Just as I was discussing a long-term stay with the Three-Tailed Fox,
a notification appeared before my eyes.
【 The moon is waxing. 】
【 Full Moon, D-1 】
【 Lost guests will come to the hotel. 】
"Lost guests will come on the full moon...?"
The Three-Tailed Fox let out a low breath after hearing my mutter.
— If they're guests who come on the night of the full moon....
They'll probably be wandering spirits unable to leave because they're bound by lingering regrets.
"I'm sick and tired of ghosts."
The Three-Tailed Fox stuck out its tongue and licked around its mouth.
— It'll be fine.
Wandering spirits are different from Evil Spirits.
"Different?"
— Yeah. Evil Spirits and Lesser Spirits are the bad ones, but they can't move around on the night of the full moon.
Though if wandering spirits roam for too long, they'll eventually become Lesser Spirits or Evil Spirits too.
So there were days when Lesser Spirits couldn't act.
I stored the new information away in my head.
At that moment, the Three-Tailed Fox's eyes glowed blue.
— Wandering spirits coming here will probably be a good thing for you.
If you soothe them properly and send them on their way, you can accumulate Spiritual Power.
"I can accumulate Spiritual Power?"
— Yeah.
The corners of the Three-Tailed Fox's mouth stretched upward.
— I'm curious how far you'll be able to see once you accumulate even more Spiritual Power.
Found it.
A way to increase my Spiritual Power Points.
***
The next day.
I called Min-jae and Min-ju over and began explaining.
"A special guest is coming today."
"A special guest?"
Min-jae tilted his head.
"According to the Three-Tailed Fox, souls with lingering regre—"
Min-ju raised one hand and cut me off.
"Wait!"
"What?"
"Boss, did you just say Three-Tailed Fox? You mean a fox with three tails?"
"Ah."
Had I not told them yet?
"The White Fox staying in Room 201 is a Three-Tailed Fox. It decided to stay at our hotel long-term while it recovers its Spiritual Power."
Min-jae's mouth fell slightly open, and his eyes went unfocused.
"Wooow.... A Three-Tailed Fox...!"
Min-ju simply nodded without much reaction and asked,
"Is there anything else I should pay special attention to for the Three-Tailed Fox?"
Min-ju adapts fast.
Min-jae's face turned red.
'He doesn't look scared....'
"Just make sure it eats well so it can recover properly."
"Okay."
Clap!
I smacked my palms together to snap Min-jae out of it.
"The Three-Tailed Fox said that when the full moon rises, souls with lingering regrets will come to the hotel. Ah, and apparently they won't harm us."
I studied Min-ju and Min-jae's reactions.
If they were scared, I was planning to give them a day off and send them away from the hotel.
But neither of them looked afraid as they muttered,
"Do souls eat too...?"
"Right? I wonder if souls even sleep."
"You two. Aren't you scared?"
Min-ju nodded.
"You said they won't hurt us. And our hotel has you, Boss— no, a Goblin too."
Their reaction was more underwhelming than I'd expected.
I'd spent all night worrying about it.
'Probably because they haven't met any foul-tempered ghost bastards yet.'
"Boss, but... will we be able to see the ghosts?"
"You should be able to inside the hotel. If you change your minds, tell me before sunset. You can stay outside the hotel for a day and come back."
The two shook their heads.
"No. I don't want to go."
"I don't want to leave the hotel either."
Song-i suddenly popped her head up from behind the sofa like a mole and shouted,
"I'm not going either. I'm staying with Daddy."
I had no idea how long she'd been listening, but her lips were stuck out in a pout.
I hadn't been planning to send Song-i away anyway.
This was the safest place for her.
I made Song-i promise me one thing.
"But before evening, go into your room with Hwanggeum. Got it?"
Song-i nodded with interest sparkling in her eyes.
That look worries me.
I warned Song-i one more time.
"You have to stay in your room tonight. Got it?"
"Don't worry!"
***
The sun completely disappeared beyond the mountain.
"Song-i, go to your room with Hwanggeum. Min-jae, open the entrance doors wide."
Darkness settled over everything.
A round moon rose into the sky.
【 Night of the Full Moon 】
【 Lost guests will come to the hotel. 】
【 Help the guests find their way. 】
This wasn't some lost-child center, so why was I supposed to help them find their way?
Was it telling me to show them the road to the afterlife when I hadn't even been there myself...?
Lost in thought, I stared blankly at the hotel entrance.
The Three-Tailed Fox came and stood beside me.
"Don't overdo it just because you feel better."
As befitted a spiritual creature, the Three-Tailed Fox's wound healed quickly.
Its white, fluffy tail swayed as it circled around me once.
— Moving around this much will help me recover faster.
And it's the night of the full moon. Nights like this are good for accumulating Spiritual Power.
"How many points of Spiritual Power do you have?"
The Three-Tailed Fox tilted its head.
— Points?
"I accumulate Spiritual Power as Spiritual Power Points. Don't you?"
— That must be a method made for humans like you who don't know anything.
"By the Goblin?"
— Cough... cough...! You're asking if a Goblin made it? Probably not.
The Three-Tailed Fox coughed out a laugh.
Even when I pressed it, the Three-Tailed Fox only laughed without explaining further.
Then its laughter abruptly stopped.
— They're coming.
The moment the Three-Tailed Fox said that, I sensed a presence near the iron gate.
Knock, knock, knock.
It was a very faint sound.
"The gate's open, so why aren't they coming in?"
I got up and approached the iron gate.
