Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Chapter 377 - Webtoon Side Story: Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Branch 4 (48)

Webtoon Side Story: Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Branch 4 (48)

 

What on earth is going on… 

 

It was the exact moment I was about to speak. 

 

Ilmiho quickly grabbed my waist.

 

Practically holding me in an embrace, he smiled softly and said to me.

 

“Wow, the homeless guest walked out on his own two feet. What a relief, right?”

 

Relief, my foot.

 

I glared at Ilmiho.

 

‘A person just vanished right in front of my eyes.’

 

On top of that, what did it mean that he was already a deceased person? 

 

My mind grew complicated as I recalled the eerie status window I had just seen.

 

It was my first time ever seeing a status window like that. 

 

However, there was a benefit to Ilmiho having drawn the attention away.

 

The people around hadn’t perceived the fact that the homeless man sitting over here had vanished. 

 

If the guests had noticed, our hotel really might have become a ‘haunted house’.

 

It was then.

 

Someone roughly shoved Ilmiho’s body away.

 

“…Back off.”

 

It was Han Woohyun.

 

He had moved from the front desk to where Ilmiho was with unbelievable speed.

 

He glared at Ilmiho. It seemed he had noticed my stiffened expression.

 

At that, Ilmiho laughed while taking an exaggerated step back.

 

“What’s with you? I may be a fox, but I don’t toy with humans.”

 

“Toy with them?” 

 

Han Woohyun’s face contorted.

 

He looked as if he wanted to grab Ilmiho by the collar right then and there.

 

I grabbed Han Woohyun’s hand.

 

“Don’t.”

 

I gestured toward the surrounding guests with my chin.

 

The guests were spectating the scene between me, Ilmiho, and Han Woohyun with intrigued faces.

 

Seeing that, Han Woohyun looked at me worriedly before letting out a sigh and stepping back.

 

At that, Ilmiho smiled leisurely and stepped away.

 

“Aren’t you being a bit too jealous? I was just comforting the startled Boss….”

 

No, the moment he tried to slip away.

 

I snatched his arm.

 

“?”

 

“You should leave that behind before you go.” 

 

“W-What do I need to leave behind?”

 

Ilmiho ‘pretended’ to tilt his head in confusion.

 

But he couldn’t fool me.

 

Because I had just seen everything.

 

“That wine you’re hiding behind your back.”

 

I pointed to the wine bottle hidden behind his arm.

 

It was the wine bottle left behind by the strange guest just moments ago.

 

When I pointed at it, Ilmiho’s expression stiffened rigidly.

 

“What are you going to do with this if you take it?” 

 

“What do you mean, what. I have to check it.”

 

And why you hid it.

 

Looking at Ilmiho’s dumbfounded expression, I snatched the wine bottle from him.

 

* * *

 

[My grandfather once said he met a strange man at the Liber Monastery a long time ago. He was the neighborhood’s famous liar, so you can’t believe everything he said. But I’m telling you this because what he said back then was quite significant.]

 

I recalled the words Louisa had said.

 

This phone call had taken place right after the news that Vincent Jourdan had visited this hotel spread across France. 

 

We had been having a business conversation about officially announcing the opening of Dungeon Hotel Branch 4 in France and fulfilling the terms of the documents we drafted back then, when Louisa suddenly brought it up mid-conversation, saying it had just crossed her mind.

 

[At the time, the members of the Resistance believed that Liber’s wine drove people mad. That’s why they purposely fed it to the Nazis. But among them, there was a man who supposedly went mad after drinking Liber’s wine. That man said he had gone and seen the future of the Liber Castle.]

 

‘The future?’

 

[Yes. That they saw Liber Castle transform into a hotel, and foxes and mice working in that hotel.]

 

Another eerie story.

 

Why are all the damn stories related to Liber Castle nothing but eerie?

 

‘When did you say your grandfather passed away?’

 

[It’s been a good 30 years.]

 

‘….’

 

Am I supposed to believe this?

 

What if Louisa is deceiving me?

 

Or what if, like Korean shamanic superstitions sometimes do, a story made up on a whim was altered in Louisa’s memory and roughly pieced together to fit the present?

 

But no matter how much I thought about it, the former was one thing, but the latter was a bit strange.

 

Even if someone could plausibly make up the part about a hotel, getting the details right about foxes and mice would be difficult.

 

What kind of person would ever predict that foxes and mice would be working in a hotel?

 

Even I didn’t know I’d be running a hotel with foxes and mice before I started working here.

