Of course, after spending two months together, I know Gilbert isn’t that kind of person. I know he’s not the type to drag someone to the authorities and lock them up just because he’s suspicious. The problem was… my unnecessary paranoia.
After long deliberation, thinking it was useless to hide it anyway, I pulled out a small pouch from inside my clothes.
“It’s a powder that deepens the flavor. Perhaps… I made it before I lost my memory?”
Gilbert’s eyes narrowed for a moment.
“You say you lost your memory, so how do you know what this is used for?”
“If you put it that way, I still work well even though I lost my memory. I’ve only worked my whole life, so my body might remember.”
At those words, Gilbert closed his mouth. His thick fingers slowly scratched at his beard.
“…Is that so. Well, it’s not poisonous or anything, right?”
“I tasted it earlier.”
“Hmm.”
He seemed to ponder silently for a moment longer, then calmly nodded his head.
“Well, then that’s fine.”
At the surprisingly simple answer, I was even more flustered and asked.
“That’s it?”
Honestly, I’d expected negative reactions like calling it forbidden powder or something, or reactions demanding to know where it came from, or even rushing at me asking to share some. But to be this composed. No intense interrogation, no greed, just complete nonchalance. Rather, that indifference shook my heart.
Gilbert rubbed his beard and looked straight at me.
“There’s nothing I can’t trust. As long as it tastes good, that’s all that matters.”
Somehow, hearing his simple answer made my mind go blank. A normal person would have naturally been suspicious, but he remained simple to the end.
However, Gilbert, who had been watching me with a face where I couldn’t tell if that simplicity was trust or indifference, added meaningfully.
“Anyway, kid. It seems it’s time for you to run your own inn.”
“…What?”
My eyes widened at the out-of-the-blue statement.
“Why so surprised? You’re supposed to be an innkeeper originally, right?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
As I hesitated, Gilbert tilted his head. His forked beard swayed cutely, not matching his build.
“Normally, wouldn’t you say let’s expand the business with this?”
“I hate becoming famous.”
“…”
“Become independent, kid.”
Those words were too simple and even sounded cold.
“What? Suddenly independent?!”
And independent at that?
I don’t even know the geography of this neighborhood yet. …No wait, thinking about it carefully, Gilbert was never my guardian in the first place. He was just an ahjussi who happened to take me in on the first day.
“If you have a proper inn, you should start acting like a boss now.”
You call that a proper inn? It’s a ruin. Tens of thousands of rebuttals rose up to my throat, but I couldn’t spit them out in the end.
“Don’t come in from tomorrow.”
With those words as the end, I was fired from my inn part-time job.
The next day, I fell into deep contemplation as an unemployed person… no, now formally an innkeeper again.
“I’m unemployed.”
Strictly speaking, I’m not unemployed. Although it’s a half-collapsed inn on the Boundary Line, I’m still an innkeeper. Plus, I have the cheat item called MSG. Of course, I don’t have any other ingredients.
After despairing for a long while on the creaking chair, I resolutely raised my head and muttered.
“Alright. If I’m going to survive, let’s earn money first. Money doesn’t betray you.”
It wasn’t that Gilbert betrayed me, but… anyway, the conclusion is the same.
What I could trust in the end was money.
But that resolve was also brief. Immediately, another worry pressed down on my neck. All I have left in my hands is 10 Silver I received as wages. Even if I buy ingredients with that, how on earth do I fix this ruin of an inn?
Even after sweeping and wiping every corner for two months, I couldn’t do anything about the long-accumulated musty smell and the rotted wooden floor. Holes here and there and creaking door frames. Everything was beyond what I could fix with my own strength.
Creak- Half-lying on the chair making an ear-grating sound, I raised my head at the sudden knock-knock- sound of someone knocking on the door.
There’s no one who would come here?
…No, there’s exactly one person.
As I got up and opened the door with a completely sullen face, as expected, Gilbert’s face full of fluffy beard filled my vision. Mixed with emotions I couldn’t tell if they were happy or resentful, I spat out grumpily for no reason.
“What.”
“It’s more of a ruin than I thought? How did you sleep? Didn’t demons come?”
