***
Fortunately, he didn’t stay long that day and left. If he’d continued talking, my unsorted thoughts might have overloaded.
But the relief didn’t last long. Even when the next morning came, my head was still a jumbled mess.
Jeffrey Marches Latour.
The worry that I might be completely devoured by him rang out like an alarm in my head. I wanted to avoid him. However, he was currently the only person who suspected my identity.
Moreover, the words he’d thrown kept circling in my head. An ancestor came here? And the fact that they preferred spicy food… could it be that person was also Korean like me?
Absurdity surged first, and soon after, a chilling fear flowed down my back.
A setting that hadn’t appeared in even a single line of the original novel. I’d endured in this place with the sole certainty that I was a reader who knew the ending.
But the moment unknown information popped up one by one, that certainty shattered to pieces. It didn’t feel like a fictional story was approaching reality, but rather that reality was swallowing fiction whole and being rewritten anew.
If the future I knew was no longer guaranteed, how far could I hold out?
And actually, what I understood least was something else.
The price he’d offered.
What reason would a Grand Mage slowly dying from disease have to covet the body of a mere innkeeper like me?
Was it really just a matter of taste? Or was there some other, much deeper, unspoken intention?
The proposal he’d extended to me could never be explained by a simple line of desire. Beneath it, there was surely something bigger, darker, and somehow ominous lurking.
But I couldn’t even grasp what it was.
And one thing was certain. Whatever the reason, just as he’d wanted, I was completely shaken.
If he’d meant to confuse me, it was already a success.
Even after a day passed, my head was still full of thoughts only of Jeffrey. That lingering feeling affected my work too, so even while carrying ttukbaegi of gukbap, I’d often stare blankly into space.
And right at that moment—
“Innkeeper!”
At a customer’s voice that flew out suddenly, my hand jerked.
Crash—!
“Hk, yes?! …Ah, hot!”
As hot broth splashed onto the back of my hand, searing pain rushed in. Only then did I snap to my senses, and the customer eating gukbap right in front looked at me with startled eyes.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Ah, yes! What do you need?”
“No, I was going to ask for more kkakdugi, but I’ll get it myself. Looks like you need to cool your hand first?”
“Nah, it doesn’t hurt much!”
Hurriedly running over with a plate of kkakdugi, I cursed inwardly.
‘You crazy bastard, get it together! You’re in the middle of business!’
But still, the sensation remaining on my lips from yesterday kept making me recall Jeffrey’s touch. Those fingertips that had slid along my jawline, that breath that had come close.
How the hell was I supposed to forget this?
“Innkeeper! Broth refill here!”
“Ah, yes!”
“More rice too!”
“Yes!”
Of course, when the customers’ demands exploded, I had no choice but to return to reality. Right, this is The Inn on the Boundary. What I need to hold onto isn’t worries or schemes, but money and customers.
Forcibly pushing away the violet eyes disturbing my mind, I headed back to the gukbap pot. As if erasing thoughts, swallowing down anxiety and worries alike.
I just need to ladle out gukbap. For today, at least.
But the next meeting with Jeffrey came much sooner than expected. Well, because I’d burned myself spilling ttukbaegi and had to close the next day, and somehow knowing that, he came precisely on that day.
No, did you install CCTV at this inn or something?
I looked at him sourly, but Jeffrey took off his hood and greeted me with an unconcerned face.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning. …It’s early, you’re diligent.”
What are you doing coming from the crack of dawn? While grumbling inwardly, outwardly I spat out a mechanical greeting.
Jeffrey looked at me greeting him, then reached out his hand without hesitation.
I flinched and tried to pull my hand away, but once again it was firmly caught.
If you’re a mage, why are you so strong? Just as indignation was about to surge up, soon a warm light spread.
Soon after, the blisters on the back of my hand smoothly subsided, and the burning pain disappeared like a lie.
“Whoa…?!”
The spot that had been bright red just a few hours ago now had no trace left. Seeing my surprise, Jeffrey smiled peacefully and said,
“The innkeeper’s hands are the most precious asset for business, after all.”
