Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Wine Bar (1)

[16. Employees of Ellis Hotel cannot tell lies. Since we welcome our guests with sincere hearts, please enjoy our hotel’s facilities at ease.]

The unfamiliar voice came from the bar counter.

It was a lilting woman’s voice, high-pitched and sounding somewhat coquettish.

As the group’s gazes swept the area at the eye level where a person might be, only Su-myeon’s gaze went a little lower.

“Hello.”

At Su-myeon’s calm greeting, everyone followed his gaze downward.

“Hup….”

Startled, Ha-min covered his mouth.

There, a severed head was speaking while placed on a tray.

“Welcome. Is this your first visit to Ellis Hotel?”

It even spoke in an extremely gentle and kind tone.

The talking head was a gorgeous-looking beauty with red hair twisted tightly up and blue eyes.

Her eyes, which swept over the group, were heavily made up as well.

The head, which had even shown a lively smile, stopped its gaze on Su-myeon.

“You over there….”

Astonishingly, even a head with its neck severed could tilt itself to the side.

“Mm, I see.”

What exactly does she see?

Su-myeon was about to ask back, since she was acting as though she knew something about him, but the head continued without giving him the chance.

“Would you like to have a drink first? Do you have any vouchers remaining?”

It was a fitting proposal for a Wine Bar.

“If not, you may also pay with something else.”

Ho ho, the woman laughed, and behind her head, a body that seemed to be hers walked out from the darkness.

Wearing a vivid red party dress, the figure leaned slightly forward against the table, its body seductive.

However, it was difficult to feel any charm when its head had been cut off.

The severed neck bones and large blood vessels pulsing could be seen clearly.

The smooth cross-section, as if it had been cut with a single stroke, was so vivid that it instead felt like a prop from a horror movie.

“It is rude to stare so intently into a lady’s body, little gentleman.”

Perhaps Ha-min had unknowingly stared at the severed cross-section, because the woman scolded him.

It was an unreal situation, but the innocent high school student hurriedly stepped back and apologized.

“Ah, yes. I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Little ones should have juice instead. This is in the house.”

The woman’s body rose from where it had been leaning against the bar counter, then skillfully took juice from the darkness and poured it into a glass.

A fresh, familiar scent.

Orange juice.

……Is that really juice?

Seeing Ha-min hesitate, Su-myeon nodded to indicate that it was all right to drink.

Only then did Ha-min tilt the glass and drink the juice.

“Are you the… owner of the bar?”

Once the atmosphere had softened a little, Han-su asked his carefully chosen first question.

“I am not the owner, but an employee.”

The woman’s body tapped the name tag attached to its upper body.

[Manager, Red Queen]

“And all of you? Are you not having anything to drink?”

Her continuing kindness created an even greater sense of dissonance.

Su-myeon already knew that the Red Queen was the one in charge of this bar.

Since he had prepared himself in advance, Su-myeon led the conversation in place of the group, who had lost their words.

“For now, my companion is very exhausted after swimming. May we rest for a bit? We might dirty the carpet or chairs.”

“Ah, that is fine. Please do not worry and rest comfortably. Would you like some water?”

“I would appreciate it if you gave us some. Mr. Han-su, I think you can put Mr. Young-cheol down now.”

At Su-myeon’s words, Han-su finally put down Young-cheol, whom he had been carrying on his back.

Once permission had been given to dirty the place, Young-cheol seemed relieved and collapsed onto the floor as he was.

Watching Young-cheol lie down while groaning in pain, the Red Queen gave a pleased smile.

“Our pool is cleaned with a high concentration of hydrochloric acid, so we pride ourselves on extremely clean water quality. Were you satisfied?”

After hearing the truth behind “water quality management,” the group had to work hard to manage their expressions.

After giving the Red Queen a polite answer, Su-myeon asked Young-cheol,

“Do you need bandages?”

“…Yes. By any chance… could I see what you have? Of, of course, I will ask permission before using anything.”

Su-myeon simply handed over the entire backpack of supplies he had.

After all, he had already put every important item he would use into the Heartphone’s Inventory.

Young-cheol, who had no way of knowing that, looked at Su-myeon for a moment as though moved by his words.

Soon, he accepted the bag with teary eyes and chose the medicine he needed from the bag filled with painkillers, disinfectant, and all sorts of emergency medicine.

Since he was a doctor, if they left it to him, he would treat himself properly.

While Su-myeon helped Young-cheol get settled, Ju-hee attempted a conversation with the Red Queen.

“If you are an employee… then those clowns below and the other things are also… employees like you?”

“Oh my, they are a little different.”

The Red Queen, who had been recommending a drink to Han-su as well, winked and continued,

“I would be a little hurt if you placed me on the same level as small fry like the Trump Cards.”

Of course, even at a glance, she did seem to have a different level of presence from them.

Despite her extremely kind attitude, there was a strange sense of weight pressing down on the whole body.

Seeing that no one could find a particularly productive topic of conversation, Su-myeon eventually approached the bar counter again.

“I will pay for everything.”

When he took out the voucher on his Heartphone and showed it, the Red Queen smiled brightly.

“Yes, please do. If you need anything besides drinks, tell me, and I will propose a price.”

It was not some grotesque smile with her mouth torn open.

It was simply a genuinely pleasant smile.

Perhaps that was why it felt even more mentally draining.

Still, Su-myeon wanted to gain as much as possible from the Wine Bar, which was their last place to rest.

