This chapter opens with a toast from the "book master" . The book master is a person who sells used books, and he tells the narrator that he has just received three bottles of ruriko , which is a kind of soup made with raw meat. The soup is good, the narrator says, but it's not as good as bread. He tells the book master that he's busy preparing for spring break, which means he'll be away from home for five whole days. He's grateful for the soup, but he doesn't know how to deal with the spiritual energy that comes from the soup. He wonders how he can even deal with it. He also asks the bookmaster if he can call himself a "seller" , since the bookseller is the "master" of a different kind of grimoire , i.e. the master of an art form called "ukiyoe," which means "blood." The bookmaster says that he didn't expect the blood to return to life in the ukiyoe, but that it did. He says that the art form is very different from the grimoire in that it was based on real blood, and that the severed heads were used in the art . He adds that the "books slap" won't touch the art of corpses. The narrator says that taking over the company is a dream, but the reality is that it involves a lot of day-to-day work, money, and people. He thinks that the only person who could make it happen is him.