Chapter 71. No Vacancies!
After dinner, I went up and sat on the rooftop bench, eating ice cream while reading a human anatomy textbook.
Cheolmin hyung came up for the first time in a while with a wooden sword and was swinging it around, and Bella was copying his movements beside him.
But since I hadn’t taught Bella how to move inner power within her body, she couldn’t properly load inner power onto the sword.
The kid sat next to me, intensely playing a mobile game on his phone.
Ding!
I glanced at his screen—he was in the middle of purchasing a 99,000-won special pack.
It seemed Chaerin had opened a phone line for the kid after he started going to school a few days ago, and set it up so he could do in-app purchases using her card.
Ding.
He bought again.
This was bad.
Even adults can’t spend like that.
Ding.
Every time the notification sound rang to confirm a cash payment, it felt like my heart dropped.
I tried to ignore it, but it kept grating on me.
“That’s too much spending for an elementary school kid.”
I said it casually to the kid.
“Yes. Okay. I won’t spend anymore.”
He obeyed without even looking up.
He was a little different from the elementary school kids I knew in my common sense.
Maybe because puberty hadn’t hit yet?
“Hey, mister. The day after tomorrow is a classroom observation day at school—can you come?”
At that, I took my eyes off the book and looked at the kid.
The day after tomorrow was my day off, so I had time.
But why would I?
“Oh my! Observation day? Can’t I go?”
Bella ran over toward us and said.
“I don’t want an auntie. This mister looks the most like my uncle.”
At the word “auntie,” Bella’s expression stiffened in an instant, like she’d been scratched.
A ten-year-old’s thoughtless mental attack can hurt even adults. Seeing Bella’s hardened face made me feel good.
So I nodded to the kid and said,
“Fine. I’ll go with you.”
Seeing my natural smile—with hormones added—the kid’s expression brightened.
Come to think of it, isn’t this kind of meddling one of the conditions of being a good guy?
What I just did suited the kind of man Bella wanted.
But what would I wear to an observation class?
“Can I go to an observation class in a tracksuit?”
At my question, the kid shrugged like, what’s the problem?
“My uncle always came in a tracksuit.”
Good.
As someone who doesn’t like changing routines, that was a welcome answer.
Bella still looked displeased next to us.
Until recently she was always going on about “svashiva,” and now she was getting scratched by the word “auntie”…
Chaerin brought the butler—the Grand Elder’s messenger—into a café.
Then, with practiced ease, she took an espresso and a caramel macchiato piled high with whipped cream and sat at a table.
The butler looked shocked as he watched Chaerin drink human beverages without hesitation.
“So it wasn’t only the sun you overcame.”
Chaerin quietly nodded.
Over the past few decades, the butler had often considered her convenience. With his help, she had completed missions smoothly more than once.
“The clan calls Miss Chaerin a ‘Daywalker,’ and they desperately want to know the secret of how you became free from the sun. Could you please explain the reason?”
Chaerin looked at the butler and sorted out in her head how much she could say and where to start. Even if their relationship had been mutually favorable, she couldn’t tell him everything.
“If I told you it suddenly became like this one day, would you believe me?”
The butler’s eyebrow twitched.
“So you mean you don’t know the exact reason either, Miss Chaerin.”
“Yes. But I do have a suspicion.”
The butler leaned forward, his face full of anticipation.
Among the Grand Elder’s important missions, the Daywalker secret was the top priority.
“The motel where I’m staying. I think any Blood Fiend who comes there as a guest will probably become a Daywalker. And if they check out of that motel, they’ll return to normal.”
“What? What do you mean—”
The butler couldn’t hide his surprise at Chaerin’s answer, which was completely different from what he’d expected.
“I can’t think of any other reason. The changes—overcoming the sun and being able to eat like a human—those all started after I began staying at that motel.”
The butler chewed over Chaerin’s words again.
He couldn’t understand them, and they were hard to believe. The idea that a Blood Fiend could become like a human simply by staying at a motel was difficult to accept.
But she had no reason to lie.
The butler thought he could just have a few Blood Fiends stay at the motel, then realized that Blood Fiends couldn’t enter the Republic of Korea right now.
“Miss Chaerin, do you know that recently, all Blood Fiends on this land have been dying off?”
Chaerin’s complexion turned pale.
Vampires were famous for their pale, bloodless faces. But Chaerin had been eating well lately—her cheeks had filled out and her color had improved—so this change stood out even more clearly.
“As I thought. I suspected that might be the case.”
“Can you tell me the full story behind that as well?”
Chaerin hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about that. Are the only clan members in the Republic of Korea me and Dowon?”
“Dowon… you mean the young clan member you’re keeping with you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s correct. In this land, you two are the only blood clan members. All other blood clan members are being extinguished for unknown reasons as soon as they enter.”
“Then the reason Dowon and I are safe is probably because we’re guests at the motel. I think if we check out of that motel, we’ll be extinguished too.”
A chill ran all over the butler’s body.
What kind of secret did that motel hold, for something like this to be possible?
“I understand. Thank you, Miss Chaerin. I will repay today’s kindness without fail, if the day comes when I can.”
The butler bowed politely, and Chaerin bowed in return.
The next morning when I came in for work, Chanhyeok hyung was dozing as usual.
“Good morning!”
Startled awake by my greeting, Chanhyeok hyung blinked, then stretched.
“Was anything wrong?”
“Ugh… I don’t know what kind of prank calls those were last night! The phone kept ringing nonstop, I couldn’t even get proper sleep!”
