Vol 4 - 1

Vol 4 - 1

Kyle's POV

Today is an extremely unlucky day.

In just twelve days in Italy, I was pickpocketed twice. No one bathes in the same river, but I was robbed at the same station two days in a row.

I'm not that useless, I just like to make friends to the point that people around me exclaim "I've never seen anyone like a person like you." never mind.

I always treat everyone with the thought that they are all friends. But that doesn't mean I will get to know everyone around me. And it doesn't mean that I will be friendly with everyone who approaches me, especially those who approach me with a thick pile of newspapers and a beautiful bouquet as if on purpose. Stealthily put one hand into my pocket, but then I caught him and politely pushed his hand away. The group of people, including adults and children, looked like a real family and were able to sneak away before being captured.

But sometimes I will be caught off guard. Especially in front of a young man with a bright and clean face but filled with anxiety as he approached me and asked for directions. When I sent that person away in a happy mood after showing him the road that I didn't even know clearly on the paper map, I realized that I had just sent my wallet along with him.

Amid bad luck, similarly, the next day I was robbed again near the station. Until then, I stretched my vigilance to take the business trip seriously and determined to be wary of strangers, even though it was heartbreaking because it meant I wouldn't be able to i can't show my sincerity anymore and I might miss out on some interesting friends.

After twelve days of going back and forth between the two cities and not having much work in Italy, I was satisfied with the satisfactory results and boarded the train to leave this country.

I could have flown, but when I finished my uncertain business trip, I decided to treat myself to a week's vacation. There's a music festival going on in Salzburg. I planned to leisurely visit Austria, and stay for a few days before slowly returning to the country.

The train departed just before 11 pm, expected to arrive in Salzburg around 4 am the next morning. I boarded the night train after the busy schedule of the last day with a relaxed soul but as if my body was no longer mine. However, even though I was exhausted, I still stayed up all night talking to his companion when he was approached in a friendly way because I was an extremely sociable person. But after talking for half an hour, I gave in to my drowsiness and fell asleep. I hadn't even booked a hotel yet, but because my eyes were already heavy, I decided to find a place to stay when I got there later.

And I comfortably fell asleep on an unstable train with rampant pickpockets.

In less than a split second, I fell into a deep sleep until someone shook me awake. I tried to open my tired eyes. My eyelids were so heavy that I could only see the person in front of me clearly after blinking a few times. As the conductor, it looks like I'm already crossing the border.

The conductor asked me to show my passport, so I nodded at him with my eyes still almost closed, heavy as if there were weights above them blocking my efforts to open them, then reached out to grope. fumbled with my bag.

Suddenly, my eyes lit up, and my sleepiness immediately disappeared. The wallet was no longer where it needed to be.

The conductor looked at me with a puzzled expression. I turned my empty bag over and over, but other than dust, I couldn't find anything else. I turned to search for the other bags in vain, even though I didn't remember what I had put in them, but there was no way they would appear with something that had never been put in.

It should be here, it should be in this bag. And I just fell asleep a little bit. Maybe I was sleepwalking?

The ticket checker looked at me with pitiful eyes, as if he had roughly guessed my situation from looking at that stupid face. Then suddenly the conductor muttered, "Oh." and picked up the thing that had fallen on the floor as if there were more things hidden under the bed. It's a passport.

"I just need this."

The conductor examined the passport and politely returned it to me again. I could only receive my passport back with a stunned expression and mutter "thank you" out of habit. I then bent down under the bed to see if anything else had fallen out, but only a few specks of dust greeted me.

Maybe the person sitting next to me before might know something, so I turned my head to the seat next to me, but that place was also empty.

The conductor spoke to me with an unpredictable expression.

"Putting sleeping pills in drinks or even being drugged while sleeping is also very common these days. If you want to report a theft complaint, we will help you. Is the lost item important?"

I shook my head bewilderedly, it was nothing too important. My passport was the only thing I didn't want to lose, but luckily the thief seemed to have left it behind while taking everything else. I sighed, remembering that the bastard had offered me juice before I was overcome by sleepiness.

If anyone heard this story, they would probably laugh until they fainted. Stolen three times in just ten days. I have never been betrayed or deceived by anyone in the marketplace because I can see through everyone. Yet sometimes I get tricked by petty thieves in such a stupid way. Whenever this happened, my friends would laugh at me and quip, "How could someone with peerless eyes like you not be able to recognize those basic tricks?"

"By the way, sir, do you have a ticket for the next station?"

The ticket checker asked while i was still immersed in my own world. i looked at him blankly, then awkwardly searched through the bags i had just rummaged through, but could only shake my head again.

Not long after, the train stopped at the next station. A man jumped down from the exit and walked helplessly to the police station inside the station.

Today is an extremely unlucky day.

I went to the police station and filled out a theft report and then slept in a corner chair until dawn.

It was morning, i walked out of the police station, the summer sun was bright. Even before the restaurant had opened, the sun was already shining on my unlucky fate.

However, because my passport is still there I can still travel freely.

But looking at me favorably seemed to make God uncomfortable, so another even bigger problem arose, which was money.

Even if I'm not bound by anything related to citizenship thanks to my passport, I still need money to get somewhere. I originally intended to go to the bank, confirm my identity and withdraw money there, but this place was like a small village near the border where it only took less than 15 minutes to walk from the station to the city center. .

It says it's the city center, but it's just like any other shopping area in any other locality. Although there are a few banks, most are local banks. Even though I searched all over the streets, I couldn't find a bank that allowed me to withdraw money. So I went into a nearby bank and tried asking, but the extremely friendly employee called somewhere, and then quickly reported that the place where I could make the transaction was 6 stop stations.

6 stations, it's not too far but for a penniless person like me, it's like a star in the sky.

