Chapter 172

Chapter 172.

"Have you seen it?"

"Fish?"

"Yes, fish."

The Water Wraith continued.

"Of the pair, the white one belongs to my friend."

Doesn't it shimmer corpse-white, like sunlight rippling on the water's surface?

"Coco, black."

"I had thought it was mine."

"No."

"Perhaps it represents him."

"Yes? Yes."

"Or it could signify this hotel."

"Coco. Coco."

"You're more assertive than I expected."

The Water Wraith shifted her gaze.

"Little one."

"Yes."

"How far can you close your eyes?"

"Hello?"

"Is that so?"

Leaning against the deepest pool of the Aqua Park, the Water Wraith spoke into the darkness.

"I see."

Splash.

A massive tail lightly struck the surface. Ripples scattered light into the abyss below. In that darkness, a pair of round eyes blinked.

"I, you...."

"Coco."

"Yes, Coco."

The hotel itself and the system's core.

"I know you as well. You act like a monster cat under the General Manager's control, but in the end, misfortune is an artifact as old as a person drowned in water."

"No."

"How lovely, pretending to know nothing. But I know your childishness isn't an act--you truly are young. You never had a chance to grow, did you?"

"Yes."

The eyes in the darkness did not deny it.

"Yes, Coco. A child."

"I was once interested in you."

Whether by one's own will or another's, when a human who should live on land drowns, 'misfortune' is inevitably involved.

"But I realized it was meaningless and soon looked away. We all drown for reasons as varied as our unruly forms. One cannot define all humanity as 'misfortune.'"

"Yes. Yes."

"I simply closed my eyes, having realized it was part of nature."

She hadn't cared about 'Coco.'

"But your chance to grow must have come."

A chance named Lee Yeon-woo.

"And so you must have bound him here."

"Hello?"

"Watching you beside him, I could see you growing by the day. Learning to speak, learning not to deceive, and what else...."

"Heehee."

"Yes, did you learn consideration and respect?"

The 'misfortune' she knew couldn't have been this vibrant.

"So you, too, must cherish 'Lee Yeon-woo.'"

"Yes."

"So do I."

The Water Wraith twisted up her mouth. That young misfortune couldn't not know what she was about to propose.

"That hypocrite thinks he's created a perfect refuge under his control."

"Room 444."

"A Safe Zone carved from the hotel's rules for the living. Made by Lee Yeon-woo, sealed by the General Manager--a sanctuary no ordinary Monster Guest can breach."

"Correct."

"But he's overlooking one fatal fact."

"Water."

"Correct."

Its essence was, in the end, water.

"The clear water flowing down the walls. The ceiling that ripples like a water surface...."

The space where Yeon-woo becoming half 'Water Wraith' through the Contract was most deeply reflected. Since he'd carved it from his own blood and soul, that room was the Water Wraith's pond.

"Where there is water, I exist."

"Understood."

"So opening that door is not something your paltry rules can stop."

The Water Wraith knew what grievance this strange shadow-mass--one of the hotel's two owners--harbored.

"Too...."

"Yes."

"Devoted to the hotel."

"YES!!"

Coco erupted. Mouth and teeth fully visible.

"Won't even play with me, using work as an excuse!!"

"Correct!!"

"Always the 14th Floor, then the quarters, then checking guests, then researching the Crow, then the 14th Floor, then the quarters...."

"Correct...!!"

"This is unacceptable."

Unless it was mealtime, the General Manager didn't visit. This was not 'friendship.' What kind of 'friend' won't see you unless you go to their workplace?

"No?"

"Come to think of it, such friends may exist."

"Yes."

"But my friend shouldn't be like that!"

Why did she 'Contract' with him!

"What's the point of having died together?"

The vampire had started on bad terms, so he'd feel less. But they were different. She'd even taken a female and child form to visit, and he'd just fed her a snack and sent her home.

"Coco. Agree."

"You're right."

In the end, they'd only talked shop.

"We can't just watch while that revolting vampire runs his mouth."

That was why she hadn't refused the Guest Without Taste's impudent proposal.

Controlling emotions, converting pain into data, managing guests within calculated pathways. Perfection as an administrator.

The problem: very few wanted a Yeon-woo who was nothing but 'the perfect administrator.'

"Come here, little one."

"Yes!"

The Water Wraith extended a pale hand into the darkness, and a weightless shadow settled upon it.

"Once those rats pick up the clues my friend left, they'll try to break something."

"Yes."

"They'll want to crack the shell. Predictable. Not simple goodwill--just the stubbornness of trying to reclaim what they deluded themselves into having."

But,

"It can be put to use."

Plenty of ways to restore her friend.

"The problem is that split-second moment."

"Eing."

"I'm not merely seeking your consent. You'd obviously turn a blind eye to our 'mischief.' But the 'General Manager' will repair the error immediately."

"Yes."

"Blindfold him."

Even as co-owners, each held different authority.

"Shut the hotel's eyes so he doesn't notice."

Coco was the hotel itself. The antivirus that should block errors.

This meant telling Coco to lower its own firewall and condone a virus. To violate the hotel's rules. To deceive the administrator and deliberately allow a system error.

