“How does she have so much to say?”
I left the room a little more than five minutes later.
The little one, lying in bed, had kept talking without a moment’s rest.
Listening to her, the stories were truly nothing special, yet time had flown by.
Thankfully, the child’s stamina ran out and she fell asleep. Good grief.
“By the way, I hope those two old fogeys haven’t drunk all the liquor yet......”
“Master.”
As I walked down the corridor, No. 100, who had the same face as me, approached.
The one who should have been guarding the lobby had come here.
And with an extremely grave expression, at that.
Why?
“What happened? Why did you leave the lobby......”
“The clock moved.”
I blinked at the words he spoke as he immediately got to the point.
What was he talking about?
“Clocks are supposed to move.”
“Even though no new guest arrived.”
“......Are you talking about the dimensional clock?”
“Yes. It moved, though only by one second. I am late in reporting this, but it also moved briefly not long ago.”
“......Hah.”
The dimensional clock was an object created by the previous manager.
It was one of the elements beyond the reach of my power.
I had left it alone because if I tried to take it apart and it broke, the consequences would be impossible to handle.
And that clock had moved on its own?
Ignoring the existing rules?
‘Some other variable has appeared.’
A problem might have arisen over the long years, but my intuition told me that was not it.
“When did it move?”
“Just now.”
“And last time?”
“That is......”
“Forget it. You’re not me.”
I immediately closed my eyes and began observing the entire hotel.
Every space of the hotel unfolded beneath my closed eyes.
Observing a space close to infinite all at once was tiring even for me, but
I had to check.
‘What happened in the hotel a moment ago?’
Were there any unusual details?
The Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Demon were sharing drinks at the tavern.
At the casino, the Saintess lost at poker.
The Puppet Master was making dolls in the dollhouse.
......
Most of the hotel was ordinary.
The same as I always saw it.
There were some differences, but there was no meaning in treating them as variables.
However,‘He said he heard the sound a few days ago too. Let’s compare it with the previous situation.’
There was certainly a common rule.
Whether that rule was physical or conceptual.
I compared the guests who had been in the hotel at the time with the guests who had not been there, checked their actions, and observed their psychological and situational changes.
Several hypotheses surfaced. From within them, I narrowed down a few highly probable ones, and when I verified them......
“Ugh.”
“Master!”
“Phew, I’m fine. I’m fine.”
No. 100 supported my body as it swayed for a moment.
It had been a long time since I had gone all out like this.
Observing for too long had made my head tingle.
The problem was,‘It’s ambiguous.’
I could examine a few possibilities, but there was not enough physical evidence to make a definite conclusion.
In that case,
“No. 100.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Assign a few more clones and monitor the dimensional clock thoroughly. Report to me the instant anything unusual happens.”
“Understood.”
If the second hand had moved twice,there would surely be a third time.
“I will examine the possibilities.”
For now, I had to do what I could.
***
The two martial artists, having received the little one’s opinion, smacked their lips in disappointment, but quickly accepted it.
“Thinking about it, that is true. The Proprietor’s teachings would surely be superior.”
“Heh heh, we were showing off wrinkles before a pupa.”
“You do not need to put it that way. I do think it would be good if the two of you helped as assistants.”
Thus came my proposal for them to become assistant instructors.
Honestly, I thought it would not be very appealing to the two of them.
“If we are assistants, does that mean we may teach her from time to time?”
“That would be how it works, yes.”
“Hoho, I see. So that is how it is.”
“Heh heh, good. Good.”
......Were these people simply bored?
At any rate,what mattered was that the two agreed to help and even pressed their fingerprints onto the contract.
And now,“Hm. Proprietor, I know it is not my place to say this, but is this not a little strange?”
“I do not recall making such an agreement.”
The two teachers’ expressions were full of dissatisfaction.
“What is it that displeases you so much?”
“Listen. Proper training is something one does while smelling the earth and shedding sweat.”
“He is right.”
The training they spoke of was a macho, old-fashioned training method of repeatedly practicing forms and running with sandbags attached.
“What kind of training can be done in a place like this?”
Therefore, they might not be able to understand training in a pool like this.
“I understand what the two of you mean. However, I would like to say this.”
“What would that be?”
“I have lived longer than the two of you, and I am stronger.”
“......”
“......”
“If someone like me says this is more efficient, is there a problem?”
The two rolled their eyes this way and that before pressing their mouths shut.
No matter how long they had lived or how much they had gone through, they could not compare to me.
Still, I should make them understand.
“You will know after a little while. It will be proper stamina training.”
“Ahem. If that is what the Proprietor says.”
“We are only assistants, so we will merely watch.”
The two folded their arms and nodded firmly.
Their attitude seemed to say, “Let us see,” which I did not particularly like...... but they would understand soon.
“Mister!”
After waiting a moment, the little one came pattering over from one side of the pool.
Her bun, tied up by a clone in the 500 series, and her swimsuit suited a young child well.
“Ueeh?!”
“I knew that would happen.”
I gently caught the little one as she nearly slipped while running over.
She was more clumsy than she looked.
