It had been called the Foundation.
A collective that flew the banner of cultural welfare promotion. But its true nature was a cancerous villain collective spread across the globe, and what they truly wanted was only revealed as they fell.
They had sought to create a paradise for sinners.
"......"
And so, when he needed 'conviction.' The Guest Without Taste had seen a 'mural' among the ruins where only traces of devastation remained, and through it, he understood. Through the records of that place, he understood.
"...Yes, it stands to reason that even this small country would have a Labyrinth connected to them."
He bore neither fondness nor aversion toward them. Base creatures who reduced even divinity to numbers and tried to cage the bloodline in test tubes. And yet, the collective closest to blood.
So of the vampires they had reared fell to that temptation and were destroyed, and the gifts the Foundation occasionally sent were intriguing. He knew their persistence. They had said they could make anything possible....
'Weariso madness.'
'Tireso people.'
'But entertaining.'
Only now did he seem to understand.
'I can guess who made that young Velmareth.'
It was you.
So he could not have been arrogant. Could not have been served. Would have wanted to be human. Now he understood why that divine authority -- which even a civilian might be tempted by -- had been refused.
Because he knew all too well how the 'entertaining work' these people did broke human beings....
"...Then, was he human?"
'Perhaps a Dokkaebi captured long ago from this small country.'
'That's right -- they said many spirits were procured from the Korean Empire.'
"The Korean Empire... he would not be that old, then. That na has been out of use for so ti."
'Spirits of the Empire can live centuries with ease.'
"No, no, no... younger than that."
He was certainly less than fifty.
"He looked as though he had just been born...."
Due to the peculiarities of a Velmareth, drinking the blood had not yielded clear answers. But being able to faintly sense that soul was a privilege enjoyed as the world's strongest Lidmar.
"Ten years at most. Maybe five."
'Young.'
'Isn't that very young?'
'Feels off.'
"He might have been human before becoming a 'Dokkaebi.' Not in the sense that this place uses to refer to Labyrinths like myself, but truly an indigenous spirit of this land...."
Had there ever been such a case?
"......"
...He should have listened more when that fellow told stories of this small country.
'...A Dokkaebi is, in the end, a spirit ford when long attention and care are poured into sothing. If a human, too, is viewed as an object, then it is not inconceivable.'
So while the exact mont of that spirit's creation was unknown,
'at minimum, before that point, it would have been human.'
And given that disposition, it would not have been a ek one. That was why it had successfully beco a Velmareth. Beco a god. Even if soone had forced it.
'How was that possible?'
It was not pity but genuine puzzlent, for he had believed it impossible.
'Replaced every cell one by one?'
'The Foundation's technology could manage it, but that's too crude.'
'They might have invested in brainwashing.'
'Whether they destroyed the body or rebuilt the mind....'
'If hostages were held, the effect would double.'
'But even that alone.'
'Even that alone.'
'Even that alone.'
Would not suffice.
'The raw material must have been so exceptional that it succeeded despite being forced.'
"......"
'Otherwise, it is impossible even in theory.'
"...Oh...."
The old, wretched vampire grinned wide.
"...So in the end, you were special all on your own."
Ah, pitiable one.
Yours is surely a lantable life.
I shall help you.
***
Yeon-woo did not know The Guest Without Taste all that well, either.
[Pardon?]
'It is true that I do not know much.'
He could only estimate it was a nobleman active in Bohemia from the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century. Regrettable, but what mattered now was not that.
'I can at least see what justification the other side has brought.'
Cramd into an empty box, Yeon-woo clicked his tongue inwardly.
'A hunt.'
Likely inspired by the 'al' Yeon-woo had served.
[Yes.]
'Having seen the traces in the Central Control Room, he must have been itching to build that courteous justification. He is probably constructing an absurd logic of "I shall rcifully kill this pitiable person." '
[mory of the Hunt.]
'Was it a mistake to start with that? How unfortunate....'
Yet there had been no more fitting 'al' to awaken the old vampire's 'senses.'
