My New Boss at the Yokai Pharmacy Is a Fox Who Cannot Lie novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Hakuro's Offer

Hakuro did not come at midnight.

He came at four in the afternoon, which was the one hour nobody in the Dispensary could answer the door.

The wall was a wall, and Haruna was standing in the shop in daylight clothes, because she had slept badly and wanted to walk off the feeling.

She heard him knock on the other side of the plaster.

It was a polite, patient sound, three taps, and then his voice, clear as a bell through the stone.

"Pharmacist. I know you're awake."

"We're closed."

"You're closed until midnight. I'm open now, and I'd like to be of help." A pause. "May I?"

Haruna looked at Kuzunoha, who was sitting on the counter with her bare feet swinging, a mug of tea steaming in her hands.

"He can't open the door," Haruna said.

"He can speak through it. That's enough."

"Say your piece, Hakuro," Kuzunoha called. "I'll answer."

"Then I'll be brief." His voice dropped, warm and reasonable. "I've heard about the crack in your plaque. I've heard about the dawn."

"Everyone's heard," Tsukumo muttered.

"I run a clinic in the sun, Kuzunoha. It's a dull, daytime place with a good lock and a licence. I'd like to offer you a room in it."

The shop was silent.

"A room?"

"A consulting room. With windows. You would see patients between nine and five, like anyone else, and walk home in the evening light."

Haruna's stomach turned over.

"And the Dispensary?" Kuzunoha asked.

"I'd take it off your hands. It would become a night annexe to the clinic. Same clients, same stock, same staff, and a proper manager." He said the last word gently. "The deed is in your drawer, I believe, in the third cabinet. You need only sign the shop over."

"The shop is the oath," Kuzunoha said.

"The oath is a fox on a plank. I'd hang it in the annexe and leave it entirely alone."

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