The dimensional clock did not move, but that did not mean time had stopped flowing.
Especially over the past few days, it felt as if time had passed even faster.
“Has that much time already passed?”
It was already the fifteenth day since the little one first came to the hotel.
Thanks to the recent Treasure Hunt event, the number of days she could stay had increased, but the time for her to return was still gradually drawing near.
‘I cannot play with the little one forever.’
It was about time I properly worried about her survival as well.
No. 100 placed a cup of coffee before me.
Since there were no guests around at the moment, it seemed he had come to talk while he was at it.
“Are you worried?”
“Well, naturally.”
The environment of the little one’s dimension was harsh.
Obtaining food and drinking water was difficult, and surviving against the monsters that roamed around without rest was quite troublesome.
I was preparing for that, but how would it turn out?
‘Can I make it in time?’
With magic alone......
Realistically, it was not enough.
“If you are worried, how about arbitrarily providing a few more days of lodging? Or holding another event like this one would also be fine.”
“You mean letting her steadily increase her lodging period?”
“Yes. Events within the hotel have occurred intermittently before, so the other guests will like it as well.”
No. 100’s opinion was reasonable at a glance.
All problems would arise in the dimension she had to return to, after all.
If she did not leave the hotel, there would be no problems, would there?
However, there were too many matters to consider.
I had to consider backlash from other guests as well, and also assume the worst-case scenario...... such as the little one’s dimension collapsing.
In the latter case, the little one’s very existence would disappear.
“If we are looking at the long term, it is better for her to return at least once.”
For now, I had to approach this conservatively and choose a moderately stable path.
“I see.”
“Even so, your opinion is reasonable. I do have sufficient intention to do that later. For now, I should first find a way to let the child return and come back safely.”
As I sipped my coffee, No. 100 stared at me.
“What?”
“I thought it might simply be my imagination, but you do seem to have changed a little.”
“Me?”
“Yes. When it comes to matters related to Miss Yun Hye-rin, should I say you shine a little more?”
No. 100 also took a sip of coffee and spoke.
“I am glad you seem to be changing in a good direction.”
“What gladness?”
“When Master is in a bad mood, we are the ones who get rolled.”
“......I must really be in a good mood, seeing as I think nothing of hearing you say that.”
“I am acting up because I knew you would react that way.”
No. 100 and I looked at each other and smiled faintly.
He was certainly a clone, but because he had been separated for far too long, No. 100 now felt almost like a different being.
“You will probably find the answer, Master. You always have.”
“Thanks for saying that, at least. By the way, nothing else is happening with the other guests, is it?”
Yun Hye-rin was important, but it would be troublesome if I neglected the other guests because of her.
If something went wrong and the guests stopped coming, it would create a major setback for my goal.
I had to pay attention to hotel management so the guests would continue visiting steadily.
“Handle any complaints that come in right away, and if there is anything difficult to manage, tell me immediately. It would be easier for me to handle it directly.”
I had given No. 100 a great deal of authority, but sometimes it was easier for me to step forward and crush things down myself.
No. 100 rolled his eyes, then opened his mouth.
“In that case, there is one thing I should tell you.”
“What is it?”
“It concerns the Saintess.”
The Saintess?
After banning her from the casino, she seemed to have been quiet for a while.
Why was her name coming up?
“Recently, she has been seen conducting private gambling in several places, including the sky lounge and the library.”
“......”
“They say it is because she was banned from entering the casino...... No complaints have arisen yet, but it is something I have been paying attention to.”
I was truly going insane.
Insane.
***
I decided to personally handle the Saintess, so I briefly entrusted the little one’s lesson to the two martial artists.
It was a moment when I felt glad I had hired them as assistant instructors.
“Hoho, I have waited for this day.”
“At last, we can conduct proper training.”
They said that, but I had no idea why they were packing swimsuits.
Could it be that these men truly just wanted to play?
“Please play moderately and keep paying attention to the child.”
“Do not worry. We may look like this, but have we not raised several children?”