 

In that case, only the third hypothesis remains.

 

‘Those words are true.’

 

Meaning, that madman really did time travel.

 

Recalling that conversation, I looked down at the wine in my hand.

 

Run Faster Through Time, Run! Wine (S)

 

—Drinking even just half a bottle allows one to visit and see their desired future.

—Duration: 5 minutes

—Expiration Date: Expired

 

…It was the moment that unbelievable hypothesis was proven.

 

So, this is real?

 

This wine is different from the one Hoesaegi and the others made before.

 

It doesn’t let you go to the past; it lets you go to the future.

 

‘The grade is much higher, too.’

 

S-rank.

 

In fact, looking at the item’s effects, it’s practically an EX-Rank, not an S-rank.

 

To think it can defy time.

 

Isn’t this something that countless physicists only theorize about?

 

As soon as I confirmed the effects of this wine through ‘Hotelier’s Eyes,’ the ones I naturally pressed for answers were the mice.

 

And among them, Grey.

 

“Once you complete this ‘task’ you guys keep talking about, can you also see the future through the wine?”

 

“…!”

 

Grey covered his mouth in shock at my words.

 

Judging by his reaction… I’m right.

 

“I have heard that it might be possible, but….”

 

Heard?

 

From whom?

 

Grey spoke with a sullen face.

 

“But we have never made such a wine ourselves.”

 

That’s a lie.

 

If the mice have never made such a wine, then what is the wine I just found?

 

It was the moment I was about to point that out.

 

Another thought entered my mind.

 

Come to think of it, something was indeed strange.

 

I recalled the note and pendant I had found in the chapel the day after returning from the past with Mr. Vincent.

 

It seemed that note and pendant had appeared as a result of us changing the past.

 

Just like how the future the fox showed us never came to pass.

 

If the present is influenced by the past, and the future is influenced by the present—

 

‘At the point when that disheveled man from the past was coming here, it was already decided that the Liber Monastery would become a hotel.’

 

Even though the ‘task’ had already been accomplished at that point?

 

The quests up until now had essentially been progressing just to lead me to the ‘task.’

 

If that was the case, there was a point that didn’t quite add up.

 

At this point, there was something I needed to confirm.

 

“The one who ordered that ‘task’ is the master of Liber, right?”

 

When I asked, Grey’s expression turned sullen.

 

“…Boss… even we don’t know what will happen after we accomplish the ‘task’.”

 

It was the exact same thing he’d said last time.

 

Even though his affinity was at 95.

 

No, what does affinity even have to do with the task in the first place?

 

“And it’s difficult for us to talk about the previous master of Liber. That person… is precious to us. Of course, you are also incredibly precious to us now, Boss.”

 

Grey’s words seemed quite sincere.

 

It didn’t seem like I would get any more truth out of him even if I pressed further.

 

“Alright. I won’t ask any more about that. But what does getting close to humans have to do with the ‘task’?”

 

When I asked, Grey seemed to ponder for a moment, then smacked his lips. 

 

“…The head of the Liber family is guarding time. But the task of guarding time is incredibly difficult and grueling work. It can’t be done without a strong sense of duty. So, when passing that power down to humans, a method to assimilate among humans and share that power was necessary. But we… as you know, are mice living in the dark, so we probably lacked the ability to understand humans. So perhaps Lord White…”

 

Grey’s face darkened. He soon shook his head side to side and covered his mouth.

 

“I can’t say any more! Grey needs to go upstairs now and help the other spirits! Please don’t tell the other mice that I told you this either!” 

 

Saying that, Grey ran out toward the basement door. 

 

I let out a sigh as I watched Grey’s back disappear through the exit.

 

Then, in the quiet basement, I spoke up.

 

“Just now, doesn’t it seem like that ‘master of Liber’ is a reptile?”

 

At my words, a man stepped out into the light from a dark, quiet corner of the basement.

 

His bright yellow eyes gleamed even in the dark.

 

But upon stepping into the light, his shabby appearance wasn’t particularly different from a human’s.

 

His name was Merlin Gray.

 

He was the ‘reptile’ I had secretly summoned using the employee dispatch slot.

 

“Hey, I don’t appreciate you calling a dragon a reptile, you primate!”

 

“…I don’t mind being called a primate.”

 

He smacked his lips at my answer. Then, he said this.

 

“But I think you’re right. White…… That sounds like a family name I’ve heard somewhere.”