Rintaro got even more flustered. Sayo sighed and shrugged.
“It’s all well and good to chat inside the bookshop, but occasionally you need to get a bit of sun or you’ll be ill. Do you really want your grandfather in heaven to get worried sick over you?”
“If I go out to dinner with a girl, Grandpa’s really going to worry.”
（That’s what he would have liked to say, had his mind not gone completely blank.） “If you’re okay with it,” Rintaro said. It was all he could get out.
“I’ll make do,” Sayo said. It was a crisp response; there was nothing more to say.
She flashed him the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen and set off down the road. As he listened to her footsteps, Rintaro’s mouth fell open.
“Sayo!” he managed to shout.
His classmate turned around.
“Thank you.”
His shy voice came out louder than he’d expected.
Sayo seemed surprised. He wasn’t normally so direct, but his words were powered by a great depth of feeling.
In fact, he had many feelings for this friend who had dropped in to care for him so many times. He had been struggling with how to express all these to her, but “thank you” seemed to suffice.
Sayo was still standing there, and he raised his voice once again.
“I’m really grateful. So much has been thanks to you.”
“What’s up with you all of a sudden? Yuck.”
“Hey, Yuzuki, looks like you’re blushing now.”
“I’m not!”
She turned and ran down the road. The bright sunshine fell on Rintaro’s back and he felt his uniform warm against his skin. As he stood there seeing Sayo off, he suddenly heard a deep voice in his ear.
“Good luck, Mr. Proprietor.”
Startled, Rintaro turned and looked around, but of course there was nobody to be seen. He thought he might have caught a glimpse of the back of a tabby cat disappearing over the fence across the street but he couldn’t be certain. The street seemed just the same as it always was.
He stood there for a moment before giving a little smile.
“I’ll do my best,” Rintaro said. He looked up at the sky.
He would go back inside, finish the cleaning, drink a cup of his usual Assam tea, and read a few pages of a book. When it was time, he would shut up the shop, pick up his schoolbag, and head out to school. Going to school might be dull, but he didn’t want to rack up any more absences and make the class rep angry.
Problems remained, and he had yet to completely resolve any of them, but now all he had to do was follow the path he had chosen for himself.
Leaving the latticed door open, he went back into the shop and got out his tea set. He boiled the water in the kettle and poured it into his grandfather’s well-used teapot. He heard laughter from out in the street. It was the local primary school kids passing by on their way to school. The presence of more people signaled the beginning of a new day.
Surrounded by the pleasant aroma of tea, Rintaro carefully opened his book.
A gentle breeze brushed the doorbell, and it gave a cheerful ring.
A Note from the Translator
I had always wanted to translate something in the fantasy genre, and this charming tale about books and reading was instantly fascinating to me. Who doesn’t love a talking cat?
The Cat Who Saved Books contains four labyrinths, both a classical reference to the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur, and a more modern interpretation of the labyrinth as journey of self-discovery. Throughout the novel, Rintaro Natsuki confronts monsters in the form of people who mistreat books, as well as his own demons. Western literature is frequently referenced, but at the same time this book is very Japanese.