Welcome to the Goblin Hotel - Chapter 9

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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 9
It was the moment we were discussing Sammiho’s long-term stay.
An alert flickered into view.
【 The moon waxes full. 】
【 Full Moon, D-1 】
【 A lost guest arrives at the hotel. 】
“A lost guest comes on the night of the full moon?”
Sammiho heard my murmur and exhaled softly.
— A guest who arrives on the full moon’s night would be…
A wandering spirit held fast by attachment, unable to depart.
“Ghosts? I’m tired of them already.”
Sammiho stuck out her tongue and licked the corners of her mouth.
— You’ll be fine.
Wandering spirits are different from evil ghosts.
“Different how?”
— That’s right. It’s the mischievous spirits and malevolent ones that are dangerous, but they can’t act on the full moon’s night.
Those that wander too long will eventually become mischievous or malevolent, though.
So there was a night when such spirits couldn’t operate.
I filed the new information away in my mind.
Sammiho’s eyes suddenly gleamed blue.
— The arrival of wandering spirits is fortunate for you.
If you appease them well and send them on their way, you could even accumulate spiritual power.
“Accumulate spiritual power?”
— Yes.
Sammiho’s lips curled upward in a long smile.
— I’m curious to see how far your sight will reach once you build more spiritual power.
I’d found it.
The method to raise my Spiritual Power Points.
***
The next day.
I called Min Jae and Min Joo together and began.
“We’re going to have a special guest coming today.”
“A special guest?”
Min Jae tilted his head in confusion.
“According to Sammiho, a spirit with—”
Min Joo raised one hand and cut me off.
“Wait a second!”
“What?”
“Boss, did you just say Sammiho? You mean the nine-tailed fox?”
“Oh.”
I hadn’t mentioned it yet, had I?
“The guest in Room 201, the white fox—that’s Sammiho. She’s staying at the hotel long-term while she recovers her spiritual power.”
Min Jae’s mouth fell slightly open, his eyes growing distant.
“Whoa… Sammiho…!”
Min Joo simply nodded without much reaction and asked, “Is there anything special I should be doing for Sammiho?”
Min Joo adapted quickly.
Min Jae’s face flushed red.
‘He doesn’t seem frightened, at least.’
“Just make sure she eats well and recovers properly. Take good care of her meals.”
“Yes, sir.”
Clap!
I brought my palms together to snap Min Jae back to attention.
“Sammiho says that when the full moon rises, a spirit with attachment will come to the hotel. And—she assured me it won’t cause any harm.”
I studied their expressions carefully.
If they were frightened, I’d planned to give them a day off and send them out of the hotel.
Both of them muttered without a trace of fear.
“Do spirits eat food too…?”
“I wonder. Do spirits sleep, I wonder?”
“You two. Aren’t you scared?”

Min Joo nodded.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt us. And our hotel has a boss—or rather, a Dokkaebi too.”
The response was more subdued than I’d expected.
I’d been worrying about this all night.
‘Maybe it’s because they haven’t seen any foul-tempered spirits yet?’
“Boss, but… can we actually see ghosts?”
“Inside the hotel, you should be able to. If you change your mind, tell me before sunset. You can stay outside the hotel for a day and come back if you need to.”
Both of them shook their heads.
“I don’t want to. I’m not going.”
“I don’t like being outside the hotel either.”
Song Yi popped her head out from behind the sofa like a meerkat and cried out.
“I’m not going either. I’m staying with Dad.”
Her lips were puffed out in a pout, though I wasn’t sure how long she’d been listening.
I had no intention of sending Song Yi away.
This place was the safest for her.
I’d made her promise about it.
“But you have to go into your room with Hwang Geum before evening. Understood?”
Song Yi nodded, her eyes bright with curiosity.
That look makes me uneasy.
I pressed the point once more with her.
“You have to stay in your room when evening comes. Got it?”
“Don’t worry!”
***
The sun sank completely beyond the mountains.
“Song Yi, go into your room with Hwang Geum, and Min Jae, prop the entrance wide open.”
Darkness settled over everything.
A round moon rose in the sky.
【 Night of the Full Moon 】
【 A lost guest comes seeking the hotel. 】
【 Help the guest find their way. 】
This isn’t a lost children’s shelter—why do I have to help them find their way?
Are they asking me to show them the path to the afterlife, which I haven’t even walked myself yet?
Lost in thought, I stared blankly at the hotel’s entrance.
Sammiho moved to stand beside me.
“Don’t push yourself, even if you seem fine.”
True to her nature as a spiritual being, Sammiho’s wounds healed quickly.
Her white, fluffy tail swished and circled around me once.
— I need to move around a bit if I’m going to heal faster.
Besides, it’s a night of the full moon. It’s a good night to gather spiritual power.
“How many Spiritual Power Points do you have?”
Sammiho tilted her head.
— Points?
“I gather spiritual power using Spiritual Power Points. You don’t?”
— That must be a system created for humans like you who don’t know anything.
“The Dokkaebi made it?”
— Keh… keh…! You think the Dokkaebi made that? Probably not.
Sammiho let out a wheezing laugh.
Despite my urging, Sammiho offered no further explanation and simply laughed.
Then her laughter suddenly stopped.
— Someone’s coming.
The moment Sammiho spoke, I felt a presence near the iron gate.
Tap-tap-tap.
It was a very faint sound.
“The door’s open—why won’t they come in?”
I rose and walked toward the iron gate.
Before the gate stood a woman with pale, gaunt features.
She looked devoid of any vitality—hardly human at all.
‘So Sammiho was right. This must be a Lost Spirit.’
“May I… come… in…?”
Her small, feeble voice was hesitant and careful.
