Welcome to the Goblin Hotel - Chapter 36

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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 36
The Vengeful Spirit’s shoulders jerked suddenly, and it wrenched its mouth wide open.
A sharp shriek tore from the gaping maw.
—No—!!!
“Ugh.”
The voice burrowing into my mind became like an ice pick, stabbing through my skull.
‘I can’t afford to let it get an opening…!’
Ignoring the cold seeping through my head, I drew out the Red Rope and sent it flying.
Whistle—
The Vengeful Spirit tried to dodge the Red Rope and scramble up the tree on all fours, but the rope was faster.
Thump.
The Vengeful Spirit, coiled tight in the Red Rope, crashed to the ground.
The Vengeful Spirit thrashed and shrieked.
—Let me loose!!you damned mutt!!i’ll string you up too!!neck dangling swinging swinging.—
Kang Rim laughed and played along.
“Ha, ha, ha! The Boss’s skill with that Red Rope is remarkable. Far superior to any of the foot soldiers.”
“Hardly.”
I deflected lightly, then pulled taut the end of the Red Rope wrapped around the Vengeful Spirit.
The Vengeful Spirit thrashed and screamed.
—Hang me!!you’ll hang too!!both of us hanging dangling swinging.—!
“What drove you to hang yourself? Why have you twisted into something like this?”
Even if I had to burn it away in the end.
…I wanted to know.
Why someone threw away a precious life as though it were garbage.
I pulled the Red Rope taut and locked eyes with the Vengeful Spirit.
‘Show me.’
【 Soul Insight 】
Whoosh—!
The scene before my eyes shifted.
# Inside a house filled with fine furnishings.
An elderly woman seated on a sofa cried out.
“Do you have any idea how much that costs?”
The woman wore strange makeup that hadn’t been in fashion for decades.
I looked around the interior.
Furniture and objects rarely seen nowadays were scattered throughout.
An environment that would be impossible to see today.
‘This seems to be from quite long ago….’
“Ma’am…. I’m sorry. But I really don’t know anything about it. Really…!”
A young woman kneeling in front of the sofa answered, her voice trembling with tears.
She looked quite young.
Thirteen, perhaps… fifteen at most?
Right around middle school age.
‘Which one is the Vengeful Spirit?’
The Vengeful Spirit had been in the darkness, and its face was so twisted it was hard to make out.
I searched for more clues.
The elderly woman shot up from her seat and shouted.
“And you! Didn’t I tell you not to wear that dress…? Why won’t you listen?”
‘That’s it—the one-piece…!’
The dirt and blood-stained one-piece the Vengeful Spirit was wearing looked similar to that one.
‘So you’re the Vengeful Spirit.’
I looked at the young girl with fresh understanding.
I hadn’t expected the Vengeful Spirit to be this young.
What could have happened to plant such bitter determination in a child’s heart?
The woman who had been kneeling hugged herself as she answered.
“It’s…. the Mistress insisted I wear this.”
Crack—!
The woman called Mistress swung her arm.
“How dare you talk back to me?”
Her hand was so vicious that the woman struck by it crashed straight to the floor.
But the Mistress, unsatisfied, swung her arm repeatedly.
Smack—! Smack—! Smack—! Smack—!
“I told you…! Not to wear…! That dress…! Did I not…! Huh?”
She struck her own head and yanked at her hair, shaking it wildly.
“You seduced my husband, didn’t you? Didn’t you? How dare a servant girl like you overstep her place…! How dare you look at my husband?”
“No, no, Mistress…! The Master simply said he sees me like a daughter….”
“Stop talking nonsense…!”
‘So she was a servant girl.’
But.
Could they really use someone so young as a servant?
The woman who had been swinging her arms ceaselessly grew tired, breathing hard.
The young girl remained on the ground, clasping her hands together in supplication.
“Mistress, really, it’s not true. I swear it.”
Yet the way she begged with joined hands suggested this was far from the first time.
Then the older woman’s lips twitched abruptly, and she let out a thin smile.
“Give me my bracelet. If you return it, I’ll forget this ever happened.”
“Mistress, I really didn’t take it!”
# The scene before my eyes shifted.
I found myself standing in a dim, sealed space.
A yellowed light bulb illuminated the surroundings.
And beneath it.
A young servant girl, now a Vengeful Spirit, was bound to a chair.