'He was, after all, a nobleman from an era when hunting was woven into daily life.'
Despite appearances, The Guest Without Taste valued decorum. That was likely the sole form sustaining the last of his humanity. He could not simply charge in like a beast.
An elegant justification for aggression. He had settled on 'the hunt.'
'What a sigh-inducing way of thinking.'
It was a desperate struggle to overco the trauma of his failed Velmareth ritual. Not rely chasing prey, but seeking restitution for his past through the formality of the hunt.
'How does soone that old remain this immature....'
Clink.
Clink.
"......"
"......"
Clink....
The sound of silver cutlery passing over clean plates drifted outside the box. Now the auditory hallucinations of laughter and banquet music mixed in as well.
'My stomach's getting bad.'
[Hello.]
'Yes, I am trying.'
Through those grotesque hallucinations, an elegant yet chilling friction eventually echoed through the empty corridor.
Tap.
Tap....
The tip of a fine, sturdy cane, lightly knocking on each tal cabinet and box lining the corridor as it passed -- like a series of polite raps.
'Feeling quite... unwell....'
[Killing intent.]
'Is what I'm feeling truly fear?'
[No.]
'Every ti I hear that sound, sothing.'
As if leisurely seeking a child who had hidden itself away -- an utterly aristocratic and arrogant search.
'My stomach is really....'
Through the cracks of the narrow, acrid box where Yeon-woo hid, a strange fragrance began to seep in, pushing aside the stale dust.
[Cardamom.]
"Ha."
Sweet yet stinging the nose with an exotic bite. The rich aroma of cardamom, like lemon and mint blended. Despite his deteriorating condition, a small, wry laugh escaped.
'I was wondering where I had slled it.'
Just a short while ago, it was the scent of the 'Ottoman coffee' Yeon-woo had served the opponent in the dining area.
'I never expected the goodwill I served to return as violence of this kind. What creativity. There is an indescribable pressure.'
[Killing intent.]
'So that actually exists....'
Second only to Blood Magic in unfamiliarity.
"......"
Now, truly, a little, this is hard.
Yeon-woo bit his lip firmly and cupped his hands over his solar plexus. As the dense spice scent and arrogant killing intent mixed through the box's gaps, his stomach lurched wildly.
'...Ah, no.'
He felt a strange vibration, like trembling, in his abdon.
'It was fear after all.'
[Yes.]
But not his own fear.
The tenants from Room 14 who had been sloshing about in his belly, staving off the penalty just monts ago. Those small, fragile droplets of blood had gone rigid at the dense scent of The Guest Without Taste's blood.
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Yeon-woo's jaw.
[Hello?]
'Yes, do not worry.'
He added, as if to reassure them.
'It will be fine soon.'
They were simply not used to it.
Terrified by the presence of a vampire that had lived for centuries, they trembled like aspen leaves. Then they burrowed as deep as they could, curling tightly into the deepest, darkest gaps between organs, beneath the ribs and stomach wall.
Ah, this indescribable sensation, truly.
"......"
[Not fine.]
'Do not be angry....'
[Must kill.]
'Please.'
[Kill.]
At that vivid, physical sensation, Yeon-woo involuntarily wrapped his arms around his stomach and curled inward.
'It is fine.'
It was not beyond endurance.
"......"
"......"
Hiss--...
He exhaled.
Only after quite so ti did Yeon-woo raise his head, face etched with fatigue.
'Now... a bit better.'
[Spit out.]
'I am sorry for making you angry.'
[No. Kill. Take out.]
'It was my fault.'
[Kill.]
Yeon-woo waved a hand to gather Coco into his arms, but as it had been in Room 14 before, in this darkness Coco could not be caught.
[Parasite.]
"......"
[Bug. Must die.]
[Must kill.]
"......"
[Crush.]
[Pop.]
[Erase.]
"......"
Those words suddenly brought to mind the 'Co-owner' from the ga.
