Demon World Boba Shop: A Cozy Fantasy Novel

“Spiky’s that much in the lead?” Arthur asked.

“Oh, things are pretty clear. He doesn’t talk much, but everyone has seen him with his notebooks. I’ve been walking around the town getting acquainted with the people, and everywhere I go, I can see Spiky in the distance, learning something about someone else’s work.” Sett gulped down about half of his drink, apparently impervious to the temperature of the thing. “I don’t think there’s anyone in town who hasn’t had an in-depth conversation with the guy. He knows about your tea, right?”

“Everything,” Arthur answered.

“He knows that much about my newspaper too. And I’ve been here much less long. I’ve had enough conversations to know that the average person assumes Spiky knows absolutely everything. And I don’t think they are all that far off, if I’m being honest.”

“So are you voting for him?” Arthur asked. “Wait, can you vote at all?”

“I can. Spiky told me it was all right. And as to who I’m voting for, you should know better than to ask. Especially of a newspaperman.” Sett waved off Arthur’s apology before he could get it out. “Not a worry though. There’s plenty of town to write about and only so much day.”

“Are you sticking around after this?” Arthur asked. “I know you haven’t been to Seaside or Peaktown yet.”

“At least until I can publish the election results. And take them to the other towns. Talca is making a run the day after tomorrow. That should time out nicely for me to hitch a ride.”

The day came and went normally. Arthur barely had a conversation the whole day that went beyond chit-chat. Everyone grabbed their drinks, then politely went wherever they were going to work. He wondered if the town would actually get more labor out of the reflexive desire to catch up after the rainstorm than they lost to the storm itself. The fact that Spiky would have an answer to that question further cemented his choice of who to vote for.

Eventually, it was time for the speeches. The stamper on the ballot got up and essentially reiterated Karra’s plans, but a bit worse. Another merchant gave a speech, and then there was a short break to make up for the lack of a Milo-driven comic relief speech before Spiky went up. Arthur looked around during the break, finding the librarian serenely writing in his notebook as if nothing was happening at all.

“Not to psych you out, but shouldn’t you have some feelings on this?” Arthur asked. “It’s not like you are immune to fear. I’ve seen you out in the wild. You jump when a twig snaps.”

“Oh, maybe. But I’ve done a lot of prep for this.” Spiky patted a leather tube by his side. “All the hard work is already done. The speech will pretty much give itself. That’s the thing with being afraid. It’s when there’s still more to do. I’ve done everything I can.”

Arthur watched Spiky leaf through notes with all the calm of a content cow chewing grass until Onna called him up. Spiky walked slowly up to the stage, looked out over the assembled people, and cleared his throat.

“Hi, Everyone.” He waved. “I’m Spiky. Stanta, really, especially if I get elected. You can’t sign things as Spiky. Nobody knows who they’re coming from.”

The town laughed lightly at that. It wasn’t a belly-buster of a joke, but it was amusing enough that Arthur was relieved for his friend.

“I’m going to try to keep this as short as I can, but I have a lot of plans for the town. I wrote them all down to make it easier to understand and Lily’s going to help me by hanging them up as I talk about them. Thanks, Lily. Here are the papers.” Spiky handed the tube over to the owl girl, who pulled out the first of the large sheets and hung it on the wall. “So, first, our water supply. Thanks to Mizu, we are in very good shape there. With that said, I’ve talked to her, and there are some places we could do better, like…”

Spiky took a minute or so to explain everything the town’s water needed to perform its best, then moved on to speaking about the roads, referencing all the things he had learned from the town’s stampers. Then he talked about wall construction. Then the economy, the food supply, and even the last known status of Daisy and Rumble.

He had a sheet of paper covering every aspect of the town’s development in detail. More than that, he had plans for where each aspect of the town’s development should head next, details about what resources they’d need to do so, and even an order in which they should be prioritized. Where other candidates had known a lot about their own subject matters of expertise and were general about other subjects, Spiky had detailed plans for everything, and somehow managed to explain everything anyone needed to know about each in an absurdly short amount of time.

Is that the librarian class at work? Arthur thought, Or is it just how Spiky is?

By the time Spiky’s speech was wrapping up, Arthur’s head almost ached from the sheer amount of data his friend had crammed in it. The only thinking keeping him from a full-blown headache was the elegance with which Spiky had presented everything. He was sure there were more details Spiky could have included, but just didn’t. He gave them as much as any person would want, maybe a little bit more he thought they should know, then stopped.

“Well, that’s it. That’s what I’ll do if I’m elected,” Spiky concluded. It was no lie. They had all seen his plans for the town and they were without exception good ones. At least where Arthur was familiar enough with jobs to know, he could tell they were even improved versions of what the experts wanted to do, optimized to work with other projects so that everything could eventually get done just a little faster.

Spiky stepped down as the entire town sat in silence for a few seconds before cheering. The election had been his to lose, and he hadn’t lost it. They’d still need to vote, of course, and anything could happen, but unless something weird happened, they knew who their mayor would be.

“So that’s it?” Spiky asked, as he finally made his way past the last row of well-wishers in the crowd and made it back to the table. “I can go now?”

“Now? I mean, yeah, sure, but why?”

“Skal is doing some night time fishing. I thought it would help me understand his production capacity a little bit better if I saw that with my own eyes.”

“Yeah, I mean, nothing is keeping you here.” Arthur waved him off. “Go fishing, I guess. Have fun.”