“Thank you.”
As I kept exclaiming in admiration while touching the hand where the pain had instantly vanished, Jeffrey slowly stroked the back of my hand. Only then did a chilling thrill sweep past.
“It seemed you were thinking of me. Please forgive the rudeness of visiting at such an early hour.”
“Yes…?”
“I heard you had an accident.”
It wasn’t wrong, but somehow the strange resonance in that voice was unsettling.
Jeffrey silently leaned back in his chair and propped his chin. At the end of unbearable silence, I finally opened my mouth first.
“How did you know I was injured?”
His lips curved faintly.
“How pitiful. Please don’t be frightened.”
Don’t be frightened? You have to say something that makes sense.
You know I’m injured when I never told you, and on top of that, you come precisely the next day—how can I not be frightened?
As I glared at him with that thought, Jeffrey raised both hands as if to show he was harmless and said,
“Don’t you know how much of a hot topic your inn currently is within the Empire? When I heard it was closed today, voices of disappointment were heard everywhere. I merely overheard part of those conversations.”
Having nothing to say, I pressed my lips shut, and Jeffrey furrowed his brow subtly as if troubled. Then he raised his hand and lightly tapped the back of my hand.
“…!”
Startled, I reflexively yanked my hand away. Jeffrey just shrugged at seeing me like that, as if it didn’t matter.
“I’ve taken up your time from the morning. I should be going now.”
“…Yes?”
Really? That’s it?
As I blinked stupidly at him backing off so anticlimactically, Jeffrey, who I’d thought would obediently leave, suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand. Our fingers instantly interlocked and intertwined without gaps.
“…?!”
With our fingers laced together, Jeffrey lightly applied and released pressure several times, repeating that action. Each time strength was applied and I flinched, an amused look crossed his eyes as if my reaction was entertaining.
After doing that for a while, he stood up, releasing my hand as if brushing it off.
“Let’s consider this much as payment. Then I’ll see you next holiday.”
I was still frozen with a dumbfounded face. Jeffrey, who’d been moving his steps, suddenly turned back just before crossing the threshold.
“By the way, this is what I think. Your coming here wasn’t coincidence but destiny.”
Suddenly? Hesitating without knowing his intent, I eventually just uttered a light greeting.
“…Yes. Thank you for the treatment.”
At those words, Jeffrey smiled broadly. Along with the sound of the door closing, the bell rang briefly, and the inn soon sank into silence.
In that silence, I suddenly raised a question.
After groping and molesting my hand to your heart’s content, why did you say something like that at the end?
To leave a bitter aftertaste? Or was it a calculated move to deliberately leave confusion so I couldn’t think of other things?
Whatever it was, it was half successful. My head was still caught by him, after all.
…Come to think of it. Had I ever deeply thought even once about why I’d possessed this place?
From the moment I opened my eyes, I’d been desperate just to survive as someone named ‘Innkeeper Sion’. While clinging to selling gukbap day by day, receiving customers, surviving—I’d turned away from and buried what was truly important.
“…”
Why I was here. Why I was in this body.
I’d never once deeply asked myself those questions.
“No.”
I shook my head vigorously.
No, that was just me being familiar with giving up. Easily resigning myself, adapting somehow, stubbornly enduring—that was my way.
For someone who doesn’t know the method to survive, resignation is better than despair, and action takes priority over worrying.
…And yet.
A deep question echoed. Was this really right?
That question, like a stone thrown into a pond, created long-lasting ripples deep in my heart. Even though Jeffrey had left, it wouldn’t settle at all.
That night, when I finally fell asleep after tossing and turning, I had a dream.
That very dream that had taken deep root inside me from long ago, covered in inferiority and helplessness.
That dream was always the same scene. Standing beyond a glass wall, no matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t enter inside. Inside the wall full of sparkling lights, laughter, and applause, not even one of my fingertips could reach.
My place was always outside the wall.
