Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 118

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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 118.

“Um, Director.”
“Hm?”
“Someone’s come to see you.”
“Here? In this remote mountain area?”

Director Lee Sun-hae’s expression shifted to one of mild surprise, and Hong Kyung-yeon’s face darkened with an unmistakable pallor—the look of someone gripped by sudden dread.

“But… from what the crew told me, they seem to be detectives investigating a case…”
“….”

Director Lee Sun-hae’s expression twisted into a grimace, though a beat too late.

“…Detectives? Why does that sound so ominous? Aren’t we filming a horror thriller right now? This is exactly the kind of opening you’d see in one.”
“Please don’t joke around. That’s not going to ease the tension.”
“But what’s the big deal? Don’t they usually call ahead in these situations? Could we be suspects?”
“Please, Director, I’m begging you.”

The Director laughed and gave the distressed Writer a hearty pat on the shoulder.

“Come on now, Hong, why are you so spooked? You’re supposed to be a master of horror fiction.”
“Writing fiction and living through the real thing are completely different!”

His expression grew even more rigid.

“And from what I gathered… it seems…”
“…related to that Hotel?”
“…Yes.”

Though they both knew no one was nearby during the break, their voices naturally dropped to hushed tones. It wasn’t merely that the subject was one no one else should hear—it was that there was nothing pleasant about it to discuss at all.

Director Lee Sun-hae rolled his eyes and asked,

“…What are you saying? Did our kids meet them first? Or the actors?”
“Fortunately, there was no contact with the actors. The information didn’t spread from our side either. When we investigated, they said they found out we were filming here.”
“So they saw the staff first?”
“Yes, two on-site staff confirmed it, and the assistant director informed me. Then I just relayed it to the Director… ah, in that order….”
“Good grief, in this dark remote mountain area already… they must have been terrified.”

The Director rose from his seat with a quip about “I’ll have to give everyone hazard pay.”

“If they’re going this far, it doesn’t seem like just an ordinary incident, does it?”
“They said they wouldn’t discuss it directly until the person in charge arrives, but from what I gathered, it seems to be related to a disappearance or murder.”
“We’re already filming a horror movie, and this situation is too much for the kids. I think it’s best to send them down for a few days’ rest. We’ve already shot the important scenes roughly… and we were going on break soon anyway.”
“Then should I go down with them too? I’m scared as well.”
“How dare you—Hong is my set partner. I can’t go anywhere without you.”

The Director chuckled and gave Hong a light jab to the ribs before moving on.

“You’ll be in the tent then? I should probably go myself—it’ll be faster. Hong, you’ve worked hard relaying the message. I’ll handle the conversation with them, so get some rest….”
“Do you think… they’re dead?”
“….”

The Director turned to look at Hong Kyung-yeon’s face.

“…Dead?”
“That kid, you see.”
“Why are you saying such frightening things, Kyung-yeon?”
“There were only crazy bastards there….”

Shadows fell across his ashen face. His bloodshot eyes and the cold sweat trickling beneath them made him look like someone terrified and weeping.

“I keep thinking… that maybe I shouldn’t have left them behind….”
“Kyung-yeon.”
“I gave them my business card, but they haven’t contacted me since. I try to tell myself it’s because the signal cuts out in that place, but no. Why would the signal cut out? Would they even have a phone?”
“Hong Kyung-yeon.”
“I still can’t believe what they said about being an adult. It feels like a lie.”
“Hey, come on.”

The Director gripped his shoulder. Thanks to his considerable height, and with Hong Kyung-yeon hunched over, he could easily pull him into an embrace.

“Calm down a bit, Writer. Did that kid really seem so easy to you?”
“…That wasn’t the case.”
“The detectives probably wouldn’t have come for that reason either. What kind of hotel is that? I doubt a place like that would let outside police know if someone died inside.”
“Is this… is this supposed to be reassuring?”
“I can’t say nothing happened to that kid.”

Lee Sun-hae, who had seen it firsthand, was even more uncertain.

“But the fact that police showed up isn’t proof that kid is dead, that’s what I’m saying.”
“If you console people like that, nowadays kids call you a T, Director….”
“Because of that MT thing or whatever, people can’t even speak facts anymore—life is truly difficult.”
“It certainly is.”

Hong Kyung-yeon rubbed his reddened eyes and nodded slightly.

“I’m sorry to bother you when you must be busy.”
“If you’re sorry, come without the red eyes—if the actors get startled, that’s all on us.”
“Whenever someone tries to feel a little genuine emotion, they won’t leave him alone.”

He nodded once more quietly, then departed for the bathroom. Perhaps he would wash his face with cold water.

“….”

The Director, who had been watching him quietly, sighed and looked up at the sky.

