Now that he'd returned to his old self, Lee Yeon-woo found the days when he sank into thought had grown far more frequent.
"……."
It had been no different the day he drew his own blood to make the 'talisman.'
"Coco, come here a moment, please."
"Hello?"
"How would this much do?"
"Hello?"
"So there was a reason you came so obligingly."
Lee Yeon-woo readily admitted it.
"Iing."
"Regrettably, it'll be like this for a while."
So, to speak of the time when 'General Manager Mode' had briefly switched on.
"There's a lot to think about."
This place was a space controlled on the basis of game mechanics.
Before the situation could plunge to ruin—before the 'player,' Kwon Do-heon, failed his mission or died—the General Manager had rung the Golden Bell and rewound time.
He had rewound (Rollback) the system's very timeline to a safe save point.
"……."
No matter how he turned it over, that was no mere virtual simulation.
The General Manager twisted actual space-time itself and turned it back to the past. Because the 'player's' failure and death were erased from the timeline outright, those who were sent back seldom perceived the loop.
The 'time' thus disposed of was converted into 'Nightmare' and accumulated within the hotel.
"…Haa…."
And so Lee Yeon-woo could ask for no punishment whatsoever for that sin.
Not for abetting their deaths day after day. Not for being able to help and choosing not to. Nor for the arrogance of assuming that, because he found it enjoyable, they too would enjoy it.
Surely we could have condemned it with any number of laws and words….
"But now it's become as if it never happened, hasn't it?"
"Yes."
"Where in the world is there a perfect crime to match this?"
"No."
"A dreadful nature."
"No."
Before a crime with neither evidence nor witness, Lee Yeon-woo realized once again.
Even after all that long time spent learning and mastering, in the end Lee Yeon-woo was a person of only this much. And so the only thing Lee Yeon-woo could do was learn more, and longer.
'Perhaps I ended up here because I'm this kind of person.'
Because he was a person no good to have around in society?
'And if that's why my very existence was erased too,'
"No."
"I suppose that would be it."
Having become a murderer who couldn't so much as stand trial, he'd made a leap of logic in his troubled mood.
"A pathetic thought."
Lee Yeon-woo still found it hard to look Cha Do-hyeon in the face.
***
Back again to the rear door of the grand banquet hall.
"……."
Standing before it, Yeon-woo considered that the 'General Manager,' too, was another version of himself.
The 'General Manager' saw it much the same way, though with one slight difference: he was none too fond of 'Lee Yeon-woo.' The reason was easy enough to guess.
It was likely because Lee Yeon-woo himself didn't much care for his own 'conscience' or 'patience.'
'And yet the reason I can't throw them away is that, in the end, I like people.'
What a contradictory creature a human is.
'But the real purpose of raising this subject at all is….'
Lee Yeon-woo glanced up at the 'Guest Without Taste' who had escorted him.
"……."
"Why do you look at me so, Master?"
"I believe I told you to refrain from that deranged title."
"When you say it that way, young lord, it wounds this one's heart so."
"Didn't I tell you not to do that either?"
"If Teacher insists, then there's no help for it. What a pity."
"Am I not seeing to it that there's nothing to pity?"
An odious man, still.
"There's something I want to ask."
"Speak, please."
"I don't remember everything from when I was the 'General Manager.'"
Setting that aside, his 'General Manager Mode' self had lived up to his expectations well enough.
It might be that his self at the time, loathing 'Lee Yeon-woo' so, had directly erased some of the memories; or it might be that, owing to the software's capacity or performance limits, he hadn't received a full handover of all memories and functions.
'Neither possibility can be dismissed.'
And so the present Lee Yeon-woo couldn't know exactly how this 'banquet' would unfold.
"I do know that at the 'main performance' I'll be checking the 'lady's' memories, but."
"Then you as good as know it all."
"And yet, given that, your reaction bothers me."
Wasn't he taking a curiously probing attitude.
"Have you prepared some prank for this banquet?"
"I can't claim there's no small spite in it."
"I hear the post of Executive Chef is on the line, so how very brave of you."
Lee Yeon-woo said firmly,
"I've already promised, on my name and my post, to see that no harm comes to the Human Guests."
