Welcome to the Goblin Hotel - Chapter 35

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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 35
Gangrim wiped the black sauce clinging to his mouth and laughed.
“Ha! That was delicious. I’d been curious what jjajang ramen tasted like. So this is it.”
“Does it suit your palate?”
“Yes. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
Watching Gangrim demolish ten packets of jjajang ramen single-handedly, Minju shook her head and began clearing the bowls.
“Isn’t the color itself a rather odd match for a Grim Reaper?”
Gangrim sighed deeply and muttered under his breath.
“The Afterlife rations ought to look this proper too. Tsk…!”
What in the Afterlife do they feed him to make him eat like this?
How was it even possible for a Grim Reaper to go hungry?
‘Is Gangrim just some sort of special constitution?’
Lost in my own thoughts,
Gangrim straightened and asked.
“Now then. What is it you wished to ask of me?”
I cleared my throat and spoke.
“Well. I encountered a Spirit Amalgamation today.”
In that instant,
Gangrim’s brow furrowed.
“Mm….”
“I want to deal with it, but I lack the strength. Could you help me, Gangrim?”
Gangrim tapped the table lightly with his fingers.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Then, as though his thoughts had settled, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I apologize, but that… would be difficult.”
“Ah, so it would be too much trouble for you.”
Gangrim shook his head and answered.
“It’s not so much troublesome as… Spirit Amalgamations aren’t proper souls at all. They’re just scraps clumped together….”
……
Gangrim narrowed his eyes slightly and continued.
“Phew. No Reaper likes dealing with Spirit Amalgamations. Do you know why?”
It wasn’t because they were difficult to handle.
‘Then what?’
Why was Gangrim drawing this out, circling around it like this?
I cocked my head and answered.
“I… couldn’t say.”
Gangrim’s expression twisted into one of disgust.
And then, unexpectedly, the answer came pouring out.
“Because they’re filthy.”
“Pardon?”
Filthy?
Souls?
Gangrim added his explanation.
“Such scraps are treated like sewage in our Afterlife.”
Minju, listening from beside us, tilted her head and asked.
“Sewage…? You mean feces?”
“Those amalgamations of spirit scraps are truly… horrifying.”
“I see.”
So there was something even Grim Reapers found appalling. I hadn’t expected that.
“Moreover,”
“Moreover?”
“Handling them won’t even count toward your performance review.”
Ah. A performance review.
‘This is like some K-workplace nonsense…!’
“If Spirit Amalgamations have appeared before, and the Afterlife doesn’t handle them… how have they been dealt with until now?”
“So far, the living world has managed them well. There are occasionally people with special abilities, after all.”
Gangrim looked at me and smiled, then added,
“People like you, Director.”
Ah,
so this is his way of saying I’m on my own.
There was no point saying more—he wouldn’t listen anyway.
The fact that he was refusing after having been offered a meal meant this was something he truly didn’t want to do.
“Sigh… I’ve asked you to do something rather difficult, haven’t I.”
Gangrim let out a low chuckle.
“Well, yes. It’s rather like asking me to clean up filth, so to speak.”
“In that case, I have no choice. I’ll do what I can to resolve it on my end.”
“Ha. After being treated to a meal too. To refuse like this… how embarrassing.”
I lifted my shoulders in a shrug.
“There’s no need to feel embarrassed. It’s not as though this is my only favor.”
“……?”
“Minjae, go bring the box.”
“Yes, boss.”
A moment later.
Minjae carefully set the box containing the Curse Materials on the dining table.
“Perhaps you could examine these items for us, Reaper Officer.”
When Rina had come to find us, Gangrim had seen something I hadn’t.
It was true of the talisman burned along with the curse.
So I thought he might uncover something more with this as well.
“Very well.”
Gangrim opened the box without hesitation.
Then he extracted a small jar from inside.
Faint rustling.
As Gangrim shook the jar, the corners of his mouth lifted.
