Chapter 133

Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual

Having completed the bare minimum of recovery, Yeon-woo returned to the Operator's Quarters.

"I've studied tarot before."

At those out-of-the-blue words, Coco asked back.

"Pardon?"

"During a university festival, if I recall."

"University?"

"It's a place where students with the will to study gather."

Though many didn't fit that description.

"That is its stated purpose as an institution."

"Coco."

"Yes."

"I hate it."

"What."

"Studying...."

"......"

Coco flopped flat on its back atop the Operator's Quarters bed.

"...Nobody is telling you to go to university...."

Yeon-woo was simply dumbfounded.

"And most universities wouldn't accept an animal as a student."

"Discrimination."

"Humans are that kind of creature."

He, too, had entered university and experienced various forms of racial discrimination. Thanks to that, he'd learned the social skills he'd never fully acquired in high school.

"Racial discrimination?"

"I think I can hear a 'You?' in that tone."

A sudden thought made Yeon-woo turn to Coco.

"You know about racial discrimination?"

"Yes."

"I see."

"Yes."

"But what can one do."

There was no way for even Yeon-woo to escape human narrow-mindedness.

"Getting assigned a tarot card booth that had nothing to do with my field during the festival was born of that same context."

"Life sciences... tarot... tarot?"

"A science student who should have been devoted to empirical evidence, sitting in a festival bar peddling superstition--I was struck by an unprecedented wave of self-loathing. It was a humiliating moment, even in hindsight."

"Hello."

"The fact that business was good made it doubly humiliating."

"Pardon?"

One couldn't half-commit to an assigned task, after all.

"The Consultation Fees were quite lucrative."

"Hello?"

"That, my friend, is the taste of capitalism."

Saying that, Yeon-woo rummaged through a box.

"I wasn't exactly small-framed back then, either, but since I wasn't taking care of my body, standing next to my more athletic classmates left obvious differences in build. That must have been another reason for the discrimination."

"Back then?"

"Ah, right. Come to think of it, I'd have been right about this age."

Perhaps it was because he'd been isolated from the world for so long. He sometimes forgot he'd been rejuvenated. But since Yeon-woo's current body was that of a nineteen-year-old, his build when he'd first entered university must have felt similar to this.

"It's still a shame, even now."

"What is?"

"Do you know how hard I worked to build that muscle...."

"Hello?"

"I am not well."

He'd been taller, bigger. At the very least, not this pathetically gaunt figure.

"Of course, a mysterious shaman from the East does suit a thinner frame."

"Racial discrimination."

"Quick on the uptake."

She wasn't wrong, at that.

"Thanks to all that, I have a vivid memory of cramming tarot meanings in a rush."

"Kill."

"Please don't say that out of nowhere...."

"Hunt and kill."

"Your vocabulary really does expand when the subject turns violent."

Who was he supposed to kill at this point?

"......"

...It's not here.

'Neither the card, nor anything else.'

Yeon-woo's eyes swept the room.

'So memory really can't be trusted anymore.'

It seemed he'd need to start carrying a voice recorder or diary before long.

'Might actually be fun, like a detective game....'

After rummaging through the box for a while, Yeon-woo brushed back the hair that had slipped forward from tilting his head. Turning his gaze across the quarters, he continued in an impassive tone.

"That's precisely why I already knew the meaning of The Devil card when I first received it in this hotel. Viewed negatively, it represents the bondage of desire; viewed positively, it signifies overcoming and freedom."

Its sinister appearance probably contributed to the card's poor reputation.

"I'll admit my own feelings weren't exactly pleasant when I received it."

"Coco. Hate it."

"I still haven't figured out why you detest it this intensely."

"Eeing."

"Your reaction seems too extreme for it to simply be because it's an object from outside the hotel."

"Eeeing."

Coco had flopped onto the bed like a child begging for a toy, all four feet flailing.

"Eing!"

"......"

He was starting to find that cute again.

"Yes!"

"Please calm down."

"Yes."

In any case.

"Where on earth did this card go...?"

His memories being jumbled was one thing, but that didn't mean his belongings should be.

'Quite a lot of things are missing.'

Having surveyed the quarters, Yeon-woo stroked his chin.

"I definitely put it back in the box."

"Coco. Innocent."

"I've never suspected you."

Coco never moved or damaged his belongings without permission. Even the time it had knocked over the candlestick was to stop Yeon-woo from self-harming.

'I'll need to be careful about that, too, but my hands keep going for it.'

Yeon-woo naturally lowered the hand that had been scratching his neck, then swept his eyes around.

"Don't tell me it can move on its own...?"

