Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Chapter 91

87. The Tavern Was Also A Hotel

 

Moran Tavern

 

I stopped walking when I saw the sign being torn down.

 

This was because a man with a lantern saw me and smiled happily as he walked toward me.

 

“Oh my. Lord. Are you from the goblin forest?” 

 

These are human words.

 

There was a definite sense of reality, as there was no strange ringing sensation in the ears.

 

But my Lord? (t/n : 나리 (nari) is term of address used for persons of high rank.) 

 

I looked at my reflection in the puddle of water in the front yard of the inn.

 

My appearance in a beautiful hanbok made of sky blue silk and wearing a long black lip made of jade was definitely Lord. 

 

An outfit that looks like something from a noble family.

 

It was the best status available in this worldview.

 

‘I guess he paid some attention to it.’

 

When I looked back the way I had come, I was dumbfounded at the goblin who was sincere about a fair bet. 

 

“The fortress goblin is acting crazy, so it may be dangerous to enter that forest, Lord. It had just been bright as daylight, but the moon suddenly rose, and the tavern was completely empty of customers.”

 

So, they are expecting me to come into the tavern.

 

“We’ll get you a good deal!”

 

As I watched the man rub his hands together, I let out a short coughing sound and went inside.

 

When I went inside and sat down on the tavern’s table, which looked like it could be called a terrace seat, the housewife came out and asked me what I wanted to drink.

 

“I don’t need anything to drink… but I wonder where I can meet the goblin bride here…”

 

“If you don’t want something to drink, why did you come in here? I can’t give a room to a customer who doesn’t drink even one drink!”

 

The owner stared at me and huffed like she was about to kick me out right away.

 

—This is how it unfolds.

 

It’s a goblin world, but is there such a thing as commercial morality in this world?

 

I asked for a simple main dish and sweet rice wine.

 

Then the owner smiled gently and sat down in front of me.

 

“You must be bored sitting alone. Do you want me to be your drinking friend?”

 

“T, that would be nice.”

 

It’s good, but don’t stick too much!

 

I said inwardly and smiled as wide as I could.

 

Even when playing Monster World, places like hotels, inns, and taverns are often dominated by information guilds because many travelers come and go.

 

This means that this seemingly ordinary owner may never give me any clues about the ‘goblin bride’ until they sell a lot of alcohol.

 

The information guild leader is not easy.

 

“Then, cheers…?”

 

“…C, cheers…”

 

After drinking three or four glasses like that, the owner was slightly drunk, but I felt even more drunk.

 

Before I got too drunk and passed out, I quickly asked the owner.

 

“Do you really know nothing about the goblin bride…?”

 

“A goblin’s bride? What kind of bride does a goblin have? The goblin I know is a very disgraceful looking guy, so it was wrong to marry him.”

 

It’s not. Even though it’s someone else’s face, he’s very handsome.

 

But if the owner really doesn’t know about the goblin bride, is the goblin’s statement that they will give me a clue in this tavern a lie?

 

That’s probably not true because goblins can’t lie.

 

Then… 

 

“By the way, how come our Lord is so handsome…? Hehe… Ta-da, have one more drink…!”

 

“No, I’m… I’m…”

 

I should have said, “I’m going to stop drinking”—.

 

I just stretched out as it is.

 

And when I woke up the next day, someone poured cold water on my face.

 

“Ugh!” 

 

I sat up straight away, and the angry face of the owner appeared before my eyes.

 

“No matter how hard I search my pockets, there is no money!”

 

“….?”

 

What is this?

 

I felt embarrassed and fumbled with my clothes, which had already been taken off.

 

With an angry face, the owner shouted at the man who brought me here.

 

“You can’t bring in customers who came to get free drinks!”

 

“Free drinks…?”

 

The man looked enraged at the word ‘free drinks’ and lifted up something that looked like a laundry bat.

 

At this rate, won’t I end up getting hit by a person instead of a monster?

 

‘This goblin brat, he didn’t put the money in the bag. This!’

