Chapter 211

"Well then, shall we get moving."

Cha Do-hyeon shifted the gear into drive.

"I'm on the famous side, but I came out in sunglasses, so nobody's going to stop us."

"I will trust that they are special sunglasses."

"They have the effect of blurring the impression you leave."

As the sedan slid out of the lodging's underground parking garage, the vivid midday sunlight poured through the windshield. Yeon-woo caught himself staring at it.

Cha Do-hyeon asked, insinuating,

"What? Is it a novelty?"

"You have omitted both the subject and the object."

"You can afford to omit a little now and then."

Cha Do-hyeon shrugged and added,

"Cars, say. Or a world crammed full of buildings."

"I saw more than enough of them on the way here."

"You were looking at it like it struck you, so I thought it might be a novelty."

"You seem to think I have little knowledge of human society. That is not so."

Even out of his own mouth it had not sounded much like a human's remark, which landed a brief blow. Yeon-woo did not let it show and went on.

"It is only that they are things one has no occasion to see at our hotel."

The cars, and the crammed buildings both.

"Especially…."

"Aha."

Cha Do-hyeon nodded.

"Come to think of it, the area around your hotel was awfully overcast, wasn't it, General Manager."

"The 'Fox Den' would have some influence… but in any season, there is fundamentally never a clear day."

"Spring, summer, autumn, winter, all four?"

"It rains, or fog settles, or snow falls."

"Mm, as I thought."

Taking off his sunglasses and setting them in the holder, Cha Do-hyeon said,

"Sounds like you were in there quite a while?"

"……."

Yeon-woo found himself wanting to argue the point.

'I did play the game a long time.'

A full twenty-six years of it, after all.

He remembered how 'Cha Do-hyeon' used to nag him to lay off that disgusting game. The Cha Do-hyeon here now was an Artist, so who knew how his tastes had changed. And it was also true that he had no counterargument on hand.

'Above all, when I do not even know exactly how I was abducted or how Cha Do-hyeon survived, I cannot go blurting out the truth and create variables.'

This time too, Yeon-woo decided to simply let the misunderstanding stand.

"Yes, I was in there a while."

He did not want to deceive him, but he had to accept it.

"Still, one can confirm the flow of seasons and time from inside the hotel as well."

"Let's see, since you didn't deny the four seasons, that'd be mid-latitude~"

Cha Do-hyeon rattled off,

"On the northern hemisphere side there's East Asia, Europe, North America. On the southern hemisphere side the seasons run opposite to ours, but there's Oceania and South America."

"You are being quite revolting about this."

"Ah, did you come from somewhere in Europe, by any chance? Your hotel is blatantly Western, isn't it?"

"It is of European origin, yes."

It was a game made by an Englishman, after all.

"You seem to have many questions about my hotel, but regrettably I do not know the circumstances well myself. I came to my senses and found I had become the hotel's General Manager… and so I merely learned the work I was to do."

"And no memory of how it came about?"

"Whether it was never there to begin with, or was there and then lost, I cannot say. But as of now, that is how it is."

The last situation he remembered was dozing off, worn out from working overtime.

"Since either way it does not appear to be a 'healthy situation,' I accepted Director Lee Seon-hae's recommendation of a psychiatrist… though it seems the circumstances make going right away difficult."

"Uh, yeah, I only heard this secondhand myself."

For reference, Cha Do-hyeon was among those Lee Seon-hae had cornered with 'let's go to a psychiatrist.'

"Apparently she meant to knock on your door the moment you came out, General Manager."

"Shoving me into an ordinary psychiatric clinic without warning would cause an uproar."

"She seems to have guessed that, so accounting for it she went and hunted down a special specialist separately, someone with knowledge of the Gaps who's also well-versed in modern psychoanalysis and medicine, and booked an appointment."

"So such a person does exist?"

"I don't know how much of a mess you take the Gaps for,"

said Cha Do-hyeon, then corrected himself at once.

"It is a mess, though."

"Dear me."

"But everything you'd expect is there, psychiatry and psychological counseling and all. It's a world where being insane is the default value, so all the more, if you want to stretch your lifespan there's bound to be demand in that direction."

Cha Do-hyeon added,

"I turned it down myself, but apparently Chairman Baek has someone he keeps on hand and uses often. I've heard of the place in passing, since they say even public agencies like the Sensitivity Bureau trust it…."

Not that he had ever actually been.

"Their security in particular is supposed to be the real thing, or something?"

"I consider that a reasonable arrangement."

Yeon-woo asked,

"Though I do not know whether they will keep the principle of confidentiality even for a being who is a blood mage and a black mage and a Dokkaebi."

"Everything else aside, the black mage part is a little bit of a catch, but I figure the Dokkaebi part makes it all okay."

"Was a black mage not an unconditional target for subjugation?"

"There's no crazy bastard in the Gaps who'd take on that much risk that diligently when there isn't even a bounty on it. Besides, Anomalies aside, they tend to look after divine spirits of your sort as well."

"How very open they are."

"But apparently the fellow said this."

Cha Do-hyeon stopped the car at a red light and looked back at Yeon-woo.

"He said not to bring you in right away."

