Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Chapter 333 - Webtoon Side Story: Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Branch 4 (4) 

Webtoon Side Story: Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Branch 4 (4) 

 

After Louisa left first to finalize the minor terms with the guild, it was just Han Woohyun and me. 

 

We decided to unpack at the hotel and spend a few days exploring the surrounding area.

 

I needed to learn about local specialties to decide what kind of menu to offer for breakfast at the hotel. 

 

So, we planned to visit the nearby restaurants one by one.

 

“By the way, doesn’t the guild say anything when you take such a long vacation?”

 

I asked Han Woohyun, thinking of Uncle Minhyuk.  

 

Uncle Minhyuk, despite being an S-rank hunter, used to go to work like an ordinary office worker.

 

He would leave after breakfast and come back before dinner.

 

Looking back, I think the most important reason he maintained that lifestyle was probably because of me. 

 

So that he could share at least two meals a day with me.

 

But even setting that aside, I had never once seen Uncle Minhyuk slack off. 

 

“He gave the whole team a vacation after we closed the sudden dungeon last time.”

 

“Ah.”

 

The B-rank dungeon break that had occurred near Gwangju came to mind.

 

I remembered the terrified citizens fleeing in panic during the incident.

 

And the association hunters who had stood their ground, tense and alert, until the Hanwoon Guild members arrived.

 

Most of the association hunters were C- or D-rank.

 

A B-rank dungeon break could only be closed by an A-rank hunter.

 

That meant those people had risked their lives to hold the line at the scene.

 

Since the emergence of hunters, great disasters had come to be regarded less as calamities and more as something like “manageable resources,” but whenever something like this happened, the reality hit home.

 

The Great Catastrophe was still just that—a catastrophe.

 

For civilians and hunters alike, a dungeon break was still nothing short of a disaster.

 

And that’s precisely why a place like the Dungeon Hotel—meant for those lost within dungeons—was necessary.

 

I was lost in those thoughts when it happened.

 

As Han Woohyun drove around to check out nearby restaurants, he spoke up.

 

“But isn’t it strangely quiet around here?”

 

I nodded, understanding exactly what he meant.

 

Quiet.

 

In other words, this was what it implied.

 

After the Great Catastrophe, dungeon breaks that occurred all over the world had left their marks behind.

 

Especially in rural areas with fewer people than cities, those traces tended to linger much longer.

 

A deep crater in the middle of a vast field, or a half-collapsed building left as it was.

 

Just as traces of the First and Second World Wars still remain throughout Europe, marked with memorial signs, the places where dungeon breaks had occurred also bore marks to remember the events that once brought catastrophe to the world.

 

But here—there were no such traces, nor any signs meant to remember them.

 

When we found it strange and went into a nearby restaurant to ask, the waiter answered with a bright smile.

 

“Wow, your French is really good for an East Asian.”

 

Thanks to my Communication skill, my French must have sounded quite fluent.

 

But, well…

 

‘He doesn’t recognize me.’

 

Judging by the fact that he referred to me and Han Woohyun simply as “East Asians,” this town really did seem to have little to do with hunters or dungeons.

 

It was the complete opposite of what had happened right after we landed at the airport, where quite a few people had recognized me.

 

By the way, does this count as racism?

 

As I was briefly mulling that over, the waiter spoke again.

 

“This town has never experienced a dungeon break. Because of that, people used to say it was a blessed place. Well, there’s also a rumor that so many soldiers died on the nearby beaches during the World Wars that the lingering spirits scared dungeons away—but that’s all nonsense. It’s probably just because this place is so rural that even dungeons passed it by.”

 

“Rural?”

 

The skinny waiter looked to be barely in his early twenties at most, yet he referred to himself as a local born and raised here.

 

“It’s boring. Everyone knows how many chickens their neighbors have, whether they had scrambled eggs for breakfast or eggs Benedict. And unlike Bordeaux, there are hardly any proper wineries around here. It’s just chicken, eggs, chicken, eggs, chicken, eggs…”

 

Hadn’t they said this town was famous for poultry farming?

 

Only then did I realize that the waiter’s interest in us wasn’t because we were “East Asian,” but because we were outsiders. I ended up making an awkward expression.

 

“Still, aren’t there some things worth seeing? I heard there are a few famous historical sites if you go toward the coast.”

 

“You don’t mean the trenches the Nazis dug, do you? Oh, what—are you interested in experiencing what it was like to be a captured British soldier?”

 

“….”

 

“I was born in the red-roofed house right in front of that place, you know. Do you have any idea what the lifelong dream of the kids from that neighborhood is?”

 

“…I’m not sure?”

 

“To leave this town!”

