Welcome to the Goblin Hotel - Chapter 39

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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 39
The next day.
Whoooosh—
I drove up the forest road toward Samyeong Mountain with Miho in the passenger seat.
I’d reclined her seat all the way back, so her luxuriant tail sprawled across the rear seats.
Clatter. Clack.
Each time the tires hit a stone, the car lurched and creaked.
The vehicle hadn’t been in good shape since Min-jae took the wheel last time.
‘At this point, maybe I should just get a new car.’
I forced the corner of my mouth upward, thinking of the model I’d had my eye on.
The tension eased a little, and I glanced back at Miho.
“Sigh… Miho, try to calm down a bit.”
Miho, sitting in the passenger seat, was baring her teeth and growling.
“Grrrrr….”
Ever since an ominous aura had begun clinging to my skin moments ago, she’d stayed like that the whole way.
Miho had lost her den overnight.
She had every right to be unsettled.
But if she got worked up now, we could botch the whole operation.
I moistened my lips lightly with the coffee from the cup holder and spoke.
“Don’t waste your strength. This is going to be an endurance fight.”
— …I know that already.
Miho drooped her head.
‘Why is she looking so defeated….’
I slowly raised my right hand and reached it toward her.
“It’ll work out. I’m right here with you.”
Miho tilted her head and rested it gently on my palm.
Soft fur brushed against my skin.
Miho, usually so aloof, looked this vulnerable.
‘…Let’s finish this quickly.’
I stroked her soft fur gently, then tapped her head lightly with my fingertips.
“We’ll be there soon.”
Miho straightened her posture.
— Thanks. I’m ready now too.
We arrived at the clearing where Deok-gu and I had unearthed the Cursed Tool.
Seeing the weeds flattened by the tires brought those memories flooding back.
Click.
I got out first and opened the passenger door for Miho.
She leaped out lightly and stood with her tail raised stiffly, glaring up at the ridge.
With her hind legs slightly bent, she looked ready to bolt at any moment.
I unwound the Rope and wrapped its end around my hand as I spoke.
“Wait.”
— I know.
“Stick to the plan.”
— Yeah.
Miho crept slowly backward.
Then she sat quietly at the edge of the clearing.
Miho’s presence began to fade.
Even though I was watching her with my own eyes, I couldn’t shake the sense that she wasn’t really there.
Miho would provide crucial support at the decisive moment.
I had to trust she was there, even if her presence felt invisible.
‘Miho, I trust you. So don’t miss your chance.’
As Miho’s presence dimmed, the Spirit Entity’s presence grew steadily stronger.
Unpleasant.
Ominous.
Shadows stirred between the tangled undergrowth and the long stretch of tree shade.
A heavy, viscous sensation clung ever more thickly to my skin.
I swiped the back of my neck with my palm out of habit, but not a single bead of sweat came away.
A cool wind traced down from my hairline across my back.
“You’ve come.”
The moment the words left my lips—
Shadows stretched and writhed, and the Spirit Entity rose into view.
— Grrrrrrrowwwwl…!
‘How many spirits have I absorbed all this time?’
Hundreds of eyes gleamed and flickered within its pitch-black form.
Watching those eyes roll in different directions, nausea crept up my throat.
‘Ugh…!’
I consciously relaxed my grip before my hands could tighten involuntarily.
I couldn’t afford to squander my Spiritual Power recklessly.
“Ptui…!”
I spat lightly and shifted into stance.
Three heads and four legs.
A different form than last time.
‘Has it shaped itself into a combat-optimized body?’
The creature lowered itself.
I couldn’t be certain, but the Spirit Entity seemed to wait for me as well.
“Come on, you bastard.”
As if it understood my words, the thing hurled itself forward.
It was neither liquid nor gas.
If I had to define its state, it existed as a Spiritual Form.
In its Spiritual Form, it descended viciously, unaffected by the surrounding trees and vines.
Thud-thud. Crack-crack.
Four legs tore at the ground.
‘How is that even possible?’
The creature remained unaffected by its surroundings, yet exerted influence upon them all the same.
An impossible contradiction playing out before my eyes.
The instant it entered my attack range.
Whoosh—!
I cracked the Rope like a whip.
As the creature ducked beneath my strike, I twisted my wrist to redirect the Rope’s trajectory.
In that same moment, I gathered Spiritual Power into the hand gripping the Rope.
Blue Fire raced instantly to the Rope’s end.
