Welcome to the Goblin Hotel - Chapter 25

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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 25
The charcoal had caught fire just right.
Min-ju and Song-i came outside carrying trays laden with vegetables and meat.
Min-ju set a tray on the table and spoke.
“I think we’ve brought everything we need, but could you check if we’re missing anything?”
I swept my gaze across the tabletop and replied.
“If you want roasted sweet potatoes, wrap them in foil and bring them out. And marshmallows too.”
Song-i thrust her hand up eagerly.
“I already grabbed the marshmallows! Today’s special, after all!”
“Good. Well done.”
I stroked Song-i’s head gently and surveyed the surroundings.
“They should be arriving soon…”
Right on cue, Mi-ho and Choi Il-ju stepped out from the hotel together.
“You seem busy, Manager.”
“I wanted today to be lively. You came at just the right time. Have a seat. I’ll bring out the meat soon.”
Choi Il-ju settled into his chair.
Mi-ho approached me.
— Did you go to the hospital okay? How’s the liver?
“Yeah. We decided not to do the donation.”
Mi-ho licked her lips and glanced over at Min-jae.
— So that’s how it is…?
Min-jae’s shoulders flinched slightly.
“It’s creepy when you look like that. Quit it with that expression.”
“Kehehehe…!”
— The guy’s so naive, he’s perfect to mess with.
“It’s settled now, but Min-jae’s probably still rattled. Take it easy on him.”
— Is that why you’re making such a fuss tonight?
“Well, that’s part of it. Mostly I just wanted us all to sit down and eat together. Il-ju’s checking out soon anyway. Might as well.”
Mi-ho fixed me with a steady gaze.
“…What?”
— You’re quite the curious one, aren’t you?
Curious indeed.
‘A nine-tailed fox is far more curious.’
I gestured to the plush blanket spread on the ground.
“You sit there.”
It was the spot I’d prepared for Mi-ho and Hwang-geum-i, who found chairs difficult.
Hwang-geum-i was already perched on the blanket, tail swishing contentedly.
— You really are a curious one.
The moment Mi-ho settled onto the blanket.
Gang-rim arrived.
【 A Messenger of the Underworld has come to visit. 】
“Hahaha! I hurried over at the thought of grilled meat. Am I late?”
The meat hadn’t even gone on the fire yet.
Gang-rim was already brimming with excitement.
“Welcome. You’re right on time.”
Gang-rim took his seat and asked.
“Eh…? The meat hasn’t gone on yet?”
“It’s about to.”
I caught Min-jae’s eye with a subtle gesture.
Min-jae, who’d been waiting for the signal, sprang to his feet and set the grill rack over the charcoal.
“Here it comes!”
I laid thick slices of pork belly on the grill, heavy with everyone’s anticipation.
White smoke rose in billowing clouds.
Sizzzzzzle—!
Oil dripped into the flames, and small sparks scattered upward.
Song-i shrieked at the sight.
“Waaaah! The meat, the meat!”
Anyone watching would think she’d never had meat before.
Yet yesterday and the day before, meat hadn’t been absent from our table either.
Gang-rim’s eyes didn’t leave the grill for a moment.
I flipped the meat as I spoke.
“Messenger, we’re nowhere near done. That stare is really unsettling.”
“Ah. I’m fine with it.”
“No, I’m the one who’s not fine with it…?”
Gang-rim’s gaze never left the meat until it was fully cooked.
“That’ll do.”
I sliced the perfectly grilled pork belly and laid it on the table, sharing portions with Mi-ho and Hwang-geum-i.
Song-i’s shoulders began to tremble the moment she took a bite.
Hwang-geum-i’s tail wagged in sympathy.
“Min-jae, I’ll keep grilling, so you sit down and eat too.”
Min-jae laughed in front of the grill.
“I prefer to eat standing here.”
‘Fine. If that’s what you like.’
I turned to Choi Il-ju.
“Choi Il-ju, this lettuce is something we grew ourselves.”
“It’s grown this large already?”
The leaf that had been the size of a baby’s palm yesterday had expanded to the size of an adult hand today.
Song-i straightened her shoulders proudly.
“Song-i watered it, so it grew really well!”
“That’s right. Well done.”
Choi Il-ju smiled at Song-i.
I added a comment of my own.
“And our Song-i even danced in front of it, didn’t you?”
Min-jae’s eyes widened.
“Danced?”
