He stared at me for a long moment, then raised his large hand and ruffled my hair. The warmth conveyed instead of words made a corner of my chest tingle strangely.
So instead of being cocky, I barely managed to catch my breath and muttered quietly.
“…I’ll think about it.”
When he nodded briefly, I turned my head away, avoiding his gaze for no reason. Then I grumbled as usual.
“This is why I call you an old man.”
Smack—
Getting hit hard on the back was, well, only natural.
***
Soon I returned to the inn and packed Gilbert a heap of meal kit gukbap. Before leaving, he looked around the inn for a while, then asked.
“Where’s Happy?”
Cold sweat instantly ran down my spine.
“…He got better so he left on his own.”
Gilbert frowned briefly, then muttered in a low voice.
“Is that so. Anyway, it’ll be quiet for a while, so you should use the money you’ve saved to go on a trip or something. There’s nothing more futile than earning money and dying before you can spend it.”
“What an unlucky thing to say.”
Gilbert didn’t respond to my words and briefly glanced toward Damian. He stared deeply as if confirming something, then left only a brief greeting and turned his back.
I muttered as I watched his figure grow smaller and smaller.
“…I wonder if he’ll be alright.”
“He’s not an ordinary human.”
At the voice from behind me, I turned my head to see Damian standing with his arms crossed. Those red eyes were quietly following the direction Gilbert had left.
“Normal humans can’t kill monsters inside the boundary.”
“…What?”
“Outside the boundary would be a different story. Most of them are weak ones who ran away or were driven out. But the ones living in the Monster Forest are different. They’re the strong ones who’ve protected their territory.”
At those words, I stopped breathing for a moment.
Come to think of it, it is strange that an innkeeper kills monsters with a frying pan. I just nodded along because of his overwhelming size.
Could it be that even Damian getting injured was because of that kind of territorial dispute?
…No, there was something more important than that.
“…You heard all that?”
“Hmph.”
The answer ended with a single snort.
They say birds hear daytime words and mice hear nighttime words. Now even monsters hear them.
I really had to be careful with every word from now on.
***
Just as the customer and Gilbert had said, people who had been visiting the inn completely stopped coming. Thanks to that, the inn was quiet for the first time in a while. So quiet that I could even hear the sound of my own breathing loudly.
“It’s been a while since it’s been this quiet.”
Even as I said those words, I felt anxious inside. For someone who makes a living through business, peace is a harbinger of bankruptcy. Gilbert had casually said to go on a trip with the money I’d saved, but only those who’ve rested can enjoy leisure.
“Well, he seems to be enjoying himself over there at least.”
Damian was the very embodiment of such idleness.
In the midday with sunlight streaming in, he occupied a corner table where no one was sitting and crossed his legs as if it were his own living room. In his fingertips was a cube, one of the things I had summoned while testing out the inn.
Rotating the red, green, and blue sides in turn, he was solving it with a serious expression. Watching him for a while, a hollow laugh escaped me for no reason.
“Is that really so fun…”
I muttered as if talking to myself, shook my head once, then moved toward the kitchen. I was planning to at least make some food. Just then, a leisurely voice followed from behind.
“What temptation have you prepared today?”
Now knowing that temptation meant food, I answered nonchalantly.
“Just eating the leftover gukbap.”
“Again?”
Again? For a freeloader who sat down on his own, he should eat whatever he’s given!
But as always, I continued with a bright smile.
“Gukbap is so good though. It’s filling as a meal and has the perfect trio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. It’s the warmest complete meal humanity has created.”
And as soon as I finished speaking, he set the cube down with a thunk.
The red side faced upward, and the moment that color overlapped with his eyes, the air subtly chilled.
“Even the same tricks get tiresome when they continue.”
“……”
It was a brief statement, but there was a low-lying threat within it.
And only after being subdued by just one sentence did the fact that the man before me was a monster sink into my bones.
***
The truth is, the only reason I could muster any courage in front of Damian was because of the special nature of this place being ‘The Inn on the Boundary.’
The calculation that he couldn’t use violence carelessly because there were many customers, the shallow belief that if he was an intelligent monster, he wouldn’t commit murder without reason.
And… the arrogance that since he seemed simple, I could manipulate him to my will if I just appeased him a little.