"That is unfortunate."

"A Dokkaebi is fundamentally a being that requires right mindfulness, 正念. So he said to come after letting you experience something other than your existing routine, even if only for a day."

In other words, it amounted to warming up before the treatment proper.

"The explanation ran a bit long, but treatment, body or mind, is such draining work that he means come with enough leeway and stamina banked up beforehand."

When Cha Do-hyeon's explanation ended, two round eyes popped out from the shoulder of the coat.

"Banked up?"

"Whoa, you startled me, my liver nearly dropped out."

"A meal?"

"Uh, yeah, that's included too?"

"A meal."

Coco, quiet for a moment as though thinking something over, blinked.

"Coco confirms."

"My partner has consented."

Yeon-woo stroked the rim of Coco's eyes where they showed at his shoulder and quietly turned his mind over.

'As I thought earlier, keeping this misunderstanding intact leaves fewer variables from a variety of angles.'

For all he knew, the world really had changed while Yeon-woo was absent. And being a body bound to the hotel, he could not guess at the side effects of telling the 'truth.' Yeon-woo compromised, resolving to be faithful to the role he had been given.

Wearing his characteristic composed smile, he looked at Cha Do-hyeon.

"If that is the expert's prescription, there is nothing to be done."

"Oh, does that mean you'll come out cooperative?"

"I will follow as you guide me, Mr. Cha Do-hyeon."

"A Dokkaebi's promise is worth trusting."

He felt like arguing once again, but since it was awkward to explain his own condition as a person, Yeon-woo decided to simply accept it. This was getting hard to call a misunderstanding anymore.

'More to the point, do Korea's native Dokkaebi originally gain binding force when they make a promise?'

It was not that Yeon-woo intended to break a promise, but that was Yeon-woo's own disposition, not because he was a 'native Dokkaebi.' It was merely regrettable that he could not be certain of even this.

'In a state where I do not even know exactly what kind of creature I am….'

Enough.

"……."

He stopped the thought.

'A thought with not the slightest gain in it for me.'

"Yes."

"Yes."

Cha Do-hyeon, having heard the exchange with Coco, looked back at the passenger seat.

"What is it, let me in on it too."

"That would be difficult."

"Cold-hearted, really."

Cha Do-hyeon grinned.

"All right, General Manager. Then first let's go get you fitted for a cell phone."

"Yes."

A beat late after answering, Yeon-woo turned to look at Cha Do-hyeon.

"Yes?"

"What."

"If it is a cell phone, does that not mean the internet is possible as well?"

"Oh, you know your stuff. Once that's made you can communicate with other people, make reservations at restaurants or amusement parks, order delivery food and parcels…."

"……."

This punk has no intention whatsoever of covering for a hazardous material like me?

'He does know I am Velmareth, doesn't he?'

Yeon-woo spent about ten minutes debating whether to simply go back to the hotel, then folded the thought away, deciding it was hardly good manners. It was a regrettable thing.

***

"……."

"What, is it a novelty? Is it fun?"

Cha Do-hyeon needled from beside Yeon-woo, who was tapping at the smartphone's liquid crystal screen with his fingertips.

"…Mm…."

"Looks like it's fun."

"Yes, it is."

The unfortunate part was that, honestly, this once he could not deny the man's words.

'It is a novelty and it is fun.'

It was because, while shut inside the hotel, Yeon-woo had been deprived of the dopamine called a smartphone.

'And in fact it has changed a great deal from the smartphone I knew.'

"Hello?"

'Even allowing for time flowing differently inside and outside the hotel, reality could not have turned over in units of ten years, so I thought it would not move me much….'

"Coco intrigued."

"I will show you in more detail once we return to the lodging."

Right now it was a bright street in broad daylight, so it was difficult to put the phone in Coco's hands.

'I only ever used a phone for work anyway, so I thought the difference between having one and not would be small, but getting it back, the feeling is entirely different.'

"All right, all right, Mr. Lee Yeon-woo, listen. These days humans use this pane of glass to send money, to talk face-to-face with people far away, and if you install this app here, food gets delivered…."

"Would that not be dangerous?"

Yeon-woo looked up at Cha Do-hyeon, who had thrown an arm around his shoulders.

"I am late in saying it, but first, I am aware of the concept of a 'smartphone.' The important point would be the problems that arise from my using it. I am curious whether this is the product of sufficient discussion."

"……."

Cha Do-hyeon, who was without words for a moment, deepened his smile.

"Our General Manager really is clever~"

This bastard?

'No, let us calm down.'

"No?"

'Please calm down.'

"Yes."

"What are you two talking about over there? Let your uncle in on it a bit too~"

"……."

Yeon-woo momentarily thought he would like to smack the back of that 'uncle's' head, but bore it as befit a person of intellect. One could hardly smack the back of the head of a person one was not even close to.

'Once we are close, I shall smack it.'

Sometimes the world held a category of person who only came to their senses after being grabbed by the collar and thumped on the back at regular intervals. Cha Do-hyeon was one. Probably he had turned out that way because there was no one around to hit him.

Pitiful creature. Warmth entered Yeon-woo's gaze.

