There was only one bookshop in town, Burk's Bookshop.
As most of the buyers were intellectuals and the upper class of the town, the bookshop wasn't big and only had two storefronts, but it was decorated rather elegantly.
"Uncle Burk, I heard you got another batch of new books. Where did you put them?"
Borkal called after he entered. His family was a regular customer of the bookshop and he didn't care about the peace of the place.
"They're over there. There's a total of 15 new books. Be careful when you look through them. I only got two or three of each book. I'll have to pay if you damage them," said Burk as he adjusted his spectacles and continued doing his accounts.
Eight of the 15 new books were biographies. Claude had always referred to them as bootlickers or chicken soup novels. They were the stories of famous nobles, councilors, or successful people who wrote about how they became successful. The books would describe the hardships they went through in life and the emotional torment they went through before they finally embarked on the path to success.
Only a fool would believe that. Claude had read enough chicken soup novels in his previous life. The biographies in this world were an insult to the very name of chicken soup novels. Most of them were the same, just changing the name, time, and location. The main purpose of publishing the biographies was to make money and to fool people.
The other five were knight novels. In the Dark Age, a brave and fearless knight tried to save a beautiful princess or a noble lady from falling into the hands of an evil sorcerer. After a difficult battle of life and death, he finally got the beauty back. At the same time, he helped the evil sorcerer clean up their treasure vault and enrich his own pockets. He got both the beauty and the wealth …
Claude believed that it would be more convincing to change the magus into a dragon. However, the dragons of this world didn't really like to capture beautiful women to listen to their screams. Most of them were forced to become the magus' subordinates or mounts. In the end, they would either betray the main character or be killed by the main character. Otherwise, the main character would be the one riding on them.
The five knight novels were mostly the same. They were Claude's favorite when he first transmigrated and made his blood boil with excitement.
But now, he knew that the so-called knight novels were nothing more than nonsense made up by the authors and had nothing to do with history.
The reason why those authors wrote such knight novels was nothing more than to support their families and keep in line with the kingdom's political attitude. This was understandable and understandable.
Of the remaining two, one was a travelogue on the continent written by a diplomat who served as a peace envoy for Shiks in the north of the continent. He stayed there for five years and returned home to write about his experiences in Shiks. It was a good book and should be bought.
There was also the latest research report on marine flora and fauna. After eight years of research, pharmaceutical experts extracted a dye from the purple atro seaweed, which was difficult to fade after being dyed, adding one more color to the kingdom's cloth.
This book mainly talked about the artificial cultivation of Atro seaweed and its purchase price guide.
Perhaps the new book, Atro's Seaweed, should be bought for his father to decorate his study. As the chief administrator of Whitestag, Morssen would be able to show off his vast knowledge and insight into the kingdom's research trends to his guests. He could even use that as a reason to get the town hall to allocate funds for the town's research on seaweed farming to develop the people's livelihoods. As for the research failing, it was common for the town hall to use the funds as school fees.
In the end, Claude bought four books: Atro Seaweed, Sightings in Shiks, a knight novel and a biography. He spent a total of two riyases and two sunars on them.
He didn't want to buy that much, but he remembered that the two riyases he asked his father for was for the books, so he had no choice but to spend that much.
He didn't want to buy the biography at first, but Morssen loved those novels and often used them to teach his children. Claude had no choice but to buy one for the occasion. Truth be told, he didn't have anything else to buy.
As for the knight novel, Claude felt that it would be a good distraction while he was on the toilet.
It was all because he was used to holding a mobile phone in his previous life. Now that he was squatting on the toilet, he really couldn't poop without a book.
"Claude, come over and take a look," Eriksson whispered from a corner, "There's something good …"
"What are you doing, acting like a thief?" Claude walked over.
Eriksson put a finger to his mouth. "Shh, lower your voice. Let me show you something good …"
A book was stuffed into Claude's hands. It was a handwritten manuscript that Eriksson had no idea where he got it from.
He flipped it open and understood what was going on. Claude smiled. He didn't think that there would be an imperial uncle in this world. There were even a few attractive illustrations in the book.
Even though it was a small manuscript, it was obvious that the person who copied it put a lot of effort into the illustrations. The proportions of the human body were normal. While it was a little exaggerated, it didn't look like an abstract painting.
The important parts of the body were drawn very clearly. It was no wonder that Eriksson's face turned red like a thief.
Casually flipping through the pages, he briefly skimmed through the contents. Hmm, this little royal uncle described the story of a noble young lady who, in order to protect her father's noble title after his business failed, went to the capital city to use her own body to bribe those high officials and nobles. The plot was abnormally fiery and intense. Large sections of action were described in detail, it was extraordinarily wonderful …
It was no wonder that the novel was only a handwritten manuscript and not an official book. Even an imperial uncle's book was banned in the kingdom.