“Hah-hah-hah! It was like a Native American performing a rain prayer.”
Min-jae spoke to Song-i.
“Wow! Song-i, I’d really like to see that dance too.”
Song-i tilted her head and met Min-jae’s eyes.
“You want to see it too?”
“Yes.”
‘You’ll regret it.’
Song-i sang well enough that I’d once thought, ‘She could be a singer if she wanted.’
But after seeing her dance, I’d let that dream go.
My daughter was hopelessly uncoordinated.
Even if she had someone like Ri-na—an elite connection.
‘That’s just not going to happen.’
While I was thinking that.
Song-i suddenly jumped to her feet and stood in front of the Buckwheat Field.
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap!
The applause from Min-jae and Min-ju rang out.
Song-i began to move her body.
She spun in circles, swayed her hips, and flailed her arms about.
“Flowers~ bloom~! Flowers bloom~~!”
Regardless, it was adorable and endearing.
My daughter, after all.
‘Even with those movements, she’s so lovable.’
With more audience members today, her movements seemed a little more elaborate.
With a rain prayer like that, it ought to make rain fall.
That’s only right!
Ah, but this isn’t summoning rain—it’s for blooming flowers.
Is this a Flower Prayer Ritual then…?
In that moment when the crowd was cheering.
Small blue lights began to rise around Song-i.
If not for their color, you’d have mistaken them for fireflies.
“What is that…?”
“……!”
“Heh-heh-heh…!”
“Wow…! It’s beautiful.”
Gang-rim, who had seen it, offered the answer.
“You have Spiritual Power.”
“Ah…!”
Now I saw it—the same blue as the flames that had bloomed from my own hands.
The blue lights that had circled around Song-i scattered and descended upon the Buckwheat Field.
Then white flowers began to bloom, one after another.
Pop. Crack. Pop.
There shouldn’t be a sound when flowers bloomed.
Yet it seemed as though I could hear it.
“Eeeek! The flowers bloomed! Song-i made the flowers bloom!”
Delighted, Song-i spun in circles, laughing.
Min-jae asked with a stunned expression.
“Boss, those flowers…did Song-i really make them bloom?”
“…Doesn’t it look to you like she did?”
I was bewildered, not understanding what was happening.
Mi-ho cried out.
— Boss! The meat’s burning!
“Ah…!”
I quickly flipped the meat.
Mi-ho, glaring at me, turned her head to look at Song-i.
— Your daughter. She uses Spiritual Power in an unusual way.
“Unusual?”
— Yeah. She uses Spiritual Power while dancing. It’s terribly inefficient.
Gang-rim added from beside me.
“There have been many who wielded Spiritual Power while dancing. Mudang, for instance—”
‘A Mudang?’
I erupted at Gang-rim.
“Are you saying my daughter is a Mudang?”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I’m merely saying that the way she handles Spiritual Power is not unfamiliar. That child is something more special. Flower-Blooming Spiritual Power…”
Mi-ho nodded.
— I’ve never seen anything like it. An ability to command life itself—even in plants.
Gang-rim squinted at me.
“The meat is burning. Do pay closer attention.”
Lost in thought, I moved mechanically, grilling and slicing the meat.
‘It must be because of the Spiritual Power I built up with points.’
But could this ability be causing some kind of damage to her body?
Could unforeseen problems arise?
I was lost in countless worries.
Gang-rim opened his mouth.
“There’s no need to worry so much.”
“How can I not worry when it concerns my daughter?”
“Spiritual Power is like water.”
“Like water…?”
“Its form changes depending on the vessel, and its nature changes depending on who wields it.”
A vessel.
Mi-ho had also compared the body that holds Spiritual Power to a vessel before.
Now she was saying it again.
Gang-rim picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and continued.
“It can become cold water or hot water. It can become ink or purified water.”
I stopped turning the meat and looked at Gang-rim.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Simply that if the one who wields Spiritual Power is virtuous, there will be no great harm.”
Words from a Messenger of the Underworld who walks the boundary between life and death.
It was spoken lightly, but I couldn’t dismiss it.
Mi-ho nodded and added her thoughts.
— That child’s aura is clean. Don’t worry about your daughter.
“She won’t need to undergo Spirit Possession Initiation or anything like that…right?”
I had no desire to turn my only daughter into a Mudang.
‘The fate of Mudang never seemed to turn out well.’
Coming to Dokkaebi Hotel was partly to escape such things.
