Chapter 008: Antique Emporium

“Is this really the place?” Anya hesitantly asked. The doubt in her voice was almost palpable.

Nest didn’t dare to respond. After blankly staring at the neon sign for a few seconds, he gritted his teeth and pushed open the door.

A rusty jingle reverberated through the air. It was immediately followed by a hollow echo that gave off the false impression of space.

After seeing the interior of the store, his expression did not get any better. In fact, it worsened. Nest did not know how it was possible, but the insides of the store looked far worse than the outside.

The moment he walked in, he was immediately hit with the smell. Now, it wasn’t an unpleasant smell, mind you. It smelled faintly of paper and ink, and reminded Nest of a library or of his father’s old study room. Looking around, it was obvious why such an aroma permeated the air. Rather than calling this place an antique shop, it would have been more appropriate to call it a bookstore. Most, if not everything in here consisted of old books and scattered pieces of loose-leaf paper.

“Overdue bills, messily scribbled journal entries, and torn pages of books long forgotten…” Nest furrowed his brow as he inspected the papers strewn across the floor.

There were other types of antiques here as well, such as cracked vases and old radios with half of their contents splayed out right next to them. It somewhat reminded him of the ruptured organs of a squirrel that had just been run over by a truck.

Other similar objects included, rusty car parts, broken silverware, nonfunctioning handheld game consoles and the severed hand of a porcelain doll. All of it was scattered across the shop, either on decaying shelves or simply on the floor, where they added to the store’s decrepit atmosphere.

These more ‘physical’ antiques only made up a scant minority of the store’s contents. The majority of it was composed of old books.

All in all, it was a literal trash heap of unwanted objects. He really couldn’t believe that a magical artifact was hidden somewhere within this mess.

Unaware of the various thoughts that filled his head, Niphilili excitedly tugged on his hair. She was clearly pulling him towards one specific direction, one that led farther into the store’s cluttered interior.

Nest brushed her aside as he gingerly took a step forward. He craned his neck and carefully scanned the small room. After searching around for a bit, he finally saw the counter of the shop. Helming it was an old man with clearly dyed black hair. He was slumped up against his chair, snoring. A trail of drool ran down his chin and wettened his shirt. The old cash register by his side had been opened. Nest did not know if it was always like that or if someone had come in and stolen some of it prior to their arrival.

“Young Master, this place… you can’t be serious, right?” Anya curled her lips and furrowed her brow. She was clearly taken aback by the horrendous state of the shop. Nest could only imagine the sort of horror she felt as a person whose main occupation involved cleaning.

He looked over at his companion and flashed her a bitter smile. “We’re just sightseeing. Don’t mind the appearance so much. It’s good to visit a place like this every now and then. If you can find something interesting, then I’ll even buy it for you.” He spouted out one line after the other, but Anya remained unconvinced.

“What could I possibly find interesting in a place like this?”

Nest shrugged his shoulders. “I saw some old antique guns near the back of the store. That might be interesting.”

It was an open secret that Anya was particularly fond of guns.

“Oh?” Her eyes slightly narrowed. Although she was not as overly excited as he had hoped, at the very least, her interest had been piqued. Anya thought for a moment before she nodded.

Without another word, she quickly walked over towards the back of the store.

After he watched her disappear behind a bookshelf, Nest breathed out a sigh.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” While he had temporarily dealt with one problem, another one was still very much present.

Nest frowned. The little angel had stopped tugging on his hair. Instead, she resorted to pulling on his ear. He let out a wince, as he hurriedly swatted the angel away. She deftly dodged his hand and zigzagged through the air. She hesitated for a moment, before she started flying back towards his face.

Her goal was simple and her intentions were clear. Niphilili was aiming for his other ear.

“Alright, already. No more pulling. Just lead the way.” Nest hurriedly muttered out, before the angel could bother him any longer.

He quickly followed after the angel. Niphilili led him deeper into the messy innards of the store. They eventually stopped at one of the bookshelves. The angel pointed towards a certain book.

Nest curiously pulled it out.

He widened his eyes in surprise. The book in his hands was written entirely in French, a language that Nest had zero comprehension on, aside from one or two words here and there. The sands of time had done quite a number on it, evident by all the wear and tear on both its pages and on its cover.

The cover itself was that of a dark green. Written on its surface in faded red print were two words: [Petit Albert].

“This is…?” Nest turned over the book and flipped through its pages. He thoroughly inspected the book with keen interest.

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“It’s a grimoire,” Niphilili informed him. She crossed her arms across her chest and leaned closer towards the book. Her nose wrinkled. “It’s a bit shabby looking and it can only really be classified as half an artifact, but the mana it gives off is clear.”

“Mana?” He thought for a moment and gingerly traced his hands across the printed letters on the cover. “I don’t really feel anything.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course you don’t. Until the Great Calamity starts, the level of mana on Earth is practically nonexistent. Although some of it might leak out every now and then, in the end, it’s all negligible. While the artifacts scattered across Earth are real, many of them are restricted thanks to the condition of the Earth itself. This grimoire, in particular, is one of the weaker ones.”

“…” Although most of the things she spoke about sounded like nonsense, Nest had to admit, he was somewhat interested. “Then, isn’t this thing useless?”

“It is until I awaken it.” She suddenly stretched out her hands and stroked the cover with her index finger.

Almost instantly, the book started shuddering.

Nest breathed out a shocked gasp. He felt the book violently shaking in his hands. For a split second, a surge of foreign energy enveloped him, but just as it had appeared, it was suddenly gone a second later.