I would rather open a bank account here and make a free call to the company to ask the employee to transfer money to that account. But thinking about it, sending and receiving money abroad could take a few days so I would have to stay in this town for a few days until the money arrived.

But if i had to wait like that, i would probably have to scrape the ground and really eat it.

The better option would be to ask James to come here, but i suddenly remembered that he had an appointment with Tyler's manager today.

I thought seriously and began to move aimlessly like i always did when i had something to think about.

This village is indeed very small. It is typical of a cozy and peaceful countryside. The train across the border only runs occasionally a few times a day and life here seems very gentle and comfortable without being crowded.

Looking back, my parents were also living in a similar suburb.

I quickly put my troubles out into the chicken coop and walked calmly and slowly, while quietly observing what was going on around me.

In pretty little houses, flowers bloom on the small walls. Even though it looks old, the road is still extremely clean and the air is fresh and pleasant. Somewhere far away, in the middle of quiet residential areas, there is a small shop with only one customer sitting quietly. Occasionally, the chirping of birds can be heard mixed in with the sound of the wind carrying it around every corner.

There is also a cake shop, a vegetable store, and a clothing shop.

Even though the business situation seems quite bleak, small shops are always full of goods, not just short-term trading, adding a bit of color to the small streets here.

And then a store caught my eyes. It's an old bookstore. Its entrance was so small that at first i didn't even realize it was a bookstore. When i walked to the front door, i thought that after that long hallway there were only about 3 or 4 bookshelves. But I didn't expect that all the bookshelves were packed so full that it looked cramped. The spaces between the two bookshelves are so narrow that it is very difficult for a person to walk through them. There were also books stacked like mountains next to the shelves, and it seemed like they could collapse at any time if i accidentally touched or pulled out even one wrong book.

Behind the rows of books, an uncle with gray hair who seemed to be the owner of the shop was sitting basking in the sunlight shining through the window. But sometimes the uncle's head bobbed up and down, perhaps falling into a comfortable sleep.

A bookstore seemed like there were only flies and mosquitoes visiting it all day, but unexpectedly there was a customer standing inside. It was a young man wearing a hood that covered half of his face and carrying a sports bag. As if he had found an interesting book, he stood in front of the bookshelf and flipped through the pages, page by page. Unexpectedly, at this time there is still a store like this open for business purposes, and it seems that the owner is still very happy for no reason at all.

I am a book addict. And I was once like the owner of this place. I always wanted to go everywhere to collect old books, and the joy of owning an ancient book seems to be something that cannot be expressed in words. So I once founded a company specializing in trading and exchanging rare and hard-to-find used books, but as expected, the company quickly went bankrupt. Indeed, you can't run a company with just love and passion without making a profit.

I eventually inherited my father's fortune and ran a hugely profitable company, but I still collected and sold antique books on a personal level.

That's why I really like used bookstores like this one, and if that bookstore's business is having difficulty, I'll sincerely pray that it can do better.

"What books are there...-"

I glanced at the bookshelves mounted on the wall outside the store and clicked my tongue when I saw the books being left to dry in direct sunlight. I looked through those books and gently shook off the dust on them. Usually, used bookstores in a rural village will be full of miscellaneous books. Even if we classified them by topic and then grouped them by author, it wouldn't be any better, but still, it's better than putting novels next to music books like this.

I sighed.

I didn't expect anything when I saw the books exposed to the sun, but I was also heartbroken to see them rotting like that. Surely after another hundred years or so, these books will become very valuable.

I patted the spine of the book with a feeling of sadness as if I had just witnessed a child being subjected to domestic violence. If it was a child, I could have reported it to the police, but I can't report it just because someone was "book violent".

At that moment, my hand suddenly stopped on a tattered old book.

My eyes were wide open as if there were springs inside that could pop out at any moment. My mouth automatically opened but could not be closed like a robot whose battery had run out.

"730 Days of Solitude - Holt Rumpels."

I pulled out the book with trembling hands and carefully turned the back page of the worn book to examine it. Edition 1944. Hattenhardt Publishing House.

Unbelievable!!!!!!

The German edition of this book by Rumpels was banned and destroyed in 1944. Meanwhile, only a few editions still exist and a few foreign language editions are published in extremely small numbers in neighboring countries another neighbor a few years later. It is no longer reprinted and it is very difficult to own an edition even from other countries.

But this is the 1944 version. Also a German version!

My hands were shaking, how could i find a treasure like this in a rustic old bookstore in a small town in a remote village like this?!

Right now, I sincerely thank the pickpocket with all my heart and soul. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have gone to this station and wouldn't have been able to have such an extremely heart-touching meeting like this.

I want it, I got it! I want it, no. I must have it.

I caressed the leather cover of the book over and over again. What should I do? All the excitement passes to reveal the original layer of problems. I don't have money.

Even if the book was so torn and could be sold cheaply, i would still have to pay about 5,000 euros.If i hadn't lost my wallet, i would have been willing to pay a few thousand dollars to own it. But now i don't even have 1 euro, let alone 5,000 euros.

If i can't buy it now and have to wait until i have money to buy it again, what will happen if someone else wants to buy it before me? This is a treasure so it wouldn't be strange if someone bought it right now.

I held the book tightly and moved my feet on the ground, even wanting to jump up and down immediately.

"What..."

Once again the spring in my eyes came into play.

[Ensemble - Henry March]

"Uh.....uh"

My breathing seemed congested.

Henry March's Clothes - dominated the literature of the second half of the 19th century. It was written based on literature that philosophers praised and I also searched for it.

I quickly pulled out the book. My heart felt like it wanted to beat bum bum. I don't think it would be strange if I collapsed from a heart attack right now.

Thinking of that, my eyes widened again. Regardless of whether my wallet was empty or anything else, I decided to search for this ruined treasure first.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***