“Hmm…? This is… yes. Ash of burned hanging rope.”
Just as I thought.
Gangrim had identified the object at once.
“I burned the curse myself. Are there still traces remaining?”
“Ah, the negative energy has all dissipated. What I’m sensing is… merely the karmic debt lingering here.”
“Karmic debt…?”
“Think of it as an occupational sensitivity, if you will.”
Beneath Gangrim’s pallid face,
his crimson lips stretched taut.
The air felt suddenly chill.
‘That’s when he looks unsettling,’ I thought.
It made me wonder if his earlier careless demeanor around the food had been an act.
Click. Click.
Gangrim opened the lid and tapped the ash into his palm.
Then—
Whoooosh—!
Blue flames bloomed across his hand, consuming the ash.
The fire, having devoured the ash, was drawn up into Gangrim’s sleeve.
“It seems I have work to do.”
“……?”
“A Malevolent Spirit. I’ll handle it.”
Minju, who had been watching from the side, suddenly interjected.
“Reaper Officer. Our boss burned away all the curse, so that’s not your concern anymore, is it? Aren’t you just making excuses?”
Gangrim’s shoulders twitched.
“Ahem…! No, that is… Malevolent Spirits are notoriously stubborn, and if left behind, they will surely cause problems.”
Now I could see it plainly—he was manufacturing an excuse.
‘Was he just embarrassed to eat for free?’
I smiled faintly as I watched the flustered Gangrim.
“Minju, the Reaper Officer must think it’s necessary. He wouldn’t have mentioned it otherwise, would he?”
“That… that’s right.”
Just then.
Minju tilted her head and asked.
“But even so, Reaper Officer. How will you know where the Malevolent Spirit is? How can you deal with it?”
“Hahaha! Don’t worry about that. I have my ways.”
Gangrim rose from his seat with apparent confidence.
“Boss, then I’ll be off to deal with the Malevolent Spirit.”
“Reaper Officer, wait just a moment, please.”
‘Gangrim handle a Malevolent Spirit? That won’t do.’
I’d agreed that the Malevolent Spirit needed to be dealt with.
But I never said I’d leave it to him.
I spoke to Gangrim in a firm voice.
“I’ll handle the Malevolent Spirit myself.”
Gangrim tilted his head, raising an objection.
“Is there truly a need for you to step in personally? Something of this caliber, I could—”
“No. I have to catch it myself.”
……
“However… would it be possible to ask you to guide me to where the Malevolent Spirit is?”
If I dealt with the Malevolent Spirit, I’d gain Spiritual Power Points.
‘Turn that down?’
This wasn’t some ordinary wayward spirit—they said it was a vicious Malevolent Spirit.
I’d surely earn a considerable number of points.
Gaining Spiritual Power Points had to be my top priority.
For Songi’s safety.
And, to capture the Spirit Amalgamation as well.
Without Gangrim’s assistance, catching the Spirit Amalgamation wouldn’t be easy.
Gangrim smiled at my resolute expression, his lips curling upward.
“As expected of the owner of Dokkaebi Hotel. Then, shall we go at once?”
I bounced lightly on the spot and rotated my shoulders, checking my condition.
I felt light.
The Spiritual Power I’d depleted battling the Spirit Amalgamation had been fully restored, and after drinking the honey water, I felt no fatigue.
“Very well.”
I approached Songi, who was giving Hwanggeumi a snack.
“Songi, stay with Minju. Dad’s going to step out for a bit.”
At the mention of leaving again, Songi’s face puckered with displeasure.
“Ugh… You’re going out again?”
Then Gangrim spoke to Songi with a smile.
“It won’t take long. I’ll have him back to you in no time, so why don’t you enjoy some warm milk and snacks in the meantime?”
There was something odd about Gangrim’s tone.
‘Why is he speaking formally to Songi…?’
He’d been crude with everyone else.
But why her?
‘Ah, could it be…?’