What was happening here…?
Was this a basement of some kind?
I looked around, trying to place where I was.
Then,
Clang—
The door opened and a sturdy man stepped inside.
“So? Ready to confess now?”
He walked with a swagger, taking a long drag from the cigarette in his hand.
“Please, let me go. I’m begging you….”
The man quickly seized the young servant girl by the hair, wrenching her head upward.
Whoooosh—
The girl had no time to dodge the smoke blown directly at her face, choking on it.
“Cough…! Cough…! Cough…! Cough…!”
“Tell me where the bracelet is. Then I’ll let you go.”
“Really… I… didn’t take it. I truly don’t know….”
The man shook the young servant girl’s hair violently before flinging her away.
“This one won’t talk unless we get rough, will she?”
“…I really didn’t take it.”
“Listen here! Are you going to tell me or not?”
“……!”
After taking a few more drags, the man spoke.
“Your brother’s a Communist Guerrilla, isn’t he?”
The young servant girl’s shoulders jerked violently.
“That…! That’s…!”
“What? That’s not it either?”
“My brother was falsely accused…! My brother isn’t that kind of person…!”
Smack—!
A fist flew before she could finish her words.
Her head snapped back, and the chair clattered and swayed.
“You Communist Guerrilla girl…! Are you saying I’m wrong? Huh?”
“Sob…! Really, it’s not true…!”
The man took another long drag on the cigarette.
Then he pressed the burning end against the young servant girl’s chest.
Sizzle—
“Aaaaaahhhhh—!”
Through the hole seared into her clothes by the cigarette, raw, scorched skin was visible.
One.
Two.
Three.
As one cigarette burned down completely, the holes in her body only multiplied.
White smoke hung thick in the air.
Whether it was cigarette smoke—
or smoke from burning fabric—
or the smoke of burning flesh, there was no way to tell.
‘Damn it. No wonder she wanted to hang herself.’
The only mercy was that this wasn’t the present—it was Soul Insight.
And in Soul Insight, I couldn’t smell anything.
But I could tell just by looking.
How absolutely suffocating this space must be.
Mold, blood-iron, the stench of burning protein, and the metallic reek of blood beneath it all….
Scents I couldn’t draw through my nostrils pressed into my skull instead, making my head throb.
The man’s eyes glinted with cruelty as his mouth twisted upward.
“Where’s that bracelet? You gave it to your brother, didn’t you?”
She shook her head with everything she had.
“…No! I… I lost touch with my brother a long time ago.”
Tears poured down.
Mucus and saliva mingled and traced down her chin.
“So you’re funding that partisan bastard. That’s it, isn’t it?”
“N-no… I’m not…”
The man leaned close to her ear and whispered softly.
“Nobody’s going to care if you die here.”
“…Hhh…!”
“So just nod at what I say, and I’ll let you live.”
‘He’s fabricating a story.’
The man who had been whispering dragged over a metal chair and sat across from her.
“You went into Manager Kim’s house as a maid to gather intelligence, didn’t you?”
“…What?”
“You’re a partisan too, aren’t you?”
“!”
The woman shook her head violently, as if possessed.
# The scene before my eyes shifted once more.
Deep night.
Only moonlight illuminated the surroundings, and two figures sat inside a car.
In the driver’s seat was the man I’d seen in the previous scene.
He turned to look back and spoke.
“Tsk! That woman refused to talk, which made things complicated.”
Sitting in the back seat
was the mistress of the young maid’s household.
The woman smiled slightly and spoke.
“Fine. I actually prefer it this way.”
“Mistress, you must honor what you promised.”
She withdrew a thick envelope from her bag and held it out.
“I’m someone who keeps her promises. So handle it cleanly.”
The man peered inside the envelope and smiled thinly as he replied.
“You needn’t worry about a thing, Mistress. I’ll take care of it neatly.”
The two were there.
But the one who should have been visible was nowhere to be found.
‘Where did that girl go?’
As I looked around uncertainly,
the man stepped out of the car.
Pop.
The trunk opened.
A large, pitch-black sack lay inside.
Writhe. Writhe.
I didn’t need to look closer to know.
What was inside it.
The man hoisted it onto his shoulder and climbed toward the mountain.
In his hand was clutched a thick, white cord.
It was—
Decades later, it would become the medium through which a curse was cast.