A gaunt woman with pale skin stood outside.
There was so little vitality in her appearance that it was hard to call her human.
'She must be one of the wandering spirits the Three-Tailed Fox mentioned.'
"May I... come... in...?"
Her small, drained voice was extremely cautious.
【 This is a lost guest. 】
【 Status: Wandering, Hunger. D-14 】
【 Allow lodging? 】
This time, there was no estimated Lodging Fee.
'Well, it's not like a ghost would have any way to pay for lodging.'
I didn't know how much Spiritual Power she'd give me, but it probably wouldn't be completely free.
I stepped aside from the gate and said,
"Come in."
The guest nodded and entered.
'She's way too thin.'
She looked as though skin had simply been stretched over bones.
Min-jae, standing at the front desk, greeted the guest and handed her a room key.
The guest took the key and stood there for quite a while before speaking.
"I'm... hungry. Is there anything to eat?"
"Please come to the dining room. We'll prepare a meal for you."
***
Munch, munch, munch—!
The guest frantically stuffed fistfuls of food into her mouth.
Smack, smack, smack, smack—!
'Is she a Starving Ghost?'
Just as I thought that,
the Three-Tailed Fox lightly padded into the dining room and looked at the guest.
Its eyes glowed blue.
— She's not a Starving Ghost.
"She eats like that and... she's not?"
Wasn't eating like that exactly what people meant by being possessed by a starving ghost? Anyone could see she looked like one...?
I watched the guest devour the food in amazement.
'Wow...! That's seriously impressive.'
Food kept disappearing into her body without end.
The huge piles of food in front of the guest gradually vanished.
Min-ju's hands moved busily in the kitchen.
At some point, Min-jae had joined her in the kitchen to help.
How long is she going to keep eating? At this rate, she'll wipe out all the ingredients in the hotel.
First, I needed to understand what kind of guest she was.
"Min-ju! Stop!"
I crossed my arms into an X toward Min-ju.
The food on the table had been completely cleared away.
As if nothing had happened, the guest neatly folded both hands on her lap and became perfectly still.
I sat in the seat across from her.
"Did you enjoy your meal?"
The moment she heard my question, the guest suddenly began trembling.
"I-I'm sorry. I did something wrong."
Haah.
Something about her mind felt damaged.
Was it because she was a wandering spirit after all?
'Show me what you're still holding on to.'
【 Soul Insight 】
My vision darkened as though a black curtain had closed in front of me, and I felt as if the floor had dropped away.
Flash—!
# Before I knew it, I was standing somewhere other than the hotel's dining room.
Thump-thump, thump-thump—!
Fast-tempo music blasted from the speakers.
Seven girls who still looked like students were dancing while watching themselves in a mirror.
'Is the girl at the far end our guest?'
She looked a little more lively and healthy than the face I knew.
While the girls were in the middle of dancing,
a fat man waddled in through the door.
"All right, all right! Gather around!"
The music stopped, and the girls gathered in front of the man.
"You know your debut will be decided by the evaluation at the end of this month, right?"
"Yes!"
The girls answered loudly in unison.
Their expressions were tense, but full of anticipation.
So they were idol trainees.
They were all working hard.
The man spoke to the trainees.
"Our team absolutely has to debut this time. So everyone needs to get even stricter with your diets."
"...Even stricter than this?"
"You know weight loss counts toward your evaluation score too, right? Everyone, take one of these."
The man handed each of them a small container of salad.
"Eat one of these a day and drink only 500 milliliters of bottled water. Water makes you gain weight too."
"Even water... isn't allowed?"
"No."
Crazy bastard. How is anyone supposed to live on just that?
'You fat bastard. You're the one who needs to go on a diet!'
Just before I could smack the back of his head, the scene before me changed.
# The trainees, drenched in sweat from dancing, staggered when the music ended.
"Haah.... I'm hungry."
The trainees took a single sip of water, then reluctantly screwed the caps back on.
And they danced again.
Are idol trainees normally pushed this hard?
Is this really right?
Or is it only this place?
The scene changed again.
# A small room with patches of mold visible on the wallpaper.
The trainees stood side by side, looking tense.
The fat bastard who looked like their manager shouted,
"I told you to control your diet! Is that really so hard?"
The man walked up to our guest.
"So. Did you enjoy stuffing your face?"
Her thin shoulders trembled.
Then the man's hand flew out and struck her cheek.
SLAP—!
Her emaciated body swayed helplessly.
The man muttered,
"Ah...! I shouldn't hit the face."
The thought of my daughter Song-i being treated like that somewhere outside made my anger boil.
It was torture to stand there and watch what the man was doing.
I knew this wasn't reality,
but my hand kept flying toward him.
My hand passed through the man's body without the slightest resistance.
'This is driving me insane. Seriously...!'
The place changed once again.
# The practice room again.
Our guest remained alone in the practice room, dancing.
She forced her staggering body to move.
Her disobedient body looked like a marionette hanging from strings.
'She shouldn't be moving like that without even eating properly.'
The moment I thought that,
the marionette's strings finally snapped, and she collapsed to the floor.
THUD—!
Blood poured endlessly from her nose as she lay on the practice-room floor.
Her body was in such a state that it couldn't even stop a nosebleed.
No one came, even after a long time.
Her thin fingers, which had been trembling faintly, finally went still.
'So this was her final moment.'
And with that, the scene shown by Soul Insight ended.
I was sitting in the hotel's dining room again.
I felt absolutely filthy.