"So it seems."
"You prepared this banquet, yes, but you'd do well to remember that the master who lent out the space is me."
"As you surely already know, there will be no crossing of the 'line' on my part."
The old vampire vouched for it with full confidence.
"This is, in the end, a 'game,' is it not?"
"When I came to my senses, that's what it had become."
It was just as he said. He'd learned it while communicating, after a fashion, with Hyeon Si-gyeong inside the 'Lover of Dawn'—but to sum up, once he'd switched 'General Manager Mode' off and on, the board had been laid out like this.
"And so?"
"I did some studying, here and there."
The vampire tapped the head of his cane and spat out an unfamiliar word as if chewing and swallowing it.
"In the end, a 'game' means that while the 'character' inside the electronic device may be hurt, the 'user' must remain safe—isn't that so?"
"Hearing words like character and user out of your mouth is thoroughly disorienting."
"Do you think it isn't for me? What I mean to say is simply this: however much minor mental strain this 'game' may inflict, there will never be a single 'user' who comes to harm."
"That's welcome news to hear."
Coming to a stop before the rear door of the banquet hall, Lee Yeon-woo asked,
"That isn't wordplay, is it?"
"You even gave those slabs of meat sacred blood—so what could possibly be the problem?"
"……."
When Lee Yeon-woo was briefly at a loss for words, the vampire asked with a sly smile,
"Still can't get used to it?"
"How exactly did you think I could ever get used to a word like that?"
"To state my conclusion: no one will be hurt at this banquet."
"Do you have any intention of listening to me?"
"Since you slipped out of the 'Lover of Dawn's' body and lost control of it, he will run wilder, but…."
Glancing over the 'new staff' arrayed with courtesy about the rear door, he went on.
"My disciples will stand in for that control."
They couldn't dare be compared to Lee Yeon-woo, but the disciples the 'Guest Without Taste' had summoned were, to a one, seasoned blood mages. They couldn't oppose the fearsome classical Labyrinth 'White Crow' head-on, but they could place suitable restraints on it.
Those restraints simply manifested in the form of a 'game.'
"Am I not one who received your blood and serves you?"
"Why…."
He'd meant to snap, why do you have to put it so revoltingly—but recalling the eyes of the disciples ranged at his back, Lee Yeon-woo barely swallowed the words. Berating him was fine when they were alone; he couldn't cut the man down like that before his own subordinates and disciples.
Seeing clean through that inner thought, the vampire smoothly continued.
"You will first attempt an active memory trace to dig up and purify the 'Lover of Dawn's' memories—so I, as a blood mage, can simply ride along on the milestones you set."
He put it grandly: that he'd borrowed the power of Lee Yeon-woo and the hotel.
'No—there's something. It feels like that isn't quite the whole of it….'
He tried to recall more, but owing to the 'memory card crafting' rite prepared as the 'main performance,' his head was already in a terrible tangle. It was because the stray thoughts the 'Lover of Dawn' gave off were nothing to trifle with.
But the old vampire, as if he understood it all, gently closed and opened his eyes and elaborated, in a manner of his own, the strange human concepts he'd studied.
"For me or the 'Drenched One' to respond directly would blow the matter up so large as to backfire, so I had my disciples implant a precise gamification protocol inside the opera-theater structure of the grand banquet hall."
"For the second time now, hearing such modern words out of your mouth really is jarring."
"They helped, and will keep helping, to ensure that this great spiritual surge functions not as a simple massacre, but strictly as a rule-based 'game.' And by this means… mm…."
Once more, he deftly took an unfamiliar word into his mouth.
"By sharing the interface of the one called Kwon Do-heon,"
"Good heavens."
"we've built a workaround to enter through that gap."
"Merciful lord."
One thing was certain, at least: he'd made a truly tear-jerking effort to take in modern culture.
"……."
Listening this far, it didn't seem the 'foolery' this fellow had prepared would cause any truly great trouble, but.
'The point to watch is that this hotel's Monster Guests don't handle people delicately.'
[Coco. Agrees.]
'I can't even begin to gauge how gentle this fellow's "gently" really is.'