Atop the Front Desk, in corridors essential for progression, even on the sofa of the Operator's Quarters where the user ducked in for a breather -- appearing out of nowhere, tracking the 'General Manager's' movents with its eyes.
That was how it lured the 'General Manager' and Human Guests into death traps with its malicious hints.
'But this is the first ti I've seen text this aggressive.'
He had heard that users who attacked it were torn to shreds amid incomprehensible invective -- could these be the words used then?
In contrast to Yeon-woo's thoughts, calm text continued.
[Horrible.]
'I see.'
Every ti he had witnessed a 'death scene,' the Co-owner had been there in the fra. In a corner of the screen, prodding the Playable Character's corpse with a paw or grooming itself.
Cute, willful, and mischievous cat.
"......"
He had wanted to hold it....
'As expected, I cannot touch you.'
Whether from the pain or sothing else, he felt a twinge of regret.
'I know that you are well-disposed toward .'
[Yes.]
'Even so, I am sorry for always disappointing you. My ambition outpaces my ability.'
[No.]
'If you forgive , would you hold
instead?'
[Hold?]
'I cannot embrace you in the shadows.'
[Yes.]
Coco's two eyes drew close together.
[Yes.]
"......"
[Very well.]
"...Hh...."
There was no special touch or weight, yet Yeon-woo let out a faint laugh.
'Thank you.'
[Coco. Friend.]
'That is right, friend.'
[Promise.]
'That is nice.'
He admitted it -- between friends, that was sothing worth being angry about.
'That aside, how unfortunate.'
[Hm.]
He had done his best, but regret remained.
'I wish I could have run faster.'
Imdiately after The Guest Without Taste appeared -- a re nine seconds. After ceasing to cough blood, the places Yeon-woo could hide were extrely limited.
The hunter circling outside surely knew this as well.
***
The phlebotomy attempt, initiated the instant he sensed the familiar nausea, had been successful. The Guest Without Taste appeared within three seconds -- before the blood had even been exposed to the air.
The calculation had been: if this blood was going to be coughed up regardless, he would summon the opponent at a location under his own control.
'Yes, the lure itself went smoothly.'
He had thrown the drawn blood to a different spot to divert the guest. Within this hotel, at least, The Guest Without Taste moved sequentially according to the blood's freshness.
But there had not been enough ti. Despite the 14th Floor's characteristic repeating spaces, the room happened to be a dead end. In the end, Yeon-woo had to hide in a box.
'The silver lining is that the coughing subsided quickly during the escape.'
[Yes.]
'This is rather cramped.'
[Yes....]
He had chosen the smallest box among many.
'He may not expect
to hide in a space this small.'
This was separate from his build. The opponent intended to treat Yeon-woo as an equal nobleman. And a nobleman would not crumple his dignity to cram himself into such a narrow box.
'It is only a guess.'
[Hm.]
'But right now, even a small possibility like this needs to be seized. Better than strolling around at ease and ending up in a mutual hair-pulling brawl.'
If they faced each other head-on, the damage on Yeon-woo's side would also be substantial.
'So I would appreciate it if he moved along.'
"......"
"......"
...He was not leaving.
'He has no intention of ceasing to circle this area.'
Understandable. Yeon-woo would have done the sa. The Guest Without Taste might not know Yeon-woo well, but he would have judged that Yeon-woo could not have fled far from the bleeding site.
'The pursuit difficulty is on a different level from the simple monsters in Hoone's Hunting Grounds.'
[Hm?]
'With respect, is that not a fact?'
There was no comparison with monsters that returned to their original position once aggro was dropped.
The other side was an expert who had hunted as naturally as breathing. Though the quarry had shifted from beasts to humans, he would have been honing that instinct from the eighteenth century to the present day.
[Hm.]
'I have no desire to be caught like this, either, but what to do.'
The problem was that this room had no other exit.
"......"
Yeon-woo shut his eyes tight. He was tired.
He had already completed the map pattern analysis upon entering the box. But knowing the layout was useless if there was no physical exit to flee through.