“Didn’t you say it was proper? Anyway, you’re quite sentimental. Looking after even a former employee.”
Even at the sarcastic words, instead of retorting, Gilbert scratched his head, then patted my back with his pot-lid-like palm.
“Does a man sulk over something like that?”
I know. That it’s not something to sulk about.
Gilbert isn’t my guardian, and he’s not someone who has any reason to be responsible for my life. And yet, having stuck together for two months, it seems I was unknowingly leaning on him.
“…I know. That it’s childish.”
So I know too.
That right now I’m acting unlike myself, just like a child throwing a tantrum.
At my words, Gilbert’s eyes widened for a moment. That expression was funny for no reason, so I burst into a chuckle.
“Do you think you’re some protagonist? Firing an employee because you don’t want to become famous, it’s ridiculously childish.”
The great Baek Sion throwing a tantrum.
As I grinned and spoke, Gilbert raised the corners of his mouth sourly, then this time roughly tousled my hair.
“Anyway, you never lose.”
“Ack, you’re tangling my hair! It’s already curly!”
As I flailed, Gilbert burst into hearty laughter.
“Will you die from your curls getting tangled? A man fussing over his hair. Will you not be able to get married if your hair gets ruined?”
“…Boss, those words are really anachronistic and tacky.”
When I glared at him tearfully, Gilbert laughed holding his belly. That hearty laughter fitting his burly build sounded strangely heartwarming.
“Anyway, I came to see how much of a ruin it is.”
“Why, to make fun of me?”
“No, to repair it.”
“…What?”
As I stared at Gilbert dumbfounded, he gestured with his chin toward the back.
“Huh…?”
When I glanced back, the scenery that had been hidden by Gilbert’s large build gradually revealed itself. There, familiar faces were gathered.
The fruit shop ahjussi who always smiled warmly, the butcher shop owner, even the restaurant ahjussi next door. Besides them, people whose faces I’d come to know while working part-time were all standing there with something on their shoulders.
“Sion, you’re opening for business, right? We came to see if there’s anything we could help with.”
“I heard the adventurer party praised you highly? Then we should sell you our shop’s ingredients too.”
I froze with my mouth half-open. Then the fruit shop ahjussi shrugged his shoulders with an awkward smile.
“We’re establishing a business relationship, so please take care of us from now on—that’s what this is about.”
Following that, the butcher shop ahjussi strode over. His thick arm wrapped around my neck, and he muttered lowly.
“Don’t mind whatever that big guy said. He’s originally the type who hates standing out, so you don’t need to feel hurt.”
“…”
…What am I that they would do all this for me?
At most two months. I just worked one inn part-time job.
During that time, to them I’m just a greenhorn who suddenly appeared, a stranger who doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s not just talking about this world—I thought it was a fate already decided from the moment I was born as a child without even one parent.
So I chided myself that the sense of belonging I briefly held at Gilbert’s inn was ultimately a fleeting illusion that would disappear.
But what is this? Why are so many people reaching out their hands for just me alone?
It was an incomprehensible emotion. Somewhere in my chest tightened hotly, and something unknowable rose up to my throat, making me feel like I couldn’t breathe.
Afraid I might be consumed by emotion at this rate, I hurriedly bowed my head deeply, then soon forced the corners of my mouth upward. And I shrugged my shoulders as if putting on airs and said.
“What’s there to feel hurt about? It’s a chance to rake in money, so I’m absolutely thrilled!”
At my words, the fruit shop ahjussi’s eyes widened, then he soon burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha, that’s a good ambition!”
“Of course. My inn will do much better than all the shops here!”
When I grinned once more, the other merchants also burst into laughter. The sound of laughter filled the inn’s chilly air and echoed reassuringly in a strange way.
Meanwhile, Gilbert stood awkwardly one step away, then scratched his head and blurted out.
“So, kid. Have you decided on the inn’s name?”
At that question, I caught my breath for a moment and looked around. Feeling the boisterous laughter of the merchants and Gilbert’s gaze, I smiled brightly and answered.
“The Inn on the Boundary!”
Yes, it was the first beginning of The Inn on the Boundary.
