Welcome to the Goblin Hotel - Chapter 15

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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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Episode 15
Sizzle—
The meat touching the hot plate seared, and a savory aroma spread through the air.
Hwang Geum Yi’s tail spun in quick circles at the smell.
“Beef…! Beef…!”
Min Ju bounced on her feet, excitement radiating from her.
She looked ready to wag a tail herself any moment now.
“You’ve all worked hard lately. Eat as much as you’d like.”
Min Jae popped a piece of beef into his mouth and sighed with contentment.
“Mmm…! It’s so tender. I didn’t know Korean beef could taste this good…!”
“What, eating it like it’s your first time?”
“Today is actually the first time I’ve grilled and eaten beef.”
“Huh? Your first time?”
“I must have eaten it before our parents passed, but I don’t remember it.”
Min Ju chimed in beside him.
“After our parents were gone, we only ate pork belly on really special days.”
Min Jae nodded in understanding.
“We’d grill frozen leg meat. That tasted good too.”
What kind of lives had these two lived?
I wanted to ask them about their aunt—what sort of person she’d been.
But I swallowed the question.
Someday they’d bring up their own story.
There was no need to rush.
I didn’t want to spoil the good mood.
“Next time we’ll grill some pork belly. Cook it over charcoal and it’ll taste amazing.”
Min Jae nodded eagerly.
“Yes!”
“For now, eat plenty of this.”
I placed meat cooked to just the right doneness on their plates.
“Song I, you eat a lot too.”
“Okay! Hehe. It’s really delicious.”
Song I managed her chopsticks with clumsy grace, eating with deliberate care.
“Our Song I is pretty even when she eats.”
Song I spooned several pieces of meat into Hwang Geum Yi’s bowl.
“Hwang Geum Yi, eat up and enjoy it.”
“Woof!”
Hwang Geum Yi’s tail spun like a propeller as he chewed.
Watching him eat so heartily made me feel proud.
My shoulders lifted of their own accord.
While I was grilling meat, Mi Ho stepped into the restaurant.
“Mi Ho’s here. I bought some beef. You’ll eat some, won’t you?”
Mi Ho stared at me intently.
— How much longer are you going to call me Mi Ho?
“Come on, what’s the fuss between us? The closer the form of address, the better.”
— Between us?
I smiled broadly and held out a plate heaped with meat.
“Stop being prickly and come here. I bought raw meat and liver too.”
Mi Ho shot me a piercing look.
— I don’t eat liver.
“You don’t?”
— The texture is unpleasant. Get it away now.
‘Doesn’t a nine-tailed fox need to eat liver to become fully formed?’
Judging by that reaction, apparently not.
I quickly removed the liver and offered the raw meat instead.
“Then raw meat. This is really fresh.”
Mi Ho approached, sniffed at it for a moment, then bit into the meat.
After chewing and swallowing the raw meat, Mi Ho spoke.
— This is acceptable.
“Told you.”

Mi Ho finished off a plate of raw meat, licking the corners of her mouth with her tongue as she spoke.
— The wandering spirit in Room 205. Far too noisy.
“Noisy? That can’t be right…?”
I checked the guest’s detailed information.
【 Guest Details 】
*Room 205:
Choi Il Joo
Wandering
Extreme Fatigue
D-24
The moment Choi Il Joo checked in yesterday, he dove straight into bed and fell asleep immediately.
Given his state of extreme fatigue, he should still be sleeping.
— But there’s constant movement in the room. I keep hearing rustling sounds.
“Rustling? You can hear something that faint?”
Mi Ho stroked her ears with her front paws.
— Hmph! Do you think these are ordinary ears? In any case, pay attention to it. Check on him around the Yin Hour.
It was a complaint from a guest who’d paid a substantial bill.
I couldn’t dismiss it lightly.
“Understood. I’ll handle it as quickly as I can.”
***
I was nodding off on the lobby sofa when I suddenly jerked awake.
The clock hands pointed to three.
The Yin Hour.
This was the time Mi Ho had heard the sounds last night.
I stood before the door to Room 205, holding the gift I’d prepared for the guest.
When I pressed my ear to the door, I faintly heard the shuffling sound of footsteps.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Guest, may I come in?”