'Unless The Guest Without Taste withdraws elsewhere first, leaving here will require encountering him at least once. Almost inevitably.'
[Yes.]
Rooms clustered together at the end of a single corridor. The structure resembled a bunch of grapes hanging from a stem. And Yeon-woo was trapped in the room at the very tip of that cluster.
'There is only one corridor leading out of this zone.'
The hunter was guarding that passage.
'At this rate....'
[Watch. Run.]
'Even if I seize a perfect mont, the danger remains.'
Yeon-woo had no alternate route to take.
"......"
But one maxim was deeply carved into his mind.
'If there is no answer, make one.'
[Pardon?]
'Then an answer will appear.'
Yeon-woo had lived his entire life by that principle.
'Let us reexamine the conditions available to this side.'
[Yes.]
'One positive point, at least: the other side will not go out of its way to personally search through every structure. That, too, is likely a product of the aristocratic disposition he clings to.'
[Yes!]
'Thank you for the swift confirmation.'
Much was uncertain, yet one thing was clear. The other side was being considerably complacent. Even while aware that this situation was a dangerous gamble for himself as well.
'He knows my condition is not sound.'
As beings made of blood, they could gauge each other's caliber. Yeon-woo was a perfect Velmareth, but as a human, he was in a more precarious state than a biscuit.
'About one potato chip.'
[Potato chip.]
'It is a thing that exists.'
[Potato chip.]
'That is for later.'
[Yes.]
In any case, as long as Yeon-woo sought to preserve his humanity, the advantage in raw power lay with the other side. The Guest Without Taste was acutely aware of this as well.
And so the opponent grew complacent.
'So he does not feel the need to painstakingly search every corner.'
[Yes!]
'Did the potato chip perk you up....'
The hunting customs of early eighteenth-century Bohemian nobility were not particularly rough. They enjoyed only the final mont of capture; the preparation and the dangerous aftermath were all the servants' duty.
'Rummaging through dusty things would be considered nial work for underlings.'
Given the lofty class consciousness radiating from him, The Guest Without Taste would not deign to dirty his own hands opening boxes. The situation was not that urgent.
'He knows I will ultimately have to co out to that corridor.'
[That is correct.]
'Then how should this side respond?'
In the darkness of the box, Yeon-woo rolled his eyes.
"......"
"......?"
'...Let us take a gamble.'
Seeing how long this was dragging on, it was one of two things. Either he could not pinpoint Yeon-woo's exact location, or he wanted to draw this 'hunt' out.
'Either is plausible.'
The forr because of the 'hotel's coercive authority,' the latter because of 'the hunt's proper form.'
'He would need to shake
thoroughly before consuming . But if, fortunately, it is the forr....'
[Yes.]
'Then I quietly move to the room directly beside this one the mont he is not looking. The doors are all open, so I will need to hide behind whatever structure is in the room.'
[Hello?]
'That concern is valid, too. It is not a guaranteed safe plan.'
He had the map pattern morized, but the detailed arrangent of furnishings, which changed with every reset, was unknowable. The variables were near-infinite.
'It ans I cannot be sure the next room will have a structure large enough to hide behind.'
Cabinets, boxes, trash bins....
This place originally had ample hiding spots to evade the existing 'watchers.' But the possibility of hitting an empty dead-end room, like the one he had just left, could not be ruled out.
'If the room I move to has nowhere to hide, I will be face to face with him.'
[Pardon?]
'No, even that is not certain. We do not know how the other side detects and perceives .'
[Yes.]
'Variables abound.'
It was possible to leave line of sight without any structures.
'If I press flat against the wall right beside the door, I will not be visible from the corridor.'
But if the opponent did more than simply pass through the corridor -- if he poked his head inside to inspect -- this thod could never be trusted. In the end, for this plan to work, there absolutely had to be sothing to hide behind.
Only then could he move room by room, evading the hunter's gaze and escaping this zone.
"......"
"......"
Any other options?