Crack!
The Rope lashed across one of the Spirit Entity’s heads.
The Blue Fire that clung to the head extinguished quickly, fading almost at once.
But there was no reason to despair.
‘I knew it would be like this.’
I didn’t know how to incinerate it in a single blow.
So then.
I’d whittle it down, burning away the spirits clinging to it one by one.
‘Chip away, and keep chipping… until eventually, only the core remains.’
And so.
My grueling battle with the creature began.
***
Meanwhile, while the Dokkaebi Hotel Manager bound the Spirit Entity’s legs, Miho had work of her own to attend to.
With her presence concealed, Miho closed her eyes slowly.
‘I need to reabsorb the Barrier’s energy.’
Miho had hastily erected a Barrier as she fled Samyeong Mountain, to prevent the Spirit Entity from escaping.
A Barrier constructed in haste with an injured body.
In those circumstances, she’d had no choice but to pour enormous amounts of Spiritual Power into it.
Even after her body had healed, she couldn’t recover the Spiritual Power invested in the Barrier.
The moment she tried to siphon even a fragment of the Barrier’s energy, it would shatter.
If only there had been a little more time then… she wouldn’t have constructed such an inefficient Barrier.
Swallowing her regret, she steadied her focus.
And now, by her side stood him.
A peculiar human.
A human who ran a hotel on Dokkaebi ground, constantly summoning Grim Reapers.
A human who claimed the boundary between life and death as his domain.
Thinking of the Dokkaebi Hotel Manager, the corner of Miho’s mouth lifted slightly.
Whoosh-whoosh! Crack—!
Grrrrrowwwwl…!
It was audible in the very sound of his voice.
The Dokkaebi Hotel Manager was holding the Spirit Entity down firmly.
Now was the moment to dissolve the Barrier.
‘Hurry…’
Miho drew a deep breath.
At once, her Spiritual Power scattered across Samyeong Mountain—the threads that wove the Barrier itself—began to move.
Whoooosh—
The dispersed Spiritual Power rushed back in a swift whirlwind.
The leaves around them trembled, quivering.
Leaves and grass blades swirled in circles around Miho, caught up in the returning Spiritual Power.
Slowly. Slowly.
The Spiritual Power that had belonged to Miho from the start was returning home.
The leaves and grass blades descended gently to the ground.
‘Ahhh…! What a relief to feel this again.’
Miho’s eyes flew open, drunk on the exhilaration of her restored strength.
***
The change came abruptly.
The air in the clearing trembled.
Sensing something wrong, the Spirit Entity tried to stumble backward, but I caught its ankle with the Rope.
Whoosh—!
I twisted the Rope that burned its leg and snagged its other foot.
Crackle.
Whoooosh—!
It thrashed and made another attempt, but I spun the Rope, sweeping both its feet clean away.
The Spirits clinging to its body turned to ash and scattered.
My own Spiritual Power drained with each one consumed.
‘Almost done…!’
At last, I sensed Miho’s presence.
It grew stronger and stronger.
The weeds around us whipped and flew.
The leaves spinning in circles around the clearing suddenly dropped as if the earth itself had seized them.
Whoooosh—
Crash!
— Grrrrr…!
The Spirit Entity couldn’t wrench free before Miho arrived.
Miho’s eyes flashed with Blue Fire as she stepped forward lightly, setting one paw down with barely a touch.
That single, delicate motion pinned the Spirit Entity’s legs to the earth.
— Grrrrrrr…!
The Spirit Entity stood frozen, as if its feet had taken root, its eyes rolling frantically in their sockets.
— Manager. Now…! I’ve got it held. You need to finish this.
“You mean you can’t move either?”
— The moment I lift my paw, it breaks free. You have to take it down.
“How long can you hold it?”
— An hour.
I nodded slightly as I answered.
“That’s enough.”
I retrieved the Rope and wound it around my waist, positioning myself in front of the Spirit Entity.
— Grrr…!
All the eyes embedded in its body turned to stare at me.
Eyes bloodshot with crimson veins.
My brow furrowed slightly, but I didn’t look away.
They were speaking to me.
Fragmented emotions and memories flooded in, though I hadn’t even used Soul Insight.
I’m scared.
I want to go home.
Mom….
Please. Save me.
I’m hungry.
Why did I—
I don’t want to die….
Hundreds of fragmented memories flooded through his mind, each from a different time, each steeped in different emotions.
