“I would like to make you a proposal.”
“I doubt it’s a very good one.”
“Do you dislike it?”
“Of all the proposals I’ve heard phrased that way, none have ever turned out well for me.”
The old man in a tuxedo merely smiled at my barbed words and continued saying what he had come to say.
“Do not think of it as too difficult. The proposal I’m making will not be so bad for you, either.”
“What is your standard for ‘bad’ and ‘not bad’?”
“My proposal is a simple one.”
“Are you even listening to me?”
The old man tapped the table with his fingers and said,“Become the master of this hotel, which crosses time and space, and even dimensions and concepts.”
Let me state this plainly.
I regret not rejecting that so-called proposal before I ever heard it.
For roughly three thousand years. No, perhaps five thousand......
“Mm, this fire wine! The flavor is extraordinary.”
“See here, Blood Demon. Do not drink it all yourself. Leave some for this sovereign as well.”
“Heavenly Demon, you have had your share. Curb your greed.”
When I calculated it, it came out to a little over six thousand years.
Since it still hadn’t passed ten thousand, I wondered if perhaps it was all right.
“Isn’t it you who is being greedy? Do you know how many bottles you have emptied?”
“You were petty enough to count all that? You are no Heavenly Demon, but a petty miser.”
“Petty? Blood Demon, do you finally want a taste of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?”
“That shoddy divine art that was broken by a mere Blood Sword? Try unfolding it again. Before your very eyes, I shall show you the power that defies heaven......”
RIP—!
Between the Heavenly Demon and the Blood Demon, who looked ready to tear each other apart at any moment,the space split open lightly.
Because I had wished it so.
“......”
“......”
“Heh heh. I knew that would happen.”
The Martial Alliance Leader, who had swiftly retreated several steps with his footwork, sipped from his wine cup as if amused.
That Martial Alliance Leader always slipped away as if everything were someone else’s business.
At any rate, he was a slippery one.
I glanced at the Alliance Leader, then looked back at the two of them.
“You were the ones who asked about my past, but if you keep talking about something else among yourselves, I find it rather unpleasant.”
“I-if th-th-that is the case, I apologize! I did not mean to do that!”
“Mm, my apologies. I was carried away by the Blood Demon’s hot blood.”
“To know no fault of your own and lay all blame on this Seat. Heavenly Demon, you bastard.”
“Heh heh, that is enough from both of you.”
The one who stopped the two from clashing again was the Martial Alliance Leader.
“It is not a problem if you two fight among yourselves, but the Proprietor’s mood must not be spoiled.”
He was right.
At the Dimensional Hotel, we do not care what any of our guests who visit us choose to do.
As long as they can rest and recover here in comfort, we do not particularly care whether they drink until they collapse, sleep for tens of thousands of years straight, or gamble until they go bankrupt.
That is the hotel’s law and rule.
But if they get on my bad side, that is another matter.
“It feels refreshing to hear you say exactly what I wanted to say, Alliance Leader.”
“If it pleased you, grant me a day’s stay for free.”
“Shall I? No, since I’m in a good mood, perhaps I’ll add three days as service.”
“Heh heh, the Proprietor is generous indeed. Good.”
“It’s nothing. Of course, before that, you will have to pay your overdue lodging fees.”
“Cough, ahem.”
The reason I had gone out of my way to visit this tavern?
Part of it was that I wanted to drink with the three of them for the first time in a while, but it also seemed I had indulged them long enough.
“Th-this S-S-Seat has urgent business, so I shall take my leave!”
“The same goes for this sovereign. Proprietor, it was an honor to share wine with......”
“Sit down.”
GRIND.
The space inside the tavern distorted.
Leaving this place was impossible without my permission.
“......The urgent business has been resolved!”
“Will you allow me to enjoy the honor of drinking with you a while longer, Proprietor?”
The Blood Demon and the Heavenly Demon, who had tried to flee, dropped right back into their seats at a single word from me.
No matter how mighty those two were in their respective dimensions, they were nothing more than guests here.
And guests,by their very nature,had to pay.
Those who stayed without paying were not guests, but thugs.
“To get to the point, the three of you have apparently been lodging here quietly for quite some time.”
I had known and let it pass because all three of them were regulars at our hotel.
I was also curious to see how long they could endure without paying.
But you see,“Lord Blood Demon.”
“Ahem. Wh-what is it?”
“You have stayed twenty days without authorization.?”
Going nearly a full month with the attitude that I should do whatever I wanted if I dared,crossed the line by quite a lot.
“In the dimension I come from, there is a saying. If goodwill continues for too long, it turns you into Dooly.”
“Wh-what does that mean......?”
“It means they start taking you for an easy mark. Lord Blood Demon, do I look like an easy mark to you?”
The Blood Demon shook his head violently from side to side.
Yes, of course I shouldn’t look like an easy mark.
“I’m glad you know that. Then why didn’t you pay?”
“I-I shall return at once and bring the lodging fees!”
“And if you go and do not come back?”
“I swear it on the name of the Blood Demon!”
“That is not enough.”
I created an hourglass and placed it on the table.
“I will give you three days in hotel time. If you cannot prepare your lodging fees during those three days, you will have to deal with the consequences yourself.”
“I-I understand.”
“The same applies to the other two.”
The Heavenly Demon owed eight days, and the Martial Alliance Leader owed ten.
“I will give both of you the same three days.”
“Ahem. As soon as this sovereign leaves, I shall bring a sacred treasure of my cult.”
The Heavenly Demon’s words could be trusted.
I had heard that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult of that dimension had succeeded in unifying Murim and was quite wealthy.
They should have accumulated a fair amount of treasures, and among them, there should be plenty suitable for paying lodging fees.