The thought of drawing blood again and throwing it elsewhere crossed his mind, but he shook his head. This was not the sa as the Room 14 entity, which reacted unconditionally to Blood Packs.
'That one does not have so little composure.'
He would not be easily distracted by obviously diversionary blood or noise.
"......"
Wait.
'...The Room 14 monster?'
Yeon-woo's eyes flickered briefly. He thought of 'another thod.'
What if he extracted so of the blood hiding inside his body and scattered it in all directions? If they were living fragnts of a Velmareth, even that opponent would have his attention stolen for an instant.
But the thought did not carry far.
'Dragging others into this hellish situation is not the right thing to do.'
Yeon-woo could feel, in full, the heartbeat of the fragile creatures still trembling in the deepest recesses of his stomach. Pulling out these people who were desperately clinging on?
[No?]
'Coco, please calm yourself. I brought the Room 14 residents to protect and care for them, not to use as labor.'
[No?]
'How far do you intend to make
the worst kind of human being? It is not possible.'
[No?!]
'This wicked cat.'
These were people who had already endured unimaginable suffering. Using them -- who were only just trying to rest -- as bait was... good heavens. A notion horrifying to even imagine.
'I would rather ekly offer my own neck than throw those small, terrified, trembling things into a lion's den to save myself. That would be less shaful.'
[I do not like that.]
'It is a bit burdenso having even that read.'
Moreover, this was the Central Control Room -- a higher level than Room 14. How was it any different from using a person with fire trauma as an extinguisher at a burning building?
Requesting help from Room 14 in this situation was no better than murder.
'The help they already gave by delaying the penalty is more than enough. Above all, I do not wish to survive by such ans. I would rather be caught by The Guest Without Taste than--'
[Why?]
"......"
[Why?]
So it would ask about that after all.
If it were the in-ga Coco, that would be natural. It was a being with clear likes and dislikes. Though it appeared neutral as the user's Co-owner, it had always been harsh only toward people.
Enough to make situations more dangerous with just a few words, enough to grate on the user's nerves as a matter of course.
[Coco. Hate.]
[Room 14.]
[Discard.]
[Useless.]
[Bad.]
It had been like that toward the in-ga 'General Manager,' too, if he recalled.
"......"
Wicked cat.
'Just... I am not sure.'
Yet the reason he wanted to trust the other party was that, in the end, it respected Yeon-woo. That despite pushing its own stubbornness, it ultimately asked 'why.'
Mimicking the human language and expressions he had taught it, aligning itself with Yeon-woo's wishes even in monts it could not possibly understand. Striving for his well-being.
'My thoughts are not entirely in order, but....'
Watching the two eyes that floated in the darkness, Yeon-woo swallowed a sigh.
'I do not want to.'
[Why.]
There was not much he could say in answer.
'Because I need to be a better person than I am now.'
He was already a person full of shortcomings -- he could not beco sothing more wretched than this.
'I know it is an inefficient judgnt. You may call it hypocrisy. But do human beings not live in order to do what they wish to do?'
"......"
'That is what I want.'
As though soothing the frightened droplets of blood, Yeon-woo quietly patted the space above his solar plexus.
Two round eyes floating in the darkness. With nothing else visible in the total dark, Yeon-woo reached toward them, but as expected, nothing t his hand.
[.......]
[I do not like that.]
[No. No. No.]
[No....]
Clumsy attachnt and blind worry.
Entirely different in nature from what the hotel staff showed -- dark, perhaps, but transparent. If the goodwill it showed him was genuine, and if bringing him here five years ago had been for his sake, or for everyone's --
'If it were just that much,'
he would have no regrets about losing his forty-five years.
Yeon-woo did not want to resent what he cherished.
[Yes.]
"......"
[Coco.]
"...Ha...."
[Cherish....]
Still nothing t his hand, so he lowered it and blinked again.
"......"
The distrust ran deep.
'...There is still a long way to go.'
You,
and I.
When would they ever have a proper conversation?
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