“Ugh…!”
His head throbbed as the memories came pouring in all at once.
From the Japanese occupation through the Korean War and up to the present day.
Unjust deaths were crying out in anguish.
The emotion born from so many deaths converging together.
Resentment.
That resentment had become red eyes, clinging thickly to the Spirit Entity’s body.
— Hurry! Do you plan to take a full hour?
I pressed my throbbing head firmly and answered.
“Hah… I’m sending it on now.”
I slowly raised my hand.
Then I opened my mouth toward the Spirit Entity.
“Remaining as you are will only bring suffering. Set down your resentment and go.”
I clenched my teeth and covered one of the nearest eyes with my palm.
Fortunately, I felt no slimy sensation.
Whoosh—
Blue Fire bloomed from my palm.
And so one Spirit was consumed by the flames and vanished.
“Haa…”
I exhaled sharply and covered the next eye.
Whoosh—!
Another eye turned to ash and scattered.
“Do not resent. Your enemies have surely already descended to hell….”
Heaven’s net, though its mesh appears loose, never lets anything slip through, or so they say.
Whoosh—
With each burst of Blue Fire, the Spirit Entity’s body grew smaller and smaller.
But at the same time, my Spiritual Power was draining away rapidly.
Still, I could not stop.
I had to finish this while Miho held it in place.
Whoosh!
One eye.
Whoosh!
Another.
So I continued burning them.
“…….”
‘How much time has passed?’
The hundreds of eyes had dwindled to very few now.
My head grew heavier and heavier, as if I were carrying the emotions of all the burned Spirits in my skull.
I paused briefly and rubbed my temples.
“Mm…!”
— What’s wrong?
“My head’s getting heavy. It’s fine though—there aren’t many left now.”
— If it’s too much, step back. I can finish it.
“I can’t. If the Spirit Entity escapes, it’ll be harder to catch.”
I tilted my head back and stretched my body.
The sky seen that way was unusually clear and blue.
“Perfect weather for an exorcism.”
As I continued burning the eyes attached to the Spirit Entity, I noticed an unusually small eye among the remaining ones.
An eye with a yellowish glint.
It was a beast’s eye.
The moment I saw that eye.
A chill shot through me.
A cold sharpness frosted my vision, and a memory rushed in.
“Bang!”
The report of a gunshot and white smoke trailing from the muzzle.
A fox’s scream.
And then, shortly after.
Soldiers bearing the Japanese flag on their chests flayed the fox’s hide from its living body.
But it didn’t end there—they carved away flesh while it still lived, tearing its body apart.
Sadly, it was a stubborn life.
The fox’s breath did not yield easily.
“So you were a fox.”
Miho cried out at my murmur.
— What? A fox?
“The soul at the center of the Spirit Entity was a fox. Probably hunted down brutally about a hundred years ago… a fox with enormous resentment.”
That frustration had drawn other spirits to it, and swallowing them whole, it had grown.
I looked at those yellow eyes brimming with grudge and asked.
“You were building power to take revenge…?”
Those yellow eyes still glared at me with a sharp, penetrating gaze.
It would have needed strength for revenge.
‘Had it targeted Miho to steal her power?’
Miho, grasping the circumstances, spoke in a measured voice.
— Back then, many foxes were hunted. It was a difficult time for everyone.
I turned my head to look at Miho.
Miho continued in calm, steady tones.
— I was busy running for my life back then.
Miho tilted her head slightly as she spoke.
— Please… let her pass easily.
“Alright.”
I placed my hand above those small, yellow eyes.
Whoosh—
The Blue Fire touched the fox’s eyes, and in an instant those eyes full of resentment turned to ash.
Was it because the soul at the center had vanished?
The flames did not go out; instead they spread to other eyes.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
The Spirit Entity’s body crumbled into black ash.
Purification Complete.
Spirit Power Points +12,000
The most points I had ever received.
The weight of knowing the Spirit Entity had been formed from many spirits gathered together settled heavily in my chest.
Whoooooosh—
The mountain wind swept across the clearing, scattering the black ash far away.
‘It’s over.’
Inherited the Dokkaebi Hotel
Author
: Whygraenolla
Production Date
: August 25, 2026
Publisher
: Acesmedia Co., Ltd.
Editor
: Acesmedia Editorial Team
Address
: 10F Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work has been published by Acesmedia Co., Ltd. in accordance with the copyright holder’s contract,
and no part of its contents may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
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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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