Chapter 53 |
He could not remain inside forever. Even if he wanted to wait, circumstances would not allow it. Room 14, its event concluded, was already warping and collapsing.
Yeon-woo straightened his composure without a wrinkle out of place, adjusted his clothing, and stepped naturally through the door. The moment his foot left the threshold, the door to Room 14 vanished without a trace.
"......"
This stingy hotel.
'And with that, my retreat has been completely cut off.'
...Unexpectedly, The Guest Without Taste did not rush him immediately.
"...Thank you for visiting our hotel. How may I assist you?"
"May I have some?"
"Oh."
Specifically, it was Yeon-woo's own severed hand.
'The part I lost during the process of entering Room 14.'
Half-hoping, Yeon-woo asked.
"Would it be alright if I asked a question?"
"By all means."
"Might you have been following me because of that hand, sir?"
"Of course."
"Aha."
An Erosion-Type monster that devoured human emotions -- The Guest Without Taste. Once all emotions were depleted, it drank the target's blood, and it had the peculiarity of licking clean any bloodstain that appeared within the hotel.
If the blood's owner was alive and deemed worthy of respect, it would continue asking "May I have some?" to seek permission, and as time passed, that pressure only intensified.
'That's why it's hard to quickly identify a blood incident when this guest is checked in.'
Yeon-woo asked again.
"Am I correct in understanding that you followed me to ask whether you could consume that?"
"Oh, of course."
"I see."
Ah.
'I didn't expect this approach.'
This guest was lying.
***
[Sight]
'His gaze holds your severed hand, yet he does not actually stare at it.'
'There is no pupil contraction or tension indicative of locking onto prey.'
'The focus of his gaze drifts subtly past your shoulder.'
He was watching Coco. If he had truly wanted to eat Yeon-woo's severed hand, there would be no need for that. The one from whom he should seek permission was his prey -- Yeon-woo -- not Coco.
If his gaze were to settle anywhere, it should have been on the hand he held or on Yeon-woo himself. His pupils and line of sight were inconsistent with his stated purpose. In other words, the hand was most likely a pretext.
[Touch]
'Your severed hand remains sensorially connected to you.'
'However, the pressure with which he grips it is not the obsessive clutch of one unwilling to lose a target, but the casual indifference of merely holding something.'
Even a severed body part still existed as 'him.' He could feel it through that detached hand. He could know through the 'him' the opponent had previously consumed.
Both told him the same thing. What the opponent ultimately wanted was not 'Yeon-woo's severed hand.' The hand was merely a snack, a step along the way. The reason The Guest Without Taste had obsessively followed Yeon-woo did not lie in that hand.
[Sixth Sense]
'The purpose you sense from him tilts toward something other than the hand.'
Therefore, The Guest Without Taste had lied.
"......"
Yeon-woo tilted his head.
It's me you want, isn't it?
***
"It is probably because I am blood."
The Operator's Quarters. A whiteboard had appeared once again in the center of the living room. Yeon-woo stood before the board and absently adjusted his glasses.
"That was what I thought. That he was coming to consume me. The Guest Without Taste has a habit of freely drinking any bloodstain scattered throughout the hotel."
"Yes."
"His tendency to appear at the scene the instant a blood incident occurs is a characteristic of the same nature. There is no reason the General Manager's blood would be an exception."
Yeon-woo wrote 'blood-drinking' on the board and circled it.
"Simply because he asks multiple times and seeks permission does not mean he will patiently restrain himself every time. As if a benevolent Monster Guest like that would come to this hotel."
It was true that he valued 'permission.' But the number of times he would ask for permission varied by target. Whether he would restrain himself once or ten times differed from case to case.
"His halting speech makes it easy to overlook, but The Guest Without Taste is a type skilled in deception. He can even steer situations in his favor without telling a single lie."
"Yes!"
"Such enthusiastic affirmation -- it seems I was right to refuse just now."
"Yes!"
When asked whether he could eat the severed hand, Yeon-woo had refused. To the guest's face as he asked why, Yeon-woo ate his own hand. The guest uttered an 'oh' of admiration and obediently turned away.
As such, if a 'legitimate reason' was presented, he would readily accept it.
"When it was a game, I remembered him as merely a bothersome guest rather than a difficult one...."
The strategy was simple. Refuse until the very end. The Guest Without Taste sufficiently 'respected' the General Manager and would not simply take up long-term residence in the hotel.
It meant all one had to do throughout the stay was repeat 'no,' 'I would rather not,' and 'please do not.'
"That is why he was an Open Version-exclusive guest."
"Yes."
"The problem is the current situation, where the conditions have changed from the game. I keep saying this, but it just so happens that I myself have become blood, and that makes things...."
"Yes...."
"That is how things stand."
No matter how much The Guest Without Taste loved blood, he at least distinguished between 'people' and 'blood.' He perceived humans as blood pouches and regarded the blood within as his food.
That was presumably why he went through the bothersome process of seeking 'permission' before hunting. However--
"Using that to buy time as I used to is not viable given my current state."
Yeon-woo wrote several words on the board.
"What exactly am I to The Guest Without Taste right now? Prey? Or simply food? It does seem I receive some 'respect' thanks to my title of General Manager...."
"Yes."
"No matter how optimistically I try to view it, the fact that I am closer to blood than an ordinary human is undeniable. I suspect the threshold of his respect has dropped significantly compared to when I was the General Manager in the game, and it seems stalling for time would do me no good."
"Yes."
"But if I do not stall, what can I do? Forced Checkout? I do not meet the requirements. Repeated refusal? If he catches me mid-refusal, it is over. Mental preparation? Ah, must I truly set a date for my own death?"