'It will not do unless even I help him.'

Cha Do-hyeon, with no idea what the other party was thinking, presently went on with a grin.

"It's fine, it's fine. This is a phone the Baeksan elder activated and worked on himself. All I did was come to the branch CEO Baek told me about and help so you could receive the prepared item."

"In that case it is a relief."

Probably there were separate surveillance or censorship functions on it.

'I shall have to keep that in mind.'

"Throw it away?"

"Please calm down."

Coco had apparently not yet escaped the aftereffects of that sly uncle Cha Do-hyeon. That it was 'Throw it away?' rather than 'Kill!' at least showed how much Coco was letting the man off.

"Then is there a next item on the schedule as well?"

"Now that you're equipped with the basic decency of a modern person, next is."

Cha Do-hyeon pointed at a large hamburger franchise store across the main road. Even from that distance it was plain that the inside of the store had met the lunch hour and was packed with a sea of people.

"……."

"Throw it away?"

"Please calm down."

A reasonable suspicion arose that this punk might have his memories after all. Otherwise there was no way he could conceive of taking 'Lee Yeon-woo' to a place with that many civilians.

And Yeon-woo was able to see that human civilization had developed a great deal in the space of a few years.

"Here, this is what's called a click~"

"It would be a touch."

"You press with your finger and select the largest category~"

"Something on which the taste of the raw ingredients comes through well, if you would."

"Huh? What, where are you going."

"I will go and sit down."

"No, you're supposed to pick this yourself!"

"Why exactly must I go to that trouble?"

The menu and options were cruelly numerous, so he offloaded it onto Cha Do-hyeon. The wish not to listen to any more of the man's needling was a large part of it as well. Unexpectedly, being treated as a Dokkaebi had its convenient side.

And Yeon-woo received a hamburger with ten meat patties and five slices of cheese in it.

"……?"

"What, I made a point of asking them to leave out the sauce and the pickles."

Cha Do-hyeon, who had ordered the same thing, asked as he sat down across from him.

"Not to your liking?"

"Did the food called a hamburger not originally have vegetables in it?"

"I should have asked them to put pickles in."

"That is not the only problem here, surely?"

"This place's is tastiest with that menu."

"It is impressive that you have not fallen ill, eating like this."

"Still, I got the sauce and pickles left out right, didn't I?"

Yeon-woo was briefly at a loss for words.

"……."

And then presently he answered.

"Yes, thank you."

***

"Fuck, what kind of taste do you eat that for."

"The patties and cheese alone are salty enough."

"This is all fine, but I wish the meat and cheese would shoot way up."

"You're already picking that kind of menu. Go any further than that and you'll get a lifestyle disease."

"Still, I got the sauce and pickles left out right?"

"Yeah."

"You like that, don't you."

"I do. Thanks."

***

'I don't get what kind of taste he eats that for.'

At the sight of 'Lee Yeon-woo' looking satisfied as he ate a hamburger with neither sauce nor pickles, Cha Do-hyeon inwardly clicked his tongue. From time immemorial a hamburger was supposed to have plenty of sauce and pickles in it as well.

'Well, it's a Dokkaebi's palate, so I guess there's no helping it.'

And the fellow had said himself to make it 'something on which the taste of the raw ingredients comes through well.' It looked like a crystallization of protein and fat and salt, but in its own way it was an arrangement Cha Do-hyeon had made using his knowledge of the Gaps.

"Not eating the fries?"

"This is enough."

"Ah, you're a light eater?"

"I do not enjoy eating."

"That's a shame."

A Dokkaebi that didn't like eating, so maybe that was why it became that sort of 'hotel.'

'Even if he changed it into a game format to gather users, the volume of resources sustaining the Labyrinth has to fill up less than pulling people in directly. If the Labyrinth's master was a light eater to begin with, that roughly makes sense.'

Cha Do-hyeon looked at the young Dokkaebi silently breaking the hamburger apart and eating it.

"……."

Far more even-tempered than he had thought.

'And his wariness about his own dangerousness runs high too.'

Having met the lunch hour, the inside of the store was crowded to the point where there was truly no room to set a foot down. They had been lucky to get a seat, but ordinary supernatural beings would have been repulsed by this noise and smell.

Yet seated in the middle of that bustle, 'Lee Yeon-woo' was simply quiet.

'And there's a greed to maintain human form, too~….'

In many ways, not an easy opponent to make use of.

"But you offloaded it on me earlier because the kiosk was hard to use, right."

"Yes, the menu and options were too many. I do not know how you may think of it, but to my eye I did not wish to put that much effort into food that all looks much the same."

"Did you just insult the hamburger."

The way he artfully offloaded troublesome, complicated modern goods was truly befitting a supernatural being freshly out into human society. Korean divine spirits in particular had a strong streak of being lofty and yet shameless.

If it had had no chance to grow, could one not ultimately interpret it as a young being?

'And he looks exactly like a high schooler….'

If he had gone to school he would probably have been teased by his classmates for being a prig.

"Pfft…."

"I am aware that laughing in a person's face is not good manners."

"Ah, sorry, too exquisite a thought came to me."

Come to think of it, a school uniform would suit him well.