【 A Lost Guest. 】
【 Status: Wandering, Famished. D-14 】
【 Will you permit lodging? 】
This time, no expected lodging fee appears on the screen.
‘Well, a ghost hardly has the means to pay, do they.’
I’m not sure how much Spiritual Power I’ll receive, but it shouldn’t be entirely free.
I stepped aside beside the door and spoke.
“Please, come in.”
The guest nodded and stepped inside.
‘Terribly thin.’
The figure looked like skin and bone stretched over a frame.
Min Jae, standing at the front desk, greeted the guest and handed over the Room Key.
The guest took the key and stood there for a while before speaking.
“I’m… quite hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
“Please head to the Dining Hall. We’ll prepare a meal for you.”
***
Crunch-crunch-crunch—!
The guest crammed fistfuls of food into their mouth with desperate urgency.
Chomp-chomp-chomp—!
‘A Hunger Spirit, perhaps?’ I thought to myself.
Sammiho walked lightly into the Dining Hall and looked at the guest.
Sammiho’s eyes gleamed blue.
— Not a Hunger Spirit, then.
“Eating like that… or am I wrong?”
With the way they’re devouring everything, wouldn’t anyone call that the behavior of a Hunger Spirit? It certainly looks like one to me…
I watched the guest demolish the food with amazement.
‘Wow…! Truly impressive.’
Food disappeared into their mouth in an endless stream.
The piles of food stacked before the guest steadily vanished.
Min Joo’s hands in the kitchen grew frantic.
Before long, Min Jae had slipped into the kitchen as well, assisting Min Joo.
How long are they going to keep eating? At this rate, we’ll run out of ingredients at the Hotel.
First, I needed to assess the guest.
“Min Joo! Stop!”
I made an X shape with my hands toward Min Joo.
The food on the table was swept clean.
The guest, as if nothing had happened, folded their hands neatly in their lap and grew still.
I sat down across from where the guest was sitting.
“Did you enjoy your meal?”
At my question, the guest suddenly began trembling.
“I’m so-sorry. I did wrong.”
Sigh.
There’s something fractured about their mind. Perhaps that’s what comes with being a Lost Spirit.
‘Show me what regret binds you here.’
【 Spirit Insight 】
A black curtain seemed to fall over my vision, darkening the world, and I felt the ground give way beneath me.
Flash—!
# Suddenly I was standing not in the Hotel Dining Hall, but somewhere else entirely.
Thump-thump, thump-thump—!
Fast-paced music poured from the speakers.
Seven girls, still looking like students, danced before a mirror.
‘Is that one at the very end our guest?’
The face was a bit more vibrant and healthy-looking than the one I knew.
While the girls were dancing in full swing.
A heavyset man waddled in, pushing the door open.
“Come here, come here! Gather around!”
The music stopped, and the girls assembled before the man.
“You all know your debut is decided by the evaluation at the end of this month, right?”
“Yes!”
The girls answered in unison, their voices ringing out loud and clear.
Their faces were tense yet filled with anticipation.
Ah, they were idol trainees.
All of them were dedicated.
The man spoke to the trainees.
“This time our team absolutely has to debut. So everyone, let’s get serious about diet control starting now.”
“…More than this?”
“You know weight loss counts toward your evaluation score, right? Everyone take one of these.”
The man distributed small containers of Salad, one to each person.
“One container a day and only 500 milliliters of water. Even water makes you gain weight.”
“Water too… isn’t allowed?”
“It isn’t.”
The bastard. How does anyone survive on just that?
‘You pig. Manage your own diet!’
Just as I was about to strike the back of his head, the scene before me shifted.
# The trainees, drenched in sweat as they danced, staggered when the music ended.
“Haa… I’m starving.”
The trainees took a single sip of water, then reluctantly screwed the cap back on.
And they danced again.
Is this really how grueling idol trainee life is?
Is this right?
Or is it only like this here?
The scene changed again.
# A small room with mold scattered across the wallpaper.
The trainees stood in a line, their faces taut with tension.
The man—who looked like a Manager—screamed at them.
“Didn’t I tell you to control your diet? Is it really that hard?”
The man stepped toward my guest.
“There. You ate well, didn’t you?”
Those thin shoulders trembled slightly.
Then his hand flew out and struck her cheek.
Crack—!
Her skeletal frame reeled helplessly.
The man muttered.
“Ah…! I shouldn’t have touched the face.”
Thinking that my daughter Song Yi might be receiving this treatment out there, rage churned inside me.
Watching what the man was doing was torture.
Even knowing this wasn’t reality.
My hands kept flying toward him.
My hands passed through his body without any resistance.
‘I’m losing my mind. Really…!’
The location changed once more.
# The Practice Room again.
My guest was alone in the Practice Room, dancing.
She forced her wavering body to move.
Her body, moving of its own accord, looked like a puppet suspended by strings.
‘She shouldn’t be moving like that without eating properly.’
The moment that thought crossed my mind.
At last, the string holding the puppet snapped, and she collapsed to the floor.
Thud—!
Blood streamed endlessly from her nose as she lay on the Practice Room floor.
Her body was in no state to even stop the nosebleed.
No matter how long I waited, no one came.
The thin fingers that had trembled gently stopped trembling.
‘This is the final moment.’
And so the scene shown by Spirit Insight came to an end.
I was sitting again in the Dining Hall of the Dokkaebi Hotel.
I felt utterly sick.
Inherited the Dokkaebi Hotel
Author
: Why_Granola
Date of Production
: August 25, 2026
Publisher
: Acesmedia Inc.
Editor
: Acesmedia Editorial Team
Address
: 10F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Email
: [email protected]
※ This work is published by Acesmedia Inc. under contract with the copyright holder,
and no part of its content may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
This e-book is protected under 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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