At this point, rather than magic, it seemed more like divine revelation saying not to have other thoughts and just make gukbap.
No money, no convenience, and magic that only summons uselessly diligent items.
“Well… it’s not completely useless, but….”
Usefulness aside, the conclusion was one thing.
There really is something in this inn. And not just some strange energy, but something that twists the logic of this world.
Thinking about it, there were more than one or two suspicious points. The fact that an inn exists on the Boundary, and though I often forget about it, the fact that my eyes are golden.
Jeffrey’s strange behavior, the reason there’s an inn on the Boundary… everything was subtly connected.
In the growing suspicion, I quietly muttered at a thought that suddenly crossed my mind.
“…Handkerchief.”
But this time there was no reaction.
Then Damian, who was pulling out tissues beside me, tilted his head.
“Handkerchief?”
“Just, well… something with meaning.”
At those words, Damian snorted.
“Humans cling to futile emotions.”
“…Ahahaha.”
I could only laugh awkwardly at those words.
Right, emotions.
The futility he spoke of somehow seemed to hit the mark.
Damian probably thinks I’m recalling some tragic first love.
Well, isn’t that a common story? That scene where a female student with long straight hair hands over a handkerchief during school days. No, in this world’s terms, it would be like a country girl offering a handkerchief to a departing man.
But it’s half right, half wrong.
It is a first love. However, it wasn’t a student or a woman, and it was a man whose face I can’t even properly remember.
“When was it?”
I clenched my empty hand and traced the memory.
It was a particularly sorrowful day. But I couldn’t remember exactly why I cried. For a poor orphan, isn’t every day or two filled with sorrow? But that day was especially so.
Was it the day I heard “We just work contract workers hard cheaply and cut them before their first year” after working myself to the bone believing I could become permanent if I worked hard on contract? Or was it the day the boss of my part-time job stole my wages and falsely framed me as a thief?
Whatever it was, that day was the limit.
Normally, I would have gone into my studio apartment less than 5 pyeong, and without even turning on the lights, held my breath and cried silently.
Because I always did.
Because I didn’t have the luxury of tears that could be exposed to the world.
But strangely, that day was different. In that alley where the night air settled particularly damp even though it wasn’t raining, I cried until I couldn’t breathe.
Like someone hoping someone would please listen, unable to hold back.
Then a man with a large bag, perhaps from a sports team, passed in front of me.
He paused briefly, then without a word, extended his hand. At his fingertips was a small white handkerchief.
He didn’t comfort or console me as I sobbed. There wasn’t even a single word like “Are you okay?” He just stood before me for a moment, quietly offering it as if avoiding a drop of rain, then turned his steps as if nothing had happened.
Isn’t that strange?
When someone crying their heart out is right before you, you’d normally say a word or two, yet all he did was stand quietly and offer a handkerchief before leaving.
Yet that single moment strangely remained for a long time.
Perhaps that silence, that quiet waiting became support in a strange way? Maybe that brief moment of just being there was warmer than words of comfort or gestures of sympathy.
Anyway, that day might have been the first and last moment in the world when someone looked at me without conditions.
After that day, that handkerchief was the only evidence of goodwill I possessed.
The memory of someone helping me not to use me, but simply as one human being. And in my life, for the first and last time, a tacky, cheap emotional first love memory of loving a man whose face I can’t even properly remember.
But why wasn’t that handkerchief summoned?
It was definitely something I had. In the back compartment of my desk drawer, I would take it out every time I wiped tears.
As I clenched my empty hand futilely, Damian said quietly from beside me.
“Is it finally over?”
“Huh? Ah…!”
Looking around, the surroundings were already full of miscellaneous items. As I tried recalling this and that experimentally, the inside of the inn had become a complete garbage heap.
“Huh, the time…! Ah, I need to do business!”
Waking from my thoughts, reality hit me then. Whether this world is this way or the inn is strange, in the end I’m a gukbap restaurant owner. I have to open the doors today too, customers are waiting, and business must be done.
Honestly, when you think about it, what’s scarier than these mysterious phenomena is business failing. Just as there are people who go to work even if the world ends, people ultimately get used to daily life.