 

I quickly knelt down in front of those two people and begged.

 

“W, what if I work here instead? I pay everything with my wages, from what I ate yesterday to the cost of lodging where I stayed!”

 

“Where can I use the gentle-looking gentleman…?”

 

The owner said it as if she were dumbfounded, and the man raised his bat with an even angrier face.

 

It was then.

 

There was a loud noise in the yard.

 

“Owner, come out here!”

 

The man opened the door and went outside. Through the gap, I could see a dark-skinned guy screaming in the yard.

 

The man was holding a bat, but it didn’t seem to be of much use in front of the man’s matchlock and the man’s huge size.

 

By the way, it’s a matchlock gun.

 

He wouldn’t catch people with something like that, so is he a hunter?

 

“Oh my, my lord. Don’t you think that the hair that came out of the food the owner gave earlier wasn’t really hers…?”

 

“So you’re saying that hair is mine? Oho…Did I lie? This body that can even slay a tiger?!”

 

It’s a familiar sight.

 

Rude customer. 

 

I saw it often when I was working part-time at a cafe, and that kind of guest was also a guest at our hotel once as well.

 

I looked at the owner and said,

 

“Do you want me to kick him out, or do you want me to discipline him to some extent because he’s a rude customer?”

 

“…W, what?” 

 

“If you choose one of the two, I will do it. If you do, please let me work here instead.”

 

“Yes…?”

 

If neither the owner nor the man know about the goblin’s bride, there is one reason why the goblin told me to go to this tavern.

 

There is someone among the guests of this tavern who has a clue.

 

***

 

It turned out that the tiger hunter had never hunted a tiger before and that he had recently been wandering around the forest hunting foxes.

 

No violence was used to get the answer.

 

The long gun used by the hunter was a bit broken… but should I say it was a small sacrifice?

 

“How on earth do you clean up the room so quickly?”

 

The owner of the tavern, Park Seobang, was impressed when he saw the room I had cleaned up. (t/n : “서방” (Seobang) is used when a wife call her husband in the past. It’s pretty old-fashioned, nobody calls one’s husband ‘서방’ now.) 

 

“I naturally have quick hands.”

 

I can’t say that my housekeeping skills work even in dungeons, right?

 

Given that I could use not only housekeeping but also the front desk, the tavern seemed to be considered a hotel.

 

“I hope you could lift heavy things, deal with real travelers in one go, and work at our tavern for the rest of your life…!”

 

The owner looked at me with sparkling eyes.

 

“Thanks to this young master, the number of female customers coming to the tavern has increased significantly!”

 

I chose the title ‘young master’. I thought it suited this concept appropriately.

 

It was also true that the number of female customers increased significantly during the eight days I was here, thanks to me dressed up as a ‘young master’.

 

‘Pretty men’ are in demand everywhere just as much as beast men…’

 

Female guests were not real masters with power and wealth for generations, but well-dressed servants working under them.

 

Even though they are made of the same cloth, they are ‘Lady’ in the eyes of the owner who works at the tavern.

 

The location of the Goblin Forest is close to Moran Village, so groups of merchants traveling between the neighboring village and Moran Village often come, and it seemed that customers often came from Moran Village.

 

It was also a good thing for me that there were more customers, whether it was the merchant or the lady.

 

The more people I meet, the more likely I am to hear information.

 

However, over the past few years, I have been so nervous that I wake up every time the first rooster crows.

 

Half of the time limit has passed, but I still haven’t been able to get a single proper clue and am only gaining popularity with customers.

 

‘Tavern Guest 1’ is very satisfied.

 

The probability of ‘Tavern Guest 2’ coming to the tavern again increases by +20%.

 

—Don’t even show things like this as notifications, system.

 

What was absurd was that even during this time, EXP points were sometimes subtly delivered to me when customers’ satisfaction exceeded 100%.