‘She hadn’t hanged herself….’
My mouth went bitter.
Soul Insight had ended.
I remained face to face with the Vengeful Spirit, gripping the Red Rope taut.
—You’ll hang too!
I let my arm go slack and slowly lowered my gaze.
A dress smeared with dirt and blood.
Several holes puncturing the chest.
A maid who had been killed. It was her—that girl.
—Hang yourself! Hang! You hang too!
“…….”
I turned my head to look at Kang Rim.
He stood apart in the darkness, motionless.
His gleaming blue eyes watched me and the Vengeful Spirit.
“Hah.”
He showed no sign of offering help.
Fair enough—I’d declared I’d handle it myself.
I turned back to face the Vengeful Spirit.
“Pitiful thing.”
But you’re no longer that little girl.
You’re a spirit twisted by resentment.
So you must be purified.
‘Even in death, you wear guilt that isn’t yours.’
Lingering here would only stretch your torment.
Let the pain burn away as well.
I pulled the Red Rope wound around the Vengeful Spirit taut.
—Hang by the throat. Click-click-click-click.
“Go well now.”
A brief farewell.
I gathered Spiritual Power at my fingertips.
Then words appeared before my eyes.
Not what I’d been thinking.
【 Will you purify Choi Mak-soon’s suffering? 】
‘Purify her suffering?’
Had the system responded to my thought about burning away even the pain?
If so.
I closed my eyes and focused my mind.
The pain, the regrets… every corrupted thing that made her into a vengeful spirit.
“Burn.”
Whoosh—
The familiar blue flame ignited.
It traveled along the Red Rope like a fuse.
Then it consumed the Vengeful Spirit—no, the young maid Choi Mak-soon.
— I have to hang. I have to!
Engulfed in blue fire, Choi Mak-soon muttered with vacant eyes.
— Help me! Help! Please help me.
‘Faster. End that pain now.’
Crackle-crackle-crackle—
The flame swelled larger as I tightened my grip.
— …….
Choi Mak-soon cried out no more.
Her grotesquely contorted eyes, nose, and mouth smoothed back into their proper places.
The bloodstains on her white dress slowly faded, and the cigarette burns on her chest sealed closed.
Then, starting from her feet, she crumbled away into ash.
Choi Mak-soon bowed her head gently.
— Thank you.
“Ah…….”
I wanted to say something.
That she’d endured so much, suffered so long… that now she should forget and rest well.
But before she could find the right words, she had already turned to ash.
【 Purification Complete 】
【 Spiritual Power Points +8000 】
“Wheeee—”
Kang Rim whistled, raising one arm into the air.
His sleeve fluttered in the darkness.
Though hard to see clearly, the ash seemed to drift into the folds of fabric.
A moment passed.
Kang Rim lowered his arm and tugged his sleeve into place, tidying his appearance as he spoke.
“Quite befitting the owner of the Dokkaebi Hotel.”
I gazed down at Kang Rim’s cuff and asked, “…What happens now?”
Kang Rim pressed his lips shut and shook his head, then simply turned and walked away.
Was he saying he didn’t know, or that he couldn’t tell me?
Either way, it seemed unlikely I’d get an answer from him.
Still.
‘I’m grateful. Her final expression looked at peace.’
The heavy stone that had settled in my chest lifted.
“Ferryman, let’s go together.”
Thud-thud—
I hastened my steps and followed him for several paces.
Gleam—
A small yellow light glimmered before my eyes, catching my attention.
“…It’s like I’m enchanted.”
Kang Rim smiled faintly and pointed toward the hotel’s iron gate.
“Why don’t we go inside? Your daughter is waiting.”
“Ferryman, you….”
“I have pending matters to attend to.”
“Ah, I suppose I’ve been keeping you from your work.”
“Ha ha ha. Not at all. Today’s meal was quite satisfying.”
Ten packets of black bean noodles, and he looked that pleased.
“How about twenty packets next time?”
Kang Rim’s eyes lit up.
“Excellent.”
I Inherited the Dokkaebi Hotel
Author
: Why-So-Surprised
Date of Creation
: August 25, 2026
Publisher
: (주)ACESMEDIA
Editor-in-Chief
: ACESMEDIA Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by (주)ACESMEDIA in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. No part of this content may 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 duplication 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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