[Rude guest!]
"……."
Lee Yeon-woo nearly said inwardly, you used to be worse than this—but let it go.
His business partner, the good cat-teacher, had developed to be this human-friendly; he could hardly throw cold water on it. Instead Lee Yeon-woo silently nodded.
'I have measures of my own, in any case.'
The shadow stretched at Lee Yeon-woo's feet lay quiet, with no trace of a fox about it.
***
The silence of the orchestra pit, sunk deep as a bottomless abyss.
And the red velvet curtains draped in layers about the enormous stage.
Lee Yeon-woo, adorned head to toe in jewels lavish enough to blind the beholder, stood tall at the center of the stage. In a trim posture without a hair out of place, he gazed quietly down at the fathomlessly deep audience seats.
Into that gloom, the faces of the Human Guests taking part in this stage were faintly reflected.
"……."
Lee Yeon-woo's lips traced a smooth arc. It was a supremely mechanical and beautiful smile, cleanly stripped of emotion. He opened that mouth and shattered the silence of the grand banquet hall.
"Esteemed guests in attendance, I would like to begin the grand banquet hall's main performance."
The declaration opening the grand banquet hall's main performance. In the same moment, Lee Yeon-woo moved his blue-blanched fingertips and began to compute magic.
The work of honing his own emotion and blood to retrace the 'lady's' memory and shape a new 'memory card.' To thereby rewrite anew the narrative of the 'White Crow'—that was the aim of all this dangerous staging.
"Humble though it is,"
Lee Yeon-woo gazed at a single point in empty air and laughed low.
"I hope you'll enjoy it."
In that instant of beginning. Tearing the banquet hall's air to shreds, the acrid toxin of red poppies surged over the stage like a tidal wave.
Bzzt, bzzzt—!
Along with an alien noise, the grand banquet hall's lights flickered violently. A din that muddled the ears as much as the reeling vision, growing steadily louder. And then.
BOOM! CRRRRACK—!!
The huge shielding door shattered like paper, and out of the darkness feathers whirled up in a storm.
"■■■…!"
"■■■■■■!!"
"■■■■■■■■■—!!!"
It was the shriek of hundreds of deformed albino birds.
Amid the ghastly howling of birds tangled and fused into one by each other's entrails and blood vessels, space at last twisted. The 'Lover of Dawn,' clad in a pure-white human form, descended upon the center of the stage.
At the very moment the monster's pallid fingertip was about to touch Lee Yeon-woo's crimson-dyed eyes—
"Fuck, break and rally—!!!"
Lee Seon-hae's thunderous shout tore at the eardrums.
"Damn thing."
SLICE—!!
And a blade fiercer even than that shout—Dan-cheong's—sheared off the 'Lover of Dawn's' wrist.
***
Lee Seon-hae had, well, for one thing—
"……."
been holding up all right.
'They said it was a world gone plenty mad to begin with.'
Here, a human with two eyes got treated like an alien—so what could you do about it.
She'd endured a mentally-eighteen-year-old high school senior emptying a gun into a minor barely five years old. She'd bitten down and endured the whole thing being served up in order, opening ceremony and appetizers and formal dinner and even a cringe-inducing welcome speech, all under the banner of a 'banquet.'
"……?"
So even when a somehow-familiar face went up onto the stage plastered with dangling ornaments, she'd meant to hold out one last time, she really had.
"…? Huh?"
"Wait a second, that face is…."
"The lady…?"
Because the resemblance had been striking from the start, Kwon Do-heon—the only one in the party who'd stolen a glimpse of the 'Lover of Dawn's' memories—muttered, recalling the albino lady.
But the moment that identity became perfectly clear—
"Ah, no, that's—no way."
"The fuck is that guy doing up there!!"
"Oh no, my nephew!!"
"Well, would you look at that—flat-out bait."
"Hey, hey, the crow's coming, the crow!!"
"General Manager, are you fucking out of your mind?!"
White birds of every kind poured in, filling the banquet hall's ceiling. The 'White Crow' glared at Lee Yeon-woo with bloodshot eyes, and Lee Yeon-woo, meeting that glare, turned his head their way.