“It is slippery, so you have to move carefully. Do not run.”
“Hehe, okay. But where is this?”
“It is a place called a pool. Today’s physical education class will be here.”
“Waaa.”
Hye-rin looked around here and there, her eyes shining.
What filled those eyes was wonder and interest.
It seemed she rather liked it.
It had been worth remodeling this place to suit the little one.
“Now then, shall we begin the lesson?”
“Yes! What do we do first?”
“First.”
I pulled over the duck tube placed far away with telekinesis, put it around the little one, and pointed to the wave pool that took up the largest space in the pool.
“Run!”
“Okay!”
The little one ran pattering away as ordered.
She was swept up by the waves that came rolling in, then moved forward.
Even as she floated along, the smile never left her face.
“This is fun!!”
Riding around the wave pool on a tube?
Children her age would go mad for it.
“Proprietor, are you saying this is truly training?”
“Hoh, I can hardly believe it.”
Though these old men would not know.
‘This is only the beginning.’
The lesson disguised as play began now.
***
“To think something like that becomes training. It is the end of days.”
The Heavenly Demon, lying on a sunbed, clicked his tongue as he watched the scene before his eyes.
The child, who had spent quite some time floating around in the wave pool, was now enjoying the water slide.
The child’s face was full of a broad smile as she ran up for a long while, then slid smoothly down.
It was not an expression that could appear on the face of someone training.
No matter how he thought about it, it was hard to accept that this was training.
“Did the Proprietor not say it would help? There must be a reason for it.”
“......Alliance Leader, you accept it quickly.”
“Heh heh, not particularly.”
After sucking down the grapefruit-colored cocktail, the Alliance Leader raised his inner arts and blew away the water on his body.
The liquor he drank after moving his body was special in its own way.
“I merely thought the Proprietor’s words were more or less correct.”
“The Proprietor’s words are correct?”
“Mm, Heavenly Demon. I just went into that place.”
The place the Alliance Leader pointed to was the wave pool.
The place where waves constantly surged was not a sight often seen in the lands ruled by the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“It is a place made to imitate the movement of the great ocean.”
“And?”
“If you were told to endure there without moving, how long could you last?”
“I think it would not differ much from being in water.”
“It differs. With half-hearted strength, one would simply be swept away. Think of it by the standard of those newly admitted to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
At those words, the Heavenly Demon chewed over his memories, then soon nodded as if it was ambiguous.
“They would not last long.”
It would likely be similar to training with weights attached to the whole body.
It would take quite some time just to move freely.
“If you look at it from that perspective, the Proprietor has created this place as a giant training ground.”
“Kyaaa!”
Just then, the child once again rode the water slide and came sliding down.
“Even so...... she is smiling like that, and yet it is training?”
“After seeing the Proprietor, do you still fail to trust him?”
“That is separate from my trust in him.”
“Then you need only try it yourself. Is seeing once not better than hearing a hundred times?”
The Alliance Leader drained the remaining cocktail and rose.
He had come with the duty of assistant instructor, so continuing to lie around did not sit well with him.
Most of all, personally feeling this training ground the Proprietor had created would not be a bad thing.
“Let us go.”
The two swiftly moved with movement arts and arrived at the water slide installed at the highest point of the place.
“Are you ready, Heavenly Demon?”
“Of course, Alliance Leader.”
“Then!”
The two threw themselves into the water slide at the same time,and with the flowing water, gravity carried them rapidly downward.
They passed several winding sections, then two or three sections where the outside scenery could be seen.
Splash!
The two, who reached the end in an instant, remained still despite the water soaking their clothes.
After all, such water would fly away if they infused a little inner arts.
That was not what mattered now.
‘What is this?’
‘How marvelous.’
Something rippled within their chests.
What exactly was this wavering emotion?
The two looked at each other and shook off the water with inner arts.
Then they coughed a few times and quietly turned their heads.
“......I still do not know. However, in the winding sections, there was a burden placed on the body.”
“It seemed to repeatedly apply pressure in an instant, then release it...... I still do not know for certain.”
“Mm, Alliance Leader. Listen. That child is repeating this continuously right now, is she not?”
“Ah, that is true. Does repeating this produce an effect?”
“Mm. Would we not know if we tried it a few more times?”
“Yes, we must. This time, how about that green one over there?”
“Does it descend in a straight line? Good.”
The two pressed down the something rippling in their chests and stepped forward with movement arts once again.
They were not riding it again because it was fun.
They merely wished to feel with their whole bodies the place that had been made as a training ground. There was absolutely no other intention.
......Probably.
Watching them from a little ways away, Ryu Hwi-jae let out a hollow laugh.
“What are those men doing?”
He had made this for the child to enjoy, only for the old men to become children.
It was absurd, but he understood.
They said men remained children even when they grew old, and a place like this had something that stirred the heart of childhood.
It would not be that strange for old men who had known nothing but martial arts to feel amusement.
“Mister! Hurry, hurry!”
I smiled faintly.
“All right, I understand.”
And of course, it was only natural for the real little one to enjoy herself.