Choi Il Joo, his expression blank, slowly opened the door.
“…Please, come in.”
I stepped inside and handed him the gift I’d brought.
“It’s a shoe. I prepared it because you were missing one.”
“Ah….”
He lowered his head and looked down at his feet.
He seemed only now to notice that he was wearing a shoe on just one foot.
Moving with deliberate slowness, he put on the new shoe.
“…Thank you.”
“What were you doing in your room?”
“Well… I’m not sure. I just felt like I had to keep moving….”
He’d grown accustomed to nothing but ceaseless labor.
People like him push their bodies to work no matter how exhausted they become.
As if they believe that stopping once means never rising again.
He couldn’t abandon that habit even in death.
Choi Il Joo was a man who didn’t know how to truly rest.
“What if you went outside for a walk?”
“I’m tired right now….”
“Forcing yourself to sleep only makes fatigue worse. Rather than pacing a cramped room… come out with me.”
I led the hesitant Choi Il Joo outside.
And we walked slowly, quietly, around the hotel grounds.
A cool mountain breeze brushed through my hair.
Choi Il Joo, trudging along with that blank expression, drew in a deep breath and exhaled.
“Ahhhh… whoooo…!”
“How is it? Better now that you’re outside?”
Choi Il Joo nodded.
I spoke to him.
“Sleep your fill while the sun is up, and enjoy this rest while the moon hangs in the sky.”
“…Rest… …rest… …rest…”
After mumbling to himself for a long moment, Choi Il Joo answered with that same vacant expression.
“I don’t really know what rest is.”
I replied in the gentlest voice I could manage.
“Don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough.”
***
Midday, while the Wandering Spirits slept.
The staff of the Dokkaebi Hotel bustled about their tasks.
Vroooom—
A truck pulled up in front of the hotel.
I waved toward it and called out.
“Come on in further!”
The driver in the cab rolled down his window and shouted back.
“If I drive in any more, I’ll damage the lawn!”
“It’s fine! Come on, keep going!”
The delivery driver looked puzzled at my words, but eventually drove the truck all the way to the front courtyard of the hotel.
Once he’d climbed out, the driver peeled back the tarp covering the cargo bed and asked.
“Are you really sure about the lawn?”
“Don’t worry. The cargo’s heavy anyway—best to unload it as close as possible.”
Any damage to the lawn could be fixed by turning on the hotel’s automatic maintenance system.
I didn’t have the points yet, but I would soon enough.
This much was manageable.
“Where should I set them up?”
“Line them up here in front of the building, please.”
What we were installing now were Swing Benches.
The feeling of sitting in a gently swaying chair and letting time drift away.
I’d prepared them hoping Choi Il Joo would experience that sensation.
No need to think about how or when to rest.
A healing space where you could simply sit in a daze.
“Wow—! A swing!”
Song I bounced with delight at the sight of the Swing Bench.
“Woof! Woof!”
Hwang Geum Yi bounded alongside her.
The delivery driver installed both Swing Benches with solid precision.
After testing one out himself, the driver nodded approvingly.
“It’s secured firmly. Still, if the frame ever feels wobbly, just give us a call anytime.”
“Thank you for coming all this way.”
I handed over an envelope I’d prepared separately.
“Grab some lunch on your way back. There’s supposed to be a famous zucchini stew place by the river.”
Though I’d never actually been there myself.
Every time I passed by, I’d see people lined up waiting.
The corners of the driver’s mouth rose toward his ears.
“Ha ha, you didn’t have to, but I’ll gladly take it. Thank you very much.”
The children were already seated on the Swing Benches, swinging their legs with abandon.
Seeing this, the delivery driver offered a word of caution.
“Hey, hey, hey! You absolutely can’t swing your legs like that! We’ve secured it firmly, but safety comes first, doesn’t it?”
“Okay. I’ll keep an eye on them.”
The truck pulled away from the hotel.
I turned around and looked at the children.
Not just Song I, but Min Ju and Min Jae’s faces too were flushed with childlike excitement.
‘Kids. They’re all just kids.’
I’d always thought of them that way, but today it was even more apparent.