“Throwing them into a training ground and making them practice forms endlessly is not called raising them.”
Looking at Murim dimensions, their views on child education were somewhat twisted.
Mm, I was worried, but.
“The wave pool would be good to begin with.”
“Good. I shall plan the water slide course.”
Since the two of them were simply children as well, it seemed all right.
Even so, I would feel more at ease if I finished the matter as quickly as possible and returned.
“I will be back soon, so please look after her for a moment.”
“You may take your time.”
“Do not worry about us.”
“I am worried about the child.”
Even behind me as I left, I could see them overflowing with excitement. Then I moved on.
Let me see, where is the Saintess now?
“The sky lounge.”
With a single step, the space changed into the sky lounge.
“The fragrance is excellent today.”
“The doneness of this steak is no ordinary thing. It was cooked truly evenly.”
In the rest area prepared there, there were guests leisurely enjoying tea and guests enjoying meals.
“Today, it is chicken! Now, three of diamonds! Two pair!”
“Who decided that? Now, hearts five, six, seven!”
And in one corner, a card game was underway.
Good grief.
What was the one managing the sky lounge doing, not stopping that?
“I did my best.”
“Yes, what power would you have?”
The managers of each floor only had the minimum amount of power, so, well.
There was no way malicious guests would obediently listen to them.
In the end, I had to step in.
“Are you having fun?”
Before all the card hands were revealed, I quietly took a seat among them.
The moment those absorbed in gambling heard my low words, they froze.
“Lord Tien, put the cards down.”
“Ahem, it is a straight.”
“You completed it well. Congratulations. Though it is invalid.”
Snap.
With a single snap of my fingers, the card hands laid out in front of them all vanished.
The stakes placed above them also returned to their owners.
“Urgh. I had won everything.”
“Phew.”
Someone felt regretful, and someone sighed in relief.
Amid the crossing of joy and sorrow, I waved my hand.
“I believe I need to have a conversation with the person over there. Would the rest of you please leave?”
“Oh, if the innkeeper tells us to leave, of course we must.”
“Master, we will be going now. That is fine, right?”
“Yes. Saintess, you remain. The rest of you may go about your business. Ah, and please gamble only at the casino.”
“We will remember that!”
The guests, relieved that they were not the target, quietly rose and left.
As a bonus, they wished the Saintess luck as they departed.
“H-haha. Brother Proprietor. Why am I......”
“I told you not to go to the casino, so you opened a gambling table here?”
“I-it is not a violation of the contract.”
“It is not a violation, but it is rather vexing.”
The casino access ban had originally been set up to tell her not to gamble.
So she would not lose the lodging fees I had gone to the trouble of lending her.
Yet she completely ignored the original intent and was doing this while saying it was not a violation. Good grief.
“B-Brother Proprietor. This place was made for healing, was it not? For me, this is healing.”
“Soon, you will say murder is healing too.”
“That and this are not the same, are they?”
“Smiling will not help. The offense of being vexing will not disappear.”
“Ugh.”
Good grief.
In my eyes, this woman’s gambling addiction was an incurable disease.
“You lost, didn’t you?”
Flinch!
The Saintess reacted more strongly than when she had been caught setting up the gambling table.
It was obvious.
“You have never won at the casino even once, Saintess.”
Even just now, she had been betting hard with a low hand like a three-of-diamonds two pair.
In a way, it was only natural that guests gathered at the gambling table the Saintess opened.
It was like receiving money for free.
No, wait.
“Saintess? Where did you get that money?”
“W-well, Brother Proprietor, you lent it to me before. About twenty days’ worth more......”
“I know. I gave you extra in case you needed it. But looking at the table, it seems the stakes being exchanged right now are higher than that.”
“......”
When I looked earlier, there had been quite a few lodging tickets on the table.
It seemed there was something here I did not know.
“Saintess, would it not make the conversation easier if you spoke honestly before I check the hotel records?”
“Uh, um. Brother Proprietor, you do not need to say it so frighteningly......”
“Three.”