If caught, the author would be sentenced to at least five to six years in prison. The copyist and reader would either be fined or sentenced to three months of labor. That depended on the mood of the law enforcer. Of course, if one was on good terms with the law enforcer, they could turn a blind eye.
"Where did you get it from?" Claude asked.
"Uncle Burke's private collection … Do you think it's good?"
"It's alright …" Claude tossed the book back to Eriksson. "When you grow up and experience many women, you won't care about books like this anymore."
"You make it sound like you've experienced many women …" Eriksson hurriedly put the book away. "Claude, do you think I'll make money if I buy this book and make a few copies to sell to my classmates in school?"
Claude glared at Eriksson and warned him in a low voice, "Eyke, if you want to die, go ahead and do it. I won't stop you if you want to read the book yourself. But if you want to make copies and sell them, you must be out of your mind to come up with such an idea.
As long as one of your classmates buys this manuscript from you, the whole school will know that you have such a forbidden book in your possession.
The more you sell, the closer you'll be to bad luck.
Once word of this gets out and the instructors of the school find out, you can imagine your fate. Even if your father is the famous Captain Altroni, he won't be able to prevent you from being caught and forced into labor. "
Eriksson was speechless.
"I'm just thinking about it," Eriksson muttered, "I'll beat the crap out of anyone who dares to tell the instructors."
"Idiot, do you think the students who tell the instructors will say it in front of you?
It'll be too late to regret it when you find out who it was.
The kingdom has already banned the distribution of such manuscripts. Those who intentionally distribute them are no different from the author, "Claude said as he patted Eriksson on the head." Go return it to Uncle Burke. "
Apart from the four books, Claude spent four sunars to buy a sheet of green bast paper for writing and twenty sheets of better quality manli paper.
He was going to copy the magic recipe book for his mother as a birthday present.
Compared to the cheap papyrus produced in the three southwestern counties, the Manly papyrus produced in the southern part of the kingdom, although the price was as high as one fenny per sheet, the paper was white, exquisite, and clean. It had always been the designated office paper for government documents. It was used to copy official documents and archived documents.
Whitestag's chief executive, Morssen, would often bring home some extra manli paper. However, most of it ended up in Claude and Angelina's workbooks, sketchbooks, sketchbooks, or folded into paper planes, paper boats, and paper lanterns that the chubby kid liked the most.
As the manli paper he bought was larger than the ones his father brought home from the town hall that had already been cut into smaller pieces, Claude rolled them up and held them in his hand. After he was done with the bill, he saw Eriksson sneakily stuff the book into his robes. It seemed that the idiot had bought the book in the end.
"How much is it?" Claude asked in a whisper.
The startled Eriksson only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Claude. "One riyas and eight sunars."
"What?!"
Claude was shocked. The four new manuscripts he bought only cost five to six sunars each. He didn't think that the manuscript book he bought would be worth three new manuscripts. "Why is it so expensive?"
"Uncle Bok said that it takes a lot of effort to copy and that it's a forbidden book, so he can't sell it openly. That's why the price went up. There's nothing he can do about it. These things can't be sold in bulk and it's up to luck to get a copy.
"Bullsh * t, I don't believe his bullsh * t."
Claude thought, It's no wonder Eriksson would want to make a few copies to sell to his classmates. It's a little too expensive and it's not worth it to just buy it for himself.
"How about this?" Claude pondered for two seconds and suggested, "You can sell it to Boa or rent it to him after you're done. That way, you'll be able to recoup at least half of your investment."
"Do you want to read it or not?
I can sell it to you at a lower price, or I can help you make a copy … "Eriksson was obviously trying to take advantage of the situation.
"Get lost! I don't want to read such a childish book!" Claude pushed him away.
On the way back to school, Borkal slapped his forehead and recalled something.
"By the way, did you hit your sister Angelina after you got home yesterday afternoon?"
"What did you say?"
Claude was stunned. "No, I wouldn't bear to hit my sister. She's such a good girl, so why would I hit her?
I went straight upstairs to sleep after I got home. Why did you say I hit her? "
"It's not you … Yesterday, when Wero and I delivered the goat legs, python meat, and deer jerky to your house, we heard your sister Anna crying quietly in the kitchen. She stopped crying when she heard us and came out to take the food.
We asked who bullied her and she didn't say, but her face was red as if someone slapped her.
We remembered that you just got home not long ago and thought you slapped her, so we didn't ask. "
Welikro nodded. "We really thought you were the one who slapped her. That's why we wanted to persuade you not to punish your sister like that."
Claude's eyes reddened in an instant. Ever since he transmigrated to this world and became Claude, Angelina and Bloweyk had made him truly acknowledge him as an elder brother and let him understand what brotherly love was. He was an only child in his past life and the thing he envied the most was others having siblings.