"Hm."
"I feel like crying as well."
The guests of this place had extremely strict conditions for checkout.
"Forcible eviction is possible, but it is a loss in the long run. It has a significant impact on the hotel's reputation."
If reputation fell, the difficulty of attending to Monster Guests rose steeply, and the hotel's system became far more violent. Above all, a guest evicted by force became impossibly difficult to manage upon revisiting.
"And this is not something to view solely as a systemic issue."
"Yes."
"Something felt off, and... ah."
[Sixth Sense]
'Someone deeply reveres you, Velmareth.'
"Speak of the devil."
Yeon-woo clicked his tongue dryly.
"Velmareth -- I know that word as well."
"Velmareth!"
The center and pillar of the Crimson Core Commentary ritual. The subject of the ritual that transmuted flesh into eternal blood -- in short, it referred to the First Caster.
"Everyone else was called by the name 'Lidmar.' Beings who worked and sacrificed for the birth of a Velmareth. If Velmareth was the master, then Lidmar seemed closer to a servant."
"Yes."
"All cases of Velmareth ended in failure, while Lidmar had some successful examples. The dominant records indicated that most had aspired to become Velmareth only to fall to the status of Lidmar."
"Yes."
"It may be that only biased records survived due to the unique nature of the book I studied... but I see."
Yeon-woo removed his glasses and dragged a weary hand down his face.
"...Now that I think about it, this was quite a serious matter."
In Room 14, things had been too chaotic to fully grasp it. The fact that The Guest Without Taste was connected to the Crimson Core Commentary was by no means something to take lightly.
"Yes, I know. I am aware. I saw it clearly while investigating Room 14. Through the Crimson Core Commentary ritual, The Guest Without Taste... appeared to have sought to become a Velmareth himself."
"Hm?"
"Of course, that also ended in failure. What he is now is merely something warped by the aftermath of a failed ritual. If one had to categorize him, his current disposition would lean strongly toward that of a Lidmar."
The practitioners of Blood Magic were thoroughgoing meritocrats. They instinctively worshiped blood stronger and nobler than their own. The notification that 'someone deeply reveres Velmareth' was surely of that same nature.
"That said, the desire to become a Velmareth would not have disappeared entirely. It must be one reason he so relentlessly pursued my blood. Though of course that is not the whole of it...."
One thing was certain.
"My blood must feel very special to The Guest Without Taste."
"Yes."
"One thing after another."
It was getting worse by the minute.
"There is one small consolation, at least."
"Pardon?"
"The Guest Without Taste is approaching more cautiously than I expected."
"Cautiously?"
"Given that I am a Mass of Liquid Blood, it would not be unreasonable for him to try devouring me outright. Yet it seems the recognition that I am a 'subject worthy of respect' persists. Remarkable restraint, given that arrogant temperament."
Of course, it was not that reassuring.
"Put another way, it means he is biding his time that much more carefully. Frankly, it would be easier to deal with if he simply charged in blindly."
"Hello!"
"Yes, but... the fact that The Guest Without Taste is an erosion type is concerning."
It meant he knew how to gnaw at one's nerves. Like most Open Version Monster Guests, The Guest Without Taste was a type skilled in coyness and deception. He had mastered the art of feigning courtesy and innocence.
"The Guest Without Taste's stay period was...."
"Four days!"
"Aha."
That was welcome news.
"He will be leaving soon, then."
"Yes!"
"Then perhaps I can relax a little."
"......"
"......"
A brief silence fell. Yeon-woo brushed his lips, seized by an uneasy premonition.
"Surely not...?"
***
That 'surely not' became reality.
"How unfortunate."
"Yes."
The Guest Without Taste had extended his stay.
"That is an event I rarely saw even when it was a game."
"Yes."
"I wonder if this is even the right timing for it to appear. He must be insane."
"Yes."
"Of course, this hotel has been insane for a while now."
"No?"
"I believe I told you not to blindly defend it."
Stay extension. A system that occurred only rarely, and typically only with Closed Version-exclusive Monster Guests. In other words, it was a variable that should only appear in the latter half of a playthrough.
'And strictly speaking, this is no longer a game.'
The service industry was always like this. As General Manager, when a guest expressed the desire to continue their stay, Yeon-woo was in a position where he had to respond with 'certainly, thank you.'
'Even a hotel like this is technically in normal operation.'
Capitalism was alive and breathing even here.
"Ha...."
The temptation to simply hole up in his quarters reared its head for a moment.
After all, The Guest Without Taste did at least ask for permission. And the more he was refused, the harder he pressed. In other words, if they never crossed paths at all, the probability of an incident dropped to nearly zero.
But that could not be the answer.
'If I hole up to avoid that gentleman, when am I supposed to conduct my physical improvement research?'
No matter how monstrous Yeon-woo had become, he could not match guests who were monsters from birth. He must not underestimate monsters officially recognized by this hotel. Neither the hotel nor its guests were to be taken lightly.
'My limits will arrive before his do.'
His current state was the worst it had been. With bad luck, he could die just from breathing. He had managed to bring Blood Packs and Phlebotomy Equipment from Room 14, but those were merely stopgap measures.
'In the first place, dying is not an option right now.'
By contrast, the other side had nothing to lose.
'And all the time in the world.'
No matter how many times he reconsidered, hiding in his room would not solve this.
"...For now, since there is no clear answer...."
"Yes."
"Shall we rest for a bit?"
"Yes."
He was exhausted from dealing with two monsters at once.