Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 116

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 116.

The villagers lived in contentment and peace. They called the Forest surrounding their Village the Fox Den, and believed it to be the Fox Deity herself.

When she slumbered, order without chaos descended upon them.

And they were granted days unmarred by contradiction.

“What they call the ‘Blessing of the Right Path.'”
“I don’t quite understand….”
“That’s precisely what makes it good.”

The elders seated in the shade of a makeshift shelter along the Rice Field Ridge savored their peace with quiet joy.

“There’s nothing quite as peaceful as knowing nothing at all.”
“…Yes.”

That Forest, teeming with foxes, offered abundance. Fruits ripened in profusion, medicinal herbs flourished. Within it, people never lost their way, and even the stones that might have tripped them were cleared from the path.

The seasons for planting were never missed, and the signs from heaven were unmistakable. The Water Channels never clogged, and plague and blight either never came or vanished swiftly when they did. The villagers spoke of this as blessing.

“All of it is thanks to the Fox Deity’s slumber.”
“Is that so?”

Seme asked, gripped by an inexplicable dread—as though an invisible hand gently caressed the nape of her neck with creeping terror.

“Then what happens when she awakens?”
“Everything begins to fall apart.”
“How does it fall apart? How would anyone know she’s awakened?”
“Everyone can tell. The Village becomes strange.”

That was the truth.

“The terrain begins to shift. The Rice Field Ridges grow longer than yesterday, the distance between houses widens….”

The children said, “The path has grown longer.”

“The direction of sunrise changes, yet the evening shadows stretch longer. The wind shifts direction multiple times a day, yet the dogs and birds do not bark.”
“….”
“By then, people can no longer remember each other’s names.”

No one remembered. They had forgotten one another.

“The path you take in the morning vanishes by afternoon. When you leave your house intending to reach the fields, it inevitably leads into the Forest. People repeat sentences they’ve already spoken, or their words fade away mid-sentence.”

The faces of the villagers began to blur and overlap.

“Eventually, all the paths in the village converge into one. At its end, a passage to the Fox Den opens, and by then, before everything crumbles, you must prepare ceaselessly.”
“…Prepare for what?”
“You’ll understand that when you grow up, Seme.”

I never grew up.

“….”

Only after everything ended did I learn that the Labyrinth holds a particular fondness for The Artist. Because they do not merely feel—they transform feeling into form.

The Fox Den, as a Labyrinth specialized in paths, direction, and order, found meaning in The Artist—a being who constructs paths. Especially if they were siblings.

“Seme.”
“…What do I do….”
“Seme, my sister.”
“The villagers will offer me as a sacrifice tomorrow night. I’ll be taken into the Forest when darkness falls.”
“Listen to me—I’ve learned what the Fox Den truly is…!”

My younger brother, born male, Ser-sang, ransacked the Village Chief’s house and revealed the truth of the Fox Den.

“It’s a Labyrinth.”

Beyond the Gap, in a world far more advanced than this village. In the late 1990s, an incident occurred on the outskirts of Gapyeong, the region to which we belonged.

During an era when countless industries and enterprises collapsed under severe financial strain, people vanished. Yet not a single body was ever found. The police classified them as simple disappearances, and the missing grew in number.

“It’s similar to our village.”

It had always been a place where foxes were abundant.

“The residents said people called it ‘being bewitched by foxes’….”
“What, what… what is that, why does it matter now….”
“Please, sister, listen!”
“Ser-sang, I’m scared.”
“If we really end up going in, this ‘story’ will be important!”

It was an era when everyone was busy and overwhelmed, too preoccupied to notice. They didn’t know about the missing persons who vanished gradually over years, but such ignorance couldn’t last forever.

“Actually, it turned out to be something humans did!”

A crime scene in the remote outskirts of Gapyeong where a group had committed unlawful confinement, kidnapping, human trafficking, and murder. They destroyed people while saying “those who lose their way must return to God.”

“They threw the bodies into the forest where no one would find them. The places where corpses were abandoned were scattered far and wide, but the most recently deceased—foxes were said to be tearing into that body….”
“P-please stop….”
“The Fox Den is the Labyrinth that was created from that place. This Labyrinth, which has grown all this time, doesn’t just surround our village—it encompasses all of Gapyeong. It’s that powerful of a Labyrinth.”
“Stop it, what are you asking me to do?”
“Come with me.”
“….”