Respect for the hotel’s heir.
This isn’t a five-star luxury hotel, but it’s a place with particular power.
Was that why he honored the successor?
In any case, knowing my daughter was being respected made my shoulders straighten with pride.
Songi’s eyes widened as she looked at Gangrim.
Her pout melted away at Gangrim’s gentle expression.
“…Really?”
Gangrim nodded, his lips curved in a smile.
“Yes.”
“…Dad, Songi won’t sleep and will wait for you. Come back quickly.”
Songi reached out and linked her finger with mine, then let go just as quickly.
“I will. Dad’ll be back as fast as possible. But if you get sleepy, don’t fight it—go to bed first, okay?”
Songi didn’t answer, just nodded.
I patted Songi’s crown lightly and looked at Gangrim.
“Let’s go.”
Gangrim strode purposefully toward the hotel’s iron gate.
“W-wait, Grim Reaper. The car is here.”
“We won’t need it.”
‘Is it nearby?’
I fell into step behind Gangrim, keeping pace.
Gangrim stepped out through the hotel entrance first.
“I’ll be right back…!”
I waved to Songi, then immediately passed through the hotel gate following Gangrim.
A dense forest appeared before us.
I sensed that the landscape here was subtly different from the surroundings of the hotel.
Moreover, it was impossibly dark.
“Mm…!”
The front gate stood within the hotel’s sphere of light.
Darkness this complete was wrong.
I turned around quickly.
Behind me….
The hotel I’d just come from was gone.
‘This isn’t the mountain where our hotel stands.’
Gangrim, standing beside me, fixed his gaze into the dark brush and spoke.
“There’s a malevolent spirit nearby.”
“…What’s going on? Where are we?”
Gangrim answered with a smile.
“Didn’t I tell you there was no need for the carriage?”
“But… not like this….”
“Without this level of ability, how else could I collect so many souls?”
I raised my hand and felt my body over.
The sensation in my fingertips suggested it wasn’t merely my spirit that had moved.
“Even so, I’m not a Reaper Officer, am I?”
“I have that much discretion.”
Was this really something that could be explained as discretion?
I’d just teleported in my full, physical body, not as a spirit.
‘Is this how Minju and Minjae felt?’
When the siblings came to our hotel, they’d crossed space in a similar way—now it was my turn.
“But…!”
“Your daughter awaits. Let’s hurry.”
Slip-slip-slip—
Gangrim walked ahead without hesitation.
Even as he passed through dense thickets, nothing impeded him.
It wasn’t as though he were passing through like a spirit; the brush itself seemed to part for him.
Today especially, his footfalls made no sound.
A bewitched feeling.
“Hah…! Really.”
I’d never been enchanted by a fox spirit or a dokkaebi before.
‘Being charmed by a Reaper Officer….’
I laughed hollowly and pushed through the brush after Gangrim.
After a few more steps.
Gangrim appeared, standing motionless in the darkness.
His cold, pale eyes fixed upon a massive tree.
I followed his gaze to the same spot.
Beneath the moonlight.
Leaves trembled in the breeze, rustling softly.
But what seized my attention more than anything.
Was a woman with tangled hair, perched on a thick branch like some beast.
—Uuuugh.
Her neck bent at an unnatural angle, hanging slack and limp.
The white one-piece dress, smeared with soil and blood, stood out starkly even in the darkness.
‘So that’s the malevolent spirit.’
The spirit gripped a long rope in its hand, glaring at me.
Gangrim spoke to the spirit in a cold voice.
“Come here and accept your summons quietly.”
I Inherited the Dokkaebi Hotel
Author
: Why That Sigh
Production Date
: August 25, 2026
Publisher
: ASYS Media Co., Ltd.
Editor
: ASYS Media Editorial Team
Address
Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Teheran-ro 325, Urban Bench Building, 10th Floor
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work has been published by Aces Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder,
and the contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.
This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized republication or reproduction 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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