The little angel nodded her head in satisfaction. “Good. I have properly activated it. Usually, grimoires activate by themselves once they have accumulated enough mana. I simply awakened it ahead of schedule… still, although the great me tried her hardest, I can’t do anything about the inherent disadvantage of this world. The mana here is so weak that this thing is practically dead. It will get stronger after the apocalypse, but for now, it should be enough to prove things to you.”

“Dead?” Out of everything Niphilili had said, Nest focused in on that one word. For some reason, the way she had said felt different. “… You speak as if this book is alive.”

Niphilili nodded as if it was obvious. “That’s right. That is what a grimoire is. It is a living magical codex. In it is a soul that can symbiote with its user.

“With a grimoire in hand, even the most pitiful magicians can become overnight sensations! Of course, their performance is dependent on the quality of the grimoire. As for this thing, it is very pitiful! The soul inside isn’t even a soul. It is an incomplete life and judging by this book’s current state, it cannot grow any longer. Rather than a grimoire, it is more akin to a half-grimoire.

“The best comparison I can make is that this thing is like a corpse! Or a child that died during the process of birth.

“Right…” Nest thought that her descriptions were a bit dark. What’s more, it was all the weirder considering those words were coming from someone who looked almost exactly like a five-year-old. Still, he somewhat understood the concept she was trying to describe.

“So, even after awakening it, it’s still pretty useless.” He couldn’t help but ask.

“It is mostly useless, but it still has some uses.”

Nest nodded. He pushed the issue aside for a moment and turned toward the counter. “For starters, let’s buy it.”

He quickly approached the counter. On his way there, he met back up with Anya. In her hands was an old revolver. Half of the metal was covered in rust, while the wooden handle had clearly decayed.

“See, you did manage to find something.” Nest encouraged.

Anya scoffed. “It isn’t anything impressive. In fact, it was the only gun in here. I’d feel bad if I didn’t make you at least spend some money on me.”

They arrived at the counter. The old clerk was still fast asleep.

Nest felt somewhat hesitant to wake him up, but Anya did not have such qualms. In fact, there was very little in this world that Anya hesitated to do. She slammed her hand down onto the table. A loud sound reverberated through the room, while the clerk was startled awake.

He blinked in confusion. “What the? Who the hell are you guys?” He muttered out as his red eyes glanced back and forth between Anya and Nest.

“Customers.” Anya answered briskly.

“Customers? Oh, customers!” The haziness in his eyes immediately disappeared, only to be replaced by an excited glimmer. “You two are actually customers! That’s great, that fantastic. It really has been a while.” His wrinkly face morphed into an ugly smile.

“You guys are unlike the rowdy sort that usually come around here to cause trouble. Real customers… real customers! Can you imagine that!” He kept babbling, and from the looks of it, it appeared as if he would not be stopping anytime soon.

Nest exaggeratedly coughed, which snapped the clerk back into focus.

“So, let’s see what we got here…” He looked intently at the items that the two had placed onto the counter. “Oh, this is a Smith and Wesson replica revolver. If I’m not mistaken, then this should be based around the first model of their New York line. You can tell from all the grooves near the border between the barrel and the handle.”

He pointed towards the gun that Anya had brought over.

“Oh, it’s just a replica…” She sighed in disappointment.

Hearing her sigh, the clerk hurriedly corrected himself. “No, no, just because it’s a replica, doesn’t mean it’s any less valuable. I reckon that even for replicas, there aren’t too many of these things floating around out there. Maybe a little less than a thousand. If you sell it to a collector, then I’m sure it’ll fetch you a pretty good price.”

Anya thought about his words for a moment, before she nodded. “Alright, if that’s the case, then I’ll buy it.”

The clerked breathed out a sigh of relief. He felt inwardly lucky. He had almost just lost a customer, and for a place like this, every customer was as valuable as water in a desert.

“Right, then what’s next?” He spoke out loud as he turned towards the green book that Nest had brought over.

For a moment, his eyes twinkled.

“Oh, you have a good eye young man. This right here is the Petit Albert. It was a book mass produced during 18th century France. It was advertised as a grimoire and was mainly purchased by young ladies and middle-aged old women. At the time, it was something similar to the natural remedies that you here all over the country nowadays.

“This book right here is one of the later additions… I don’t exactly have an exact date but…”

As the clerk continued his explanation, Nest had a weird expression on his face. “A copy of a mass-produced book marketed to housewives… something like that actually contained real magic power? Isn’t that a bit ridiculous? Did that mean that there were several copies of this thing floating around all over the world? Do those copies also contain magic in them?

Seeing his suspicious expression, Niphilili scoffed. “There are two types of methods for a grimoire to become a grimoire. One is for it to be purposely created, while the other is for it to gain enough accumulation.”

‘Accumulation?’

As if she could read his mind, the little angel explained, “If a book passes through enough hands, or if it is cared for by enough humans, then it will eventually develop a seed of life. This thing doesn’t only happen to books, but various other items as well, but only a book can transform into a grimoire. The distinction here is the intention of the item. A book is meant to house information, so it is the best medium for becoming a grimoire.

“Once the seed of life germinates, the book will become a grimoire. This book here has gone through a lot, far more than its other copies… still, it is not perfect. The seed has only half-germinated, so at most, this thing can only count as a half-grimoire. It possesses no real life. If this were in my master’s realm, then this thing would be considered trash, but on Earth, it is an okay artifact.”

Nest nodded. While her explanation was quite interesting, he didn’t care much for it. He still wasn’t entirely convinced of both the book’s authenticity and the validity of the Angel’s existence. Unless he had concrete proof, then he refused to believe.

The two quickly checked out their items and left the store. Nest and Anya returned to the airport and flew back to the manor.