“…The rumors will spread anyway. Maybe I should call all our managers and give them a heads-up….”

The air of the remote mountain village in the rain was quite cool.

It was becoming difficult to even call it summer anymore.

* * *

“….”
“…Rawi?”
“You’re awake?”
“I don’t think I was actually asleep.”
“That’s the feeling, isn’t it.”

When Seme turned to look at him, Rawi sat down beside him.

“That seemed like quite a dangerous situation.”
“What isn’t dangerous in this Hotel?”
“Still, I believe we’ll survive.”
“I’m not being sarcastic, but what makes you believe that?”

Rain continued to fall beyond the expansive window across from us.

“Lee Yeon-woo, for one.”

Having eyes that see too much comes with its own inconveniences.

“He’s a good person.”
“Isn’t that discomfort coming from that very fact?”
“Anyone would feel the same.”

Rawi slumped back against the sofa with a heavy sigh.

“Isn’t that simply how the world is?”

A mess, ugly, covered in rot and decay.

“It may appear beautiful, yet it remains precarious and capricious. Systems that seem harmonious are riddled with gaps. Many throw garbage, but few pick it up. And people are born with instincts that are fundamentally….”
“Selfish.”
“Which is why everything becomes so twisted, doesn’t it?”

I find discomfort in the gazes directed at me. I detect hypocrisy in the relationships between people. Only I can see how stained the true nature beneath the attractive wrapping truly is.

It has been this way for a very long time.

“And yet you call him a ‘good person’?”

In a Labyrinth of such unprecedented scale, no less?

“I thought it didn’t make sense. I believed I was being deceived, or at the very least, that something was going terribly wrong. But after hearing what you had to say, senior… it seems that’s not entirely impossible after all.”
“A person who was offered as a sacrifice?”
“You said the Labyrinth doesn’t emerge from ordinary circumstances.”
“So you thought Lee Yeon-woo was an ordinary person.”
“That’s about the size of it.”

The very existence of something that defied logical explanation troubled me.

Yet he remained consistent even after ascending to the Hotel. Perhaps—at least within these walls—Lee Yeon-woo wasn’t a person of that ordinary pattern at all.

“Back then, it didn’t really strike me as particularly significant.”
“And then?”
“Just… I found myself hoping this was real, if anything.”

From a place of “something like this couldn’t possibly exist.”
To “I wish something like this did exist.”

“That was about all there was to it….”

But then.

“Look at this—the blood reek is absolutely overwhelming.”
“It is. We’ll need to clean this up.”

Seme blinked slowly before asking, a beat too late.

“Is this Lee Yeon-woo’s blood?”
“No joke about it.”
“He shed it because of me?”
“That’s how it turned out.”
“I should apologize….”
“Before that.”

Rawi asked.

“Why would he go that far?”
“Hmm….”

Seme’s head tilted.

“There are people like that sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“In all my years, I’ve only seen this type twice, but….”
“Yes, it’s what they call sacrificing oneself for righteousness.”

Throwing away one’s life for what is right.

“He seemed to dislike it all quite ordinarily.”

The bleeding,
the suffering,
even facing the Dokkaebi.

Perhaps the very act of living and breathing within this place is what he truly despises.

“I do think it’s strange.”
“I see.”
“Aren’t people born that way originally? One’s own safety comes first, and those who help others only when they have surplus—aren’t they rare in this world?”
“Rare indeed.”
“Then I don’t understand why Lee Yeon-woo does what he does.”

Rawi’s voice continued without inflection.

“I heard what he said, but I still don’t understand. He claims he’s ordinary, yet I can’t fathom how he came to be this way….”
“You speak of Lee Yeon-woo’s nature as though it were some catastrophe.”
“What greater catastrophe could there be? I believe this is a more serious problem than most disasters.”

He doesn’t even enjoy the suffering, yet he endlessly gnaws away at himself.

“It’s shameful to say this from a position where I’ve survived thanks to him, but it doesn’t feel right. When I was younger, I used to wonder if such a person might exist somewhere in this world….”
“And now that you’ve witnessed such a person directly, how does it feel?”
“Not good at all.”

Far more unpleasant than I had imagined.

“Even knowing that his existence beside me is beneficial, I simply feel displeased.”
“You’re a good person.”

Seme, who had been gazing only at the rain-soaked Forest, turned his gaze toward Rawi.

“You’re too kind.”
“I’ve never heard that before.”
“I wasn’t like that.”
“….”

Rawi asked a beat too late.

“…You were, Senior?”
“I was terrified.”

That’s why I did it.

“I was so frightened that I couldn’t bear not to grasp their hand when they reached out to me.”

Even though I knew that person was in a difficult situation themselves.