At the same moment, with impeccable timing, a notice window began to shimmer flauntingly before her eyes.
"……."
▶ [SYSTEM] Main Quest Updated
▶ General Manager's Request: [Watch the Main Performance, 'Lover of Dawn']
"…Main performance."
By the time that absurd line lodged itself in her sight, something inside Lee Seon-hae snapped clean off.
"Ha…."
"D-Director?"
"Haha."
"Director? Director??"
"Hahaha!!"
She resolved anew that she would absolutely drag every last one of these people to a psychiatrist.
"Fuck, break and rally—!!!"
Before those words even finished, Dan-cheong's blade struck away the 'White Crow's' wrist.
Instinctively, Lee Seon-hae snatched Hong Gyeong-yeon into the crook of one arm and wrapped him tight, and with the other hand seized Kwon Seung-jae firmly by the collar, then vaulted onto the stage without hesitation.
"D-Director? Director?!"
"Wh-whoa, whoa, sweetheart. Director. Let go of this a sec…!"
"Tch, what a lovely mess this is."
Behind her came the sense of Cha Do-hyeon clicking his tongue and following right along.
Having run up onto the stage, Lee Seon-hae immediately grabbed both of Lee Yeon-woo's forearms roughly.
"Mr. Yeon-woo!!"
"I have no excuse."
"You think I'm doing this to hear a five-year-old talk about having no excuse?"
"I'm sorry, no—five…?"
All around, the bursting sounds of warding off the storm of white feathers went off without end.
Even as her mind reeled from the ear-splitting noise and the violently flickering lights, Lee Seon-hae poured stubborn strength into the hands gripping Lee Yeon-woo.
"Is this really a method where nobody gets hurt?"
"That's truly a misunder—"
"Lee Yeon-woo!!!"
BOOM! CRRRACK—!
Those who'd climbed onto the stage together were kept busy fending off the deformed birds that surged in without cease.
Even in that bloody bedlam, the crimson eyes of the 'White Crow' bored down solely on Lee Yeon-woo alone, as if to pierce him.
Lee Yeon-woo's getup, too, had been done up for one purpose only: to summon the 'White Crow.'
"I asked if this is really a 'method where nobody gets hurt'!!"
Lee Seon-hae knew what 'overwriting' was, too.
That 'The Devil' was already overwritten onto Lee Yeon-woo, and that he intended to overwrite the 'lady' onto himself to contract the 'White Crow' and wrap this whole thing up.
But whether that was truly a 'method where nobody gets hurt'—whether Lee Yeon-woo was inside the scope of that 'nobody'—she couldn't be sure.
For she was this hotel's first 'Human Guest' to know Lee Yeon-woo's ways.
"Fine, all of it, fine. I mulled it over the whole few days the banquet was being prepared, and I couldn't come up with any better method than this. So I ought to follow the one who says he's got a method, right? If I don't want to get kicked out without my memory again, or watch you wither away. Isn't that so?"
"……."
"But you see, here's the thing. I don't care one bit whether you're a Dokkaebi in a Labyrinth or an NPC in a game or whatever. I'm just of the mind that a happy ending built by sacrificing one child isn't a happy ending. If that's the price, then why live? Where's the meaning in it?"
Lee Yeon-woo murmured, "As I said, I'm not a chi—," but regrettably it didn't reach Lee Seon-hae's ears. No exaggeration—it was simply too loud with everyone defending, and there was too much chaos.
She just wanted to ask.
"Are you really okay?"
"Director."
"Answer me honestly."
It seemed asking at least this much might let her steady her churning mind.
"You're not, Lee Yeon-woo."
Once more the toxin of red poppies came bearing down on the stage, and the keen edge of Dan-cheong's blade cutting it away brushed cool across Lee Seon-hae's cheek.
"You're a person."
"……."
At that, in the very heart of this raging catastrophe, Lee Yeon-woo—with that boyish face—wore a smile more grown-up than any of theirs.
"…Haha."
He said,
"Nothing is okay."
"…Mr. Yeon-woo."
"And so I mean to get better, one thing at a time."