"Yes."

"I believe I've said this before, but it really is no different from a cursed doll."

"Correct!"

"It's not like it comes when I call--"

It.

"......"

"......"

Yeon-woo looked at the tarot card now in his hand.

'...I can feel it.'

As if saying 'You called for me,' a faint madness pulsed from it.

"I'd like to think it's at least a more courteous system than a cursed doll."

"No. No. No."

"What makes you despise it this much, truly?"

Coco had crept close at some point, standing on two legs with its body stretched long, gnawing at the card in his hand. Whatever Coco's oral structure looked like, the card remained without a single scratch.

'Just as strong-willed on this side, I see.'

Why was everything around him like this?

"I hadn't expected this to be the kind of object capable of communication or interaction."

He'd noticed it the first time he'd seen it, but the material and texture were unique. Something like a weightless metal plate, or a surface so soft it seemed powder might come off on your fingers. Similar to cotton paper, perhaps.

And yet stiffer than a kitchen knife.

"But it's not cold, either...."

"It's alive."

"In the future, I'd appreciate a warning before you deliver such shocking statements."

"I refuse."

"You're in no position to scold this card."

He rescued the card from Coco's mouth. Coco apparently hadn't intended to keep gnawing either, and released it without resistance. Though it didn't bother shrinking its stretched body back down.

'It couldn't stretch this freely before, not unless it was in darkness.'

Before finding that change interesting, another thought crossed his mind.

'Ferret... marten... meerkat....'

"No?"

"Of course, none of them can stretch as long as you."

It had reached almost up to his chest.

Thinking that, Yeon-woo removed his gloves. When he touched the card barehanded, he felt a faint vibration and lukewarm warmth as if it had a heartbeat.

'A slightly different feeling from the first time I held it.'

What about him had changed in the interim? The question surfaced briefly before Yeon-woo nodded.

"Quite a lot has changed, hasn't it."

"Yes."

An objective fact.

"Still, if what I'm feeling is real, then there must be a reason for this change...."

"Hello?"

"There's no reason I shouldn't be."

This was a subject he'd shelved as low priority when he'd just completed the tutorial.

'But now that the topic of this card has come up from Seome's mouth, I can't keep putting it off.'

Order of Azure, she'd said. There had been an international Vigilante Corps, and Seome said it had been brought down by the person who'd held this card. The impression of its current owner seemed just as poor.

'Inhuman, like something out of a ghost story, she said....'

"Pardon? Yes."

"I'll admit the past five years of my conduct haven't been ordinary, but if I'd been placed in normal circumstances, I wouldn't have gone that far."

Yeon-woo offered an excuse. What could he do when that had been his only option?

"She also said the #15 card holder was known as a particularly dangerous individual."

Because the tarot card was said to represent the fate of its holder.

"Thinking that my fate is 'The Devil' isn't exactly a cause for joy."

"Throw it away."

"Didn't you say it comes back even if I throw it away?"

"Yes...."

Coco, still stretched long, grew sullen.

"Cursed doll...."

"That's crossed into personal attack territory."

He was terribly curious about the reason for this aversion, but Yeon-woo decided to examine the card first. Held modestly in his hand, it looked less like something old and more like a well-preserved relic.

"Is this really gold leaf?"

"Yes."

"Yes, I see."

The borders and key motifs were gilded, shimmering with brilliant, dignified radiance under the light.

The painting style was equally noteworthy. The lines were so fine and smooth that individual hairs were visible. The colors were overall muted and subdued, yet certain sections were clear and transparent enough to draw the eye.

"The illustration itself is similar to the 'Devil' card I know."

The central demon, Baphomet.

"It looks like a wild sheep... wouldn't you say, Coco?"

"Mouflon."

"My assessment as well."

Baphomet was the demon commonly depicted on The Devil card, described as having the wings of a bird or bat, the head and lower body of a goat or wild sheep, and the torso of a woman.

'Large horns curling gently upward, and dark fur.'

This card had interpreted Baphomet as a 'wild sheep,' it seemed.

Whatever technique had been used, even the animal's fur gleamed with a pearl-like smoothness. Despite being an animal's skull, the two eyes were flawlessly clear, vivid, and in a way, dry.

"......"

Eyes gilded in gold leaf, as expected.

'...The inverted pentagram on the forehead is gold leaf too.'

A Magic Circle finely embroidered in gold thread. Beyond the horns, bat-like wings sprouted from the demon's back. Draped in elegant folds like black silk or velvet, they fell over the body like a cloak.

"In that case, there's no way to tell whether the body is androgynous as the records describe."

