The Savior

The gentle scraping sound of the knife against hard paper tickled his ears—scritch, scritch, it's a monotonous melody in his grandfather's book restoration shop. Auri bit his lip in concentration as he slid the precision knife beneath the inner hinge of the book, careful not to tear any of the pages as he slowly separated the text block from its cover.

Deconstructing a book was such a tedious but delicate process. Depending on the severity of its damage, it could take eight to twelve hours for just one book. Sometimes, more. It was akin to surgery, but instead of cutting through human bones and flesh, he was slicing between leather and sheets of old paper.

Well, it wasn't as grotesque as that, but a man holding a scalpel could use some form of entertainment.

Auri leaned back in his chair, stretching a bit to loosen up his strained muscles. This was the third book he had to work on for the day. The first two were easy to handle, as they only needed a quick fix to a couple of wear and tear on some pages and repairing its old cover. The one he was working on, however, was in terrible shape; its cover was filthy, half of the spine was already crumbling, and some of the pages were badly torn up. It may take him more than just a day to finish it.

A quick glance at the wall clock told him it was nearing five o'clock in the afternoon. He would be meeting his friends later tonight. He should wrap things in the shop and just continue the book surgery tomorrow.

Setting the book aside, Auri started decluttering the table, ready to call it a day. But just as he was about to leave, his grandfather entered the workshop.

"Where are you going?" his grandfather asked. "Are you finished with the books I gave you?"

Auri stiffened. "I'm done with the two."

His grandfather stared at him with skeptical eyes before picking up the books he had repaired earlier. He tilted it towards the light, inspecting the seam. Not even half a minute passed, and he was already shaking his head with disappointment.

"Your work is sloppy." He sighed. "The binding is not aligned to the center. Fix it."

"I-I'll fix it again tomorrow—"

"No, fix it now and do it properly."

"But, Grandpa, I'm meeting with my friends today!"

"So you rushed the repair? You slapped on the glue and pressed it before it dried so you could mess around with your friends?"

"I worked hard on it!"

His grandfather slammed the book down on the table with a loud thump. "You're not leaving the workshop until you're done with your task. If you are to inherit this shop, then you better take this seriously. Do. It. Again."

Auri wanted to protest, to tell the old man he wanted nothing to do with his shop, but he made a promise to his mother, so he swallowed his pride and sat back down on his chair to redo everything from the beginning.

His grandfather watched him for a moment as if to ensure he wouldn't sneak out once he was gone. When he deemed he was trustworthy enough to work on his own, he left the workshop without a word.

The Books' Savior shop had been around for four generations, first established by his great-grandfather, who had a deep adoration for books. It had gone through two world wars, seven fires, and twelve robberies (Auri found the robbery part a bit preposterous because who in their right mind would rob a restoration shop?) but it still managed to survive the test of time.

His older brother was supposed to take over the shop, but after the bastard ran away from home and vanished, Auri had no choice but to carry the burden of ensuring the shop survived for another generation. Although that in itself would be impossible given his preference, they didn't need to know that for now.

Still, why did he have to go through all this trouble?

'My idiot of a brother must be living the best time of his life while I'm suffering in his stead!'

By the time he was done with all three books, it was already past midnight.

Auri shoved the last book inside a drawer and slammed it shut with more force than necessary. The joints of his fingers had been cramping for hours. If he were to hold a scalpel and dissect one more book, his hands might fall off and turn into a parchment.

"Ugh! I'm not touching any book ever again," he grumbled as he exited the workshop with his soul barely attached to his body.

Auri emerged through the door connecting the workshop to the library. If the back of the shop was where restoration takes place, the front was a decent-sized library where the books they had spent weeks repairing were put on display—just so they could gather more dust in them.

Seriously, who would still be interested in old books nowadays? They don't even get customers.

Okay, sure. Once in a while, they would get customers such as book collectors and self-proclaimed bibliophiles who were looking for hard-to-find, limited-edition books that had gone out of print for decades since its publication. They would buy books in bulk, filling the almost always empty register with a little cash, but even that can hardly be considered as a profit.

"All is this effort wasted on something no one even bothered to read." Auri flicked the lights off as he opened the front door. "Grandpa should just close this shop for—gah! What the fuck?"

Right across the shop's entrance, a woman was standing with an anxious look on her face. She was in a rather peculiar attire: a tattered olive green cloak over a dirtied white dress. Cradled close to her chest was an object wrapped in a piece of cloth like a newborn baby.

"Who are you?" Auri asked after his initial shock subsided. "What are you doing in front of our shop in the middle of the night?"

The woman took a step forward; her eyes had a mixture of hope and desperation. "Y-You are the savior, right?"

Confusion only contorted Auri's face. "What?"

"The savior, that's you, isn't it?"

Auri caught a glimpse of the reddish brown leather beneath the cloth and came to realize what her weirdly phrased question meant. "Ah, yes. This is the Books' Savior shop."

"Then—"

"But as you can see, we are closed."

"Closed?" she repeated as if the word just shattered her last remaining hope. "B-But I need this fixed now..."

Auri's left eye twitched in irritation. Who the fuck asks for a book restoration service at two o'clock in the morning?

"Can't you help me? I'll reward you with—"

"Miss, are you being serious right now?" Auri snapped.

The woman took a step back, startled.

"I just missed a night out with my friends because I was forced to stay in this stupid shop all day to fix books. And now you want me to lose sleep just so I could fix yours? Do you think I'm a saint who creates miracles to save all the books in the world? If that's what you're expecting, then you've got the wrong person!"

She blinked multiple times, taken aback by his sudden outburst.

Auri raked his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath in. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. I just... ugh! Never mind. Why are you so desperate to get that book fixed anyway? Is it a gift for someone? A family heirloom?"

The woman cradled the book in her arms like a mother would to her child. "I need to save them. Dietrich and the others, all their saga are being destroyed. This is all that's left. If his last saga falls apart too, then they will be forgotten forever."

Dietrich? Saga? What the hell was she talking about?

"Please help me, Savior." The woman grabbed his hand and gave him a pleading look. "You are our last hope."

For a second, Auri almost gave in, but he shook his head and retrieved his hand from her hold. "Like I said, the shop is closed. If you really want that to be fixed, come back after sunrise and wait for the old man to open the shop. Or find someone else instead. Your choice, really. But I'm not doing it. I'm so done with books for tonight."

The woman fell silent, but she kept her eyes glued to him. It was unsettling. It was as if she's trying to read him.

"I suppose I have no choice but to wait," she said, backing off. "I will return once you're ready to hold the book."

Auri opened his mouth to protest, but she had already turned away, blending into the shadows of the empty street. It was such a bizarre encounter, but something told him this wouldn't be the last time they would meet.