Seme’s younger brother, Ser-sang, spoke thus.

“Just come with me, Seme. My sister.”
“…What? What are you saying?”
“You’re The Artist who senses danger, and I’ve spent my time mapping the forest.”
“That’s not a reason.”
“Since the Fox Den is a Labyrinth that deals with paths, directions, and order, if I go in with you instead of you going alone as the designated sacrifice, we’ll surely be able to find the way out.”

It was hopeful talk. Without any basis.

“The Labyrinth is a story, they said. Maybe it’s like a fairy tale. I’ve read the documents related to that missing persons case several times over, so no matter what story unfolds inside, I can respond to it.”
“…Ser-sang, don’t do this… there’s no guarantee everything will be fine….”
“I’m stronger than you! I’ve wandered through the forest several times and fought beasts before.”
“But.”
“They say you’ll die horribly….”
“….”

And so he wept.

“Again and again, losing my way, being torn apart by the Fox Deity….”
“…Ah….”
“He said you wouldn’t even be able to die. That you’d end up begging him to kill you instead. That you’d become one with the Fox Den. That’s what the Village Chief said.”

So very sorrowfully.

“I’ll help you. I’ll protect you.”
“….”
“Let’s run away together.”
“…Together?”
“We’ll go into that Forest and play dead, then escape to the Outside, and the two of us will live there.”

Drenched in tears, with a pathetic face, weeping.

And smiling.

“It’s okay, I know the way! Beyond this Village, there’s another Village! And beyond that, there’s an even grander and more magnificent world!”
“….”
“Sister, in that place, The Artist is held in the highest regard.”
“….”
“…You are a person of value….”

I shouldn’t have given in to that weeping face.

“….”
“….”
“…Yes, let’s do that.”

I should have known that defying a god would only make things more terrible.

“Let’s run away together.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll protect me, won’t you?”
“I’ll protect you, no matter what.”

I knew nothing.

The price of daring to grow up ordinarily in this terrible world.

I had paid the price for growing up so foolishly.

* * *

“That Labyrinth feeds on the concept of ‘paths’ to grow.”

Paths always require ordered structure.

“Ah. If I recall correctly, it was a Labyrinth that encompassed direction and order as well.”
“….”
“The Artist is certainly delicious prey for the Labyrinth. But a chaotic and emotionally unstable being represents an incomplete directionality in itself. That Labyrinth must have felt resistance toward you.”
“….”
“Your body’s resonance created far too many paths from the Labyrinth’s perspective. But your younger brother—he was someone who moved in only one direction.”

The goal of saving his sister. A single, linear will to defy the established order.

“From the Labyrinth’s viewpoint, that becomes the energy to organize paths. Emotions scatter, direction aligns. Born from a great and profound calamity, it possesses sufficient power to accomplish such a thing….”

The Hero, passing by, spoke thus.

“It must have decided to merge you two together.”
“…How could that even….”
“Your talent as an Artist resided in your body rather than your soul or spirit, it seems. Be grateful if you must—it’s precisely because of this that you weren’t consumed.”
“Because I… lost my flavor?”
“When you’ve extracted only the delicious parts to craft something new, there’s no reason to covet the trivial scraps. You are now, so to speak, merely a collection of bitter and sour remnants.”
“What about Ser-sang…?”

Seme’s soul, now dwelling in my younger brother’s body, exhaled thinly.

“What happens to Ser-sang…?”
“Let him go.”
“Why… when I came out….”
“Your brother was an assemblage of ‘delicious things.'”

The dry voice pierced my ears. It throbbed, threatening to shatter my heart.

“To be consumed by the Labyrinth is not merely to be eaten. It is to become one. To be incorporated into the structure of narrative.”

When the Labyrinth consumes a human, it means inscribing that human’s choices, emotions, and actions into the ‘framework of story.’

“Think about the human body. What happens if you separate each bone, each blood vessel, each muscle one by one?”
“…It would hurt terribly, and I’d die….”
“Exactly. You’d die. Now that things have come to this, there’s no point in separating them—nothing good comes from it.”

The Labyrinth is like a fairy tale where setting, characters, and story are all woven together. Within it, you cannot extract anyone completely intact.