Thinking about it now, it was truly an absurd delusion. No matter how popular this inn was as a restaurant, most of the customers were out subjugating and it was currently empty. The only ones left in this wide hall were fragile me and that terrifying monster Damian.
Yet I was being this bold? If he hit me even once, I’d probably end up half-dead on the floor.
Besides, wasn’t Damian a character who didn’t even exist in the original work?
A being about whom I knew nothing except his name—no information, no background.
In such a situation, if he killed me?
It would be the perfect day for murder without a trace.
Suddenly, I imagined it.
The innkeeper discovered as a cold corpse one day. People would tilt their drinks and say one by one.
“He was killed by a monster in the end, wasn’t he?”
“He was young… What a pity.”
In this inn where the smell of gukbap used to rise every morning, instead of that savory aroma, only the smell of blood would linger, and in front of the shop there’d probably be a single chrysanthemum someone had left. And someone would click their tongue and add.
“Still, the gukbap there was really delicious.”
A life where the taste review of my restaurant comes before my funeral.
My stomach churned at the oddly realistic imagination. In the end, I moistened my dry lips with my tongue and pulled myself together.
Right, in times like this, you have to act crazy to survive. What crazy people fear most is someone crazier than themselves. And I’m someone who can go crazier than anyone when it comes to money.
After a brief moment of thought, I quickly put on a cheerful expression and made a heart with both hands.
“But! Today is a boiled pork set meal filled with love!”
And even a high-pitched comment wrung from my soul.
“With the power of Sion’s love~ the taste is doubled! The calories are doubled! And happiness comes as a bonus! For a tiring day, how about a bite of love hotter than gukbap?!”
I even winked and stuck my tongue out slightly.
……But.
No matter how much I mixed in laughter to lift the mood, the air remained frozen solid.
While someone was sweating cold sweat making a service comment risking their life, the man sitting across was looking at me with his arms crossed and an expression like he was a judge.
With those red eyes, the heart once, my face once. The heart again, my face again.
…Are you grading me or what?
Damn it, I’m hurt. I’m hurt!
I’m making a service comment with my soul poured into it right now and what’s with those eyes!
While I was screaming internally, Damian slowly nodded.
“Good.”
What is? The heart? The pork? Or my desperate survival instinct?
……I don’t know.
Whatever it is, it’s good that he said good.
I quietly patted my chest and muttered to myself. Either way, I survived today too.
And I really didn’t know that fact would be this sweet.
***
As I hurriedly turned toward the kitchen, I could feel Damian’s gaze burning into my back. I deliberately ignored it and tied on my apron.
Since I had meat I’d boiled in advance in the morning, the moment I opened the pot lid, steam burst forth. The rich meaty aroma gently tickled my nose, and when I lifted the chunks of meat with metal chopsticks, the surface gleamed with a sheen.
Thunk, thunk, thunk—
Soon the sound of the knife blade cutting the cutting board filled the kitchen. Slicing along the grain of the meat to a consistent thickness, I stacked the sliced meat neatly on a plate and washed lettuce, garlic, and peppers to put in a bowl.
The sauce was, of course, ssamjang that appeared from thin air. A finished product that doesn’t need fermentation. At this moment, I sincerely wanted to bow to the conglomerates.
“You people are the true saints…”
Muttering to myself, I opened the ssamjang lid. As the savory soybean paste aroma spread, tears welled up in my eyes for no reason.
But there was no time to get emotional when there was a monster behind me. I wiped the corners of my eyes and returned to reality. Soon I neatly placed the dishes on a tray and went out to the hall.
Damian put down the cube he’d been fiddling with and raised his head. When our eyes met—those red pupils—I put on my business smile and said.
“Here it is. Today’s special! Boiled pork set meal filled with love!”
As I set the plate on the table, the warm smell spread in an instant, and Damian’s nose twitched. He stared at the meat for a while, then soon raised his head and looked straight at me.
When I smiled at him again, Damian flinched, then turned his gaze to the plate.
Then as he tried to pick up a fork, I hurriedly held out chopsticks.
“Hey hey, in Korea it’s illegal to eat with a fork. It’s almost like biting into the wrap, you know?”
At those words, Damian looked at me dubiously. His expression seemed to say ‘What language is that?’ Still, he obediently took the chopsticks and moved his fingers awkwardly.