“Did you hear what the driver said? Play safely, okay?”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“Woof!”
The children answered with bright, grinning faces.
I shook my head with amusement, adjusted my hat, and spoke.
“We need to plant seedlings, so once you’ve had enough fun, come along.”
Behind the hotel was a Vegetable Garden.
It looked like my great-aunt had planted various things there before.
But now it was just bare earth.
Min Ju dug into the soil with a Seedling Shovel and spoke.
“Wow…! The soil is really so crumbly.”
As I gently turned the dry earth, the rich scent of soil rose up to meet us.
Min Jae lifted a tomato seedling and asked, “How deep should we plant this?”
“How deep should we plant this?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never done this before.”
“Really? Then what do we do?”
“Let’s just plant it deep enough to cover the roots. We’ll learn from our mistakes.”
Min Ju’s murmur reached my ears.
“The owner doesn’t know everything after all…!”
‘What does she take me for?’
Being an adult doesn’t mean knowing everything.
What grows as you get older is the skill of pretending to know.
‘Until not long ago, it wasn’t easy to admit honestly when I didn’t know something….’
But.
In the world this hotel belongs to, there’s no end to what I don’t know.
A few more unknowns wouldn’t hurt.
Because I was learning.
Because I was growing.
I let out a soft laugh and said, “I don’t know a lot of things either. Let’s learn together.”
“I don’t know a lot of things either. Let’s learn together.”
We planted seedlings of tomato and pepper.
We scattered lettuce seeds too.
Song I waddled over with the watering can, calling out, “Dad! Song I brought the water!”
“Dad! Song I brought the water!”
“Song I, that must have been heavy. Why didn’t you ask Dad to come with you?”
“Hehe…. It wasn’t heavy at all.”
Song I carefully tilted the watering can, sprinkling water over the garden beds.
“You were thirsty, weren’t you? I’ll give you some delicious water, so hang in there.”
***
Choi Il Joo, the guest in Room 205, didn’t emerge until past three in the morning, then wandered through the Hotel Garden.
He was making his own effort to rest well.
I approached him as he paced absently around the hotel.
“How’s the walk this evening?”
“…I’m not quite sure, but it doesn’t feel oppressive.”
I led Choi Il Joo to the Swing Bench we’d installed today.
“Please, sit here.”
Choi Il Joo settled into the seat slowly.
Creak-creak-
The chair swayed gently.
“Just sit without thinking about anything.”
Choi Il Joo relaxed his body and leaned back against the chair.
In the meantime, I went to the kitchen and heated water.
As the water came to a rolling boil, I added the mistletoe I’d bought not long ago and steeped the tea.
A pleasant, bittersweet aroma brushed against my nose.
I returned to Choi Il Joo carrying two warm cups of Mistletoe Tea.
His eyes were closed.
Fortunately, his lips had softened into a peaceful expression.
Sensing my presence, he opened his eyes.
I offered him the Mistletoe Tea.
“Please, have some. It’s Mistletoe Tea.”
Choi Il Joo accepted the cup and drank.
“Mistletoe…is it.”
“They call it mistletoe because it barely survives—’barely living’ is the name’s root.”
“Barely surviving….”
“Mistletoe is a plant whose leaves don’t wither even in winter. It’s a plant that knows how to endure the cold season.”
Barely surviving or surviving winter.
It was a difference of just one step.
Choi Il Joo drank a few more sips of the Mistletoe Tea, then spoke.
“…It seems I’ve been living through winter all this time.”
Warm steam rose from the cup he held tightly in both hands, wrapping around his fingers.
His life had been winter.
Now that life had ended, had winter passed at last?
【 Guest Detailed Information 】
*Room 205:
Choi Il Joo
Wandering
Exhaustion
D-22
“……!”
‘Profound exhaustion had transformed into mere tiredness.’
D-22.
Spring was drawing near for him.
Inherited the Dokkaebi Hotel
Author
: Why That Granola
Date of Creation
: August 25, 2026
Publisher
: Ace Sys Media Inc.
Editor
: Ace Sys Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Ace Sys Media Inc. under contract with the copyright holder,
and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or copying may result in legal liability.
UCI
: G720:N+A129-20260730113

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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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