Because that someone is also the setting, a character, and the story itself.

“What you’ve been watching all this time….”

Seme, left with nothing but the “tasteless” remnants, wandering through the forest called the Fox Den, drifting through that place eternally with the younger sibling who had taken his body in exchange—

“It was just a story.”

Nothing more than a part of a play.

“At some point, your sibling was no longer alive. They were never your sibling at all.”
“Then what were they.”

Speaking with me,
comforting me,
assuring me that someday we could leave this place.

“Then what exactly….”

Sometimes sensing the “danger”—that scream-like wail shrieking from all directions—and losing my mind in the process.

“If that wasn’t my sibling….”
“A shell.”
….
“…Have you ever read a fairy tale book?”

I nod, and a terse answer comes back.

“It’s the same as that.”

Not a real person.

“Haven’t your brother’s actions become simpler since some point?”
“….”
“His behavioral patterns? Speaking, eating, raging, then never returning—haven’t they stabilized? Ignore the minor details; what matters is the larger framework.”
“….”
“Then let me be clear: your brother is already dead. He’s become one with the Labyrinth. The fairy tale ‘Fox Den’ simply had the story of ‘Seme and Ser-sang’ added to it.”
“….”
“No, since you emerged, it would be only ‘Ser-sang’s story’ now.”
“….”
“…Do you want to die?”

My breath caught in my throat, and I couldn’t help but ask.

“…Why did you save me…?”
“….”

Why indeed.

“….”
“….”

He answered only after a long silence.

“…I was taught that there’s no reason needed to save a person….”

…A voice as broken as Seme’s own.

* * *

“….”

Parched lips move slightly.

“Ah, I see….”

With a pallid hand, Lover of Dawn gently stroked the small head.

“Your love runs so deep.”
“….”
“Seme, my sister.”
“….”
“We can be happy forever.”

Those still treading the path are rare indeed.

Seated in a chair within a garden blooming with innocent souls, caressing a small body that trapped a sinful spirit, eyes as red as if they might weep blood at any moment curved upward in a smile.

That voice was terribly tender.

“You are a person of worth.”
“Oh, of course.”
“….”

…Between them, a measured voice interjected.

“Seme is a person of worth. Is there any living human who is not? No matter what happened in the past, anyone who strives to survive is beautiful. Truly beautiful.”
“….”
“All the more so if it is to protect something precious.”

A gloved hand gently grasped the Lover of Dawn’s hair, then pressed a light kiss upon it.

“To seduce my friend while I was away greeting a new guest.”
“You are….”
“It’s a method somewhat different from what I anticipated. How adorable, my love.”
“You don’t love me.”
“How could that be.”

The eyes behind the spectacles curved upward like a fox’s.

“Had I not loved you, how could I have kept you in my Hotel to this extent?”

Without the attachment forged by twenty-six years of memory, I would have burned you away long ago.

“Now that I’m here, please release that person.”
“No one loves me.”
“Look at me. I love you.”
“That’s a lie.”
“What must I do to earn your trust in these feelings?”
“Give me your blood.”

Lee Yeon-woo removed his gloves and tore at his wrist with his bare hands.

“What next?”
“Give me your hands.”

Lee Yeon-woo grasped his own hand and severed the mangled wrist.

“What next?”
“…Give me your eyes.”

Lee Yeon-woo thrust his fingers beneath his eyelids and tore them open.

“Well then, what’s next?”
“….”
“If there’s anything you desire, please speak freely.”

With his one remaining bloodied hand, he gently caressed the Lover of Dawn’s cheek.

“I can become your sanctuary, eliminate any discomfort, remember everything for you, and serve as your most perfect lover this very night. That is my role.”
“….”
“Our Hotel always prioritizes the guest above all else.”
“…You….”
“I can now give you whatever you ask for.”

A cheat play, perhaps.

“So then, what’s next?”
“Your heart.”
“Of course.”

* * *

Having successfully proven his love, Lee Yeon-woo never forgot the memory of that clandestine encounter.

It was quite the formidable Achievement, in its own right.

“….”

What remained on the Rooftop was nothing but a battered body and spirit, and a sprawled sixteen-year-old adult.

“Hah….”

I really need to tear down this Hotel someday.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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