“Prank calls? Why didn’t you just block them?”
Because it’s a motel, prank calls from guests come in sometimes.
Most of them call from payphones these days—ones that are hard to find now—probably because they want to hide their numbers. If the same number calls repeatedly, you just block it.
“Don’t even start. Last night, some crazy bastard kept prank-calling from overseas. He calls and just keeps yapping in some foreign language I can’t even understand. I blocked him, and he changed the number and called again, and again.”
“Overseas?”
“Yeah. In the end, if it showed up as a foreign call, I just rejected everything without picking up.”
“It’s a global era for prank calls. Doesn’t that cost money?”
In the past, calling Korea from abroad was expensive—did that not exist anymore?
While I was tilting my head, the phone rang again.
Looking at the caller ID, it was overseas.
It started with 0034, so I pressed reject and searched the number. It was a call from Spain.
It was probably some international voice-phishing organization.
If I could figure out who it was, I wanted to go find him and lightly sever a cerebral blood vessel.
Just let him get caught.
The door to Room 105 opened and Cheolmin hyung came out, ready to go out.
He must be heading to work.
His suit fit looked better.
It seemed Cheolmin hyung had been stimulated by the suit fit of the old man from last night, even if he didn’t show it.
People change when they get stimulated like that.
Come to think of it, I also have a suit Bella gave me before.
Should I wear that to the classroom observation tomorrow?
It’s still a kind of official setting, and wearing a tracksuit feels a bit off.
“I’m heading out.”
When Cheolmin hyung left, Lauren followed and went out too.
Lauren, the CIA secret agent, was running all over with Cheolmin hyung for the safety of our country. Lauren was someone to be grateful for too. If she needs anything, I should provide whatever services I can, generously.
After checking the rooms and coming down, the owner and the manager were sitting in the office.
When there are no long-term guests, they show up like they have a sixth sense.
The motel’s surveillance cameras aren’t connected to the outside or the internet, so how do they know? Do they sit in the café across the street from morning and wait until Cheolmin hyung leaves?
For once, the owner was carefully printing out and analyzing the recent lodging ledger and room status. He recalculated expenses and fixed costs over and over.
This used to be everyday behavior, but recently it had almost never happened.
Frowning, the owner said to the manager,
“Taking long-term guests is a loss, isn’t it? If we convert all those rooms into short-stay rooms, sales will jump at least four percent.”
With the whole country booming, motel business had been thriving lately, weekends and weekdays alike. There was no way the owner hadn’t noticed what I’d only vaguely sensed.
“Right. When rooms are this scarce, it’s better to run them as short-stay only. And we’re rotating two cleaning teams, so it’s not like we’re short on manpower, either.”
The manager agreed.
But both the owner and the manager looked grim.
Because there was no way to deal with the long-term guests occupying all the first-floor rooms. All they could do was hope the term ended and the guests checked out on their own.
“Chan, can you casually ask the guests when they’re checking out? You’re close with them, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
I thought he was going to tell me to force the long-term guests to check out, but he didn’t.
“And from now on, don’t accept any more long-term guests. Right now, the more long-term guests we take, the more it hurts business.”
The owner combed his slightly balding head and spoke coolly.
That was admirable.
A clear-eyed judgment of reality, and flexible adaptability.
There were plenty of things I didn’t like about him, but this was something worth learning.
In thirty years, I wanted to be like that.
“Yes, understood. Then I won’t accept any more long-term stays from now on. What about consecutive-night stays? We sometimes have guests who pay day by day.”
“Consecutive-night guests are mostly regulars, right? Accept those. If you push even that away, when a recession comes later, all the regulars will be gone and we’ll suffer.”
“Yes.”
I answered the owner’s clear instructions.
No more long-term stays, but accept consecutive-night lodging.
Just then, the motel door opened, and the foreign mustached old man who’d come looking for Chaerin last night entered with a Korean woman.
“Are you resting here?”
I asked the Korean woman, but her expression hardened as if she were angry.
“No. I’m an interpreter, and this foreign guest came because he wants a long-term stay here.”
“We can’t take monthly stays… no, we can’t take long-term guests anymore. I’m sorry.”
I bowed politely and refused.
Then the foreign guest said something in a Western language with a strange accent I couldn’t identify, and the interpreter said,
“He says he’ll pay double the rate. He’s insisting he absolutely wants to stay at this motel.”
“Hey! Chan! Take it! Take it! If it’s double, we have to take it!”
The owner at my side flared his eyes and shouted low at me.
“Then the VIP room, 310, is available right now…”
“He says to charge a full year in advance. And the guest who will be staying is someone coming from Spain—his name is Mr. Juan Carlos. He says he’ll stay here until that person arrives, and when that person comes, he’ll book one more room.”
“Two long-term rooms…”
I looked at the owner, troubled. The owner held up two fingers, signaling to charge double.
“For that room as well, the room rate is double—are you okay with that?”
“He says it doesn’t matter. He will pay one year in advance for both rooms.”
I punched numbers into the calculator, then took his card and charged the full year’s lodging fee for Room 310 in advance.
This was probably the first time such a huge amount had ever been charged since our motel opened.
Before finishing the transaction, I added an important point.
“Our motel is prepaid, and under any circumstances, there are no refunds. As for the other room, we’ll charge it when the other guest arrives.”
At that, the interpreter woman looked extremely displeased, but the mustached old man—after hearing it—nodded and said it was fine.
Decisive. I liked that.