 

100p EXP has arrived as a reward for completing the quest ‘100% Tavern Guest Satisfaction (1)’

 

Yeah… if I think of gaining experience in operating a hotel in a place with nice mountains and good water, it’s a good thing…

 

….I don’t think so.

 

I have to save Hyejin and Yoojun and get out of this dungeon quickly!

 

“Bring me a main table and some makgeolli here!”

 

Meanwhile, business at the tavern is doing very well.

 

Today again, I took my order, ignoring the happy look in the owner’s eyes as she looked at the table where two well-dressed servants sat.

 

“Table 1, one main dish, a bottle of makgeolli… Table 2, two main dishes, one bottle of soju…”

 

After organizing the counter in a way that the owner  found fascinating, I warmed up the already-cooked pancakes with a little oil on the pot lid and took them to the table.

 

Then, a very drunk woman took the table and asked me.

 

“Men… why are they like that…?”

 

I don’t know what’s going on, so how will I know if you ask me?

 

But I’m now a hotel—no, I’m tavern staff with a concept that is kind to everyone.

 

That way, customers will reveal various information to me.

 

“What’s wrong, Lady?”

 

Using my ‘front desk’ skills, I sat down next to her table without losing my smile.

 

“No, our servant…keeps making me upset.”

 

“If it’s a servant, then it’s Lady’s boyfriend… No, you mean secret lover?”

 

“What do you mean lover? I’m just taking him with me because he’s cute.”

 

…I see. The servant is cute. 

 

“But our servant was sold to Mr. Kim’s house this time. You know that? Mr. Kim’s house near the ferry over there.”

 

“Yes, I know.”

 

Since I haven’t been playing around for eight days, the geography around here is pretty easy.

 

And if it is Mr. Kim’s house, it is the house where they bought silk, hairpins, rings, and bedcloths in large quantities from the laborer and asked the hunter to bring back reviews.

 

Should I say he has a big role in this town…?

 

I was also interested in this house because I had heard that when Mr. Kim was young and got lost in the forest and met a goblin, he played with it and then ran away.

 

It might just be a ghost story in this village, but I guess I couldn’t forget it because it was related to ‘Goblin’.

 

“But the lady in the house has been wanting to eat more and more these days. Apples, pears, rice cakes, last time she even wanted to eat jujubes this spring… So these days, this servant is so busy looking for them that she can’t meet me. But does this seem like a reasonable excuse? The fact that a person who didn’t touch such food because she didn’t eat a lot suddenly wants to eat it…. It’s even said that the active person doesn’t even come out of the house these days, so she eats it inside the house. She eats that much…?”

 

I listened to it quietly and smiled slightly.

 

“Does your servant have the personality to lie?”

 

“…Huh? N, no… What do you mean by a lie? He is held captive by me!”

 

The servant girl blushed shyly at my smile.

 

When I smile, all the customers here turn red. It’s strange…

 

“Then you should believe it. It may not be the servant who is lying, but the woman who is lying.”

 

“…The Lady? Why does the Lady lie to people like us?”

 

“She must have circumstances. She won’t be able to eat that much… or have any use for it.”

 

Well. For example, having a wedding that cannot be talked about to the outside world?

 

Pheasant feathers, bedding, silk, hairpins, ringlets, jujubes, apples, pears, and rice cakes.

 

I’ve seen this before.

 

It is food for weddings and feasts.

 

I smiled again and brought my face closer to the servant girl.

 

Then the servant girl’s face became redder than ever.

 

“Can you tell me how long it has been since the lady of Mr. Kim  has been leaving the house?”

 

Isn’t this a story with potential?

 

Mr. Kim didn’t want to marry off his daughter to a goblin, so he swapped his daughter with another child.

 

It wouldn’t have mattered which bride it was, and the goblin would have liked it.

 

Since Mr. Kim wasn’t playing with it, I can teach him a hard lesson. 

 

What a strange human being… No, isn’t he a strange goblin?

 

“I think it’s been about eight days….”

 

I was convinced by her answer.

 

That this is the ‘clue’ that the goblin was talking about.