"Correct."

Coco, too, had come to Yeon-woo's side and was examining the illustration on the card alongside him.

"Bat? Demon?"

"Traditional enough."

The bat wings affixed to a demon, that is.

"And in its hands...."

One hand was extended upward as if in supplication, while the other held an ornate golden chalice inverted. Something--fire or blood, impossible to tell--poured from the chalice.

And below the altar on which the demon sat, two naked figures--a man and a woman--knelt, drinking whatever flowed from the chalice. The chains around their necks were loose.

"Not the most pleasant of images."

"Yes!"

"I mean from a normal person's sensibility."

"Eing."

"It's not like you can throw it away, regardless."

Yeon-woo stared at the illustration.

For some reason, the sight of the man and woman in the card grated on his nerves. Clutching chains loose enough to shrug off as if they were lifelines, drinking the ■ that poured from the chalice....

Those clinging to the demon's ankles with expressions of ecstasy.

"It really does give me a strange feeling."

"Correct."

"Even without meaning to disparage it."

Yeon-woo gave a gentle, pressing pat to Coco, who had returned to its usual form and perched on his shoulder. Thanks to the improved penalties, the contact wasn't as unpleasant as before.

His gaze returned to the card.

'Suspicious as the card may be, it does broadly follow the standard template....'

His train of thought reached that point, and Yeon-woo blinked.

"......"

There's an error.

"...A chalice?"

Why did I look at 'this' and think 'chalice'?

'Normally it should be an inverted torch, and this isn't even a standard chalice shape.'

A Base blooming like petals and a Stem resembling a stalk. A Bowl etched with a swirling eye and the tree supporting it. A Rim with an intaglio serpent crawling along it.

The form was unmistakably unfamiliar, and yet Yeon-woo couldn't shake the deja vu.

"This is a bit...."

"Yes."

"Doesn't this resemble my Golden Bell?"

Despite bearing no resemblance whatsoever, why had those words left his mouth?

"Does my bell even have a clapper?"

Coco answered.

"No."

"I see."

Jingle--

He thought he heard a bell ring beside his ear.

"I understand."

It seemed his situation had been more complex than he'd calculated.

***

"So you came all the way to find me in the middle of your busy schedule?"

Wearing that signature smile, the Guest Without Taste welcomed Yeon-woo.

"Curious about what that tarot card means?"

"In summary, yes."

"Rather than visiting that Water Wraith you keep nestled to your breast."

"I thought you'd have a better grasp of how the world is turning."

"A water spirit who loves dwelling in water does tend to have little connection with worldly affairs."

The vampire added, "That one is better suited to crushing things by sheer force of instinct than to scheming."

"Even if it's willing to scheme to get what it wants, it won't have much interest otherwise. Water spirits have been infamous for their ferocity since ancient times, have they not?"

"That's rather blunt, coming from you."

It might be a strange thing to ask, but.

"On bad terms?"

"Very few beings are on good terms with water that deep and cold."

The vampire smirked at that.

"Mr. Yeon-woo would be the unusual case."

Yeon-woo was inclined to agree. The Drenched One wasn't the type whose personality lent itself to building amicable relationships across the board. Nor did she seem interested in developing social skills.

Yeon-woo rolled his eyes dryly and added.

"I don't think my old friend lacks knowledge on this matter, either. Water is everywhere, and it's not as if she has ears she can close."

"Then?"

"However, even if that friend appears to drift along like an idle river, she's a staff member of this hotel--so I find it difficult to trust that she'd tell me the objective truth."

"That is indeed this place's nature. I understand. They'll try to keep you tethered."

The smirking vampire asked, wearing the face of a young East Asian man.

"And I looked like I wouldn't?"

"You, Teacher...."

Well,

"You're an opportunist, are you not?"

In every sense of the word.

"Aren't you?"

"Oh, my."

The vampire merely smiled.

"Very well, I'll tell you."

"Your intentions don't look particularly pure, but I'm grateful all the same."

"If you won't take me as your pupil, at least allow me this much enjoyment. Playing teacher isn't terribly difficult."

"You speak as if you've given up on becoming my pupil."

"Oh dear, was it that obvious?"

"More like you didn't bother trying."

"Fair enough."

His ordered coffee arrived.

"I intend to stay in this hotel for a very, very long time."

"That depends on your behavior."

"Ah, my noble lord."

The scent of cardamom wafted up.

"I'm sure we can maintain a good relationship."

Yeon-woo, who had been gazing at the brown liquid, asked.

"Doesn't your conscience sting, saying things like that?"

"Discarded it a while ago."

A few centuries or so.