There was a playful look in the eye of Pixel as she passed by the others and made her way towards the desk that the owner of the shop was hiding behind nervously.
It was very clear that the increased number of Minks in his shop had made him fearful about his previous actions and the possible consequences that may follow.
Seeing Pixel approach him, he spoke up in a quivering voice. "W..what do you want? P..please leave."
He feared that violence would follow and that he would be unable to call for help before anything did happen.
He was beginning to regret the words he had spoke and was fearful for his life.
He was just a lone shopkeeper and had usually been careful not to speak out or cause upset due to him not having a decent way to protect himself from those that entered his store.
If he offended someone or he ever had to deal with a bad customer that was intent on causing trouble then he and his store would suffer.
There were some Marines around to provide aid to the people but he could hardly hold anyone off long enough to wait for that protection to arrive.
By the time any help had arrived, he could have been heavily injured or killed while his store would have been completely robbed or destroyed.
Seeing Felice suppressing her anger, he did not worry so much at first and thought everything could be overlooked until more entered his store.
Pixel could see that the shop owner was weakening in terms of confidence and was becoming more scared the closer so got so she changed her approach from an aggressive one.
Her elbow was put onto the desk as her body leaned forward a little, her head was tilted to the side and rested on the palm of her hand.
Her eyelashes fluttered and a cute smile appeared on her face. "I would like a book please. If you believe that I will misuse them or cannot read them then you can test me first."
The shopkeeper felt the urge to tell her to leave and beg for forgiveness at first but he then became different.
It was like his guard had dropped and he felt closer to Pixel who he had been fearful of before.
He took the words of Pixel to be reasonable and polite which were the opposite of how he saw things playing out.
He had no choice but to take her words seriously and took out a book. "Many of books are old and expensive so I will hold them to avoid them being damaged. If you break them then you will have to pay for them. Please understand."
Pixel nodded keeping up her cute smile. "I am happy to go along with that."
She came to understand the situation a little more and how things turned out as they did.
It was clear that the shop owner valued the books and the knowledge stored within so he was very careful with them.
Seeing the appearances of the Minks, it was clear that if they were not careful then there could be damage done to them if they so much as held them wrong.
There was a hint of prejudice mixed in with it but it was mostly about his own personal feelings towards his books and store that were important to him.
There were no assurances that there was enough berries to pay for the damages and his knowledge of the Minks was nonexistent which led to him treating them like animals that could not read.
Pixel went on to read the first page of the book that was placed in front of her which had dropped his guard further and took away his previous misjudgements. "So.. can we buy some books now?"
As some berry notes were shown, the shopkeeper became far more accepting and showed a fawning smile. "Of course my dear customer."
Pixel had applied her own version of Conquerors Haki again but it needed to be used effectively without forcing it too much.
He was someone that would need to be swayed by her own personal cuteness and charms to gain an advantage over him but not in a completely overpowering way.
The moment that it was broken and she had left, he would soon realise that he had been manipulated but if it had only been applied lightly and she did not force the conversation then they would not feel that it was unnatural in any way.
The conversation flowed smoothly which led them back to the original purpose and the shop keeper was left with a little guilt towards how he had misunderstood his customer.
Pixel's cute and disarming smile grew brighter as she continued. "Now that I have proven my side. I hope that you can apologise to my sister."
The shop owner nodded in a hurry. "Of course! I was too rash.. I hope you can forgive me. I am really very sorry."
Felice stood further back and looked very surprise how easily it had been solved but she kept up her prideful image. "It is enough that you have apologised."
Pixel asked her. "What books were you looking for?"
She them turned towards the shop owner and said. "We may have a couple of individual requests on what we are looking for so please make some recommendations for us. I would like something that has more details on cooking or medicine ingredients, recipes or treatments methods. Perhaps a local book with similar subjects too."
Felice added. "A book about the island's history or something similar would be best. If possible… a book on etiquette and mannerisms of the nobility."
Micah raised his hand and smiled. "Anything related to anyone important that is linked to the science or technology advancements made in the world over the recent years."
Harley requested a book on the management of berries and supplies since she was the assistant and companion of Pixel.
Misty and Liquorice both requested books for medicine and fashion to help but since Pixel had already requested for medicine books, they agreed to just get the fashion book.
Cleo just asked for a book that had details about swords and how to identify famous ones.
Even if she did not have a major skill besides her sword skills, she wished to brush up on a little knowledge that may come in handy for herself or to those around her.
The shopkeeper went on to ask more about what kind of level of books into the subjects they wished to purchase along with their spending limits.
He ran off and enthusiastically searched through the book shelves not knowing that he was no longer being influenced by Pixel who was no longer in front of him.
He did not feel any strangeness about what he was doing as he gathered the books and returned to the desk with them.
It was just like an ordinary time when he had met paying customers and he was about to make a big sale so he enthusiastically played his role to make his customer satisfied with his service. "Ahem.. some of the books you were looking for were easy to obtain and there are many copies of them so they are far cheaper at around one hundred and fifty berries per book but some of the more difficult to obtain or older books are worth far more."
The prices varied greatly per item sold and depending on how few of them there were or how valuable the knowledge within the books was, the more expensive they would be.
A simple book copy could cost a little more than the price of a newspaper to be over one hundred berries while others could be equal to or above the value of what a low grade sword could be purchased for at around fifty thousand berries.
Not every island had access to more advanced technologies and techniques that could be used to produce the paper needed, the inks and the necessary resources and time needed to produce each book on a larger scale.
Not every book was deemed worthy enough to be mass produced and to be released to the world so there were few original copies made until the authors became more well known later.
The nobles that had the berries to spend would purchase valuable books needed for their children's education or their large libraries so it was often difficult for others to get their hands on such things unless they were purchased in some way by chance or if someone had the connections.
Not everyone could get a proper education unlike the previous world that Pixel and Micah lived in so the value of books and the knowledge within them was very high.
The more advanced it was, the rarer the book or if it was a well maintained collectors item then the price could even be raised above the price of a sword that was worth around fifty thousand to one hundred thousand berries.
There could be unique books that were so rare that their value was so high that they could be put up on auction for hundreds of millions or more.
Like most other things in the world, their rarity and fame had a big impact on their value due to the value the buyers placed on it.
There were many rich nobles in the world that would want to own a well known item and would be prepared to purchase something just so they could use it as a symbol of their wealth and status.
The more nobles that wanted that item, the more the price would be raised further during an auction setting which would further increase its overall value if it was put up for sale once again especially if it was one of a kind.