“I believe you, Lord Heavenly Demon. Please see to it that I have no reason to summon you personally.”
“This sovereign will certainly keep that promise.”
“Good.”
I had received definite answers from the Heavenly Demon and the Blood Demon.
The only one left was the Martial Alliance Leader.
The Martial Alliance Leader, sitting noble and alone, radiated composure.
Sip.
After sipping a mouthful of fire wine, the Alliance Leader grinned.
“Heh heh, Proprietor, do not treat me the same as those unorthodox bastards. As it happens, I was already planning to pay my overdue lodging fees today.”
That did not seem like something a man who drank with those unorthodox bastards every day after coming to the hotel ought to say.
But that was not the important part.
He took a letter from within his robes and held it out to me.
“It is a letter discovered in a graveyard. It contains a poem written by parents who missed the child who left them first.”
“Hmm.”
“It is bitter, but in the end, it seems the parents followed after the child as well.”
“I see.”
The hearts of parents who lost their child first.
Grief that rends the bowels.
Such grief could never be a light thing.
When I snapped my fingers, a scale appeared before me.
“Let’s check it.”
When I placed the letter on the scale, the number rose rapidly.
For a mere scrap of paper, it was a fairly high figure.
That meant the weight of the emotion and heart contained in it was heavy, and that its value as lodging payment was high.
‘Not bad.’
The Dimensional Hotel did not accept ordinary cash or goods as lodging fees.
The only things it accepted were objects filled with emotion and heart.
The heavier the weight of the emotion and heart contained in the object, the greater its value.
I checked the number that had climbed steadily before coming to a stop.
As expected.
“This is enough. A little over ten days’ worth.”
“Urgh, is that all? I went through no small amount of trouble to find it.”
“I am already valuing it generously. You know that.”
“Tsk. If that is what the Proprietor says, then there is nothing to be done.”
After safely placing the letter into my pocket dimension, I rose from my seat.
“Then, Martial Alliance Leader, I hope you enjoy a peaceful stay while you lodge with us. As for the other two, pack your things and check out within one hour. I shall see you again after you bring your lodging fees.”
“Understood, understood.”
“Haa......”
“I have said this several times, but if you cannot bring them, you will have to pay with your bodies.”
After leaving behind that small warning, I rose from my seat.
I still had to collect the price of dining and lodging without payment from the other regulars.
“Blood Demon, what was it like when you were put to work before?”
“Heavenly Demon, this Seat can say with certainty that it would be better to pay the lodging fees even if you have to sell the pillars of the Demonic Cult. That...... that is hell......”
“It is that bad?”
“That Proprietor is not human. Unless he is an evil ghost itself, wandering the Nine Hells.”
......Blood Demon, if you fail to pay your lodging fees this time as well,I will personally step in and show you the true Nine Hells.
***
“You have returned.”
In the hotel lobby, Clone No. 100 greeted me.
“No. 100, nothing happened, right?”
“Three additional guests came to stay, and there was nothing else.”
“You took the lodging fees in advance, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good work. Take everything in advance for a while. Let’s restore some discipline among the guests.”
With a light wave of my hand, I set down the lodging fees I had received after going around the rooms.
“There are many.”
“There are still more lodging fees I haven’t recovered. They’ll be swarming in soon to check out, so give them one more warning.”
“Understood.”
If I operated leisurely and they started acting as if they could get away with anything, that would be truly troublesome.
That was why there were times like this when it was necessary to restore discipline among the guests.
No. 100 checked the lodging fees one by one and asked again,“Shall I convert these immediately?”
“Yeah. It’s about time to receive a new guest.”
“Understood.”
Putting all of this together came to roughly one hundred days’ worth.
No. 100 pushed the lodging fees into the hourglass floating in the air over the lobby.
The lodging fees turned to powder the moment they touched the hourglass and seeped inside.
The sand filled the upper half of the hourglass.
DONG!
With a ringing sound, the sand piled in the upper half of the hourglass came pouring down and filled the lower half.
No matter how many thousands of years I watched this moment, I never tired of it.
Just how much lodging payment had gone into that thing?
[Enough energy required for dimensional coordinate search has been replenished.]
[Search for a new guest?]
Receiving a new guest sure is difficult.
“Do it.”
Following the command, the hotel located the coordinates of a new dimension.
The sand piled in the lower half of the hourglass scattered and vanished.
The clock located above the front door moved.
Click. Click.
The second hand moved slowly.
That itself was not particularly surprising.
Most of those who visited the Dimensional Hotel had moved the second hand by around three marks.
As for those three from Murim...... Had the three of them together failed to pass even fifty seconds?
But,“Hmm?”
“Oh.”
The second hand did not stop even after completing a full circle.
As if it were an ordinary clock.
Click. Click.
The second hand continued moving.
Only after exactly 10 minutes and 23 seconds had passed did the clock stop.
There had never been a case like this until now.
“Master.”
“......This, could it be?”
[The hotel front door has been connected to a new dimension.]
[Open the door and welcome the new guest.]
After confirming the hotel’s system message,No. 100 approached me.
“Why not welcome them personally, Master?”
“......All right.”
This time was special, so instead of leaving it to No. 100, I personally approached the door.
Even though several thousand years had passed since I became the master of the Dimensional Hotel,the emotion I felt now was new.
“This time......”
Would I be able to meet that person?
One dimension among an uncountable number of dimensions.
That person would be somewhere along one of the nearly infinite timelines.
Meeting her held odds lower than finding a single thread in a desert.
Even so, it was not zero.
So perhaps,this very moment might be the one when those odds were overcome.
Wishing, please, that this time she would be the one to enter,I slowly opened the door.
“......Ah.”
Behind the slowly opening door,there stood a small child.