Chapter 23: The Boiling Readers
When the first snow of December fell, Silver Spoon Volume 2 was officially released.
At 5:00 AM, a queue had already formed outside the Oak Creek General Store.
When Mr. Henderson rubbed his bleary eyes and pulled up the roller shutter, he was startled by the crowd outside—more than twenty teenagers, wrapped in thick down jackets, stamping their feet and rubbing their hands in the biting early winter wind.
"Mr. Henderson! You're open!"
" Silver Spoon Volume 2! I reserved a copy!"
"I was here first!"
Henderson hurriedly unlocked the door. The students flooded in, heading straight for the comics section. Volume 2 was displayed in the most prominent spot. On the deep green cover, Hachiken wore the Ooezo Agricultural High School uniform, standing on a pasture hill with his back to the reader, facing the rising sun. A line of gold foil text read: "After confusion, comes choice."
"I need three copies!"
"Five for me! Picking up for friends!"
"Do you have the Special Edition?"
Henderson scrambled to ring up sales and bag books. For Volume 2, the editorial department had released two versions: Standard and Special Edition. The Special Edition included eight color pages and a hand-drawn postcard by the author, limited to 5,000 copies nationwide. Oak Creek only received fifty, and they were gone in ten minutes.
A girl who missed out on the Special Edition looked ready to cry. "I took the earliest bus from the next county over... how are they gone already?"
Henderson scratched his head. "Maybe you can wait, I'll call the city distributor..."
"I can't wait! I have class this afternoon!"
The girl eventually bought the Standard Edition, but her eyes were red as she left clutching the book.
Henderson watched her leave, shook his head, and picked up the phone to dial the distribution department in the city. "Hello? It's Henderson from Oak Creek. Send another fifty Special Editions... No, make it a hundred! Yes, ship them today!"
At the same time, outside "Knowledge Ocean," the largest bookstore in the city, the line wrapped around the block.
The store manager stood by the second-floor window looking down, speaking to an employee. "The last time we had a line like this was for Legend of the Sword God Volume 10."
" Silver Spoon is hotter than Sword God right now." The employee flipped through a data sheet. "First printing of Volume 2 was 200,000 copies, pre-ordered out three days ago. The reprint of 300,000 won't arrive until next week."
"A farming manga..." the manager muttered. "Who would have thought?"
Downstairs, heated discussions erupted in the queue:
"I bet Hachiken picks Vet Science! He has a connection with animals!"
"Bullsh*t! Definitely Livestock! His dad is in livestock!"
"Did you see the cover? Hachiken's back is to us. Does that imply he hasn't decided yet?"
"The Dairy King knows how to keep us hanging! Chapter 23 ended right there, I haven't slept well all week!"
"Me neither! My roommate drew an analysis chart saying based on the foreshadowing in the first 23 chapters, there's a 60% probability Hachiken chooses Vet Science..."
The manager smiled listening to these discussions. He turned back to his office, where a large poster of Silver Spoon was taped to the wall—promotional material sent by the publisher.
The poster bore a single line: "True growth takes root in the soil."
At noon, in the cafeteria of the State Agricultural University, several agronomy students discussed over lunch.
"Did you buy Volume 2?" a guy with glasses asked.
"Got it! Queued at 6 AM!" A girl with short hair pulled a book from her bag. "Look, Special Edition!"
"Damn! How'd you get it? I went to three stores and they were out!"
"I asked my mom to go, she's retired and has nothing to do..."
Heads leaned together, flipping through the pages.
"Hey, here! The part where Hachiken goes to talk to Komaba!" The glasses guy pointed to a page. "Komaba says 'Choose the thing you still think about when you can't sleep at night.' That line is killer!"
"What Mikage said is good too—'Choose the thing you won't regret in ten years'," another guy said. "I've been thinking about that for two days. Should I go for a master's or get a job..."
"You're confused too?"
"Duh! Who isn't? At least Hachiken has options; I don't even have options!"
"That's why this manga is good." The short-haired girl closed the book. "It doesn't tell you what to choose. It just tells you—confusion is normal, but eventually, you have to choose one."
They were silent for a moment.
"By the way," the glasses guy said suddenly, "Professor Clark used Silver Spoon as an example again in class today."
"Again? Didn't she just do it last week?"
"This time it was about veterinary ethics." He mimicked the professor's tone. "'Look at the part where Hachiken delivers the calf—hands shaking, but eyes steady. That is the attitude a vet should have: fear is normal, but responsibility cannot be shirked.'"
Laughter rippled through the cafeteria.
"Honestly," the short-haired girl stopped smiling, "I used to think agronomy was just farming and raising cows, kind of lame. But after reading Silver Spoon, I think... it's pretty cool."
"Me too," another guy said. "My parents always wanted me to switch majors, said there's no future in ag. But now I feel like if you can do one thing well, there's a future."
"Hachiken probably thinks so too..."
(To be Continued)
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