Even as roars and screams scattered on every side, in an attitude without a hair's wavering, he grasped Lee Seon-hae's shoulder—gently, but firmly.
"So."
It was such an unfamiliar sight, yet for as little as she'd seen of it, that expression and that touch felt far too familiar.
"Just once more, please help me."
It was a good while before Lee Seon-hae could open her reluctant mouth.
"Help you."
"I'll show you with results."
"Is that really all it takes?"
"I can't be certain, but I think I can try."
"Try."
In that word, Lee Seon-hae could find nothing wrong.
No one can be wholly okay. No one can be perfect, nor certain of the future. And even if certain, whether the foreseen future actually arrives is unknown too.
The way Lee Seon-hae saw it, that was precisely why we were people.
"Mr. Yeon-woo."
"Yes, I'm listening."
"The instant this is over, you're going to a psychiatrist with me. Understood?"
"To be honest, I was going to ask you first."
"You had such an admirable thought, did you?"
"I didn't quite realize it while I was alone, but."
Lee Yeon-woo gave a rare, awkward smile.
"It seems I'm ill."
"This is maddening, really…."
"Please help me."
At the words asking for help yet again, Lee Seon-hae bit down hard on her lip and presently asked,
"Until when."
"Until we have the upper hand."
He added,
"It won't take that long."
"I don't… quite believe that."
"I only don't want anyone else to get hurt."
"You're going to give me an ulcer."
Lee Seon-hae knew that Lee Yeon-woo himself was not included in that 'anyone,' and that even the 'White Crow' was. Knowing it, she still couldn't bring herself to say anything more.
It was because Lee Yeon-woo was doing his very best, and Lee Seon-hae couldn't propose a better best than his.
"Becoming an artist doesn't exactly make you omnipotent, huh."
"It would be a great help if you, Director Lee, would look for a way to keep the others alive."
"What kind of upbringing did you have, to talk so sweetly?"
"Regrettably, it was mostly self-taught."
"Still, I trust you caught that it was a compliment."
Only then could Lee Seon-hae force her gaze away from Lee Yeon-woo and look squarely at the stage where every manner of disaster rained down. Into her sight came Hong Gyeong-yeon, forcing strength into his legs to stand.
"Director."
"Was I out of my mind for a second there?"
"I really want to tell you no, but…."
"If it's a no, then it's a no."
Trembling all over, Hong Gyeong-yeon still gripped a gun. Lee Seon-hae looked at him quietly.
"……."
The one who'd first taught Hong Gyeong-yeon the marksmanship that saves people was none other than Lee Seon-hae.
"…Just trust your teacher."
"I always trust you, Teacher."
"Yeah?"
Lee Seon-hae threw an arm around Hong Gyeong-yeon's shoulder and looked out over the stage where all manner of calamity ran riot.
"Then—shoot."
She couldn't show the 'way' like Seome, nor pierce to the 'essence' like Kwon Do-heon. But at the very least, she could point out the 'danger.'
"Leave that bird bastard alone and Mr. Kwon Seung-jae's necklace snaps."
"Ugh, for all his looks, why's that man such a sunfish…!!"
And for now, that alone felt like enough to bear all of this.
***
Except.
"…! What in the—"
"Well now?"
All at once the 'banquet hall' rippled, and the 'Guest Without Taste's' low, smooth voice came through.
"Dear me—it seems this 'hotel,' too, doesn't welcome the General Manager's excessive personal workload."
At the same moment that voice resounded within the Human Guests, the vampire's bloodstream flowed back up through the system and forcibly linked Kwon Do-heon, who'd been in the audience, to the Labyrinth's core interface.
Lee Seon-hae grasped it without even knowing why she knew,
"…!!"
but there was nothing she could do.
"Do-heon!!"
Director Lee's scream was torn apart before it could even become a scream.
"…?! Do-heon, the student, Do-heon?!"
"Uh-uh…? Where'd my nephew go?"
"All hell's broken loose, I tell you, all hell."
"What is this, why now…!"
Kwon Do-heon was nowhere to be seen.