Barely managing his expression, Su-myeon calmly asked back,

“Do you have anything that can ease hunger a little?”

“I will prepare club sandwiches for you. Please wait a moment. Ah, does anyone have allergies?”

The Red Queen looked over the group again.

Avoiding her gaze, Ha-min answered cautiously,

“No….”

“Yes, then that is fortunate. Please wait a moment.”

With a kind smile, the Red Queen carried her own head and entered the darkness.

They tried hard to ignore the red mucus left behind where the head had been.

Ju-hee, who had barely caught her breath, hurriedly asked,

“This place is… safe, right?”

“Shh.”

However, the entire space of this Wine Bar was no different from the inside of the Red Queen herself.

Su-myeon silenced her as a warning to be careful with her words.

In the meantime, the Red Queen quickly prepared food and drinks, returned, and placed her head back on the bar counter.

“The drinks are iced Americanos. That is all right, yes? Here. There is water too.”

“Yes, …thank you.”

For now, Su-myeon brought water and one sandwich to Young-cheol.

San-hyeok’s group had definitely taken various foods with them as well.

Even if they had lost their food when they lost their bag in the Kids Club section, they should have been well supplied until then.

However, perhaps Young-cheol had not been given a single bite, because he devoured the food in a rush.

Eating beside a talking head would be the worst, but he was not in a state where he could care about such things.

“By any chance, if there were many guests today, did a blond-haired guest also come through? His name is Ki San-hyeok.”

“Oh. Of course. Is he someone you know? He paid quite a large price before leaving.”

At the Red Queen’s words as she winked, Su-myeon’s expression stiffened.

The group, who had somewhat grown used to the pressure and realized that the Red Queen was being friendly, began murmuring.

“Paid?”

“At most, vouchers only charge one hundred thousand won per day….”

“What on earth did he use to pay such a large price?”

Amid those reactions, only Su-myeon, whose face had turned pale, covered his mouth.

There was another payment method.

“He allowed me to hire new employees. Ah, shall I have them greet you?”

Before anyone could stop her, the Red Queen clapped her hands.

Then, people who looked exactly like the Red Queen, each carrying their own head on a tray, walked out from the darkness.

“Sa…… save me.”

“Ta, take me too…. Me too…….”

“Ugh…… uuuuugh… hnngh….”

“WelcomeToEllisHotelWelcomeWelcomeWelcomeGoBackWelcome”

There were four grown men.

“Ho ho, oh my. Their employee training has not finished yet, so I ask for a little understanding on that point.”

Along with the Red Queen’s embarrassed laugh, the four of them drew closer and closer to the brighter bar counter.

While everyone froze stiff with tension, the “new employees” came close enough for their faces to be identified.

“Aaagh!”

This time, even Ju-hee could not endure it. She screamed and hurriedly stepped back.

They were four of the people who had gone with San-hyeok, members of his group.

***

Damn it.

Min-su chewed over the curse inwardly.

Following Ki San-hyeok and becoming one of his lackeys had been the worst choice.

He had realized it only now, when it was far too late.

“Hey, they said we can get out if we go up just three more floors. Stop looking like you’re dying.”

As San-hyeok said that, there was a revolver in his hand.

He kept moving the revolver’s cylinder, making click, click sounds.

Since it sounded as though he was threatening him, Min-su’s nerves grew more and more frayed.

“Isn’t it kind of a shame?”

One gun, twenty bullets, and a stun gun.

To arm himself with those three things, San-hyeok had sacrificed the lives of four people.

Handing people over to a mad monster without the slightest hesitation was something Min-su simply could not understand within the bounds of common sense.

“Ah, I wonder if the bastards following us are dead. That arrogant bastard….”

San-hyeok giggled, saying it was a shame he could not watch that bastard get torn to pieces and die.

But was he really dead?

Was he not still following them?

Min-su remained trapped in such thoughts.

“Tsk, I should have brought one more with us. Going around with just two people is no fun. Right?”

The reason Ki San-hyeok had handed over as many as four people to the Red Queen was absurd.

Because the ones acting too much were noisy.

And yet, hearing him say something like that now made it difficult for Min-su to even manage his expression.

“Answer me.”

“Uh, uh…. Yeah. You’re right.”

Even so, Min-su had no choice but to answer in a way that pleased him.

Because he did not want to die.

Because he wanted to survive somehow and get out.

“Who will believe us once we get out? Ah, right. Hey, should we make a movie with this?”

“Y-yeah…. I think it would do well if you made it….”

There was nothing he could do, no matter how miserable it was.

Because San-hyeok liked the sight of him servilely currying favor, he had survived.

The ones who had stepped forward too much and pretended to be his loyal retainers had instead been offered to the Red Queen.

“People pretend otherwise, but everyone actually has a sadistic side, don’t they?”

Looking at Min-su, who trembled yet still tried to please him, San-hyeok rambled on with a satisfied expression.

“Let’s just be honest like me. Everyone wants to watch other people suffer and roll around in the dirt. Pointlessly peaceful stuff is boring, so nobody watches it.”

That was the problem with Ki San-hyeok.

At first glance, his words sounded as though they might be right.

Being deceived by that and coming this far was, Min-su thought, his greatest mistake.

“……Everything you say is right.”

Even so, in the end, that was all he could say now.

Please, someone save even someone like me.

As he desperately wished to escape this damned hell as soon as possible.

“You’re right.”

Min-su hunched his shoulders.