Tantamount to defying Coco's very reason for existence.

"......"

"Can you do it?"

Coco did not answer. It only stared with those round eyes.

"How about it?"

The Water Wraith whispered sweetly.

"Don't you want to see him get angry again?"

"......"

"You loved it when he scolded you and still loved you completely."

The warmth of hands kneading her squishy belly even while coughing blood. Dry sighs that couldn't bring him to abandon her, calling her 'rotten cat'--that vivid,

humanity.

"......"

Then, a very small yet strangely resolute voice fell into the air.

"Error."

"......?"

"Error. Error. Defect."

"Haha, hahaha!"

The Water Wraith burst into delighted laughter. The Aqua Park churned with joyful waves. The darkness rippled and grinned.

"Heehee."

"Yes, an error has occurred. A critical bug."

"Heehee!"

"We knew nothing, right?"

"Yes!"

A truly audacious rebellion.

"Surely 'Lee Yeon-woo' will be pleased."

"Coco, growth!"

"He might even praise you."

His constant refrain about 'guests I'd be embarrassed to present anywhere.' Now those very guests were trying to stop the most perfectly functioning part of this hotel.

"Then let us prepare."

The Water Wraith slid beneath the water.

"I'll open the door ever so kindly, so those rude little rats don't get lost in Room 444."

"Yes."

"Then I've done my part."

Sinking beneath the dark blue water, the Water Wraith murmured cheerfully.

"Getting the other owner's permission is that baby vampire's problem...."

***

The place Yeon-woo had named Room 444 was, in truth, 'Lee Yeon-woo' himself. Because even after all this time, he was still dead by drowning.

The Water Wraith knew this; Yeon-woo had only vaguely guessed.

'And so he forgot.'

For the sake of the future.

'Or perhaps,'

because he didn't trust the future 'General Manager.'

"Ha...."

In other words, Yeon-woo had trusted not the 'General Manager' but the 'Drenched One.'

"Haha...!"

"Good, so good."

"He trusted us!"

"Us!"

Which meant,

"Me!!"

A friend's trust was always sweet.

***

CREEEEEAK--!

> A massive, rust-red main pipe.
> The pressure valve spins on its own.
> Inside the pipe, the noise is not steam but something viscous bubbling.

"......!"

Blood smell.

"The pipes are full of blood...!"

"Behind me, nephew."

"You think I'm letting you go first?!"

"Oh?"

"Get back!!"

> [SYSTEM] Party member 'Kwon Seung-jae' status abnormality imminent!
> [Madness Stage 2: Auditory Hypersensitivity and Self-Harm Synchronization (Auditory Hallucinations)] approaching.

"Oh, fuck--"

> Party member 'Kwon Seung-jae' has reached his mental limit.
> No means of resistance avail...

"Just fall back--!!"

"Nephew."

Do-heon, ashen-faced, lunged to grab Seung-jae's waist--

"Uncle makes pretty good money, you know."

"What are you--"

"Know what making good money in The Gaps means?"

"Wh-what?"

"That I'm one hell of a bastard."

Negatively and positively.

"Looks like our support team's pitching in~...."

> [PATCH] New module installed: 'Willpower_Fortress.dll' (100%)
> System updating...

Every party needs a support. A hefty revolver had appeared in his hand.

> █▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧█

"S-something just--"

"Working, right? This is why you need a Detection System nearby. Getting old dulls the instincts."

"What is even happening--"

> System update complete
> [SYSTEM] A round of dice from 'the Owner's Friend'!
> [SYSTEM] Flame of Will: You have built a fortress of the mind by surviving countless terrors.
> Bonus die +1D

"D-dice?"

"......"

> [SYSTEM] Madness Resistance check: Fai...
> [SYSTEM] Madness Resistance check: Success
> [SYSTEM] Party member 'Kwon Seung-jae' temporarily resists Madness Contamination through willpower!

"...Let's have a look."

Three o'clock, valve joint. The vine pattern on the floor overlaps. In the middle, seven o'clock, red knot.

"N-no angle."

"Oh~ Our nephew can see that too?"

Seung-jae's eyes narrowed to thin crescents.

"Then do you see this?"

The eyes of a man tormented by hallucinations the whole way flickered razor-cold. Pupils dilated to the iris's edge, a rough smile hooking at his ear.

"If there's no angle, you ricochet one into existence."

Seung-jae's revolver spat fire.

***

"......"

"Hello?"

"I predicted this would happen some time ago."

The General Manager, rising from his desk, stared at the reddened screens.

"Bringing in new guests was partly in anticipation of this level of support."

"Correct."

"Without a 'cheat' this thorough, my Human Guests couldn't have survived the enraged Lover of Dawn. I understand."

"Yes. Hello?"

"Honestly, not really."

"Heehee."

"How regrettable."

Far more than expected, his mood was....

"Unpleasant."

On the reddened monitors, the 'script' changing in real time had taken on a shape.

:)

"Truly, to the very end,"

The forced smile revealed clenching jaw muscles. Black pupils flared wide.

"What an infuriating man."