A world where even if you get depression from work, you get treatment and go back to work rather than quitting. So as a modern person, even though I’ve possessed someone, I must do business.
After all, everything comes down to money in the end.
“I wanted to investigate more….”
At my quiet muttering, Damian turned his head.
“What? Are you saying this inn has magic cast on it?”
“……What?”
Damian slowly looked around the inn and said.
“I thought it was strange, but looking closely, I feel energy similar to the magic that mage human used in this place.”
My mouth fell open in shock at those words. Actually, I was about to ask Jeffrey but felt uncomfortable and couldn’t speak, but now that Damian spoke so definitively, my head cleared.
Then doesn’t that mean this inn itself is a giant magic circle?
Damian wrinkled his nose and muttered.
“It’s as if this inn is one giant……”
“Are you open for business?”
At the suddenly heard voice, I whipped my head around.
A customer stood at the door, and I reflexively pulled out my apron and shouted.
“Yes! I’ll be right there!”
Strange magic, the inn’s secrets, whatever—business continued today.
Because even if the world collapses, you have to eat and live.
Rushing out, fortunately it was a familiar customer.
That customer also ordered a meal kit, perhaps going on the subjugation. When I put the portioned and frozen gukbap into the magic pouch the customer brought, he smiled and said.
“I think I’ll often think of this gukbap even during the subjugation.”
“You’re going quite long for this subjugation?”
The customer shook his head and answered.
“I heard the Empire put in big support. So demon beast hunters are flocking from everywhere. Most young men have jumped in. Well, me too. The village will be quiet for a while.”
So that’s why it’s quiet. I was listening and nodding when I felt a strange presence beside me. Turning my head, Damian was standing beside me before I knew it.
The customer was flustered the moment he saw Damian, then reflexively moved his hand to the sword sheath at his waist.
At that sight, my heart sank with a thud.
Did he see the horn?
Or did he sense demon beast energy?
Unlike me whose body stiffened, Damian was composed. He straightened those broad shoulders and looked down at the customer leisurely as if he were the inn’s owner. When his red eyes tilted slightly downward, the customer froze in place.
“……Is this person a customer?”
I reflexively waved both hands and smiled hurriedly.
“Oh, no! Not a customer, a part-timer. A new part-timer. I just hired him!”
“Ah, I see.”
The customer looked Damian over once more. Because his height, atmosphere, and the overwhelming pressure emanating from him were extraordinary, the customer’s Adam’s apple swallowed uneasily as he said.
“You hired him when it’s about to get this quiet. The owner has no luck.”
“Haha…. Well, it’s always like that.”
I too forced my lips up and smiled, but the awkward atmosphere showed no signs of easing. Normally, a customer who would have thrown a joke like “I’ll see if you’re still here after the subjugation~” this time just nodded silently.
Then he carefully put down the money, gathered the gukbap, and hurried out.
Thud—
With the sound of the door closing, the inside of the inn became quiet again.
“Haah….”
As the tension released all at once, the breath trapped inside burst out long. I was catching my breath while slumped against the wall when Damian tilted his head nonchalantly and asked.
“Part-timer?”
“Yeah, well, these days they’re more precious than gold. Ah…. Is that an intern? Anyway.”
At my joke-mixed words, Damian’s eyebrow rose slightly. Then he smiled with a strangely satisfied expression.
Right, I’m grateful at least you’re simple.
That thought lasted only a moment.
Ding-a-ling— The door opened, and a familiar low voice resonated through the inn.
“Kid.”
It was Gilbert. Still with asymmetrical bushy beard and muscular build.
But while he definitely called me, his gaze went straight to Damian.
“…….”
“…….”
“……?”
Because the two were so large they were almost matched in size, just standing facing each other made the air inside the inn taut.
Even breathing felt conspicuous, and the tension with the earlier customer was child’s play compared to now.
By the way. Why are they suddenly acting like this?
Between the two men silently looking only at each other, I didn’t know what to do and shifted my gaze here and there.
Then, Gilbert beckoned to me without taking his eyes off Damian for even a single moment.
“Come here, Sion.”
Using my name unlike usual? I was looking at him dubiously when suddenly his hand tried to grab my arm. But in that instant, Damian’s hand shot out and blocked Gilbert’s hand.