 

The waiter exclaimed, eyes wide open.

 

He looked like someone who harbored a deep grudge over never having managed to leave this place.

 

I had the uneasy feeling that I’d struck a nerve with the wrong question, but there was nothing to be done.

 

Han Woohyun, sitting beside me, had no idea what we were talking about in French and was busy eating escargot drenched in basil sauce, leaving me to deal with the situation on my own.

 

“Still, it’s not exactly the same town, is it? The beach is an hour away from here, so you could say it’s a slightly different area…”

 

“A different town?”

 

Just as the waiter was about to say something, looking utterly dumbfounded by my awkward attempt at justification, a massive shadow fell over his back.

 

“Eric!”

 

“B-Boss…”

 

The massive figure looming behind him was dressed in a spotless white chef’s uniform, holding a hook in one hand and a knife in the other.

 

Both were clearly cooking tools, but in this situation, the problem was that they looked less like instruments for preparing escargot or lobster and more like tools for preparing Eric.

 

“What do you think you’re babbling about to the customers! Because of you, the onion soup’s completely burned!”

 

“S-sorry, U-Uncle B-Benny…”

 

Wait… Uncle?

 

So in the end, whether it was this town or the next, Eric had completely failed to escape it.

 

Terrified of his Uncle Benny, Eric scurried straight back into the kitchen.

 

Once he was gone, the red-haired, thick-mustached Uncle Benny glared down at me with fierce eyes.

 

He looked like an enraged bull in an arena, and I instinctively shrank back.

 

Meanwhile, Han Woohyun beside me lifted his gaze warily toward the man.

 

“Is that guy trying to pick a fight with you?”

 

“No, it’s not like that…”

 

Bang!

 

I was startled when I saw the plate that Uncle Benny set down.

 

“Cheese fondue, Miss. Compliments of the chef. I was worried Eric might have bothered you too much.”

 

“…Yeah, ah…” 

 

So this was… service?

 

For some reason, I found myself staring at the vegetables, bread, and meat—each one cut adorably into cat shapes.

 

I vaguely remembered hearing that since this village was in northern France, there were quite a few places that served cheese fondue.

 

But we had come here because it was an escargot specialty restaurant, and as far as I knew, cheese fondue wasn’t even on the menu—

 

I realized the true nature of this sudden “service” when I noticed the words carefully written beneath the plate in something like balsamic sauce.

 

Boss Lee♥

— Holy Holic —

 

…So he was a Holy Holic fan.

 

Only then did I understand why Uncle Benny had kept sneaking glances at us from the kitchen.

 

“Ah, you recognized me. The waiter didn’t seem to, though.”

 

“Eric’s a bit of an idiot. He has no eye for these things. But I—despite how I may look—”

 

He set a kitchen knife down on the table with a solid thunk.

 

Thick veins bulged along his wrist—one that looked nearly three times the size of mine.

 

There was no way he could overpower me, not unless he was a hunter—but still, for some reason, a flicker of fear rose in me.

 

At the sight of the knife, Han Woohyun instinctively shifted into a defensive stance—until he noticed the words etched along the blade and froze.

 

Holy Holic

 

Lee Junghyo, forever~

 

At the end of the message, there was a little cat paw print drawn.

 

Is it really okay to engrave something like that on a chef’s knife?

 

“If you could leave us an autograph before you go, it’d be an honor to our family, Boss.” 

 

An honor to the family felt a bit much. I forced a smile.

 

“Ah, and this is to go with the cheese fondue. It’s a white wine, produced at the winery just nearby. It’s quite well-regarded in this region—called the Saint-Ribert Winery…”

 

Eric said there weren’t any proper wineries in this area—so maybe it was one of those places only locals, or only those in the know, were aware of.

 

Anyway—

 

Saint Ribert.

 

As I tasted the white wine Benny the chef poured, I tried to recall where I’d heard that oddly familiar name before.

 

That name… I mean…

 

But before I had the chance to dwell on the sense of déjà vu it evoked, something strange suddenly appeared before my eyes.

 

Sudden Quest: “Ultimate Recipe — Wine”

 

— You have discovered a master who possesses the “Ultimate Recipe — Wine.” Learn the Ultimate Recipe.

 

— Completion Reward: 100G; when the recipe is used, customer satisfaction becomes 100%, and affinity with spirits increases by 10%.

 

…?

 

It was a quest window I hadn’t seen in a long time.

 

“What is this supposed to be?”

 

Without realizing it, I frowned.

 

Seeing that, Chef Benny muttered in a small voice,

 

“Is it… not to your taste… Boss…? Still… could you… give me an autograph…?”