“All I could do was pray for them to protect me.”
“May I ask who you’re talking about?”
“At first, it was my younger sibling.”

And then.

“After that, it was a passing stranger….”
“A stranger—how peculiar.”
“One is still trapped in the Labyrinth, and the other is already dead.”

She,

“Kind people die young, they say.”

whispered softly.

“….”
“Is Lee Yeon-woo destined to be that kind of person too?”

Was that why he ended up trapped in the Labyrinth—because it was his inevitable fate?

“You can trust me. You have good eyes for seeing people. If you saw something in Lee Yeon-woo, then believe in that. You can believe that such a person truly exists.”
“And then get stabbed in the back.”
“Then you just take the blow. At the very least, you remind yourself that the hand he extended or the help he gave weren’t illusions. It’s not impossible to live on, holding onto just that one thing.”
“You speak quite like a senior. A life senior.”
“That’s right. I at least know that ‘good people’ can exist….”

Seme muttered again, gazing out the window.

“…I’m so tired of this….”

Good people die young.

Sometimes, more terribly and miserably than anyone else.

“I should have told you beforehand. I’m sorry. I’ve lived longer than I expected.”
“Oh, really? Are you about a hundred years old?”
“Not even close to that.”
“You just got born.”
“That’s not something you should be saying.”
“Should I shut up?”

Pop.

“No.”

I too leaned my back against the sofa like Rawi, and Seme licked his lips.

“Talk a little more for me.”
“It seems something’s bothering you.”
“I feel like I’m going mad from frustration….”

Silently, quietly.

“I wanted to be happy.”

Without blinking once, Seme wept.

“I wanted to do what I desired and live that way.”

She asked me.

“Why is it Hell fire wherever we go?”
“How poetic.”
“Is it because we’re already in Hell, so we can never escape?”
“I’m not certain.”
“I needed some meaning to it all.”

I devoured my own sibling, turned away from my benefactor’s suffering, lived as a worthless mercenary witnessing every sordid thing imaginable. Yet I inhabit this precious body that was never meant to be mine.

Because they granted me a life far too precious to squander.

“I had to live.”

But.

“To live, I needed meaning.”

I wanted to prove that I held value, that my sibling’s death was not in vain.

“Something, anything….”
“Yes.”
“So I wanted to hold my head high about something, anything.”
“Who wouldn’t feel the same?”

Rawi rested his chin in his hand.

“It’s strange to say it now, but I think we don’t suit each other very well.”
“I agree.”
“Still, I understand what you’re trying to say.”

Lee Yeon-woo was no illusion.

He was a person who could exist—merely rare. Too rare to appear in Rawi’s short nineteen years of life.

Yet that very rarity made it ironic.

….

Rawi asked into the void.

“…Are all the good people in Hell….”

Without a Hell this vast, how could they be so impossibly hard to find?

* * *

Meanwhile, Lee Yeon-woo was performing an elaborate tap dance atop the flames of Hell.

“A Restaurant location?”

He was dealing with The Monster Guest—a creature in whom conscience was as vestigial as a vestigial organ.

“Have you lost your mind?”
“That’s harsh language.”
“You’re the one being harsh.”

Lee Yeon-woo had never encountered a more unreasonable customer than this.

“What I offered you before was merely a friendly suggestion.”
“Yes, I remember it well, Master.”
“Have you truly lost your senses? For our smooth interaction, I recommend you specify more precisely as ‘Hotel Owner.'”
“Then, Young Master?”
“You’re impossible.”

Absurdity was an art form.

“I see you’ve changed your appearance—and your tongue as well. It’s grown quite long.”
“It’s my sincerity. I’ve even donned this cumbersome human guise to please you. I hope you’ll look upon me kindly.”
“I’m not sure what to do about that.”

Lee Yeon-woo swept his gaze over the man with indifferent eyes.

Neatly swept black hair and the gentle features of an East Asian face. It was utterly different from the true form he remembered.

“So you’re mimicking a human now, I see.”

He let out a scoff.

“It seems you struggle to speak Korean in your original form. The difference in linguistic ability is quite pronounced.”
“You know everything, yet you speak such harsh words. The structure of noble blood and mere flesh must inevitably differ, mustn’t it? I do hope you’ll appreciate my sincerity….”

He made excuses. It was utterly repugnant.

“You cannot possibly understand how difficult it is for me to speak Korean while in a blood state.”
“Yet that difficulty eased considerably after consuming me, did it not? Why, do you now seek after-sales service? You spoke quite freely before leaving this Hotel.”
“As you know, it is divine grace.”
“Indeed it is.”

I had no desire to understand which ‘god’ he was referring to.

