The Cat Who Saved Books(32)

“This is what we do here.”

Rintaro suddenly understood what the tabby cat had meant when it said this adversary would be different from the first two. The men he’d met in the other two labyrinths—no matter how bizarre their behavior—were, at heart, book lovers. By contrast, the man sitting in front of them right now didn’t feel the slightest attachment to books. He treated them as trash and didn’t feel even the teensiest bit bad about it. This was what the cat had meant when it said the man was extremely unpredictable.

“Natsuki, are you okay?”

It was Sayo’s voice. Rintaro turned to look and met her intense gaze. He nodded and turned back to the man in the office chair.

“I came here today because a friend asked me to rescue some books.”

“Rescue?”

“That’s right. I think that means that I have to stop you.”

“Well, that’s a stupid thing to say. I’ve already told you that this is my job.”

“But you’re treating books as if they’re nothing but scraps of paper. If that’s the attitude of the people producing books, then nothing will reach the readers. The number of people who read books is already decreasing. If someone in your position has that kind of attitude, then the number of readers will just keep going down.”

Rintaro put forth his best argument, but the president was unmoved. Beneath his white eyebrows, his eyes were unreadable, and the slight curve of a smile on his lips simply added to his elusive air.

After a moment, his narrow shoulders vibrated ever so slightly. Then the vibrations turned into a stronger shaking, and finally the president exploded with laughter. His low-pitched chuckling filled the room.

As Rintaro and Sayo stared, the president pressed his left hand to his mouth, as if to try to suppress his laughter. He rapped a couple of times on the desk with the knuckles of his right. Finally he began to speak.

“You really are an idiot, aren’t you? Utterly dumb.”

Even while he was cracking with laughter there was a bite to his words.

“No. In fact I don’t think it’s fair to call you an idiot. You’re far from being the only one. These misconceptions are all too common these days.”

“What misconceptions?” Rintaro asked.

“The one that books don’t sell.” The president laughed one more time, then continued. “You’re deluded if you think books don’t sell anymore these days. Books sell really well. In fact, World’s Best Books is extremely successful.”

“Is that supposed to be sarcasm?”

“It’s not sarcasm at all. It’s fact. It’s very easy indeed to sell books—as long as you keep one fundamental rule in mind.”

The president regarded Rintaro with amusement. It was clear he was enjoying himself. As if revealing the secret of an amazing magic trick, he lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Sell books that sell—that’s the rule.”

A curious phrase indeed. A curious phrase that had a bizarre ring to it.

“That’s right,” said the president. “Here at the world’s number one publishing company, we don’t publish books to inform or teach people. We print the books that society wants. We don’t care about issues such as messages that need to be imparted, or philosophy that needs to be handed down to the next generation. We don’t care about any harsh reality or difficult truths. Society isn’t interested in things like that. Publishers don’t need to worry about what they should be telling the world; they need to understand what the world wants to hear.”

“It’s dangerous to be that cynical.”

“And you have an excellent mind to have noticed that it’s cynical.”

Chuckling, the president took a cigarette from a pack on his desk and calmly lit it.

“And yet, that’s the reality. That’s how we’ve managed to turn a steady profit.”

Beyond the purplish curl of smoke, countless books went tumbling to the ground.

“If you were raised in that Natsuki Books fantasyland, then you should know this: In today’s world, people don’t have the time or the money to spend on ‘literary masterpieces’ or any fabulously long tome. But at the same time, reading is still fashionable. It confers status. Everyone wants to brag about reading some difficult book. And so, we publish our works with these people’s needs in mind. In summary . . .”

He stuck his neck out to emphasize his point.

“Cheap digests and abridged versions sell like crazy.”

He roared with laughter, his shoulders trembling.

“For those readers who desire a bit of stimulation, the best way is to do it with pornographic passages or gratuitous violence. And for those who lack imagination, adding a simple ‘this really happened’ does the trick. Your circulation is increased by several percentage points, and sales soar.”

Rintaro felt sick to his stomach.

“And for those who never actually pick up a book, whether they can’t get their hands on one, or can’t be bothered to read, we produce information arranged by bullet point. Titles like The Five Requirements for Success or The Eight Techniques to Get Ahead in Life. People never catch on that they’re being duped, that books like these are never going to help them get ahead. But the important thing is that my goal of selling books is accomplished.”