The grand banquet hall's once-magnificent walls writhed like a beast's entrails in an instant and were crushed into bloody pulp, and the antique theater's stage rapidly collapsed, crumbling down into a vast darkness of unknowable depth.
Then the backdrop changed. To a place reeking of ash, burning crosses driven in everywhere….
"……."
The world of the White Crow.
"Heh."
"In practical terms, nothing has changed."
At the composed tone, Lee Seon-hae turned her head to look at Lee Yeon-woo.
"Mr. Yeon-woo."
"A little longer and I could've ended it quickly."
"This is, so, um…."
"The vampire seems to have thrown a tantrum."
When he swept a hand up over his face, his hair and eyes returned to their familiar color.
"He's tangled up a board we could've cleared easily."
"What is this situation?"
"Kwon Do-heon has fallen into the 'Lover of Dawn's' mindscape."
Lee Yeon-woo explained in an even tone.
"It seems he pried into the rite I was performing and linked it with Kwon Do-heon's interface."
"I really can't follow a single word."
"If we leave it like this, Kwon Do-heon will be laid bare to countless dangers inside the 'Lover of Dawn.' In there, there's no person and no system that can help him, so he really could die."
"You said nobody would get hurt or die."
"Yes, that's the truth of it."
Somehow that came off like an excuse, so Lee Seon-hae asked,
"So… so what do we do, then. What are you thinking right now."
"……."
"Mr. Yeon-woo?"
"I'm sorry—I couldn't find the right word."
Lee Yeon-woo said,
"It seems I'll have to synchronize with one of the 'figures' inside the 'Lover of Dawn.'"
"How—how is that any different from 'overwriting' right now? You said you weren't overwriting onto yourself."
"I can't promise there'll be no side effects, but I'll try."
"You could stand to try a little less!!"
And naturally, Lee Yeon-woo paid it no mind.
"It's not a big problem."
"No, wai—"
"I'll make it so."
Presently Lee Yeon-woo's figure, too, vanished.
"What the—"
With a whoosh.
As if he'd stepped behind the stage.
"……."
"It won't do to change the protagonist."
"Huh?"
When she heard the taunt—presumably 'Count Dracula's'—Lee Seon-hae couldn't hold back.
"That… that…."
"Director…? Wait—"
"I'll ■■ open that ■■ and ■■■■ the ■■ and ■■ it ■■■ into the ■■ ■■■!!!"
"Teacher, please, Teacher!!"
"I swear I'll just ■■■ the ■■■■ and ■■■ ■■■■ ■■■ till the ■■ ■■■!!!"
"Ah, Teacher, please, your temper…!!"
There's a saying in this world that birds of a feather flock together.
Lee Seon-hae, a documentary director who from her youth had vividly captured on camera, as though it were her mission, every dark face of a world rife not only with sexism and racism but with discrimination against humanity itself.
She'd grown more sedate with age, they said. But why do you think she became Hong Gyeong-yeon's partner?
"■■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■!!!"
"Teacher!!!"
It was because when Hong Gyeong-yeon held back, she did not.
***
Even amid the Labyrinth's transformation, the raw, unfiltered fury of a Republic-of-Korea film director kept bursting forth. And there was one demon placed in the crisis of having to censor those explosive words in real time.
"……."
"Uh… Lucy? Something wrong?"
"……."
"Lucy…?"
When the world-class singer 'Lucy,' flying in on a private jet bound for Korea, suddenly fell silent, his manager didn't know what to do and panicked. The face of that fine, handsome man had gone utterly forlorn.
Why was the kid, who'd been all excited until just now, acting like this?
'Did he read some hateful comment somewhere…? No, he's not the type to get like this over a few nasty comments.'
If anything, it was more like he was worn out from unexpected overtime….
"……."
It's just my imagination, right?
'He's been acting oddly lately.'
As if there were anyplace in the world that would hand the great singer Lucy extra work he hadn't foreseen.
***
"Uh…."
Meanwhile, Kwon Do-heon.
"Uh… uh-uh…?"
woke in some eerie corridor.
"……."
What the fuck,
'Where even is this.'
Somebody help me.
Today of all days, Kwon Do-heon found himself missing Seome all the more.
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