by RunnyYolk
Independent investigator Manís doesn't believe his sister's death was an accident. His only lead pulls him into the fog-choked back alleys of Puerto Verano, where a shop that doesn't exist on any daytime map trades in something rarer than money: cost. Memories, luck, years, voices — anything can be bargained away, and the shop never lies about the price. What it doesn't tell you is what you'll actually miss. Behind the counter is Luz, all bite and bad manners, the kind of person Manís trusts before he means to. Watching from just outside the light is Novo Mar — too charming to be safe, too familiar to be new. Manís came here for answers. He isn't sure anymore what he's staying for. Everyone in this shop is selling something. The hardest bargain Manís will ever make is figuring out which one of them is telling him the truth — and whether he even wants to know. A slow-burn m/m mystery-romance with a contract-shop urban fantasy backbone, inspired by Petshop of Horrors, Hyakki Yagyō, and Invisible City.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 6 Oct 2026, 04:08 UTC
Entry forecast updated 6 Oct 2026, 04:08 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 18% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 21% of similar stories
Both levers trail the field
Traffic and conversion are both below comparable stories. Cadence is the first lever — stories posting near-daily reached 25 followers 17% of the time; stories posting every few days almost never did. Get the flow going, then re-check conversion.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