“I will talk. I will talk! Phew, yes. I should not try to deceive someone I cannot deceive.”
The Saintess raised both hands and spoke.
“I started a small business.”
“A business? What business? There was no registered history.”
Any guest could run their own business in the hotel’s commercial district if they wished.
However, it had to be with the hotel’s permission first.
“Well, because I did it secretly.”
“......How proud you must be.”
“Haha, it could not be helped. You would have gotten angry if you knew.”
“For now, I will hear it.”
“We had the treasure hunt not long ago, right? For the guests.”
“We did. I do not imagine you obtained lodging fees there.”
The Saintess had not participated in the event.
She had seemed interested, though.
“I received lodging fees from the participants in exchange for casting a blessing of luck on them. One day’s worth.”
“......”
What did I just hear?
“After all, for one day’s worth, they could break even if they found just one treasure, right? Once I presented that, everyone wanted to receive a blessing.”
“Hah, haha.”
“Naturally, I thought Brother Proprietor would say something if you found out, so I contacted them secretly and did it. There are plenty of places, like where people eat or where they drink tea...... right?”
This Saintess.
At times like this, her petty tricks truly worked brilliantly.
“So how much profit did you make?”
“Oh, not that much. About forty-two days’ worth?”
“I will confiscate it.”
“Ah, whyyy!”
Why?
Because it was not just a small amount, and she had properly ripped them off.
It seemed to be around the same level as what the little one had worked the hardest to find.
“This is tyranny, tyranny!”
“Then why did you do such a thing?”
“I only stepped half a step away from the rules, you know? I did not abuse the rules, and the participants were free to use it, were they not?”
“You conducted business without reporting it.”
“Then you should only take a commission! This is unreasonable!”
How should I explain this?
A complaint from a user caught abusing a bug?
It was certain she was a malicious user.
“Phew, Saintess.”
“Huh? Brother Proprietor. Did you change your mind?”
“The confiscation will proceed. Instead, in place of punishment for the offense of being vexing, shall we talk a little?”
“......I have nothing to say to a robber.”
To treat someone as a robber.
Was this what they meant by the one who farted getting angry?
“This is an important conversation.”
“......Phew, I know what you are talking about. You mean it is dangerous if I keep gambling, right?”
“So you know.”
Every service provided within the hotel was permitted only within the range of entertainment.
Going beyond that level was something I avoided as well.
After all, there had been a dark history where I had once put that forward as the main feature and almost ruined things properly.
“I can help you with pleasure, but you pursue only that pleasure too much, Saintess.”
“Once I leave, I cannot enjoy it anyway. Because of the stalker.”
“Even so. Too much of anything becomes poison.”
It was not for nothing that I had put gambling addiction counseling into the contract.
“And right now, Saintess, you are certainly excessive.”
Using the event to run a business?
Okay.
That much was something I had failed to consider, so I could accept it.
But setting up a board in order to gamble was truly a troublesome story.
Because it did not align with my pursuit of collecting lodging fees over the long term.
The Saintess, who had been calmly listening, touched the cards placed before her.
Her hand moved smoothly like a magician’s, quite impressively.
“I understand. I have been wondering lately if I am going too far.”
“Is it because the expectations placed upon you are too great?”
She stood in a position where she had to receive people’s expectations.
Was she relieving the stress that came from that through gambling?
“No, it is just because it is fun.”
“......”
“When the card lands just right, there is that thrill, you know? It is no joke. And the air and atmosphere of that moment. It is truly the best.”
“Haa.”
Of course.
What tension would this Saintess have?
“You are simply an addict itself.”
“If there were something else this good, I would do that too, but there was nothing like that.”
Something as good as gambling, was it?
Mm.
“Are you sincere when you say that? That if there is something better than gambling, you will enjoy that more.”
“Of course! Is that not obvious?”
Okay.
She would not go back on her words with the same mouth, would she?
“Then how about this?”
As a way for the Saintess to escape her gambling addiction, and a way for me to resolve one of my worries.
“It is related to the child you know as well, Saintess.”