“I wish to offer prayers of gratitude for your contribution to my development.”
“It’s quite admirable that you’re so cultured.”
“Thank you for the compliment, Monsieur.”
“You must be from France.”
“Have you never considered becoming a multicultural enterprise? Despite appearances, I am fluent in multiple languages, and if you were to hire me at the Hotel, I would be of considerable assistance in its operations.”
“À vrai dire, je suis surpris qu’un tel ermitage doive requérir le talent d’un polyglotte de votre trempe, Chef.”

To be honest, I’m surprised that such a hermitage would require the talents of a polyglot of your caliber, Chef.

“Is it not so?”
“Indeed.”

Most repugnantly, the Tasteless Guest seemed delighted.

“I imagine you’ve heard yourself called unlucky quite often.”
“Thank you for the compliment, sir.”
“We seem to get along quite well, don’t we?”
“I don’t.”
“Staying here seems like it will bring many interesting developments.”
“Don’t obscure the matter. I’ll say it once more—I….”

Lee Yeon-woo looked at the Tasteless Guest, whose face appeared perfectly ordinary.

“I don’t hire people like you who look like they’d handle human flesh in my Kitchen.”
“How heartless.”
“This is maddening. The fact that you don’t deny my unreasonable example only makes it worse.”
“There’s no chef in the entire world who could match me.”

That’s right. This mad Guest was currently conducting a job interview.

“….”

Naturally, Lee Yeon-woo’s wishes had no bearing on this interview.

“…How exactly did a friend’s suggestion turn into a job offer? I can’t even understand that part to begin with. This Hotel isn’t a place where you can just get hired because you want to be.”
“I’m aware we have those resources.”
“Do you really not understand that it’s not a matter of having resources or not?”

Insane.

“Are you perhaps looking for a contract?”

Lee Yeon-woo recalled Our House Freeloader, who was currently lounging about in the Aqua Park.

That creature did nothing but torment me and the Guests, yet it ate three meals a day without fail. Well, I was the one providing them. At that, the Tasteless Guest shrugged.

“I don’t wish to become entangled that deeply.”
“When were you ever reluctant to let me suck your blood?”
“It was more licking than sucking.”
“Where exactly am I supposed to find the difference?”

Lee Yeon-woo sighed and rubbed his face.

“I have no intention of adding variables to this Hotel right now.”

I felt as though I might die from exhaustion. Though I would resurrect.

“As you mentioned, the Restaurant position remains vacant, but that was planned for after the Hotel Management enters a more stable phase.”

The Tasteless Guest, having switched to an entirely unfamiliar face, smiled faintly.

“Plans exist to be changed.”
“It seems you and I reside in different worlds with different dictionaries.”
“Similar enough. I expected to be refused, but I didn’t anticipate such stubbornness. It wounds my heart.”
“Then perhaps we should discuss it, given the bond we share from rolling through bloodied waters together.”

I added.

“And for my successor who will inherit my emotions.”

Lee Yeon-woo asked.

“….”
“Why go to such lengths?”

He asked with genuine curiosity.

“Because I am Belmarés?”
“That’s not entirely absent.”
“Or are you waiting for the day I grow weak enough for you to devour? It must be a rather enticing fantasy for you, yet you know it’s a hope far dimmer than before?”
“Of course I know. You’ve grown considerably stronger and more meticulous in the meantime, Young Master.”
“If you persist in making such preposterous remarks, I might hire you as a butler instead of a chef.”
“I feel considerable warmth in the fact that you’re even considering taking me on.”
“Sarcasm is truly exhausting depending on one’s audience.”
“Indeed.”

The shrugging Tasteless Guest continued.

“The fact that you are stronger than me held great appeal.”
“That could be weakness depending on the standard.”
“There’s almost none of that left now. Weak but never dying. You will be one with this Hotel eternally.”
“No curse is quite like this curse.”
“A leash in your hands, shackles upon my feet….”

He tilted his head, his eyes rolling sideways.

“It’s an old tale, but the Nobility stake their lives on honor. If there is something that divides human from beast, it would be wisdom. Fortitude, nobility, responsibility and compassion, perhaps.”
“….”
“Were you not afraid?”

He was speaking of when Lee Yeon-woo registered his authority in the Central Control Room.

“At that time, I was stronger than you, more desperate, no. Setting that aside… you entrusted your body to thousands upon thousands of needles to advance further. To become better than you are now.”
“Everyone does that.”
“If everyone could do that, the world would be a veritable paradise by now.”
“Speak to the point.”
“A single leash.”

Rolling forward, pitch-black eyes fixed upon Lee Yeon-woo.

“…Have you no intention of squeezing harder?”
“….”
“Master.”
“What?”

* * *

From that moment forward, Lee Yeon-woo found himself tormented by a total of three Monster Guests.

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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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