloomily at the bookshelves, wondering why he’d started dusting them at all. Further back in his mind lingered the memory of yesterday’s strange adventure.
“That was excellent work, Mr. Proprietor.”
The rich voice came from a tabby cat with a fine coat of fur.
Rintaro pulled a face as he watched the cat stroll toward him through the bookshop’s narrow space, its jade green eyes creased into a smile.
“What’s up?” it asked him.
“I’m not used to being praised for anything,” Rintaro replied.
“It’s good to be humble. But there’s such a thing as taking it too far.”
The cat continued toward him.
“Your words managed to move somebody. That’s a fact. And you succeeded in releasing a huge number of imprisoned books, at the same time making it back home yourself. Without your words, we would never have been able to return and would have ended up wandering that freaky house for eternity.”
The thought was terrifying, but the cat spoke in its usual nonchalant way. Rintaro spotted the hint of a smile in its eyes.
“Excellent work. We’ve managed to make it through the first labyrinth.”
“You’re welcome . . . Huh?” Rintaro broke off and stared at the cat. “What do you mean, ‘first labyrinth’？”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Rintaro was standing in the center of Natsuki Books. The tabby cat slipped between his legs and headed toward the back wall once again.
“Wait a minute! You say don’t worry about it, but— Hey, you!”
“I told you my name is Tiger the Tabby. Try to remember.”
The cat smiled over its shoulder.
“It really was outstanding work.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Rintaro had no sooner uttered these words than the extra passageway at the back of the bookshop dissolved into a white light and he found himself standing alone before the wooden wall. It was a whole day since the adventure, but somehow, he still felt as if he were dreaming.
Outstanding work, huh?
He could still hear the tabby’s voice in his ears.
No one had ever praised him so directly before. People had always laughed at Rintaro, called him spineless or weak. He was used to being avoided because he was always so glum, but now he was strangely unsettled by these new descriptions being thrown at him. He was so unsettled that he found himself unable to sit down with a book in the dim shop as usual. He grabbed the duster again instead and put all his energy into cleaning off those shelves.
He’d just about finished when he heard the front doorbell. He looked over to see Sayo Yuzuki, his neighbor and class rep, wrapped in a warm, red scarf. She peered into the bookshop and raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow when she saw Rintaro standing there.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you . . . ?”
For a moment he was confused, but then when he thought about it, he realized he should have been the one asking her the question.
“It’s seven in the morning. What are you doing here, Sayo?”