“Thanks!” Spiky said, picking up his notebooks and the tube containing his re-rolled plans for their home. “Will do.”

The future mayor walked off towards the ocean, ready to load himself into a rickety rowboat with an old, possibly dangerous demon, just to learn a little bit more about fish so he could serve his town better.

Arthur leaned back in his chair and took another bite of his dinner. It tasted better now. Coldbrook was, as far as he was concerned, in very good hands.

—

Spiky and Skal came back a couple hours later.

“When is it going to be done?” Arthur asked. “The last person to vote was hours ago. How long does it take to count these?”

“A while,” Skal said. “And that’s good. You are supposed to be careful. They’ll count and recount until two hours past sundown to make sure they did it right. Not that there will be much confusion, I think. Look at that boy. He’s working. It’s like there’s nothing special happening today at all.”

Spiky was talking to a farmer about a plant, waving his hands in an animated way that mimicked the physical size of some plant. Apparently, they got pretty big.

“Spiky was documenting the stuff before, but then he had to explain them to me. That alone was a lot of time. Hopefully it’s easier now,” Arthur said.

“Don’t fool yourself, boy. He only shows you the parts you will understand. And for reasons I don’t understand, he hides how much work he’s doing on the side. It takes work to organize ideas, and decisions are their own special kind of work.” Skal took a drink of juice and cleared his throat a bit. “He’ll do fine, though. He has that look.”

“What look?”

Skal’s explanation had to wait as Onna suddenly took the stage and shouted for everyone’s attention, holding an envelope high in the air. The whole town quieted down until they could have heard a pin drop anywhere in the entire valley.

“Thanks, everyone.” Onna’s voice boomed out over the quiet. “And thanks for voting. Special thanks go out to Milo and Sett for printing the ballots, as well as everyone who volunteered for counting duty. Since our two normal counters-of-things had to recuse themselves, it was a big help.”

The crowd laughed and turned to Spiky and Leena, both of whom had very good reasons to refuse to verify the results of the election. They waved and turned back towards Onna. This was important.

“As with all elections, this decision will stand until there’s a good reason for it not to. It will determine in small ways and large ways both the direction we will take as a settlement, and the mayor will either represent us in communications with outside cities or determine a representative to send.”

That last little bit was something Arthur sort of knew already, having taken a trip to do some minor negotiations himself. He didn’t know it was as official as all that, or that the responsibility could be pawned off. Not that he would have, back then. Probably.

“As soon as this envelope is opened, you can begin to bring your concerns, plans and queries to the mayor. It will be their duty to help you to the best of your ability. Try not to swarm them too soon, okay? Let them settle in.” Onna shot a warning glance at the town-at-large, just serious enough to drive the point home. “And once again, thank you to everyone who ran. Having choices for leadership makes our town stronger. Even if one of those choices is Milo.”

Milo inclined his head slightly at Onna, who nodded back. If it looked like his iron reign would have to wait for another election, he seemed content with that result.

“And lastly, we thank Arthur Teamaster for his service up to this point, and his willingness to step aside when he felt the town would be better served by someone else. You made us a town, Arthur. Literally so. We won’t forget it.”

Arthur blushed as the town gave a cheer and a round of applause for him. He hadn’t done that much, it was just what he needed to do at the time.

“And without further ado…” Onna opened the envelope, glancing at the contents she must have already known, then turning the paper to face the audience. “Greet your new Mayor, Stanta Bookmaster.”

Nobody, not one person, from the smallest owl to the largest rhino hunter, was surprised by the result. They went crazy anyway. It was minutes before even Onna could get them calmed down enough for Stanta to take the stage and accept the results. He gave a short speech, and that was it. The town had a new mayor to guide it through the next steps of its story.

After finding Spiky and congratulating him, Arthur searched the crowd until he found Skal, near the edge of the bustle and moving closer to open ground and a clear pathway back to his rods and reels. Arthur shouldered through the crowd, catching up to him just a few steps away from the post-election madness.

“Skal!” Arthur trotted up as the old demon turned. “Wait!”

“What?” Skal asked, laughing. “Did I leave a fish emergency unsolved somewhere?”

“No. I just wanted to hear what you had to say. About Spiky having a look.”

“Oh, that. You already know, I think.” Skal walked over to a nearby bench and sat both of them down. “Son, everyone has things they like to do. That’s how most of us get our classes. The first time I touched a rod, it was done. I was going to be fishing for the rest of my life. Just like that.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Anyone would. But that’s your class. After that, you still have to live your life. The world still changes around you. You have to find a place to be, and you have to roll with the punches as they come. Those things aren’t as simple. Do you understand why?”

Arthur thought about that for a second. “Because they aren’t just about you?”

“Not just about you, sure. And not just about demons. It’s about balance. There’s a reason she’s one of our gods. It’s about things being right, and in the right proportions.” Skal fished a flask off his belt and took a slug of water. “About things going as they should. That’s not always something you choose, but it feels right when you find it. You have to have something like that, somewhere in your life. Everyone does.”

That was Mizu, for Arthur. And Lily and Milo and the rest. Given that the old demon probably already knew that, Arthur just nodded.

“Anyway, what your friend looks like is a person who is headed in the right direction. When you get to be as old as I am, that kind of thing shows up like a lantern in the dark.” Skal stood up, dusted off his pants, and started walking towards his boat. “You can be happy for your friend. It’s a good thing. Just keep close to him. You know yourself that doing the right thing isn’t always an easy job.”