— Spirit Possession Initiation! Nothing like that is necessary.
That child manipulates life itself through Spiritual Power. It’s an ability no Mudang could ever possess.
I simply wanted my daughter to live peacefully and happily.
I gazed at Song-i standing before the buckwheat flowers.
She was still dancing, arms swaying through the air.
“Then that’s a relief.”
Watching her dance with such joy, a relieved laugh escaped me.
Gang-rim’s eyes lingered on Song-i for a long while.
“Perhaps that child might… be able to.”
I missed the soft murmur of his voice.
“What did you just—”
That was when it happened.
Bang, bang, bang, bang—!!!
The violent hammering on the metal gate at the hotel entrance cut off my words.
“Manager! It’s Ri-na! Please open the door!”
‘Ri-na? All of a sudden like this…?’
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the metal gate.
Min-jae looked at me and asked.
“Should I go check on her?”
I set down the tongs and moved toward the door.
“No, I’ll go.”
Thump, thump, thump—!
“M-manager…! Sob…! It’s Ri-na…!”
She was crying.
What on earth had happened to bring her here, weeping like this?
Creak—
The moment I opened the door, Ri-na stumbled toward me.
“Manager…!”
Ri-na’s face was deathly pale, and her breathing came in ragged gasps.
“What could be so urgent that you’d show up without even calling at this hour?”
But then I met her eyes and swallowed the rest of my words.
‘What state is she in…?’
“I kept calling, but you wouldn’t answer….”
‘Right…!’
My phone was charging in my room.
Since I wasn’t expecting any calls, I’d given it no thought.
“First things first.”
I glanced at the car behind her and spoke.
“If you’re not heading back right now, you should turn off the engine.”
Ri-na’s car sat with the driver’s door hanging wide open and the engine still running.
Ri-na looked back blankly.
“…Huh?”
I sighed and asked.
“Where are the keys?”
“In… in the car.”
I strode over to the vehicle, turned off the engine, and returned.
As the engine noise faded, a quiet settled over us.
“We’ll talk about the details inside.”
I brought Ri-na inside, and Min-ju, Min-jae, and Song-i greeted her.
“Welcome.”
“Hello, everyone!”
Ri-na simply nodded weakly.
Then.
Mi-ho wrinkled her nose and cried out.
“Hack!”
— I told you she was banned from entering! And look—she’s brought that foul stench with her! Get her out right now…!
“A smell?”
I inhaled, testing the air.
I detected nothing.
Gang-rim, who had been carefully wrapping meat in Lettuce, spoke up.
“It’s a Ghostly Scent.”
Min-ju responded at once.
“You mean that ghostly scent, right?”
“Just as expected of a keeper at the Dokkaebi Hotel. You know it well.”
I narrowed my eyes.
‘A Ghostly Scent is present…?’
Min-jae flared his nostrils toward Choi Il-ju beside him.
“I don’t smell anything at all?”
Gang-rim laughed.
“Of course Choi Il-ju wouldn’t smell it—his is a soul whose path to the Underworld has already opened.”
Min-jae started to ask more, but I raised my hand to stop him.
“That’s not what matters right now. Min-jae, go fetch a blanket. Min-ju, could you prepare some warm tea?”
“Yes!”
A moment later.
A warm cup of Mistletoe Tea was placed in Ri-na’s hands.
She held the cup between both palms and took a slow sip.
Some color had returned to her face, but her fingertips still trembled faintly.
“Tell me now. What brought you here at this hour?”
Ri-na lifted her head.
Her eyes, reddened and bloodshot, wavered with anxiety.
“Ye-na… something’s wrong with her.”
“Ye-na?”
Min-ju answered in her stead.
“She’s a member of the same Entertainment Group as Ri-na.”
Ri-na nodded.
“She’s three years younger than me—our team’s youngest member.”
‘So she’d be twenty-one now.’
I tilted my head, meeting Ri-na’s gaze.
“What exactly is wrong with your groupmate?”
Ri-na’s lips twitched as though in spasm.
Then her voice came out as something between a sob and a gasp.
“Sob…! Ye-na keeps trying to… to hang herself.”
Inheriting the Dokkaebi Hotel
Author
: Wae Geurae Nolra
Production Date
: September 3, 2026
Publisher
: ACES Media Co., Ltd.
Editor
: ACES Media Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by ACES Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder.
The content may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher 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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